THE NATION AND THE LABOURER. - 41

temporarily and for, perhaps, only a very short time.
There are many sources of expense, in the sense of loss,
to the nation, which, under such modification in the
distribution of the national wealth, might be much
diminished and in some instances entirely removed : For
example, poor-rates, work-houses ; prisons; strikes.
The relation of the labouring class to the wealthy class
in the nation, may be compared, and is very similar, to
that of the employed, in a large manufacturing or other
business, to the employer or proprietor of the business.
It is evident that if, supposing the proprietor to be in
receipt of very large profits, he chose to divide a part of
those profits amongst those employed in the business,
the business would not be thereby rendered less prosperous.
 On the contrary, those upon whose labour
being well done much of the success of the business
might be dependent, having come to possess a direct
interest in the prosperity of the business, would do their
work with greater attention, good will and energy ; and
it is not too much to suppose that instead of diminishing,
the prosperity of the business might so much augment
as to give the proprietor individually as large an income
as he received when he took the whole of the profits to
himself.
We are quite aware of the argument that labour is a
species of commodity which comes into the market of the
world and finds its proper natural price. Now in considering
 the relation of labour, under particular and definite
conditions, to certain other things, as the relation of one
element to certain other elements where the restricted
conditions of the case are fixed and determinate. such an