be attacked and removed?” I have answered, by giving our children equal or superior knowledge, virtue and intelligence, to the rich-by EDUCATION to direct and qualify us for government and laws; and by concentrating our SUFFRAGE to enable us to reach that point of influence, at which we shall be able to make the laws conform to the spirit of justice, and the government congenial to the equality of human rights.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Consumption of Labour-Economy.

WHEN it is considered how small a portion of the product of labour is consumed by the working man, the injustice of the legal principle which operates in the distribution of wealth will appear more striking, and its oppressive influence incontestible.

In the production of industry, the working man is exclusively active. During his task, he subsists on the smallest portion consistent with existence. No sooner does the mass of labour, however, accumulate, than the order of idle stockholders step in to consume it. The magic wand of capital is waved, and the sons of industry are left naked and empoverished, by the sudden departure of their own products, whilst the labourer returns to his task, like the industrious bee that creates the honey for the drone.

The end of all production is consumption; but this ought to be regulated on principles of justice, prudence, the public health, the public virtue, and the public vigour. There are evil modes of consuming labour, as well as distributing it, which are fraught with as much mischief to society, as monopoly and extortion.

The working man has a right to consume, for he produces wealth, and in him it is a productive consumption; and if he only consumes what is conducive to vigour and health, he is a double benefactor to society, for he thus leaves a portion of labour unimpaired, undestroyed, which may go to the subsistence of

others. The working men of all classes, are the productive consumers of wealth.

As no country can grow sich, vigorous, powerful, and happy, that does not consume less than it produces -the judicious consumption of labour becomes an essential item in the wealth of nations. Hence the pernicious effects of the idle classes of society, who consume, and never produce; hence the virtue of industry, and hence, by parity of reason, the evil tendency of luxury, waste, sensuality, and refinement.

It is on this principle, that countries whose cities contain a vast population, are generally found to be very oppressive on a large portion of their citizens, if not fraught with famine and misery. The wasteful consumption of large cities, among the unproductive classes, being more than a balance to the economy of consumption in the producers.

Luxury is said, and to a certain extent truly, to increase the circulation of wealth, and to stimulate industry, but to counterbalance this accidental advantage, it begets a wasteful, consumption which never fails to famish one part of society, in order to satiate the other. The unavoidable tendency of luxury, is, to multiply non-producers, and enhance unproductive consump

tion.

Consumption is the destruction of values; the less we consume, the more values we possess, and vice

versa.

Armies, and all large public bodies of men, commit wasteful consumption, and producing nothing in return, afflict a country with privation and want.

But a large body of idle stockholders, gentry, and noblemen, are equally as devastating as immense armies; in the end more so, because they refine in

their enjoyments, like true voluptuaries, and thus con. sume twice the quantity, and waste quite as much.

An idle landed nobility, are a great curse to a country, being a non-producing class of consumers; and as they are generally disposed to travel, they are prone to quit their own country, and expend its labour among foreigners. This system has contributed largely to keep Ireland in a state of beggary and want. In the same manner, it afflicts the agricultural districts; the lords of the soil flocking to the capital for pleasure, there to waste the rents wrung from the labour of their tenants. It was in this spirit of philosophy, that Mr. Jefferson declared great cities to be great sores, as they tend to enfeeble and disease the most vigorous commonwealth..

It is true that consumption of labour is the great end and object of production; but a just proportion between them is as necessary to national wealth, as individual comfort.

It is on this principle that the balance of trade arises. A country that consumes more of foreign industry, than it produces of its own, must necessarily become em poverished. Hence the poverty of Spain and Portugal, which, having few or no manufactories of their own, consume those of their more industrious neighbours.

Non-consuming agents of labour are far more profitable, than those which consume. Horse power is more wasteful than water power; steam looms are cheaper infinitely than hand looms. It is on this account of consumption, that slave labour is so unproductive, when compared with non-consuming agents of produc tion. Hence the cause of discontent in the south to our tariff of industry; we of the north being engaged in manufacturing on the scale of non-consuming la-

bour, and they of the south being engaged in agriculture on the expensive plan of consuming labour.

Economy in the consumption of labour, then, although not a source of production, is yet a source of wealth, by restricting and limiting the waste of industry. But this must be properly understood, so as not to engender the false idea, of economy being a constituent of national wealth in itself, instead of a mere accident, or application, or direction of industry itself. Yet the importance of economy is so great, that national happiness, safety, and independence depend on it; for without this quality, the most exuberant production would avail, but inconsiderably towards giving vigour and energy to government, in its foreign relations.

The ancient states of Greece and Rome, as well as those of the East, relied wholly upon national economy to prosecute their wars with success, and fortify them against foreign aggression. They accumulated a stock of money, saved from the amount of their revenue, and by thus restricting their consumption in times of peace, powerfully contributed to their victories during war. Until a few centuries ago, the same practice was observed by most of the kingdoms of modern Europe, who were then unacquainted with the mysterious branch of financiering, that consumes, in advance, the labour of posterity for hundreds of years, and indefinite ages.

Economy in consumption is a chief branch of the business of the financier-as much so as the abundance of production. He ought to devise, protect, and cherish all measures, which could contribute to either, but having more control over expenditures than production, his chief talent lies in that direction..