1860 and 1869 was at the rate of 25 per cent., and in Ireland it was between 1861 and 1870 at the rate of 29 per cent. In 1870 the rates for poor relief per head of the population were for England 78. 24d., for Scotland 58. 44d., and for Ireland 38. 7d. While, however, the annual expenditure is increasing at a not unequal rate in the three divisions of the kingdom, the pressure is felt more severely in Ireland, where the population has now been long on the decrease, and therefore the rate per head is more rapidly on the increase than the rate of expenditure, while in the other two divisions it is not far from stationary.

It thus appears that even in prosperous times, when the extension of mining and manufacturing enterprise is rapid, when commerce increases by leaps and bounds, and when the labouring population is relieved by an annual exodus of some 200,000 of their number to other lands, the cost of maintaining the poor, and the burden that is felt, increases.

What, then, may we expect when America and our colonies begin to supply their own wants by manufactures, and when they become so fairly inhabited that there shall be no further space for the accommodation of our surplus population? There appears to be only one reply to that question, if we can judge at all from the obvious facts, namely, that over-population will lead to poverty and pauperisation, then to sudden, it may be, and disastrous increase to the present burdens on property, while those verging on destitution will form a growing mass, discontented and rebellious, ready to adopt measures, however violent and anarchical, by which their material necessities shall be supplied.

The great want which the labouring classes of the population of the United Kingdom exhibit to every observer is the want of thrift. Almost everywhere on the Continent of Europe the people are characterised by this virtuous

quality, but in Britain the masses save little, and it is the complaint of every observer that, notwithstanding the high rate of wages earned in times of prosperity, there is the same melancholy misery to be seen so soon as that rate ceases. Nothing has been saved against the dull times, and the short period of extravagant expenditure changes into the pinched supplies which necessity compels. This is, of course, not the case with every family, but, as a rule, the description applies to the British workman. The agricultural labourer is in general too poor to be able to save, and the townsman has prospects of improving his position, which the other has not. Though the latter may not be able to own land, for the disproportionate percentage of legal costs, and the entire uncertainty as to their amount, preclude him from that form of ambition, of comfort, or of enjoyment, he may become an employer, and it has been said by one who knew the district and the trade intimately, that almost the whole of the employers in the iron-works of the Cleveland district had risen from the ranks, and scarcely one of them had at that time (1875) heads of grey, so rapid had been the rise of their prosperity. Such opportunities produce exceptional thrift. Working men as a rule, however, are too heartless to look far ahead for rewards. They must see encouragement constantly, and as they go, within arms' reach; the steps of the ladder of their ascent must not be far between each other. And, indeed, in these days, when large capital is required to carry on works profitably, few can be masters, and where trade unions prescribe a uniform rate of wages as receivable by all, there is the less chance of able workmen reaching that position. Still the opportunities which a workman possesses in a town to raise himself are more frequent than they can be in the country, and the result is that thrift is to be found chiefly amongst workmen in the former. Indeed, the agricultural labourer has for long

6

been in a state of semi-pauperisation. The English poor-law and the English poor-house have no counterpart in any other society or country. They belong to a mechanism designed to support, or to help in supporting, a very large part of the working classes in certain circumstances out of the common funds of the community. The principle pushed a little further is precisely that of communism. It is not too much to say that some of the applications of this principle are the principal subject of the agricultural labourer's thoughts. His father and mother are in the "house;" it is for that reason he does not support them. He has a legal right to go there himself in old age or extreme penury; it is for that reason he does not save. His children must be taken care of, and, if necessary, educated by the guardians-this is why he marries early and freely multiplies his kind. . . . . The class in the cities and towns which live by wages may have many heresies in its stock of social and political ideas; but it knows little of the poor-law, and the expedients on which it relies to secure its interests are to a certain extent healthy. . . . The agricultural labourer, on the other hand, has heard of no contrivance for bettering himself, except an extension of the principle of poorlaw relief.'1 And Mr. Goschen, when speaking in the House of Commons on the County Franchise in June, 1877, described the condition of the agricultural labourer in England thus:- Wages had been very low in the rural districts for years, and, as a rule, the agricultural labourers were in a dependent position. It was, in fact, their ordinary future to end their days in the workhouse, and both in respect of their want of training, and their dependence upon the poor-laws, their position was widely different from that of the voters in towns.'

It is therefore apparent that what amount of thrift 1 Pall Mall Budget, July 20, 1877.

there exists in this country is fostered by the great opportunities of advancement which workmen enjoy from the immense strides manufactures and commerce have made within a few decades. But should a period approach when these strides shall become more measured-and that period cannot be far distant-then this source of opportunity, which is in its nature an exceptional one, shall be lost, and the people of England, having additionally the surplus population of Ireland to support, will relapse into that hopeless condition which has for so long characterised the more completely agricultural portions of the kingdom.

It may indeed be said that the condition of the lower classes in England differs from that of their fellows in Ireland almost altogether, upon account of their nondependence upon agriculture, and this difference has occurred chiefly through the mineral wealth of England enabling cheap manufactures to be carried on, which, supplying the most part of the world, produce those harvests of foreign imports, of which working-men may either, as ordinary workers, or by advancing in the social scale, reap their full share. So soon then as this wealth decreases, or is more difficult to realise, so much more will the manufacturers of other countries be in a position to compete successfully with the manufacturers of Britain; the markets then of this country will be curtailed, and the amount of work available will consequently diminish. This means then clearly enough that the vantage ground which British workmen have hitherto enjoyed depends on the easy realisation of profits drawn through the consumption of the mineral wealth of the country, and that as that mineral wealth is gradually being consumed, these profits will diminish, and the capital of Great Britain will seek investments in the manufactures of other

countries, such as the United States, where the mineral wealth is enormous, valuable, and easy of realisation.

Now, at the present time, it is unfortunately too true that the labouring classes are not the saving classes, and the reason undoubtedly is, that their wages being only in general a small way in advance of their necessities, and there being no very profitable, secure, or pleasant means of investment for their savings, the small balance is spent instead of being saved. If, however, instead of savings banks, which yield less interest upon the capital, land were easily obtainable in the market by everyone, there can be no doubt as to what the result would be. Eager endeavours to save would take the place of squandering, thrift would restrain the expenditure and improve the man. Land is, as we shall see in the next chapter, the property which of all others most calls out the virtues of prudence; the desire to realise it increases the will to work, and augments the endeavours of every workman in every trade, even in that of farming another's land. But here, partly in consequence of their extrusion from landownership, the largest class is not a saving class. Outside this kingdom the savings of the multitude is invested in the land and in public funds. The debt of France is held by 4,000,000, that of England by 250,000 persons; and a like proportion holds in regard to the land. The first demand of the small investor is never high interest; that form of folly belongs to the upper classes. His want is security, and the consequence is that at this moment an amount nearly equal to one year's revenue of the United Kingdom is held by savings banks for a return less than the average received by the landowners of this country. Say that a man, by years of self-denial and careful thrift, has saved 500l., and the idea, so delightful to the minds of most men, of purchasing a small property