398 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv. 



the very outset confound the experience of Mr. 

 Owen, and destroy the happiness to which he 

 looks forward. In the society at the Lanerk 

 Mills, two powerful stimulants to industry and 

 good conduct are in action, which would be 

 totally wanting in the societies proposed. At 

 Lanerk, the whole of every man's earnings is 

 his own ; and his power of maintaining himself, 

 his wife and children, in decency and comfort, 

 will be in exact proportion to his industry, so- 

 briety, and economy. At Lanerk, also, if any 

 workman be perseveringly indolent and negligent, 

 if he get drunk and spoil his work, or if in any way 

 he conduct himself essentially ill, he not only 

 naturally suffers by the diminution of his earnings, 

 but he may at any time be turned off, and the so- 

 ciety be relieved from the influence and example of 

 a profligate and dangerous member. On the other 

 hand, in the pauper establishments proposed in 

 the present plan, the industry, sobriety, and good 

 conduct of each individual, would be very feebly 

 indeed connected with his power of maintaining 

 himself and family comfortably; and in the case 

 of persevering idleness and misconduct, instead of 

 the simple and effective remedy of dismission, 

 recourse must be had to a system of direct pu- 

 nishment of some kind or other, determined and 

 enforced by authority, which is always painful 

 and distressing, and generally inefficient. 



I confess it appears to me that the most suc- 

 cessful experience in such an establishment as 

 that of Lanerk, furnishes no ground whatever to 



