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ORIGINAL PREFACE. 
 
 It may appear to many, that a man who has been 
 enployed during his whole hfe in the study and practice 
 of medicine, cannot be a fit person to write on a subject 
 of a political nature. To such people the following- 
 considerations are submitted : — 
 
 That the Essay treats on the Efiects of Civihsation 
 on the mass of the people. 
 
 That the principal effect of civilisation is the re- 
 duction of the mass of the people in civilised societies to 
 their present condition. 
 
 Of this condition — i. e., the mariner in which the 
 people live — who has more opportunities of acquiring 
 the knowledge, than a physician? He is admitted 
 into the dweUings of all ranks of people, and into the 
 innermost parts of them j he sees them by theu^ fire- 
 side, at their tables, and in their beds ; he sees them 
 at work, and at their recreations; he sees them in 
 
Xll ORIGINAL PREFACE. 
 
 healtli, in sickness^ and in the article of death , he is 
 frequently made acquainted with their hopes and their 
 fears, their successes and their disappointments, as these 
 have often a relation to their diseases 5 and, possessing* 
 their confidence, they also frequently unbosom them- 
 selves to him on matters not connected with the state 
 of their healths. The physician, therefore, is put in 
 possession of more facts with respect to the condition 
 of the people than any other person; and it is only 
 from the collection of such facts that we can arrive at 
 the knowledg-e of the causes of them — for the investi- 
 gation of which, his education peculiarly fits him. 
 
 For all these reasons, it seems a physician is the 
 most proper person to treat on the subject of the 
 following discourse. 
 
 Tavistock, April 30, 1805. 
 
THE 
 
 YEmil LIBEART: 
 
 A SERIE3 
 
 \o^\ r.' 
 
 ORIGINAL AND REPRINTED WORKS, 
 
 BEARING ON THE 
 
 EENOYATION AND PEOGEESS OF SOCIETY, 
 
 lUliginn, Blnralit^, hdiI IriBJiK. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 
 MDCCCXLIX. 
 
THE 
 
 EFFECTS OF CIYILISATION 
 ON THE PEOPLE 
 
 EUROPEAN STATES. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES HALL, M.D. 
 
 ^ OT TBffl^' 
 
 4NALLT Pbinted 1805. 
 
 r]fI7BRSIT7 
 
 oaf 
 
 London 
 
 LONGMlSrBROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 
 MDCCCXLIX. 
 
A°^ 
 
 
 iLonlron : l^raueti tip fetter, IBuie, anU ifto. 
 (ftxmt (Kourt, jFlECt Street. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following Work, remarkable for its vivid descrip- 
 tion of the general condition of the people throughout 
 Europe at the period of its publication, has lost none 
 of its interest now, when many of our social evils have 
 been greatly aggravated and extended, although some 
 have been alleviated or removed. Machinery — which, 
 in a rightly constituted society, based upon Clmstian 
 principles, would prove invariably a blessing — has, under 
 the present system, increased the struggles and intensity 
 of competition, and depressed, by overwhelming, the 
 labour market — producing the two extremes of super- 
 abundance and destitution. 
 
 The title of the work has not been happily chosen, 
 implying, as it does, that the effects described are the 
 necessary consequences of civihsationj whereas, they 
 can be regarded only as the residt of an imperfect 
 state of civilisation in the progress of society. 
 
ADYERTISEMENT. 
 
 The persons who may be disposed to criticise this work^ 
 will have an advantag-e, which no doubt will be made 
 use of. Some of the opinions maintained in it being 
 contrary to the more generally received notions^ it was 
 necessary to treat the subject in a somewhat elementary 
 manner, beginning with the more simple matters, and 
 such as were less contrary to the common ways of 
 thinking, and proceeding to others more complex and 
 more opposite to popular ideas. On which account, the 
 chapters in the advanced part of the discourse, if 
 detached from their places and exposed to view by 
 themselves, without the preceding facts and reasons 
 on which they are grounded, may appear paradoxical 
 and untrue. The author, therefore, makes use of the 
 right he has to put in his caveat against that mode of 
 proceeding. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 I. Definition of Civilisation 1 
 
 II. Division of the People into two Orders . . 2 
 
 III. That the Poor are not sufficiently supplied with the 
 
 Necessaries of Life 4 
 
 IV. The Employments of the Poor injurious to Health 16 
 V. Their Minds uncultivated 18 
 
 VI. Their Moral and Spiritual Instruction neglected . 21 
 
 VII. Condition of the Poor not happy ... 23 
 
 VIII. The Cause of the Scarcity of the Necessaries of Life 25 
 
 IX. Of the Nature and Effects of Wealth ... 38 
 
 X. That Wealth is the Cause of almost all Power in 
 
 , most Civilised States 59 
 
 f XI. On Manufactures, Trade, and Commerce . . 62 
 t 
 
 XII. Why Manufactures and Commerce have been en- 
 couraged by States 72 
 
 XIII. The Increase of Wealth and Power of the Few, and 
 
 Poverty of the Many 74 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 XIV. Whether the Rich are useful to the Poor . 81 
 
 XV. On the different Interests of the Rich and Poor 90 
 
 XVI. What part of the Produce of his own Labour 
 
 is made use of by the Labourer ... 94 
 
 XVII. The State of the Poor not necessarily such as 
 
 it is 105 
 
 XVIII. On the Effects of Civilisation on the other 
 
 Orders Ill 
 
 XIX. Manufactures the Cause and Sign of the Poverty 
 
 of Nations 115 
 
 XX. Civilisation and Manufactures render a Nation 
 
 more ignorant and barbarous . . .121 
 
 XXI. Civilisation and Manufactures weaken a Nation 125 
 
 XXII. That the Poor contribute most to most Govern- 
 ments 130 
 
 XXIII. The Cause of the Frequency of Wars . .135 
 
 XXIV. On National Debts 139 
 
 XXV. On Privileged Orders, as established in most 
 
 Civilised States 144 
 
 XXVI. On Power 147 
 
 XXVII. On National Revenues . . . . .153 
 
 XXVIII. On Taxes 161 
 
 XXIX. . Recapitulation 167 
 
 XXX. The Method proposed for the Removal of the 
 
 Evils complained of 171 
 
 XXXI. Objections answered . . . . . 176 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 XXXII. The Cause of the different Opinions on this 
 
 Subject 181 
 
 XXXIII. That the Facts set forth in this Work, and the 
 
 Causes of them, are not generally known 182 
 
 XXXIV. On the Means of lessening a Scarcity, when 
 
 existing 186 
 
 XXXV. Whether the Cultivation of Commons in Eng- 
 land would prevent Scarcity there . . 193 
 
 XXXVI. On the rising Aristocracy of the American 
 
 States 197 
 
 XXXVII. Happiest State .206 
 
 XXXVIII. Whether the inducing and keeping up a more 
 
 equal State of Property is practicable . .216' 
 
 XXXIX. That the Produce of Land is in Proportion to 
 
 the Labour bestowed on it . . . 224 
 
 APPENDIX 241 
 
0? THB 
 
 fo'SiySJ^SITTJ 
 
 THE 
 
 EFFECTS OF CltlLlSATIOr 
 
 MASS OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 DEFINITION OF CIVILISATION. 
 
 We understaud by civilisation that manner of 
 living in societies of men, which is opposite to 
 that of those who are called savages ; such as are 
 the natives of North America, &c. 
 
 It consists in the study and knowledge of the 
 sciences, and in the production and enjoyment of 
 the conveniences, elegancies, and luxuries of life. 
 
 It does not seem to arise from any particular 
 constitution of governments, or to be attributable 
 to the administration of them, but to flow from 
 the natural propensities of mankind. 
 
 B 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 'r fe.msI0:^J''o^^th'E 'people into two orders. 
 
 - 1^' a«'na'fc«ive « of 'WortB.' 'America were to come to 
 some European nation, he would probably, after 
 having informed himself of the different states and 
 conditions of the people in this society, be most 
 struck with the great profusion and splendour of 
 wme among them, and the penury and obscurity 
 of all the others ; and, in this, it would appear to 
 him, that this civilised people differed most from 
 those of his own country, where the condition of 
 all is the same. He would naturally, therefore, 
 divide the people, whose situation he had so ob- 
 served, into two orders, viz. the rich and the poor. 
 We shair make the same division ; and, as the 
 different conditions of the people are among the 
 greatest effects of civilisation, shall inquire into 
 the situation of each of these orders separately. 
 
 We often hear of inquiries into the state of 
 nations being made in legislative assemblies ; but 
 such inquiries are of a very confined nature. If 
 made by a minister of state, nothing is understood 
 further than the financial state of a kingdom, the 
 supplies and expenditure : if by a secretary at 
 War, the state of the army is the object of inquiry: 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 3 
 
 if by a mercliant, the state of trade and commerce 
 But it seems that there is a subject of much more 
 imlportance than any of these to a nation, that 
 never enters into the thoughts of any one to make 
 inquiries about ;* namely, the state and condition 
 of the great mass of the people : how they are fed; 
 how they are clothed ; what kind of houses they 
 live in ; how they are supplied with fuel ; how 
 they are instructed; in short, what advantages, 
 corporeal, mental, and even spiritual, they enjoy 
 or are deprived of. To know these particulars 
 with regard to the poor, that is, the great mass of 
 the people, is truly to know the state of a nation. 
 The people in a civilised state may be divided 
 into many different orders ; but, for the purpose . 
 of investigating the manner in which they enjoy 
 or are deprived of the requisites to support the 
 health of their b0dies and minds, they need only 
 be divided into. two classes, viz., the rich and the 
 poor, as we have before done : for, people in the 
 same circumstances as to property enjoy the same 
 advantages in those respects, whether the means 
 of placing them in those circumstances are derived 
 from landed estates, benefices of the church, the 
 practice of the law, or any other profession or trade. 
 
 * Since this work was written, some attention has 
 been evinced in regard to these subjects, as in the case of the 
 Labourer's Friend Society, &c. — Ed. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THAT THE POOR ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY SUPPLIED 
 WITH THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE. 
 
 We will begin with the poor^ they being by 
 far the greater number of the people in most 
 civilised countries ; and^ therefore, whatever re- 
 gards them should be deemed of the greater 
 importance. 
 
 And, first, as to their food. The food of man 
 is of a mixed nature, partly animal, partly vege- 
 table. A certain proportion of the former is 
 necessary to the health, strength, and growth of 
 the human species, and without it those things 
 cannot be obtained. The appetites and the organs 
 he is furnished with by naturt plainly indicate 
 this. 
 
 It would be difficult to discover whether the 
 poor have a sufficiency of animal and vegetable 
 food, by any other method than by considering 
 the quantity of each sort which their nature re- 
 quires, and their means of obtaining that quantity; 
 or, in other words, what their earnings are, and 
 what quantity of food such earnings could procure. 
 
 The number of husbandmen in most states is 
 greater probably than that of any class of artificers. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. O 
 
 To begin, therefore, with. them. The average 
 wages of a labourer appear to have been about 
 eight shillings a-week, previous to the few late 
 years, more or less, according to the price of pro- 
 visions in different nations. We will suppose that 
 this labourer has a wife and three children. The 
 wife, if she keeps the house clean, free from ver- 
 min, washes, makes and mends the husband's and 
 children's clothes, dresses their victuals, &c., will 
 not, or ought not to have any time to add anything 
 to the earnings of the husband. But we will sup- 
 pose that she does, to the amount of two shillings 
 per week ; which makes their income ten shillings 
 a- week. 
 
 Whether ten shillings a-week will furnish a 
 proper quantity of flesh-meat, bread, flour, milk, 
 butter, cheese, and clothes, bedding, fuel, soap, 
 candles, salt, &c., I will leave to the reader to 
 form his oAvn conjectures on ; for calculations 
 made in this matter must be in a great measure 
 arbitrary, and of course unsatisfactory. I shall 
 only observe, that Judge Hale, above a century 
 ago, after having made a more diligent inquiry 
 than any body else seems to have done, judged 
 ten shillings a-week as little as a family could be 
 supported on in England at that time, at the price 
 things then were. 
 
 But I think a general argument may be ad- 
 B 2 
 
b HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 duced, that will throw great light on this matter, 
 and but too clearly show that that sum is inade- 
 quate, and that it was so at the time mentioned ; 
 and that the poor are not in fact furnished with 
 the requisite quantity of the necessaries of life. 
 This argument is of the presumptive kind, but that 
 is the only sort the nature of the subject will ad- 
 mit of. 
 
 If we consider the economy of nature, with 
 regard to animal and vegetable life, we may ob- 
 serve that, in order, probably, to keep up the 
 different species of living creatures and plants, the 
 seed produced of both kinds is very abundant ; 
 for instance, the spawn of a carp or a salmon shall 
 amount to eighty or a hundred thousand; inso- 
 much that any one species of fish would in a few 
 ages fill the ocean, if all that were brought into 
 life were brought to maturity. In the same man- 
 ner, the offspring of any one species of land animal 
 would fill, -some in a longer, others in a shorter 
 time, the whole earth, if proper and sufiicient sus- 
 tenance were provided for them. The same may 
 be said of any vegetable, if the ground were pre- 
 pared for the reception of its seed, and the other 
 plants destroyed to make room for it. To illus- 
 trate this : if the number of rabbits put into a 
 warren to stock it, be less than the quantity which 
 the ground will maintain, they will increase till 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. ,< 
 
 they rise to the utmost number that it will main- 
 tain ; but if the number which it at first was 
 stocked with be greater than it will carry, they 
 will gradually sink down to that number. Again, 
 if you plant a piece of ground with young trees 
 much thicker than they ought to be, so many will 
 die away after some years, that they will be re- 
 duced to that number which ought in the first 
 instance to have been planted ; the stronger plants, 
 after a long contest, destroying the weaker. So 
 that the increase in the number of animals of any 
 particular species does not depend so much on the 
 number of their young brought into existence, as 
 on tiie degree of the support and sustenance they 
 receive, after being brought into life, to preserve 
 them and bring them to maturity. Hence, we 
 certainly conclude, if the number of individuals 
 of any species of animals do not increase in pro- 
 portion to the number brought into life, that it is 
 owing to the offspring of them not being properly 
 sustained. 
 
 These facts obtain, with regard to the human 
 race, in as full a manner as in the brute species, or 
 in the class of vegetables. 
 
 We find that the inhabitants in few of the states 
 of Europe have doubled in five hundred years. 
 Hence there is a presumption that the people have 
 not been well fed, or have wanted some other thing 
 
 flUKIVE 
 
8 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 necessary to their subsistence ; for, where their 
 subsistence is better, we see they actually increase 
 much the faster. 
 
 In America, the land is not engrossed by a few, 
 in the manner it is in Europe. It is easy there 
 for a man to procure ground sufficient to produce 
 what nature requires for the preservation and 
 health of his offspring : the consequence is, that 
 the inhabitants increase much faster than they do 
 in Europe ; some states doubling every fourteen 
 years, others every twenty years. This happy 
 eifect may in part be owing to their being ex- 
 empted from the many destructive employments 
 to which most Europeans are subjected; but, which- 
 ever of those ways it be, it is still to be ascribed 
 to their not being arrived at the state of extreme 
 civilisation. 
 
 We do not suppose that even this, the greatest 
 increase that happens in America, is the greatest 
 possible ; or that it is so great as would actually 
 be, if the people and their offspring were well 
 supplied with everything nature requires, since in 
 America, on account of the great labour in clear- 
 ing the ground for cultivation, the quantity tilled 
 by the first planters may frequently be too scanty. 
 But if any European state, consisting of ten mil- 
 lions, were to increase in the proportion they do 
 in America, viz., to double in twenty years, they 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. \) 
 
 would increase ten millions in every twenty years ; 
 that is, five hundred thousand a-year. Hence, 
 therefore,^ in such a case, this number fall a sacri- 
 fice every year to the want of proper or sufficient 
 food and other necessaries, the unwholesomeness 
 of their employments, or to some other cause 
 equally attributable to extreme civilisation. A 
 sad reflection this ! It is nevertheless strictly true, 
 or very near the truth : a loss greater than the 
 most destructive wars have ever occasioned.* 
 
 Another fact strengthens this argument. When 
 the Equitable Insurance Office, at Blackfriars 
 Bridge, was first established, the premiums taken 
 were according to a ratio proposed by Dr. Price, 
 who formed it from the accounts of the annual 
 deaths, taken from the bills of mortality kept in 
 different cities of Europe. These deaths were 
 about one in twenty-two, annually, of all the peo- 
 ple, taken indiscriminately. Proceeding thus, the 
 profits of the Society were so great, that in a few 
 years they Tealised their enormous capital ; upon 
 which, their premiums were lowered. Their pro- 
 fits being still very great, they returned, in a very 
 
 * The Chinese, who suifer the exposition of their chil- 
 dren, and even appoint men to destroy them, seem to act 
 more humanely than the Europeans, who cause the long, 
 languishing sufferings of their children. 
 
\ 
 
 10 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 honourable manner, part of tlie premiums that had 
 been received from the insured, which they con- 
 tinue to do, at certain periods, with still greater 
 liberality. The Society, notwithstanding, con- 
 tinued to increase greatly in riches. The cause of 
 this phenomenon, therefore, was a matter of in- 
 quiry ; on which it was found that they had 
 adapted their premiums to the deaths of the rich 
 and poor taken together ; and it soon occurred 
 that none but the rich were insured. Their ex- 
 traordinary profit, therefore, must arise from the 
 circumstance of their being fewer deaths annually 
 \ among the rich than among the poor, in proportion 
 \yto the numbers of both, 
 i It is not possible to calculate what this great 
 disproportion is between the deaths of the rich 
 and the poor, as that cannot be done without the 
 knowledge of the exact profits of the Company; 
 , / but it seems probable that the deaths of the poor 
 are to those of the rich as .two to one, in propor- 
 tion to the numbers of each. \ 
 
 This greater mortality among the poor can only 
 J be owing to the difierence in the manner in which 
 they are supplied with the necessaries of life. 
 
 I will add one other relation of a fact, from 
 which the inference is obvious. 
 ^ There are, at the cotton-mills belonging to Mr. 
 Dale, of Lanark, in Scotland, three thousand chil- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 11 
 
 dren : these children are said to be treated in a 
 proper manner^ in most respects ; the consequence 
 is, that during a term of twelve years, viz., from 
 1785 to 1797, only fourteen have died.* 
 
 This mortality is chiefly observable among chil- 
 dren, of whom more than one half die before they 
 are two years and a half old. Children, as well 
 as the young of all animals, bear want and hard- 
 ships worse than adult persons, and full-grown 
 brute animals. Infants, though their deaths be 
 really occasioned by the above-mentioned causes, 
 have nearly the same symptoms that occur in 
 many chronic diseases ; to which their deaths are 
 frequently attributed. 
 
 The diseases which are the chief agents in this 
 great mortality among infants, are fevers and the 
 disorders of the stomach and bowels. The latter 
 are so frequent among infants, that physicians, when 
 called to them, almost always consider these as the 
 seat of the complaint. \The weaknesses or disorder 
 of the bowels seem chiefly to be occasioned by the 
 poor, watery, meagre, vegetable diet of the chil- 
 dren and of their mothers. "J The latter, from the 
 use of this diet, have their milk poor, and not 
 sufliciently animalised. To produce good milk. 
 
 * James Neel's Letter to Dr. Lettsom — Gent, Mag, for 
 June, 1804. 
 
12 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 the woman should be well fed, with a full propor- 
 tion of animal food ; perhaps some quantity of 
 good beer ; live in good houses ; good air ; be 
 employed in wholesome and pleasant exercises ; 
 and void of care. The children, after they are 
 weaned, should have a sufficiency of well-prepared 
 vegetable and animal food, such as new milk, and 
 broths of fresh meat : for want of these, the state 
 of their bowels is induced, which proves so de- 
 structive to our race. With regard to the fevers of 
 children, there are many of them generated by the 
 circumstances of their condition ; almost all of 
 them are exasperated by it. f[t has frequently 
 happened to me, and to all other physicians, that, 
 after being called to a child of a man of fortune, 
 ill of this disease, whom I have found in a large 
 lofty room, well ventilated, clean, and sweet ; bed 
 soft, undisturbed by noise, anxiously attended by 
 people relieving each other ; furnished with every- 
 thing the cellars, the kitchen, the garden, the 
 druggist, can furnish ; in short, everything the 
 four quarters of the world can supply : after, I 
 say, being with such a patient, we are frequently 
 entreated to visit the child or children of a poor 
 •man, in the same illness ; several of them generally 
 lying in the same bed; heated by and heating 
 each other, in a small room, corrupted by the ex- 
 halations of the whole family ; disturbed by one 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 13 
 
 another's cries ; their wakefulness and restless- 
 ness^ the effects of the disorder^ increased by the 
 vermin and hard beds, covered by filthy clothes 7) 
 having nothing proper to use from the cellar, the 
 kitchen, the garden, or apothecary's shop ; no 
 attendants but the poor mother, worn out by 
 watchings, anxiety, &c. ; the father from home, 
 obliged to leave it to get their daily bread. That 
 these things happen unavoidably in almost all 
 cases, in poor families, all medical people must 
 bear testimony ; and also to the ill effects of them 
 on the sufferers — I have said unavoidably, which 
 is true ; for, though single instances, by charitable 
 assistance, may in some things be relieved, it is 
 impossible that in general the poor can be better 
 supplied; unless you alter the condition of the 
 whole, by giving them good houses, containing 
 more and better rooms ; better furniture, better 
 linen, better supplies — in short, making their con- 
 dition nearer to the first described; that is, wholly 
 altering the condition of that whole order of people. 
 It is remarkable, that poor living does not 
 lessen the fertility of women, though it deprives 
 them of the means of bringing up their children. 
 Adam Smith says, that it is not uncommon, in the 
 Highlands of Scotland, for a woman to bear twenty 
 children, and not to rear one of them. He adds, that 
 officers of great experience have assured him, that, so 
 c 
 
14 HALL ON CIVILISATION". 
 
 far from recruiting their regiment, they hare never 
 been able to supply it with fifes and drums, from 
 all the soldiers' children that were born in it. 
 
 This slow increase of the people may be sup- 
 posed by some to be not wholly attributable to 
 the difficulties attending the rearing of the chil- 
 dren of the poor, and consequent mortality ; 
 and that it might be in part owing to these diffi- 
 culties being foreseen and dreaded, by the more 
 prudent part of the poor ; and their being, from 
 that consideration, prevented from marrying. 
 This, no doubt, may happen sometimes ,* but pru- 
 dence is not the virtue of the youthful, especially 
 when opposed by a passion the strongest and most 
 difficult to be checked that human nature is sub- 
 ject to. We are not warranted by any direct facts 
 to ascribe much to this cause. When the masters 
 of sheep-flocks are short of keep, from backward 
 springs, poor land, or other causes ; when the 
 milk of the ewes is in small quantities, and a great 
 loss of lambs follows ; do they impute the slow 
 increase of their flock to the ewes not taking the 
 ram ? The other cause of the slow increase of the 
 people is more obvious. We see half of the chil- 
 dren born, die before they are two years and a half 
 old ; and a very great part of the remainder drop 
 off before they are seven. We have, therefore, no 
 occasion to look for other causes. The Earl of 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 15 
 
 Lauderdale, in a very ingenious discourse, lately 
 published, on Wealth, quotes a passage from a 
 letter of the Marquis of : 
 
 ^^ On a soin de les marier d'aussi bonne heure 
 que les grands seigneurs, le pays n'en est pas plus 
 peuple, car presque tons les enfans meurent : . les 
 femm€s n'y ont presque pas de lait.* " 
 
 But if three-fourths or two-thirds of this defi- 
 ciency in the increase of the people be chargeable 
 on the mortality complained of, we have still 
 enough to lament. And it may be added, that if 
 this forbearance of the poor, in the indulgence of 
 their strongest desires, actually takes place, it 
 strongly evinces the reality and magnitude of the 
 evils they see around them. 
 
 What renders this matter still more grievous 
 is, that there are many more sufferers than those 
 who die, from the same causes : many who have 
 struggled with the difficulties, and escaped with 
 their lives, have suffered greatly in the conflict, 
 and continue ever after to suffer, from the injury 
 their constitution received. As a proof of this, 
 what rickety, squalid, dwarfed, distorted objects, 
 do we see in the manufacturing towns of Europe ! 
 This will further appear from the consideration of 
 the employments of the poor.f 
 
 * Extrait d'une Lettre de la Marquis de * * A. M * Du 
 17 Aoiit, 1767. Append. No. XIV. 
 t Vide Notes A. B, C. D. E. F. 
 
16 • HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 SECTION lY. 
 
 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF THE POOR INJURIOUS TO 
 HEALTH. 
 
 The employments of manufacturers are all in- 
 jurious to the health, of the body, and the improve- 
 ment of the mind. These pernicious effects arise 
 from — 
 
 1st. The sedentary nature of them, by which 
 the necessary action and exercise of the body are 
 prevented. 
 
 2dly. From the forced and unnatural postures 
 of the body required in many trades, by which 
 the functions of the body necessary to life and 
 health are impeded. 
 
 3dly. From these being carried on in confined, 
 unwholesome atmospheres, rendered nauseous and 
 putrid from the filth of the rooms, and from the 
 exhalations of their own bodies ; as well as from 
 the efiluvia of the substances they work on, as oils, 
 sizes, mercury, lead, paint; damps and noxious 
 air in mines, &c., all add hurtful qualities to the 
 ' air. Under the same head may be placed the 
 excessive heat in glass-houses, smelting-houses, 
 foundries, &c. 
 
 From one or other of these disadvantages there 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 17 
 
 is scarcely any trade exempt, and hardly any indi- 
 vidual of any trade that is not more or less af- 
 fected by them. The sedentary kind appears to 
 be least prejudicial ; but what a number of pale, 
 languid, dropsical objects there are among women 
 who make bone-lace, those are witnesses . to, who 
 have seen the many thousands of such in those 
 places where it is manufactured. 
 
 The infinite number of trades into which these 
 noxious emjoloyments branch out, may be seen in 
 the back streets of great cities and manufacturing 
 towns, as also may the many wretched objects 
 there produced by them. 
 
 This general account will render it evident, to 
 persons of reflection, what great devastations are 
 made by the manufactures on the human species ; 
 it is therefore needless to enumerate the particular 
 diseases they occasion. I cannot help, however, 
 observing, that there is a great multiplicity of 
 trades in which mercury is made use of: in some 
 of these the workmen's lives are measured with 
 great exactness ; after suffering excruciating tor- 
 ments, they die, with great punctuality, in a year 
 and a half. 
 
 Nor can I forget mentioning the poor chimney- 
 boy, who, after suffering inconceivable hardships, 
 dies frequently, at length, of a disease attended 
 with the most acute of all pains — the cancer, 
 c 2 
 
18 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 SECTION Y. 
 
 THEIR MINDS UNCULTIVATED. 
 
 However, ill-furnished the poor are in most 
 civilised countries, in respect to sustenance, cloth- 
 ing, &c., they are still more neglected with regard to 
 y their minds ; they indeed are excluded from all kind 
 of improvement of their mental faculties. It is 
 even by many supposed that all such knowledge 
 would be prejudical to them ; that is, as they are 
 to be worked as irrational animals, there is no 
 reason why their rational faculties should be 
 ' cultivated. And, indeed, if this their situation 
 were necessarily such, and were unavoidable, and 
 if it were not such through our injustice and 
 cruelty to them, our fellow-creatures, and were 
 such as could admit of no alteration or amend- 
 ment, it would in that case, perhaps, be better 
 that they should be brought up in ignorance, as 
 they are ; since they would, by any degree of 
 knowledge, see more clearly, and feel more acutely, 
 what they suffer, and the want of the comforts and 
 ' happiness of which they are deprived. -^ If they 
 remain for ever the mere carriers of wood and 
 water, they cannot certainly be kept too ignorant. 
 But these poor wretches, I think, have a right, 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 19 
 
 before they give up all the advantages of rational 
 creatures, to expect a better reason for it, than 
 that those things always were so. They have a 
 right to expect that so great a difference in their 
 lot and condition should not be made, unless indi- 
 cated by nature itself, and made evident by its 
 having refused them the faculties and powers for 
 the acquisition of knowledge. 
 
 There are two methods of acquiring know- 
 ledge : the one, by thinking or meditation — that 
 is, by the operations of our own minds within 
 themselves ; the other, by informing ourselves of 
 the knowledge already acquired by others, which ^ 
 is done by books or living masters. Both of these 
 methods the commonalty are debarred from. One 
 should have thought t^e former might have been 
 allowed them : that is not, however, the case ; for 
 to do that requires leisure, which is refused the^ 
 poor man. Leisure, in a poor man, is thought 
 quite a diiferent thing from what it is to a rich 
 man, and goes by a different name. In the poor, / 
 it is called idleness, the cause of all mischief. If 
 it is so, why is it so ? Because they have been, 
 by this cruel system, deprived of opportunities of 
 acquiring such rudimeats as would qualify them 
 for further attainments \ that is to say, they are not 
 to have leisure, because they have never had any 
 to fit them to improve by such leisure. Most 
 
20 HALL OX CIVILISATION. 
 
 part of tlie manufacturing trades just occupy the 
 mind so as to exclude all otlier ideas on which it 
 might operate. 
 
 In the progress of the division of labour, the 
 employment ^^ of the far greater part of those 
 live by labour — that is, the great body of the 
 people — comes to be confined to a very few simple 
 operations ; frequently to one or two. But the 
 understandings of the greater part of men are 
 necessarily formed by their ordinary employments. 
 The man whose whole life is spent in performing a 
 few simple operations, of which the effects too are 
 perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, 
 has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to 
 exercise his invention, in finding out expedients 
 for removing difficulties which never occur. He 
 naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exer- 
 tion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant 
 as it is possible for human nature to become. 
 The torpor of his mind renders him not only inca- 
 pable of relishing or bearing part in any rational 
 conversation, but of conceiving any generous, 
 noble, or tender sentiment, and, consequently, of 
 forming any just judgment concerning many even 
 of the ordinary duties of life. 
 
 " It is otherwise in the barbarous societies, as 
 they are called, of hunters, shepherds, or even of 
 husbandmen in that rude state of husbandry which 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 21 
 
 precedes the improvement of manufactures and 
 the extension of foreign commerce. In such so- 
 cieties the varied occupations of every man oblige 
 every man to exert his capacity, and to invent 
 expedients for removing difficulties which are 
 continually occurring. Invention is kept alive, 
 and the mind is not suffered to fall into that 
 drowsy stupidity which, in a civilised society, 
 seems to benumb the understanding of almost all 
 the inferior ranks of the people." — Adam Smith, 
 vol. iii., p. 183. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 THEIH MORAL AND SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION 
 NEGLECTED. 
 
 We have seen how manufactures tend to the utter 
 exclusion of all rational improvement of the mind. 
 We may further observe, that they generally tend 
 to the prevention of moral and spiritual improve- 
 ment. To speak, first, as to the latter; though, 
 perhaps, it might be deemed presumptuous in me 
 to say anything on that subject. 
 
 The proof of the Christian system is founded 
 
^Z^Z HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 on historical facts ; from thence are drawn the 
 principal motives of credibility, as they are called. 
 We give credit to facts recorded in history, when 
 they are related by an historian of credit ; when 
 other historians agree with him; and from the 
 concurrence of other circumstances.* But what 
 idea has a totally ignorant man of the weight of 
 the concurrence of historians, or the coincidence of 
 facts ? or what knowledge of history at all ? Cer- 
 tainly none. Hence, being deprived of the belief, 
 he of course is deprived of all the other advan- 
 tage's of religion. 
 
 ( With respect to morals : Civilisation has a two- 
 fold effect on the morals of the people ; first, by 
 depriving them of their original share of things, 
 and reducing them to a state of both comparative 
 and absolute poverty, it subjects them to more and 
 much stronger temptations. Secondly, by their 
 extreme ignorance, and little sense of religion in 
 consequence of it, they are deprived of the strong- 
 est motives to resist them. Thus, all their tempta- 
 tions rendered stronger, their powers of resistance 
 weaker, they could not be^ expected to be different 
 from what we find them.f ■ 
 
 * Education has since been much extended. — Ed. 
 
 t To suffer the lower orders of the people to be ill-educated, 
 to be totally inattentive to those wise regulations of State 
 policy which might serve to guard and improve their morals, 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 23 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE POOR NOT HAPPY. 
 
 I Authors and preachers frequently inculcate to 
 I the poor^ in their writings and sermons, content- 
 ment and submission to the dispensations of Pro- 
 vidence — such they pretend their hardships and 
 depressed state to be ; thus attributing the works 
 of man to the beneficent Creator. They assert 
 \ that the measure of happiness is much the same in 
 I > all conditions, and nearly equal. . ' Not to mention 
 that such doctrine as this would suit every kind of 
 oppression and tyranny, I believe it contrary to 
 fact, and that from considerations drawn from the 
 constitution of the human frame.* I shall say 
 nothing as to the destitute condition of their minds, 
 which must deprive them of every consolation from 
 thence. The sensations and feelings of their bodies 
 must subject them to correspondent ones of the ^ 
 mind, and rob them of such satisfaction as it is 
 asserted they do enjoy. 
 
 and then to punish them for crimes which originated from 
 bad habits, has the appearance of a cruelty not less severe 
 than any which is exercised under the most despotic govern- 
 ment. — Treatise on Police, &c., by P. Colquhoun, LL.D. 
 * An old author says — Ovdav Treviag (iapyrepov Icttiv (popriov. 
 
24 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 Physicans know that there is a great degree of 
 sympathy existing between the body and the mind; " 
 that they mutually affect each other; that the 
 stomach is the principal medium of their reciprocal 
 feelings ; that when the sensations of this organ 
 are comfortable, the mind is in an easy and plea- 
 sant state. A poor watery vegetable diet has the 
 . effect of ^ exciting contrary feelings in the stomach, 
 which are communicated to the mind : hence, it is 
 depressed and anxious ; hence, poor men generally 
 have recourse to tobacco, which, being of a narcotic 
 nature, deadens the sensations, and relieves the 
 uneasiness both of the stomach, and of the mind 
 depending on it ; for which reason we see they 
 would rather go without their food than their 
 tobacco. Numbers of them fly to the use of spirit- 
 uous liquors, which is the remedy precisely adapted 
 to their case ; and it is to be wondered at that 
 drunkenness is not more frequent among them than 
 it is.* But besides the uneasiness occasioned by 
 those sensations, can they see with indifference 
 their offspring perishing for the want of such things 
 as they perceive around them, but which they 
 cannot reach ? f Can they see without pain the 
 luxurious abundance of the rich, and compare it 
 
 * A dejection of spirits will rob the poor husbandman of 
 the ease and comfort which he should feel when the labour 
 of the day is ended. — Heberdet^'s Comment.^ p. 220. 
 t Ayogav ISelv evo-ipov, iVTropovvri fiev 
 "Hdicrrov' av Ss aTropr) rig dOXiwrarov. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 25 
 
 with their own pinching poverty? To write or 
 preach in this manner is adding insult to op- 
 pression. 
 
 I have now stated^ briefly and generally^ the 
 situation of the poor in most European nations, 
 with regard to the necessaries of life, their employ- 
 ments, and their moral and spiritual instruction ; 
 and I have avoided entering into the description 
 of the particular hardships, diseases, and instances 
 of mortality, which so much abound in it — these 
 being too obvious and aflfecting to need a repre- 
 sentation to people of any observation, and endued 
 with any sensibility ; and, besides, my intention is 
 rather- to find out the causes of, and, if possible, 
 a remedy for, the evils, than to give a laboured 
 description of them. I shall first endeavour to 
 discover the cause of their want of a sufficient 
 quantity of the necessaries of life. 
 
 SECTION YIII. 
 
 THE CALSE OF THE SCARCITY OF THE NECESSARIES 
 OF LIFE. 
 
 Before I enter on the causes of the scarcity of 
 the necessaries of life in general, I shall premise a 
 few words relating particularly to the great scarcity 
 
^6 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 that lately preTailed, for two or three seasons^ in a 
 great part of Europe. Many people were of opi- 
 nion, that the real scarcity of provisions was not 
 proportionable to the high price they bore, but that 
 this was occasioned by artificial causes, and several 
 were assigned of that kind. The wealth of great 
 farmers, and the assistance of bankers given to 
 lesser ones, have, in some people's opinions, en- 
 abled both to keep their corn, and such other 
 things as their farms produce, from market ; and 
 by these means to raise the price of them. Jobbers, 
 regraters, and millers, are charged with occasioning 
 the same eifect. Not to observe that such people 
 are not new, and have subsisted a long time with- 
 out such an effect, to all these supposed causes, 
 and such as these, one common and short answer 
 may be given : That as the price was near four 
 times the usual one, the poor could not, with their 
 earnings, buy more than a third or fourth part of 
 what they used to buy when it was lower ; conse- 
 quently they must consume less. Therefore, if 
 the quantity of corn in the country was not small 
 in proportion to this diminished consumption, 
 there would be, towards harvest, a great deal of 
 corn remaining in the hands of the farmers, which 
 the farmers would, if they considered their own 
 interest, then bring to market in greater quantities 
 than they had done before ; for they must suppose 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION, 27 
 
 tliat, after harvest, the price would fall, and, con- 
 sequently, that they should be great losers. But, 
 if they had brought it to market in abundance at 
 the latter end of the summer, the price must have 
 fallen ; or, if they had not brought it to market 
 in that manner, there must have been a great deal 
 iof old corn in their hands after the harvest ; which, 
 if you suppose them to have been so unwise as to 
 suffer., still this must have appeared since. What- 
 ever doubt, therefore, there might have been in 
 the beginning of the summer * with respect to the 
 cause of the high price, there can be none now ; 
 time having, on this occasion, as in most others, 
 discovered the truth, that the dearness was owing 
 to real scarcity. 
 
 What, then, is the cause of this great evil so 
 often recurring; and in every season, when the corn 
 crops are not abundant, so afflicting to the great 
 majority of the people of almost all civilised states ? 
 
 The scarcity or abundance of the produce of 
 the earth are the effects of causes both physical 
 and moral. 
 
 The physical cause of the production of the 
 necessaries of life is the property of the earth to 
 produce them, or, in other words, the natural 
 fertility of the soiL 
 
 •^ Of 1801. 
 
28 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 The effects of this power of the earth, though 
 uniformly acting, or disposed to act, are increased 
 or diminished by two causes, to wit, the greater 
 or less quantity of the labour of man bestowed on 
 it, and the favourableness or unfavourableness of 
 seasons. 
 
 The quantity of man's labour applied being 
 much the same one year as another, we might 
 suppose that the quantity of the produce of the 
 land would be uniform, and differing but little in 
 different years. 
 
 The difference in the quantity of the produce 
 of the necessaries of life in one year, from that of 
 other years, must depend on the difference of 
 seasons. 
 
 But whether or not the general produce, ^. e. 
 that of a number of years taken together, of the 
 necessaries of life, be proportioned to the number of 
 people inhabiting a country, depends on the quan- 
 tity of land they occupy, and on the number of 
 hands employed in cultivating it. 
 
 That the quantity of land inhabited by a 
 people is too little, I believe does not happen in 
 any instance ; but that too few hands are em- 
 ployed, in almost all instances, in civilised coun- 
 tries. 
 
 The natural or spontaneous produce of the 
 soil, or the produce of the soil unassisted, how- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 29 
 
 ever fertile, will not be sufficient for the suste- 
 nance of nearly the number of people that inhabit 
 any civilised part of the world. In those parts of 
 America which are not inhabited by Europeans, 
 the spontaneous produce of the earth, with very 
 little assistance from cultivation, is sufficient for 
 the whole support of the inhabitants ; but then 
 these are very few in number, in comparison to 
 the extent of the country they occupy. To sup- 
 port great numbers, the land must be cultivated ; 
 and the quantity of the produce of it will be, .the 
 degree of fertility of it being given, as the num- 
 ber of hands or the quantity of labour bestowed 
 on it. If reduced to a state of pasture, it will 
 produce more food for man than if covered with 
 trees, or in the state of a forest. Again, this pro- 
 duce will be inferior to that of arable lands ; and 
 this again to that of land managed as in a garden. 
 In these different modes of cultivation, namely, 
 pasture, agriculture, and horticulture, the produce 
 rises in quantity in the order in which they are 
 here set down, or as the number of hands em- 
 ployed. This, therefore, being the case, it is 
 obvious, that to produce plenty it requires, be- 
 sides fertile land and good seasons, the employing 
 a sufficient number of hands on the land. It wiU 
 be shown hereafter, that not only in years of 
 scanty crops, but that in all years, the produce 
 D 2 
 
30 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 of the land is insufficient for tlie inhabitants^ in 
 all, or nearly all, the civilised countries ; and that, 
 therefore, when a scarce year happens, they expe- 
 rience great distress. We have now, I think, 
 ascertained the real cause of scarcity, to wit, that 
 a sufficient number of hands are not employed on 
 the land. We are next to inquire, what is the 
 cause of this want of hands in agriculture ? This 
 cause must be of a moral nature. 
 
 For the present purpose, the people which 
 compose a civilised nation may be divided into 
 three sorts : the first, consisting of those who work 
 in cultivating the land ; the second, of those who 
 are employed in trade and manufactures ; the 
 third, of those who do nothing. The first sort, it 
 is obvious, furnishes the provisions for itself and 
 the other two ; and the whole wiU be furnished, 
 either scantily or plentifully, as the first sort bears 
 the greater or less proportion to it.* Notwith- 
 standing this is sufficiently evident, and that bread 
 can only be supplied by the husbandman, and that 
 plenty of it can only be supplied by a sufficient 
 number of them, yet it is trade and manufactures 
 that are said to give bread to people, and to be what 
 ought chiefly to be relied on for their sustenance ; 
 but this can only be true when the articles got up by 
 
 . * This proportion is as one to six nearly, at present. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 31 
 
 them are sent to other countries^ and the produce of 
 them there laid out in the necessaries of life, and 
 brought back for the support of those employed in 
 getting them up. It is known that this is never 
 the case, except in great scarcities, when it always 
 proves very inadequate ; no importation having 
 exceeded one-sixth part of the consumption. 
 
 The manufactures, in which the great majority 
 of the labouring hands in many nations are em- 
 ployed, are of various kinds : they may be divided, 
 however, into two, viz., such as are of the grosser 
 kind, and are of prime and general use in life ; 
 and such others as are more refined and in use 
 only by the rich, are not of prime necessity, but 
 may be dispensed with. It seems natural to sup- 
 pose that these latter should have only such a 
 number of hands in them as could well be spared, 
 and that a sufficient number should be reserved to 
 produce an abundance of such things as are more 
 useful, and of greater necessity. This, notwith- 
 standing, is not the fact, as appears by the fre- 
 quent recurrence of great scarcity in less abundant 
 seasons, and its prevailing, in some degree, as will 
 be shown hereafter, in all seasons. We must, 
 therefore, inquire into the cause that prevents the 
 proper number of hands from being employed in 
 raising that which is most necessary to the ex- 
 istence of all the people, and directs them to the 
 
82 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 production of such things as are enjoyed only by 
 the few, and by them may be easily dispensed 
 with. This cause, whatever it be, must be a very 
 powerful one, since it turns things from the course 
 to which they are naturally and strongly inclined. 
 
 The cause that can divert the labour of the 
 people of most civilised countries from such oc- 
 cupations as have such an evident and direct ten> 
 dency to produce for themselves the necessaries 
 and comforts of life, and direct it to others which 
 have not that obvious tendency, may be threefold : 
 first, optional ; second, delusive ; third, compulsive. 
 
 As to the first, it has been remarked that na- 
 tions, in their progress from a savage to a civilised 
 state, have shown a great reluctance to quit the 
 employment of their former state, namely, that of 
 hunting, which is probably natural to man, he 
 being of the carnivorous species of animals, and, 
 consequently, of that of prey ; and hunting is 
 nothing but the mode or act of taking prey. The 
 life of hunters consists in reverses either of vio- 
 lent exercise or total inaction, neither of which fits 
 them for the confinement and long-continued 
 labour of manufactures, which, therefore, they 
 have always shown an aversion from ; and it is a 
 long time, even where they have the advantages of 
 it before their eyes, in the practice of neighbour- 
 ing Europeans, before they confine themselves to 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 33 
 
 the regular and laborious occupations of agricul- 
 ture. During many of the first ages, even of the 
 most polished states, the business of agriculture 
 was left to the slaves ; the freemen enjoying their 
 liberty in the sports of the field, or in the camp. 
 This was the case in Sparta, where the Helots 
 performed the business of tilling the earth. And 
 after man had arrived, as in Rome, at a state of 
 civilisation, in which the labour of the field was 
 become tolerable, and held honourable, the arts 
 and manufactures were thrown upon the slaves, 
 and practised by them only : and it is not to be 
 wondered at, since the works of manufactures, 
 though so many and various in trading nations,, 
 are all of them, as has been observed before, 
 carried on within doors, in confined rooms, shut- 
 ting out the pleasant objects of nature, frequently 
 , within frames like cages, in ofiensive atmospheres 
 I generally rendered more nauseous by the effiuvia 
 I of the subject worked on, always by that of the 
 bodies and filthy clothes of the workmen; their 
 postures bent, doubled, and every way distorted. 
 Add to this, the tendency of them, so injurious 
 and destructive to their health and lives. It seems, 
 I therefore, that it was never through choice that 
 manufactures were entered into by any people ; it 
 must, therefore, be from one or both of the other 
 causes, viz., delusion or compulsion. 
 
 
 llTYl 
 
34 HALL OIvT CIVILISATION. 
 
 By the laws of most civilised nations, no man 
 is compelled to work at any particular trade or 
 manufacture; but at some trade or other, every 
 one who has no property must work ; and as the 
 employment of the husbandman is limited to such 
 a number as the capital of farmers enables them 
 to employ, all above that number must betake 
 themselves to other kinds of employments ; and 
 from circumstances attending each person, that 
 person is determined to such or such a trade, 
 which it is next to impossible for him to avoid. 
 A tailor more easily brings up his son to be a 
 tailor than he can to be a mason. A fisherman 
 more easily makes his son a fisherman or a sailor, 
 than of any other trade. I'hus, with regard to 
 the father, it was hardly optional ; but, with re- 
 gard to the son, altogether out of his power to 
 make any choice in the matter. 
 
 If a poor man is employed by a master, and is 
 paid by him the price of his hire, no injury is 
 supposed to be done; on the contrary, it is 
 thought that the finding employment for the 
 labourer is beneficial to the individual as well 
 as the public. But this is true only in a very 
 limited sense. To be of service to the public, 
 and indeed to the labourer, the product of the 
 labour ought to be of such a kind as to be useful, 
 and to consist of something that contributes to 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. S5 
 
 supply the wants of mankind. If a man, for in- 
 stance, is employed in removing a heap of stones 
 from one place to another, and from thence back 
 again, and so repeatedly; if he is paid for so 
 doing, where is the harm? it is said. The harm 
 would be evident if a greater number were em- 
 ployed in that way ; or, if the whole of the people 
 were so for some time, we should then be des- 
 titute of the necessaries of life. Hence, notwith- 
 standing the price of hire is paid, not only the 
 public, but that individual labourer, is injured, 
 by being deprived of that share of the product of 
 his labour which, if the labour had been properly 
 directed, would have flowed from it. Hence the 
 delusion is evident. It will, moreover, be after- 
 wards proved that he does not receive sufiicient 
 for his hire. 
 
 But it will be found that the principal cause 
 which draws oiF the labour from the cultivation 
 of the land, is the last mentioned, viz., compulsion. 
 
 By the unequal distribution of wealth in most 
 civilised states, the people are divided into the 
 two orders before mentioned, namely, the rich and 
 the poor. In the hands of the former are lodged 
 those things of every kind which compose what is 
 generally called wealth. In one class of the rich 
 all the lands are vested ; in another, the cattle and 
 the corn raised on them ; in a third, the raw mate- 
 
S6 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 rials, tools, macliinery, &c. ; in a fourth, the goods 
 now manufactured and stored for sale; and so on. 
 In those, or some other class of the rich, all those 
 things are collected, and by the laws firmly secured 
 to them, which the poor man stands in need of, 
 and are necessary to the support of his existence. 
 The persons in the possession of these things hold 
 them out to the poor labourer, saying, '^ If you 
 will labour for me in such and such a way, I will 
 give you out of those things such as you stand in 
 need of : but unless you will do those things 
 which I require of you, you shall have none of 
 them." Hence there is an absolute necessity, 
 under the penalty, the heaviest of all penalties, 
 namely, the deprivation of such things as are 
 necessary to his and his family's existence, for his 
 submitting to do the things thus imposed on him 
 to do. 
 
 And as the quantity of the necessaries of life, 
 that are or can be consumed by the rich, are 
 limited, and in the purchasing of which a small 
 part only of their wealth can be expended, the 
 surplus they are naturally inclined to lay out in 
 procuring the conveniences, the elegancies, and 
 luxuries of life. These are the produce of the 
 more refined manufactures of different kinds ; and 
 for these they are inclined to give a greater price, 
 considering their wealth would be of little use to 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 37 
 
 them if it only procured tlie common necessaries : 
 hence a much greater proportion of their incomes 
 is expended on those articles ; of course a greater 
 proportion of the labouring hands are forced to 
 apply their industry in the various fine manufac- 
 tures^ in which only they can get employ. By 
 these means, hands are drawn off powerfully from 
 agriculture and such coarse manufactures as pro- 
 duce the things that they themselves make use of. 
 
 From the foregoing statements, it seems, the 
 following conclusions may be drawn : — 
 
 / 1st. That the scarcity which lately and fre- 
 quently has prevailed, was real. 
 
 2nd. That the general cause of scarcity is, 
 that too small a number of hands is employed in 
 agriculture. 
 
 8rd. That the cause why so few are so em- 
 ployed is, that too many are thrown into the 
 manufactures. 
 
 4th. That the cause why so many are thus 
 forced into the manufactures is the wealth of the 
 rich. 
 
 As it appears that it is the wealth of certain 
 individuals that is the cause of the taking off the 
 labourers from agriculture, by which the scarcity 
 of the necessaries of life is occasioned, and of 
 driving them into the manufactures, of course, it 
 must be the cause, not only of the scarcity alleged. 
 
38 HALL ON CIVILISATION, 
 
 but also of all the hardships siiiFered by the manu- 
 facturers and the poor in general : it seems, there- 
 fore, to be the cause of the whole evil. This 
 being the case, the nature and effects of wealth 
 ought to be inquired into ; which we now proceed 
 to do.' 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 OF THE NATURE AND EFFECTS OF WEALTH. 
 
 Dr. Smith, in his elaborate work on the " Nature 
 and Cause of the Wealth of Nations," has 
 nowhere given any definition of it. 
 
 We have before said that wealth is usually 
 supposed to consist in the possession of such 
 things as mankind, by general consent, set a value 
 on, as land, cattle, gold, silver, precious stones, &c. 
 But it seems doubtful whether such things can be 
 considered as constituting the essence and nature 
 of wealth, since the possession of them may some- 
 times be so circumstanced that they may be of no 
 value to the possessor ; for instance, lands in some 
 uninhabited parts of America. Gold, silver, pre- 
 cious stones, and every other article of that kind, may 
 be, on many occasions, and in many places and cir- 
 cumstances, of no value or use to the owner ; and 
 they are to be considered as wealth only in such 
 
HALL ON CTVILISATION. S9 
 
 places where they will be taken in exchange for, 
 and command, such things as the possessor stands 
 in need of, or has an inclination for ; all which are 
 the produce of the labour of man. The posses- 
 sion, therefore, of those things which can obtain 
 and command the labour of man, is to be consi- 
 dered as wealth. Wealth, therefore, is the posses^\ 
 sion of that which gives power over, and com* \ 
 mands the labour of, man : it is, therefore, power ; I . 
 and into that, and that only, ultimately resolv-/ 
 able.* 
 
 It is no argument that wealth is not power, 
 because this power is not extended to the disposal 
 of the lives of the poor ; since that would be an 
 extension only of the same power, and differing 
 only in degree. 
 
 It will be allowed, that the collected number 
 of persons who possess the aggregate quantity of 
 all such things as compose wealth, have the com- 
 mand and direction of the labour of those who 
 are not possessed of any of them. It is true, that 
 no individual of the poor is obliged to work for 
 any one individual of the rich; but for one or 
 other of them he is obliged to work, under the 
 penalty of their withholding from him the things 
 
 * It is remarkable that an old poet should say — Avvdiiig 
 7ri(pvKe roXg (5poToXg to. x9^l^cLTa, 
 
40 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 without which he cannot live. He is not obliged 
 to work for A, B, C, or D, Sec, but for some one or 
 other of them he is under the unavoidable neces- 
 sity of working, and at that kind of work, too, 
 they please to require of him. And this power of 
 the rich is as strong and effective as that of the 
 most absolute monarch that ever TSveil^ as Jar 
 as relates to the labour of tlie poor ; indeed, pro- 
 bably more so, since it is doubtful whether any 
 power .ever existed, in any kind of government 
 whatever, that could impose on the people what is 
 imposed on them by the power of wealth. To 
 condemn so many to the mines ; to confine such 
 numbers to such nauseous, irksome, unwholesome, 
 destructive employments — ^is more than equal to 
 any kingly power on earth. To enforce the exe- 
 cution of such punishments would require an 
 army almost equal in number to the people so 
 punished. The punishments of tyrants are gene- 
 rally confined to those that are near them ; but 
 the power of wealth pervades the whole country, 
 and subjects every poor man to its dominion. 
 
 If we further consider the nature of the power 
 that wealth gives the rich, in most civilised coun- 
 tries, over the poor, in our times, we shall find it 
 very similar to, and that it arises from, the same 
 source with that which anciently the great allodial 
 lords, and the feudal barons of almost all Europe, 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 41 
 
 exercised over their vassals. This will appear 
 from the following passage, extracted from Dr. 
 Adam Smith : 
 
 "^ The wealth of the great lords and barons (of 
 almost all Europe) consisted almost wholly in lands 
 and the stock on them ; and at this time, there 
 being no commerce, or any of the finer manufac- 
 tures, the great proprietor, having nothing for 
 which he could exchange the greater part of the 
 produce of his lands, which is over and above the 
 maintenance of the cultivators, consumes the whole 
 in rustic hospitality at home. If this surplus pro- 
 duces sufficient to maintain a hundred or a thou- 
 sand men, he can make no other use of it than to 
 maintain a hundred or a thousand men. He is at 
 all times, therefore, surrounded with a multitude 
 of retainers and dependents, who, having no equi- 
 valent to give in return for their maintenance, but 
 being fed entirely by his bounty, must obey him. 
 
 ^^ The occupiers of land were in every respect 
 as dependent on the great proprietor as his re- 
 tainers. Even such as were not in the state of 
 villainage were tenants -at-will, and depended on 
 his good pleasure." 
 
 These great proprietors of land, having in their 
 
 possession aU the necessaries of life, forced from 
 
 the people submission and obedience. Hence, it 
 
 is evident that it was wealth, both in ancient and 
 
 E 2 
 
42 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 modem times, that was the origin, foundation, and 
 essence of power ; or, in other words, constituted 
 power itself. 
 
 In the times prior to the introduction of manu- 
 factures and commerce, few men being employed 
 in them, of course more were left to cultivate the 
 land, and, consequently, we may suppose the pro- 
 duce was more proportionate to the number of the 
 people ; besides that considerable numbers of 
 them shared the hospitality of the lords, abbeys, 
 &c. Hence, the poor of those times, besides 
 being exempted from the pernicious employments 
 of the manufactures, enjoyed a much greater plenty 
 of the necessaries of life than in the present times. 
 Adam Smith thinks Mr. Hume has great merit in 
 having been the first that observed that manufac- 
 tures had abolished the servile dependence of the 
 people on the great feudal barons ; but Dr. Smith 
 was not aware of this new species of dependence 
 of the lower orders on the rich, which is established 
 in its stead, in most civilised states. 
 
 Wealth, or, rather, the unequal distribution of 
 it, having been shown to be attended with such 
 efiects, it is necessary to inquire shortly into its 
 origin, as well as into the justice and expediency 
 of it. 
 
 Montesquieu considers the system of property, 
 of most of the nations of Europe, as originating in 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 43 
 
 the woods and pastures of Germany. Whilst 
 these tribes of herdsmen and shepherds remained 
 in their own country, certain lands were annexed 
 to each tribe, proportionable to it, and held in 
 common by the whole tribe, and not possessed by 
 individuals in severalty. Afterwards, when they 
 invaded the neighbouring nations, as Italy, France, 
 Britain, in order to insure their conquests, and 
 keep the conquered in subjection, it was thought 
 necessary to make a division of the lands they had 
 now got possession of. In what manner and on 
 what principles this was done. Dr. Robertson 
 thinks cannot now be determined with any cer- 
 tainty. There is no nation of Europe, he asserts, 
 whose records reach back to this remote period, 
 and that there is little information to be got from 
 the uninstructive and meagre chronicles compiled 
 by writers ignorant of the true end, and unac- 
 quainted with the proper objects of history. But 
 Dr. Gilbert Stewart, in his " View of Society in 
 Europe," appears to have taken more pains in 
 making inquiries into these remote transactions.* 
 The king or leader of the horde, according to him, 
 upon their obtaining possession of any one of the 
 Roman provinces (which aU Europe consisted of 
 at that time), as being of the highest dignity, had 
 
 * We must refer to the authorities produced by him. 
 
44 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 the most considerable portion, which constituted 
 his domain. Every warrior, in proportion to his 
 rank, had his lot or share, which gave rise to 
 allodiality. That part of the territory which was 
 not parted out to individuals, was considered, 
 agreeably to their ancient ideas, as belonging to 
 the community, and was called the lands of the 
 fisch. 
 
 The sovereign took the subsequent division of 
 these, annexing to all of them the burden of pre- 
 senting themselves in arms at his call. Hence, 
 possession flowed to the chiefs, under the burden 
 of presenting themselves in arms at the call of the 
 sovereign. The chiefs dealt out lands to their 
 retainers, under the like injunction, of continuing 
 to them their aid.* 
 
 In this manner, the whole land was parcelled 
 out among the first invaders, and'' those who soon 
 after followed them, together with the stock on 
 it ; for it is not to be supposed that those people 
 who seized the land would abstain from taking the 
 stock on it. As the land, and the stock on it, 
 composed at this time almost the whole of property 
 or wealth, the bulk of the people were, by the 
 
 * This distribution of the land was intended as a military 
 arrangement, in order to keep the people in subjection, 
 which effect it equally has at present. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 45 
 
 above division, bereft of all property. The num- 
 ber of the invaders cannot be ascertained, but, 
 whatever it might be, it would bear a small pro- 
 portion to the natives; hence a state of unequal 
 property, in as great a degree as at present, 
 was at once established, and is the basis of the 
 present system of property in most of the states 
 of Europe. The change, made afterwards by 
 certain conquerors, respected only some indivi- 
 duals of their followers, providing for some of 
 them out of the lands that were not distributed, or 
 taking them from the former great proprietors and 
 bestowing them on certain persons who contributed 
 to their conquests. 
 
 Whether any political measure that was unjust 
 at the time of its institution, can become just by 
 time, is a question that ought to be solved. It 
 seems to me, that time can have no effect in 
 changing the nature of it, with respect to its jus- 
 tice or injustice ; except it has an effect in altering 
 the evil that first attended it ; that is to say, except 
 time removes the hardships and sufferings which 
 the measure brought on the people at its first 
 institution, it can have no effect in removing the 
 charge of injustice imputable to it. If these re- 
 main, the same injustice attends the continuance 
 of it that attended the first institution of it. 
 
 In such places where an invasion, as that of 
 
 k 
 
46 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 the Germans on the Roman provinces^ did not 
 happen, the appropriation of portions of land to 
 individuals took place probably before any histo- 
 rians arose to record it. In what manner, and on 
 what principles this was done. Dr. Eobertson, as 
 we have before seen, thinks cannot now be deter- 
 mined with any certainty. From the earliest 
 accounts that are authentic, we find the land, in 
 large tracts, in the hands of great allodial lords, 
 and other great proprietors, throughout great part 
 of Europe. As this happened long before there 
 was any commerce, or any other means by which 
 large estates are sometimes acquired in our times, 
 they must, most probably, have had their rise in a 
 manner somewhat like the following. Long after 
 men were first placed in the world, the land, no 
 doubt, was common to all, as it is at this day to 
 the inhabitants of many parts of the world. North 
 America, Tartary, &c., where the people, notwith- 
 standing, are very far from being barbarous or 
 savage. In this situation of things, some daring 
 spirits arose, and seized certain parts to themselves, 
 and their conduct was imitated by others. This, 
 probably, must be the original foundation of ex- 
 clusive property in land ; for what other can pos- 
 sibly be supposed ? The land being in the first 
 instance common, no person could have any 
 exclusive right to any part of it, except we can 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 47 
 
 suppose that there were certain persons who had, 
 by some public service, obtained a grant of it 
 from the public. Nothing of this kind could pro- 
 bably have happened in those early times, at least 
 to many ; or, if it had to some few, could such 
 grant be valid any longer than for the lives of the 
 grantors ? for they could have no natural right to 
 grant it away from the next generation; every 
 succeeding generation having an equal right to 
 the use of the land with the preceding. No per- 
 son, therefore, could originally have an exclusive 
 right to any portion of land, except, perhaps, to such 
 a quantity of it as was sufficient to furnish himself 
 and family with the necessaries of life ; for to that 
 quotum of the produce he had a right in its com- 
 mon state. This argument is so evident as to re- 
 quire no proof, except to people who, having im- 
 bibed the idea of exclusive property in land in their 
 infancy, have suifered it to remain in their minds 
 unexamined the rest of their lives ; or to such other 
 people whose interest blinds them so as not to see 
 the clearest truths. Arguments, therefore, to 
 convince the understanding, are probably useless : 
 if any can have effect, it must be such as tend to 
 induce people to prefer justice to their interest.* 
 
 * If the principle of exclusive and perpetual property in 
 land be just, the person that possesses it, having an absolute 
 dominion over it, may direct it to lie barren ; and if one 
 
48 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 I sliall^ however, say somewhat further on the 
 subject. 
 
 But whether the assumption of lands and other 
 property, as it is called, naturally belonging to 
 the whole people, into the hands of a few, can be 
 supported on the principles of justice and reason, 
 or not, it may, it has been said, on those of expe- 
 diency or utility. Thus it has been alleged, that 
 if property were not to be acquired, and held out 
 as a reward of labour and industry, mankind would 
 be indolent and inactive, having no stimulus to 
 exertion. 
 
 In my apprehension, this is directly contrary 
 to what really happens. Things of every kind 
 being already appropriated and in the possession 
 of certain persons, and firmly secured to them by 
 the laws ; the prizes, which might be held out to 
 be gained by the many, are taken, as it were, out 
 of the wheel ; and the chance of a man, without 
 education or connexion (which is the condition of 
 the great mass of mankind), of bettering his for- 
 tune by any efiforts of his own, is a thousand to 
 one against him, so as utterly to act as a discou- 
 ragement to all attempts of that kind. Whereas, 
 
 possessor has a right to do so, all have ; and thus they have 
 a right to destroy the rest of mankind. But this conse- 
 quence being" absurd, the premises must be false. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 49 
 
 had every man his portion of land, his wants and 
 his necessities would naturally induce him dili- 
 gently to cultivate that which he sees would 
 infallibly supply them * 
 
 But if property or wealth is power, if it 
 appears to be, in most civilised states, a power 
 acting over the great mass of the people, to their 
 disadvantage ; it will not be easy to show on what 
 principle, either of justice or expediency, it can 
 be defended. 
 
 It seems that means ought to be used to pre- 
 vent any power, of what nature soever it be, from 
 growing up in the hands of one set of subjects to 
 oppress all the rest; and that the joining liberty 
 and property together, as is so frequently done. 
 
 * " Property is founded on the good of society ; if we 
 abstract from that, it is entirely without foundation." — 
 Hume's Essays, vol. ii., note T, page 253. 
 
 Does the husbandman, who works for his shilling- a-day, 
 without having any interest in the produce of his work, and 
 knowing- that eight-tenths of it will go to other people — does 
 he, I say, work so cheerfully and industriously as he would 
 do if he worked on his own land, and would be entitled to 
 the whole produce— the corn, the wine, and the oil— that 
 come from it ? In the present system, the people of landed 
 property being few in number, few only receive encourage- 
 ment to industry on it, from the possession of it. The 
 people of no property being the many, the many receive 
 discouragement from being deprived of it. 
 F 
 
50 HALL ON CITILISATION, 
 
 is to join two things together which are op- 
 posite in their natures, and destructive of each 
 . other, 
 
 ^^ If you should see/' says Dr. Paley, " a flock 
 of pigeons in a field of corn ; and if (instead of each 
 pecking where and what it liked, taking just as 
 much as it wanted and no more) you should see 
 ninety-nine out of a hundred gathering all they got 
 into an heap, reserving nothing for themselves but 
 the chaff and refuse ; keeping this heap for one, and 
 that the weakest, perhaps, and worst pigeon of 
 the flock ; setting round and looking on all the 
 winter, wdiilst this one was devouring, throwing 
 about, and wasting it; and if a pigeon, more 
 hardy and hungry than the rest, touched a grain 
 of the hoard, all the others instantly flying upon 
 it and tearing it to pieces, — ^if you should see this, 
 you would see nothing more than what is every 
 day practised and established among men. Among 
 men, you see the ninety and nine toiling and 
 scraping together an heap of superfluities for one ; 
 getting nothing for themselves, all the v/hile, but 
 a little of the coarsest of the provision which their 
 own labour produces ; and this one, too, often- 
 times the feeblest and worst of the w^hole set — a 
 child, a madman, or a fool ; looking quietly on, 
 w^hile they see the fruits of their labour spent or 
 spoiled ; and if any one of them take or touch a 
 
HALL 0]^ CIVILISATION. 51 
 
 particle of it^ the others join against him, and hang 
 him for the theft. 
 
 '^ There must be some very important advan- 
 tages, to account for an institution which, in the 
 view of it above given, is so paradoxical and 
 unnatural. 
 
 ^^ Inequality of property, in the degree it exists 
 in most countries of Europe, abstractedly consi- 
 dered, is an evil ; but it is an evil which flows 
 from the rules concerning the acquisition and dis- 
 posal of property, by which men are excited to 
 industry, and by which the object of their industry 
 is rendered secure and valuable." — Vid, Arch, 
 Paley's Philos, of Morals. 
 
 Dr. Paley here acknowledges the inequality of 
 property to be an evil, but justifies it — 
 
 First. By supposing it to flow from the rules 
 for the acquisition of, &c. 
 
 Secondly. By supposing it to encourage in- 
 dustry. 
 
 As to the first supposition, that inequality of 
 property did flow from any rules or laws of 
 society, or from the necessary or spontaneous 
 operations of society, we have seen to be contrary 
 to historical facts ; it being efiected, as appears 
 from them, by arbitrarily and violently dispossess- 
 ing the original possessors of the land, and distri- 
 buting it amongst a small, comparatively, number 
 
52 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 of others, in much larger quantities than it is at 
 present ; and that the consequences of society, or 
 civilisation, have been directly of the contrary 
 kind — namely, to lessen much that inequality. 
 
 As to the second supposition, viz., that it pro- 
 motes industry, we have endeavoured to show 
 that it has a contrary effect, and greatly dis- 
 courages it, by rendering the attainment of pro- 
 perty so difficult to the bulk of mankind, as to be 
 nearly impossible, and therefore hopeless. 
 
 Dr. Paley adds, ^^ that if there be any great 
 inequality unconnected with this origin, it ought 
 to be corrected." From which passage we may 
 infer — that, as it implies a doubt whether there be 
 any great inequality, not occasioned by the rules, 
 &c., or not, it ought to be made a subject of 
 inquiry ; and further, that Dr. Paley's opinion 
 differs not substantially from Mr. Hume's, viz., 
 that it depends on its utility. 
 
 But if we admit both the suppositions above 
 mentioned, we still think that inequality of pro- 
 perty is injurious to mankind ; the effect of it 
 being to bring poverty and misery on the many ; 
 whilst it only gives riches to the few, and does not 
 render them happy. 
 
 It may be said that wealth might be justly 
 acquired by industry and economy. 
 
 If wealth is power ; if men are born equal 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 53 
 
 .tiid independent of each, other ; ' and that 
 equality* and independence are inalienable ; if 
 wealtli is a power destroying that equality and 
 independence ; if it reduces the bulk of mankind 
 under the subjection of the iew ; all those authors 
 who have defended the inequality of property^ 
 not having considered wealth in that light, will by 
 many be considered as having said nothing on the 
 subject. ^Vliat they have said is of something 
 else, not of wealth, of w^hich they had formed 
 no just idea. They had no idea tbat the chief 
 acting and effective power in most civilised states 
 was that of wealth; and that most other powers 
 sprung from and were supported by it. Neither 
 had they conceived any notion of the effects of it ; 
 all arguments, therefore, which they have drawn 
 in its favour, from the utility and expediency of it, 
 even if these were real, are of little weight. 
 
 Property, as it is established in most civilised 
 states, may be considered in a light in which it 
 has been seldom seen. The possession of land, 
 cattle, corn, and other things which the land pro- 
 duces, at the same time that it confers a benefit 
 and an advantage on the possessor, occasions a 
 prejudice and a disadvantage to the non-possessor ; 
 
 * This is true, if by this word an equality of rights only 
 be understood. 
 
 F 2 
 
54 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 it is acquisition in the one, it is deprivation in the 
 other. Further, it gives an influence and a power 
 to the person possessing, over the person not 
 possessing. It subjects the non-possessor to an 
 influence and power to be exercised over him by 
 the possessor, and the consequences of it are 
 highly injurious to him. Wealth is an advantage 
 to the possessor only as it is a disadvantage to the 
 non-possessor ; and exactly in the same proportion. 
 If it gave no claim on, no power over, brought no 
 disadvantage to the non-possessor, it would give 
 no claim to, no power to, no advantage to, the 
 possessor. What the possessor has, the non- 
 possessor is deprived of. 
 
 The situation of the rich and the poor, like the 
 algebraic terms plus and minus, are in direct 
 opposition to, and destructive of each other. The 
 original acquisition or assumption of land, therefore, 
 to be just, required merit in the person on whom 
 it was bestowed, or by whom it was assumed, 
 equal to the value of it; and a demerit in the 
 person, or the public, from whom it was taken, by 
 which they had forfeited their right to it. To 
 prove the two cases, the one positive, the other 
 negative, is incumbent on those that pretend to 
 support the justice of the original foundation of 
 the exclusive property in land. But how can this 
 be done ? What action or service could the 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 55 
 
 original great proprietor of land do the people^ by 
 "whicli he could deserve a large proportion of the 
 land of the nation, and a great' part of the labour 
 of the people, appending to it? On the other 
 hand/ what crimes could the whole of the people 
 commit, that they should have forfeited their right 
 to it ? or if they could, how could their prosperity 
 be affected by it ? 
 
 Whatever things a man makes with his own 
 hands, out of such materials as his proportionate- 
 share of land yields, must be allowed to be his 
 own ; and these may be accumulated, if they are 
 not consumed by the maker of them ; or they may 
 be exchanged for other things, made by and 
 belonging to other people, of an equal value; 
 to be strictly estimated by the quantity of the 
 labour employed in making the things exchanged- 
 These things, so made or obtained by fair 
 exchange, and accumulated, may be given to 
 children or others. 
 
 The goods, chattels, or personal effects, as they 
 are called, acquired in this manner, cannot easily 
 be heaped up to any great degree. The person 
 that succeeds to the chattels, made and saved by 
 the first person, can only add to them what his 
 own hand makes, and, not being consumed by 
 himself, accumulates. And, as this industrious 
 turn never happens to be the disposition of several 
 
56 HALL ON CIVILISATIOlSr. 
 
 succeeding generations, the accumulation can 
 never be considerable. 
 
 But if we should even suppose that the chat- 
 tels made in several generations were accumulated 
 in the hands of certain persons, they would be 
 attended with no great inconvenience. The goods 
 would remain a harmless heap, giving no power 
 to the possessor, by which only wealth is hurtful : 
 because, if every person had an allotment of land, 
 the labour of the people would remain free and 
 under their own direction, and the necessaries of 
 life would be attainable by every one; and, of 
 course, none of the evil of the present state of pro- 
 perty, which exists in most civilised nations, would 
 be experienced. 
 
 Fortunes may be acquired in a kind of inter- 
 mediate way, that is, by a method between that 
 by which wealth is raised, by assuming land in- 
 the manner as before represented; and that by 
 which a fortune is made, by accumulating only 
 such things as are the work of a man's own hand. 
 This third or intermediate method is by trade. 
 
 Trade or traffic consists in buying and selling 
 articles already produced by the poor, and gaining 
 a profit on them. These articles are all the pro- 
 duct of the hands of the labourers, manufacturers, 
 Scc.y from whom they are obtained for less than 
 their full value: a profit otherwise could not be 
 
HALL Ol^r CIVILISATION. 57 
 
 made on them. The tradesman, therefore, shares 
 or takes part of the fruits of the labour of the poor. 
 The justice of this mode of acquiring wealth is by 
 no means so clear as of the latter of the two above 
 mentioned. 
 
 The means enabling tradesmen to share a part 
 of the product of the labour of the poor, is their 
 capital, which puts it in their power to furnish 
 materials to the artificers to work on, and to pro- 
 vide them with immediate subsistence; and on 
 that account is supposed to give the tradesmen a 
 j ust claim to a part of the productions of the work- 
 men's hands. It becomes necessary, therefore, to 
 inquire into the nature of this capital. 
 
 The capitals of tradesmen consist of stores of 
 such article as they get up by means of the labour 
 of artificers that work under them. They may 
 have other v/ealth, but that is not the subject of 
 the present disquisition. From those stores of 
 goods they can supply the people that are in want 
 of them. A very great proportion of such people 
 are the owners of land, and the occupiers of it ; 
 those, to wit, that have in their possession the 
 necessaries of life : the tradesmen or manufac- 
 turers, therefore, having such things as the pos- 
 sessors of the necessaries of life stand in need of, 
 or have a desire for, and are supplied with, have 
 a claim on these necessaries of life, and may be 
 
58 HALL ON civilisatio:n^. 
 
 considered as possessed of a certain share of tlie 
 land^ and the produce of it. They have a claim on it 
 resembling that of a mortgagee, who has a property 
 in land equal to the interest of the sum he ad- 
 vances on it ; that is, he has a claim on a part of 
 the productions of it to that annual amount. Now, 
 therefore, this capitalist, this manufacturer, is in 
 reality a possessor of land, and, like him, has in 
 his power and disposal a certain quantity of the 
 necessaries of life, and can grant or withhold these 
 in the same manner as his joint proprietors, as 
 they may be called, may do.* The manufacturer, 
 therefore, forces his workmen to work for him, and 
 to give him a share of what the work produces, in 
 the same manner as we have shown the other 
 proprietors of land or possessors of the necessaries 
 of life do ; for, the poor are under a necessity of 
 working for him on the terms held out, or go 
 without the things on which they subsist. They 
 have no alternative but to work for him, or for 
 another from whom they can have no other terms. 
 
 * Or the manufacturer and tradesman may be considered, 
 in the view of the land proprietor, only as agents, or loG2i7n 
 tcnenteSj to whom they delegate a part of their authority ; 
 that is, they make over to them, as it were, a part of the 
 necessaries of life, which their estates produce ; the disposal 
 of which gives them the command over the labour of the 
 poor. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 59 
 
 There is no voluntary compact equally advan- 
 tageous on both sides, but an absolute compulsion 
 on the part of masters, and an absolute necessity 
 on the part of the workmen to accept of it ; and 
 which, therefore, might be considered just as the 
 taking so much from the workman by the master : 
 and, of course, fortunes amassed in this manner 
 cannot be just. 
 
 It is easily seen that the acquisition of fortunes 
 by tradesmen is in reality nothing but a participa- 
 tion of landed property, which is the basis, the 
 source, and substance of all wealth, and into it all 
 must be resolved. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 THAT WEALTH IS THE CAUSE OF ALMOST ALL 
 POWER, IN MOST CIVILISED STATES. 
 
 In a preceding chapter, we have endeavoured to 
 show that wealth is power over the labour of the 
 poor. But it seems that wealth is not only a 
 certain definite species of power in the rich over 
 the labour of the poor ; but that it is a great means 
 of procuring for, and securing to the possessors of 
 it, the power of almost every kind which exists in 
 
60 HALL ON CIVILISATION, 
 
 the generality of civilised states. The wealthy 
 part of these states have in their hands all power ; " 
 ' the legislative, the executive, and judiciary, in all 
 their branches, viz., ecclesiastical, magisterial, 
 martial, &c. The poor man having a vote in 
 certain cases, gives no introduction to any of 
 these ; the Vote of a poor man being almost always 
 directed by some kind of influence or other of the 
 rich, j And if that was not the case, the represen- 
 tatives or delegates chosen are generally of the 
 order opposite to that of the poor. The rich, 
 therefore, of such states form a a aristocracy, in 
 which the effective power is lodged : for, although 
 the forms of government established in different 
 nations may be various, they are generally so in 
 appearance only, not in effect. These forms of 
 government are either monarchical or republican. 
 As to the first of them, ^. e. absolute monarchy : 
 in no single man, at least in no hereditary suc- 
 cession of single men, could the authority be sup- 
 ported by any means, personal or inherent, in 
 himself. He is supported by those who have 
 power, whom we have shown to be the rich, and 
 who have an especial interest to support him in 
 his situation ; for all those, by supporting his 
 authority, expect in return that the same authority 
 shall be employed to preserve to them those tilings 
 from which they derive the power to support him. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 61 
 
 It is not the person that holds such authority and 
 employs the power^ but the persons that gave and 
 uphold the power in him^ that are the real rulers 
 of the land : these are the wealthy, i. e, ' the aris- 
 tocracy, in almost every civilised country. 
 
 In the republican government this is more 
 obvious ; since, in these times, it is wealth uni- 
 versally that puts power into the hands of those 
 that have it. 
 
 I have often imagined that thq first state of 
 things might be aptly represented by a cylinder of 
 - a great length, but whose thickness or base was 
 too small for it, when placed perpendicularly, to 
 continue in that position. Around this towering 
 royal cylinder, other cylinders, about two-thirds 
 of its height, are placed ; these may represent the 
 late princes of the blood in France : to these 
 another row is put, somewhat shorter, composed,' 
 as we may say, of dukes, archbishops, &c. : next 
 follows a circle of cylinders, which we call counts, 
 barons, bishops : after this another, of knights, 
 and other men of great landed estates : then a 
 row of cylinders representing merchants, master 
 manufacturers, wholesale dealers : lastly, one of 
 lesser landholders, &c. &c. ; each succeeding row 
 lessening in height. The individuals of each row 
 standing close to each other, and every inferior 
 one closely encircling the next above it, the whole 
 
62 HALL OK CIVILISATION^. 
 
 body becomes compact^ and^ having now acquired 
 a broad basis, it stands, firm and immovable^ 
 against the utmost efforts of all the rest of the 
 people, how superior soever they may be in num- 
 bers. This conical figure would equally resemble a 
 republic, if the first cylinder was a little shortened. 
 
 SECTION XL 
 
 ON MANUFACTURES, TRADE, AND COMMERCE. 
 
 The rich having obtained the means of command- 
 ing the labour of the people, as it seems, had, in 
 the next place, to direct it so as to enable themselves 
 to enjoy as much of the fruits of it as was possible. 
 We have seen that, under the first great proprietors, 
 in most civilised countries, almost the whole of the 
 people were employed in agriculture, a few only 
 in the coarser trades excepted; of the produce of 
 these, the great lords themselves could use but a 
 small part. What was over and above the 
 maintenance of the cultivators, was given to 
 retainers and followers. Instead, therefore, of 
 continuing to dispose of the produce of the land in 
 that manner, they induced ingenious men to 
 employ their time in the production of works of 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 68 
 
 art, of various kinds, in greater number, variety, 
 and neatness of execution, than heretofore; and 
 rewarded these artisans liberally with what they 
 had been accustomed to give their retainers, and 
 probably with some part of that which they before 
 allowed those, who worked on the land, to keep 
 for their own use. 
 
 In this manner, manufactures were introduced ; 
 and, by their means, the rich man can now find 
 something for which he can exchange the whole 
 surplus produce of his estates ; and thus enjoy and 
 consume himself the whole value of them, sharing 
 little or nothing of them with other people. 
 
 The manufactures soon became the employment 
 -of a great proportion of the people, and made a 
 very great alteration in the situation of them ; and 
 as this forms a very striking feature in the face of 
 civilised countries, and is of great consequence, we 
 think it deserves particular notice and discussion. 
 
 In the different ages of the world, statesmen 
 have had different notions with regard to what was 
 most for the interest and advantage of the people. 
 The Romans thought they could not by any means 
 so effectually promote the welfare of the republic 
 as by conquest. In more modern times the 
 planting of colonies has been adopted with the 
 same view. At present, trade, manufactures, and 
 commerce, are the great and enviable objects of 
 
64 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 European and rival states. The two former 
 methods, having been found not to answer the 
 expectations entertained of them, have been in a 
 great measure given up. Whether the latter is 
 productive of more really good effects, is now to 
 be examined. 
 
 Manufacturei-s are the different articles worked 
 up of the raw Materials the land produces, as 
 wool, cotton, metals, glass, hides, and are the 
 subjects, or articles as they are called, of trade 
 and commerce ; of which the former is carried on 
 within the dominions of a state, the latter with 
 some other nation or people. 
 
 Trade and commerce consist in the exchange 
 of one commodity for another, either by the inter- 
 vention of money, or immediately by barter. In 
 both cases it is really the interchanging one 
 commodity for another. For, though a people 
 dispose of their goods at home or abroad, without 
 receiving anything but money, the same money is 
 again laid out in some article which they find is 
 wanted; they therefore do receive, though not 
 immediately, other articles in exchange for their 
 articles. It is, therefore, in effect, barter. 
 
 Now, as trade consists in the exchange of one 
 article for another, the advantage or disadvantage 
 of it must depend on this simple circumstance, 
 namely, whether the thing received is more useful 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 65 
 
 and beneficial to the receiver^ than the article 
 parted with. This is the criterion of a good 
 bargain in private concerns, and must be the same 
 in all other kinds of dealings. Hence, any trade, 
 whether foreign or domestic, however boasted of, 
 is injurious to the parties or nations concerned, if 
 the things received are not really more useful than 
 the things disposed of. 
 
 To examine and try every article that is re- 
 ceived and disposed of in large trading nations, 
 by this touchstone, would occasion much trouble. 
 We must be contented, therefore, to bring to the 
 trial some few of the prime ones. 
 
 Those articles are to be considered as prime 
 which are first in degree of necessity, such as corn, 
 flesh-meat, coarse clothing and bedding, warm and 
 dry houses, &c. These are of indispensable and 
 general use. 
 
 When the advantages or disadvantages of trade 
 
 have been treated of, it has been usual for most 
 
 states to consider any branch of it as advantageous 
 
 or not, according as the balance is in their favour 
 
 or against them : if it is in their favour, without 
 
 any further inquiry it is pronounced to be beneficial. 
 
 With regard to the money received for the balance, 
 
 I would ask of what use it is, if not to enable them 
 
 to purchase some other article of which they stand 
 
 in need, or are desirous of; and to what other 
 G 2 
 
^^ HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 use do they put it? It would, therefore, have 
 been precisely the same thing if they had received 
 a greater number of articles, provided they had 
 suited their purpose, so as to have made the ac- 
 counts even in the first instance. But this is a 
 matter not much connected with my subject. 
 
 All articles that are exported may be looked 
 upon as of prime use ; for, whatever these articles 
 might be, however refined and unnecessary, yet 
 the labour that produced them, if otherwise di- 
 rected, would produce those articles that are of 
 prime use and necessity. Hence, whatever ma- 
 nufactures any states export, however superfiuous 
 to them, they are to be considered in an opposite 
 light. We have, therefore, no occasion to examine 
 the nature of the things which are exported. 
 
 But, with respect to the articles imported, the 
 case is otherwise : they must be all examined by 
 the rule laid down, though it is, in this place, only 
 possible to examine a very small number of them. 
 
 The chief parts of the world, from whence are 
 procured the great importations to Europe, are the 
 East and West Indies, Spanish America, Turkey, 
 &c. Sec. From these places are drawn tea, silks, 
 muslins, china, gold, rum, sugar, &c. &c. The 
 other articles imported from all these and other 
 places are, in general, like those specified, such as 
 administer to refinement in dress, equipage, furni- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 67 
 
 ture, buildings, the table, &c. Indeed, from those 
 distant places, it would not answer the merchant's 
 views to bring the gross and bulky articles, 
 such as are those of prime necessity* Of these 
 imported goods, therefore, very few indeed come 
 down to the use of the poor. Hence, therefore, 
 it is evident, without any further enumeration, that 
 the effect of trade and commerce, with respect to 
 most civilised states, is to send out of their coun- 
 tries what the poor — that is, the great mass of 
 mankind — have occasion for, and to bring back, in 
 return, what is consumed almost wholly by a small 
 part of those nations, viz., the rich. Hence, it ap- 
 pears that the greater part of manufactures, trade, 
 and commerce, is highly injurious to the poor, as 
 being the chief means of depriving them of the 
 necessaries of life, and is the principal cause of all 
 their calamities. 
 
 This is far different from the common notion of 
 the effects of trade. People, somehow or other, 
 imagine that trade has some unknown* beneficial 
 effects — that giving employment, and furnishing 
 the necessaries of life, are the same thing ; but 
 
 * The articles of commerce, being* chiefly the refined 
 manufactures, require much greater labour than is employed 
 in producing the necessaries of life ; hence, large quantities 
 of the latter are sent away to procure a small quantity of 
 the former. 
 
68 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 this cannot be the case, except the labour, as has 
 been said before, is actually directed to produce 
 them, which can only be done by agriculture, and 
 the coarser manufactures ; or when such things 
 as their labour does produce, are exchanged for 
 the necessaries. To conceive that trade can 
 operate in any other way, is somewhat like reviving 
 the old exploded notions of occult qualities. 
 
 The refined manufactures are all produced by 
 long-continued labour — the labour increasing ac- 
 cording to the fineness of the article. A point-lace 
 veil, worn by the ladies, is, perhaps, the work of 
 many years of the lace-maker : in the same man- 
 ner, all the exquisitely-finished articles of dress, 
 equipage, the table, furniture, &c., are the pro- 
 ductions of long time and tedious application.* 
 The rich, by the use of these, consume, in a short 
 time, the work of many people, continued for many 
 days, months, and years ; and this is the principal 
 effect of refined manufactures — the enabling of 
 the rich t% consume the produce of great labour in 
 a short time ; or, in other words, to commit greater 
 waste than it would otherwise be in their power 
 to do. We have heard of great men's cooks 
 
 * Another instance of this may be found in the ex- 
 pensive Indian shawls, to produce one of which has been 
 said to occupy the lifetime of the labourer. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 69 
 
 boiling down several hams, several legs of beef, 
 many joints of veal, fowls, &c., to make a pint or 
 two of soup ; which, after all, makes but a small 
 part of the dinner of their masters. The art of the 
 fine manufacturer and that of the cook have pre- 
 cisely the same effect, viz., the bringing together 
 and reducing the bulky matters to their quintes- 
 sences, as it were ; by which means the great man 
 can consume and destroy, in a very short time, the 
 works of months and of years. 
 
 And this eifect of enabling the masters of man- 
 kind to do more mischief than they otherwise 
 could do, constitutes the great utility of the fine 
 arts, as they are called.* 
 
 Hae tibi sunt artes. — Yirg. 
 
 Manufactures, besides occasioning that great 
 waste of the labour of the poor, which we have 
 ascribed to them, have a still further bad effect, 
 namely, that they furnish the most certain, if not 
 the only means of oppressing and enslaving a 
 people. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, 
 for any species of government, whether a monarchy 
 or an aristocracy, to oppress them greatly and 
 
 * By this it must not be understood that the author 
 objects to the existence of the fine arts, but merely to the 
 misapphcation of them. — Ed. 
 
70 HALL ON CIVILISATIOK. 
 
 generally^ by any otlier method than by the intro- 
 duction of manufactures. 
 
 There are but two ways of oppressing a people — 
 the one by taking away their property from them ; 
 the other by personal injuries. The former of 
 these may be effected in two manners ; either 
 by taking from them the necessaries and conveni- 
 ences of life when produced by their labours ; or 
 by preventing them from employing their time 
 and labour, in producing the necessaries and con- 
 veniences for themselves, and forcing them to 
 labour in the production of such articles as they 
 themselves do not enjoy, but which are made use 
 of by the rich. It is by the refined manufactures 
 that this is done. The common necessaries and 
 coarser kinds of manufactures, that could possibly 
 be used by the rich, would require but little 
 labour of the poor. The rich, if there were no 
 refined manufactures, would have but little in- 
 ducement to call oS any great proportion of the 
 labour of the poor from its being applied to 
 the production of such things as they stood 
 in need of; and to do it without an inducement, 
 through a mere arbitrary spirit, would be, 
 probably, done but by few. It is, therefore, the 
 produce of the refined manufactures, that tempts 
 mankind to oppress ; and is almost the only source 
 from whence oppression comes. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATI01S-. 71 
 
 It was in this view the Czar Peter considered 
 manufactures^ and for that reason so earnestly 
 endeavoured to introduce them into his own 
 country. If he had nothing to sell^ he had 
 nothing to buy the fine things with, that he saw 
 in the European states he visited. He could' not 
 send out^ from his wide continent, any great 
 quantities of the natural productions of the land, 
 or of the common necessaries of life ; and conse- 
 quently could not much distress his people. 
 
 With respect to corporal punishments. — In the 
 most tyrannical governments of any kind, cruel 
 personal treatment seldom descends down to the 
 mass of the people ; the objects of it are chiefly 
 among those who surround the tyrant, or are 
 placed near the seat of such government ; and it is 
 they only that feel the efiects of wanton cruelties, 
 such as are inflicted with no other inducement, 
 than the pleasure taken in inflicting them. 
 
 If there were no manufactures in India, it 
 would be impossible for the European nations to 
 injure the natives to any great degree. They 
 would only take from them a few of their natural 
 productions, such as cinnamon, pepper, tea, &c. 
 But by means of their manufactures, they can take 
 from them, in large quantities, the necessaries of 
 life, which the labour that produce these manufac- 
 tures would raise. The natives of India have 
 
72 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 been deprived of millions^ and thousands of 
 millions of bushels of rice, and other necessaries of 
 life, none of which Europeans have received : 
 Europeans have been deprived of millions, and 
 thousands of millions of bushels of wheat, and 
 other necessaries of life, of which the Indians have 
 not received one grain. What Europeans have 
 had from them, or rather what some few of the 
 inhabitants of Europe have had from India, is some 
 fine muslin, silks, shawls, China ware, some pearls, 
 some diamonds. What the Indians, or some few of 
 them, have received from Europe, has been some 
 silver, jewellery, clock-work, gilt, carriages, &c. 
 The bulk of the people, on both sides, have been 
 most miserably despoiled by this system of trade, 
 the most pernicious and destructive to the human 
 race, that ever was invented. 
 
 SECTION XIL 
 
 WHY MANUFACTURES AND COMMEUCE HAVE BEEN 
 ENCOURAGED BY STATES. 
 
 Since trade has such mischievous tendency, how 
 comes it to pass tha.t it is so generally encouraged 
 by statesmen, in most civilised nations, and con- 
 sidered in the advantageous light it is ? 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 78 
 
 First, I apprehend_, it is because some statesmen 
 may not be aware of sucli tendency. 
 
 Secondly, Because most manufactured goods 
 of great value may be brought into a small com- 
 pass, and therefore can be collected and sent any- 
 where to market; and, being converted into 
 money, the collection of taxes and other imposi- 
 tions of all kinds is facilitated, which must other- 
 wise be paid in kind ; for, though money be the 
 immediate instrument of payment, they are paid, 
 in fact, in manufactures. If, in the first in- 
 stance, money is made use of when paid out to 
 the creditors of a state, such as an army, navy, 
 pensioners, &c., the same money is by them 
 laid out in manufactures of different kinds, / 
 wdiich are consumed by them; money being in / 
 this, as in all other cases, like paper or parchment, 
 a mere instrument, to convey property from one 
 to another. In the same manner, in foreign wars 
 — that is, those in which the seat of war is distant 
 from one of the powers engaged — the remittances 
 that are sent abroad are ultimately discharged 
 by goods previously delivered to foreign mer- 
 chants, or afterwards sent to them ; by which such 
 drafts are liquidated. Moreover, the more manu- 
 facturers there are employed in refined goods, 
 which they do not consume themselves, the 
 greater overplus it gives Ministers a f(^el ing in: 
 
 Jy'^^ OF THJ? -^*^ 
 
 ((UHlVBESITr) 
 
74 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 1st, by affording more taxable articles; 2ndly, 
 because the more manufacturers there are, the 
 greater quantities of goods (as few of them are 
 consumed by themselves), are accumulated; the 
 greater quantity of goods there must consequently 
 be that go to enrich individuals : and the greater 
 the number of rich individuals there is, the greater 
 the number of supporters of their respective 
 governments there will be, in most civilised states, 
 by which governments, in return, the riches and 
 power of these their supporters are secured to 
 them. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 I HE INCREASE OF WEALTH AND POWER OF THE 
 FEW, AND POVERTY OF THE MANY. 
 
 It is a fact that escapes nobody's observation, that 
 the nature of wealth is, to increase in the hands of 
 the possessors. The opportunities that wealth 
 gives to acquire more wealth, are very great and 
 obvious. Money gets money, is an old proverb. 
 
 That wealth, in fact, has increased, and is 
 increasing, we have pretty certain indications, in 
 most civilised nations. 
 
 First, the great rise in the rent of land is a 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 75 
 
 great increase of wealthy to the possessors of it ; 
 and, as will be seen presently, has all the effects of 
 an augmentation of wealth. 
 
 Secondly, the great increase of the debt of a 
 nation, is an increase of wealth, however paradoxical 
 it may appear that an increase of debt should be 
 called an increase of wealth : but this is, in fact, the 
 character and nature of wealth in all cases, viz., a 
 claim in one person, and an obligation on another. 
 Further, we are to consider that there have been 
 found persons, in some states, who, by the fortunes 
 they have made in trade, and by commerce or other- 
 wise, have been able to advance the prodigious sum 
 of many hundred millions, still keeping their capitals 
 in business, or in land, entire or increasing. 
 
 Thirdly, there is every reason to think that 
 capitals in almost all sorts of businesses are, in 
 most civilised states, increasing. Every appear- 
 ance seems to countenance such an opinion. 
 Shops, warehouses, machinery, factories, wharfs, 
 shipping, docks, navigable canals ; exports and 
 imports ; places of diversion, luxury, and general 
 expensiveness in living, &c. all much increased, in 
 almost all countries. 
 
 But what is this increase of wealth ; what does 
 it consist of; how is it produced ; and what are the 
 effects of it ? 
 
 Increased wealth may consist of enlarged stores 
 
76 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 of all those things that are used by man in civilised 
 life ; and^ also, in the increase and improvement 
 of all tools, machines, &c., that are used in the 
 making and getting up such things. It may, 
 farther, as we shall hereafter demonstrate, consist 
 in certain species of incorporeal property, as the 
 claims on a people for the interest of the debt of a 
 nation, ^. e., public funds. All these things are 
 wealth to those that possess them, because they 
 give a claim on the labour of the people, and force 
 from them such things as their labour produces. 
 It is, at the same time, an increase of poverty in the 
 people, as it subjects them to new and additional 
 demands for the produce of their labour. The 
 people, in order to satisfy these further claims, are 
 obliged to employ more of their time in furnishing 
 those things thus claimed of them ; and, of course, 
 still less of their time and labour is employed in 
 furnishing such things as they themselves stand in 
 need of — the quantity of these last mentioned 
 things every day decreasing, and consequently the 
 poor becoming every day poorer and poorer, in 
 most states.* Hence, the wealth or power of the 
 
 * An additional argument that the poverty of the people 
 daily increases is, that potatoes become every day a greater 
 part of the food of the poor, instead of the much superior 
 farinaceous substances. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 77 
 
 one increasing, is the cause of the increase of 
 poverty and subjection of the other. 
 
 This would be found equally true if considered 
 in the abstract ; since it is impossible that a claim 
 in one person over another can subsist, without an 
 obligation in that other person to answer that 
 claim. 
 
 This increase of wealth or power on the one 
 hand, and of poverty and subjection on the other, 
 is brought about not only by those, already in a 
 state of subjection, being placed in a state of still 
 greater subjection, but also because more people 
 are reduced to that state ; and this is done by 
 throAving down those people that were a little above 
 the line that divides the rich from the poor, to the 
 other side, or below it : and those also that were 
 poor before are rendered still poorer. And this 
 again is accounted for in this manner : if more 
 men become rich, or those that were rich before 
 become richer, the number of unproductive con- 
 sumers is increased ; and many of those that were 
 before consumers, become by these means greater 
 consumers. Hence, consumption is by both means 
 increased, and, consequently, poverty. 
 
 With the increasing wealth, or power of claim- 
 ing more and more of the labour of the poor, the 
 ability, or faculty as I may call it, of the rich to 
 consume, also increases and keeps pace with it. 
 H 2 
 
<0 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 This happens by their requiring not only a greater 
 quantity of the fine manufactures than before ; but 
 by their requiring, also, that the quantity which 
 they have been accustomed to use, should be 
 wrought with a greater degree of refinement — and 
 this to an indefinite degree ; and, consequently, 
 demanding also an unlimited increase of labour. 
 
 Hence, there are no bounds to the quantity of 
 labour that the rich may have a power of claim- 
 ing from the people ; and, by consequence, of the 
 diminution of the necessaries of life that remain to 
 the poor for their own use. Hence, we have not 
 the comfort to find that the miseries of the poor 
 are arrived at their aKfii], or become stationary ; for 
 they are evidently in a progressive state of in- 
 crease^ and that in a great ratio.* 
 
 That this continual increase of wealth and 
 power has no bounds, seems to be confirmed in 
 the instance of China, where trade, manufactures, 
 and civilisation, have been a much longer time 
 established than in any country of Europe ; all the 
 effects and consequences of them are of course 
 
 * And this is the true solution of a problem, so often the 
 subject of inquiry — the rapid and great increase of the ex- 
 penses in the maintenance of the poor of most countries. 
 And, again, this fact — viz., the increase of those expenses — is 
 a coniirmation of my hypothesis.; namely, the gTadual 
 increase of wealth of the few, and the poverty of the many. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 79 
 
 proportionably increased ; so that the miseries of 
 the poor are ahnost beyond conception. '^ All 
 accounts of travellers agree, however inconsistent 
 in many other respects, as to the low wages of 
 labour, and in the difficulty which a labourer finds 
 in bringing up a family, in China. If by digging 
 the ground a whole day, he can get a small quan- 
 tity of rice in the evening, he is contented. The 
 condition of artificers is, if possible, still worse. 
 Instead of waiting indolently in their workhouses 
 for the calls of their customers, as in Europe, they 
 are continually running about the streets, with the 
 tools of their respective trades, offering their ser- 
 vice, and, as it Avere, begging employment. The 
 poverty of the lower ranks of people in China far 
 surpasses that of the most beggarly nations in 
 Europe. In the neighbourhood of Canton, many 
 hundred, it is commonly said many thousand, 
 families have no habitation on land, but live con- 
 stantly in little fishing-boats, upon rivers and 
 canals. The subsistence which they find there is 
 so scanty, that they are eager to lick up the nas- 
 tiest garbage thrown overboard by any European 
 ship. Any carrion, the carcase of a dead dog or 
 cat, lor example, though half putrid and stinking, 
 is as welcome to them as the most wholesome food 
 to people of other countries. Marriage is encou- 
 raged in China, not by the profitableness of chil- 
 
80 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 dren^ Hut by the liberty of destroying them. In 
 all great towns several are every night exposed in 
 the streets, or drowned like puppies in the water. 
 The performance of this horrid office is even said 
 to be the avowed business by which some people 
 earn their subsistence." — Adam Smith, vol. i., 
 p. 108.* ^' 
 
 As the condition of the poor grows worse, and 
 their hardships and sufferings become more diffi- 
 cult to be borne, the spirit of resistance will, it is 
 to be feared, show itself in endeavours to throw 
 off their restraints and pressure ; first, by a greater 
 frequency of thefts of all kinds, house-breaking, 
 highway robberies, &c. ; and afterwards by open 
 insurrections. Hence, coercive measures will 
 increase, the laws securing property will be mul- 
 tiplied' and rendered more severe; a large military 
 force must be kept up ; and, in short, a military 
 government established : and, to induce the soldiers 
 to act against their fathers and mothers, brothers 
 and sisters, and to forget every natural and moral 
 tie, it will be necessary largely to increase their 
 pay ; and in order to alienate and estrange them 
 from their kindred and acquaintance, they must be 
 
 T 
 
 * Adam Smith little thought this increase of poverty was 
 the consequence of the increase of wealth, which he has so 
 laboured to effect. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. ' 81 
 
 kept separate from the other subjects, in barracks, 
 garrisons, &c. And then, will not this same 
 military body, thus feeling no other sentiment in 
 their breast, with respect to the rest of mankind, 
 than the sense of the power over them which they 
 see themselves in the possession of, soon be the 
 masters of the rich as well as the poor ? 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 WHETHER THE RICH ARE USEFUL TO THE POOR. 
 
 It has been thought, and it was asserted by a man 
 of eminence, a few winters since, that the rich are 
 as useful to the poor, as the poor to the rich. This 
 is a position, I think, that it will be difficult to 
 support. In order to bring it to the' test, let us 
 see what each does for the other. 
 
 The poor man prodaces by his labour . almost 
 everything that the rich man eats, drinks, and 
 wears ; the house in which he lives ; in short, 
 nearly everything he has or enjoys ; for the land 
 would produce few things without the labour of 
 man. 
 
 Now, what does the rich man produce for the use 
 of the poor man ? Precisely none of all the things 
 
82 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 mentioned. But he gives liim money to buy these 
 things with, it is said. In answer to this, it is to 
 be observed, that money only transfers the pro- 
 perty of things, which were before produced, from 
 one to another ; and what it brings to one it takes 
 from another. The money makes nothing ; there- 
 fore adds nothing to the mass of the necessaries of 
 life, or other things : it therefore can give to one 
 only what it takes from another. The number of 
 people extended over the world, and the quantity 
 of provisions being also equally extended, we do 
 not see from whom, or from whence, we take what 
 we give to another, or the parts of whicl^ what we 
 give to another, is composed. But our reason tells 
 us, that if we with our money buy bread to give to 
 a poor man, without adding to the mass of corn, 
 we only give to him what another would otherwise 
 have had, and that we deprive the one of as much 
 as we give to the other. This is true, but may not 
 be evident. By contracting the field from this 
 immensity, we shall better perceive the truth. 
 
 To illustrate this, we will suppose a ship at 
 sea, whose provisions, it was feared, would not 
 hold out till she arrived in port. The crew, there- 
 fore, were put on short allowance. Now, suppose 
 a gentleman, a passenger on board, employing 
 one of the men to wait on him, gave him a shilling 
 a-day, with which money the sailor sometimes 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 83 
 
 prevailed on some one of his messmates to sell him 
 part of his scanty allowance. In this case, the 
 gentleman's money just took as much from one 
 as it gave to the other, and therefore was of no 
 service. A country may be compared to a ship, 
 which, though larger than the ship, is still circum- 
 scribed ; and the quantity of provisions are given 
 as much in the one as the other. 
 
 If there had been no intervention of money in 
 the case, this matter would have appeared plain. 
 The rich man could then give nothing to the poor 
 man, except he visibly received it from another ; 
 for he has no corn, or anything else, which his 
 own hands produced, for the use of the poor. 
 Money covers and conceals the action, as the case 
 of a watch does the motions within : by giving the 
 money, he seems to give the corn. Money is, 
 therefore, an instrument, serving to deceive and 
 delude the people, and to induce the poor wretches 
 to think the rich their benefactors, whether they 
 are or not. 
 
 The rich man has truly nothing to give the 
 poor man ; the money^ as well as the bread that 
 was bought with it, the poor man's hands had 
 before produced. The rich man produces nothing 
 for the use of the poor man, or for himself. The 
 poor man's labour raised the gold and silver from 
 the mines, and his labour also raised the provi- 
 
84 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 sions that the gold and silver purchase. Whether 
 the money, or the possessor of the money, had 
 ever existed, the necessaries of life, which the 
 money purchases, still would have been furnished 
 for the use of the poor man — ^by the poor man 
 himself; not only in the same, but a much greater 
 quantity, if no part of the labour had been em- 
 ployed in procuring the gold and silver, of which 
 the money is made. The rich are employed in 
 the consumption, not in the production, of 
 things. 
 
 Notwithstanding the rich man produces no- 
 thing, he consumes not only as much as the poor 
 man, but frequently ten times, an hundred times, 
 a thousand, or ten thousand times as much, accord- 
 ing to the measure of his wealth. But, what can 
 hardly be conceived, there have been people who 
 have supposed that the rich, by the very act of 
 consumption of the necessaries of life, benefit 
 mankind. 
 
 In order to discover whether the rich are 
 useful to the poor, let us examine the question, in 
 the instance of a great proprietor of land. 
 
 It is to be considered that the necessaries of 
 life are not the spontaneous growth of the earth, 
 but require, for their production, the labour of 
 man to be bestowed on it. The necessaries of life, 
 therefore, are the joint product of the land and the 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 85 
 
 labour. Whether^ therefore, the land be taken 
 away, or the labour required to cultivate it be 
 taken away, the effect is the same — the non- 
 production of the necessaries of life : and hence 
 every great landowner may be said, in effect, to 
 annihilate so much land as those people which he 
 draws off from agriculture, if not drawn off, would 
 cultivate. The absolute quantity of land which he 
 in this manner virtually annihilates is thus ascer- 
 tained ; but the relative quantity of the land which 
 he so annihilates, in respect to what he possesses, 
 must be determined by the proportion his rent 
 bears to the whole value of the produce of his 
 land.* If the rent is equal to half the produce of 
 the land, he is to be considered as the annihilator 
 of half the land he possesses ; if the rent is equal 
 only to one-third of the produce of the land, he 
 then is to be looked on as annihilating one-third of 
 the land only. 
 
 All these people which he draws off are all the 
 while consuming the necessaries of life in a waste- 
 ful manner, and in a much greater quantity than 
 their just proportion, without contributing to re- 
 prodjice the smallest particle of such things as they 
 
 * As a great proprietor of land suffers his land to be 
 cultivated, and as the produce of it is consumed by the 
 people, he is not looked upon, by merely receiving- his rent, 
 as a person injurious to the people. 
 
 I 
 
86 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 have consumed. The number of su.ch people, thus 
 rendered not only useless but pernicious to man- 
 kind, may be calculated by considering what, on an 
 average, the earnings of those servants, labourers, 
 tradesmen, and artificers, may be : this may pro- 
 bably be about ten or twelve shillings per week, 
 or £25 or £30 per annum. To get at the number, 
 therefore, we have only to divide the amount of 
 the rent, suppose £40,000 by 25, which quotes 
 1,600 ; and that is the number of effective men 
 rendered useless and unproductive : and supposing 
 each of these to have four in family beside himself, 
 multijDlying therefore the 1,600 by that number, 
 we have 8,000, which is the number of souls that 
 might have been furnished with the necessaries of 
 life by the labour of those hands which have 
 been converted, by this proprietor of land, from 
 productive and useful, to non-productive and 
 consuming ones ; and thereby effecting what is 
 equivalent to the annihilation of as much land as 
 would maintain 8,000 people.* 
 
 The same income, whether arising from public 
 funds, trade, profits of a profession, or any other 
 source, if spent in the same manner, has exactly the 
 
 * The number of hands drawn off from agriculture, &c., 
 by a land proprietor, will be in proportion to what he spends, 
 i. e., his rent. Hence the mischievous tendency of the rise 
 of rents. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 87 
 
 same effects — except as to that arising from tithes, 
 or lands let on restrictive leases : in both these 
 cases additional disadvantages to the public arise, 
 by their preventing the application of the land to 
 the most productive uses. 
 
 The Being who made the earth and all the 
 living creatures on it, so constituted the earth that 
 it produces the things necessary for the subsistence 
 of those creatures : and He so constituted those 
 creatures that their existence should depend on 
 those things which the earth produces. It is 
 evident, therefore, that the Creator intended the 
 land for the use of the creatures he has put on it. 
 Consequently, that no creature ought to be cut off 
 from the possession of some part or other of the 
 earth, and that in such quantity as to furnish him 
 with the necessaries of life. But this, by the 
 system established in most nations of Europe, the 
 persons in possession of the exclusive property of 
 the land, not only have the power of doing, but in 
 effect do it, and thus, depriving them of a suffi- 
 ciency of the necessaries of life, destroy great 
 numbers every year. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive how the lawyer,* who 
 regards the first principles of right and wrong ; or 
 the divine,t who professes to be guided by the 
 
 * Blackstone. f Paley. 
 
88 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 will of God; or the philosoplier,* with whom 
 utility and expediency are the basis of justice^ can 
 support a doctrine thus contrary to these clear, 
 natural, rights of man ; to these evident demon- 
 strations of the intentions of the author of nature ; 
 and to those undeniable proofs of its mischievous 
 effects on the great mass of the people. 
 
 If the wealthy, therefore, be the greatest and 
 most wasteful consumers of the necessaries of life, 
 and also the greatest impediments to the produc- 
 tion of them, they cannot, it is to be feared, be 
 considered as useful to the poor. 
 
 We have seen the great mortality among the 
 poor in most civilised countries ; we have demon- 
 strated that this is owing to the want of the 
 necessaries of life ; we have shown how this want 
 is produced, and, consequently, what occasions the 
 great destruction among our fellow-creatiires. 
 This destruction will appear to be greater than 
 any arising from other causes, if we consider the 
 constant and perpetual operation of it. The proofs 
 of the fact must be admitted ; and that the facts 
 are brought up to the sources of them, cannot be 
 denied. Yet, notwithstanding all this, it will make 
 little impression on the minds of men. What, 
 then, can be the cause of this strange phenomenon 
 
 * Hume. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 89 
 
 in human nature ? I apprehend it to be this : — 
 Although there may be many great men, who have 
 contributed to the death of many persons in the 
 course of their lives, yet no acts of any one of them 
 have ever been solely the occasion of the death of 
 any one person. No one man, how great soever 
 his consumption might be, is the sole cause of the 
 want of necessaries of life to any poor individual. 
 But he may contribute, in a certain proportion, to 
 it. He may contribute a certain part of a cause 
 that destroys 500,000 people annually : suppose 
 that part to be the 500,000th part of the cause of .. 
 the death of all those that perish, he then destroys 
 equal to one man ; as a certain number of parts of 
 a whole makes a whole, or as a certain number of 
 fractional parts makes an integer. There may be 1 
 many private men, in Europe, who singly furnish^ 
 not only the five-hundred-thousandth part, buti 
 even more than the five-hundredth part, of the ) 
 cause by which the total number is destroyed, in 
 doing which, he destroys equal to one thousand 
 people annually. 
 
 I 2 
 
90 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 ON THE DIFFERENT INTERESTS OF THE RICH 
 AND POOR. 
 
 We- have^ seen that, in many states, almost all 
 power is placed in the hands of the rich ; it might 
 seem, therefore, that the interest of both is the 
 same, and that each order, by consulting its own 
 interest, would, at the same time, consult that of 
 the other : but it is to be feared that we shall not 
 find that to be the case. 
 
 It is obvious that the interest of the buyer and 
 seller is, in every case, opposite. It is the interest 
 of the buyer to give as little for what he buys as 
 he can get it for. It is the interest of the seller to 
 get as much for what he sells as he can get for it. 
 Every rich man is to be considered as the buyer, 
 every poor man as the seller, of labour. It is for 
 the interest of the rich man to get as much of the 
 work of the poor man and to give him as little for 
 it as he can ; in other words, to get as much of the 
 labour, and to give the labourer as little of the 
 produce of that labour, as he can help : the less 
 of the product of his labour, the labourer himself 
 is suffered to consume, the more is left to his 
 employer to take to himself. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 91 
 
 The opposi tion of interest b etween the poor 
 and the rich is said to be counteracted and cured 
 by the competition subsisting between the masters 
 or employers ; but we shall see that in fact it is no 
 cure, by the small proportion, as is hereafter 
 demonstrated, of the produce of the labour of the 
 poor that is allowed them. The employers or 
 masters endeavour to lower it, or that it should not 
 rise. The workmen endeavour to raise it; but, 
 being very unequally matched, for the most part, 
 with little success. It has been taken notice of, 
 that the manufacturers, in their disputes with their 
 masters, are generally worsted. If they strike 
 their work with this view, as what they have 
 beforehand is generally very little, they cannot 
 hold out long, but are, like a garrison short of pro- 
 visions, obliged to capitulate on the best terms they 
 can get. We need not observe that this, the only 
 method they have of redressing their grievances, 
 is frequently crushed by the military.* There are. 
 
 * If the poor manufacturers are not allowed to strike 
 their work, they are debaiTed the right and advantage that 
 all other people have in their dealings — of refusing to take 
 what i^ offered to them if they think proper. This, together 
 with their having no means of standing out, through their 
 want of immediate supplies, renders them incapable of 
 making a good bargain with their masters ; and the price 
 of their labour is constantly diminishing, though the 
 
92 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 in few states, laws to prevent masters from com- 
 bining for the purpose of lowering wages. 
 
 We have said before, that it is for the interest 
 of the rich to get as much of the labour of the poor, 
 and to give the labourer as little of the produce of 
 the labour as he can help. In this instance the 
 labourer is exactly in the case of a farmer's ox or 
 horse. By the labour of the husbandman, and of 
 the horse or ox, is raised the whole produce of the 
 land ; the less part of which, i. e,, the less corn or 
 hay, the ox or horse has, the more is reserved for 
 the farmer's or proprietor's use. It is the same 
 with regard to the husbandman, though not in so 
 direct a manner. The less money the husbandman 
 receives, the less corn he can buy and eat, and, of 
 course, the more the farmer or proprietor takes to 
 himself.* If there is any difference^ it is in favour 
 of the ox, for the farmer is by his own ^interest 
 induced to keep it well ; but he has no interest in 
 the matter, with regard to the poor labourer^ 
 health, &c. If, by his excessive labour, in order to 
 maintain a large family, he wears himself out, the 
 farmer sustains no loss, as he does by the death of 
 
 nominal or money price is increasing, which is the result of 
 other causes. Vide page 69. 
 
 * The farmer is to he considered as the agent for the 
 proprietor, who principally enjoys the fruit of the labour of 
 the poor. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 93 
 
 tlie ox * The tendency there is continually to a 
 diminution of the wages, and a deterioration of the 
 condition of the poor, is a matter surely to be 
 regretted ; and their case is highly entitled to our 
 compassion. 
 
 The objects of these two different interests in 
 most civilised states being, on the one side, every- 
 thing that relates to the ease and gratifications of 
 the rich ; and, on the other, to whatever relates to 
 the necessaries of life, and of course to life itself ; 
 it is not to be wondered at if the parties should be 
 in earnest, in the support of their different claims.f 
 
 This is more true >vith regard to the rich ; the 
 determined resolution with which they maintain 
 their wealth and privileges, is very great. The 
 poor, though more nearly concerned, yet being 
 
 * The poor man, who has a large family, in order to 
 provide a little better for them than he can do by his day 
 work, is inclined to take task- work, such as mowing* by the 
 acre, threshing by the quarter, &cc. At these he works 
 harder, and many more hours in the day, allowing himself 
 little rest. There is scarce any kind of the husbandman's 
 work that does not require almost the full exertion of his 
 strength. His toil is therefore immense, and soon wears 
 out ; his joints become stiff, he is bent with labour, and he 
 arrives prematurely at old age. 
 
 "' t Adam Smith says, civil government, so far as it is 
 instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted 
 for the defence of the rich, against the poor. — Vide Wealth 
 of Nations J vol. iii., page 80. 
 
94 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 deprived of the means of resistance, as well as 
 depressed and dispirited by the natural effects of 
 their situation, are not equally active in asserting 
 and reclaiming their rights. 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 WHAT PART OF THE PRODUCE OF HIS OWN LABOUR 
 IS MADE USE OF BY THE LABOURER. 
 
 To form a calculation, with regard to what part of 
 the produce of his own labour or work a labourer 
 or workman makes use of, and enjoys himself, we 
 have but few data to proceed on : we have, how- 
 ever, some that will pretty satisfactorily solve the 
 problem. The things which he consumes must 
 be procured by his income ; to it, therefore, they 
 must be proportionable, and be limited by it. 
 The earnings are the labourer's income : we have, 
 therefore, only to see what proportion this income 
 of the labourers, collected, bears to that of the 
 rest of the people, also collected. We have seen 
 before, that the labourer's wages are about £25 
 per annum: that the number of the labouring 
 people amounts to about eight- tenths of the whole : 
 that, supposing their families to consist of ^ye 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 95 
 
 persons each^ in a nation consisting of ten millions 
 of souls, there will be 1^,600,000 families; this 
 multiplied by 25 makes 40 milhons, which is the 
 amount in value of what is consumed by the la- 
 bouring class of people. 
 
 It is not an easy thing to obtain the amount of 
 the income of the rest of the people, viz., the rich. 
 But, with regard to our argument, it is the same 
 thing if we get the amount in value of the whole 
 produce of the labour of the poor ; for, having 
 done that, if we deduct from it the amount of what 
 is consumed by the poor, the remainder must con- 
 sequently be what is consumed by the rich. 
 
 To speak with respect to England, in this in- 
 stance : the rent of all the lands in it, about twenty 
 years ago, was supposed by Adam Smith, and 
 others, to be twenty millions ; since that time, we 
 may fairly lay it at one-third more, or thirty mil- 
 lions. He also supposes this rent not to be above 
 one-third of the value of the produce of the land. 
 This produce of the land, therefore, may be esti- 
 mated at ninety millions. Dr. Grey, in his late 
 treatise on the income-tax, makes it one hundred 
 and twelve millions. This sum, then, is the 
 amount in value of that species of the produce of 
 the labour of the poor employed in agriculture. 
 The amount of the exported manufactures, accord- 
 ing to the statement of Mr. Pitt, was, the last year. 
 
96 HALL ON CIVILISATIOlSr. 
 
 about fifty millions; the home consumption of 
 manufactures is supposed to be double^ and by- 
 most authors treble, the foreign : the total pro- 
 duce, therefore, according to these opinions, of 
 labour, is three hundred and twelve millions. 
 The poor themselves enjoy only forty millions, 
 i. e, about one-eighth part, or the produce of one- 
 eighth part of their time. 
 
 If this statement is true, eight-tenths of the 
 people consume only one-eighth of the produce of 
 their labour ; hence, one day in eight, or one hour 
 in a day, is all the time the poor man is allowed to 
 work for himself, his wife, and his children. All 
 the other days, or. all the other hours of the day, 
 he works for other people. 
 
 Sic vos non vobis mellificatis, apes : 
 Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra, boves. 
 
 The conclusion here given, as to the share 
 which every labouring man enjoys of the produce 
 of his labour, is inferred from premises and data 
 which cannot be suspected, being furnished by 
 people who had no design that such a conclusion 
 should be drawn, and who, probably, would be 
 sorry to find that such an inference could be made 
 from them. The persons, too, who have formed 
 the calculations and made the statements were, 
 from their situation and abilities, the best qualified 
 for the task that could anywhere be found. The 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 97 
 
 fact, therefore, that the poor do enjoy exactly or 
 nearly the share of the product of their labour 
 which has been shown, must be taken as un- 
 doubted ; and will not every just man deplore the 
 injustice of it, and every humane man commiserate 
 the case of the sufferers ? It is surely an essential 
 part of liberty to enjoy the full fruits of one's own 
 labour. Whether the negro in the West Indies 
 has a less proportion than the above, I cannot de- 
 termine ; but, in other respects, he seems to have 
 the advantage of the free but poor man of Europe. 
 
 Slaves being the property of their masters, like 
 cattle, it is the interest of the owners to keep them 
 alive ; and not only that, but to keep them so that 
 they may be in health and vigour to do their w^ork, 
 and that their marriages may be fruitful ; and to 
 take the same care of their offspring, and from the 
 same motives, that farmers do of their calves and 
 lambs. But, in most places of Europe, the poor 
 man does his work, and he receives his wages ; 
 but whether he lives an hour afterwards is a matter 
 of little concern to his employer : the same wages 
 will procure the work to be done by another. 
 
 But the poor man has not even this small pro- 
 portion of his labour or i;ime, since Sunday, one 
 day in the week, is taken from him by most 
 Churches in Europe, which must be deducted 
 first. He has, therefore, only a fraction of a frac- 
 J 
 
98 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 tion, viz., one-eiglitli of six-seveiitlis ; tliat is, 
 about one-ninth. 
 
 It might be said, that if the workman receives 
 the wages for his work, that he receives the fruits 
 of his labour : but it is to be considered, that the 
 wages of the labourer are not the fruit or produce 
 of his labour, that is, the things his labour actually 
 makes ; but the price the master has agreed to give, 
 and what the workman, in most instances, is com- 
 pelled to take for or in lieu of the whole produce 
 of his labour : this is sometimes rendered evident, 
 as when the labourer has his wages, as it were, in 
 kind, by receiving a part of the wheat or the 
 potatoes, &c., which his labour has raised : the 
 small part he receives of the whole is then seen. 
 
 It may, notwithstanding, seem difficult to be 
 understood, how it happens, that the poor man 
 receives so small a part of the fruits of his own 
 labour, as the one-eighth or the one-ninth, since 
 we know of no master tradesman or manufacturer 
 w^ho has so large a profit on any article made by the 
 poor man. 
 
 But it is to be remembered, that there are 
 many more people than one, who take a profit on 
 almost every single thing that is turned out by the 
 workman or workmen : for instance, in a coach, 
 there is, first, the master coach-maker, then the 
 master painter, the master colourman ; there is the 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 99 
 
 tanner^ the currier, tlie glass -plate -maker, the 
 draper, the timber merchant, the master smith, the 
 master harness-maker, the silver and plate-furni- 
 ture-maker ; and under every one of these, there 
 may be a great number of subordinate branches, 
 so that, perhaps, an hundred besides, or many 
 more, draw a profit, and share part in the price the 
 coach sells for, when finished, without doing a 
 stroke of work themselves, at any part of it ; inso- 
 much, that the whole price is almost melted down 
 into profit ; and probably, if the portion that goes 
 to the persons who actually employ manual labour 
 on it, were separated from the whole, less than an 
 eighth would be found to be received by them. 
 These master manufacturers, of different kinds, we 
 number among the rich. 
 
 If the poor did receive and make use of a 
 greater proportion of the produce of their labour, 
 than is stated to be received by them, how could 
 the rich enjoy and consume so many things, as it is 
 evident they do ; and who, it is equally evident, 
 contribute nothing to the production of them ? A^ 
 man of seventy thousand a-year consumes equal to 
 the whole produce of two thousand eight hundred 
 workmen, which would maintain as many families ; 
 and if these were supposed to consist of five 
 persons each, he consumes the sustenance of four- 
 teen thousand souls. A man of one thousand a- 
 
100 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 year consumes the produce of forty workmen, arti- 
 ficers, &c. ; that is, the sustenance of two hundred 
 souls : and so, in proportion, do men of greater, 
 lesser, and intermediate fortunes, consume. If the 
 consumption of the rich is so great, how can the 
 poor have more to make use of, than what is stated ? 
 The landowner lets his land to a tenant, who 
 sells part of the produce, which are necessaries of 
 life, to the labourer or workman, for money — ^which 
 money was previously earned by his labour or 
 work ; without which he could not get the money, 
 nor the necessaries of life which the money pur- 
 chases. It is his work, therefore, that procures the 
 necessaries. Now, the work which he does for 
 these, must be what the manufacturer requires of 
 him ; and what the manufacturer requires of him, 
 is such things as the landowner will purchase, 
 e. e.y requires of the manufacturer. This land- 
 owner requires, first, a sufiiciency of bread and 
 other necessaries of life. Of these he wants but 
 a certain quantity : his income, therefore, which is 
 the annual produce of the necessaries of life from 
 his land ; or, which is the same thing, the money 
 which they have been sold for ; except what goes 
 for these, goes to purchase costly dress, furni- 
 ture, equipage, luxuries, &c. ; to furnish which, 
 takes up by far the greatest part of the time and 
 labour of the poor. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 101 
 
 e 
 
 Now, if the labourer himself had land. In 
 would employ a very great part pf his time on that 
 land ; and the remainder iii optoduding co'iai;sjj 
 clothing, &c., for himself a^Q his family^, ^^iblj^tjie 
 labour which he now perfoiTrfs'^ 'except" a Snlaft^part 
 of that which is bestowed in raising those neces- 
 saries of life which he uses himself, is bestowed on 
 other things, of which he enjoys and consumes 
 nothing, but which are consumed by the land- 
 owners, &c., who do nothing : and these amount^ 
 as has been before demonstrated, to eight or nine 
 tenths of the whole. 
 
 We see, in the accounts of travellers in Russia, 
 that most of the nobility there have a great num- 
 ber of their slaves brought up to work at trades 
 and manufactures, and that some of them take a 
 thousand or more to Petersburgh, to remain with 
 them during their winter residence there. Few 
 of the slaves, I suppose, are brought up to the 
 highly-refined manufactures, so that their lords 
 are not furnished by them with all such of the 
 most finished ones as they make use of. If they 
 had been so, it would then be seen how many of 
 their slaves were taken up in producing such 
 things as they, the lords, made use of, and ho v/ 
 many men were left to raise the necessaries of life, 
 some of w^hich also are used by the lords and their 
 attendants. The proportion we have assigned 
 J 2 
 
10^ HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 would then be more evident, but not more certain, 
 than it is at presep.t, 
 
 '« { The p6of leai^not eat without money. They 
 , cannot get, .moneyr wiij^out labour. Those, there- 
 fore^ that are -^iri ^possession of money, or the ne- 
 cessaries of life, have the command of the labour 
 of the poor, by having the power of withholding 
 the necessaries of life from them ; and, with regard 
 to the poor, it is entirely the same thing, whether 
 they are compelled to labour for other people 
 under one kind of penalty or another. The right 
 or power which the landholders have, of raising 
 their rents, is tantamount to the power of forcing 
 from the poor an unlimited quantity of labour. 
 The common interest of landowners will always 
 unite them in the measure of raising their rents. 
 But it seems unnecessary to insist longer on such 
 arguments ; it is evident to the view. Let any 
 one walk the streets of a great city ; let him ob- 
 serve the buildings, public or private, there ; the 
 dress, the equipage, &c., of the persons he meets ; 
 the multiplicity and the richness of the goods in 
 the shops : let him from thence go down to the 
 wharfs, quays, &c., and, after having made the 
 tour, let him consider how few of the things he 
 had seen were intended for, or can be obtained by, 
 the poor. But all these things are the works of 
 their hands and fingers ; and those that appear the 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 103 
 
 most neat, rich, and splendid to the observer, are 
 the productions of the most sordid, nauseous, and 
 destructive employments. 
 
 But whether or not, in the very complicated 
 state of civilisation, occasioned by the intervention 
 of money, and the great division of labour in the 
 manufactures, we could account for, and render 
 visible, the manner in which it happens, that the 
 poor workman receives and enjoys so little of the 
 fruits of the labour of his own hands ; nothing can 
 be more clearly demonstrated than that he does 
 receive no more of the effects of the sweat of his 
 brow, than what is above represented. If the 
 whole of the productions of the industry of the 
 poor amounts to three hundred millions, and their 
 wages amount only to forty millions, they can 
 purchase only about one-eighth or one-ninth of the 
 whole, and of course can enjoy no more. 
 
 If every labouring man, who now seems to enjoy 
 only one-eighth or one-ninth of the work of his 
 hands, in most civilised countries, enjoyed the full 
 produce of his labour, he would enjoy eight times 
 as much as he does at present ; that is to say, he 
 would enjoy as many of the necessaries and con- 
 veniences of life as a person who has an income in 
 those countries of about £150 per annum, now 
 does : and if the labour, now bestowed on the 
 refined manufactures, was taken off from them, 
 
104 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 and employed in raising sucli things as a person of 
 that income usually makes use of, there would be 
 that quantity of them to supply every labourer — 
 that is, every labourer's family in Europe — with. 
 
 We have, I fear with too much reason, said 
 that, in the present system, about five hundred 
 thousand souls, in communities consisting of 
 ten millions, perish annually, who would pro- 
 bably have lived to mature age, if they had 
 had justice done tliem, by being suffered to enjoy 
 the fruits of their toil. Probably (for we are not 
 furnished with such documents as might enable us 
 to calculate with certainty), the number of people 
 in these communities, who have above the average 
 income of £150 or £200 per annum, is small,, not 
 exceeding a few hundred thousands ; so that the 
 number of those that contribute at all to the evils 
 complained of, being those whose incomes exceed 
 the above-mentioned sum of £200 per annum, are 
 not very numerous; and those that principally 
 occasion the waste, being people of larger fortunes, 
 are still much less numerous. The question, there- 
 fore, is, whether 500,000 souls shall perish annually, 
 and that eight-tenths of all the others should be 
 pinched, distressed, and diseased, in order to fur- 
 nish this small number with the superfluities. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 105 
 
 SECTION XVIL 
 
 THE STATE OF THE POOB, NOT NECESSARILY 
 SUCH AS IT IS. 
 
 It has been asserted, that the state and condition 
 of the poor, in most civilised countries, is neces- 
 sarily such as it is — that is to say, it could not be 
 otherwise in the nature of things ; considering it 
 as unavoidably flowing from that order and subor- 
 dination w^hich, say they, must be kept up in 
 every community, and without which, society 
 could not subsist. This is an opinion that the 
 wealthy are very much inclined to entertain and 
 cherish, since it gives them the quiet possession of 
 all their assumed advantages over their fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 In the first place, it may be observed that the 
 words,* order and subordination, though so fre- 
 quently joined together, have no necessary con- 
 nexion ; if, by the word subordination, is under- 
 stood different degrees of property, as from great 
 
 V 
 
 * This is another instance (the joining* the words liberty 
 and "property having* been before taken notice of) where 
 two words are joined together, one of which only is admis- 
 sible ; the other, linked with it, having gained admission 
 without having a right to it. 
 
106 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 wealth to extreme poverty. Order may not only 
 be kept up without such different degrees of po- 
 verty as subsists in many civilised states, but with 
 much less difficulty without them than with them. 
 It would surely be much more difficult to keep 
 men, w^ho were pining with hunger, and starving 
 with cold, in order, and from theft and robbery, 
 than it would men who had no such pressing- 
 necessities to urge them to such acts. 
 
 Secondly, it appears that the present state of 
 the poor, in most civilised nations, does not flow 
 necessarily, or indeed at all, from the state of civil 
 society ; that it is not the effioct of civilisation, but 
 that, on the contrary, it is the cause of it — it was 
 prior to it ; and civilisation could not have taken 
 place by any other means than through the pre- 
 viously reduced state of the bulk of mankind. 
 Civilisation we have defined to consist in the im- 
 provements of the sciences, and in the refinements 
 of manufactures, by which the conveniences, ele- 
 gancies, and luxuries of life are furnished. These 
 things, it is evident, could have had no existence, 
 unless the bulk of mankind had been reduced to 
 be manufacturers ; that is to say, till they were re- 
 duced to that degree of poverty as to be compelled 
 to work at those trades for their subsistence. The 
 state of the poor, therefore, does not necessarily 
 follow from civilised society ; but the converse of 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 107 
 
 the assertion is true. Let us now, therefore, see 
 from whence it does flow and derive its origin. 
 
 We have seen that the Germans, on their first 
 taking possession of the provinces now composing 
 the difierent states of Europe, took the lands from 
 the natives, and distributed them among them- 
 selves ; and thus, by one act, wealth on one 
 hand, and poverty on the other, was established, 
 long before the tendency of civil society could be 
 supposed to have given rise to it. Indeed, directly 
 opposite effects have since sprung from civil so- 
 ciety, i. e. from refinement in manufactures, &c. ; 
 for, whatever other efiects these have had, the 
 dividing and distributing great masses of land into 
 lesser have been the consequences of it, as is evi- 
 dent from the estates acquired by merchants, 
 manufacturers. Sec, 
 
 This arbitrary and forcible assumption of land 
 gave rise to, and is the foundation of, the ine- 
 quality of all other species of property, in all or 
 most civilised countries. The great proprietors 
 having it in their power to direct the labour of the 
 poor into what channel they pleased, were inclined 
 to apply it to the production of such things as they 
 themselves wouild have the exclusive enjoyment 
 of. Of provisions they had as much as they could 
 consume ; they directed, therefore, the labour of 
 the poor to the arts. They required the articles 
 
108 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 in the furniture of their houses to be more nu- 
 merous, and to be daily increasing in richness, 
 neatness, and elegancy of workmanship : the same 
 happened with respect to their own and attendants' 
 dress, their tables, equipage, &c. To furnish all 
 these things, more men were employed, more be- 
 came artificers ; fewer agriculturists remained. As 
 the articles in these different branches became 
 more refined and complex, it was found that se- 
 veral workmen of different trades were required 
 to finish many single things. Hence, master 
 manufacturers arose, keeping in their employ- 
 ment people who worked at the several branches 
 necessary to get up such complicated pieces of fur- 
 niture, &c. , These articles, as they became more 
 improved, became also more expensive ; hence, 
 the landowners were obliged to give more of the 
 produce of their land to purchase them. Many, 
 whose incomes were unequal to their taste for 
 such things, v/ere induced to sell part of their 
 lands to purchase them. Hence the master manu- 
 facturers became possessed of landed property. 
 They also gradually became enabled to lay up 
 larger quantities of goods which they had manu- 
 factured, thus forming a stock or capital. It now 
 became necessary, in order to dispose of them, to 
 appoint persons whose whole business should be 
 to retail them out : soon after, wholesale dealers 
 
HALL OX CIVILISATION. 109 
 
 were found necessary, merchants, &c. And a 
 great number of another species of rich men were 
 thus raised. At length, things were brought to 
 their present state. And in this manner did the /j 
 original inequaUty in the possession of land give I 
 rise to the inequality of all property or wealth, ' 
 and then, of course, to the Idw condition of the ^\ 
 poor, which, therefore, was not the consequence of 
 the natural course of society, but was prior to it, ; 
 and was the effect of the first general seizure of 
 land by the first and other invaders. 
 
 But, if the tendency of society to produce 
 wealth unequally, were such as asserted, this effect - 
 of it, proving detrimental to the bulk of the people, 
 should be counteracted and prevented by such 
 persons as are appointed to see nequid mali capiat 
 respiiblica. The design in the appointment of all 
 government, and of the authority and force put 
 into their hands, is solely to defend the weak 
 against the strong, in whatever manner their 
 strength be obtained or employed to the disad- 
 vantage of the people. 
 
 This false notion, viz., that the state of the 
 poor is necessarily such as it is, has had ill effects. 
 The wealthy, thus considering the matter, have 
 thought themselves under no obligation to relieve 
 the poor, but always imagine what little they do 
 for them to be a work of supererogation, and for 
 K 
 
110 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 whicli they sufficiently applaud themselves ; but if 
 they see that the situation of the poor is occasioned 
 by themselves, is the express act of theirs, and that 
 they are the true cause of all their afflictions, they 
 will then have a different idea of the claim the 
 poor have on them. 
 
 But here the great charities of most civilised 
 countries will be brought forward. In the first 
 place, I shall observe that most of the charitable 
 foundations have been made by dying men, when 
 they had neither a right nor a power to retain the 
 lands with which they endowed them. But, with- 
 out insisting on this, the whole amount of them, 
 when compared to that which is received from the 
 poor, is so small as to deserve no notice : they do 
 not amount to the one-hundredth part of it. 
 
 If what the rich gave them was the work of 
 their owti hands ; if it was what their own labour had 
 produced ; if it was what could not have been had 
 without them ; there would then, how small soever 
 it was, have been some foundation for their claims to 
 the virtue of charity : but if they only give the poor 
 a part of what the hands of them, the poor, had 
 wrought, of that which had its existence from the poor, 
 and without them would have had no existence ; the 
 act seems to me to be of a very different nature. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. Ill 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 ON THE EFFECTS OF CIVILISATION ON THE 
 OTHER ORDERS. 
 
 We have seen the effects of civilisation on the ; 
 lower classes of mankind — their penury, their 
 diseases, and their mortality ; their mental faculties 
 almost obliterated ; and themselves nearly reduced 
 to machines. If these bad effects were counter- 
 balanced by any good in the other classes, this 
 ■would somewhat lessen the evil. But it is to be 
 feared that this is not the case. It has ill effects in 
 every order. In the division of the people into 
 two orders, all above poverty have been put into 
 one class. But it is evident that, of those so put 
 together, there must be very different degrees, 
 with respect to wealth. In those of the first degree, 
 the profusion of wealth produces almost the same 
 effects as the opposite extreme, poverty. Those 
 of the middle share probably the fewest evils 
 attending the system. Those of the lowest degree, 
 and many individuals in the other degrees, have 
 constantly before their eyes, and near them, the 
 wretched state of the poor. Hence their dread of 
 it, and their never-ceasing anxiety to preserve 
 themselves and their families from fallino^ into it : 
 
112 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 into which they see, every hour, some unhappy 
 person or other dropping and overwhelmed. 
 
 Hence the epithet, care-crazy, is given the 
 mother by Shakspeare. 
 
 In this manner does the system straiten all 
 degrees : with difficulty do they support them- 
 selves in the way they have been accustomed to 
 live ; a continual struggle and jostling ; all en- 
 deavour to get up higher, out of the reach of this 
 dreadful gulf — poverty. Thus rich and poor, all, 
 suffer the ill effects of it — 
 
 -^que pauperibus nocuum, locupletibus seque. — Hon. 
 
 These things, which are really and necessarily 
 the effect of the system, are ascribed to the un- 
 avoidable condition of human affairs, and, there- 
 fore, no remedy is sought for. It is certain, 
 however, that all the evils arise from the cause I 
 have assigned, except that of ill health (and that, 
 too, is most frequently occasioned by it) ; and if 
 the cause were removed, the life of man would in 
 general be happy. They arise from the waste and 
 profusion of the opulent, consuming what would 
 be sufficient for the whole people, and also strait- 
 ening themselves, as well as all other degrees of 
 men. 
 
 A small number* of people, in most civilised 
 
 * Vide ISote K. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 113 
 
 states^ consume the far greater part of the produce 
 of the labour of the whole. Hence, what is left is 
 very short of a sufficiency for the great mass of the 
 people : every man, therefore, seeing that many 
 must go without a sufficient quantity of the neces- 
 saries, uses every effiDrt not to be of that number, 
 and is strongly urged to secure what is enough for 
 himself and family. Hence, a violent struggle is 
 excited ; every man strains every nerve ; every 
 man's interest becomes opposite to every man's. "] 
 Hence, eager competitions, sharp contentions, 
 frauds, oppression. Hence, the source of all mat- 
 ters that render life anxious and unhappy. This 
 is the cause of all the cares and troubles of life — to 
 this they are solely and wholly to be attributed. 
 To ascribe them to the constitution of human na- 
 ture, and human affairs, is the artifice of those who » i 
 have more than their share, and are the cause of 
 the evil. This plainly accounts for the evils ; to 
 assign them to the other cause is merely gratui- 
 tous — is ascribing effiscts to an occult and undefin- 
 able cause, when they may be referred thus clearly 
 and demonstratively to this one simple, evident, 
 and adequate source. 
 
 The different ages of the world, the golden and 
 
 iron ages, are not the fictions of the poets, but are^; 
 
 the descriptions delivered down by tradition, of 
 
 the different states in which mankind have really 
 
 K 2 
 
114 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 / lived. Before all property was engrossed by the 
 / few, all had sufficient to supply their wants — this 
 
 y was the golden age : to supply which wants is now 
 the cause of all care — this is the iron age. 
 
 Where there is a sufficiency to supply the ordi- 
 nary wants of human nature, and where that supply 
 is certain, and we are confident that there is no 
 danger of its failing, the source of all care and 
 solicitude is cut off ; even losses and accidents, all 
 lose their power of sensibly afflscting us, when this 
 is the case ; and which would be the case, if the 
 lower orders of the people were put in a plentiful 
 and comfortable state. This a good government 
 has the power of effecting, by taking care that none 
 of the people become so powerful as to oppress their 
 
 \ fellow-subjects, either in the open and more evident 
 manner, as feudal lords do their vassals ; or in the 
 indirect and masked one, by the means of great 
 and unequal property. 
 
 In addition, therefore, to such considerations as 
 arise from justice, humanity, and the principle of 
 doing to others as we would be done by, the self- 
 interested motive, of removing or lessening an evil 
 to which we ourselves are exposed, might induce 
 us to better the condition of the poor, in order to 
 render that situation comfortable to which the 
 wealthiest may be reduced. By so doing, we not 
 only guard against the fatal contingency, but we 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 115 
 
 render our present enjoyments, whatever they may 
 be, comfortable and complete, by removing that 
 which embitters and renders them hollow and un- 
 satisfactory — the reflection on the uncertainty of 
 their continuance. 
 
 The system of civilisation, as it is very impro- 
 perly called, has not only ill effects on the greatest 
 part of individuals composing a state, but also on 
 the state itself, taken as a collected body ; which, 
 contrary to the received opinion, it weakens, im- 
 poverishes, and renders truly more barbarous. We 
 are next, therefore, to consider the effects of civili- 
 sation on states or nations. 
 
 SECTION XIX. 
 
 MANUFACTURES THE CAUSE AND SIGN OF THE 
 POVERTY OF NATIONS. 
 
 It has been seen that a very large majority of the 
 people, in most civilised states, are in the class of 
 the poor ; but if the individuals, composing almost 
 the whole of the collected body, are poor, how can 
 the nation be said to be rich? Manufacturing 
 states appear to other nations, and they persuade 
 themselves so too, that they are very wealthy. 
 There appear, in many distant ports, numbers of 
 
116 HALL ON CfVILISATION. 
 
 their ships, loaded with valuable goods of every 
 kind; and, in the same manner, they are seen in 
 their own ports. But this seems to me to indicate 
 directly the contrary. The great quantities of 
 manufactured goods suppose a great number of 
 manufacturers, who, if they were not poor, would 
 not submit to the employments that produce them. 
 The manufactures being brought together in large 
 quantities, in ships, in warehouses, and in shops, 
 are put more in view ; but this only shows that 
 there are certain rich men, who, commanding the 
 labours of many, can collect great magazines of 
 their works, allowing them a small pittance for 
 their own and their families' subsistence. If we 
 see great quantities of honey, should we think the 
 bees, from whom it was taken, rich and well stored 
 with that which they subsist on ? 
 
 That country is considered by many as the 
 richest, which abounds most in such things as are 
 generally looked upon as composing wealth ; and 
 the means, in their opinions, to make a country 
 rich, is to make of the people as many manufac- 
 turers as can be made, and to force these to turn 
 out as many manufactured goods as possible ; and 
 that these manufactured things shall be of that 
 kind of which the manufacturers themselves shall 
 consume the least possible quantity. 
 
 But that might, with much more justice, be 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 117 
 
 called the poorest coimtiy that can be found, since 
 the great bulk of the people have as little as they 
 can possibly be subsisted on. 
 
 When, therefore, we talk of the riches and 
 flourishing state of the manuufacturing countries, 
 we should limit our representations to the few who 
 enjoy the productions of the manufactures, and not 
 extend them to those who labour in producing 
 them. 
 
 Monsieur Brissot^ in his travels through North 
 America^ tells us, that he went to see a piece of 
 curious machinery, made by Mr. Pope, of New 
 York, who said he should be glad to dispose of it ; 
 but added, that they were poor people in America, 
 and there w^as no person who could afford to buy 
 it. On which M. Brissot observes, that, though 
 there was no person rich enough there to purchase 
 the instrument^ yet it was no proof that they were 
 a poor people ; it only proved that property was 
 more equally divided, and that no great accumula- 
 tion was in any one person's hands. 
 
 We have shown that it is one principal pro- ' 
 perty in refined manufactures to render the works 
 of the poor man more consumable, and that they 
 actually give occasion to the rich of making greater 
 waste than would otherwise be possible : how, 
 then, can they possibly have any other effect than 
 to impoverish ? That system which produces 
 
118 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 most things that are useful and necessary^ and 
 that system, too, that employs the most frugality 
 in the use of them, and makes them extend fur- 
 thest, is that which must enrich most. 
 
 It may be objected, that, in Ireland, where 
 there are few manufactures, the situation of the 
 poor is even worse than it is in manufacturing 
 states. I admit that it is. This does not, how- 
 ever, in the least, disprove what I have said con- 
 cerning the effects of manufactures. We read, in 
 that very able work, the Dissertation of Dr. 
 Crump, to which the prize was adjudged by the 
 Irish Academy, that a very large part of the lands 
 in Ireland was obtained by greedy courtiers, on 
 the occasion of confiscations, after the many con- 
 quests that have taken place in that unfortunate 
 island: that these lands are now possessed, in a 
 measure, by absentees and other great proprietors : 
 that they in general let them in large portions to 
 persons who let them again to others, and these 
 again to the farmers who occupy them : that these 
 men, who are called middlemen, all get a profit 
 rent, and live by sucking the blood of the farmer : 
 that the farmers there, contrary to what happens in 
 England, do not think it necessary to have a ca- 
 pital for the occupation of a farm, but frequently 
 take a large one without any, parts of which they 
 let out again, divided among others as poor as 
 
HALL ON CTVILISATEOX. 119 
 
 themselves^ who have no other means of culti- 
 vating them than by their own and family^s 
 labour with the spade — a plough being often not 
 to be found in a large district, and when it is, it 
 frequently belongs to the maker, who lets it out to 
 hire, at an extravagant price. These miserable 
 farmers, having no capital to lay out in labour, 
 can employ few or no husbandmen; the poor, 
 therefore, can earn little or nothing, either by ma- 
 nufactures or labouring in the field. The renters 
 who have capitals are graziers, and require few 
 hands. By this arrangement, the same effect is 
 produced as by the manufacturing system, viz., 
 the preventing the poor from working on the land, 
 and at the coarser trades, and by that means pro- 
 ducing for themselves the necessaries of life. And 
 this is equally the effect of the wealth of rich in- 
 dividuals, who spend most of their incomes in the 
 refined manufactures, though these are not the 
 produce of Ireland. 
 
 Hence the poor, by earning little either by 
 manufactures or labouring in the field, have little 
 or nothing to lay out in the purchase of the neces- 
 saries of life, ^. e.y the produce of the land. This 
 produce, therefore, is almost wholly exported. 
 Their lean cattle are sent to all the ports of the 
 western coast of England, Bristol Channel, &c., to 
 be fed by the English graziers, throughout the 
 
120 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 whole kingdom ; their fat cattle are slaughtered 
 to victual the English ships of war and merchant 
 ships, and also for the consumption of the inhabi- 
 tants of their sea-coast, and of many other parts of 
 the world ; their butter, tallow, skins, are in great 
 part exported : and the money arising from all 
 these things sent to the absentees and others, for 
 rent and tithes. Thus the inhabitants of the 
 country are almost wholly deprived of the produce 
 of the land they inhabit; and they live, if they 
 can be said to live, on a very small part of it, by 
 raising potatoes in corners of fields and other small 
 unoccupied places. And here let me ask the 
 lawyer, civilian, or divine, whether the inhabitants 
 of the country are not entitled to the use of the 
 produce of it for their subsistence ;* and whether 
 any human laws or power can justly prevent them 
 from obtaining it ? 
 
 " Behold," says Dr. Crump, " an Irish farmer 
 going forth to his work, barefoot, covered with 
 rags ; behold his ruinous hovel, built of mud, 
 covered mth weeds, and pervious to every shower 
 that falls, every pinching gale that blows ; behold 
 
 * It might also be asked, whether, if the proprietors of 
 land have a right to export out of the country the articles of 
 subsistence above mentioned, they have not a rig-ht, too, to 
 refuse the poor the corners of their fields to cultivate pota- 
 toes, and thus to deprive them of all sustenance. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 121 
 
 hini seated, after his hard labour, surrounded by 
 naked children, sharing with them his dry and 
 scanty meal." Thousands have no house at all to 
 live in — but, as was observed by a member of a 
 great assembly, a few winters ago, are seen hud- 
 ling together under bridges, arch-ways, ricks, and 
 in any place where a shelter over head can be had. 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 
 CIVILISATION AND MANUFACTURES RENDER A 
 NATION MORE IGNORANT AND BARBAROUS. 
 
 Nor are the boastings of civilised countries, 
 with respect to learning, better founded. Certain 
 individuals are learned : but what is the mass of 
 the people ? If we average the learning of any of 
 these countries, it is greatly exceeded by the 
 savages of North America ; who clearly show, by 
 their speeches on public embassies, and their 
 debates in their assemblies at home, that they have 
 availed themselves of the leisure they enjoy, but 
 which is refused European artificers. Learning, in 
 the unequal shares it is distributed among indivi- 
 duals in Europe, is clearly prejudicial ; giving 
 some an unfair advantage over others of their fellow- 
 creatures. It is the chief instrument by which 
 
 L 
 
122 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 the superiority is gained by tlie few over the many; 
 and by which the latter are kept in subjection. It 
 is like the turning a game cock, with steel spurs, 
 among those who have only their natural weapons. 
 The bulk of the people are not only ignorant 
 themselves, but derive very few advantages from 
 the learning of others. The three learned profes- 
 sions, for instance, benefit them in a very small de- 
 gree. As to the law, the subject of this is property, 
 of which they have none. With respect to phy- 
 sic, it has been doubted whether the practice of 
 the art is really beneficial or not to mankind. The 
 practice of medicine in the hands of a person who 
 has acquired the sciences preparatory to the study 
 of it ; and, after that, has had and availed himself 
 of the opportunities of acquiring the science itself, 
 and the practical part ; who withal has a sound 
 and penetrating understanding ; is of a sober and 
 cautious way of thinking and acting ; and, above 
 all, of strict and disinterested probity ; such a man, 
 enjoying this rare assemblage of talents and attain- 
 ments, may certainly be of service to his fellow- 
 creatures : but how few such are there in the number 
 that practise ! In the present state of matters, very 
 few physicians have been so educated ; and of the 
 great body of practitioners, none at all. There is 
 no doubt that the mischief done in practice exceeds 
 the benefit. But whatever advantage the wealthy 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 123 
 
 may receive, who are generally attended with a 
 diligence proportionable to their abilities of pay- 
 ing for it, it cannot be a doubt whether or no the 
 slight attention paid to the cases of the poor, and 
 the few visits they are able to pay for, can be of 
 any service to them. 
 
 AVith regard to what advantage the poor 
 derive from the profession of divinity, that has 
 already been briefly considered. 
 
 It has been said, that, by the encouragement 
 given the arts and sciences, discoveries are made, 
 as in chemistry and mechanics, which are bene- 
 ficial to mankind ; but these discoveries generally 
 concern the ^ne arts and manufactures, from 
 which few advantages, but many disadvantages, 
 descend to the lower orders. As to machinery 
 introduced in the manufactures, to abridge labour, 
 whatever use this might be of, if otherwise em- 
 ployed, as it is, it is rarely of any ; a greater de- 
 gree of refinement being required in proportion as 
 the labour is lessened : so that, on the whole, the 
 labour of the manufacturers is not diminished, but 
 rendered, as we have shown before, more tedious, 
 mor^ dangerous, more injurious to them. Nor is 
 more of the labour of the poor employed in fur- 
 nishing such things as they themselves make use 
 of, than before such discoveries. 
 
 Whatever discoveries are made, it falls to their 
 
124 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 lot to put them in execution — not to enjoy the 
 fruits of them. The improvements in astronomy- 
 have facilitated navigation. The consequence of 
 this has been to throw more men on the sea^ that 
 unnatural element to man, and to expose them to 
 all the hardships attending it ; but to receive very 
 little of the luxuries introduced by it — as has been 
 before demonstrated. 
 
 Mr. Hume having ascribed very different effects 
 to civilisation, it seems proper to take some notice 
 of what so eminent a writer has said on the 
 subject. 
 
 In his Essay on Refinement in the Arts, after 
 stating that happiness seems to consist of three 
 ingredients, viz. action, pleasure, and indolence, he 
 says — 
 
 That these refinements furnish a fund for con- 
 versation, and by these means promote sociability. 
 
 That they refine our pleasures, and by so doing 
 lessen the grosser excesses, as drunkenness, &c. 
 
 That they multiply our gratifications. 
 
 That they soften- our manners, and promote 
 moderation. 
 
 It is obvious that all this is said, and intended 
 to be understood, as applicable only to those who 
 enjpy the effects or produce of the refined arts ; not 
 to those who by their labour furnish them : or, in 
 other words, all this is said of the rich, and is 
 
HALL OX CIVILISATION. 125 
 
 therefore not inconsistent with, what I haye advan- 
 ced. But it must be allowed to be a very partial 
 representation of the effects of the arts. This is 
 constantly the case with all the panegyrists of them. 
 The poor, although the bulk of the people, are 
 always kept out of sight, and everything which 
 regards them passed over in their splendid des- 
 criptions. The truth is, the arts have raised a few^ 
 both in respect of their intellectual attainments 
 and their enjoyments, above the natural state of man ; 
 but, in order to obtain those advantages for those 
 few, they have sunk the remainder of the people 
 much below it. 
 
 Lord Chesterfield has observed, that in history 
 we read of nobody but kings, lords, bishops, 
 generals, &c., as if they composed all mankind, or 
 that the rest was not worth notice. 
 
 SECTION XXL 
 
 CIVILISATION AND MANUFACTURES WEAKEN A 
 NATION. 
 
 They as little contribute to strengthen a nation. 
 It has been shown that they directly tend to lessen 
 the number of the people, which is ever in propor- 
 tion to their subsistence ; and this we have seen is 
 L 2 
 
126 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 greatly diminished by the manufacturers, and 
 cannot, as has also been demonstrated, be replaced 
 by importations : they also debase the species : 
 they lessen the stature of man : they misshape his 
 body : they enervate, and diminish his strength 
 and activity, and his ability to bear hardships : 
 and with all these effects on his body, they depress 
 the spirit and vigour of his mind, and thus, in 
 every respect, unfit him for war. 
 
 Civilisation operates in another manner in weak- 
 ening a country. The great phenomenon in a 
 civilised nation, is the inequality of property in it. 
 The wealth of all kinds being in a few hands, all 
 the others are destitute of it; by which means 
 these have little interest in the defence of it. If 
 every man had an allotment of land, had his patri- 
 mony, his inheritance, every man would fight 
 bravely, expose himself to the greatest danger, to 
 maintain his stake. The mode of fighting by mer- 
 cenaries, in modern tactics, is chiefly by cannonad- 
 ing and firing at a distance ; they seldom engage 
 hand to hand, with the point of the bayonet or the 
 sword : this requires a resolution which mercena- 
 ries seldom have. The leaders of armies, appre- 
 hensive of this, adopt the present method, where 
 the contest is generally determined by the superior 
 skill in the engineer. To urge men to rush on the 
 point of the bayonet, or to stand an attack of that 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 121 
 
 kind, when resolutely made, they must have some- 
 thing to lose more valuable, in their estimation, 
 than their lives. This can only be a freehold — 
 that which supports them, their wives, and chil- 
 dren ; to lose which would truly be a greater loss 
 than that of their lives. 
 
 An instance of this happened lately in Switzer- 
 land,* where an army of 80,000 of the best troops 
 in France, the conquerors of all Europe, could not 
 withstand the impetuous attack of less than the 
 one-sixth part of their own number, of half-armed, 
 half-disciplined freeholders. It is not the numbers 
 of an army, or their discipline, that conquers, 
 except they are on both sides mercenaries, brought 
 into the field to fight the cause of other people, in 
 which they themselves have no interest. A few 
 men, such as the Swiss were, are formidable to the 
 largest armies. 
 
 In a system contrary to that of civilisation, the 
 number of robust, warlike men, would be much 
 increased, perhaps doubled in a few years. Having 
 the same extent of country to defend, these men, 
 too, might be disciplined from their youth ; for 
 there would then no danger attend the putting 
 arms into their hands. 
 
 * See " The History of the Invasion of Switzerland, by 
 Henry Zschokke, National Prefect of the Canton of Basil/' 
 1803, Longman, &c. 
 
128 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 And is there no necessity, to speak of England 
 in particular, on this occasion, for our attempting 
 to increase our means of defence ? France, it is 
 highly probable, will soon be an over-match for us 
 by sea, as it already is by land. The immense 
 tract of sea-coast it has, will furnish it with more 
 sailors than we have. The circumstance of our 
 having more ships, at present, than France, is not 
 to be reckoned on ; for all these will be destroyed, 
 in fifteen years hence, by the ordinary course of 
 decay ; so that it is nearly as easy for the French to 
 build a new navy, as it is for us to keep up ours ; 
 which must be all built over again in that space of 
 time : not to mention the uncertain defence mari- 
 time force affords. 
 
 Historians have universally observed, that 
 wealth, and its attendant, luxury, have constantly 
 preceded the decline and fall of states. Taking 
 this fact as admitted, it is easily seen, from the 
 principles laid down in this Treatise, in what 
 manner the destruction of empires is brought 
 about. In a wealthy and luxurious nation, the 
 people are principally divided into two classes, 
 namely, the opulent and the indigent. These 
 latter are either labourers or mechanics. The 
 middle rank of people, viz., the small proprietors 
 of land, and lesser farmers, compose a very small 
 body of the people. It is from these, almost only. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 129 
 
 that a healthy race of people are to be raised : but 
 even these are not of the robust nature, stature, 
 &c., which they would have been, if they had not 
 lived so much on salted provisions as they do ; 
 being tempted by the prices the rich give for the 
 other products of their farms. The offspring of the 
 rich are frequently observed to be degenerated in.j 
 all the qualities of mind and body. We have seen 
 the same effects happen to the poor, from the other 
 and opposite causes. On these several accounts, a 
 wealthy and luxurious people are ill qualified to 
 defend themselves against any power that invades 
 them : at the same time that this wealth, ^. e,, the 
 articles of luxury, ^. e, again, the refined manufac- 
 tures, are a strong temptation to the less effeminate 
 and corrupted, or more adventurous neighbours, to 
 invade them. 
 
 The fall of wealthy states also frequently hap- 
 pens from internal and domestic convulsions, which 
 is equally explainable on my principles. 
 
 Most civilised states, in which the wealthy 
 pg^rt, ^. e,, those having the power of the nation in 
 their hands, being few in number, in comparison 
 with the rest of the ^people, are obliged, as has 
 been seen, to keep large standing armies of mer- 
 cenary troops, to hold the people, who are so much 
 superior in numbers to themselves, in subjection. 
 This body of troops, induced as has been before 
 
130 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 explained, have often subjected the people, toge- 
 ther with their masters, and proved the destruction 
 of the state. The revolution in the Roman re- 
 public was effected in the latter manner, by the 
 soldiery under Julius Csesar. The state under 
 the Emperors was overturned, in the former man- 
 ner, by the invasion of the Goths and Vandals. 
 
 It was the manufactures of India that attracted 
 the visits of Europeans, and also enabled them, 
 though in such small numbers, to subdue and 
 pillage that numerous people. 
 
 Thus the system of manufacturing operates, 
 in both these manners, to weaken and destroy 
 states. 
 
 SECTION XXII. 
 
 THAT THE POOR CONTRIBUTE MOST TO MOST 
 GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 Although the poor enjoy so few advantages, or, 
 rather, suffer so many deprivations and hardships, 
 in the present state of things in most civilised na- 
 tions, yet they contribute infinitely more to the 
 defence of their respective governments than the 
 other class. They fight the battles by sea and 
 land, to do which many of them are torn from 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 131 
 
 their houses, their wives, and their children, and 
 undergo every kind of suffering that human nature 
 can be afflicted with. 
 
 With respect to those who serve in the navies, 
 they most frequently are dragged forcibly on board 
 ships of war; the militias or conscripts, also, of 
 most countries,* for the most part, serve by com- 
 pulsion ; and as to the regular, or enlisted, every 
 art is generally used to draw them into the service. 
 
 The poor, in most civilised nations, not only 
 supply the men that make up the armies, but their 
 hands furnish every necessary for the men, when 
 embodied, to carry on the war.f This will appear 
 
 * With respect to the mihtias of most countries, I cannot 
 help observing that, if a poor man is drawn, he must inevit- 
 ably go ; or, if the man has a little property, be obliged to 
 give half or the whole to be excused : but the rich man is 
 excused for perhaps the fifty-thousandth part of his pro- 
 perty—a sum, perhaps, not equal to his current expenses 
 for one hour. The sum, to be proportioned to the substance 
 of the person drawn, should be a proportionable part of the 
 whole, as a half, a fourth, a tenth, a hundredth ; and not a 
 certain sum, which, to one man, may be his whole, or a half 
 — to another, not the ten-thousandth part. 
 
 t " As the use of money was unknown, all taxes were 
 paid in kind ; and thus not only the natural productions of 
 all the different provinces of the empire, but every species of 
 manufacture, and every work of ingenuity and art, were 
 collected in the public storehouses : from those, the Em- 
 peror supplied his numerous train of attendants in peace, 
 and his armies in time of war, with food, with clothes, and 
 ornaments. People of inferior condition, neither possessing 
 
182 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 by shortly enumerating those things, viz., provi- 
 sions, clothes, arms, ammunition, &c., &c. Every 
 article in these different kinds is produced by the 
 labour of the poor, and with the effect of reducing 
 the quantity of their meals and clothing. Their 
 labour, which produces all these things, being 
 taken from raising the corn and potatoes, which 
 their meals consist of, lessens the meals just in the 
 same degree as if they had been directly taken 
 from off the plates and dishes out of which they 
 were eating. This part, therefore, of the support 
 of most civilised nations, «. c., against external 
 enemies, is ultimately borne by the poor, to the 
 very great increase of their wants and sufferings. 
 War operates in a twofold manner : first, by taking 
 off the men the army consists of from agriculture ; 
 and then, by occasioning the necessity of supplying 
 these men with provisions, clothes, &c. It is evi- 
 dent, without further illustration, that the internal 
 expenses of most states are borne by the poor in 
 the same manner, and with the same consequences, 
 of increasing their distress. We shall see that all | 
 the salaries, revenues, taxes, &c., are ultimately 
 paid with such things as the labour of the poor has 
 furnished. 
 
 land, nor engaged in commerce, were bound to the per- 
 formance of various services." — Robertson's History of 
 America, vol. iii., p. 173. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 133 
 
 It is to be feared that these wars, of which the 
 poor bear the burden, and in which millions of 
 them lose their limbs, their health, and their lives, 
 are often entered into for the express purpose of 
 increasing their subjection and oppression, and 
 making them the instruments of it. It is highly 
 probable, for instance, that wars have been con- 
 certed privately, and undertaken by neighbouring 
 kings, for the sole purpose of gaining a pretence 
 for increasing their forces, and keeping up a larger 
 standing army ; the chief view in augmenting 
 which was to keep their own people in closer sub- 
 jection, and lay and enforce farther restraints and 
 impositions on them. If there should be some 
 people who will not allow of this highly probable 
 supposition, yet all must allow that wars are often 
 begun on slight pretences ; the real views being as 
 above represented. 
 
 And if the true motives, which induced most 
 of the powers to engage their people in the last 
 war, were to be avowed, it would appear that they 
 arose from their apprehensions that the people 
 would recover some of their natural and just rights, 
 and obtain some little melioration of their condi- 
 tion. It was then thought that the French people 
 were endeavouring to recover not only the equality 
 of rights, in the sense it was explained ; but that 
 they had in view to lessen somewhat the great in- 
 
 M 
 
134 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 equality of property also : both these ideas were 
 comprehended, as it was thought, under the term 
 of French principles. To prevent their succeeding 
 in which, and the contagion which it was supposed 
 would have followed their success, was the object, 
 perhaps, principally aimed at. This, I believe, 
 discovers more of the design of the war, and who 
 were the aggressors, than all that Mr. Herbert 
 Marsh, in his laboured volumes, has said. This 
 was the real cause why the ministers of most of the 
 states found everything they proposed so readily 
 adopted by the aristocratical part of their re- 
 spective countries, and which enabled them to 
 carry and force down measures so abhorrent to 
 what had ever before, though often proposed, been 
 acceded to. 
 
 If these conjectures are true, how are the poor 
 to be pitied ! The reflection that all the calamities 
 of the poor originated from, and were really the 
 works of, meri's hands ; that fresh calamities have 
 been purposely brought on them ; and that they 
 themselves have been made use of as instruments 
 to confirm their old grievances, add to, and per- 
 petuate them — is too sad for a human heart to 
 dwell on. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 135 
 
 SECTION XXIill. 
 
 THE CAUSE OF THE FREQUENCY OF WARS. 
 
 The burden thus falling on the lower order of 
 people (for the number of the other order in 
 armies, in proportion, is trifling, and those few 
 have such advantages in them as to make it an 
 object of choice with them) — the hardship, I say, 
 thus falling almost solely on the poor, it is not to 
 be wondered at, that we hear the wealthy talk of and 
 propose war with all the unconcern and indiffer- 
 ence they do. 
 
 It has always seemed, notwithstanding, a 
 matter of surprise, that in the present enlightened 
 age such a destructive calamity should be suffered 
 to be brought so often, by a few persons, on a 
 whole people ; and that it must have some pecu- 
 liar cause that occasions it : for, if the lights we 
 receive from reason and morality, or the feelings of 
 human nature, had been suffered to influence us, I 
 think it would have been long since that this horrid 
 monster would have been driven from the land. 
 
 "Without inquiring into this preternatural cause 
 at present, I shall proceed to observe, that wealth, 
 which seems to be the cause of so many other evils 
 
136 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 of human life, is also a principal cause of this 
 worst of all calamities. 
 
 Wealth putting it in the power of its possessors 
 to give great prices for such things as they are 
 desirous of having, viz. the articles of their luxu- 
 rious tables, their costly furniture, dress, plate, 
 jewels, &c., the whole world is ransacked for them; 
 no part of the globe is left unexplored in order to 
 obtain them. 
 
 The rich of most of the different civilised 
 nations of Europe, all coveting the same things, 
 the countries producing those things are the con-* 
 tinual objects of contests and wars between these 
 different powers. These wars are easily excited 
 by the rich, who are either themselves the persons 
 with whom lies the power of making war and 
 peace, or are the persons who have great influence 
 with those who have that power. 
 
 These are the chief motives on which foreign 
 and other conquests are attempted, and, of course, 
 of most of the wars of modern times. If property 
 was equally divided, and there were no rich, the 
 inhabitants of a parish would seldom be led out of 
 their parish for anything wanted; every place 
 woidd produce everything that there was a real 
 occasion for. 
 
 The objects of all wars, whether near or dis- 
 tant, are to increase trade, or to extend territory ; 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 187 
 
 or the wars are occasioned by the ambition or irri- 
 tability of the rich. - As to the first cause : although 
 the wars, entered into on ,this account, are often 
 said to be undertaken for the benefit of the people, 
 they have really no other effect than the obtaining 
 the insignificant things above-mentioned. As to 
 the second object : this is desired only by the ag- 
 gressors, in order to place a greater number of 
 people, the inhabitants of their intended new ac- 
 quisitions, under their subjection, whose labour 
 they may employ to the same purposes that they 
 do that of the poor of their own country. 
 
 With respect to the third cause : we have said 
 that the inequality of property or wealth puts the 
 power and command over the people into the 
 hands of the few, who can call them out into the 
 field at any time, and thus the making war is 
 facilitated ; it also disposes the few to engage in 
 it. Those who have this power are rendered 
 by it arrogant, quick of resentment, vain, and fond 
 of showing that power. The slightest causes, 
 therefore, are sufficient to incite such men to war. 
 Whereas, were the people themselves, who bear the 
 burden of the war, and who would gain no object, 
 but suffer great loss, whatever the success might 
 be, to be the persons by whom it was to be deter- 
 mined whether there should be war or peace, we 
 should have few wars. 
 
 M 2 
 
138 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 The authors, therefore, of all wars are the 
 wealthy; and the objects of them, an increase of 
 wealth. Wealth, e. e., inequality of property, 
 therefore, in both cases, is the cause of almost all 
 wars. 
 
 The education, given by the rich to their chil- 
 dren, is calculated to give them a warlike spirit, 
 that is, to inflame them with the desire of blood? 
 shed. The books they read treat of little else than of 
 heroes and the exploits of heroes, that is, of bloody 
 warriors and bloody wars. The most destructive 
 battles are called splendid, brilliant, glorious ; and 
 such other extravagant epithets are made use of, as 
 might well be called ridiculous, if they were not 
 artfully designed to cover and disguise their bane- 
 ful effects. We seldom have any account given 
 of the horrid spectacles to be found in the field, the 
 day after the battle — the mangled carcases, dying 
 groans, and heaps of the dead — or the hospitals, 
 full of wounded, diseased, aiid dying men. 
 
 It might be said that wars are as frequent 
 among barbarous nations as among civilised people. 
 TTiey certainly happen among them ; but are,- I 
 believe, not so frequent. They arise from causes 
 in some respects similar, in both. Savages subsist 
 on the game they get by hunting. In pursuing it, 
 they are often carried almost necessarily into the 
 districts of neighbouring nations ; which intrusions. 
 
HALL ON CIYILTSATION. 139 
 
 often involuntary, are almost always, at least gene- 
 rally, ^the causes of wars with them. It must be 
 
 .allowed that the Indians, in going to war for the 
 necessaries of life, act much more rationally than 
 the polished nations, who go' to war for such 
 baubles and trinkets, and' in doing which they 
 ^ greatly diminish the necessaries of life. It will be 
 seen, that, in the middle state, described in the 
 sequel, this great evil, attending the both extremes 
 of society, would probably be altogether, or in a 
 
 ^ great measure, avoided. 
 
 SECTION XXIV. 
 
 ON NATIONAL DEBTS. 
 
 One great effect of war being to occasion and in- 
 crease the debt of the nation engaged in it, and 
 this contributing greatly to put the poor of most 
 civilised countries in the situation in which they 
 are, renders it a subject proper to be here con- 
 sidered. 
 
 Various have been the opinions with regard to 
 the effects of a public debt — some auguring the 
 worst consequences to it ; others considering it as 
 of an indifferent nature, or even expecting bene- 
 
140 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 cial consequences from it: but these opinions have 
 been founded on conjectures and hypothesis ; not 
 on an accurate knowledge of its nature, and of its 
 necessary tendency. 
 
 A public debt is to be considered in two views : 
 as due to foreigners, and as due to the subjects of 
 the indebted nation. These two sorts have been 
 considered as of very different natures : that of the 
 former, as sending out of the indebted kingdom so 
 much wealth annually as the dividends amount to, 
 and therefore very hurtful to it : that of the latter 
 has been thought by many as of no detriment to the 
 nation; since, in their opinion, it only removes 
 property from one set of subjects to another ; the 
 wealth still remaining in the kingdom. 
 
 I imagine this distinction is not just. To the 
 subject of the indebted nation, as well as the 
 foreigner, the interest is paid ultimately with the 
 produce of the labour of the poor, viz., in part that 
 of the husbandman, and in part that of the manu- 
 facturer ; and, being consumed by the subject as 
 well as the foreign creditor, it is entirely, with re- 
 spect to the nation, the same thing ; for, if the 
 stock the foreigner had, were to become the pro- 
 perty of a subject, a consumption equal to the 
 interest would take place in the same manner. 
 Whether any advantage follows from the subject's 
 money being spent within his own, ^. ^., the in- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 141 
 
 debted nation, may be known from the principles 
 already laid down. 
 
 But the debt of a nation has an effect not con- 
 sidered by any one. It creates a new and addi- 
 tional species of wealth, or a new claim on the 
 people — or, in other words, it is a fresh power 
 created and given to a new and additional set of 
 men (the holders of stock), over the labouring 
 people. To pay the interest of the debt, new taxes 
 are laid on. All these taxes are everywhere ulti- 
 mately paid with the produce of the labour of the 
 poor : for with what else than that can the public 
 levies be paid ? * "With the money paid these 
 new creditors, they procure the commodities which 
 they consume ; and in the end it is just the same^/ 
 thing as if they were first paid in kind. A stock- 
 holder, therefore, is another person added to the 
 already great multitude of unproductive consumers. 
 Hence, more of the produce of the labour of the 
 poor is taken from them ; and of course still less 
 is left behind for their own use. So that war not 
 only occasions an additional consumption of the 
 produce of the labour of the poor, during its con- 
 tinuance, equal to the amount of the loan, and 
 other expenditures ; but raises and leaves a per- 
 manent body of unproductive and most wasteful 
 
 Vide Note, P^^jj^lJ^^ J^t .ta,^^ 
 
 Ulfl7BRSITri 
 
142 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 consumers to exist for ever after. What other 
 effects war produces, such as the increasing the 
 number of supporters of government, I shall here 
 take no notice of. 
 
 Hence, by war, the poor, the bulk of all armies, 
 after being exposed to all the dangers of it, being 
 worse accommodated in the field, and, when hurt 
 and wounded, taken less care of — after all their 
 own sufferings, and after the want and distress of 
 their relations, occasioned by their absence — -in- 
 stead of having their situation bettered, find it 
 worse on their return, both good and ill success 
 operating to their disadvantage ; for if we suppose, 
 in the former event, the acquisition of a new sugar 
 or a spice island, the produce of it only stimulates 
 the rich, now increased in number, to send out of 
 the land more of the necessaries of life (which, as 
 we have shown, all exports are, and which are so 
 sorely wanted by the poor natives), to purchase 
 and bring back that produce for their own con- 
 sumption solely. 
 
 But a question arises — ^what effect the paying 
 off this public debt would have on the mass of the 
 people ? In answer to this question, it must be 
 observed — 
 
 That the principal money, which would be 
 paid the public creditor, would be retained and 
 preserved by him ; would not become extinct ; it 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 143 
 
 would only suffer a transfer, and continue to be 
 what it was before, to wit, a claim on the labour of 
 the poor, to the same, or nearly the same, amount as 
 before. If it was otherwise — that is, if the claim 
 on the labour of the poor ceased — the public credi- 
 tor, on receiving his money, would receive nothing; 
 for it would be nothing to him if it did not com- 
 mand, as before, the labour of the poor. But it is 
 evident that his money would procure the same 
 things as before, and which would be furnished 
 by the hands of the poor, as before. He would 
 preserve his claim, and the labouring part of the 
 people must answer that claim ; they would, there- 
 fore, in no degree, be relieved from the burden of 
 the public debts by the payment ; but, on the con- 
 trary, it would, perhaps, bring an additional weight 
 to be supported by them ; for, in order to pay off 
 this public debt, fresh taxes must be laid on, or 
 there must be a continuation of those already in 
 being, for a longer time than would be otherwise 
 necessary. As far, therefore, as any of these taxes 
 would bear on the poor, so far their burden would 
 receive an additional weight. 
 
 But with respect to the rich, they would be 
 really eased of part of their burden, and that part 
 would bear a proportion to the portion of the 
 public debt that should be paid off by taxes levied 
 on the labouring class of the people. The rich 
 
144 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 would be really benefited, but it would be at the 
 expense of the poor. 
 
 SECTION XXV. 
 
 ON PRIVILEGED ORDERS, AS ESTABLISHED IN 
 MOST CIVILISED STATES. 
 
 Privileged orders are found only in civilised 
 states ; being therefore peculiar to them, they may 
 be thought a part of my subject : little, however, 
 seems necessary to be said, as privileges are very 
 nearly related to riches; and, having almost the 
 same effects, are liable to the same objections. 
 
 Privileges are of several kinds, such, viz., as 
 convey honours, power, or profit. The first are in 
 themselves innocent ; and only hurtful when given 
 as a reward for actions undeserving them — as for 
 victories in unnecessary wars, &c. It is, however, 
 to be remembered, that dignities, titles, and all 
 kinds of honours, place the subjects of them in 
 their distinguished situations, rather by depressing 
 other people, than by raising them. 
 
 The second kind may be useful in the present 
 state of things. Some species of power may be 
 necessary ; but perhaps it is only in the present 
 state that it is so : in the extremely unequal divi- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 145 
 
 sion of property, where the bulk of the people are 
 stripped of every degree of it; where they are 
 deprived of every gratification enjoyed by the rich, 
 and reduced to such things as have the effect of 
 merely supporting life, without imparting any of 
 the enjoyments of it. The things, however, which 
 afford gratifications and enjoyments to human na- 
 ture, though they have none themselves, they see 
 abundantly possessed and profusely wasted by the 
 rich, and have by that means their desires and 
 longings strongly excited. In such state of things, 
 and in order to preserve them in that state, power 
 must be lodged in certain persons' hands ; and this 
 power must be very great ; it must be irresistible. 
 To keep people that are cold, naked, and hungry, 
 from taking fuel to warm themselves, clothes to 
 cover themselves with, and food to satisfy their 
 hunger, when plenty of all those things are before 
 their eyes; to prevent such peo23le from taking 
 things, requires a magistracy armed with powers 
 indeed; they must have a power of inflicting 
 punishments greater than the sufferings of the 
 poor ; which, as these sufferings are continual and 
 unremitting, it is not easy to invent. Those can 
 be nothing short of torments and death, and even 
 these will be found unequal to the occasion. But 
 the necessity of committing this great power to any 
 one, is a necessity created by the present system of 
 
 N 
 
146 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 things in most civilised states. It is, notwithstand- 
 ing, unnatural to arm one human creature against 
 another. We do not see lions armed against lions ; 
 nor tigers against tigers. 
 
 Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem 
 Perpetuam ; ssevis inter se convenit ursis. — Juv. 
 
 The taking away the life of a man by another 
 man is an unnatural action, at which the common 
 feelings of mankind revolt. If any act of man can 
 be deemed wicked, it is this : to justify, therefore, 
 such an act, and render the author of it innocent, 
 many have thought that reasons should be assigned, 
 founded on the clearest, soundest, and most in- 
 dubitable principles; grounded on the common 
 sense, common sentiments, and universal assent of 
 mankind. Whether the laws inflicting capital 
 punishments in all civilised nations are thus 
 founded, and whether the persons that make such 
 laws are vested with a real power of taking away 
 the lives of men, I shall not take upon me to 
 discuss. 
 
 The third kind of privileges maybe again divided 
 into two species — either such as immediately give 
 wealth, as ecclesiastical benefices and preferments, 
 commissions in armies and navies, places under 
 governments, and numberless other places, pen- 
 sions, &c. ; or such as put privileged persons in 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 147 
 
 the way of acquiring wealth, as the profession of 
 law, lucrative contracts, &c. All these, furnishing 
 the means of making rich men, have the same 
 objections lying against them as may be made 
 against wealth itself, as well with regard to the 
 origin as the effects of them. It should be remem- 
 bered, that it cannot be given to one without 
 taking it from another. 
 
 SECTION XXYI. 
 
 ON POWER. 
 
 We have endeavoured, in a former chapter, to 
 show that (wealth is a certain species of power;/ 
 viz., a power over the labour of the poor. We 
 have further endeavoured to show, that it is the 
 source of all power exercised in civilised govern- 
 ments. As this power, therefore, is so great an . 
 agent in most civilised nations, and as the state of 
 civilisation differs in nothing more from the oppo- 
 site state, than in this particular matter, we shall 
 consider power more generally. 
 
 \By power, we mean that authority which is 
 exercised by man over man ; it may, therefore, be 
 called human power, both its agent and the sub- 
 ject of the action being man. 
 
148 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 This power disposes of the lives and fortunes of 
 men. It inflicts punishments, commands and 
 directs the labour of men, and takes the produce 
 of it. 
 
 The foundation of power may be of three 
 kinds, viz. : — 
 
 1st, Power (in one person or a few) may be 
 supported on the opinion of the people. 
 
 2ndly, Power may be supported by the force of 
 arms in the hands of part of the people ; ^. e., by 
 a military government. 
 
 ordly. Power may be supported by the medium 
 of wealth. 
 
 It is easy to be conceived how the first two 
 species of power are raised. The third species of 
 power is raised by the seizure or assumption (by 
 one or a few persons) of all the land, and other 
 things arising from it, in which the necessaries of 
 life are included ; and of which, in order to obtain 
 a sufiicient quantity to sustain their existence, the 
 people must submit to such services and labour as 
 those, who are in possession of them, require ; 
 i, e., must be subject to them. 
 
 This last species, namely, that supported by 
 wealth, is that which some modern nations are 
 governed by, whether monarchical, republican, 
 &c. : for, the most absolute monarch, not being 
 supported by one or other of the two first methods. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 149 
 
 and not finding the lands in the hands of an aris- 
 tocracy, in order to sustain his authority, has no 
 other means than to take, from the people at large, 
 the land, &c. &c., and to give them to certain 
 people, part of the great mass ; who, in order to 
 secure to themselves what is thus put in their 
 possession, will support him in his authority : it is, 
 therefore, a government supported by wealth in the 
 hands of a few, and is, in fact, an aristocracy, as 
 we have before observed ; differing only from other 
 aristocracies, in having its head a little more ex- 
 alted than the rest. 
 
 Power acquired and supported by this last 
 means, is perhaps the least eligible to the people, for 
 three reasons : — 1st, Because it is most expensive ; 
 2ndly, Because it is seldom affectionate and in their 
 interest ; and, 3rdly, Because it is the most difficult 
 to be shaken off, in case of mal-administration. 
 
 First, As to expensiveness. — The monarch, 
 ".whose authority depends on the opinion of the peo- 
 ple, whether that opinion is founded on his virtue, 
 wisdom, or prowess, or on his imaginary right 
 by birth, only requires from the people what is 
 necessary to furnish the pleasures, the splendour, 
 and the hospitality of one man, and a small num- 
 ber of such others as are connected with him by 
 the ties of real friendship. The expense of this, 
 to the whole people, is insignificant. 
 N 2 
 
150 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 The expense attending a monarch whose au- 
 thority is supported by a standing army, is greater 
 than the last ; it is not, however, large ; his army 
 being mere soldiers, who live by their profession ; 
 rising up daily out of the people ; and, being not 
 men of rank and fortune, and paid at the rate of 
 mercenary troops, generally perhaps a little above 
 the rate of the wages for the labour of the people ; 
 living in idleness, and exempt from hardship, the 
 greater part of their time ; and being therefore 
 satisfied with this ; the expense of one hundred 
 thousand such men, to a people consisting of ten or 
 twelve millions, would not be above the one- 
 twentieth or thirtieth part of the amount of the 
 labour of the people. Or, if you suppose that ten 
 or twelve millions of people will turn out two 
 millions of working hands, it would not require 
 more than one-half an hour, of eight or ten hours' 
 labour in the day, to support it. 
 
 Where the sovereign authority* is supported 
 by the power of wealth, the land being taken away 
 from the people, and also almost the whole produce 
 of their labour, ^. e., almost the whole of their pro- 
 perty (these two comprising the whole of it), the 
 
 * In almost all civilised states, the wealthy, i. e., the 
 aristocracy, make use of an army as means to support their 
 power ; though, for distinction sake, we have considered the 
 matter as above. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 151 
 
 part returned to them being, as has been before 
 shown, not above one-ninth of it ; the expense to 
 the people, for the charges of government, amounts 
 to a great proportion of what they have : so that 
 the people actually give that proportion of their 
 property and labour to be governed. 
 
 Secondly, A government supported by wealth is 
 seldom affectionate and in the interest of the people. 
 When the sovereign is the choice of the people, 
 selected by them for his superior qualities, it is pro- 
 bable that some degree at least of reciprocal affec- 
 tion must take place : there are very few disposi- 
 tions in which it would not : the natural temper of 
 some of the monarchs at least, would be good ; 
 some men are naturally kind, humane, compas- 
 sionate, and grateful: whenever these good dis- 
 positions occurred, the people would feel the good 
 effects of them : but where wealth rules in the 
 abstract, as it were, from thence what are we to 
 expect ? Trade knows no friends or kindred — 
 avarice no compassion — gain no bounds. 
 
 Thirdly, A government that is supported by 
 the assumption of the wealth of a nation into the 
 hands of the few, is objectionable ; because, if 
 found oppressive or injurious to the people, it is 
 most difficultly removed. The principal part of 
 the wealth of the whole nation being in possession 
 of, perhaps, one eighth or tenth of the people ; 
 
162 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 who, with the superior knowledge their education 
 gives them, in all the arts necessary for the 
 purpose ; with the means of deluding, bribing, 
 decoying, and compelling the common people to 
 serve by requisition ; with the power of rendering 
 themselves the legislators exclusively, and of 
 making every step taken by their opponents 
 illegal and punishable with death : in fine, by 
 being in the possession of the arms, fortresses, &c., 
 &c., are in number sufficient to keep under their 
 subjection the rest of the people, though so much 
 exceeding their own numbers ; and this they may 
 do till they have carried their oppression to a 
 certain degree which cannot be borne by the 
 people. 
 
 It happens that unanimity and agreement are 
 preserved amongst the opulent, and jealousies 
 and disagreement prevented, in a manner that 
 would not be expected in a mass of people so very 
 discordant in many respects. This discordance 
 arises from the great difference in the degree of 
 wealth, and from many of them living and preying 
 on others of them ; and holding invidious supe- 
 riorities, and controlling powers, &c. This agree- 
 ment, notwithstanding those obstacles, is occasioned 
 by the reflection which every one of them makes, 
 that though there be a great diflference in their 
 conditions, yet still the condition of the least of 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 153 
 
 theAi is abundantly better than that of the people ; 
 that it gives them a comfortable sufficiency and 
 independence ; that the assurance and preservation 
 of this situation depends on the integrity and 
 entirety of the whole body. He therefore cor- 
 dially unites in his endeavours to preserve the 
 great body of his party, and its interests, entire ; 
 which by union only can subsist, and the condi- 
 tion, advantage, and privileges of each individual 
 of it be continued. Conscious of the advantages 
 they assume over the people, they consider them- 
 selves as looked upon as enemies by them, who 
 must, therefore, they think, be waiting for oppor- 
 tunities of reclaiming what they esteem their 
 rights : and the seeing them at the doors in such 
 superior numbers to themselves is a further 
 motive for their strict union ; as, on the aggression 
 of foreign enemies, domestic feuds and political 
 contentions cease. 
 
 SECTION XXYII. 
 
 ^ ON NATIONAL REVENUES. 
 
 These are only to be found in civilised states, and 
 therefore require to be treated of here. I have, 
 notwithstanding, on this subject little more to say. 
 
154 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 than to correct that which seems to me to be an 
 erroneous idea entertained by the public in most 
 civilised states. In order to do this^ it might be 
 necessary to consider what a revenue is. 
 
 A revenue, then, is, in the first instance, a sum 
 of money collected from the people and paid into 
 the public treasury annually. It has been observed 
 before, that though the money seems to be the 
 subject-matter of the revenue, it is not such in 
 effect : for, in the first place, in order to procure 
 this money, commodities of various kinds, as those 
 of the produce of the lands, of the manufactures, 
 &c., are raised and sold; and the money, when 
 paid to government, before the exigencies of state 
 can be supplied, must again be changed into the 
 very articles, or some such as have been sold, to 
 procure that money ; for example, the beef, pork, 
 corn, wool, &c., that the farmer sold to raise the 
 money that was paid by him or his landlord for 
 taxes, must be bought again with the money, 
 before the ships of war can be victualled, armies 
 clothed, &c. The use of money in this case,* only 
 prevents the necessity of carrying the things from 
 the place where they are raised, to the place where 
 they are consumed. But this matter has been 
 explained before. A revenue, therefore, consists 
 
 * Vide Note, p. 131. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 155 
 
 of articles collected from the people^ to be applied 
 to the use the public service requires. Now, what 
 are those articles ? The general answer to this 
 question is, that they are the things that the labour 
 of the people has produced ; and that of course 
 they must be collected, directly or indirectly, from 
 the poor, before they can make a part of the 
 revenue. 
 
 This is a plain, and, I believe, just account, or 
 idea, of what a revenue, or, as it is called, re- 
 sources, of a country are ,* for want of which, 
 what has generally been said concerning them, has 
 been hardly intelligible, and has given occasion 
 to such different and opposite opinions relating to 
 the state of them. 
 
 The intention of all we have to say is, to caution 
 politicians against relying too much on the power 
 and resources of their respective nations, and, 
 depending on these, leading them imprudently 
 into wars, schemes of commerce, and other such 
 projects. 
 
 The great object of triumph with most powers 
 is the increasing state of their revenues ; and the 
 grand object of their attention is the continuance 
 of them. To this idol is sacrificed everything. 
 To it are devoted the lives of the people in a thou- 
 sand different ways. If the West India islands 
 destroy thousands and ten thousands of soldiers ; 
 
156 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 if misery and slavery are entailed on millions of 
 our fellow-creatures ; it must be suffered, it is said, 
 for the sugar brings in a great sum to the revenues. 
 If the distillers convert a substance, that is a most 
 wholesome food, into a most pernicious poison ; it 
 must be suffered, becausie it brings in large sums 
 to the revenues. 
 
 And what is this great subject of national joy, 
 triumph, and confidence ? Is it really an increase 
 of those articles which constitute substantial and 
 beneficial wealth ? 
 
 The increase of revenues arises from two 
 sources — the one, from the increase of those things 
 which pay a duty, excise, &c., whether they are 
 consumed at the places where they are raised, or 
 are exported or imported ; the other, from the 
 increase of taxes and other impositions. With 
 respect to the former, we have before demonstrated 
 that these articles cannot be increased, but by 
 drawing off more of the labour of the poor from 
 producing the necessaries of life, and such things 
 as they themselves use. Whatever, therefore, the 
 increase of revenue may be from this source, it 
 must bear an exact proportion to the decrease of 
 the necessaries of life, and of the sustenance of the 
 poor. 
 
 With respect to the other cause of an increased 
 revenue, viz., the increased taxes, it is in exact 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 157 
 
 proportion to the increased ingenuity, and the 
 more successful invention, of the financier; by 
 which more is drawn from the people in general,* 
 and a stiU further shortening of the meals of the 
 poor is occasioned. To these two causes the in- 
 crease of revenues is to be attributed. The effecting 
 of which is too often considered as the greatest 
 achievement of the greatest statesmen. From this 
 they expect 
 
 Egregiam pariter laudem, et spolia ampla referre. — Yirg. 
 We have heard much said of the inexhaustible 
 resources of many civilised powers. That which 
 is meant by these resources is, I apprehend, that 
 the revenues equal the expenses, and that they are 
 capable of increase so as to keep pace with them. 
 
 The resources of a nation can be said to in- 
 crease only when the revenue is capable of in- 
 crease. The revenue of a nation can be capable of 
 increase only by the people's becoming more capa- 
 ble of paying the taxes which compose the revenue. 
 The people who pay all the taxes are either of the 
 class of the rich, or of the class of the poor. The 
 rich can only become able to pay more taxes, by 
 becoming more rich ; but they cannot become more 
 rich, except by their claim of the labour of the 
 poor becoming greater, and, of consequence, 
 
 * Vide Section on Taxes. 
 o 
 
158 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 making the poor still poorer — that is, compellable 
 to render more of their labour to the rich, and of 
 course enjoying fewer of the fruits of it themselves. 
 The ability of the poor to add to the revenue 
 can only be increased by their increasing in 
 number. The increase of the number of the 
 peoplie is much too slow to keep pace with the 
 increase of the taxes, and is not in such a de- 
 gree as materially to increase the revenue. The 
 people in no state of Europe have ever increased 
 above the five hundredth part, annually. What- 
 ever fresh taxes are laid on the poor, as will be 
 seen hereafter, are, in effect, laid on the necessaries 
 of life. In both cases, therefore, the increase of 
 the revenue can be effected only by a proportiona- 
 ble decrease of the necessaries of life to the poor.* 
 There is only one instance which can be an 
 exception to the observation, that all new taxes 
 bear on the poor ; namely, where the increased 
 taxes are laid on the rich only, and where they 
 pay them by diminishing their former expense or 
 consumption. In this case, there would be a mere 
 
 * Nor does the ease with which large loans are obtained, 
 show anything else than the extreme inequality of property 
 subsisting ; or, in other words, the magnitude of the power 
 of the rich over the labour of the poor, by which they can 
 force from them such vast quantities of the produce of their 
 labour. But this must end in the extreme exhaustion and 
 misery of the labouring people. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 159 
 
 change in the articles consumed, not an increase of 
 the consumption. How often this might be the 
 case cannot be determined. Every man who did 
 not before spend the whole of his income, would 
 now, probably, pay the additional taxes out of his 
 surplus income, and continue spending, i, e. con- 
 suming, in the same degree as before. And, 
 wherever it was possible, every person, who spent 
 his whole income, would endeavour to increase his 
 income, rather than diminish his enjoyments ; the 
 landlord would raise his rent, the professional man 
 his fees, and the tradesman the profits of his trade. 
 In all these cases the private consumption remain- 
 ing the same, the public consumption is augmented 
 as much as the new taxes amount to ; of course, 
 more of the fruits of the labour of the poor is con- 
 sumed, and the quantity left for them to consume 
 is lessened. Hence the increase of the resources of 
 a nation ; or, what is the same thing, the increased 
 revenue is the lessening of the necessaries of life, 
 to the poor, very nearly in proportion to the 
 augmentation of the revenue. 
 
 An increase of revenue thus operating as a 
 decrease of the sustenance of man, must have 
 an effect on the number of the people. Where 
 the people, with respect to number, are sta- 
 tionary, it must occasion a decrease ; where they 
 are in a state of decrease, it must accelerate it. 
 
160 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 Hence, therefore, an increase of revenue must 
 have an opposite effect on the number of the 
 people ; and, what perhaps is more to be lamented, 
 it must occasion a great augmentation of their 
 misery — by which their decrease of number is ever 
 attended. To suppose always that a people can 
 bear an increase of imposition, which is meant by 
 the term resources, because it is submitted to, and 
 that no visible effect follows from it, is to draw a 
 doubtfal conclusion. The complaints of the poor 
 are made with a voice that seldom reaches the 
 Treasuries ; and the effect on their numbers will 
 not be known without a more minute inquiry than 
 is usually made. 
 
 If taxes increase, and individual wealth also in- 
 creases, both which are an increased demand on 
 the produce of the labour of the poor, the state of 
 the poor will soon be reduced to one similar to that 
 in China ; but whether that degree of want and 
 misery will be borne by the nations of northern 
 climates, that is submitted to by the inhabitants 
 of the southern latitudes, the effects of which 
 are to relax their bodies and weaken their minds, 
 may very well be dreaded. 
 
 The principle that ought universally to guide 
 lawgivers, in imposing taxes, is, that they should 
 bear no harder on one order of people than on 
 another. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 161 
 
 SECTION XXVIII. 
 
 ON TAXES. 
 
 Taxes are laid both on the superfluities and neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 Taxes laid on the superfluities affect the rich 
 only. Taxes on the necessaries of life affect both 
 rich and poor ; but they affect them in a different 
 manner. On the rich, both operate as taxes on 
 superfluities, for a rich man will never deprive 
 himself of any necessary of life, whatever addi- 
 tional price a tax may lay on it ; he will first part 
 with some superfluity, to pay the tax with : with 
 respect, therefore, to the rich man, all taxes are to 
 be regarded as on superfluities. To the poor man, 
 a tax on the necessaries of life proves really such ; 
 and he can no way pay it, but by diminishing the 
 quantity he uses of something necessary to his ex- 
 istence. The deprivation of a necessary of life, and 
 that of a superfluity, are of so different a nature 
 that no comparison can be made between them; 
 and therefore no difference in the proportion, as to 
 the quantum, can make a tax on the rich and the 
 poor man equal. We have said before, that 
 every tax that is laid on the poor man is, in 
 eflfect, a tax on the necessaries of life. He 
 uses nothing but what may be strictly looked 
 on as a necessary of life ; if he uses anything that 
 seems to be a superfluity, he must give up some 
 o 2 
 
162 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 necessary to obtain it. Tea, and tobacco, may be 
 thought superfluities ; but the state of his stomach 
 requires them: he cannot quiet the cravings of 
 hunger so cheap, or at all, in any other way. That 
 which removes the cravings of hunger, will be 
 allowed to be necessary. 
 
 As there can be no comparison between a tax on 
 a superfluity, and a tax on a necessary of life, 
 and as there can be no tax on a necessary, with 
 regard to the rich man, it is rendered impos- 
 sible to proportion a tax betwixt a rich man and 
 a poor man. The most just mode of taxation, there- 
 fore, is to tax superfluities only ; or, which is the 
 same thing, to tax none but the rich, and those in 
 proportion to their riches. 
 
 There is a considerable difiiculty in determining 
 the point at which we may suppose riches to com- 
 mence. We have said, that if every person was 
 allowed to enjoy the whole fruits of his labour, 
 he would enjoy as much of the necessaries of life 
 as a famQy of the present times, in most countries, 
 which has an income of about one hundred and 
 fifty pounds per annum. We will consider this, 
 therefore, as a state of sufficiency, and this is the 
 state above which, for want of a more definite 
 point, we think all should be obliged to contribute 
 to the expenses of government. 
 
 The next matter to be adjusted is the propor- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 163 
 
 tion that men of different degrees of riches should 
 pay to the support of government, ^. e, be taxed. 
 The common ratio proposed, as I apprehend, is, 
 that if one man has one hundred a-year, and 
 another a thousand, the latter should pay ten times 
 more than the former. This difference is not great 
 enough, as it seems, for this reason : All the things 
 which are used by man, we divide into two kinds, 
 viz., necessaries, and superfluities. It is evident 
 that there is no line to be drawn, on one side of 
 which the things are all absolutely necessary ; on 
 the other, absolutely superfluous : there is, there- 
 fore, an impropriety in using the words necessary 
 and superfluous, for these words do not admit of 
 degree ; we will therefore drop them, and substi- 
 tute the word usefulness in , the place of them. 
 We may consider all things used by man as useful, 
 but differing in the degree of usefulness ; as in the 
 instance of a pound of bread a-day, to the wearing 
 of a diamond of the value of half a million of 
 money. They differ in the degree of usefulness 
 as much as animals do in size ; as an elephant does 
 from an insect which requires to be magnified 
 many hundred times, before it is visible.* It 
 
 * We may therefore suppose a scale to be formed, in the 
 different deg^rees of which all the articles used by men may 
 be ranged ; beginning from those that are necessary to their 
 existence, and rising to those that are utterly superfluous. 
 
164 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 should seem that all articles, in proportion as they 
 are more distant from those that are necessary to 
 support life, would give the least trouble to the 
 owners of them, when parted with ; they ought, 
 therefore, first to be taxed : but to determine which 
 those articles are, and in what degree of our scale 
 they rank, may not be readily done. It seems 
 likely that the larger a man's fortune is, the more 
 he has and uses of them, and particularly of those 
 in the upper part of the scale ; the diminishing, 
 therefore, of his fortune is in effect to cut off the 
 least useful or superfluous articles ; — this is done by 
 laying taxes on income. So far seems clear. But 
 the manner of proportioning the share that men of 
 different degrees of riches ought to bear, of the 
 taxes, is not so evident. Whatever a person of 
 about one hundred and fifty pounds a-year uses, 
 are those articles that may be deemed as near the 
 lower extremity of the scale of usefulness, as not to 
 be parted with without much inconvenience. Those 
 things the man of fifty thousand a-year uses, are 
 most of them useful only in. a very light degree ; 
 or they may be called superfluous : a great number 
 of those ought to be given up for one of those at 
 the lower extreme : but the exact number of these, 
 and from what part of the scale of usefulness these 
 ought to be taken, cannot be precisely determined. 
 But we can readily determine that the present 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 165 
 
 mode is not justly proportioned. We have ob- 
 served that the present mode is — if a person of one 
 hundred pounds a-year pays ten pounds, a man of 
 of one thousand pays one hundred pounds a-year. 
 In this case, the former gives up something highly 
 useful, if not necessary, to his family, whilst the 
 latter gives up nothing but what is in a much less 
 degree useful, and bordering on such as are super- 
 fluous. What a man of ten thousand a-year gives 
 up is in a still less degree useful, and approaching 
 still nearer to what is superfluous. It would be 
 desirable that the part each rich man should pay 
 towards the taxes should be regulated by some 
 gradually increasing series — to increase, for in- 
 stance, as the squares of the income of each person, 
 or in some arithmetic or geometric proportion ; this 
 would entirely prevent any arbitrary and partial 
 assumptions, as is the case at present, where it is 
 evidently in favour of the rich, and that in a 
 greater ratio as they are more rich. 
 
 This increasing series, viz., as the squares of 
 the income, seems a very just proportion, till it 
 arises to above £1,000 per annum. A proportion 
 similar to this might, no doubt, be applied to 
 larger incomes. 
 
 In such a case, a tax would be no grievance. 
 In the first place, it would lessen the real comforts 
 of no one of the taxed persons ; in the next place. 
 
166 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 it would not affect the poor, as it would not in- 
 crease the consumption : of course it would not 
 call off more than before of the labour of the 
 poor from working in the production of the ne- 
 cessaries of life, and consequently for themselves. 
 Thus, we will suppose those rich men spent their 
 incomes before^they were taxed — that is, that they 
 consumed to the full amount of them : we will also 
 suppose that the part of their income, taken from 
 them by the tax, is laid out in articles to be con- 
 sumed by an army or navy in time of war ; this 
 would be only changing the articles consumed, not 
 increasing them. Whereas, if you tax the poor, ^. e, 
 necessaries, the rich consuming nearly as before, 
 the poor must continue the consumption nearly as 
 before, since that admits of little reduction: of 
 course general consumption is increased by so 
 much as the tax amounts to. 
 
 Neither would it in any degree lessen the state 
 and grandeur of the great, for this is merely 
 comparative ; and as all would sink together, the 
 fall bearing an exact proportion to the height from 
 which each person falls, the same distance would 
 be kept between them as before. The simile of 
 Bishop Watson (in a pamphlet published some 
 years since) would be perfectly just, when applied 
 to them ; but when applied, as his Lordship has 
 done it, to all people in general, rich as well as poor, 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 167 
 
 it is not so : for in that case^ the poor must give up 
 the necessaries of life, the rich the superfluities — 
 which affect the persons, from whom they are 
 taken, in a very different manner. 
 
 SECTION XXIX. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 HaVing given, under different heads, the effects 
 of civilisation on the mass of the people in most 
 European states, it may not be amiss to draw 
 the most material of them more closely together, so 
 as to bring them under one view. 
 
 We have seen that a small number of people in 
 these states have first got possession of the land, 
 the stock on it, and everything that it produces ; 
 and then, by the means of these, have obtained 
 the command of the labour of the people. 
 
 This comparatively small part of the people 
 being thus in possession of those things, and the 
 power connected with them, are naturally desirous 
 of securing those their great advantages over the 
 rest of the people ; and to put it out of the reach of 
 those people to recover them. 
 
 The power they are in the possession of 
 furnishes them with the means of securing itself. 
 
168 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 as well as the wealth which is the foundation of it. 
 To avail themselves of this power, the first step is 
 to take the right of making laws, exclusively of the 
 people, but which shall bind the whole people, 
 into their own hands — i. e,, to assume the legislative 
 power. This they do by means of their wealth. 
 
 Having gained this important point, the next 
 step was to make use of and exercise this legisla- 
 tive power, by enacting such laws as would 
 effectually secure to them the object in view — 
 i. e., to enact laws to secure property. The 
 things of which the people are destitute — namely, 
 the land and its produce — ^being such things 
 as are in a high degree necessary to the com- 
 fort and very existence of the people — to ena- 
 ble the rich to retain these, must require 
 strong and severe laws. This we find was done. 
 The laws securing property in most civilised 
 nations are of the most severe kind — severe in the 
 penalties and punishments inflicted ; severe in their 
 long duration ; severe by their pain and torture ; 
 horrid by the terrors and agonies by which the 
 minds of the unhappy sufferers are agitated and 
 distracted, for many months, under their dreadful 
 sentences.* 
 
 * By the laws of England, there are above 160 different 
 offences which subject the parties, when found guilty, to death 
 without benefit of clergy.— [This was so in 1805. — Ed.] 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 169 
 
 These few, ^. e. the aristocracy, being possessed 
 of the property of the whole people, and haying 
 power of claiming almost the whole labour of 
 them ; and having also, by the means above men- 
 tioned, secured it firmly to themselves ; their 
 next consideration is to make use of and apply this 
 labour in such a manner as that it shall produce 
 such things as will most gratify their desires and 
 inclinations, and administer to their ease and 
 pleasure. This is done by the manufactures of 
 various kinds.* These, therefore, are introduced, 
 and forced on the people by all the means that 
 artifice and power can furnish ; notwithstanding 
 the employments are such as include everything 
 that human nature — till by long habit it is broke to 
 them — feels irksome, nauseous, painful ; and not- 
 withstanding they are unwholesome, debasing, and 
 destructive of mind and body, to such employments 
 nineteen-twentieths, of the men, their wives, and 
 infants, are condemned, during all the years, 
 months, and days of their lives ; enjoying a very 
 small part of what their labour yields. These 
 
 From the year 1792 to 1799, inclusive, were discliarg-ed 
 from g-oals and hulks, in London, 21,893 persons. — P. Col- 
 quhouUy LL,D, 
 
 * There are many persons, no doubt, who really think 
 that the manufactures benefit the people, and act with 
 sincerity in promoting" them; but there are many others 
 who cannot be ignorant of their effects. 
 
 P 
 
170 HALL ON CIVILISATIOlSr. 
 
 employments, together with their poverty and 
 want, occasion the miseries and mortality before 
 stated. 
 
 Most of the civilised states of Europe, not 
 content with bringing miseries on their own people, 
 extend their baneful influence to nations, in- 
 habitants of the remotest parts of the earth. 
 How many millions of the most harmless and 
 innocent race of people to be found, have been by 
 a few avaricious traders reduced to misery and 
 famine ! How many from Africa have been 
 brought to a worse condition than our cattle, by 
 other sets of traders ! 
 
 The sum, therefore, of the effects of civili- 
 sation, in most civilised states, is to enable a few 
 of mankind to attain all possible enjoyments both 
 of mind and body, that their nature is susceptible 
 of; but at the expense, and by depriving the bulk 
 of mankind of the necessaries and comforts of life, 
 by which a great proportion of them is destroyed, 
 and the remainder reduced, both corporally and 
 mentally, far below the most savage and barbarous 
 state of man. All these things being brought 
 about in a regular, orderly, silent manner, under 
 specious forms, with the external appearance of 
 liberty, and even of charity, greater deprivations 
 are submitted to by the poor, and more oppression 
 exercised over them, by this cool, deliberate. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 171 
 
 systematic junction of art and force, than force 
 alone was ever known to accomplish. 
 
 This, as we have said, is the actual state of 
 things in most civilised countries ; but I by no 
 means assert that this state was brought about by 
 the express design or the contrivance of any set of 
 people in these communities. After the assump- i 
 tion of the land in large parcels, and the inequality j 
 of other property, which was the consequence of it, ' 
 took place, it is probable that the power which 
 followed, in those that possessed that property, 
 over the rest of the people, was the spontaneous 
 and almost necessary cause of the present system, 
 in most civilised states ; but we are not, on that 
 account, to be less anxious for its amendment. 
 
 SECTION XXX. 
 
 THE METHOD PROPOSED FOR THE REMOVAL OF 
 THE EVILS COMPLAINED OF. 
 
 Having now stated the unhappy situation of 
 
 the mass of the people in most civilised nations, 
 
 and also assigned what I apprehend to be the true 
 
 cause of it, it now remains to propose a remedy 
 
 for it ; but 
 
 Hoc opus, hie labor. 
 
172 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 This, however, does not arise from any difficulty 
 in finding an appropriate remedy ; for when the 
 true cause of a disease is discovered, we are seldom 
 at a loss for a cure. The difficulty arises from the 
 unwillingness of those who occasion the evil, and 
 who imagine that it is for their interest that it 
 should continue, to permit the remedy to be 
 applied. 
 
 An ancient physician says, that all changes in 
 the constitution, though even from worse to better, 
 ought to be gradual. I believe the same caution 
 will still be more necessary in regard to the 
 political constitution; great disorder and even 
 convulsions are apt to be raised in both consti- 
 tutions, by a hasty and indiscreet use of powerful 
 remedies. But it has been found by experience, 
 that the human constitution will bear, in large 
 quantities, powerful medicines, if administered 
 with skill and caution. The remedy I have to 
 propose in the disease of civilised society is power- 
 ful, and a powerful one in this case seems to be 
 required. It is not, however, a dangerous one, 
 and may be safely committed to the hands of such 
 persons as are disinterested and dispassionate. To 
 obtain such persons, they should be taken, not 
 from the aggrieved party, for from that quarter 
 they would not probably be cool and temperate ; 
 their feehngs, from the pressure which they have 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 173 
 
 undergone^ would probably urge them on too 
 violently. On the contrary, as neutral persons are 
 hard to be found, they should be taken from the 
 aggrievers, or the aggrieving party ; for, though 
 we may be inclined to do justice, we are seldom 
 so hasty and violent in doing it to others, as we are 
 to have it done to ourselves. Such persons might 
 be safely entrusted with the management of the 
 most powerful means. It would be better, there- 
 fore, that the redress of the grievances of the poor 
 should originate from the rich themselves. 
 
 The cause of the evil having been demon- 
 strate3~tb"be tlie great inequality of wealth, the 
 re medy must necessarily be, either to remove this 
 inequality, or to counteract and to prevent its effects. 
 As to the first, I would only propose the abolition 
 of the law of primogeniture*, which is to be found 
 in most nations, and the annulling of which, in the 
 course of no long tim€, would, as has been before 
 shown, have greater effects than may be imagined. 
 It is a practice which, to consider it in a private 
 view, does not seem conducive to the happiness of 
 the people; a practice that makes beggars fre- 
 quently of all the children but one ; and, if the 
 parent has an equal affection for all of them, is 
 
 *This, with the other reformatory measures proposed 
 by Dr. Hall, indicate less success in sug-gesting" remedies 
 than in describing the evils of society.— [Ed.] 
 p2 
 
174 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 scarcely a less grievance to him than to the 
 younger children. A possessor of a large estate 
 has in this case but one, perhaps, of a large family 
 provided for ; and to provide for the others in a 
 way in any degree suitable to the manner in which 
 he has brought them up, or that would be expected 
 from him, he is embarrassed all his life — and not 
 one father in twenty has the conduct to effect it. 
 A law attended with these circumstances would 
 not, as it should seem, have been continued so 
 long, had there not been some reason, not avowed, 
 for it. A family, with a head raised so much above 
 the rest, gives a miniature of monarchy, and has 
 from that resemblance, and from other reasons, 
 been supposed inclinable to support prerogative. 
 Alas ! how few institutions in most states have the 
 good of the public in view, either in their origin or 
 continuance ! 
 
 As to the other mode, namely, to prevent the 
 effects of wealth. It has been shown that the chief 
 effect of the unequal distribution of property is the 
 drawing off the labour of the poor from producing 
 the necessaries of life, and employing it in pro- 
 ducing the refined manufactures. The obvious 
 remedy, therefore, is the prohibition, by law, of 
 these refined manufactures, or the subjecting 
 them to such heavy taxes as would much lessen 
 the production of them. The direct operation of 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 175 
 
 this would be the prevention of the effects of the 
 alleged cause : this would be drawing the venom 
 from the jaws of the serpent, and depriving him of 
 the power of destruction; this would prove an 
 effectual cure, and that in a manner safe, peaceable, 
 and constitutional ; liable to occasion no disorder 
 n the constitution, no convulsion in the state ; 
 and requires nothing to be put in execution, but 
 a real desire in the rich of redressing the grievances 
 of the poor. Neither is it a novel, untried method ; 
 the enacting sumptuary laws having been the 
 practice in many states and ages. Here, then, is 
 the cure — ^not Utopian, but simple in its nature, 
 easy in practice, and certain in effect. 
 
 The advantages of this method are obvious. In 
 the first place, the change may be introduced by 
 as slow degrees as shall be found requisite, so as 
 not to throw artificers out of employ, till labour is 
 found for them in agriculture, and the arts subser- 
 vient to it ; which will soon be the case, as the 
 capitals before employed in the refined manufac- 
 tures, now less in demand, will of course be trans- 
 ferred to agriculture, &c.* 
 
 Another circumstance, that renders this mode 
 less exceptionable is, that it will alleviate the 
 miseries, and bring comforts to the poor, without 
 
 * See Note P. 
 
176 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 in any proportion diminishing the gratification of 
 the rich man. Will the latter be less warm in a 
 second cloth than he was in a superfine ? Will he 
 sit easier in a carved than a plain chair ? Will he 
 sleep better in a silk than in a linen bed ? Will 
 he eat less heartily, his appetite unhurt by 
 excesses, on plain beef and mutton, than he now 
 does on high-seasoned dishes, unnaturally pro- 
 voking it ? The truth is, the pleasures which the 
 rich enjoy are by no means equal to the sufferings 
 the poor undergo, in the present system. 
 
 It has been observed, that in every science, the 
 more thoroughly it is understood, the fewer and 
 more simple are its principles and precepts ; hence 
 the remedy proposed, being single, and in its nature 
 simple, carries a presumption with it that the true 
 cause of the evil in question has been assigned. 
 
 SECTION XXXI. 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 If the facts produced in the foregoing treatise, 
 and the reasonings founded on them, be true and 
 just, it is evident that the far greater part of the 
 labour and industry of mankind is ill directed; 
 and, instead of being beneficial, is highly prejudi- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 177 
 
 clal to them. The subject of it, therefore, is of the 
 greatest importance to the civilised world ; no other 
 subject affects so great a number of men, nor so 
 nearly, as this does. Hence, therefore, it seems 
 that no apology should be required from any person 
 who should endeavour to throw a light on it. But 
 there will probably be, notwithstanding, some 
 persons whose blame will be incurred by an attempt 
 of this kind. They may say that such inquiries 
 have a strong tendency to render the poor discon- 
 tented. In answer to this, it might be said, that a 
 representation of the hardships and sufferings of 
 the poor will have very little effect in occasioning 
 the discontent apprehended, if those sufferings and 
 hardships are not real. If the poor do not undergo 
 and feel those disadvantages, neither what has 
 been said here, nor what can possibly be said, will 
 make them believe they do, and consequently 
 cannot create discontent. Is such an appre- 
 hension, therefore, to suppress all inquiries in 
 this matter, and to prevent all endeavours 
 to draw the attention of the public towards 
 it? But if their grievances are real, who is 
 the man that will say that these, and the causes 
 of them, ought not to be made public ? Are 
 almost the whole of mankind to remain objects 
 of oppression and injustice, without any hopes 
 of, or any means taken to obtain, an alleviation 
 
178 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 of their sufferings and degraded state, for ever ? 
 But, if it is allowed that the evils of the poor 
 are to be regarded, and that means are to be used 
 for their relief, what other method can be had re- 
 course to, than that of inquiring into the reality of 
 the existence of those, evils, and discovering the 
 cause of them ? If this is not done, how can the 
 aggrieved apply for redress ; or the aggrievers, 
 though inclined to do it, grant the redress re- 
 quired ? 
 
 If any man thinks the people suffer the cala- 
 mities which r have declared myself to believe they 
 do, and also if he is persuaded that the cause 
 assigned is the true cause of these calamities — if 
 he thinks this is not at all, or not sufficiently known; 
 can he, if the principles of justice, humanity, true 
 patriotism, or religion, have any influence on his 
 mind, do otherwise than I have done ? 
 
 These sufferings of the poor, in order to be 
 seen, it has not been necessary to go in search of 
 them ; they occur everywhere, and obtrude them- 
 selves on everybody's notice — more frequently, 
 no doubt, more unavoidably and affectingly, to a 
 medical practitioner than to any other person. A 
 physician does not go out of his way ; does not 
 officiously make inquiries in a subject he has no 
 concern with; does not deviate from his proper 
 line of duty, which is to alleviate, by all means 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 179 
 
 in his power, the sufferings of man ; does not 
 intrude his opinion on matters he has no know- 
 ledge of^ nor presume to judge of that which he 
 has not received the proper means of enabling him 
 to form a judgment of. I trust, therefore, it will 
 appear to every humane and candid mind, — 
 
 1st. That the direct intention of this work is 
 to discover a remedy for the evils attending civili- 
 sation. 
 
 2ndly. That in order to discover and make 
 known this remedy, it was necessary to inquire 
 into and discover the cause of the evils. 
 
 3rdly. That, in order to discover and demon- 
 strate the cause of the evils, it was necessary to 
 investigate their nature, and the reality of their 
 existence. 
 
 4thly. That, in order to induce those who had 
 it in their power to remove those evils, and 
 administer relief to the sufferers, it was necessary 
 to state them in a full manner, and to demonstrate 
 the cause of them; and that especially because 
 those persons who are the causes of them, are pro- 
 bably ignorant of their being so. 
 
 If, therefore, the direct and obvious intention 
 of the book is as above, and the means used to 
 obtain what is intended are natural and necessary, 
 the author cannot be responsible, or in any 
 degree blameable, for the oblique applications 
 
180 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 and consequences that may be apprehended from 
 his statement of the evils, or of the inquiry into 
 the cause of them. 
 
 The apprehensions that are entertained are, 
 that the people, from the foregoing statements, 
 may possibly be more sensible of the hardships 
 they suffer, and therefore bear them less patiently; 
 and that, being made acquainted with the cause 
 of them, might be induced to use endeavours to 
 remove them. With respect to the former ob- 
 jection, it has been already answered ; with 
 respect to the latter — namely, the discovering 
 the cause of their sufferings — if the cause is the 
 true one, I hope there will not be found one 
 man in Europe who will not be ashamed to say 
 that it ought not to be discovered. If the cause 
 assigned be not the true cause, it ought by reason 
 and argument to be shown that it is not the true 
 cause; as by such discussion only the true one 
 can ever be expected to be discovered. Are we 
 rather to admit a present and greater evil, than 
 one that is less, and in apprehension only ? 
 
 In fine, it is to be considered that the subject 
 of this work does not relate to a few persons, to a 
 small portion of mankind ; that it does not relate 
 to some inconsiderable inconveniences only, which 
 may attend them, but that it concerns the great 
 mass of the people, the bulk of mankind, the 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 181 
 
 inhabitants of the land, as far as civilised nations, 
 or the power of civilised nations — that is, to almost 
 all the known world — extends : and that the object 
 of it is to remove the greatest evils that can afflict 
 all this great part of mankind — their hunger, their 
 nakedness, their disease, and premature death. 
 
 SECTION XXXII. 
 
 THE CAUSE OF THE DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON 
 THIS SUBJECT. 
 
 It must be owing to some particular cause, 
 that opinions so distant from the truth are so 
 generally held. 
 
 This is, evidently, because the subject is not 
 open to fair and unbiassed discussion, like other 
 branches of knowledge. It is somewhat complex 
 and abstract, and therefore can be treated only 
 by people of education. But, unfortunately for ^ 
 the poor, few of these are to be found in their * 
 order ; and still fewer who will take up their 
 cause, contrary to their own interest. Persons •■"■' 
 of education are generally of some property, of 
 the learned professions, or privileged orders — for 
 whose interest it is that things should remain as 
 they are. So far, therefore, are they from in- 
 vestigating the matter with disinterestedness, and 
 Q 
 
182 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 a real desire of discovering the truth, that they 
 with great industry discountenance and oppose 
 such inquiries being made by other people, and 
 endeavour to render such truly philanthropic 
 attempts unpopular and uncreditable ; branding 
 such people with the odious names of innovators, 
 levellers, &c. Hence, the state of our knowledge 
 and practice on this subject, by far the most 
 important to the human race, is as it was several 
 centuries ago, and in times of the greatest ignor- 
 ance and darkness. 
 
 SECTION XXXIIL 
 
 THAT THE FACTS SET FORTH IN THIS WORK^ 
 AND THE CAUSES OF THEM, ARE NOT GENERALLY 
 KNOWN. 
 
 From every information which I have received, 
 both from such writers as have fallen into my 
 hands, and from general conversation, I have 
 reason to think that the principal facts set forth in 
 this work are not at all, or but little, known ; inso- 
 much, that it might be considered as a phenomenon 
 in the civilised world, not a little extraordinary. 
 I think, however, that it may be accounted for, in 
 some degree at least, in this manner — viz., by con- 
 sidering that those persons^ whether authors or 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 183 
 
 others, that were most likely to discover truths of 
 this kind, are people who do not expect to be 
 benefited by the discovery of them. I do not 
 say this as reflecting on mankind, by insinuating 
 that they were wilfully blind to the knowledge 
 of the above facts ; but we well know that 
 few discoveries are made, in any of the arts, 
 in which the inventors of them are not interested. 
 Necessity — that is, the highest degree of interest — 
 is the parent of invention ; and we may say, the 
 only parent who produces it. Men can very 
 rarely employ their thoughts intensely on any 
 subject which is of no concern to them. On the | 
 other hand, in case our interest is against any,i 
 discovery, if any thoughts arise in the mind con- 
 cerning it, they are unattended to, or are soout 
 suppressed, as useless or disadvantageous; and! 
 this often passes in the minds of people unob- 
 served, and without their being conscious of this 
 their seemingly unfair and uncandid mode of 
 proceeding. As our interest secretly biasses us 
 in favour of everything that promotes itself, so 
 does it secretly divert us from everything that 
 opposes itself. 
 
 Wh.ether this accounts satisfactorily for the 
 phenomenon or not, I will not say, but it is difficult 
 to ascribe it to any other cause that is more pro- 
 bable. It is certain that most of the facts stated. 
 
184 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 and the observations on them, are not known ; or, 
 if known by some certain persons, are intention- 
 ally suppressed, and kept back from the knowledge 
 of the public. Is it generally known by the rich, 
 that there is great reason to think, that, out of nine 
 or ten millions of people, no less a number than 
 five hundred thousand die annually for want? — 
 that the poor do not enjoy that content of mind 
 which they are usually represented to do ? Are 
 they, the rich, aware of the pernicious effects of 
 wealth, and the manner in which it operates, in the 
 production of these efiects ? Are they sensible of 
 the real tendency of manufactures, trade, and com- 
 merce — that they retract from millions the neces- 
 saries of life? Are they not, on the contrary, 
 taught to believe, that, by encouraging them, they 
 benefit the poor ? Are they aware that they them- 
 selves are the real efiicient causes of all the miseries 
 of the poor ; assured, as they have ever been, that 
 they were the source of all the plenty and comforts 
 of the poor ? Are they sensible that the situation 
 of the poor is not necessarily such as it is, but that 
 it is the direct and necessary consequence of the 
 system of civilisation ? Are they sensible that the 
 eflfects of civilisation, with regard to a nation, con- 
 sidered as the collected body of the people, are 
 contrary to what they are commonly supposed to 
 be — viz., to weaken a nation, to impoverish a nation. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 185 
 
 to render a people more ignorant and more bar- 
 barous ? Are they, the rich, sensible that they take 
 to themselves, without moving one of their fingers 
 in producing them, nine-tenths of the products of 
 all the labour of the poor ; and only leave them the 
 remaining one-tenth to subsist on ? Do the rich con- 
 sider that everything they use or consume, though 
 apparently so different from the coarse food, coarse 
 clothing, &c., of the poor — for instance, when they 
 are wearing their fine laces, their silver and gold 
 silks, their diamonds, &c. ; when they are sitting 
 in their costly carriages — in short, in almost every 
 action of their lives — that they are wasting and 
 consuming the bread, the clothing, and the fuel, 
 of the poor ? Is all this commonly known to the 
 rich ? If it is not, ought it not to be made known 
 to them — to them who are the causes of it ; to them 
 who have it in their power to remove and remedy 
 it ; to them, of whom many, no doubt, when they 
 know it, wiU be instantly disposed to apply the 
 proper means to cure it ? Are not such, therefore, 
 to be made acquainted with the effects of their own 
 actions ; or is it a principle, and a determined re- 
 solution, in most civilised states, that the represen- 
 tations of the grievances of the poor, and the 
 demonstration of the causes of them — however 
 great the former, or however clear the latter — are 
 never to be made public, lest the poor should get 
 Q 2 
 
186 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 a knowledge of them ? I have presumed that this 
 is not the case; but that, when the rulers in most 
 civilised states, and the wealthy subjects of them, 
 are informed of the evils they perhaps unknow- 
 ingly occasion, they will consent to such means as 
 are necessary to remove them, — and this has been 
 the motive and expectation that has produced the 
 present work. 
 
 SECTION XXXIY. 
 
 ON THE MEANS OF LESSENING A SCARCITY, WHEN 
 EXISTING. 
 
 We have shown that the prevention of a scarcity 
 of the necessaries of life can only be effected by 
 removing the cause, which, as we have shown 
 also, is the employing too few hands in agriculture. 
 But this preventive method can only take place 
 at some distance of time prior to the existence of 
 the scarcity. When this actually presses, other 
 methods must be had recourse to. 
 
 On the occasion of the late scarce seasons (I 
 am now speaking with respect to England), several 
 methods were taken, and many more proposed, 
 which were not put in execution. Some of these 
 means were really intended, and were well adapted. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 187 
 
 to lessen the evil. Others were designed rather to 
 amuse and silence the conlplaints of the people, 
 than to afford any great relief. Of the latter kind 
 were the calumnies and prosecutions against the 
 millers, regraters, &c. and the methods made use of 
 to force the farmers to bring their corn to market. 
 To these may be added the serving out corn at 
 reduced prices. We shall presently see that 
 these methods were both ineffectual and bearing 
 unequally. 
 
 The former methods — namely, those that 
 would have the effect of lessening the scarcity 
 and preventing the famine — could only be of two 
 kinds, viz., the increasing the quantity of pro- 
 visions in the land; and the more frugal use of 
 those already in it. The former of these is to 
 be done only by importation. With respect to 
 the latter, various methods may be taken. That 
 retrenchment could only take place in the con- 
 sumption of the rich, is evident. The poor were 
 sufficiently stinted by the high price provisions 
 sold at. It might be asked, what were the articles 
 in which the rich abridged themselves ? None, 
 I believe, were thought of but that of bread. 
 Bread, it was said, was the staff of life — ^it was 
 therefore thought sufficient to be sparing in the 
 use of that. In the consumption of other kinds 
 of food, they gave themselves the same latitude 
 
188 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 as before. There were very few even that pre- 
 tended to do more. But it should be considered 
 that the mass of food, or that which is the sus- 
 tenance of man, consists of articles of various sorts ; 
 and whatever is wasted, of any one kind, lessens 
 the quantity of the whole, and, of course, the 
 whole quantum or aggregate of the sustenance 
 of man ; and there are very few articles which the 
 rich use, that would not be more proper to 
 abridge themselves in the use of than bread. 
 Bread is much less nutritious than most other 
 substances which we use as food ; such as beef, 
 mutton, pork, venison, fish, cheese, butter, &c. 
 A retrenchment in any of these articles would 
 have been of more service to the poor than in 
 that of bread, and in most of which there might 
 have been a much greater saving : for of bread, 
 little is used among the luxurious or their ser- 
 vants; of course, little can be saved from it. 
 This, I fear, the rich made choice of, not because 
 it was the most proper article, but because it was 
 the least sacrifice, and required the least self- 
 denial. A few ounces only of bread are eaten at a 
 meal by the luxurious ; but in their soups, their 
 gravies, their sauces, their stews, &c., a very large 
 quantity of animal food is consumed; an ounce 
 of which affords more nourishment to a poor man, 
 and better supports him under his labour, than 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 189 
 
 three times the quantity of bread, or of almost any 
 kind of vegetable. We will put the gratifying of 
 the appetites of the poor, though there is no 
 reason why that should be done, out of the 
 question. A great deal of barley — which would 
 have been of great use, in that extremity, for 
 bread, might have been saved — by lessening the 
 profuse use of ale amongst the servants and retainers 
 of the rich. But a still greater saving might 
 have been made by the rich, if they had with- 
 drawn the quantity of oats that were given to 
 their carriage horses, their hunters, their race, 
 saddle, and army horses. But this, though pointed 
 out, was not put in practice — this would have 
 reduced the condition and high order of their 
 horses ; and to have seen the horses in that state, 
 would have given more pain than it did to see 
 the thin, pale, squalid faces of the poor. If the 
 humanity of the rich had reached to this mode of 
 relieving the poor, it would have done a great deal 
 more than all the other means did, that were made 
 u-se of.* 
 
 * The raising" the provender for horses takes up a great 
 part of the land. In the open parts of the kingdom, which 
 till lately contained a great share of it, beans were grown 
 alternately with wheat ; so that they occupied nearly one- 
 half of the land. They were almost wholly used for horses. 
 From this circumstance it appears, how great a part of the 
 
190 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 The retrenchment, however, in the use of any 
 of the articles of food, certainly, as far as it went, 
 was a real alleviation of the distresses of the poor ; 
 but it did not, alas ! go far. 
 
 The other methods that were chiefly used had 
 not, I am afraid, this effect. These were the sub- 
 scriptions that were set on foot, to give the poor 
 corn, &c., or to sell it them at reduced prices : and, 
 what was chiefly relied on, the obliging the parish 
 officers in England to serve out to the poor certain 
 quantities of corn, weekly ; which was not con- 
 fined to the paupers, but all the labouring people 
 of the parish were furnished with it. These were 
 the proceedings alluded to as ineflectual.* The 
 latter was very heavy, amounting to infinitely more 
 than all the other contributions, and was very 
 grievous to the farmers, having doubled and even 
 trebled their before high poor-rates. It is just 
 that the rich should contribute to the poor accord- 
 ing and in proportion to their ability; but a 
 farmer — ^if we estimate it either as to the capital he 
 is master of and employs in his business, or as to 
 his income — contributes ten times as much to the 
 poor as the draper, who is only rated according to 
 
 land in those parts is employed to raise provender. It is no 
 doubt the same in other countries, though there it is not so 
 evident. — The hay is not taken into this account. 
 * Vide p. 187. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 191 
 
 the rent of the house he lives in. To make this 
 appear, we will suppose the farmer to rent £200 
 per annum, and that the produce of the farm is 
 three times the rent, i. e, £600 ; one-third of this 
 goes to the landlord, another for labour, and a 
 third to the farmer, to support himself and family. 
 The farmer is rated at £200; but the draper, whose 
 income also may be £200 per annum, is rated only 
 at £20 perhaps, for his house — e. e., one-tenth of 
 what the farmer is. It is true the stock in trade 
 of the draper is liable, in this country, to be rated 
 to the poor; but the law is so tender, lest the 
 tradesman's credit should be hurt by too nice an 
 examination into the value of his stock, that the 
 fact is, he is scarcely ever assessed for his stock ; 
 and when he is, it is always greatly under its 
 amount. It might be said that the farmer is 
 allowed for his poor-rates in his rent : be this as it 
 may, this additional burden by a new express law, 
 and particularly bearing on them, was never ex- 
 pected, and of course could never be allowed for. 
 Freeholders, occupying their own small estates, 
 certainly felt the whole weight of it. 
 
 The farmer, next the labourer, is infinitely the 
 greatest benefactor to his fellow-creatures ; yet he 
 is, notwithstanding, a very unpopular character, 
 in most states. This his unpopularity is brought 
 about, as we have seen before, by the mercenary 
 
192 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 means made use of, by wliich the opinion is 
 sedulously propagated among the poor. The 
 owners of the land, though their whole employ- 
 ment is to consume, without moving a finger 
 towards the reproducing of that which they 
 consume, are considered in a much less individious 
 light than the farmers, the greatest number of 
 whom work hard in raising the necessaries of life, 
 and partake very sparingly in the use of them.* 
 
 But, as we have said before, the method above 
 mentioned, made use of to relieve the poor, was 
 not only ineffectual as to the end in view, but 
 tending greatly to increase the evil. In a scarcity, 
 the quantity of corn the season produces is insuf- 
 ficient to supply the people until the next harvest. 
 In this case, it ought to be so managed, and served 
 out to the people in such a quanity, as to hold out, 
 without the necessity of diminishing that quantity, 
 till the harvest; in the same manner as, on board a 
 ship at sea, the crew are put upon short allowance. 
 The price of corn (in this term we include all 
 other provisions) being raised according to the 
 quantity in the country, does the duty of the officer 
 at sea, that serves out the bread, &c. to the crew. 
 The people are limited in their consumption, by 
 the money they have to lay out in corn, &c. If 
 
 * Vide Note W. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 193 
 
 the price is high^ they buy less, so as not to exceed 
 the quantity prescribed as it were by the scarcity. 
 But if money is given to them, by which they can 
 buy more, or if they are furnished with corn at a 
 lower rate than the market price, they will 
 consume daily in such quantities, that it would not 
 last till the harvest ; so that, in the latter end of 
 the summer, there would be no corn in the land, 
 and an absolute famine would be the consequence. 
 The use, therefore, that the distribution of money 
 could be of, would be then only when given to 
 very poor people who did not earn the average 
 wages, enabling them, by the assistance of that, to 
 purchase the quantity equal to what the poor in 
 general could buy. 
 
 If the knowledge of the quantity of corn in the 
 country could be by any means obtained, as it may 
 on board a vessel, the ratio might be proportioned 
 with more exactness ; but as we are all convinced 
 that that cannot be done, the best course is, to be 
 guided by the price, which is probably always, 
 at least generally, regulated by the quantity of corn 
 there is to be brought to market ; if there is no 
 officious interference to prevent its being so, by 
 magistrates, or collections or riots of the people. 
 
 B 
 
194 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 SECTION XXXY. 
 
 WHETHER THE CULTIVATION OF COMMONS IN 
 ENGLAND WOULD PREVENT SCARCITY THERE. 
 
 It has frequently been proposed, as the means of 
 obtaining a greater plenty of the necessaries of life, 
 to bring into a state of cultivation the moors and 
 commons, of which there are a great quantity dis- 
 persed in the different parts of the kingdom of 
 England. 
 
 In order to judge of the propriety and the ten- 
 dency of this measure, to produce the end that was 
 had in view, we must consider the nature of the 
 different kinds of commons — as far at least as is 
 necessary to resolve this question, which is of con- 
 siderable moment to the public, and to the poor 
 in particular, of this nation. 
 
 All the different kinds of commons cannot be 
 here enumerated, nor is it necessary for the pre- 
 sent purpose. 
 
 The first kind to be distinguished from others 
 is, those common pieces of land that are found in 
 common and open fields, in the unenclosed parts 
 of the kingdom, viz., Gloucestershire, Oxford- 
 shire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Leicester- 
 shire, Lincolnshire, and many others. These 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 195 
 
 parcels of land in the open fields are used as pas- 
 tures for the milch cows and other cattle ; or are 
 sheep-walks, and belonging to the farmers who 
 hold the arable parts, which are in a state of seve- 
 ralty. These, in the open state of the parishes, 
 cannot probably be better applied. After the en- 
 closure takes place, they are generally ploughed 
 up, if the soil is proper for it. 
 
 Other commons may be divided into forests, 
 moors, downs, &c. Some of these latter are 
 frequently private property. The only distinction 
 among them, that need be made as to the subject 
 of this inquiry — namely, whether they ought to 
 be broke up or not — is, that they are of two kinds, 
 viz., such as will immediately bear good corn crops 
 with little labour and expense ; and others that 
 require great labour and expense, and also time, to 
 bring them about, as it is called. 
 
 Of the first sort, there are many commons and 
 downs in the western part of Devonshire, and in 
 Cornwall. Many of these, or parts of these, being 
 pared, burnt, and limed, will with one ploughing 
 bear great and good crops of wheat, and a crop or 
 two of oats (the third crop perhaps is improperly 
 taken) ; after which they are laid down to pasture, 
 which is generally as good at least as it was before. 
 There is no doubt, therefore, as to the advantage of 
 raising crops of grain from them ; since, as walks 
 
196 HALL ON CIVILISATIOlSr. 
 
 for sheep^ or pastures for lean beasts, they yield 
 little profit for the owner or the public. 
 
 The second sort is so much the greater in 
 number and quantity, as almost to deserve to be 
 considered as the only commons in the kingdom. 
 These lands require great labour, time, and ex 
 pense, before they can be brought to bear any 
 tolerable crops of grain, turnips, or grass. And 
 notwithstanding the cultivation of these may an- 
 swer the proprietor's views, it does not those of 
 the public ; for it happens, in this instance, that 
 his interest and that of the public are different : 
 the proprietor's expense is repaid not altogether 
 by the present annual produce ; he is creating, as 
 it were, a fee-simple estate, and therefore expects 
 his whole return only at some distance of time : 
 but the public is interested in the quantum of the 
 annual produce ; and for it to answer the proposed 
 views, the produce should be immediate. If, there- 
 fore, any considerable number of hands were taken 
 off* from the working on other and better lands, 
 and employed on these commons, the consequence 
 would be a great reduction in the quantity of 
 the necessaries of life. The richer the land, 
 the greater the quantity of provisions is yielded 
 by the labour bestowed on it. Until the good 
 land, therefore, is cultivated in the utmost 
 possible perfection, the labour should not be 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 197 
 
 taken off from it, and applied to the poor lands. 
 It has been demonstrated before that the powers 
 of the land, ^. e. the fertility, being given, the pro- 
 duce is in proportion to the labour bestowed upon 
 it. The converse of the proposition is, that the 
 quantity of labour being given, the produce is in 
 proportion to the goodness of the land. The pre- 
 sent remedy, therefore, as has been shown, and 
 which will be the proper remedy for many years 
 to come, is to put more hands to work on the land 
 that is already in a state of cultivation. 
 
 SECTION XXXVI 
 
 ON THE RISING ARISTOCRACY OF THE AMERICAN 
 STATES. 
 
 It has been before observed, that there is a very 
 striking difference between these States and any of 
 the European nations — we except some of the 
 remote parts of the Russian empire, as the condition 
 of them is little known ; and in that circumstance 
 which chiefly distinguishes the European from the 
 American States, the contrast is not so strong. 
 
 This difference consists in the greater increase 
 of the people in the American States, they doubling 
 r2 
 
198 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 every fifteen or twenty years. Those in Europe do 
 not double in five hundred. 
 
 This greater increase of the people of America 
 cannot be atributed to the chmate ; that of few or 
 probably of none of these states being so favourable 
 to the health of mankind as the European ; and 
 three or four of the States are justly considered as 
 unhealthy, being, from the excessive heat, putrid 
 marshes, and overflowing rivers, subject to very 
 destructive fevers : the increase, therefore, is not to 
 be looked for from that, or, probably, any other 
 physical cause. 
 
 It is, no doubt, owing to the cause which we 
 have before suggested, namely, their inhabitants 
 being better sustained ; and this arises from the 
 whole land not being appropriated in the manner 
 that it is in Europe ; on which account the poor 
 can easily, at least more easily, obtain sufficient 
 means, with their industry, to rear up the children 
 that are born : which we have seen is not the 
 case in Europe. Their employments, which are 
 almost wholly in the fields, being of a much more 
 wholesome nature than those of manufacturers, are 
 another cause contributing to the rapid increase of 
 the people. 
 
 Notwithstanding this circumstance — which is 
 not only an indication of the superiority of their 
 condition, but itself constitutes that superiority — 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 199 
 
 and notwithstanding its present state is in most other 
 respects so much more advantageous than that of 
 Europe; yet it is observable how earnest and 
 impatient the people in America are to arrive at a 
 similar situation to that of the nations of Europe, 
 and, in. consequence of this, what endeavours are 
 making to obtain it. As the measures now taking 
 may have a different operation from what is 
 expected, it behoves them well to consider the 
 matter, before they go so far in the business that it 
 will be too late for them to recede. Their situation 
 at present is evidently thriving. Is any material 
 change, therefore, advisable ? 
 
 The Americans, it cannot be doubted, have a 
 knowledge of the peculiarities of their own 
 situation; and it seems to me that they might acquire 
 a just idea of that of the European states, by con- 
 sidering some of the facts stated in this treatise, and 
 by that means be enabled to make the comparison 
 between them, and form a judgment whether any 
 change be necessary to be made in their own state, 
 and what practices of the European states are to be 
 avoided by themselves. 
 
 One leading object with the American States 
 seems to be the increase of the people. They may 
 be induced to wish this, partly from a fallacious 
 principle. They think that by an augmentation 
 of their number, they shall be better enabled to 
 
200 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 defend themselves against any attempts of the 
 European powers to subjugate them. This idea is 
 just : it is^ however, perhaps, unnecessary to be 
 acted on, from the consideration of their remote 
 situation, and the failure of an attempt of that kind 
 by one of the most powerful of them ; and of their 
 being now so much stronger than they were at the 
 time of that contest. The other idea, and which 
 we think fallacious, is, that the riches of a country 
 consist in the number of its inhabitants. Con- 
 cerning this, we have before spoken. 
 
 But, admitting both those advantages which are 
 expected from the increased number of the people, 
 do they take the right course to obtain it? — to 
 wit, by the introduction of manufactures, which 
 they have endeavoured hitherto, invitd Minerva, 
 to establish among themselves. On this subject 
 they think with the many — that manufactures will 
 give them a balance of trade, and consequently 
 enrich ; and that they will increase the number of 
 the people. It is not necessary to repeat the refu- 
 tation of these opinions. 
 
 At present, the Americans enjoy many of the 
 advantages of an equal state of property ; but it is 
 not because there are not in America a considerable 
 number of rich men, and that an aristocracy has not 
 considerable footing and weight there; but it is 
 because there is room backwards for the poor 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 201 
 
 to recede from the wealthy, and by these means to 
 get beyond the reach of the lash of their whip : they 
 can back, in the coachman's phrase, till they arrive 
 at places where they can work for themselves^ and 
 receive all the fruits of their labour, which cannot be 
 done where the land is engrossed by the few. But 
 this state will not probably last many ages : they are 
 taking the most direct methods that can be devised 
 to establish an universal aristocracy. 
 
 The state, it is understood, claims the disposal 
 of all the unsettled lands, and is now selling them, 
 and applying the produce in paying off the 
 national debt. This seems, on this last consi- 
 deration, a just and proper measure; and it is 
 improper only as to the mode in which it is 
 done. The objectionable part of it is, that they 
 grant it in large tracts, consisting of two or three 
 hundred thousand acres or more, to one person ; 
 who either keeps it, till, by the settlements 
 coming up to him, the land becomes more valuable, 
 or sells it out to other people still in large parcels i 
 of several thousand acres each. Here is at once ' 
 the foundation of great landed property. These 
 grandees, in an age or two, will have estates as 
 large as the princes of the blood in France lately 
 had. Here is at once the establishment of 
 allodial lords, or of more modern nobility — dukes, 
 counts, barons, &c. It matters little whether 
 
202 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 they have these titles or not, they will have all 
 the power which the people of these orders 
 hold in Europe. If manufactures are not 
 introduced, these great proprietors will support 
 their authority by keeping up a large number 
 of retainers, as the ancient barons did. If manu- 
 factures are introduced, they wiU keep up their 
 influence by means of their wealth, as the great 
 proprietors in Europe do in the present times. 
 The labourers and manufacturers, or the vassals 
 and boors, will be just in the same situation as 
 they are in France, or in Germany, Livonia, 
 Estonia, &c. 
 
 There is the same division of the people 
 observable in America, that there is in Europe : 
 the inhabitants are divided into rich and poor 
 there also — with this difierence, that the rich bear 
 a less proportion in the former than in the latter. 
 The rich in America are composed of people who 
 have large tracts of land granted them, or are 
 become rich by traffic and commerce. But the 
 proportion of little proprietors is much greater 
 than in Europe ; and the labourers are both fewer 
 in number, and their condition much nearer that 
 of the small proprietors — to which order they are 
 every day rising. Their wages being high, and 
 provisions cheap, of course their savings soon enable 
 them to become owners of small parcels of land ; 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 203 
 
 and the chance of being such, makes them indus- 
 trious and frugal, which again is a cause of putting 
 it sooner in their power of being so. 
 
 This, perhaps, is the most happy situation to be 
 met with in this present life — affording constant 
 excitements to industry and action, and equally 
 certain rewards to that active industry. We there- 
 fore may very justly apply to the Americans the 
 lines in Virgil — 
 
 O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, 
 Agricolas ! 
 
 This happy situation of the people will, as it has 
 been remarked before, be of no long continuance. 
 The rich have not only the degree of power that 
 riches give ; but by this power they have already 
 gained the additional one of filling the house of 
 representatives, senate, presidency, and all the 
 other lucrative and influential situations. 
 
 It is to be feared, too, that they will adopt all 
 the same delusive arts, to obtain their own views, 
 which we have observed are made use of in Europe. 
 The people are made to believe that they cannot 
 be a great people but by means of trade, manufac- 
 tures, and commerce. This is natural — it is natural 
 to gratify our own desires at the expense of others ; 
 at least, this is so frequently done as to seem natural 
 to man. The rich cannot have the elegant and 
 
204 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 luxurious enjoyments, without the manufactures; 
 to plant which, therefore, among themselves, is the 
 object in view. But it will be difficult to persuade 
 the people, that to be confined to their workshops 
 is more wholesome and pleasant than working 
 in the field ; and if persuasion is only relied on, 
 the work will be slow. But the operation of the 
 other measures, viz., the granting the great 
 estates, will soon have its full force, and produce 
 the same effects that it has done in Europe ; and as 
 this will be aided by the fortunes already acquired 
 by the merchants, tradesman, &c., it will be sooner 
 brought about. 
 
 It is a childish precaution in the States to refrain 
 from creating any orders of nobility, whilst they 
 1 are laying the most solid foundation for their future 
 J establishment, in granting such large tracts of land 
 to single persons. It is a matter of little conse- 
 quence whether a Spencer y with seventy thousand 
 a-year, is called a Duke of Marlborough or not — 
 is his influence a consequence of having that title, 
 or of having the seventy thousand a-year ? 
 
 The requiring the possession of property, as a 
 qualification for holding places in the senate, house 
 of representatives, &c., in congress, and in the 
 several separate states, is a proof that an aristocracy 
 has already obtained in a considerable degree, and 
 also is the means of augmenting it. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 205 
 
 The means most effectual for obtaining the 
 desired population, would be the granting lands 
 in small quantities, gratis, to all such persons as 
 would form settlements on them, and the oppo- 
 sing the introduction of all such manufactures as 
 are not necessary, as are not of the coarser kind, 
 and are not principally subservient to agriculture. 
 
 It must happen, in the course of time, that 
 the whole world, and every part of it, will be 
 fully peopled, and that the produce of it will be 
 insufficient for the support of the inhabitants, how- 
 ever well cultivated it might be ; but this period 
 must be very remote, and the event cannot be pre- 
 vented by any human means : yet we ought not 
 to anticipate the evil by any systems or practices of 
 our own. This, perhaps, may be the term intended 
 by the Creator for its continuance ; it being, as it 
 seems, inconsistent with his benevolence to extend 
 the existence of a habitable world, after it ceases 
 to afford the means of giving happiness to its 
 inhabitants. It were well if the intentions of 
 man were equally benevolent. This is not the only 
 instance in which the designs of Providence are 
 frustrated by man, and particularly by the rulers 
 of man. 
 
206 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 SECTION XXXYII. 
 
 HAPPIEST STATE. 
 
 A PEOPLE who, from an extreme civilisation, 
 should descend to a medium state — ^. e., to one 
 equally distant from their own, and that of a 
 savage — would probably be placed in that situation 
 which would be the happiest that human nature 
 is capable of enjoying. Mr. Hume, after many 
 other writers, placed the happiness of mankind, 
 as we have before observed, and in part discussed, 
 in action, pleasure, and rest or ease. He is, perhaps, 
 right in the choice he has made of his ingredients ; 
 but is, I apprehend, totally wrong in supposing 
 them to be possessed by the people in general of 
 civilised nations. Some of these advantages are 
 really enjoyed by some in those states, but they 
 are to be found united in a very few only. By 
 some of the individuals, pleasure, and rest, or 
 ease, are exclusively enjoyed : on others, action, 
 but it is laborious action, is imposed. The rich 
 have their rest and their ease to excess ; and 
 therefore have little enjoyment in them. The 
 poor have their action or labour also in excess, 
 to the exclusion of their pleasure and their ease; 
 and therefore to their great grievance, and not 
 happiness. What Mr. Hume says is applicable 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 207 
 
 only to the few, if any, in those refined states 
 in whom these three ingredients are found in 
 due mixture and proportion ; and therefore it 
 was ascribed to civilised people in a manner 
 that, from so accurate a philosopher as Mr. 
 Hume was, would hardly have been expected. 
 Nor is it probable that it is generally enjoyed 
 by any society of people anywhere existing — not 
 by the civilised people, for the causes we have 
 seen; not by the savage people, from their 
 unequal exercise of hunting, and the uncertainty 
 of its obtaining its end. 
 
 This — namely, the proportion and mixture of 
 Mr. Hume's ingredients — is, however, I think, 
 attainable by any civilised state which has the 
 wisdom and justice to submit to the means of 
 obtaining it. 
 
 In order to put it -in the power of the whole, 
 or the bulk of the people in a nation, to enjoy that 
 proper proportion of action and rest, by the inter- 
 change of which the third ingredient spon- 
 taneously follows, two means are necessary — viz., 
 1st, That each man should labour so much only 
 as is necessary for his family ; and, 2ndly, That 
 he should enjoy the whole fruits of his labour. 
 This would give the proper proportion of action, 
 so as to leave the necessary time for rest, which, 
 by the interchange, would give reciprocally to each 
 
S08 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 other its due relish ; of which the third ingredient, 
 pleasure, is chiefly composed. This relish of the 
 action and labour would not be lessened by the 
 apprehension that the end expected from it would 
 not be obtained. 
 
 We have seen the quantity of the produce of 
 the poor is eight or ten times greater than the 
 quantity consumed by themselves ; consequently, 
 one eighth or tenth part of the time he is now 
 confined to labour would be sufficient to furnish 
 him with those things which he at present enjoys ; 
 or if he should, as he would, no doubt, choose to 
 be better supplied, one-fourth or one-third of the 
 time he is now confined to labour, would be 
 sufficient to obtain plenty for himself and 
 his family: and this would perhaps be rendered 
 less, by retaining such machinery as would be 
 applicable to the coarse manufactures, which 
 would yet be useful in this medium state — thus 
 availing ourselves, for the use and real benefit 
 of the people, of that which has been hitherto 
 applied to uses so injurious to them. Three- 
 fourths or two-thirds of their time the whole 
 people might really enjoy, as Mr. Hume supposes, 
 their pleasure and ease, and would truly sub- 
 stantiate, in this medium state, his assertion, 
 which, in the state he applied it to, was in a 
 great measure false. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 209 
 
 To men who are not by their intemperance — 
 which in this state of things would be a rare 
 vice^ for men are seldom intemperate in the 
 use of such things as they themselves produce 
 by their own labour, — I say, to men who are 
 not urged by intemperance to vicious pursuits, 
 their greatest proportion of pleasure would arise 
 from their employing their leisure in study 
 and contemplation, and in the improvement 
 of their minds; whilst for this pleasure their 
 action and relaxation would give them the true 
 taste. 
 
 In the present state, the same degree of 
 wealth which gives leisure for application to 
 intellectual exercises, furnishes also the means 
 of luxury and intemperance, and other methods 
 of indulging the passions ; and thus calls off the 
 attention from mental improvement. This the 
 medium state would not do, which would be 
 the occasion of an infinite increase in the numbers 
 of those who would apply their minds to know- 
 ledge, now so few; being only the remainder 
 of those whose fortunes give them leisure, after 
 all to whom the same fortunes prove an avocation, 
 are deducted. 
 
 We have now attained two ingredients, action 
 and ease ; which (the third flowing spontane- 
 ously from them), according to Mr. Hume, con- 
 s 2 
 
210 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 stitute happiness. The former of these pro- 
 cures the subordinate requisites of human hap- 
 piness. The labour of a father of a family, 
 working a few hours daily on the land, 
 would produce all the food necessary for its 
 comfortable subsistence, and the industry of 
 the other parts of the family would furnish what 
 was necessary for their clothing, &c. : the few 
 things which these would not yield, might be 
 provided by certain persons that might be re- 
 served from the manufacturers, who must be, 
 in that case, sacrificed to the public good, and 
 therefore should be as few as possible ; and those 
 should be requited amply for their submitting 
 to such disadvantages, and be furnished with 
 other gratifications, to counterbalance them. I 
 know but of few things necessary to the most 
 complete happiness, which any inhabited country 
 in the world might not in this manner furnish 
 for itself. These few things are medicines, but 
 these are in number very small, not exceeding 
 half a score, or a few more. These articles, 
 namely, the Peruvian bark, opium, quick silver, 
 brimstone, wine, &c., being almost the only 
 articles in the Materia Medica that are deemed 
 specifics, or that, perhaps, contain any healing 
 virtues at all; the power of aU the other drugs 
 to do good being very doubtful, whilst their 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 211 
 
 powers to do harm are very great,* a society 
 therefore may be, without any great loss, de- 
 prived of them; and perhaps, considering the 
 •unskilful hands who generally use them, without 
 any loss at all. Of these which we have men- 
 tioned, three only are of foreign growth, of which 
 a few ships yearly would bring home, to any 
 nation, the quantity required. 
 
 If it was thought proper to retain the know- 
 ledge and practice of certain languages, arts, and 
 sciences, a few men, whose geniuses for them were 
 distinguishable, might be selected, and likewise 
 sacrificed to the public good ; who should also be 
 amply compensated, and in return be provided 
 Avith necessaries from the surplus in individual 
 hands: and as mankind would in general enjoy 
 leisure, which would be employed by every person 
 according to his inclinations and talents, there 
 would be a much greater chance of obtaining men 
 of great proficiency in every science than there is 
 at present, out of the few that apply themselves to 
 study of any kind. There are in few nations, in 
 the present state of things, above ten or twelve 
 thousand who apply to learning at all ; these are 
 
 * This is also the opinion of Dr. Heberden, who seems 
 to have taken the best method of ascertaining the real 
 powers of medicine. 
 
 (UinVBIlSITTl 
 
212 HALL OX CIVILISATION. 
 
 principally the clergy, in most civilised countries, 
 of whom not one in many hundreds apply to any 
 science, so as to make any improvement in it. 
 
 By this system, another advantage may be 
 gained, which is superior to any consideration I 
 have suggested — indeed, superior to any other 
 consideration that can occur in human affairs, a 
 blessing far greater than is to be found in the 
 most opulent nation, — I mean the certainty of the 
 continuance of those necessaries and comforts of 
 life. 
 
 In this state every man's land, the source of all 
 his comforts, would be unalienable, he could not of 
 course be deprived of it ; and as his time would be 
 so much superior to what is required to procure 
 his daily and annual consumption, a stock for some 
 years may be always on hand, effectually guarding 
 against unfavourable seasons, or other accidents 
 which might occasion a scarcity or famine : all 
 famines, in almost every civilised country, being 
 occasioned by the diverting too much of the labour 
 of the people from producing and laying up a 
 proper stock of provisions. 
 
 It is to be observed that, in most civilised 
 countries, great stocks of all the other works or 
 manufactures of the poor, such as the rich use, are 
 provided and laid up — as is evident by the long 
 credit the merchants and wholesale men can give — 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 213 
 
 but with respect to corn and other necessary things, 
 none is laid up ; the reason of which seems to be, 
 that the rich (the capitalists) are sure, in the worst 
 of times, to procure enough for themselves, and it 
 is to be feared they little regard what may happen 
 to the poor. 
 
 This state of security is by no means to be found 
 in the present state of civil society. No person, 
 however high in the order of the rich, can be sure 
 of the continuance of the possession of his wealth. 
 Distresses, executions, imprisonments, show this 
 daily. These are constantly before our eyes, and 
 no human industry, care, or foresight, can prevent 
 them. The poor, indeed, are exempt from them ; 
 they, alas ! are already so low that they cannot 
 sink lower. In this medium state, what a man 
 had, would be little liable to be taken from him by 
 another — all strife about meum and tuum would 
 nearly be at an end. At present, as among brute 
 animals, all war against all ; so, in a civil state of 
 mankind, all men contend against all men. 
 
 I shall say nothing relating to what the cause 
 of virtue would in general gain by this change ; 
 in which, on the one hand, people being relieved 
 from their extreme want and ignorance, would be 
 free from temptations to thieving and the grosser 
 excesses ; and in particular, from the proneness to 
 drunkenness, to which their poor diet now almost 
 
214: HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 irresistibly drives them. And, on the other hand, the 
 rich would be exempt from the vices their great 
 wealth exposes them to ; especially from that worst 
 of all vices — oppression of their fellow-creatures. 
 
 It has been considered by divines, that man, 
 in consequence of original sin, brought into the 
 world a corrupt nature and wicked dispositions, 
 which are the occasion of all the evils of mankind. 
 It is true, that not all who have studied the 
 Scriptures with equal attention and veneration, 
 agree in deducing the same inference. For my 
 part, who am inchned to draw effects and con- 
 sequences from physical and moral causes, when 
 these appear adequate to them, rather than from 
 any other less suited to human understandings, 
 I cannot help considering aU, or almost all that 
 which is called original corruption and evil 
 disposition, to be the effects of the system of 
 civilisation; and particularly to that prominent 
 feature of it, the great inequality of property. 
 Do we not see in children artless simplicity, pure 
 disinterestedness and benevolence, so constantly 
 as to be characteristic of that age ? and does 
 not Scripture itself characterise children by 
 those qualities, and as such declare them fit for 
 the reception of the Gospel ?* As they advance 
 
 * Monthly Review, 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 215 
 
 in life^ the natural dispositions of that age become 
 gradually altered and corrupted. I would ask 
 whether any other cause whatever is so well 
 adapted to counteract and destroy these good 
 qualities of simplicity, disinterestedness, and 
 benevolence, as the mine and thine established in 
 such a rigorous and unrelenting manner ? What 
 so adapted to destroy the simplicity of children, 
 as the art, the craft, the fraud which their parents 
 and all about them are perpetually, and, with 
 regard to the bulk of mankind, necessarily prac- 
 tising ? What so effectually opposes disinterested- 
 ness, as the necessity they see, as soon as they can 
 observe anything, their parents are under of con- 
 sidering themselves only; and that, with all the 
 attention to themselves only and to their wants, 
 they are still so ill provided? A kind of self- 
 defence and self-preservation renders it impossible 
 for them to show an example of disinterestedness; 
 for them to pay attention to that virtue, would be 
 sheer folly. As to benevolence, they see few in- 
 stances of it exercised on themselves, their parents, 
 or neighbours; and they themselves, having no 
 means of doing acts of that kind, it must be seldom 
 amongst their thoughts. I believe, as long as this 
 system remains, divines may preach, and authors 
 may write schemes of education, as means of plant- 
 ing those virtues amongst men, with very little 
 
216 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 effect, even if corresponding practice in them- 
 selves co-operated with their instructions. 
 
 SECTION XXXYIII. 
 
 WHETHER THE INDUCING AND KEEPING UP A 
 MORE EQUAL STATE OF PROPERTY IS PRAC- 
 TICABLE. 
 
 Many able and good men have seen the evils 
 attending the great inequality of property ; but, 
 not being aware that they were destructive to the 
 degree that we have demonstrated them to be, they 
 have suffered other considerations to overbalance 
 them in their minds. All these considerations 
 have been mentioned and discussed before, except 
 that arising from the difficulty of reducing property 
 to a level, and keeping it so. This has been 
 asserted to be impracticable, and on this supposed 
 impracticability are all the arguments against it 
 founded ; and on this alone all attempts to esta- 
 bhsh it have been reprobated. 
 
 Although the method recommended, for the 
 removal of the evils in civilised states, was very 
 short of a perfect equality of property, it was not 
 from a persuasion that it was impossible, but that 
 it is not advisable ; let us, therefore, see whether 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 217 
 
 it is as impracticable as it is asserted to be, and 
 that with regard to England particularly. 
 
 In the following passage^ of Scripture, Deut. 
 chap. XY. ; Leviticus, chap. xxv. verse 10, Joshua, 
 chap. xxii. verse 8 ; it may be seen that the debts 
 contracted by individuals of the Jewish nation 
 were remitted, and ceased to be recoverable, 
 every seven years ; and that all landed estates, if 
 alienated, returned to their former possessors, every 
 Jubilee, which was every fiftieth year. 
 
 All such persons as believe in the Divine 
 origin of this institution, will not only believe the 
 fact, that such a regulation was established, but 
 also acknowledge the wisdom and justice of such a 
 law. And all other people must allow the fact to 
 be founded on as good historical authority as can 
 be produced, it being not only on that of the 
 sacred writings, but also on that of the Jewish, 
 Greek, and Roman historians, the law and practice 
 being continued down to their times. 
 
 From the above-mentioned passages, it may be 
 inferred, in the 1st place. That an allotment of 
 land was set out for every man, on the first 
 institution of the state, and that, probably with 
 few exceptions, the allotments were equal ; that, 
 therefore, a state of equality of property was esta- 
 lished in a nation by God himself. 2ndly, From 
 the regulations that were to take place every 
 
 T 
 
218 HALL' ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 seventh and fiftieth year, there would be veiy few 
 rich, or very few poor men in it ; and that there- 
 fore this state of equahty would be permanent: 
 for, since every man had a proportion of land 
 equal to his support, none but the very improvi- 
 dent would incur debts ; and if they did, as every 
 man would be freed from them every seven years, 
 it would be only the very improvident indeed that 
 would be reduced to sell their land. And if any 
 one person did bring himself to that necessity, 
 every fiftieth year (which on an average would 
 happen every twenty -five years from the time of 
 the alienation), his land would be restored to him 
 or his heirs ; both of whom, as they must see the bad 
 effects of his conduct, would be more cautious in 
 future, and of course these temporary alienations 
 of land would seldom happen. 
 
 Neither would there, in this state, be any 
 number of rich men, and of course few able to 
 purchase the allotments of other people ; for, as 
 originally, and at the end of every fifty years, none 
 would possess more than one allotment, few sur- 
 pluses of the necessaries of life would arise, which 
 would be the only consideration that could induce 
 the seller to sell, and also the only means that 
 could enable the buyer to purchase ; for, according 
 to Josephus, in his book against Appion,* " The 
 
 * Joseph, contr. Appion, lib. i. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 219 
 
 Jews were mere agriculturists, who subsisted on 
 husbandry, and tilling their ground, having no 
 traffic by sea, like the Phoenicians," &c. In 
 countries where there are no manufactures or com- 
 merce, there is little other wealth but the land and 
 the immediate produce of it. 
 
 From the whole history of the Jewish nation, 
 from the time of their first foundation as a state, 
 till their dispersion under Vespasian, a term ex- 
 ceeding fifteen hundred years, a fact is ascertained 
 which has been confidently denied, namely, the 
 practicability of a system of equality of property, 
 it being not only established in a numerous nation, 
 but was more permanent, and that with a less 
 departure from its original state, than any other 
 system of polity that ever existed in any nation of 
 the world ; and, as far as we can judge, with the 
 best and happiest effect. 
 
 But it might be said, that in the instance of 
 the Jewish nation, the land was originally par- 
 celled out in equal shares before any other ap- 
 propriation of it had taken place, which, therefore, 
 was much more easily done, than it would be 
 in case of making a new division of the land 
 already divided, and in the firm possession of a 
 part of the people, from whom great opposition 
 might be expected. That this would be attended 
 with difficulties must be allowed, but let us see 
 
220 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 whether the opinion of the absolute impractica- 
 bility is well founded. 
 
 Mr. Eden has supposed that there are seventy- 
 two millions of acres of land in England. If, 
 then, the people amount to two millions of 
 families, there would be an average of- thirty-six 
 acres for each family. This portion of land, 
 greater or less, according to the size of the family, 
 would most plentifully supply it with everything 
 that is wanted.* It would also supply labour 
 for two horses or bullocks to work on the land, 
 and would be a proper quantity to keep them 
 employed; and with this quantity of land, the 
 owner might procure a sufficiency for his own 
 use, and wherewithal to barter for implements of 
 husbandry, such as ploughs, harrows, carts, &c. 
 
 The distribution of land might be conducted 
 in the manner following. The state, that is, the 
 collected body of the people, might, as is natural, 
 be possessed of all the land in the nation. By it, 
 it might be parcelled out as above, and to it might 
 revert wholly on the extinction of any of the 
 families, and in part on the decease of any of them. 
 
 * This quantity of land would produce so much as to 
 enable every family to live in such a manner, at least, as 
 one having £150 or £200 a-year .now does, agreeably to 
 what I have before supposed. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 221 
 
 But if the number of families should increase, 
 more allotments might be made, composed of 
 parcels taken from the old ones, Avhich would of 
 course lessen in size as the number increased* 
 
 And this would be the whole of the business 
 of first reducing, and afterwards keeping up, the 
 equal state among men ; for this alone would keep 
 all other things sufficiently equal to prevent any of 
 the present inconveniencies : and surely this is not 
 impossible or impracticable. f 
 
 What is said of the difierence of bodily and 
 mental abilities of diiferent people, their different 
 degrees of industry, &c., these would produce no 
 other effects than that they, who were possessed 
 of them, would be better supplied. It would have 
 no effect in occasioning other men to be worse 
 supplied ; it would be creating no power that 
 
 * For this purpose, the land might be occupied as open 
 fields are, or moveable fences should be used. 
 
 t And this an abolition of the law of primogenitureship 
 would soon effect. A gentleman possessing a landed estate 
 of £1,000 per annum has fiVe children, boys and girls : to 
 each of these he leaves £200 per annum, or 200 acres. If we 
 suppose these five children married, and to have '^ve children 
 each, the portion of each of this third generation would be 
 forty acres. But the land in this case would be kept in certain 
 families. A law to prevent intermarriages of landed people 
 would immediately disperse it among the whole of the 
 inhabitants.— This method of reducing landed property has 
 nothing violent or impracticable in it. 
 
 T 2 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATIOlSr. 
 
 would be exercised over other people, whose 
 unalienable allotments would render them perfectly 
 independent of all other men, whose labour would 
 be for ever free and under their own direction, 
 and the whole of the fruits of which they and their 
 families would enjoy — which surely would be the 
 highest inducement to industry that could possibly 
 be conceived : the supposed want of which, in this 
 state of equality, is the principal objection made by 
 Mr. Hume and Dr. Paley, and the only one they 
 and others seem to rest on. 
 
 Some laws, no doubt, would be necessary in 
 
 ; this simple state of matters ; but they would be 
 
 ifew, corresponding with its simplicity. If a 
 
 ' father of a family, for instance, neglected the 
 
 cultivation of his allotment, and by that neglect 
 
 suffered his family to be ill-supplied, he would 
 
 be a just object of the law. 
 
 But how few would be the laws required here, 
 in comparison with those of most civilised nations ; 
 which hardly any man of the brightest talents 
 and of the greatest industry, and in the longest 
 life, can make himself master of, and are therefore 
 the occasion of so much misery to many people, 
 in almost every civilised state. The simplifying 
 of things seldom renders them more difficult. 
 "Whatever difficulties arise in the present political 
 systems, proper remedies occur at the same time. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATI01S-. 22S 
 
 In almost all states, the laws of them are requir- 
 ing alterations and amendments every day. Do 
 we reject the use of a clock because it requires 
 daily drawing up ? We find that, whatever re- 
 straints and impositions the governments in most 
 civilised countries wish to lay on the people, they 
 easily frame laws to accomplish them. 
 
 But it might be said. If this measure is so 
 practicable, how happens it that it has so seldom 
 been tried ? 
 
 We have heard of three instances where an 
 equality of property has been established; one 
 among the Jews, another at Sparta, and a third 
 under the government of the Jesuits in Paraguay. 
 In all these cases, as far as we know, it was in a 
 great degree successful. But it may be asked. 
 Why have we had no more instances of it ? The 
 cause has been, and continues to be, the avarice 
 and rapacity of man. Until the state of unequal 
 property was established, the evils attending it 
 could not be known ; no means, therefore, would 
 be taken to prevent them. After it had existence, 
 the existence itself would prevent all methods being 
 used to remove it. Men, when they were in pos- 
 session of wealth, and possessed also the power 
 inherent in wealth, would of course employ this 
 power, not to abolish, but to establish the wealth 
 and power more strongly in their hands : an in- 
 
224 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 stance, therefore, where equality of poperty has 
 been fully established, has rarely been seen. 
 
 But although we have had no great experience 
 of the practicability and good effects of the state 
 of equality among people, yet we have had more 
 than sufficient experience of the bad effects of the 
 state of inequality of property. On the side of the 
 former, we have had some experience which was 
 in its favour — on the side of the latter, our expe- 
 rience has been great, and greatly in disfavour of 
 it. To which side, therefore, does experience 
 incline ? 
 
 But if the prospect of any melioration of the 
 state of mankind, from the obstacles and opposition 
 in the way of it, may be impracticable and ideal, 
 yet can it be said that the grievances complained 
 of are ideal ? Are the causes of these grievances 
 ideal ? But if the grievances are real, if the causes 
 of them are real, can a remedy, founded on these 
 evils and their causes, be merely ideal ? 
 
 SECTION XXXIX. 
 
 THAT THE PRODUCE OF LAND IS IN PROPORTION 
 TO THE LABOUR BESTOWED ON IT. 
 
 In order to be convinced that the land is pro- 
 ductive in proportion to the labour bestowed on it. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATIOIS'. 225 
 
 and in particular with respect to England, we may 
 consider that, — 
 
 1st, In most civilised countries, about a third 
 of the land lies in a state of nature ; great part of 
 which, if labour was bestowed on it, would be 
 productive. 
 
 2ndly, Of that which is cultivated, at least two- 
 thirds are in grass, and not more than one-third 
 under the plough. 
 
 8rdly, That the ploughed land, which is the 
 only land labour is bestowed on, and is not above 
 one -fifth of the whole, produces more than all the 
 rest : which will appear, if we consider. 
 
 That the whole of the wheat, barley, oats, beans, 
 pease, potatoes, and almost all other vegetable food, 
 which compose so great a part of the sustenance of 
 the people, is the produce of the land in tillage. 
 Moreover, of the animal food, a great part of it is 
 produced also by the same land — both with respect 
 to the rearing and feeding. Throughout the king- 
 dom, in general, the year-old sheep, and all the 
 fattening sheep, are kept on rape, turnips, cabbages, 
 &c., during the whole of the winter — e. ^., the 
 whole of the scarce season. This is done by means 
 of the great yield of an acre of turnips, &c., being 
 not less than ten times that of grass in winter. 
 Also, a very great proportion of the summer- 
 fattened are fed on the first year's clover, which 
 
226 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 is the immediate produce of the plough, and 
 will carry three times as much stock as the 
 natural grass. As to bullocks, all that are reared 
 after the first year, when they have hay, are 
 maintained on straw, with a few turnips, during 
 the winter season, and a very great proportion 
 of them fatted on turnips and grain in the same 
 season — i. e., all that are fed for more than 
 seven months in the year. Hogs, also, are almost 
 wholly fed on potatoes and grain. The chief 
 part of the provender of horses also comes from 
 the ploughed land, as well as their litter. Hence 
 it is evident that the whole of the vegetable food 
 of man, and at least one-half of the animal food, 
 arise from the ploughed land. It is well known 
 that vegetable food makes almost the whole 
 sustenance of the poor — the great mass of the 
 people. It furnishes the whole of their beverage ; 
 it furnishes the whole of their linen clothing; 
 and, by contributing so much to the support of 
 sheep and cattle, it yields a great part of their 
 woollen clothes, leather, &c. 
 
 Thus it appears that a small part of the land 
 furnishes the chief part of the sustenance of man — 
 probably five-sixths of the whole, in the present 
 state of things : the cause of which is, that more 
 of the labour is bestowed on it than on other parts. 
 It is obvious, therefore, that to increase the 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 227 
 
 quantity of the sustenance, the method must be 
 to increase the cause, which is the applying more 
 of the labour of man to the land. This labour is 
 employed on it : — 1st, By manuring it. 2ndly, By 
 working it. And, 3rdly, By destroying the weeds. 
 Providence has ordered that the remains of all 
 animal and vegetable substances should become, 
 after death, by a natural process — namely, putre- 
 faction — the means of promoting or keeping up the 
 natural fertility of the land. And, as it seems that 
 these are the only substances that have this effect, 
 it is probable that if these substances were 
 returned to it without diminution, and in a proper 
 manner, they are fully equal to the purpose 
 intended.* These matters, which are infinitely 
 more valuable than the filings of gold and silver 
 which the workmen are so careful to preserve, 
 are collected and restored to the soil in a very 
 imperfect manner, for want of sufficient labour 
 employed for that purpose. Animal manure is 
 composed either of the bodies of animals after 
 death, or of the excrementitious parts that proceed 
 from them during life. 
 
 Animals which might be converted to manure 
 after death are either human or brute. 
 
 The former not only make a great part of the 
 
 * Limestone is now known to be the produce of animals. 
 
228 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 living creatures that are to be found in civilised 
 countries, but a very great part of the other 
 are consumed by them. By the custom, therefore, 
 of burying their corpses deep in the earth, the 
 surface of it is deprived of a very great quantity 
 of the manure it would otherwise have. 
 
 The latter — ^. e., brute species of ianimals — are 
 principally, as we said before, consumed by the 
 human species ; so that there is but little of their 
 carcases returned to manure the earth — ^little 
 care being usually taken to return the offal, 
 as bones, blood, &c., to the ground. Of horses, 
 asses, &c., which are consumed by dogs, and 
 birds of prey, none can be said to be returned. 
 
 The other species of manure — namely, that 
 proceeding from excrementitious matters of 
 animals — compose the principal part of animal 
 substances that are returned to the soil ; of these, 
 however, a very great part is wasted. The faeces 
 and urine of the human species, though contain- 
 ing the substance of the greater part of all other 
 animals, and a considerable part of vegetables, are 
 returned to the land in a very small degree ; 
 and those of all other animals, in a manner that 
 does not bring all the advantage to the land 
 that it ought. The dung of cattle and of sheep, 
 falling on the surface, is either in a great part 
 washed away into the rivers by the rains, or 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 229 
 
 left to evaporate by the wind and sun. The 
 dung of neat cattle, falling in large parcels, does, 
 probably, harm to the pastures, by making 
 certain parts of them rank. The waste of manure 
 is particularly great in cities and large towns 
 where the common-shores carry off almost all 
 the refuse vegetable and animal substances. 
 
 All this appears, except the manner of dis- 
 posing of the dead bodies of man, to be occasioned 
 by the want of a suificient quantity of labour 
 bestowed in collecting those animal and vegetable 
 remains, and applying them in the proper manner 
 to the ground; the manufactures being thought 
 to be more productive of bread to the poor, than 
 the richest manure, though it is probable that 
 any given quantity of animal manure will increase 
 the quantity of corn to many times its own 
 weight. 
 
 To preserve the manure, cattle should be kept 
 and fed in houses^ where the dung and urine 
 should by all possible means be collected and pre- 
 served; for which purpose it should be put in 
 places walled and covered. The fodder brought 
 to the cattle would go much further. Both these 
 advantages, in order to be obtained, require more 
 labour. Large quantities of manure, both animal 
 and vegetable, might be drawn from the sea ; as 
 well as lime and earth be burnt — the eflfects of 
 
 TJ 
 
230 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 which can never be lost; for any additional ma- 
 nure laid on the land produces an additional 
 quantity of plants, and those plants, when con- 
 verted to manure, being returned to the land 
 without waste, for ever keep up the increased 
 fertility. 
 
 With respect to the working the soil, it is 
 evident that it is of great importance that it should 
 be done well. It is in general very imperfectly 
 done, both with regard to depth, and to its being 
 reduced to the proper degree of fineness. It is 
 even thought improper to raise much mould, there 
 being seldom sufficient means to enrich it ; but if 
 the quantity of dung is increased, we might avail 
 ourselves of this better method. 
 
 The roots of all plants, when young, are tender 
 and weak; and, in order to their penetrating 
 through the earth and spreading freely among it, 
 require it to be soft and easily pervious to a suf- 
 ficient, that is, much greater than the usual, depth : 
 and for this purpose it is necessary, not only that 
 the ground should be well pulverised before the 
 seed is sown, but that it should be kept so by 
 hoeing or otherwise, during the first stages of its 
 growth. Eains falling after the seed is sown, on 
 soils that have any clayey particles in them, dis- 
 solve the earth into a sort of half liquid or mortar, 
 which, being afterwards baked by the heat, fre- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 231 
 
 quently concretes into such a close and hard mass 
 as greatly to prevent the spreading and growth 
 of the roots, by which means the plant is stunted 
 in its growth, and the yield of seed or corn much 
 lessened. If by accident a grain of wheat, barley, 
 or oats is dropped in a garden where the land is 
 well and deeply worked, sufficiently, but not too 
 richly manured, and afterwards kept clean and 
 loose, with what vigour and richness does the 
 plant grow, how many stalks does it throw up, 
 and what quantity of seed produce ! Every seed 
 of wheat, by proper culture, may be made to 
 produce some hundredfold ; by which, though it 
 it be an inferior consideration, much seed would 
 be saved. 
 
 The destruction of useless plants or weeds is as 
 essential to the growth of the useful plants, as 
 either dung or the working the land ; since the 
 standing of one plant within a certain distance, 
 hinders the thriving of another. • But for want of 
 labour in the extirpating of rooted weeds, and in 
 the preventing the seeds of annuals and others from 
 ripening in the fields and hedges, there are none 
 of our field crops in which there are not plants 
 pecuKar to each soil — ^. e., weeds — in far greater 
 number, probably, than those composing the crop. 
 This is seen among the crops when growing, and 
 in the stubbles after the crop is cut ; where fre- 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 quently the grass and other herbs are in such 
 plenty as to aflFord the thickest and best pastures 
 on the farm ; but the detriment to the wheat, &c. 
 must have been very great, and not to be com- 
 pensated. 
 
 The chief difference between agriculture and 
 gardening consists in the land being, in the one, 
 worked with the plough — in the other, with the 
 spade ; and in the means used afterwards to keep 
 it from weeds, and loose. The latter method is, 
 in general, deus in Flanders. By this the ground 
 is deeply worked, and the manure carefully 
 buried, and secured from evaporation, or being 
 washed away. The labour of doing this is great, 
 but the produce is in proportion still greater. 
 
 In this way, too, the labour would be done by 
 man to the exclusion of horses. In the present 
 system, horses are made use of, in order that 
 the men may be reserved for the refined manu' 
 factures. The reduction which this occasions, of 
 the food of man, is great — one horse consuming 
 as much as eight of the human species ; as is 
 asserted by a writer in Scotland, who had oppor- 
 tunities of seeing it in that country, where the 
 food of horses and men is the same, namely, oats. 
 A saving in the consumption of the necessaries of 
 life for the use of man, is the same as an increase 
 of them in the production. 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 233 
 
 It appears, from the above premises, that one- 
 third of the cultivated land, or one-fifth of the 
 whole land of the nation, produces three-fourths 
 or four-fifths of all the food, both animal and 
 vegetable, for the whole people, even in the 
 present state of cultivation; and this arable 
 land is the land on which most labour is em- 
 ployed. If, therefore, the whole of the land 
 was tilled, the produce would be at least three 
 times the present quantity; and if the whole 
 was cultivated in the best possible manner, as to 
 manure, pulverising the soil, keeping it clean and 
 in a loose state, the quantity of the produce would 
 not be calculable. 
 
 But it may be objected, that all land is not 
 fit for ploughing ; and, 2ndly, that the arable land 
 requires rest, by lying down five or six years. 
 
 As to the first, all land that is dry and sound — 
 which all land is, or may be made so, by skil- 
 fully draining it — would be more productive, if 
 ploughed, than if it remained in grass ; some strong 
 and cold clays, watered, -and other rich meadows, 
 excepted. 
 
 As to the second objection, viz., that land, 
 requires rest by lying down in grass six or seven 
 years, it is, I believe, a very unprofitable notion. 
 The small quantity of grass which, after the first 
 year, is yielded, besides the loss sustained by it 
 v2 
 
234 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 can carry little stock, by which only the land is 
 enriched ; for it is the animal matter received from 
 them by the soil which enriches it. Well-informed 
 farmers know how much better this intention is 
 performed by proper successions of crops — ^. e., 
 the making a leguminous crop always succeed a 
 culmiferous, and by carefully preserving the 
 manure, working the land, &c. 
 
 As the only means by which the land at present 
 in tillage is kept in condition, is, by restoring to it 
 the substances it has produced, in a putrefied state ; 
 and as, by doing this in a more complete manner, a 
 great increase of the produce would be occasioned ; 
 so, by the same means, any additional quantity of 
 land might be supported and kept in condition 
 under tillage, especially if the other methods sug- 
 gested were put in practice. 
 
 What is said on this subject shows, in general, 
 the great increase of the produce of the land 
 that might be obtained by applying more labour 
 to it; and also suggests the method of doing it. 
 What we have further- to say tends to confirm 
 what has been said, and also applies the method 
 to practice, in the case of a single family. 
 
 We will suppose a man with a wife, and 
 three children, all strong and healthy, as the 
 employments and manner of living proposed 
 would generally render them. This family we 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 235 
 
 will also suppose furnished with three acres 
 and a half of land, of the average quality, and 
 that it is also supplied with spades and mattocks 
 of different breadths and sizes, a wheelbarrow, 
 and the other usual tools of a labourer. That 
 on this land, in the autumn, he puts half an 
 acre of wheat in the ground, and a quarter of 
 an acre of winter vetches. After which, during 
 winter, he employs himself in digging with his 
 mattock the rest of the land for his spring crops. 
 Some time in the winter, he sets out one-fourth 
 of an acre of cabbage-plants, of the large kind. 
 In the spring, he sows three parts of an acre 
 with vetches, clover, chicory, beet, parsley, 
 lucerne, or any other productive vegetable, fit 
 for summer fodder for hogs, cows, &c. He also 
 sows one-half of an acre of barley, oats, pease, 
 beans, Indian corn, or other grain, for feeding 
 hogs, &c., and one-fourth of an acre of flax-seed. 
 After this, one-half of an acre of potatoes. In 
 the proper season he sows the remaining part 
 of the land with turnips, rutabaga, rape, Swedish 
 turnips, or any other root or plant fit for the 
 winter keep of his live stock. The proportions 
 of these crops may be varied. The putting in 
 of all the crops, the season for doing which 
 coming on successively, the quantities being 
 what they are, and the man being furnished 
 
236 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 with mattocks of different sorts (the use and 
 forms of which are better known in Devonshire 
 than in any other part), and with the occasional 
 assistance of his wife and children, will easily be 
 accomplished in a proper manner and time. A 
 man with this tool, after the ground has been 
 once ploughed, and the turf rotten, or breast- 
 ploughed and burnt, will easily dig up, to the 
 proper depth, one of the above-mentioned divi- 
 sions in four or five days, for the first time, in 
 winter, — and any subsequent ones in less time. 
 All these crops should be put in rows or drills, 
 or any other manner convenient for hoeing and 
 hand -weeding. These operations, if the weeds 
 are not suffered to grow high, and the ground 
 hard, before the work is done, are performed 
 with great dispatch; and the advantage of the 
 crops being thus kept clean, and the ground 
 loose, is very great. The taking in the produce, 
 being also successive, is very easily managed. 
 
 "With respect to the use or manner of con- 
 suming the produce, it is as follows : — The wheat, 
 which we will suppose to amount to fifteen bushels 
 (it is generally a great deal more on land managed 
 as proposed), the family eats ; as many of the 
 potatoes also are consumed by them as they stand 
 in need of — the rest are given to the cow or hogs, 
 as we suppose the peasant chooses to keep a cow 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 237 
 
 and hogs. He may also keep ducks and fowls. 
 The cow he supports in summer on the vetches, 
 lucerne, &c. ; in winter with the turnips, cabbages, 
 &c. Late in the spring, and before the summer 
 forage comes in, potatoes supply the interval ; some 
 sorts of them, in Devonshire, lasting very good till 
 the new ones come. The cow, thus fed with suc- 
 culent food all the year, will produce a great 
 quantity of milk. By the means of the spare milk 
 and potatoes, and other both winter and summer 
 provisions, some hogs are kept. By the use of 
 potatoes and tail wheat, &c., he maintains a con- 
 siderable number of ducks and fowls : ducks 
 indeed maintain themselves, chiefly, on worms, 
 snails, &c., and are the most harmless and profit- 
 able animal that is kept. The quantity that each 
 of these divisions produces is fully equal to what 
 is required of them. The half acre of potatoes 
 will produce probably one hundred and twenty 
 bushels ; what of those remain, after the family is 
 supplied, will be equal to the keep of the cow 
 the interval between the turnips and vetches, which 
 is short. Half of an acre of vetches, which may be 
 mowed four times, is fully sufiicient for the sum- 
 mer's keep of one cow and a hog, or two or more, 
 according to their size ; and the cabbages, turnips, 
 &c., for them during winter, must be an ample 
 supply. The family will have fifteen bushels 
 
238 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 at least, probably considerably more, of wheat — 
 nearly enough for their whole support, six bushels 
 being deemed sufficient for a grown person; as 
 many potatoes as they can use ; the milk, butter, 
 or cheese, from the cow; the bacon of a hog or 
 two, fed by potatoes and the barley or pease ; some 
 part of the barley for beer ; also the carcase of the 
 calf every year, and the flesh of the cow every five 
 or six, or to share the part of one every year with 
 their neighbours, if so agreed on. 
 
 To keep this patch of land in condition to bear 
 crops, two methods are to be used — to alternate the 
 culmiferous and leguminous crops, and to keep it 
 perfectly clean from weeds, and with a minute 
 attention to collect and convert into manure, in the 
 best manner, all the produce that comes from the 
 farm ; for which purpose the cows and pigs must 
 be kept in houses properly constructed for the 
 different seasons, both in winter and summer. The 
 dung containing all the vegetable and animal 
 matter, carefully stratified, should be kept in a 
 walled and covered place, and a floor of soil of 
 a sufficient thickness laid in the cow-house, to 
 receive the urine ; which soil is to be dug up, when 
 fully impregnated with it, taken out, and fresh 
 brought in. 
 
 The woman, assisted by her children, and also 
 by her husband, prepares the flax, spins, and 
 
HALL ON CIVILISATION. 239 
 
 weaves it ; which, in the coarse manner required, 
 she easily learns to do. What things otherwise 
 are wanted, and cannot be provided by the family, 
 may be procured by some of his surplus produce, 
 by way of barter. 
 
 The cow might be made to plough the land, 
 though that is not necessary, and harrow it; 
 the former, with a proper plough, she could 
 easily do in this well- worked land ; the working 
 her only a few hours a-day would not hurt her 
 milk, but benefit her by air and exercise. Mr. 
 Bake well worked the best of his cows and heifers. 
 Horses should not be kept till we can get rid of 
 the prejudice that prevails against eating them. 
 
 By this method, I presume, five persons may 
 be supported comfortably on three acres and a half 
 of land — that is, nearly a soul and a half to an 
 acre ; in which case, as there are in England sixty 
 millions of acres of land capable of being cultivated, 
 nearly ninety millions of people might be comfort- 
 ably sustained, where nine-tenths of our present 
 ten millions are pining. But, whether I am strictly 
 within the truth in this supposition or not — whether 
 a little more or a little less than three acres and 
 a half may be necessary, I am suificiently near it 
 to prove what I have asserted, viz., that the produce 
 of land is proportionate to the labour bestowed 
 on it, for this produce is much more than ten 
 
240 HALL ON CIVILISATION. 
 
 times as great as the present, and would be 
 proportioned to the number of hands employed, 
 if all the manufacturers, ten times doubled, were 
 added. If an acre more was allowed, a second 
 cow might be kept, which, with the other, would 
 plough all the land * 
 
 * The Earl of Lauderdale calculates that a farm, consist- 
 ing" of 504 statute acres, under the management which he 
 directs, would produce sufficient for the support of one 
 thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven people ; and 
 consequently that nine millions of people would require 
 only 2,412,740 acres. In that case England would support 
 180 millions. This is on a wholly vegetable diet, which, I 
 think, they ought not to be confined to. Many animals 
 might be reared on the waste grain, potatoes, &c. 
 
 Dr. Anderson says, that in the richest land, the difference 
 of produce from tillage and grass is in no case less than as 
 three to one ; in land of a middling quality, as ten to one ; 
 and in land of bad quality, when improved to its highest 
 degree of productiveness, as one hundred to one. — See Dr. 
 Anderson's Correspondence with General Washington. 
 
 The fertility of ground, in temperate regions, is capable 
 of being improved to an extent which is unknown ; much, 
 however, beyond the state of improvement in any country 
 of Europe.— Pfl^^^^'5 Moral Philosophy, vol. ii., book vi., 
 sect. xi. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. 
 Dr. Colquhouis- supposes that above twenty thousand 
 miserable individuals in London, of various classes, rise up 
 every morning- without knowing- how, or by what means, 
 they are to be supported during the passing* day ; or where, 
 in many cases, they are to lodge the succeeding- night. 
 
 To these parishes, Whitechapel and Hamlets, the poor 
 resort, both from the nature of their employments, and the 
 impossibility of finding habitations anywhere else. They 
 have, perhaps, no leg-al settlement where they reside, or the 
 funds of the parish can afford but a very scanty and in- 
 adequate relief. Depressed with sickness, and broke down 
 and dispirited by extreme poverty, the little furniture and 
 apparel of man, woman, and child, is carried to the pawn- 
 broker's, to obtain a scanty pittance for the immediate 
 support of life ; until at leng'th there does not remain what 
 is sufficient to cover their nakedness. In these miserable 
 mansions, the author has himself frequently witnessed scenes 
 of distress which would rend the heart of the most unfeeling- 
 of the human species. — P, Colquhoun^s Treatise on the 
 Police of the Metrojjolis. 
 
 In certain situations at sea, as in the cases of Captain 
 Ing'lefield, Bligh, &c., and the crews of their boats, how do 
 we compassionate them, when we read the narrative ; and 
 how do we burn to g"ive them relief! We have many 
 thousand instances in the metropolis, where the distress of 
 the sufferers is not less, and who are equally unable to 
 procure food ; though in the midst of profusion and waste. 
 About such, notwithstanding-, we give ourselves very little 
 
242 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note B. 
 
 The poorer sorts of society, in great towns, are peculiar!}^ 
 objects of commifseration— the wretchedness of their habita- 
 tions, and the general appearance of distress and poverty, 
 so often observed in them, form a striking- contrast with the 
 ease and opulence of the higher ranks. The state in which 
 so many of them live, however, goes further than barely the 
 deprivation of comforts. From the confined crowded nature 
 of their habitations, contagion is generated and kept alive, 
 and frequently diffuses its baneful influence far beyond the 
 place of its origin. 
 
 The house contains as many families as rooms; and 
 it is stated, on the authority of Dr. Willan, that from three 
 to eight individuals often sleep in the same bed. No means 
 are employed for ventilating the apartment; and, when 
 any one family is attacked with fever, the wretched and 
 perilous state of the whole can hardly be conceived, but 
 by those who have an opportunity of witnessing it. The 
 disease frequently spreads from room to room, till the 
 whole neighbourhood have become subjects of its attack ; 
 and as no proper means are taken to remove the contagion 
 from the walls and furniture of the habitation, a source 
 of febrile infection often continues long, and it is to be 
 feared never entirely disappears from the dwellings of the 
 poor. — Remarks on the Poor of the Metropolis, hy Dr. T, 
 A. Murray. — Medical and PhysicalJournal, 1801, No. xxv. 
 
 Note E. 
 From the many voyages of discovery that have been 
 undertaken by different nations at such great expense ; in 
 which so many hardships have been endured — so many 
 lives lost; from which so great expectations have been 
 held ; on which so great encomiums, as to the charity and 
 public-spiritedness of them have been bestowed,^ — what 
 benefit has been or can be received, either by the people, at 
 whose expense they are undertaken, or by them who may 
 be discovered in such voyages ? The answer to this, which 
 seems to satisfy everybody, is, that they will extend trade 
 and commerce ; the value and advantage of which nobody 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 disputes, but of which nobody has anything more than a 
 general idea. But we should descend more to particulars, 
 and ask in what do these advantages, which they do or can 
 bring us, consist? People do not consider that the whole 
 of trade and commerce is contained in the exchange of the 
 articles sent out and brought home. Now, what articles 
 can be carried out? none, with respect to us, but the 
 necessaries of life, as has been before demonstrated. And 
 from the people discovered, what can be had in their 
 present state 1 Nothing but some natural productions, 
 almost the whole of which, except perhaps a nondescript 
 plant or two, is furs — to all of which, in intrinsic value, the 
 fleeces of sheep are much preferable ; and if they are 
 hereafter civilised, what can then be had, but works of 
 art, of which we have too many already 1 
 
 Note W. 
 
 With respect to the rich farmer, some advantages 
 accrue to the public from his riches, since by them he is 
 enabled to make some improvements in his land, which 
 poorer ones cannot; and no disadvantages arise from his 
 riches, but those which flow from wealth in other persons' 
 hands. A wealthy farmer may be considered in two 
 lights — as a rich man and as a farmer. In the first 
 character, he is an unprofitable consumer, and so far 
 detrimental to a state ; in the other, he is useful in pro- 
 portion to his industry and knowledge. In the former, he 
 is not more prejudicial than any other person of the same 
 degree of wealth ; in the latter, he is much more beneficial. 
 The prejudice against them may possibly arise from their 
 being supposed to have acquired their fortunes by taking 
 advantage of the necessities of the poor, and principally by 
 keeping back their corn from market : to this objection an 
 answer has already been given. 
 
 We may add, that the wealth of a rich farmer may be 
 supposed to have arisen from means that have been of 
 advantage to the people— namely, from his good crops of 
 corn, and other plentiful productions of his farm; for 
 
244 APPENDIX. 
 
 without these he could never have become rich, and these 
 could not be, without greatly benefiting* the people. 
 
 Note K. 
 
 Some people, perhaps interested ones, are often heard to 
 say things very different from these— as, that the rich, by 
 spending" freely their fortunes, encourag-e trade, promote the 
 circulation of money, &c. &c. ; but if we examine this 
 matter a little deeper, we shall discover the shallowness of 
 these notions. 
 
 The rich do not spend their money without having* some 
 return ; this return can be nothing* that is not the produce 
 of the labour of the poor. The return, therefore, may be 
 called the labour of the poor. Now, it is evident, the more 
 labour of the poor is given to the rich, the less must remain 
 to furnish the necessaries to the poor, and the necessaries and 
 comforts to the middle sort of people, who, of course, can 
 enjoy fewer of them. 
 
 We have seen that a man of £40,000 a-year employs 
 1,600 men ; a man of £80,000, 3,200 men. There are said 
 to have been, in France, some princes of the blood and other 
 nobility, who had, before the revolution, £800,000 per annum, 
 they would therefore each employ 32,000 men. Every man 
 who spends £1,000 per annum, employs the labour of 40 
 men. The number of men that are required to furnish the 
 families of the rich with such things as they consume, bears 
 a very great proportion to those that remain to furnish 
 necessaries to the poor, and necessaries and comforts to the 
 middling class of people. It is plain, therefore, the former 
 must be in a great degree destitute, and the latter very 
 scantily supplied— that is, must be in very straitened cir- 
 cumstances. How different is this from the plenty said to be 
 scattered by the rich ! 
 
 In their houses, and immediately round them, profusion 
 is seen ; but for this profusion the people at great distances 
 
 are pinched. 
 
 Note L. 
 Referring to page 37, line 14. 
 
 It is said, things are always to be had, if there is money 
 to buy them ; and, therefore, the*e is really never a scarcity 
 
APPENDIX. 245 
 
 of provisions. This is a matter that requires explanation 
 only to ill-informed minds. 
 
 We will suppose, at a time when wheat was scarce, and 
 sold in the market at twenty shilling's a bushel, that sud- 
 denly all the poor had their weekly pay doubled. The 
 people, in that case, would be able to pay forty shilling's a 
 bushel, and as there would be a great competition, would 
 pay, probably, that price ; but would receive just the same 
 quantity of wheat. No more wheat would be to be had on 
 the account of there being" more money. Again, if the pay 
 of the people was suddenly reduced to half what it was, that 
 half would purchase all the corn— the money that is in the 
 hands of the people, be it more or less, will buy all the 
 provisions in the market, except what is bought up by the 
 . rich. In plentiful years, corn may be kept up for a year or 
 two, but we speak of a number of years together ; in which 
 case, if it is not brought to market, what becomes of it ? — is 
 it thrown into the rivers, or is it buried ? Nothing occasions 
 dearness but scarcity ; and nothing occasions scarcity that is 
 permanent, but there being too few hands employed in 
 agriculture. 
 
 I say nothing with regard to exportation, for I do not 
 confine myself to any one nation, but extend my view to 
 most civilised countries that have any intercourse ; where, 
 if exportation takes place one year, importation does another. 
 
 Note M. 
 Bcf erring to p. 67, I. 18. 
 
 We perhaps may now see somewhat of the motives and 
 principles of that practice, in some manufacturing kingdoms, 
 of preventing manufacturers from leaving their country, 
 by which means they are deprived of the greatest right of a 
 free man, namely, to do the best he can for his own 
 advantage. 
 
 The reason avowed is, that the manufactures are the 
 support of the poor ; and that, by suffering the manufacturers 
 to take them out of the kingdoms to which they belong, the 
 remaining poor would be hurt. This is a presumption not 
 sufficiently established to ground such a proceeding on. If 
 
 v2 
 
. 246 APPENDIX. 
 
 it is true that manufactures are not the support of the poor, 
 but have a directly opposite tendency, and that they are 
 useful only to the rich, it would seem that this practice 
 must be founded, not on public utility, and the g-ood of the 
 poor, but on an interested principle, to wit, the desire in the 
 rich of retaining" the poor man to labour for themselves. 
 
 Note N. 
 Beferrin/j to p. 120, L 13. 
 
 Eich persons are often heard to express a satisfaction at 
 the increase of the cultivation of potatoes, considering* it as a 
 great resource to the poor. It is true that potatoes furnish 
 the poor with a bellyful, which otherwise they might not 
 have ; for I believe there are few belHes full among-st the 
 poor, but what are made so with potatoes. This, however, 
 rather seems a matter of reg-ret than of joy — that the g-reat 
 mass of mankind should be reduced to live so much on so 
 poor and watery a diet, so unnatural to a carnivorous 
 animal, as man is. It seems that the time is coming*, and is 
 near at hand — being* the next degree of poverty to the 
 present — when the poor of most civilised countries will be 
 sunk so low, as to have no other sustenance than potatoes — 
 in a great measure, already in some ; in which case the rich, 
 I. e. the few, will consume the produce of nineteen parts out 
 of twenty of the whole land, in most kingdoms, leaving only 
 the one-twentieth part to produce potatoes for the whole 
 sustenance of the poor of them. 
 
 Note 0, 
 Referring to p. 78, L \Q. 
 
 It was with great concern that I lately remarked, in an 
 English periodical work, a suggestion of such a nature as I 
 could not have expected to proceed from the human breast. 
 The writer of it, after taking notice of the great increase of 
 the poor-rates, expressed an apprehension that the poor 
 would one day or other, and probably soon, become a very 
 serious concern to the rich, and a much greater burden to 
 them than all other imposts of the state, and would render 
 their estates of little or no value. On this account it was 
 proposed, that some means should be taken to prevent the 
 
APPENDIX. 247 
 
 evil. As it was supposed to arise from the increase of the 
 people, the preventive method, of course, must be, as it was 
 judg^ed, such as would keep the population under, and within 
 certain bounds. These bounds, it was conceived, should be 
 that their number might be sufficient to administer to the 
 rich, and no more — looking* on the populace in the hght that 
 they did on working* cattle ; that is, that they were created to 
 serve them, and for no other purpose. The specific means 
 that were to be adopted to this effect were not declared. 
 This sentiment, I believe, thoug-h seldom avowed, is by no 
 means rare, notwithstanding* the inhuman nature of it. 
 Whether I have discovered any other method in this work 
 which the rich will be inclined to adopt, I know not ; but my 
 having" shown them that they are already in a very ready 
 and certain way of effecting* the desired purpose, will save 
 them some unnecessary trouble ; which, therefore, deserves 
 their thanks. I have also shown that the increase of the 
 poor-rates does not arise from the increase of the number of 
 the people, but from the increase of wealth, and, in conse- 
 quence of that, the increase of the refined manufactures, and 
 of the diminution which must follow in the production of 
 the necessaries of life, for want of which the poor cannot 
 provide for themselves, nor can they be in any other way 
 well supplied, but by altering* the system of property. 
 
 Note C. 
 Bef erring to p. 67, Z. 13. 
 
 It may be said, that tea and sugar, two articles so much 
 used by the poor, are brought from places distant from 
 Europe ; but it is to be questioned, whether the poor's being 
 suppUed with these can be considered as an advantage, or 
 the contrary. Tea is certainly in very general use, but 
 sugar is by no means used so generally— very i^w of the 
 poor, in many parts of the kingdom, use it with their tea, not 
 being able to afford it. The general use of the latter is 
 chiefly owing to the poor not having it in their power to 
 procure anything better, such as milk, meat, broths, &c. It 
 has, too, besides being palatable, the same attractive quality 
 that tobacco has— it is of a sedative nature, and takes off or 
 
248 APPENDIX. 
 
 lessens the disagreeable feeling's of the stomach that poor 
 and scanty diet occasions. It affords very little nutriment, 
 and it is to be regretted that so much of the poor people's 
 money is laid out on it. 
 
 Note P. 
 Ref erring top. 175, I. 20. 
 
 We will suppose that on the suppression of any particular 
 refined manufacture, the capitals used to carry them on, 
 become unemployed. These capitals may be either large 
 enough to produce an income equal to the expenses of the 
 owner, or they may not. In the former case, the capitalist, 
 if he declines further business, must do something with his 
 money to produce the income. He must, therefore, place 
 out the money in the hands of some persons who would pay 
 an interest for it. To enable them to do that, they must 
 employ it in some business. What kind of business can this 
 be? Not the finer manufactures, for they are suppressed. 
 It must be in some business which is increasing, and re- 
 quires an increase of capital. This can only be farming* or 
 the coarse manufactures. These latter would be soon full, 
 as they are got up with little labour, and require few hands ; 
 it must, therefore, be the former, which would take them in 
 an almost indefinite number, it having* been demonstrated 
 that tbe produce of the land would increase in proportion to 
 the number of hands employed on it, till the whole has 
 arrived at the most complete garden culture. This increased 
 number of hands, the increased capitals of the farmers would 
 enable them to employ. 
 
 With respect to the capital of any person who had been 
 engaged in the suppressed manufacture, which might be too 
 small to maintain its owner, it would become necessary for 
 him to apply it either to the coarser manufactures, or to the 
 farming business : but, as the former would soon be full, it 
 must be employed on the latter, where there would be room 
 for it. In this manner, the capitals now employed in the 
 finer manufactures would be turned over to agriculture. 
 
 But to this it might be objected, that many would invest 
 their capitals in the funds, or in the purchase of lands. It 
 is to be considered that the refined manufactures are the 
 
APPENDIX. 249 
 
 great source of expense, which, being" cut off, great savings 
 from the incomes arising from both these species of wealth 
 would follow. This would remove the necessity for the 
 proprietors of either to sell, and would induce and enable 
 them to buy, if any was to be sold. This, therefore, would 
 probably not only not take from, but add much to, the capital 
 to be^ employed on land. 
 
 As to the workmen, they must, in the same manner as 
 the capitals, be removed from their former employments, 
 either to the coarser kind of manufactures or to husbandry, 
 where these transferred capitals will be sufficient to give 
 employment. 
 
 By capital, we understand the wealth with which any 
 business is carried on. Wealth, according to our idea, is 
 power over the labour of the poor. This power, therefore, 
 can direct the labour of the manufacturer into any channel 
 it pleases, which it does in this manner : — A workman in 
 the finer manufactures, having no employment in his former 
 trade, applies first to the master of a coarser manufacture in 
 the same line for work ; for instance, a superfine broad-cloth 
 weaver applies to a coarse broad-cloth maker for work, where 
 he succeeds till the master is full of hands. He now can get 
 no employment as a weaver ; but the farmer still wants hands, 
 and can pay them. To him, therefore, he must go. 
 
 This would so happen in the common course of things ; 
 but, if it did not, the poor-laws in England would lead to it. 
 When a poor man is out of work, he applies to the overseer, 
 who must find him employment, — which he does, in most 
 parts of England, by sending him round, under the name 
 of a rounds-man, or levy-man, to the farmers, who are 
 obliged to employ him ; and to take such a number as is 
 proportioned to the land they hold. The master manu- 
 facturers, being low rated, take few. 
 
 Note Q. 
 Referring to p. 86, I. 10. 
 
 In order to express the degree or measure of a person's 
 wealth, we say, a man has one, two, or three hundred a- 
 year. It would express more directly the same thing if we 
 
250 APPENDIX. 
 
 said, a man commands the labour of ten, twenty, or a 
 hundred men; and this latter method would more truly 
 and justly represent the relations of men with respect to 
 one another, and desig'nate the conditions of individual 
 persons. The servile condition of the latter, and the 
 assumed authority of the former, would be more evident, 
 and the condition in general of the different orders of men 
 in civilised states would appear less disg-uised and concealed. 
 
 Note T. 
 Referring to }}. 76, I. 6. 
 
 Another division of property, in the complicated state of 
 civilised nations, may be made — viz., into corporeal and 
 incorporeal. Of the first kind are all material substances, 
 whethef the raw produce of the earth, or such as have 
 received the labour of man, on which mankind set a value, 
 or which will be taken in exchange for, or command the 
 labour of man. Of the latter sort, viz. incorporeal, may be 
 the debts contracted, both on public and private accounts, as 
 the public debts of nations, and those subsisting* between 
 poor and rich, and other individuals.* This incorporeal 
 property is a power or a claim on the future labour 
 of the poor; it is incorporeal, because it consists of no- 
 thing* that has at present a material existence : but the 
 things, the transfer of which gave rise to the claims, 
 may have had an existence, and have been afterwards con- 
 sumed, and of course have no present existence ; but the 
 power of the creditors (as the holders of stock, &c.), over 
 the future labour of the poor, survives them, and constitutes 
 a real, though incorporeal, property. This explains the 
 nature of several kinds of property, of which we had before 
 imperfect ideas. It is also perfectly comformable to our idea, 
 that wealth of all kinds is power over the labour of man. 
 The difference consists in this, that the one relates to the 
 
 ♦ A mortgagee may be considered as the owner of part of tlie 
 landed estate on which the debt lies. A creditor — that is, the person to 
 whom another man of property owes anything — may be considered as 
 having a share in the debtor's personal-propei*ty. 
 
APPENDIX. 251 
 
 present, the other to a future time. The estabhshment of 
 incorporeal property, whether devised for that purpose or 
 not, multiphes the claims of the rich on the labour of the 
 poor ; and by creating a larg-e artificial mass of wealth, and 
 the distribution of it, increases the number of the rich, and 
 consequently of an interested set of supporters of govern- 
 ment, be that government what it may. 
 
 Note Y. 
 Bef erring to p. 216, l. 23. 
 
 It is generally said, when speaking of the great inequality 
 of mankind, that it always has been, and always will be so. 
 This certainly is cutting the business very short ; but it 
 seems to me to deserve a little more consideration. 
 
 The inequality of property, and the difference of con- 
 dition of men depending on it, in most civilised states, have 
 their rise from two of the most natural and powerful 
 passions to be found in man. These are avarice and am- 
 bition—the one strongly tending to encroach on the things 
 belonging to other men ; the other to obtain authority and 
 dominion over the 2^(^'f'sons of other men. Both these 
 passions, as we said before, being natural and congenial to 
 man, must, of course, be as ancient as man himself, and, for 
 the same reason, must continue as long as man continues to 
 exist. But because these passions, and the injurious effects 
 of them, have always existed, and are likely to do so, is 
 that a reason why they ought to be encouraged or suffered ? 
 or is it not rather a reason why they ought to be resisted 
 by all possible means ? 
 
 As these two propensities in man may be stronger 
 or weaker in different persons, so may they be accompa- 
 nied with different degrees of powers, both mental and 
 corporeal, and these different powers or faculties may 
 enable the possessors of them to produce greater or lesser 
 effects ; and according, therefore, as these different degrees 
 of the passions, and also of the powers accompanying them, 
 are great, so the resistance to be made to prevent their ill- 
 effects ought to be proportioned. 
 
252 APPEISDIX. 
 
 Note Z. 
 Bef erring top. 85, I. 19. 
 
 The rise of rents operates in a twofold manner in increas- 
 ing- the poverty of the poor :— 1st, By the increase of rent, the 
 sum the proprietor of land has to spend is increased, by 
 which means he is enabled to call off more of the labour of 
 the poor from the employments that produce the necessaries 
 of life for themselves, and of course to diminish them ; 
 2ndly, By the rise of rents, the sum the farmers are to pay 
 being" increased, they must of necessity, in order to raise 
 that sum, set a higher price on the produce of their farms, 
 the chief part of which is the necessaries of life. The poor, 
 with the sum they have to lay out, can consequently pur- 
 chase fewer of the necessaries of life ; so that the scarcity of 
 the necessaries of life, with respect to the poor, is increased 
 by both means : — 1st, By the rendering" the quantity of them 
 less in the market, which has always the effect of raising* the 
 price ; 'indly. By the advanced price which the farmers put 
 on them, in order to pay their advanced rent. Nothing, 
 therefore, can more directly or more strongly operate to the 
 aggravation of the miseries of the poor than the rise of rents. 
 We have shown before, that the advance of wages never 
 keeps pace with .that rise. 
 
 
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