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liable. The principle of giving to everybody that asks, if fully 
carried out in practice, carries with it its own correction ; still 
there is a very general impression that liberality, irrespective 
of any attention to the results which may flow from it, is a 
virtue enjoined by the principles of Christian morality. 
88. On the other hand, the science of political economy 
teaches — and I think on evidence which is as trustworthy as a 
mathematical demonstration — that the progress of society is 
dependent on the accumulation of capital ; that capital con- 
sists of accumulated savings ; that it is the only source from 
whence the funds for the payment of labour can be provided ; 
that savings invested in a reproductive form provide the 
means not only for the employment of labour in a permanent 
form, but when the investment is a profitable one, of increasing 
the amount of such employment ; that such reproductive in- 
vestments are highly beneficial to society, and that they are 
only possible where the expenditure is less than the income, 
and would become impossible if the entire excess of income 
were devoted to the purpose of charity; that expenditure which 
is not reproductive provides employment for labour, and is a 
means of subsistence for those who are destitute of property ; 
that expenditure in luxuries is attended with a similar result ; 
and that if the whole of the funds which are devoted to the 
above-mentioned purposes, and those which exceed what is 
necessary to supply us with a bare subsistence, were given 
away, the effect would be that we should pauperize the whole 
community by depriving of their subsistence those who are 
now earning it by honest labour, and bestowing it on a class 
of a wholly different description, besides putting an effectual 
stop to all the material improvements of society. 
89. Let us put the case as between political economy and 
the popular view of the duty of almsgiving. A man gives 
away every shilling which he possesses beyond what is neces- 
sary for his own bare subsistence. He is credited with the 
virtue of the highest generosity, and is considered as a man 
pre-eminently good. He would be worthy of that designation 
if virtue could be considered as consisting in the excellence of 
one half of our nature without any reference to the other half. 
The money is spent on the recipients, who create nothing in 
return for it. It only forms a fund, however, for the payment 
of labour until it is exhausted. Another man invests the 
same sum on reproductive works. By doing so, he maintains 
a certain number of labourers while the works are in the course 
of construction. After they are finished he can repeat the 
process. The profit becomes an addition to the labour fund. 
Our railway system is an illustration of this. Our railways 
