this state of constant intercourse amongst the lower classes in manufacturing towns, will be more than counterbalanced by the corruption of morals? How much more vice appears to prevail amongst the poor in crowded cities, than in the cottages of the peasantry!

MRS. B.

You should consider the difference of the population; there are often a greater number of people collected together in a manufacturing town than there are scattered over a space of thirty square miles of country: were their morals, therefore, the same, vice would appear much more conspicuous in the town than in the country. Admitting, however, the comparative amount of crimes to be greater in the former, I believe that it is compensated by a more considerable proportion of virtue : whilst innocence is probably more prevalent in the country.

CAROLINE.

Yet you must allow that we hear much more of the vices than of the virtues of manufacturing towns and great cities.

MRS. B.

Because crimes, from being amenable to the laws, are necessarily made known, whilst virtue seldom receives any public testimony of approbation. Every act of fraud or violence is sounded in our ears,

whilst the humanity, the sympathy for sufferings, the sacrifices which the poor make to relieve each other's distresses, are known only to those who enter into their domestic concerns. This has been frequently noticed by medical men who have attended the lower classes of people in sickness at their own houses.

CAROLINE.

Yet, upon the whole, do you not think that the situation of the poor in the country is better than it is in towns?

MRS. B.

They have each their advantages and disadvantages, and I should imagine that good and evil are pretty equally balanced between them. If the inhabitants of towns are better informed, and can more easily acquire some of the comforts of life, the inhabitants of the country are more vigorous and healthy, more cleanly, and they have the advantage of a more constant and regular demand for the produce of their labour, which is not so liable to be affected by the casualties of war, fashion, and other causes, which often occasion great distress to manufacturers.

But should you still entertain any apprehension that the division of labour may check and repress the intellectual improvement of the lower classes,

its prodigious effect in the multiplication of wealth, a circumstance which not only increases the comforts of the poor, but by facilitating the means of acquiring knowledge, ultimately promotes its diffusion among all classes of men. It is to the

division of labour that we are indebted for improvements in the processes of art, and amongst others for the invention of printing, which has proved such wonderful means of extending knowledge of every description.

We have now, I think, brought our savages to a considerable degree of advancement in civilisation; I would wish you briefly to recapitulate the causes which have produced this happy change, and at our next interview we will continue to trace their progress.

CAROLINE.

Labour seems to be the natural and immediate cause of wealth: but it will produce little more than the necessaries of life until its benefits are extended by the establishment of such a government as can give security to property. The spirit of industry will then be rapidly developed. The surplus produce of one individual will be exchanged for that of another. The facilities thus offered to barter will naturally introduce the division of labour or of employment; and will soon give rise to the invention of machinery, the merits of which we have just discussed.

MRS. B.

Extremely well, Caroline. We shall now take leave of this improved state of society for the present, with a conviction, I hope, that we leave mankind much happier than we found it.

CONVERSATION VI.

ON CAPITAL.

DISTINCTION OF RICH AND POOR. - ACCUMULATION

OF WEALTH.

HOW IT IS DISPOSED OF. THE

POOR LABOUR FOR IT. CONTRACT BETWEEN
THE CAPITALIST AND THE LABOURER. -THE
RICH UNDER THE NECESSITY OF EMPLOYING
THE POOR. DEFINITION OF CAPITAL. HOW

CAPITAL YIELDS AN INCOME.

PROFITS MADE

BY THE EMPLOYMENT OF LABOURERS. PRO-
DUCTIVE LABOURERS. INDEPENDENCE OF MEN

PROPORTION TO CAPITAL.-CAPITAL AUGMENTED BY THE ADDITION OF SAVINGS FROM INCOME. HAPPINESS RESULTING RATHER FROM THE GRADUAL ACQUISITION, THAN THE ACTUAL POSSESSION OF WEALTH.

MRS. B.

IN tracing the progress of society towards civilisation, we noticed the happy effects resulting from the security of property and the division of labour.