( 328 ) Bk. iv. 



CHAP. VII. 



Continuation of the same Subject.* 



The reasonings of the foregoing chapter have been 

 strikingly confirmed by the events of the last two 

 or three years. Perhaps there never was a period 

 when more erroneous views were formed by the 

 lower classes of society of the effects to be ex- 

 pected from reforms in the government, when 

 these erroneous views were more immediately 

 founded on a total misapprehension of the princi- 

 pal cause of poverty, and when they more directly 

 led to results unfavourable to liberty. 



One of the main causes of complaint against 

 the government has been, that a considerable 

 number of labourers, who are both able and 

 willing to work, are wholly out of employment, 

 and unable consequently to command the neces- 

 saries of life. That this state of things is one of 

 the most afflicting events that can occur in civi- 

 lized life, that it is a natural and pardonable 

 cause of discontent among the lower classes of 

 society, and that every effort should be made by 

 the higher classes to mitigate it, consistently with 

 a proper care not to render it permanent, no man 



* Written in 1817. 



