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Show 474 ON THE IlHlHEDIATE CAUSES [CU. VII. and populousness. But I see no probability, or even possibility, of accon1plishing this object. To interfere generally vvith persons .\vho are arrived at years of discretion in the command of the main property which they possess, nan1ely their labour, would be an act of gross injustice; and the attempt to legislate directly in the teeth of one of the n1ost general principles by which the business of society is carried on, namely, the principle of cornpetition, n1ust inevitably and necessarily fail. It is quite obvious that nothing could be done in this way, b~t by the labouring classes the1nselves; and even in this quarter \VC may perhaps n1uch n1ore reasonably expect that such a degree of prudence will prevail among then1 as to keep their wages perrnanently high, ·than that they should not enter into a con1petit!on with each other in working. A 1nan 'vho is prudent before n1arriage, and saves son1ething for a fan1ily, reaps the. benefit of his conduct, although others do not follow his exarnple; but, without a sin1ultaneous resulution on the part of all the labouring classes to 'vork fewer hours in the day, the individual vvho should venture so to lirnit his exertions vvould necessarily reduce hin1self to comparative want and vvretchedness. If the supposition here made were ac.con~plishecl, not by a simultaneous resolution, wb1ch JS scarcely possible, but by those general habits of indolence and ignorance, which so frequently .Pr~vail in the less irnproved stages of society, 1.t 18 well knd\vn that such leisure would be of httle value ; and that while these habits would pre- SEC'. IX.] OF THE PROGRESS OF 'VEAL'1'H. 475 maturely check the rate of profits and the progress of population, they would bring with them nothing to con1pensate the loss. It is clear therefore that, vvith the single exception of the increased degree of prudence to be expected an1ong the labouring classes of society fro1n the progress of education and general in1- provetnent, which Inay occasion a greater consutnption among the working producers, all the other tendencies are precisely in an opposite direction; and that, generally, all such increased consumption, whether desirable or not on other grounds, n1ust al \Vays have the specific effect of . preventing the wealth and population of a country, under a system of private property, from being pushed so far, as it n1ight have been, if the costs of production had not been so increased. It tnay be thought perhaps that the landlords could not fail to supply any deficiency of dernand and consumption among the producers, and that between then1 there ':vould be little chance of any approach towards· redundancy of capital. What m·ight be the result of the most favourable distribution of landed property it is not easy to say from experience; but experience ceitainly tells us that, under the distribution of land which actually takes place in most of the countries in Europe, the demands of the landlords, added to those of the producers, have not always been found sufficient to prevent any ·difficulty in the employment of capital. In the instance alluded to in a forn1er chapter,· which occurred in this country in the 1niddle of |