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Untitled Article
and through their exertions it has all been put into a train of more or less speedy accomplishment . We only ask of those to whom we are indebted for so much , that they will not require of us lo believe that this is all , nor , by fixing bounds to the possible reach of improvement in human affairs , set limits also to that ardour in its pursuit , which may be excited for an object at an indefinite distance , but only if it be also of indefinite magnitude .
Miss Martineau ' s little work is not more subject to the abovn criticism than works of far greater pretension ; but on the contrary , less . And as an exposition of the leading- principles of what now constitutes the science , it possesses considerable merit . There is but one point of importance on which we are obliged to differ from her . We cannot concur in her unqualified condemnation of the principle of the poor-laws . In this she is
decidedly behind the present state of the science ; political economists having mostly abandoned this among other exaggerated conclusions to which naturally enough they had pushed the principle of population , when they first became acquainted with it . The recent investigations of the poor-law commission , with which Miss Martin ^ u is familiar , seem to us as conclusive in support of the principle of a poor-rate , as they are in condemnation of
the existing practice . We had marked for criticism , several instances of obscurity , or insufficient explanation , and some of inaccuracy , either of thought or of expression . But they are mostly of too little importance to require notice . We shall merely note one or two ; which , it
will be at once seen , arise from mere inadvertency . Thus , in page 120 , she says , that when from an increase in the cost of (procuring food , wages rise , without benefit to the labourers , capitalists must either sell their productions dearer than is necessary where food < is cheaper , or submit to a diminution of their profits . Under the first alternative , the capitalist is incapacitated for competition with the capitalists of countries where food is
cheaper : under the second , the capital of the country tends , through perpetual diminution , to extinction' Now , a moment ' s reconsideration will easily show , that in the case supposed there would be no tendency to a diminution of capital , but only to the stoppage of any further increase . As well might it be said , that if you fill a vessel till it overflows ., the water will continue to flow out until the vessel is empty .
Again , in page 3 , are these words : ' Productive labour being a beneficial power , whatever stimulates and directs this power is beneficial also . Many kinds of unproductive labour do this ; many kinds of unproductive labour are therefore beneficial * All labour for which there is a fair demand is equally respectable . ' We are sure Miss Martiueau does not mean the last assertion to be taken literally ; there may be a fair demand for labour which is positively infamous . What does she think of the
Untitled Article
Political Economy . 321 *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1834, page 321, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2633/page/9/
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