Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 389 



ment ; but when their habitual food is the lowest 

 in this scale, they appear to be absolutely without 

 resource, except in the bark of trees, like the poor 

 Swedes; and a great portion of them must neces- 

 sarily be starved. 



The wages of labour will always be regulated 

 mainly by the proportion of the supply of labour to 

 the demand. And as, upon the potatoe system, a 

 supply more than adequate to the demand would 

 very soon take place, and this supply might be con- 

 tinued at a very cheap rate, on account of the 

 cheapness of the food which would furnish it, the 

 common price of labour would soon be regulated 

 principally by the price of potatoes instead of the 

 price of wheat, as at present ; and the rags and 

 wretched cabins of Ireland would follow of course. 



When the demand for labour occasionally ex- 

 ceeds the supply, and wages are regulated by the 

 price of the dearest grain, they will generally be 

 such as to yield something besides mere food, and 

 the common people may be able to obtain decent 

 houses and decent clothing. If the contrast 

 between the state of the French and English 

 labourers, which Mr. Young has drawn, be in any 

 degree near the truth, the advantage on the side 

 of England has been occasioned precisely and ex- 

 clusively by these two circumstances ; and if, by 

 the adoption of milk and potatoes as the general 

 food of the common people, these circumstances 

 were totally altered, so as to make the supply of 

 labour constantly in a great excess above the de- 



