CHAP. XXXII.] ETHICS OF COMMERCE, 273 



physically, and would certainly be improved morally, if 

 all the articles with which we supply them were double 

 or treble their present prices. If at the same time the 

 difference of cost, or a large portion of it, could find its 

 way into the pockets of the manufacturing workmen, 

 thousands would be raised from want to comfort, from 

 starvation to health, and would be removed from one of 

 . the chief incentives to crime. It is difficult for an English- 

 man to avoid contemplating with pride our gigantic and 

 ever-increasing manufactures and commerce, and thinking 

 everything good that renders their progress still more 

 rapid, either by lowering the price at which the articles 

 can be produced, or by discovering new markets to which 

 they may be sent. If, however, the question that is so 

 frequently asked of the votaries of the less popular 

 sciences were put here — " Cui bono ? " — it would be found 

 more difficult to answer than had been imagined. The 

 advantages, even to the few who reap them, would be seen 

 to be mostly physical, while the wide-spread moral and 

 intellectual evils resulting from unceasing labour, low 

 wages, crowded dwellings, and monotonous occupations, to 

 perhaps as large a number as those who gain any real 

 advantage, might be held to show a balance of evil so 

 great, as to lead the greatest admirers of our manufactures 

 and commerce to doubt the advisability of their further 

 development. It will be said : " We caimot stop it ; 



VOL. II. T 



