reverse them. The change from low to high, or from high to low wages, will not always be very exactly graduated by the supply of labour to the demand for it.

The doctrine here held by the reverend writer, although generally correct, must be read with some considerable qualification. If carried to the full extent, it would be in the power of employers, when there was a great superabundance of persons wanting work, to reduce the wages of a week to what would be necessary for the support of a single day—as the applicants for employment would, perhaps, think it better to work for even that pittance, than have no employment. And it approaches to this point, when shirts are made for ten, and six cents, as we are told is sometimes the case. On this subject, the following observations from a recent publication, on this very important subject, are submitted to public consideration.—EDITOR.

"I freely admit, that there may be cases in which even liberal men may find a change impracticable-cases in which competition may have so far reduced the price of the manufactured article, as to render a rise in the price of the labour employed on it, incompatible with that due degree of profit on capital to which it has a fair claim. In all such cases the evil is without remedy, and must be submitted to. But this is by no means the case generally. There are numbers of men who make large fortunes by the labours of this class, and who might afford, and might not be unwilling to afford, to the humble ministers of their wealth, wherewith to support themselves without the degradation of soliciting charity, or the risk of being driven to a course of wickedness, resulting in misery here and perhaps hereafter. And surely any man duly impressed with the duties of morals and religion, would rather spend ten or twenty years in making a fortune, while he was dispensing the means of happiness among his dependents, and earning their heartfelt blessings, than wring it in half the time out of the sweat and blood of those dependents, while he was entitling himself to their, 'curses, not loud but deep.

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But there will, and necessarily must be, a constant tendency, and approximation towards it.. New works may indeed be projected, for the employment of the supernumerary labourers of a city. But if, by the

products of the industry thus directed, there should be a supply of these products above the demand for them, the sufferings of the poor would be deferred, by the employment thus given to them, only to be increased at a future time; for it is the very circumstance, which has thrown them out of employment, that the products to be obtained by their services are not wanted. The truth is, and it is not to be forgotten, that the poor do not, and never can, suffer alone. They suffer, because those who have been their employers, cannot find a market for the productions of their labour; and, in this depression of the market, or of the business which gives employment to the poor, their employers cannot afford to give the wages, which they can afford to give in a time of prosperity, and when there is a demand for these products of industry. I am aware, that there is in many a disposition to grind the poor; to get out of them all that they can, and to give as little for their service as they can. But, after all, the rate of wages

"It would be easy to prove, from a comparison of the prices charged to the public for the work done by the class in question, with the wages they receive, that a rise in the rate of those wages might be made, consistently with a due regard to self-interest. A few cents added to the price of making a shirt, a vest, or a pair of pantaloons, would be but a trifling deduction from the profits of the employer-but, to the employed, make all the difference between comfort and misery: what an irresistible appeal to every bosom in which exists a scintilla of justice or humanity!"-EDITOR.

does not depend on this class of employers.* It does, and it must depend, principally, upon the want of the products of the labour of the poor, and upon the proportion of the supply of labour to the demand for it. In anticipation of a winter, like that which is now before us, the tailors of our city, in order to give employment to poor females, might have a very large portion of their summer work done during the winter months. And this, without doubt, would give immediate relief to many. But it would cause a great increase of suffering through the next summer. And the results would necessarily be similar, whatever supply of work could be obtained, above the demand for it. I could not, therefore, look to any such expedients for the relief of the poor. Still, however, I would not despair of the practicability of keeping up wages, in a time of peculiar suffering, somewhat above the demand for the service of the poor. But I know of only one way in which it can be done, with any real advantage to them.

It is practicable, I doubt not, to a certain extent, to quicken the consciences of the employers of the poor

* These views are to be received cum grano salis. When the number of work-people greatly exceeds the demand for their labour, the persons to whom allusion is made in the text, have unfortunately great influence in lowering the rate of wages. Those who seek for employment and find great difficulty in procuring it, very frequently underbid each other. The persons alluded to avail themselves of this disposition, and reduce the rates below the usual standard. The example is followed by others, who would never have originally made any reduction. And to this case the facilis descensus Averni, of Virgil, fully applies. To reduce prices in such cases, is easy-to raise them extremely difficult.-EDITOR.

and thus to secure, on their part, a willingness to sacrifice some of their own gains, to the great objects, at once, of the virtue, and comfort of those who labour for them. I believe, indeed, that there are many, who need only to understand how great is the suffering, which is endured by the virtuous poor, at a time when they can obtain but occasional employment, and when their wages are generally reduced in inverse proportion to the demand for their work, to be willing and more than willing, to keep the hire of those who labour for them as high as it may be, consistently with any fair profits to themselves from these labours. Nothing, more, indeed, would be necessary to secure this good to the poor, in a society of Christians, than an appeal to their sense of justice. It is clearly required by the elementary principle of our religion, that we do to others, as we would, in a change of circumstances, that they should do to us. Let this single principle be faithfully applied, and there not only would be no oppression, but there would always be a generous consideration of the hireling in his wages. I know a partner in a house, which has not unfrequently given employment to eight or nine hundred women, in the coarse work of a large tailoring establishment; and I am in formed by this individual, that, during the business. year of 1828, this house employed, on an average, three hundred females every day; but that now, and for some months past, they have not had work for more than an average of a hundred and seventy. Within a year, however, this house has paid fifteen hundred dollars in extra wages to poor females; that is, in wages above the sum, at which they might have had the work done by the females whom they have employed, and

which has been given by many others for similar work. This house has acted upon the principle, that they ought willingly to submit to a reduction of their own profits, when such large numbers, as those whom they have employed, have found it difficult, by their own industry, to find the means even of subsistence. And, so, I think, every true Christian will act, in similar circumstances. This house has thus virtually given fifteen hundred dollars to the poor, during the past year, in the most judicious manner in which it could possibly have been given to them. Without overstocking the market, it has encouraged industry by the same means, by which it has relieved want.

The best charity which can be exercised towards those who are capable of labour, is to give them, as far as possible, the labour by which they may earn the means of their subsistence; and, whenever they are employed, amply to remunerate them for their services. And this is a charity, which might be exercised far more extensively than it is, without any interference with the general principles which regulate wages. Even in a time of great general embarrassment, there are some families among the poor, who are constantly supplied with work, and who receive a generous compensation for it. They are connected with families, which have sympathy with the condition and necessities of the poor; with families which feel that, if retrenchment be necessary, it should be begun with the expenses of the table, of dress and fashion; and, to whatever extent it is. carried, and to whatever objects it is directed, that, its last application should be to the employment, and wages of those, who, by their most constant labours, can but earn the means of their support; and with whom the fai