veries, -as, for instance, the greater space occupied by water when it is converted into steam,―will hesitate to allow, that if, by any means, it be possible to make production the cause of demand, society is now in a state of wretchedness indeed, compared to that which it has yet to enter.

When, however, by tracing the operation of cause and effect, we endeavour to give an answer to the question, What would be the consequences to society of the change which has been already defined? the mind is positively bewildered in the mightiness of the subject, and our tired thoughts fall back upon us, and seem to reproach the will for unreasonably sending them in search of infinity.

The system of commerce here advocated has nothing to do with any speculative theories upon the perfectibility of man; it is equally open to men of every class, sect, party, and country; it requires merely a conventional plan of exchange, and a rational species of money; and with merely that degree of rectitude of conduct which is essential to the existence of civilized society at all, it may be put into universal operation.

But is it practicable? It has been already answered that it is so; and it is farther

answered, that one great criterion of the practicability of a thing is involved in the whether it is worth while to put it into practice. If all the manufacturers in the country were told, that, by making a certain change in their present plan of doing business, they would gain an extra 2 per cent, by the employment of their capital, they might fairly reply, the object is hardly worth the trouble of gaining. But the language here held out to them is this: Produce without any limit; call in the aid of magic, if you please, to increase the respective products of labour, and still the market can never be overstocked, nor can any difficulty be experienced in selling, for a fair price, that which you produce.

This, surely, is an object worth accomplishing, a point worth contending for, a prize worth winning; for its accomplishment would make unmerited poverty a name, which, in the dictionaries of future ages, would be marked obsolete; the national debt, a toy which politicians would in future play with; and the “want of money,” a sentence in a farce, to be written by posterity, in burlesque of the wisdom of their ancestors,— that is, ourselves.

The reason why production is not now the the cause of demand, will be abundantly

explained in the sequel. Some of the political economists, indeed, say, that "effectual demand" does "depend upon production ;" but the fallacy of such a doctrine will also be fully shewn, in the course of this work.

I am far from believing that the particular plan I am now about to explain, is at all the best that can be devised; on the contrary, I feel assured that it may be improved in a variety of particulars. Its chief recommendation is, that it embodies the four indispensable ingredients of national prosperity, the means of procuring a sufficiency of land; the means of ensuring a constant increase of capital, proportionate to the wants of an increasing population; the power of instantly exchanging labour for labour; and of labourers themselves, nature appears likely to produce an abundance to meet the exigencies of any system.

I have gone carefully over the best works upon political economy, and could I have discovered that any previous writer had ever shewn in what manner capital might be made systematically to increase as fast as population, and how production might be made the uniform cause of demand, the Social System would never have been written. The importance, however, of these conditions is such, that the searcher after the philosopher's stone

is not a greater visionary, than the man who expects to see a state of national prosperity without them he might as well expect to respire without lungs, or to reflect without a brain.

Mr Mill, indeed, in his Elements of Political Economy, second edition, page 58, admits, that "there are two modes in which artificial "means may be employed to make popula“tion and capital keep pace together: expe"dients may be sought, either to diminish the

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tendency of population to increase, or to "accelerate beyond its natural pace the "increase of capital.” But he has not proposed to adopt any practical plan for doing either the one or the other. He says, indeed, "that "forcible means employed to make capital "increase faster than its natural tendency, "would not produce desirable effects." But what does the term natural tendency mean, other than that tendency which is natural under existing circumstances, and which tendency may be to increase slowly or rapidly, just as the circumstances are favourable to increase, or the reverse?

IT IS AS EASY TO SELL AS TO BUY.

THE SOCIAL SYSTEM.-The outer circles are intended to represent the various members of society. The channels are money, by which each man is enabled to put one thing into the public stock, and to take out of it whatever he requires to have in exchange for that which he puts in. The larger circle, in the centre, is the public reservoir of wealth.