the evils are undeniable, and although compulsory measures alone can correct them, there are few questions on which differences of opinion are more allowable than on that of the expediency of resorting to compulsion in this case. A shocking thing it is, most certainly, that children should be deprived, almost from their birth, of a mother's care, exposed during their earliest years to all sorts of malignant influences, and, as soon as they have acquired a little strength, removed to situations in which their constitutions are undermined by confinement and toil, or shattered by ill-usage, that women should abjure the duties and gentleness of their sex, and be distinguishable chiefly by their greater coarseness and shamelessness. The picture needs not the high colouring which has sometimes been used for political purposes; however faintly drawn, it is sufficiently revolting. But, bad as all this is, there may still be something worse. Even slavery will be instinctively preferred to starvation, and it would be misplaced kindness to those who must strain every nerve in order to get a living, to prevent them from working too hard, lest they should injure their health, or be obliged to neglect their families. If the hours of labour be contracted, it is reasonable to expect that the produce of labour will be proportionately diminished, and it is evident that the employers of labour cannot pay the same wages for a smaller quantity of work, unless a corresponding advance take place in the price of their goods. But a rise in the price of British manufactures is forbidden at present by foreign

competition, which would immediately cause them to be undersold. If then the daily labour of British operatives were shortened, it is very possible that their wages would fall. If Lord Ashley's proposition, that women and young persons should not be allowed to work more than ten hours a day, had been adopted, it has been calculated that their wages would have fallen about a fourth part. Now, as the wages of operatives, although liberal enough in prosperous times, are certainly little more than adequate for their maintenance, it may fairly be questioned whether the daily enjoyment of two hours' additional leisure would have fully compensated for so great a decrease of income. But although, as an isolated measure, the limitation of the hours of labour is of very doubtful expediency, a simultaneous arrangement might easily be made, which would free it from every objection. A fall of wages would be of no consequence if the price of provisions and other necessaries fell at the same time, so as to enable the operative, notwithstanding the decrease of his earnings, to purchase as much as before of every article required. It has been shown that free trade would reduce prices onethird. Suppose then that wages should fall one quarter, the operative would, notwithstanding, be really better off than before. Besides, it is possible that the unrestricted entry of foreign provisions might serve to prevent the occurrence of a fall of wages. It would give a stimulus to foreign agriculture, which would draw capital to itself, instead of allowing additional quantities to be invested in

manufactures, so that if the supply of fabrics from Great Britain were diminished, foreign countries might be unable to supply the deficiency. Prices would then rise, and the British manufacturers would be enabled to continue the old rates of wages, notwithstanding the reduction of the hours of: labour. Further, it is not quite certain, that a diminution of produce would result from shortening the duration of labour. Persons who are not obliged to work so long, may work harder than before, and may get through the same quantity of work in a short time as formerly occupied them for a longer period. The business of the eleventh and twelfth hours is most likely very languidly done, and might perhaps, without very great difficulty, be despatched in the preceding ten. If so, the limitation of labour to ten hours daily would not in any circumstances reduce wages, and at all events the reduction might be either prevented or neutralised by the establishment of free trade in food. With this precaution, the adoption of Lord Ashley's plan, or even of one still bolder, would be an experiment of little hazard, which, if successful, would, by partially, at least, reinstating woman in her proper domestic office, contribute more than any other single means to the welfare of the labouring population of large towns.

400

CHAPTER IX.

REMEDIES FOR OVER-POPULATION IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.

Similarity of the Measures required in England and in the Lowlands of Scotland. Defects of the Scotch Poor Law. Inadequacy of the recent Attempt to amend it. - Necessity for an efficient Poor Law in the Highlands. Restoration of the Class of Crofters. Probable Advantages of that Course both to Landlords and Tenants. Little Benefit to Ireland to be expected from the Redress of her political Grievances.

Inapplicability to Ireland of most of the Measures recommended for Adoption in Great Britain. - Necessity of providing additional Employment for the People. — Uncertainty of permanent Results of this kind from Expenditure on public Works or on the Reclamation of waste Land. Sufficiency of the Land at present under Cultivation for the full Employment of the Peasantry. - Defectiveness of the present Tenure of Land. – Exorbitance of Rents. — Want of Leases. Profit experienced from the liberal Application of Labour to Agriculture. Baselessness of Prejudices against Cottier Tenantry. - Necessity for Leases. - Expediency of legislative Interference to enforce the Grant of them. Location of Poor on waste Land. Happy Effects already obtained from this Measure. - Possibility of providing for the whole Body of Peasantry by means of a Partition of waste Land. - Duty of Parliament to adopt a Scheme for that Purpose. — Repeal of the Union with Great

Britain. - Chances of its being effected. its eventual Consequences.

MOST of the measures which have been recom

mended for adoption in England would prove

equally beneficial in Scotland. In the southern half of that country, the condition of the peasantry is at least tolerable. All who can work have plenty of employment, at wages somewhat above the average rate of England; heads of families have commonly some accessory sources of income, and unmarried farm servants are generally lodged and boarded by their masters. Few who possess health and strength, and a moderate stock of prudence, suffer from want. No very great change is required to make this state of things perfectly satisfactory. Free Trade would most probably bring farmers and their servants into closer connection, and raise the price of labour, and at all events, by cheapening food and other necessaries, would greatly increase the value of present wages. This, and an extension of the allotment system, are perhaps all that are needed to raise agricultural labourers in the Lowlands to an equality in all social respects with the same class in Norway, Belgium, or Switzerland. Intellectually, they are even now superior. The parish schools, which have been in existence nearly a hundred and fifty years, have sharpened the natural shrewdness of the Scottish character, and have assisted largely in giving the lowest orders of people their well-deserved reputation for enlightenment, good sense, and clearheadedness. Undoubtedly, there are serious defects in the existing plan of national education. The teachers are very inadequately remunerated, and are not subject to proper supervision; and the close connection of parish schools with the established church, closes

D D