232 Gtncnii Oh.servations. Bk. in. 



necessaries of life will evidently be less than is 

 implied by the current rate of their wages. 



In the same manner parish allowances distri- 

 buted to families, the habitual practice of task- 

 work, and the frequent employment of women and 

 children, will affect population like a rise in the 

 real wages of labour. And, on the other hand, 

 the paying of every sort of labour by the day, the 

 absence of employment for women and children, 

 and the practice among labourers of not working 

 more than three or four days in the week, either 

 from inveterate indolence, or any other cause, will 

 affect population like a low price of labour. 



In all these cases the real earnings of the labour- 

 ing classes throughout the year, estimated in food, 

 are different from the apparent wages; but it will 

 evidently be the average earnings of the families 

 of the labouring classes throughout the year on 

 which the encouragement to marriage, and the 

 power of supporting children, will depend, and 

 not merely the wages of day-labour estimated in 

 food. 



An attention to this very essential point will 

 explain the reason why, in many instances, the 

 progress of population does not appear to be re- 

 gulated by what are usually called the real wages 

 of labour; and why this progress may occasionally 

 be greater, when the price of a day's labour will 

 purchase rather less than the medium quantity 

 of corn, than when it will purchase rather more. 



In our own country, for instance, about the 



