DUTIES AS MEMBERS OF SOCIETY.

ON THE JUST APPLICATION OF WEALTH,

THE large masses of wealth seen in this country may be said, with trifling exceptions, to have been accumulated by one or other of the following means.

First, by industrial energy, superior knowledge, inventive power, business skill, tact, enterprise and economy, applied to the manufactures, trade, commerce, or agriculture of the country. Secondly, by speculations in the funds, in railway or other shares, or in betting or gambling; means by which some have succeeded in transferring the wealth of others into their own possession, without having done anything useful or just to obtain it. Thirdly, by having acquired, or inherited, the wealthy possessions of their forefathers ; many of them having been acquired through many generations under the operation of laws enacted for the accumulation of wealth, at the expense of justice.

But, however acquired, the inheritors of wealth are not always accountable for its mode of accumulation; nor are those who have acquired undue possessions, under the authority of unjust laws and gambling institutions, so much to be condemned as those who foster and perpetuate such laws.

Apart, however from the acquisition of wealth, all who possess it are morally accountable for its just application; as it may be applied to injure the health, usefulness, and morals of others, and thus be detrimental to the general welfare,

If for instance, wealth is applied to the rearing up of a family in extravagant luxury, in idleness and uselessness, and in providing them when grown up with the means of perpetuating the same wasteful and dissipated conduct in their own families, such wealth is immorally applied. For no man has a right to apply his wealth, so as to corrupt and injure society; and idle, wasteful, dissipated conduct does corrupt it; while the taking a large number of persons from the ranks of useful producers, to administer to extravagant desires, does inflict injury on it. community should be brought up so as to be able, by his physical or mental powers, to be useful to society; and with his moral powers so cultivated, that it shall be his pleasure and delight to apply his wealth for the advancement of his fellow creatures.

Every child in the

If wealth is applied to the acquiring, by questionable means and crooked paths, an undeserved title; and when acquired in foolishly adorning it with all the childish appendages of gilt liveries, gaudy equipages, armorial bearings, and a long array of bewigged and powdered lackeys, it is applied immorally. For the corruptions of wealth, jostling merit aside, often inflict on society, bad servants and grievious burthens; and prevent the truly meritorious from having their fair chance of promotion. Moreover a title justly acquired has its own merits to repose on; and needs no other outward mark of distinction, than that grateful respect which all thoughtful people willingly and cheerfully accord to it.

Wealth applied to the constant increase of large landed possessions, in order to obtain undue political power-in providing extensive parks and pleasure grounds for mere individual enjoyment-and for the formation of game preserves, and hunting grounds, is likewise an immoral appropriation of it. For every means of wealth, which gives

one man political power to subject another to his will, and to force him to submit to laws of his dictation is evidently unjust. And the same is seen when an individual possesses unlimited power, in proportion to his wealth, to determine that fertile land, necessary for raising food for the people shall be appropriated according to his whims and desires; and on which no other man may tread but by his permission. And the making of the wild animals of the field, and the birds of the air, the private property of those who claim them, is as manifestly unjust in principle, as it has proved destructive and demoralizing in practice.

Wealth applied to the keeping up of hounds, hunting and racing studs, is likewise an immoral application of it. For hunting (that remnant of a barbarous age) is only promotive of a cruel and destructive disposition; as no other can take delight in the blood and slaughter of harmless animals for mere sport, and not for food. And, independant of the cruelty inflicted, the gambling and betting associations of the race-course are a disgrace to our age; being highly demoralizing to all who engage in them.

Wealth lavishly applied by corporate, or representative bodies, in pompous processions, and feasts of boundless luxury and wasteful profusion, is for the most part immorally applied. For the sums mostly appropriated to such gluttony and excess, have either been left by our ancestors for aiding the poor and needy, or for promoting the education and improvement of the people; or are taken, under some specious form, or, in some indirect manner, from the pockets of their constituents; and thus foolishly and needlessly wasted.

The supporting of street beggary, of soup kitchens, and mendicity societies is also a mischievous application of wealth. For, inasmuch as legal provision is made in every district for the support of the aged, the infirm, and desti

tute; the giving to such beggars, and the encouraging of such institutions tend only to promote an idle, dissolute, and vicious life; leading parents to bring up their children to the trade of begging; causing fraudulent impositions to be made on the kind-hearted and benevolent; and holding out incentives for the idle, wasteful, and ignorant, to avail themselves of such mendicant means, rather than to labour for their living.

The supporting of societies for charitably distributing coals, blankets, shoes, linen, and other articles, is likewise an improper application of wealth. As such ill-applied charity holds out inducements to hypocrisy and fraud; and encourages improvident and dissipated habits among the most thoughtless and careless portion of our population. The truly deserving, the hard-working, struggling, and suffering, having too much independence of spirit to avail themselves of such charity.

In fact, all charity (except for the aged and infirm) may be said to be misapplied that has not for its object the prevention of future charity. If the wealth that is now wasted in public charity, by benevolently disposed people, were devoted to the providing and supporting educational and industrial institutions; and if those young, ill-treated, half-starved beings who are found beginning a life of idleness and beggary (often to support a parent's profligacy) were taken, under the authority of law, and placed in such institutions, such charity would not only prevent them from ever becoming future burthens, but would make them. useful members of the community. If, also, those young and able-bodied mendicants, whom we daily see in our streets, were in like manner sent for a short period to similar institutions, so as to be in some degree qualified for a life of usefulness, and then sent to our colonies, where able-bodied labour is most wanted, they also would cease to need future charity.

Instead of thus seeking to effect a cure, we see charity daily applied in fostering and supporting race after race of beggars and criminals; helping profligate parents to bring up their children in idleness, vice, and crime; paying highly to support them when they have become criminal, but seldom seeking to prevent them from becoming so.

The large amount of wealth annually consumed by our population in intoxicating drinks, snuff, and tobacco is also wastefully and immorally applied. For not only are those articles unnecessary, but, in most cases, highly hurtful to the human constitution; while the demoralizing effects of drink are seen in the domestic wretchedness, the ignorance, pauperism, vice, and crime it occasions. The aggregate wasteful expenditure for these injurious ingredients, being upwards of sixty millions annually, would, if saved and applied as capital, not only raise the general wages of the country, but would otherwise save most of what is now spent in relieving poverty and checking crime; and, at the same time produce comforts and happiness unparalleled among our labouring population.

The large sums of money also spent by the working classes of this country in support of strikes, in order to prevent reductions, or to procure advances of wages or prices, may be likewise said to be wastefully applied. For neither masters nor men possess power to permanently controul and regulate wages; these being governed generally by the proportion which labour bears to capital; and locally by the supply of labour in proportion to the demand for it. Therefore by wasting capital in useless strikes the means for upholding general wages will be reduced; and by seeking to uphold wages and prices beyond those who supply the same markets as ourselves is likely to lessen, rather than to increase, the local demand for labour. The only rational means by which the working classes can keep up a fair