"For the same reason it is found that, cæteris paribus, those trades are generally the worst paid in which the wife and children of the artisan aid in the work. The income which the habits of the class demand, and down to which they are almost sure to multiply, is made up, in those trades, by the earnings of the whole family, while in others the same income must be obtained by the labor of the man alone. It is even probable that their collective earnings will amount to a smaller sum than those of the man alone in other trades; because the prudential restraint on marriage is unusually weak when the only consequence immediately felt is an improvement of circumstances, the joint earnings of the two going further in their domestic economy after marriage than before. Such, accordingly, is the fact in the case of hand-loom weavers. In most kinds of weaving, women can and do earn as much as men, and children are employed at a very early age; but the aggregate earnings of a family are lower than in almost any other kind of industry, and the marriages earlier. It is noticeable, also, that there are certain branches of hand-loom weaving in which wages are much above the common rate in the trade, and that these are the branches in which neither women nor young persons are employed. These facts were authenticated by the inquiries of the Hand-loom Weaver's Commission, which made its report in 1841. No argument however, can be hence derived for the exclusion of women from the liberty of competing in the labor market. Even when no more is earned by the labor of a man and a woman than would have been earned by the man alone, the advantage to the woman of not depending on a master for subsistence is more than an equivalent. But in the case of children, who are necessarily dependent, the influence of their competition in depressing the labor market is an important element in the question of limiting their labor, in order to provide better for their education."

We would draw particular attention to the line which we have marked in italics, because it bears upon a question started at the first meeting of the Social Science Association at Birmingham in 1857, when a paper was communicated by Mr. Charles Bray, of Coventry, upon the ill influence of the employment of women in ribbon making at Coventry.

"It deserves consideration, why the wages of women are generally lower, and very much lower, than those of men. They are not universally so; where men and women work at the same employment, if it be one for which they are equally fitted in point of physical power, they are not always unequally paid. Women in factories, sometimes earn as much as men; and so they do in hand-loom weaving, which, being paid by the piece, brings their efficiency to a sure test. When the efficiency is equal, but the pay unequal, the only explanation that can be given is custom; grounded either in a prejudice, or in the present constitution of society, which, making almost every woman, socially speaking, an appendage of some man, enables men

to take systematically the lion's share of whatever belongs to both. But the principal question relates to the peculiar employments of women. The remuneration of these is always, I believe, greatly below that of employments of equal skill and equal disagreeableness carried on by men. In some of these cases the explanation is evidently that already given: as in the case of domestic servants, whose wages, speaking generally, are not determined by competition, but are greatly in excess of the market value of the labor, and in this excess, as in almost all things which are regulated by custom, the male sex obtains by far the largest share.”

Again, referring to the preceding sentence about the effect of custom in determining the wages of certain classes of women, we must not forget that custom is simply the aggregate of individual opinion for which we are each of us responsible. It is literally the self-respect of workers which in the long run keeps up their price in the labor market;-prevents them from contracting marriages on insufficient means, makes them seek new trades rather than try to undersell old ones, promotes emigration, and necessitates a more or less equitable division of the profits of capital. And this self-respect, being intimately connected with the standard of public opinion among women, should be a matter of moment to each one-each should remember that on this point she contributes a quota to the influences which bear on the female working population.

"In the occupations in which employers take full advantage of competition, the low wages of women, as compared with the ordinary earnings of men, are a proof that the employments are overstocked: that although so much smaller a number of women than of men support themselves by wages, the occupations which law and usage make accessible to them are comparatively so few, that the field of their employment is still more over-crowded. It must be observed, that as matters now stand, a sufficient degree of over-crowding may depress the wages of women to a much lower minimum than those of men. The wages, at least of single women, must be equal to their support; but need not be more than equal for it; the minimum, in their case, is the pittance absolutely requisite for the sustenance of one human being. Now the lowest point to which the most superabundant competition can permanently depress the wages of a man, is always somewhat more than this. Where the wife of a laboring man does not by general custom contribute to his earnings, the man's wages must be at least sufficient to support himself, a wife, and a number of children adequate to keep up the population; since, if it were less, the population would not be kept up. And even if the wife earns something, their joint wages must be sufficient to support, not only themselves, but (at least for some years) their children also. The 'ne plus ultra' of low wages, therefore (except during some transitory crisis, or in some decaying employment), can hardly occur in any occupation which the person employed has to live by, except the occupations of women."

That this sentence is scientifically true cannot be denied; and in any wide scheme for benefiting any class it must never be lost sight of. It would be hopeless to imagine that individual efforts could ever raise the market price of needlewomen's work. At the same time, it is the bounden duty of every mistress of a family not to beat down those she comes in contact with below the point where their labor gains a wholesome maintenance.

We have thus two truths to consider;-the truth which holds good in regard to the action of masses of people on one another, and the other truth, that individuals must and do act on Christian principles towards those with whom they come in separate contact. In the market we must buy and sell at market price, because our finite natures cannot possibly take in the moral condition and physical necessities of those who have produced the goods we want to acquire; but in the domestic relation of employers and employed, a certain margin is cut off from the rule of political economy, and embraced within that of religion. For instance, the market value of my daily governess may be £50 a year; but I who know that she has her mother to support may choose to deny myself two silk gowns, and give her £60 per annum instead. But I cannot act in the same way to the shopman who sells me my dresses, and offer to pay him a shilling a yard more than he asks!

Political economy is the rule of true self-interest; it is in itself neither moral nor immoral; it represents the laws by which we are swayed in dealing for ourselves and for our families with the outward world of strangers, of whom we know nothing. The more our circle of interest and affection enlarges, the farther recedes that boundary beyond which we treat other human beings scientifically, without any self denial. The mother denies herself for her children; the good mistress for her servants; the good master eases within certain possible limits the burdens of his workpeople, and spends upon them much of the profit which he acquires through their labor; the good clergyman considers his whole parish as his family; and so the principle of getting everything as cheap as possible may gradually be leavened by a far nobler principle; and in an ideal nation Political Economy and Christianity might work together in the relation of master and slave.

It will be seen, on attentively considering the foregoing statements, that the more completely society is infused with those ideas which modify the action of purely scientific laws, the easier it will be for women to work without being crushed by its machinery. We will now draw attention to a parallel observation; namely, that the more human creatures cast behind them the savage theory that might makes right, which may be termed the political economy of wild beasts, the more possible become the independent labours of the gentler sex.

Looking to the second volume of the Political Economy, we find the following passage on the progress of society, on production and distribution; showing that society is gradually becoming more and

more fit for women to work in, owing to the increased security to person and property guaranteed by our modern civilization.

"Whatever may be the other changes which the economy of society is destined to undergo, there is one actually in progress concerning which there can be no dispute. In the leading countries of the world, and in all others as they come within the influence of those leading countries, there is at least one progressive movement which continues with little interruption from year to year and from generation to generation—a progress in wealth ; an advancement in what is called material prosperity. All the nations which we are accustomed to call civilized, increase gradually in production and in population; and there is no reason to doubt, that not only these nations will for some time continue so to increase, but that most of the other nations of the world, including some not yet founded, will successively enter upon the same career. It will, therefore, be our first object to examine the nature and consequences of this progressive change; the elements which constitute it, and the effects it produces on the various economical facts of which we have been tracing the laws, and especially on wages, profits, rents, value, and prices.

"Of the features which characterize this progressive economical movement of civilized nations, that which first excites attention, through its intimate connexion with the phenomena of production, is the perpetual and, so far as human foresight can extend, the unlimited growth of man's power over nature. Our knowledge of the properties and laws of physical objects shows no sign of approaching its ultimate boundaries; it is advancing now rapidly, and in a greater number of directions at once than in any previous age or generation, and affording such frequent glimpses of unexplored fields beyond, as to justify the belief that our acquaintance with nature is still almost in its infancy. This increasing physical knowledge is now, too, more rapidly than at any former period, converted by practical ingenuity into physical power. The most marvellous of modern inventions, one which realizes the imaginary feats of the magician-not metaphorically, but literally, the electro-magnetic telegraph-sprang into existence but a few years after the establishment of the scientific theory which it realizes and exemplifies. Lastly, the manual part of these great scientific operations is now never wanting to the intellectual; there is no difficulty in finding or forming, in a sufficient number of the working hands of the community, the skill requisite for executing the most delicate processes of the application of science to practical uses. From this union of conditions, it is impossible not to look forward to a vast multiplication and long succession of contrivances for encouraging labor and increasing its produce; and to an ever wider diffusion of the use and benefit of those contrivances. Another change, which has always hitherto characterized, and will assuredly continue to characterize, the progress of civilized society, is a continual increase of the security of person and property. The people of every country in Europe, the

most backward as well as the most advanced, are, in each generation, better protected against the violence and rapacity of one another, both by a more efficient judicature and police for the suppression of private crime, and by the decay and destruction of those mischievous privileges which enabled certain classes of the community to prey with impunity upon the rest. the rest. They are also, in every generation, better protected, either by institutions or by manners and opinions, against arbitrary exercise of the power of government. Even in semi-barbarous Russia, acts of spoliation directed against individuals who have not made themselves politically obnoxious are not supposed to be now so frequent as much to affect any person's feelings of security. Taxation in all European countries grows less arbitrary and oppressive, both in itself and in the manner of levying it. Wars, and the destruction they cause, are now usually confined, in almost every country, to those distant and outlying possessions at which it comes in contact with savages. Even the vicissitudes of fortune which arise from inevitable natural calamities, are more and more softened to those on whom they fall, by the continual extension of the salutary practice of insurance."

The mention of insurance in the last line of the above sentence brings us to the consideration of another very important means of ameliorating the condition of women.

The advantages of the principle of co-operation to women, deserves attention from the readers of John Stuart Mill. In Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell's lectures, delivered in England last year, she made from her point of view almost the same remarks as those of the political economist on association. It is interesting to observe how these two long-sighted seers look forward to the extension of the same principle; the one as desirable for the sake of professional women; the other as necessary for the progress of society.

"The peculiar characteristic, in short, of civilized beings, is the capacity of co-operation; and this, like other faculties, tends to improve by practice, and becomes capable of assuming a constantly wider sphere of action. Accordingly, there is no more certain incident of the progressive change taking place in society, than the continual growth of the principle and practice of co-operation. Associations of individuals voluntarily combining their small contributions, now perform works, both of an industrial and of many other characters, which no one person, or small number of persons, are rich enough to accomplish, or for the performance of which the few persons capable of accomplishing them were formerly enabled to exact the most inordinate remunerations. As wealth increases and business capacity improves, we may look forward to a great extension of establishments both for industrial and other purposes, formed by the collective contributions of large numbers; establishments like those known by the technical name of joint-stock companies, or the associations less formally constituted, which are so numerous in England, to raise funds for public or philanthropic