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ON LUXURY, IDLENESS, AND
INDUSTRY. $83

From a Letter to Benjamin Vaughan, Efq.* written in 1784.

IT

T is wonderful how prepofterously the affairs of this world are managed. Naturally one would imagine that the intereft of a few individuals fhould give way to general intereft; but individuals manage their affairs with fo much more application, industry, and addrefs, than the public do theirs, that general interest most commonly gives way to particular. We affemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected wif dom; but we neceffarily have, at the fame time, the inconvenience of their collected paffions, prejudices, and private interefts. By the help of these, artful men overpower their wifdom, and dupe its poffeffors; and if we may judge by the acts, arrets, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating commerce, an affembly of great men is the greateft fool upon earth.

I have not yet, indeed, thought of a remedy for luxury. I am not fure that in a great ftate it is capable of a remedy; nor that the evil is in itself always fo great as it is reprefented. Suppole we include in the definition of luxury all unneceffary expence, and then let us confider whether laws to

Prefent member of parliament for the borough of Calne, in Wiltshire, between whom and our author there fubfifted a very clofe friendship.

prevent fuch expence are poffible to be executed in a great country, and whether, if they could be executed, our people generally would be happier, or even richer. Is not the hope of being one day able to purchase and enjoy luxuries, a great fpur to labour and industry? May not luxury therefore produce more than it confumes, if, without fuch a fpur, people would be, as they are naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and indolent? To this purpose I remember a circumftance. The skipper of a fhallop, employed between Cape-May and Philadelphia, had done us fome fmall fervices, for which he refused to be paid. My wife understanding that he had a daughter, fent her a prefent of a newfashioned cap. Three years after, this fkipper be-ing at my houfe with an old farmer of Cape-May, his paffenger, he mentioned the cap, and how much his daughter had been pleafed with it. "But (faid he) it proved a dear cap to our congregation." "How fo?" When my daughter appeared. with it at meeting, it was fo much admited, that all the girls refolved to get fuch caps from Philadelphia; and my wife and I computed that the whole could not have coft lefs than a hundred punds"-" True, (faid the farmer) but you do not tell all the ftory. I think the cap was neverthelefs an advantage to us; for it was the first thing that put our girls upon knitting worfted mittens for fale at Philadelphia, that they might have wherewithal to buy caps and ribbons there; and you know that industry has continued, and is. likely to continue and increafe to a much greater value, nd anfwer much better purpofesUpon the whole, kwas more reconciled to this little piece of luxury, fince not only the girls were made hapVOL. II. G

pier by having fine caps, but the Philadelphians by the supply of warm mittens.

In our commercial towns upon the fea-coaft, fortunes will occafionally be made. Some of those who grow rich will be prudent, live within bounds, and preferve what they have gained for their pofterity others fond of fhewing their wealth, will be extravagant, and ruin themfelves. Laws cannot prevent this; and perhaps it is not always an evil to the public. A fhilling spent idly by a fool, may be picked up by a wifer perfon, who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore not loft. A vain, filly fellow builds a fine houfe, furnishes it, richly, lives in it expenfively, and in a few years ruins himself: but the mafons, carpenters, fmiths, and 6ther honeft tradefmen, have been by his employ affifted in maintaining and raising their families; the farmer has been paid for his labour, and encouraged, and the cftare is now in better hands. In fome cafes, indeed, certain modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the manner as it is a private one. If there be a nation, for inflance that exports its beef and linen, to pay for the importation of claret and porter, while a great part of its people live upon potatoes, and wear no fhirts; wherein does it differ from the fot who lets bis Family ftarve, and fells his cloathes to buy dink? Qur American commerce is, I confefs, a little in this We fell our victuals to the islands for rum way. and fugar; the fubftantial neceffaries of life for fuperfluities. But we have plenty, and live well nevertheless, though, by being foberer, we might be richer.

The vast quantity of foreft land we have yet to clear, and put in order for cultivation, will for a

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long time keep the body of our nation laborious and frugal Forming an opinion of our people and their manners, by what is feen among the inhabitants of the fea-ports, is judging from an improper fample. The people of the trading towns may be rich and luxurious, while the country poffeffes all the virtues that tend to promote happiness and public profpe ity. Thofe towns are not much regarded by the country; they are hardly confi ́dered as an effential part of the ftates; and the experience of the laft war has fhewn, that their being in the poffeffion of the enemy did not neceffarily draw on the fubjection of the country, which bravely continued to maintain its freedom and independence notwithstanding.

It has been computed by fome political arithmetician, that if every man and woman would work for four hours each day on fomething ufeful, that labour would produce fufficient to procure all the, neceffaries and comforts of life; want and mifery would be banished out of the world, and the reft of the twenty-four hours might be leifure and plea·fure.

What occafions then fo much want and mifery? It is the employment of men and women in works that produce neither the neceffuies or conveniences of life, who, with thofe who do nothing, confume neceffaries raided by the laborious. To explain this dr

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The first elements of wealth are obtained by labour, from the earth and waters. I have land, and raile corn. With this, if I feed a family that does nothing my corn will be confumed, and at the end of the year I shall be no richer than I was at the beginning. But if, while I feed them, I employ

them, fome in fpinning, others in making biosk &c. for building, the value of my corn will bega refted and remain with me, and at the end of the year we may be all better clothed and better lodg cd. And if, inftead of employing a man I feedin making bricks, l'employ him in fiddling for rhe, the corn he eats is gone, and no part of his manufacture remains to augment the wealth and conve nience of the family; I fhall therefore be the poorer for this fiddling man, unless the rest of my fa mily work more, or eat lefs, to make up the deficiency he occafions.

Look round the world, and fee the millions employed in doing nothing, or in fomething that amounts to nothing, when the neceffaries and conven ences of life are in queftion, What is the bulk of commerce, for which we fight and deftroy each other, but the toil of millions for fuperfluities, to the great hazard and lofs of many lives, by the conftant dangers of the fea? How much labour is fpent in building and fitting great' fhips, to go to China and Arabia for tea and coffee, to the WeftIndies for fugar, to America for tobacco? Thefe things cannot be called the neceffaries of life, for our ancestors lived very comfortably without them.

A queflion may be afked; Could all thefe people now employed in raifing, making, or carrying fuperfluities, be fubfiited by raifing neceffaries? I think they might. The world is large, and a great part of it still uncultivated. Many hundred millions of acres in Afia, Africa, and America, are fill in a foreft; and a great deal even in Europe. On a hundred acres of this foreft, a man might become a fubftantial farmer; and a hundred thoufand men employed in clearing each his hundred acres, would

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