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Show 258 OF THE 'V AGES OF LABOU,R. [cu . I V. a tin1e rather higher than they ought to ~b~, i.n proportion to the demand fOr labour. ~IllS ~~ -~he 111ost likely to take place \vhen the pt.lC~ ?f 1 a"r produce has fallen in value, so as to duntn1sh the po,ver of the cultivators to c1nploy the san1e or. an increasino· nun1ber of labourers at the same pnce. If the fall be considerable, and not n1ade up in value' by increase of quantity, so n1any labo~uers will be thrown out of work that \vages, after a period of great distress, \Vill generally be lo\vered in proportion. But if the fall be gradt~al, and partly made up in exchangeable value by 1n~rease of quantity, the n1oncy wages of ~abour Will not nece~sarily sink; and the result w.1ll be n1erely a slack den1and for labour, not sufficient perhaps to throw the actual labourers out of \vork, but such as to prevent or diminish task-\\rork, to check :he e1nployn1ent of ·women and child~·e.n, and to g~ve but little encourao·ement to the r1s1ng generation of labourers. Inbthis case the quantity of the necessaries of life actuaily earned by the labourer and his family, may be really less than w he1i, o\ving ~o a rise of prices, the dajly pay of the labourer w1ll command a sn1.aller quantity of corn. The co~1- mand of the labourinO' classes over the necessanes b . of life, though apparently greater, is really less In the forn1er than in the latter case, and, upon all general principles, ought to produce less effect on the increase of population. This disagreetnent bet\veen apparent vvages and the progress of population \\rill be further aggravated in those countries \Vhere poor la,vs are estab .. SEC. III.] OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. 259 lished, and it has becotne custo1nary to pay a portion of the labourers' wages out of the parish rates. If, when corn rises, the farmers and landholders of a parish keep the '"rages of labour down, and make a regular allowance for children, it is obvious that there is no longer . any necessary conn ex ion between the apparent wages of day labour and the real means \V hich the labouring classes possess of . maintaining a fatnily. When once the people are reconciled to such a system, the progress of population might be very rapid, at a time \Vhen the wages of labour, independently of parish assistance, w~ere only suffici~nt to support a vvife and one child, or even a single 111an without either vvife or child, because there might still be both encouragenlent ·to marriage, and the 1neans of supporting children. :t:= When the popu Iation of a country increases faster than usual, the labouring classes n1ust have the corrunand of a greater qua'ntity of food than they had before possessed, or at least applied to the maintenance of their families. 1~his n1ay be obtained in various ways-by hig. her real \vages, * It is most fortunate for the country and the labouring classes of society, that the biH which passed the House of Commons last session, for taking from their parents the children of those who asked for relief, and supporting them on public fund::~, did not pass the !-louse of Lords. Such a law would have been the commencement of a new system of poor laws beyond all comparison worse than the old: and it is difficult to conceive how it could have been recommended by persons who agreed to publish the opinions which appear in the greater part of the Report on the Poor Laws. s 2 |