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Show OF THE WAGES OF LABOUR. [c:u. IV. I respects good : but it must b~ allowe?, that t!1e chances, both with regard to_ Its quahty and 1ts prevalence, are greatly in. favour .of t~e latt.er. Education alone could do httle aga1nst 1nsecunty of property; but it would pow.erfully assist all ~~e favourable consequences to be expected f~oh1 c1v1l and political liberty, "'hich could not indeed be considered as complete "vithout it. According as the habits of the people had been determined by such unfavourable or favourable circumstances,. high "'ages, or a rapid in~rease of the funds for the maintenance of labour, would be attended vvith the first or second- results before I described; or at least by results· 'vhich would ap( proach to the one or the other, according t? the proportions in which all the causes which influenc~ habits of improvidence or prudence had Leen efficient. Ireland, during the course of the last century, may be produced perhaps as the most marked instance of the first result. On the introduction of the potatoe into that country, the lower classes of society vvere in such a state of oppression and ignorance, were so little respected Ly others, and had consequ~ntly so little respect for then1selves, that as long as th_ey could get food) and that of the cheapest kind, they were content to marry under the prospect of every other privation. The abundant funds for the support of labour, occa- · sioned by the cultivation of the potatoe in a favourable soil! which often gave the labourer the command of a quantity of subsistence . quite un· SEC. II,] OF 'fHE W.AGES ~F LABOUR. usual in the other parts of Europe, were spent almost exclusively in the n1aintenance of la.rge and frequent families; and the result v1as, a mo.st rapid increase of population, with little or no rneh?ratton in the general condition and n1odes of subs1stence of the labouring poor. An instance·some\vhat approaching to the second may be found in England, in the first hal~ of t~e last century. It · is 'veil known, that dunng tfns period the price of corn fell consider~bly, \Vhile ~he wao-es of labour are stated to have r1sen. Dunng 0 the last forty years of the 17th century, and the first twenty of the 18th, the average price of corn ,vas such as, compared \Vith the vvages of labour, \Vould ~nable the labourer to purchase, 'vith a day's earnino·s t\vo-thirds of a peck of wheat. From I 0 ' • I 720 to 17 SO the price of wheat had so fallen,'~ htle ,vages had risen, that instead of two thirds the labourer could purchase the "rhole of a peck of wheat with a day's labour.* This great increase of command over the necessaries of life did not, ho\vever, produce a proportionate increase of population. It found the people of this country living under an excellent government, and enjoying all the advantages of civil atid political liberty in an unusual degree. The lower classes of p~ople had been in the habit of being respected, both by the laws and ,the higher orders of their fellow citizens, and had learned in consequence to respect then1selves. And the result was, * See Sect. IV. of this chapter. |