274 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap, xxxir. 



capital must be employed ; our population must be kept 

 at work ; if we hesitate a moment, other nations now hard 

 pressing us will get ahead, and national ruin will follow." 

 Some of this is true, some fallacious. It is undoubtedly 

 a difficult problem which we have to solve ; and I am 

 inclined to think it is this difficiilty that makes men con- 

 clude that what seems a necessary and unalterable state of 

 things must be good — that its benefits must be greater 

 than its evils. This was the feeling of the American 

 advocates of slavery ; they could not see an easy, comfort- 

 able way out of it. In our own case, however, it is to be 

 hoped, that if a fair consideration of the matter in all its 

 bearings shows that a preponderance of evil arises from 

 the immensity of our manufactures and commerce — evil 

 which must go on increasing with their increase — there is 

 enough both of political wisdom and true philanthropy in 

 Englishmen, to induce them to turn their superabundant 

 wealth into other channels. The fact that has led to these 

 remarks is surely a striking one : that in one of the most 

 remote comers of the earth savages can buy clothing 

 cheaper than the people of the country wliere it is made ; 

 that the weaver's child should shiver in the wintry wind, 

 unable to purchase articles attainable by the wild natives 

 of a tropical climate, where clothing is mere ornament or 

 luxury, should make us pause ere we regard with unmixed 

 admiration the system which has led to such a result, and 



