406 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv. 



the necessity of placing great power in the hands 

 of persons very likely to abuse it. Still however 

 it is probable that the poor might be employed 

 more than they have hitherto been, in a way to 

 be advantageous to their habits and morals, with- 

 out being prejudicial in other respects. But we 

 should fall into the grossest error if we were to 

 imagine that any essential part of the evils of the 

 poor-laws, or of the difficulties under which we 

 are at present labouring, has arisen from not em- 

 ploying the poor ; or if we were to suppose that 

 any possible scheme for giving work to all who 

 are out of employment can ever in any degree 

 apply to the source of these evils and difficulties, 

 so as to prevent their recurrence. In no con- 

 ceivable case can the forced employment of the 

 poor, though managed in the most judicious man- 

 ner, have any direct tendency to proportion more 

 accurately the supply of labour to the natural de- 

 mand for it. And without great care and caution 

 it is obvious that it may have a pernicious effect 

 of an opposite kind. When, for instance, from 

 deficient demand or deficient capital, labour has a 

 strong tendency to fall, if we keep it up to its 

 usual price by creating an artificial demand by 

 public subscriptions or advances from the govern- 

 ment, we evidently prevent the population of the 

 country from adjusting itself gradually to its di- 

 minished resources, and act much in the same 

 manner as those who would prevent the price of 

 corn from rising in a scarcity, which must neces- 

 sarily terminate in increased distress. 



