390 Different Plans of improvbig the Bk. iv. 



mand for it, and regulate wages by the price of 

 the cheapest food, the advantage would be imme- 

 diately lost, and no efforts of benevolence could 

 prevent the most general and abject poverty. 



Upon the same principle it would by no means 

 be eligible that the cheap soups of Count Rumford 

 should be adopted as the general food of the 

 common people. They are excellent inventions 

 for the public institutions, and as occasional re- 

 sources ; but if they were once universally adopted 

 by the poor, it would be impossible to prevent 

 the price of labour from being regulated by them ; 

 and the labourer, though at first he might have 

 more to spare for other expenses, besides food, 

 would ultimately have much less to spare than 

 before. 



The desirable thing, with a view to the hap- 

 piness of the common people, seems to be, that 

 their habitual food should be dear, and their 

 wages regulated by it ; but that, in a scarcity, or 

 other occasional distress, the cheaper food should 

 be readily and cheerfully adopted.* With a view 

 of rendering this transition easier, and at the same 

 time of making an useful distinction between those 

 who are dependent on parish relief and those who 

 are not, I should think that one plan, which Mr. 

 Young proposes, would be extremely eligible. 



* It is certainly to be wished that eveiy cottage in England 

 should have a garden to it well stocked with vegetables. A little 

 variety of food is in every point of view highly useful. Potatoes are 

 inidoubtedly a most valuable assistance, though I should be very 

 sorry ever to see them the principal dependence of our labourers. 



