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INTRODUCTION.

appropriate  means,  it  can  only  be  by  contravening  natural  law,
and  owing  to  certain  artificial  laws,  which  allow  some  to  live  at
the  expense  of  others.  This  appears  evident  ;  but  these  facts
are  the  consequence  of  private  property  and  the  right  of
inheritance,  and,  until  better  are  found,  these  institutions  are
indispensable  for  stimulating  industry.  What  must  be  discovered ­
  is  how  to  bring  it  about  that,  according  to  the  desire
of  St.  Paul,  and  conformably  to  right  and  the  ordinary  course
of  nature,  the  well-being  of  every  individual  may  be  in  direct
ratio  to  his  activity,  and  in  inverse  ratio  to  his  idleness.
Machinery,  say  the  Socialists,  should  emancipate  the
labourer,  and  shorten  his  hours  of  work.  The  contrary  is
nearer  the  fact.  Machines  enrich  those  who  own  them,  but
render  harder  and  more  enslaving  the  task  of  those  whom  they
employ.  The  larger  the  capital  sunk  in  the  modem  factory,
the  more  urgent  it  is  that  there  should  be  no  stoppage  of  work,
for,  when  work  stops,  interest  is  eaten  up.  Formerly  night
brought  sleep  to  all,  and  Sunday  brought  rest.  Now,  on  the
railway,  on  the  steamer,  in  the  mine,  the  factory,  or  the  office,
work  admits  of  hardly  any  truce  or  intermission.  In  the  words
of  Hamlet  :
‘  ‘  What  might  be  toward,  that  this  sweaty  haste
Doth  make  the  night  joint-labourer  with  the  day  ?  "
Machinery  will  not  fulfil  its  promises,  nor  bring  men  more
leisure,  until  it  belongs  to  the  workers  who  set  it  in  motion.
On  this  point  Socialists  may  quote  the  opinion  of  J.  S.  Mill,
who  says  :  “  It  is  questionable  if  all  the  mechanical  inventions
yet  made  have  lightened  the  day’s  toil  of  any  human  being.”
Socialists  maintain  that  the  means  of  production  are  already
great  enough  to  furnish  all  men  with  a  sufficient  competency,
if  only  the  produce  were  more  evenly  divided  ;  and  indeed,  if
the  number  of  things  are  reckoned  up  which  are  either  useless
or  superfluous,  or  even  harmful,  but  which  monopolize  so  large
a  portion  of  the  working  hours,  it  may  well  be  thought  that
were  those  hours  exclusively  employed  in  the  creation  of  useful
things,  there  would  be  enough  to  satisfy  largely  the  needs  of
all.  Inequality  gives  rise  to  superfluity  and  luxury  which  divert