42 . ‘THE NATION AND THE LABOURER.

estimate of the relation of labour may be not erroneous,
but substantially sound and useful. It must be carefully
remembered, however, that the preliminary question is
as to the conditions. A labourer is a human being, not
a mere labouring machine, and there is no primal necessity
 why he should do nothing but labour. So soon as
the ground is thrown open, and the general case surveyed,
the theory of a natural labour market and a natural price
of labour, stands condemned, at once, as artificial and unsound
 when applied to the general case. For example,
in a given country N, there is a total average quantity of
work to be done, necessitating the employment of a proportional
 quantity of labourers. The available labourers
in the country are numbered, and the number found to
be ten thousand times ¥. This number is to be neither
increased nor diminished by immigration or emigration,
and the labour is to find its own natural price in the market.
 Yes: but, how long per day are the men to work ?
Whatis the agreement, sanctioned, authorized and defined,
by the law of the country or the conventional law of cusfom,
 as to the hours of labour? For, evidently, if the
men are to work 18 hours a day, there may be many
more than sufficient of them to do the required work :
the competition between them will considerably reduce
the market value of their labour. On the other hand, if
the men are to work only 9 hoursa day, the number will
be practically diminished to the one-half; there may be
aow much fewer than sufficient to do the whole of the
work; they will be in consequence greatly in demand;
there will be no risk of their being left without work,
and the market price of their lubour will, by the urgency