34 THE NATION AND THE LABOURER.

the way to any immediate improvement of more than a
slight character, are these: For six days in the week
the labourer’s work has to be almost incessant. To fulfil
 the requirements of his physical existence—to sleep:
and take his meals—besides his work, occupies almost
the whole of his time. The seventh day is a day of rest;
but it is a day to be especially devoted to the remembrance
 of Him and of His benefits by whom it has been
appointed, and to that rest, from work of all kinds, by
which the completion of the great work of Creation is to
he commemorated.
In remuneration for the six days almost incessant
labour, the wages received by the labourer barely suffice
to defray his current expenses and to provide, perhaps, if
he be very provident, a fund for old age, sickness, or
ther emergency.
If the desired improvement consisted simply and
solely in reducing the hours of labour, so as to give the
labourer, let us say, a second day out of the seven for intellectual
 improvement, or the equivalent of this in a
reduction of about 2 hours daily, the alteration might
be readily effected. But it is requisite for the labourer
fo get, at least, the full amount of wages, which he now
receives for the longer period of work. If it be proposed
to make the alteration by paying him the same amount
in wages for the shorter time, an objection is very forcibly
 stated by the employer of labour ; namely, that this
would be equivalent to paying a higher rate of wages,
and would be either more than his, the employer’s, proits
 would afford, or else, would oblige him so to increase
che price of his farm-produce, or his manufactured pro-