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plain my meaning than that of the bodily growth. A child neglected at the period of growth, will become ricketty and deformed, from some of the limbs receiving perhaps no absolutely undue increase, but a disproportioned increase; while others, do not indeed shrink, nor perhaps cease to grow, but do not increase at the same rate. In such a case,

we sometimes say that the head or the trunk is grown too large for the limbs; meaning, however, not absolutely, but relatively ;-not that the growth of one part is in itself excessive, but that the other parts have not kept pace with it. And though such a distortion is worse even than a general dwarfish and stunted growth, it is obvious that a full and regular development of all the parts, is far preferable to either; and also, that it is, when Nature is making an effort towards growth, not only more desirable, but more practicable, to make that an equable and well-proportioned growth, than to repress it altogether. We should endeavour rather to strengthen the weak parts, than to weaken the strong. But if we take no pains to do either the one or the other, it is plain that both the corporeal, and also the intellectual and moral expansion, must lead to disease and deformity.

As far as relates to Religion, the most important point of all, both in itself, and as far as relates to the question now more immediately before us, I will avail myself of the words of a recent publication, which express sentiments in which I wholly coincide.

"A vast and momentous moral crisis is rapidly approaching-the rise of Education throughout the mass of the People. Amidst pretensions to sensible spiritual communion on the one hand, and a careful avoidance of recognising any divine interposition on the otheramidst theories invented or imported, that would subject the sacred volume to the rules of mere ordinary criticism, opposed only in partial and personal controversy-a large portion of the community, which has been hitherto uneducated, is suddenly roused into free inquiry, and furnished with ability to perceive all that darkens and deforms the subject; but it must be owned and lamented-not furnished with that spiritual training, which alone enables the inquirer to see his way through it.

"It is not that the people at large are without any religious and moral instruction; it is not that they have absolutely less now than heretofore; they have probably more. But the progress of spiritual and worldly knowledge is unequal; and it is this inequality of progress that constitutes the danger. It is a truth which cannot be too strongly insisted on, that if the powers of the intellect be strengthened by the acquisition of science, professional learning, or general literature-in short, secular knowledge, of whatever kind, without being proportionately exercised on spiritual subjects, its susceptibility of the objections which may be urged against Revelation will be increased, without a corresponding increase in the ability to remove them. Conscious of having mastered certain difficulties that attach to subjects which he has studied, one so educated finds it impossible to satisfy himself about difficulties in Revelation; Revelation not having received from him the same degree of attention; and, forgetful of the unequal distribution of his studies, charges the fault on the subject. Doubt, discontent, and contemptuous infidelity, (more frequently secret than avowed,)

are no unusual results. It seems indeed to have been required of us by the Author of Revelation, that his Word should have a due share of our intellect, as well as of our heart; and that the disproportionate direction of our talents, no less than of our affections, to the things of this world, should disqualify us for faith. What is sufficient sacred knowledge for an uneducated person, becomes inadequate for him when educated; even as he would be crippled and deformed, if the limb which was strong and well-proportioned when he was a child, should have undergone no progressive change as his bodily stature increased, and he grew into manhood. We must not think to satisfy the divine law, by setting apart the same absolute amount as the tithe of our enlarged understanding, which was due from a narrower and more barren field of intellectual culture.

"Nor let it be imagined that this is true only of minds highly gifted, and accomplished in science, elegant literature, or professional pursuits. It is not the absolute amount of worldly acquirements, but the proportion that they bear to our religious attainments, be these what they may, that is to be dreaded. If the balance of intellectual exercise be not preserved, the almost certain result will be, either an utter indifference to religion; or else, that slow-corroding scepticism which is fostered by the consciousness, that difficulties corresponding to those that continue to perplex our view of Revelation, have, in our other pursuits, been long surmounted and removed."

It may be added, that with respect to another matter also of high importance in itself, and (as I trust has been shewn) not unconnected with religion,-Political Economy, as ignorance, or erroneous views concerning it, are in themselves to be deprecated, so, there is here also, an especial danger in a disproportionate neglect. For since men who regard themselves as generally well-educated, will always, however uneducated they may in fact be in respect of these subjects, reckon themselves, though they may shun the name of Political Economy, competent judges of the questions pertaining to it, which appear to be every one's business, the consequence must be, that their education on other points will only serve to superadd to their ignorance, the rashness of confident self-conceit.

How far, either in respect of these or of other points, any given community may be exposed to the dangers resulting from an ill-regulated and disproportionate growth, must depend on the rapidity of its increase in wealth and intelligence, combined with the negligence, or the obstinacy, with which its members forget, or refuse, to conform themselves to the situation in which they are placed:-to the degree of prevalence (to speak more precisely) of two opposite errors: one, that of such as deprecate the increase and spread of intellectual culture, as in itself an evil, though an evil which, after all, they can only murmur at, but not effectually repress; and look back with vain regret on those ages of primitive rudeness and torpid ignorance, which they cannot recall; the other, that of those whose views, though more cheerful, are not more enlightened,-who hail with joy every symptom of any kind of advancement, without at all troubling themselves to secure an equable and well-balanced advancement, or apprehending, or ever thinking of, any possible mischief from the want of it. The one party sighs for

the restoration of infancy; the other exults in the approach of a distorted maturity.' pp. 227-234.

To give any additional circulation or support to views and sentiments so admirably just and important as these, is one of the most gratifying parts of our public duty. Nor have we any object more at heart, than to aid in wakening the attention of the thoughtful and pious to the measures demanded by the present moral crisis. We commenced this article with the observation, that, next to theology, political science is in the most unsatisfactory state. For we cannot but deeply feel, that the progress of 'spiritual and worldly knowledge' has been, as the learned Prelate remarks, deplorably unequal; and that no proportionate provision has been made for the intellectual appetite that has been excited, so far as regards sacred knowledge. But not to dwell upon this point, (to which we shall have occasion to advert more distinctly hereafter,) the expediency of placing the truths of political economy within the reach of the people, is becoming every day more pressing and apparent. There are some very simple 'but important truths belonging to the science', Dr. Whately remarks, which might with the utmost facility be brought down to the capacity of a child, and of which, it is not too much to say, the Lower Orders cannot even safely be left ignorant.'

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Can the labouring classes (and that too in a country where they have a legal right to express practically their political opinions) be safely left to suppose, as many a demagogue is ready, when it suits his purpose, to tell them, that inequality of conditions is inexpedient, and ought to be abolished ;-that the wealth of a man whose income is equal to that of a hundred labouring families, is so much deducted from the common stock, and causes a hundred poor families the less to be maintained; and that a general spoliation of the rich, and equal division of property, would put an end to poverty for ever?'-p. 217.

For the purpose of disabusing the minds of the working classes or operatives of these pernicious delusions, the admirable little treatise on the Rights of Industry' has been put forth by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; and nothing can be better adapted to its object. It is at once clear, scientific, conciliating, and unanswerable. It seems that a person of the name of Hodgskin has been delivering lectures on Political Economy, in which he represents it as a great hardship, a principle ' of slavery', that the labourer should have to work, not merely for his own subsistence, but for the profit of the capitalist who employs him, and but for whose capital he would be unable to turn his labour to account. The manner in which this doctrine of roguery is exposed, will give our readers a fair idea of the popular style of the volume.

The mischievous ignorance of such doctrines may be very easily

shewn. If some capitalist did not receive a profit upon the employment of the capital, it would remain unemployed-it would be useless. Capital, the accumulation of former labour, according to this doctrine, ought to be the property of the present labourers; for it is evident, that if it is not allowed to yield a profit to the capitalist, he may as well give up the trouble of taking care of it. The labourers of 1831, we say then, according to this notion, divide the capital, and work more advantageously to themselves with the profits of the capital thus appropriated;-for there must be appropriation after all. But new labourers will rise up-the labourers of 1832, or of 1842, who have had no share in the spoil. They, of course, according to the doctrine thus laid down at the Mechanics' Institute, have a better title than the labourers of 1831, who have become capitalists; because, not being capitalists, they contribute more labour to procure some of the capital by exchange. They, therefore, dispossess the labourers of 1831 ;-and these, again, having become non-capitalists, have a new title to the capital, and dispossess the labourers of 1832. Their title would be exactly similar to that of the priest described by Strabo, the ancient geographer, whose right to the priesthood was acquired by having murdered his predecessor; and consequently, the business of the priest in possession was not to discharge the duties of the priesthood, but to watch sword in hand, to defend himself against the new claimant to the office. The doctrine which we have exhibited is, that the accumulation of former labour belongs to the present labourers; and that the best title to the accumulation is to have added nothing towards it, but only to be willing to add.

It is necessary to establish this point of the security of property, as one of the rights, and we may add as the greatest right, of industry; and therefore, at the risk of being thought tedious, we further call your attention to the general state of the argument in reply to those who wish to render property insecure.

The value of an article produced, is the labour required for its production.

Capital, the accumulation of past labour, represents the entire amount of that labour which is not consumed;-it is the old labour stored up for exchange with new labour.

Those who attach an exclusive value to new labour as distinguished from old labour-or labour as distinguished from capital-say that the new production shall be stimulated by the old production, without allowing the old production to be exchanged against the new; —that is, that the old production shall be an instrument for the reward of new labour, but not a profitable one to its possessor.

The doctrine therefore amounts to this; that labour shall be exchanged with labour, but not with the produce of labour,-or that there shall be no exchange whatever ;-for, if the present labourers are to have the sole benefit of the capital, the principle of exchange, in which both exchangers benefit, is destroyed. There must be an end of all exchanges, when the things to be exchanged are not equally desired by both parties. If the capitalist is to lend or give the capital to the labourer without a profit, or without a perfect freedom which would entitle him to withhold it if no profit could be obtained, the

balance is destroyed between capital and labour. Accumulation is then at an end; because the security of the thing accumulated to the accumulator is at an end. The security is at an end, because, if the new labour is to have the advantage of the old labour without compensation or exchange, the new labour must take the old labour by force or fraud; for the new cannot proceed without the old;-labour cannot stir without capital. Accumulation, therefore, being at an end, labour for an object beyond the wants of an hour is at an end. Society resolves itself into its first elements. We return to the powerless condition, first of the North American Indians;-and thence, having overturned the security of property which they respect, we go backward to the state of man in the lowest depth of brute degradation, such as scarcely exists amongst the rudest tribes.

Feeling therefore, as we must do when not blinded by ignorance or a desire for plunder, that production depends upon the union of capital and labour, and that the first right of each is security of property, let us see what facility of production does for the condition of the lowest and the feeblest man-such as the prodigal, who would have starved at once, had there been imperfect production, or at any rate could never have passed out of the condition of a labourer.

'When we look at the nature of the accumulated wealth of society, it is easy to see, that the poorest member of it who dedicates himself to profitable labour is in a certain sense rich-rich, as compared with the unproductive and therefore poor individuals of any uncivilized tribe. The very scaffolding, if we may so express it, of the social structure, and the moral forces by which that structure was reared, and is upheld, are to him riches. To be rich is to possess the means of supplying our wants: to be poor is to be destitute of those means. Riches do not consist only of money and lands, of stores of food or clothing, of machines and tools. The particular knowledge of any art,-the general understanding of the laws of nature, the habit from experience of doing any work in the readiest way,-the facility of communicating ideas by written language, the enjoyment of institutions conceived in the spirit of social improvement, the use of the general conveniences of civilized life, such as roads-these advantages, which the poorest man in England possesses or may possess, constitute individual property. They are means for the supply of wants, which in themselves are essentially more valuable for obtaining his full share of what is appropriated, than if all the productive powers of nature were unappropriated, and if, consequently, these great elements of civilization did not exist. Society obtains its almost unlimited command over riches, by the increase and preservation of knowledge, and by the division of employments, including union of power. In his double capacity of a consumer and a producer, the humblest man has the full benefit of these means of wealth-of these great instruments by which the productive power of labour is carried to its highest point.

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But if these common advantages, these public means of society, offering so many important agents to the individual for the gratification of his wants, alone are worth more to him than all the precarious power of the savage state,-how incomparably greater are his advan

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