lating consumption. Such are sumptuary laws; or those which limit the degree of expensiveness in our dress, clothing, or equipage. These were formerly common in Europe. Such also are laws which forbid or restrict the expenditure of money for the purposes of benevolence, religion, or any thing of this sort. Every one must see that one of the incitements to industry, is the pleasure which men expect to derive from expenditure. Now, if this expenditure be innocent, it matters not what sort of expenditure it is. Society has nothing to do with it; and it can in no manner interfere with it, without doing injustice, and taking away one of the strongest inducements to industry.

SECTION III.

LABOR WILL BE APPLIED TO CAPITAL IN PROPORTION AS EVERY MAN SUFFERS THE INCONVENIENCES OF IDLENESS.

If God have made labor necessary to our well being, in our present state; if He have set before us sufficient rewards to stimulate us to labor; and if He have attached to idleness correspondent punishments, it is manifest that the intention of this constitution will not be accomplished, unless both of these classes of motives are allowed to operate upon man. We shall, therefore, co-operate with Him, in just so far as we allow his designs to take effect in the manner he intended.

Now this result will be accomplished,

1. By the division of property. When property is perfectly divided, and every thing is owned by some one, and every one knows what is his own, nothing is left in common. Of course, no man can then obtain any thing more than he now possesses, unless he obtain it by labor. And as every man has facul

ties capable of labor, and as these are exclusively his own; and as every one, who possesses capital, desires to employ labor with which to combine it, every man who possesses his natural faculties, has the means by which he may obtain something for his subsistence. The division of property is thus favorable to the laborer; inasmuch as, in consequence of it, every one needs his labor, and also has something to give him in exchange for it.

2. But suppose property to be universally divided. A man may possess himself, either dishonestly or by begging, of the property for which he has not labored. The dishonest acquisition of property, as by cheating, stealing, or robbery, will be prevented by the strict and impartial administration of just and equitable laws. Hence, we see that the benefit of such laws is two-fold. They encourage industry, first, by securing to the industrious the righteous reward of their labor; and, secondly, by inflicting upon the indolent the just punishment of their idleness; or rather, by leaving them to the consequences which God has attached to their conduct. Being thus thrown upon their own resources, they must obey the law of their nature, and labor, or else suffer the penalty and starve.

If any man complain that this is a hardship, he must mean that this hardship has reference to our relations either to man or to God. So far as our relations to man are concerned, there can certainly be no hardship; for every thing that we see is the result of labor, and is either the result of the labor of him that holds it, or of him who voluntarily parted with it for an equivalent in labor. Now, as every thing we see is the result of labor, the question is, who shall enjoy this result of labor, he who has labored, or he who has not. If it be a hardship for a man not to enjoy that for which he has not labored it would certainly be a much greater hardship for a man not to enjoy that for which he has labored. So that, the hardship would be greater if the system

d;

were arranged to suit the complainant, than it is now, under the system of which he complains.

If the hardship turn upon our relations to God; that is, if a man complain because God made him to labor, it is a difficulty which the complainant must settle with his Maker. We have nothing to do with it. But since God has ordained it, we cannot help it, and an indolent man has no just cause of grief with his fellow men, if they see fit to act according to it.

II. But men may be relieved from the necessity of labor, by charity. It will be understood that I here speak of men as poor from indolence, and not by visitation of God. I do not here refer to the sick, the infirm, the aged, the helpless, the widow, the fatherless, and the orphan. When God has seen fit to take away the power to labor, he then calls upon us to bestow liberally, and he always teaches us, that this mode of expenditure of our property is more pleasing to him than any other. With this

mode of charity I have now nothing to do. I speak only of provisions for the support of the poor, simply because he is poor; and of provisions to supply his wants, without requiring the previous exertion of his labor. Of this kind are poor laws, as they are established in England, and in some parts of our own country, and permanent endowments left to particular corporations for the maintenance of the simply indigent. Now such provisions we suppose to be injurious, for several reasons.

1. They are at variance with the fundamental law of government, that he who is able to labor, shall enjoy only that for which he has labored. If such be the law of God for us all, it is best for all, that all should be subjected to it. If labor be a curse, it is unjust that one part, and that the industrious part, should suffer it all. If, as is the fact, it be a blessing, there is no reason why all should not equally enjoy its advantages.

2. They remove from men the fear of want, one

of the most natural and universal stimulants to labor. Hence, in just so far as this stimulus is removed, there will be, in a given community, less labor done; that is, less product created.

3. By teaching a man to depend upon others, rather than upon himself, they destroy the healthful feeling of independence. When this has once been impaired, and the confidence of man in the connection between labor and reward is destroyed, he becomes a pauper for life. It is in evidence, before the committee of the British House of Commons, that, after a family has once applied for assistance from the parish, it rarely ceases to apply regularly, and most frequently in progress of time for a larger and larger measure of assistance.

4. Hence, such a system must tend greatly to increase the number of paupers. It is a discouragement to industry, and a bounty upon indolence. With what spirit will a poor man labor, and retrench, to the utmost, his expenses, when he knows that he shall be taxed to support his next-door neighbor, who is as able to work as himself; but who is relieved from the necessity of a portion of labor, merely by applying to the overseer of the poor for aid.

5. They are, in principle, destructive to the right of property, because they must proceed upon the concession, that the rich are under obligation to support the poor. If this be so; if he who labors be under obligation to support him that labors not; then the division of property and the right of property are at an end: for, he who labors has no better right to the result of his labor, than any one else.

6. Hence, they tend to insubordination. For, if the rich are under obligation to support the poor, why not to support them better? nay, why not to support them as well as themselves? Hence the more provision there is of this kind, the greater will be the liability to collision between the two classes.

If this be so, we see, that in order to accomplish

the designs of our Creator in this respect, and thus present the strongest inducement to industry,

1. Property should be universally appropriated, so that nothing is left in common.

2. The right of property should be perfectly protected, both against individual and social spoliation. 3. There should be no funds in common provided for the support of those who are not willing to labor. 4. That if a man be reduced, by indolence or prodigality, to such extreme penury that he is in danger of perishing, he should be relieved, through the medium of labor; that is, he should be furnished with work, and be remunerated with the proceeds.

5. That those who are enabled only in part to earn their subsistence, be provided for, to the amount of that deficiency, only.

And hence, that all our provisions for the relief of the poor, be so devised as not to interfere with this law of our nature. By so directing our benevolent energies, the poor are better provided for; they are happier themselves; and a great and constantly increasing burden is removed from the community. It has been found that alms-houses, conducted on this plan, will support themselves; and sometimes even yield a small surplus revenue. This surplus, however, should always be given to the paupers, and should never be received by the public. The principle should be carried out, that the laborer is to enjoy the result of his industry.

For the same reason, penitentiaries and State prisons should always be places of assiduous and productive labor. Idleness is a most prolific parent of crime. If the vicious could be accustomed to labor, one half of their reformation would be effected.

Besides, by this means, a great diminution would be effected in the expense to the community. There can be no reason why a hundred able-bodied men, and such are generally the tenants of our prisons, should not both support themselves, and pay for the