494 APPENDIX. 



and in the highest degree beneficial to society. A gradual 

 change in the habits of the labourhig classes would then 

 effect the necessary retardation in the rate of increase, and 

 would proportion the supply of labour to the effective de- 

 mand, as society continued to advance, not only without the 

 pressure of a diminishing quantity of food, but under the 

 enjoyment of an increased quantity of conveniences and 

 comforts ; and in the progress of cultivation and wealth, the 

 condition of the lower classes of society would be in a state 

 of constant improvement. 



A peck of wheat a day cannot be considered in any light 

 as excessive wages. In the early periods of cultivation, in- 

 deed, when corn is low in exchangeable value, much more 

 is frequently earned ; but in such a country as England, 

 where the price of corn, compared with manufactures and 

 foreign commodities, is high, it would do much towards 

 placing the great mass of the labouring classes in a state of 

 comparative comfort and independence ; and it would be 

 extremely desirable, with a view to the virtue and happiness 

 of human society, that no land should be taken into cultiva- 

 tion that could not pay the labourers employed upon it to 

 this amount. ~- 



With these wages as the average minimum, all those who 

 were unmarried, or, being married, had small families, would 

 be extremely well off; while those who had large families, 

 though they would unquestionably be subjected sometimes 

 to a severe pressure, would in general be able, by the sacri- 

 fice of conveniences and comforts, to support themselves 

 without parish assistance. And not only would the amount 

 and distribution of the wages of labour greatly increase the 

 stimulus to industry and economy throughout all the work- 

 ing classes of the society, and place the great body of them 

 in a very superior situation, but it would furnish them with 

 the means of making an effectual demand for a great amount 

 of foreign commodities and domestic manufactures, and 

 thus, at the same time that it would promote individual and 

 general happiness, would advance the mercantile and manu- 

 facturing prosperity of the country.* 



* TLie merchants and manufacturers who so loudly clamoar for cheap corn 

 and low money wages, think only of selling their commodities abroad, and often 

 forget that they have to find a market for their returns at home, which they can 

 never do to any gre;it extent, when the money wages of the working classes, 

 and monied incomes in genenil are low. 



