τοὺς μὲν γὰρ πονηροὺς οὐ μή ποτε βελτίους ποιήσετε, τοὺς θὲ χρηστοὺς εἰς τὴν ἐσχάτην ἀθυμίαν ἐμβαλεῖτε. — ASCHINES, In Ctesiphon, p. 79. I HAVE not been able, in consequence of illness, to finish this work according to its original plan. As I may not be in a position to carry it to its proper conclusion, I should like, as briefly as possible, to mention what I wished to add to that already written. After the last chapter in the volume, my intention had been to discuss one or two urgent social and economical questions which are daily growing in importance, even amounting to peril if satisfactory answers to them cannot be obtained. It is generally admitted by all serious and sober observers, that a large social transformation is at once desirable and inevitable. The present conditions can, one would think, give satisfaction to no one. The enormous increase of wealth consequent on the application of the steam-engine to industry, has to a very small extent been followed by a corresponding spread of general well-being such as was at one time not unreasonably expected. Even before the commencement of the present depression of trade, there were many unpleasant features in the manufacturing system of Western Europe. But profits were highand, till within a recent period, seemed likely increase. The workmen, by judicious and resolute strikes, were able to demand and obtain better wages; and, although, even in the most flourishing centres of industry, much pauperism and misery among the unskilled workers were generally present, so long as the revenue, in Mr. Gladstone's phrase, "went up by leaps and bounds," these minor social evils were not likely to attract notice. But, as everybody now knows only too well, a great change has come over the world in the last ten years. Profits in nearly all trades are diminishing, and will probably diminish still Hitherto, capitalists have been the chief sufferers; but it cannot be long before the workmen will have their turn of loss in the form of decreased wages. At the present rate of decline, a point will, before long, be reached, when the employer will get little or no return for his capital invested in manufactures, and when the workman will be able to get no adequate wage for the labour he gives. more. |