Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 115 



ported ; but that in those countries which were 

 already nearly full, the wages of labour cannot 

 be such as to give the same encouragement to 

 early marriages, for a reason surely not much 

 worse, because the persons so brought into the 

 world cannot be properly supported. 



There are few of our mechanics and labourers 

 who have not heard of the high prices of bread, 

 meat and labour in this country compared with 

 the nations of the continent, and they have ge- 

 nerally heard at the same time that these high 

 prices were chiefly occasioned by taxation, which, 

 though it had raised among other things the money 

 wages of labour, had done harm rather than good 

 to the labourer, because it had before raised the 

 price of the bread and beer and other articles in 

 which he spent his earnings. With this amount 

 of information, the meanest understanding would 

 revolt at the idea that the very same cause which 

 had kept the money price of labour in all the na- 

 tions of Europe much lower than in England, 

 namely, the absence of taxation, had been the 

 means of raising it to more than double in Ame- 

 rica. He would feel quite convinced that, what- 

 ever might be the cause of the high money wages 

 of labour in America, which he might not perhaps 

 readily understand, it must be something very 

 different indeed from the mere absence of taxation, 

 which could only have an effect exactly opposite. 



With regard to the improved condition of the 

 lower classes of people in France since the revo- 

 lution, which has also been much insisted upon ; 



I 2 



