and fundholders, than to be told that their residence is of vital importance to the country. Nothing can be more humiliating than to be assured that it is utterly immaterial to the rest of the community whether they live in Brighton, or London, or Paris. Those who are aware how much our judgment, even in matters of science, is influenced by our wishes, will not be surprised at the prejudices against a doctrine which forbids the bulk of the educated class to believe that they are benefactors to their country by the mere fact of residing within its shores.

I may appear, perhaps, to have dwelt too much on a single subject; but no prevalent error can be effectually exposed until its prevalence has been accounted for. And these are errors which are to be heard in every society, and often from those whose general views in political economy are correct. They may be called harmless errors, but no error is, in fact, harmless; and when there is so much in our habits that really requires alteration, we may lose sight of the real and the remediable causes of evil, while our attention is misdirected to absenteeism.

POPULAR ERRORS ON THE CAUSES AFFECTING WAGES, (concluded.)

I STATED in the last Lecture, that the quantity and quality of the commodities obtained by each labouring family during the year, must depend on the quantity and quality of the commodities directly or indirectly appropriated during the year to the use of the labouring population, compared with the number of labouring families: or, to speak more concisely, on the extent of the fund for the maintenance of labourers, compared with the number of labourers to be maintained; and I observed, that this proposition is inconsistent with many opinions entitled to consideration. Three of those opinions I then examined; in the present Lecture I shall consider the remainder.

Fourthly. It is inconsistent with the doctrine

that the general rate of wages can, except in, two cases, be diminished by the introduction of machinery.

The two cases in which the introduction of machinery can produce such an effect, are: first, when labour is employed in the construction of machinery, which labour would otherwise have been employed in the production of commodities for the use of labourers; and, secondly, when the machine itself consumes commodities which would otherwise have been consumed by labourers, and that to a greater extent than it produces them.

The first case is put by Mr. Ricardo, in his chapter on Machinery; but in so detailed a form, that, instead of reading it, I will extract its substance, with a slight variation of the terms. He supposes a capitalist to carry on the business of a manufacturer of commodities for the use of labourers; or, to use a more concise expression, the business of a manufacturer of wages. He supposes him to have been in the habit of commencing every year with a capital consisting of wages for a certain number of labourers, which we call twentysix, and of employing that capital in hiring twenty

men, to reproduce during the year wages for the whole twenty-six, and six to produce commodities for himself. He now supposes him to employ ten of his men during a year in producing, not wages, but a machine, which, with the aid of seven men to keep it in repair and work it, will produce every year wages for thirteen men. At the end of the year the capitalist's situation would be fun. altered; he would have wages for thirteen men, the produce of the labour of his other ten men during the year-and his machine, also the produce of the labour of ten men during the year, and therefore of equal value. And his situation would continue unaltered. Every year his machine would produce wages for thirteen men, of whom seven must be employed in repairing and working it, and six might as before be employed for the benefit of the capitalist. But we have seen that, during the year in which the machine was constructed only ten men were employed in producing wages instead of twenty, and consequently that wages were produced for only thirteen men, instead of for twenty-six. At the end of that year, therefore, the fund for the maintenance of labour was diminished, and wages must, consequently,

have fallen. It is of great importance to recol lect, that the only reason for this fall was the diminution of the annual production. The twenty men produced wages for twenty-six men: the machine produces wages for only thirteen. The vulgar error on this subject supposes the evil to arise not from its true cause, the expense of constructing the machine, but from the productive powers of that machine. So far is this from being true, that those productive powers are the specific benefit which is to be set against the evil of its expensiveness. If, instead of wages for thirteen men, the machine could produce wages for thirty, its use, as soon as it came into operation, would have increased, instead of diminishing the fund for the maintenance of labour. The same effect would have been produced, if the machine could have been obtained without expense; or if the capitalist, instead of building it out of his capital, had built it out of his profits-if, instead of withdrawing ten men for a year from the production of wages, he had employed in its construction, during two years, five of the men whom he is supposed to have employed in producing commodities for his own use. In either case, the additional produce obtained