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Here, it would be said, is over-production: true, I reply; over-production of that particular article: the community wanted no more of that, but it wanted something. The old inhabitants indeed wanted nothing; but did not the foreigner himself (now a part of the community) want something? When he produced the superfluous article was he laboring without a motive? The new comer brought with him into the country a demand for commodities equal to all that he could produce by his industry; and it was his business to see that the supply he brought should be suitable to that demand. We saw before, that whoever brings additional commodities to the market brings an additional power of purchase. We now see that he brings also an additional desire to consume; since, if he had not that desire, he would not have troubled himself to produce. Neither of the elements of demand, therefore, can be wanting.**

"The illustration given in the latter part of this quotation supposes the additional power of production to arise from the accession to the community of an additional member immigrating from a foreign country. But the principle illustrated is equally applicable to the case of an increase in the productive power of the native members of the community, and may be shortly expressed in this general proposition: That whoever brings commodities to market does so not for the sake of getting rid of these, but for the sake of obtaining, in return for them, the means of purchasing other commodities for himself; in other words, he brings with him a desire to purchase exactly commensurate with his desire to sell.

“Hence, though the accession of women to the higher branches of industry were instrumental in increasing production to an extent far greater than can really be expected of it, no injury could flow from such a source; but, on the contrary, all the benefit arising from increased resources, evoked by means of the same wages capital; in other words, a cheapening of commodities. The present cheapness of many of the articles of commerce is attributable in great measure to the admission into industry of the women of the working ranks, a change which by so much increased the productive power of that large section of society. An increase in productive power presents us also with the means of shortening the hours of labor, and so increasing the comfort and culture of the community. If the wages capital of to-day, by supporting the whole population, enables three-fourths of that population to produce a certain quantity of commodities, each individual working twelve hours a day; the same capital will enable four-fifths of the same population to produce the same amount of commodities, each individual working a smaller number of hours per day. It is to be noticed, however, that on this supposition the commodities would not be cheapened; because, although there is an increase in productive power, the increased power would be exercised not in producing a greater aggregate of commodities, but in producing the same aggregate in less time. But, whether applied to the effect of cheapening commodities, or applied to the effect of shortening the hours of labor, there is in either case an advantage to the community; and it is very much in the power of each individual to select from the two advantages according to his taste. In these remarks we have used terms more commonly applied to the working ranks alone, but the principles involved are applicable to all ranks productively employed.

"§2.-But, secondly, although by the admission of the female sex to industry, wages as a whole would not be reduced, a slight readjustment must take place. The industrial income at present received by man has adjusted itself to a standard according to which he is socially, if not legally, bound to maintain women of his family that have no nearer dependence. Should women be enabled to earn an independent livelihood, the percentage of remuneration hitherto destined for their support would be withdrawn from man, or would tend to be so. But the percentage so withdrawn would be

"* Mill's Political Economy, book iii. chap. xiv.

small; and at all events the loss would be proportionally less than the burden of which men are relieved: for, theoretically speaking, as the percentage destined for the support of such dependents was necessarily distributed to all men indiscriminately, whether they had dependent relatives or not, it was inadequate to meet the real burden borne by such as had the burden of those dependents.

"Nor is there any ground to fear that, in the slight readjustment referred to, the scale of remuneration earned by heads of families will be prejudiced. It is they more especially that will be relieved of some of the burdens that now press on them so heavily; their relations in life are more extensive than those of the young or the unmarried; they are more liable, therefore, to have their kindness and humanity taxed, not causelessly, but from the necessitous condition of many connected with them; and hence to them the relief will be the greatest; above all, their families will at the proper time of life be able to do something for themselves. These men, therefore, can well afford to abate a small percentage from their earnings in consideration of the advantage gained by themselves, and by those hitherto dependent on them. That the abatement will be very small is proved by acts observable with respect to the working classes; where, although woman is admitted to independent industry, wages still adjust themselves to a scale enabling the working man to maintain his wife and family. It is so even in classes where a standard of living is scarcely to be found; much more then will it be realized where social opinion and habitual self-respect unite in securing such a desideratum."

Dr. LEE said he had felt very great gratification at witnessing this movement for the employment of women; for it had been a crotchet of his for a great many years, and we were always gratified to see other people take up our crotchets-they began then to look to us a little more reasonable. There were certain laws which regulated all things in society, as well as in the physical world, and he thought the object which they should have in view was to give these laws fair play; not to control them by any means, but to allow them to have fair play. And he thought the laws regulating the demand for male and female labor at present had not fair play; that there were fashions and feelings which had crept into our modern society which did not give to female labor that fair play to which it was entitled; that women were excluded from a great number of employments, not because either they were physically or intellectually unfit for them, but simply because it was not the fashion. He thought, in short, that the employment of male and female labor was deranged, and that this Society should attempt to set it right. Thus, for example, they had women in the field doing men's work. He submitted that the deterioration and immorality which they were now called to lament among their country people was considerably connected with that mal-arrangement-with that employment of women in offices which men ought to perform. On the other hand, they had whole classes of employment in the hands of men which ought to be in the hands of women. He always felt astonished, and somewhat shocked, at seeing ribbons and bonnets, and other articles of female attire, exhibited by males. They ought in all propriety, and for many reasons he need not state, to be in the hands of women. Then,

again, any man who was acquainted with the state of society among us must be aware that in the middle classes of society women had not fair play. The daughters of the higher part of the middle and the lower part of the more wealthy classes had, in fact, no recognised position or work in the world, except as mothers of families and managers of households. What were their daughters to do? Why, they were made for something else than to play the piano, and sketch, and other things of that sort, which were excellent as an embellishment and ornament of life, but which were not to be made and could not be made without deteriorating the personvirtually the business of life. He was told himself by a very intelligent lady, now married, that she knew a considerable number of young ladies who were so dissatisfied with want of employment, feeling themselves not wheels in the great social machine, that they could hardly exaggerate their misery, for to a conscientious and enlightened mind, nothing, next to actual criminality, is so depressing and so painful as to feel that one is in the world of no use that having faculties, and desiring to use those faculties, one has no sphere for their operations. Another thing which had been very properly alluded to in Miss Parkes's paper was, that in this country the proportion of the sexes was deranged perpetually, and on a great scale, by emigration. Our young men emigrate in hundreds and in thousands, but our women are left behind; and if not the Government, individuals must do something to redress this derangement also. They knew that men and women came into the world in due proportions, and if the men are taken away, why, society was deranged, and some means must be taken to check that derangement. There were many other spheres of intellectual labor than those to which reference had been made in the papers read in which women might be properly employed. He had never been able to know why female patients-why females, when they were sick, should not be attended by female doctors. It appeared to him that some important ends would be subserved by women being accustomed to attend women as medical officers. He thought it was more natural-he submitted it was more delicate-and if they were educated as they ought to be, and as they might be, and as some few of them were, he thought it would be more natural and more beneficial for both parties, and for society in general. There was no subject connected with Social Science which he believed to be more important than this, and he hoped all of them would do what little they could to assist those benevolent and enlightened ladies in pushing forward this great object.

Dr. BEGG very heartily concurred in all Dr. Lee had said.

Mr. DUNCAN M'LAREN, after a few sensible words on the discussion which had taken place concerning the lowering of wages, said that he would mention, that in addition to the thirteen women employed in his business, as stated at Glasgow, their chief clerk was a lady, who took all the money, made all the payments, balanced

all the books, just as well as any man could possibly do. (Applause.) There was no difficulty in getting women to do the work, the difficulty was in overcoming a prejudice, and getting people to believe that the work could be as well done by women.

The meeting closed by the Rev. W. Pulsford taking down the names of several ladies and gentlemen who were willing to form themselves into a committee, to co-operate with the London Society, in Edinburgh.

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The proposition to form local committees in Glasgow and Edinburgh having been so heartily responded to, we may trust that in many other towns of Great Britain and Ireland there may be found ladies and gentlemen willing to co-operate for so important an object. We must therefore repeat, that to all such, information and assistance will be most gladly afforded by the London Committee upon application to the Secretary of the Society, 19, Langham Place, W.

XXIV.-FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON.

II. GRAPE GATHERINGS.

WHETHER Our first parents in Paradise sat under the shade of their own vine as well as of their own fig-tree, or whether they were spared a second fructal temptation by being left in ignorance of charms so powerfully seductive, we do not know; but if not antediluvian, it seems at any rate to have been the first plant that flourished in the rich mud left by the retiring Noachian deluge, and to have proved to the patriarch and his family a very "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," even as it has been since to myriads of his descendants. That it was a blessing which might readily become a bane may have been the cause that among the Jews it ranked below those trees whose produce could be less easily abused; for in the earliest of fables we find Jotham representing the sovereignty of the woods as being offered to the olive and to the 'fig-tree before application was made to the vine to assume the arboreal crown. But the etymology of the name it now bears, derived from the Celtic gwyd, tree, whence was borrowed (the Celts dropping the g in pronunciation) the Latin vitis, Spanish vid, French vigne, and English vine, shows that when our forefathers became its sponsors, they gave it a rank with regard to other plants analogous to that which was assigned to the Scriptures with regard to other writings, the vine being the tree, even as the Bible was the book. Wherever it was found among the Gentile nations of antiquity, its introduction was always traced to a divinity; and whether the chubby Bacchus of the Greeks be really identical or not with the awful Osiris of the Egyptians, in this point at least their history

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agrees, that each was represented as being the first vine grower of his country. Humboldt, who affirms that the vine is not a native of Europe, says that it grows wild in Asia Minor, and is generally considered to be indigenous to Persia, whence it is thought to have been taken to Egypt, Greece, and Sicily, and from the latter place to have reached the other European countries. Why did Bacchus go to India?" asks Dr. Sickler, the great German authority on ancient fruit-culture. "Not, assuredly," he replies, "to take the vine thither, for it was there already, but rather to fetch it thence, to spread it in other lands. This India was, however, not the Hindostan of our day, but the lands on the shores of the Caspian probably including Persia." Some believe that it was introduced into Britain by the Romans; but according to others it was first brought hither by the Phoenicians, who have also the credit of having transplanted it from Palestine to the islands of the Mediterranean. By whatever means it may have come, when once here the gift was by no means neglected; and long before French fashions came over with the Conqueror," home-made wine shared with ale, mead, and cider, the honor of being one of our national drinks, for the earliest English chronicles make mention of English vineyards. Gloucester was famous for them, and one is known to have existed in the thirteenth century on that spot now sacred to the Court Circular, the " Slopes" of Windsor. Thus, Jean Vigne, since looked on so jealously as a foreign rival, was then competing in friendly strife side by side with his compatriot John Barleycorn, for the suffrages of their mutual countrymen.

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Vine culture continued to flourish in Britain until about the time of the Reformation; but when the decline of the feudal system caused more attention to be directed to corn husbandry, and the introduction of the hop did so much for the improvement and preservation of malt liquor, little time or thought was left for gardens; while, in tracing the cause of their decline, something too may doubtless be attributed to the loss of monkish care which we may well believe had been ungrudgingly bestowed on so rich a source of monkish solace. Surrey was at one time famous for its Champagne, Sussex for its Burgundy, and at Arundel Castle, in the latter county, so lately as in 1763, there were sixty pipes of native wine in the cellars of the Duke of Norfolk. The rebuilding our obsolete wine-presses has every now and then been urged by some enthusiastic supporter of the claims of a British Bacchus, and the author of a Treatise on Vineyards, dedicated to the Duke of Chandos, in 1727, sets forth strongly the practicability of such a proceeding, and exhorts that nobleman to set an example by beginning the experiment; but the appeal had little effect. In later days it has found an advocate in Professor Martyn, who has suggested that any disadvantages of climate may be overcome by training the vines near the ground, as is done in the North of France, a system which increases the size of the berries, as well as promotes their earlier

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