Did the situation of the country admit of such a slow progress, I should be satisfied to see a few of these villages set on foot by way of national experiment; well knowing that their manifold advantages, and superiority over every other plan for the employing of the labouring classes, would be obvious to every capacity; but I know that the peculiar circumstances of this country, and of Europe, will not admit of this slow proceeding. Value must be restored to manual labour, and this cannot be done except by employment on land. When the mode of effecting this shall be fairly and fully before the public, they will readily discover that there are no means within our present knowledge competent to give to individuals and to the country the innumerable advantages that this will accomplish for both. With this conviction before them, the public will feel the strong necessity for, and naturally require, a liberal expenditure, in order that a rapid progress may be made in forming these asylums for the health, comfort, improvement, and happiness of the working classes and the rising population.

Q. But should many of these villages be founded, will they not increase the products of agricultural and manufacturing labour, which are already too abundant, until no market can be found for them, and thus injure the present agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of the country?—A. This is a part of the subject that requires to be understood better than at present it appears to be by any party. Is it possible that there can be too many productions desirable and useful to society? and is it not to the interest of all, that they should be produced with the least expense and labour, and with the smallest degree of misery and moral degradation to the working classes; and of course, in the greatest abundance to the higher classes in return for their wealth? It is surely to the interest of all, that every thing should be produced with the least expense of labour, and so as to realize the largest portion of comfort to the producing classes: and there are no means of effecting these desirable ends that will bear any comparison with the combined agricultural and manufacturing villages, colleges of industry, county or district establishments for the poor and industrious, or by whatsoever name they may be called. It is true that as they increase in number, they may come into competition with the existing agricultural and manufacturing systems, if society shall permit them so to do; otherwise they can restrain them to the amount of their own

immediate wants, and constituted as they will be, they can have no motives to produce an unnecessary surplus. When society shall however discover its true interests, it will permit these new establishments gradually to supersede the others, inasmuch as the latter are wretchedly degrading, and directly opposed to the improvement and well-being of those employed either in agriculture or manufactures, and consequently are equally hostile to the welfare and happiness of all the higher classes. We know full well the misery and vice in which the manufacturing population are involved; we know also the ignorance and degradation to which the agricultural labourer is reduced; and it is only by such a re-arrangement of this part of society, that these enormous evils can be ever removed.

Q. But will not these establishments tend to increase population, beyond the means of subsistence, too rapidly for the wellbeing of society?-A. I have no apprehension whatever on this ground: every agriculturist knows that each labourer now employed in agriculture can produce five or six times more food than he can eat; and therefore, even if no other facilities were given to him than those he now possesses, there is no necessity in nature for "population to press against subsistence," until the earth is fully cultivated.

There can be no doubt that it is the artificial law of supply and demand, arising from the principles of individual gain in opposition to the general well-being of society, which has hitherto compelled population to press upon subsistence. The certain effect of acting on the principles of individual gain is, ever to limit the supply of food, in an average season, to a sufficiency according to the customs of the times, for the existing inhabitants of the earth: consequently, in a favourable season and in proportion as the season may be favourable, there will be abundance of food and it will be cheap; and in an unfavourable season, in proportion as the season may be unfavourable, the food will be scarce and dear and famines will ensue. And yet no one who understands any thing practically of the subject, can for a moment doubt that at the period immediately preceding the most grievous famine ever known, the means existed in ample profusion, to have enabled the population, under proper arrangements, had they possessed the knowledge to form them, to produce a stock of food amounting even to an excessive superabundance. Whatever may have been imagined by intelligent individuals who have written and thought upon the subject, the annual in

crease of population is really one by one; we know its utmost limit-it is only, it can be only, an arithmetical increase; whereas each individual brings into the world with him the means, aided by the existing knowledge of science, and under proper directions, sufficient to enable him to produce food equal to more than ten times his consumption. The fear then of any evil to arise from an excess of population, until such time as the whole earth shall become a highly cultivated garden, will, on due and accurate investigation, prove a mere phantom of the imagination, calculated solely to keep the world in unnecessary ignorance, vice, and crime, and prevent society from becoming what it ought to be, well-trained and instructed, and, under an intelligent system of mutual goodwill and kindness, active, virtuous, and happy; a system which might easily be created, so as to pervade the whole of society, and extend through all its ramifications.

Q. By thus altering the general habits and existing arrangements of the lower orders, would it not give an increased value to manual labour?-A. My intention was to combine the means of accomplishing objects, which appear to me to be inevitably required by the existing state of the country; and to prevent the violent derangement of society, arising from the distress and extreme demoralization which is hourly advancing, and must go on till effectual and counteracting measures shall be adopted. I saw the poor and working classes surrounded by circumstances that necessarily entailed misery on them and their posterity; that if they were allowed to continue and proceed much longer, they would further demoralize and violently subvert the whole social system. To prevent this catastrophe it becomes absolutely indispensable that their habits be changed; and this cannot be done without altering the existing arrangements with regard to them and to the rising generation.

If the plan proposed shall be found to be much, nay infinitely more complete in all its parts and in its entire combination than any hitherto suggested, and if it can be immediately and gradually introduced, without causing the least shock to society or prematurely disturbing existing institu tions, then is the proper time arrived-then are the circumstances duly prepared for its reception; and I feel a perfect confidence in saying, that however through mistaken private interests it may be attempted to retard it, it will be inevitably introduced and firmly established even against all oppo

sition. It is indeed of that nature that opposition will but hasten its adoption, and fix the principles more generally and deeply in and through society. The circumstances that have been silently, for nearly twenty years past, preparing for this end, are so far completed as to answer all the purposes intended, and the future welfare of mankind, in this and also in other countries, may be considered secure beyond the power of accident. Combined labour and expenditure for a common object among the working classes, with proper training and instruction for their offspring, and surrounded by the circumstances devised for the whole, will create and secure the present safety of society, the present and future comfort and happiness of the individuals, and the ultimate well-being of all. I may therefore confidently believe that no combination of human powers can now be formed to prevent its permanent adoption.

After having made this statement, it is necessary for me to add that the knowledge I have acquired on this subject, has been forced upon me by a long and extensive experience; which, under similar circumstances, would have been acquired by the generality of mankind. None, I believe not one, of the principles have the least claim to originality; they have been repeatedly advocated and recommended by superior minds, from the earliest period of history. I have no claim even to priority, in regard to the combinations of these principles in theory; this belongs, as far as I know, to John Bellers, who published them, and most ably recommended them to be adopted in practice, in the year 1696. Without any aid from actual experience, he has most distinctly shown how they might be applied to the improvement of society, according to the facts then known to exist; thus evincing that his mind had the power to contemplate a point extended 120 years beyond his contemporaries. His work appeared to be so curious and valuable, that on discovering it I have had it reprinted, verbatim, in order to bind up with papers I have written on the same subject.

Whatever merit can be due to an individual for the original discovery of a plan, that in its consequences is calculated to effect more substantial and permanent benefit to mankind than any ever yet perhaps contemplated by the human mind, it all belongs exclusively to John Bellers.

Q. Is it then your decided opinion, that land, labour, and capital, may be employed under a new combination, so as to

produce more valuable results to all parties than they do at present?-A. If I have derived any distinct knowledge by my long experience and extensive practice, I am enabled to say, with a confidence that fears no refutation, that any given quantity of land, labour, and capital, may be so combined as to support at least four times the present number of human beings, and in tenfold comfort that the same maintains at present under the existing practices in this country; and of course that the intrinsic value of land, labour, and capital, may be increased in the same proportion: that, consequently, we possess the most ample means to carry now, without loss of time, the prosperity of the country to a point it has not before attained to a height that no country has ever yet experienced. If any parties suppose these to be mere assertions without sound foundation, or to be a visionary scheme derived from the regions of fancy, they will be mistaken; for they are the result of a patient and unwearied attention to discover accurate and practical data, and to try an endless variety of experiments to enable me to draw correct conclusions, and thus bring the theories of learned men in their closets to the only test of truth. By thus proceeding, I have been more and more satisfied of the errors of mere theories, and of the little real value they have hitherto been to mankind. I have no wish, however, that any more confidence should be placed in what I say, than to induce the public to give a fair trial to the plan. If I am in error, the loss and inconvenience, compared with the object, will be small; but if I am right, the public and the world will be gainers indeed! I ask nothing for myself; and except good-will and the interchange of kind and friendly offices, I will not accept any thing from any party. I merely ask to be permitted to relieve the poor and working classes from their present distress, and to render an essential service to the wealthy, and to all the higher classes. I am, therefore, desirous that competent persons of business should be named, to investigate all the details which I have to propose; knowing, as I do from experience, that this is the only practical measure that can be adopted, to enable the public to comprehend a subject so extensive and important as this will ultimately prove to be.

Q. On the supposition that the plan may be unexception able in all its parts, how can it be carried into execution, as far as relates to the poor who receive parochial aid?—A. First, by passing an Act of Parliament to nationalize the poor.