of this lowest class of labourers, varies, notwithstanding, very much in different countries. In a savage state of society, for example, mere human strength can do but little, for want of tools with which to work, and instructions how to employ them. By practice, and the exercise of his native ingenuity in contriving expedients and fabricating instruments, a clever savage may increase the productiveness, and consequently the reward of his labour far beyond that of his companions; but even under the most favorable circumstances, his exertions will not be near so productive as those of the most stupid clown in a civilized country, armed with the instruments which the accumulated ingenuity of ages has contrived, and applying them, however mechanically, after those methods which the stored wisdom of others has proved to be most efficient. On this account the inferior degrees of ability will obtain far higher wages in a highly advanced, than in the earlier stages of society. The produce of the daily labour of an English ploughman, shepherd, or common mechanic, is at present probably three times as much as that of the similar classes of labourers in the time of Elizabeth, and six times as much as at the period of the conquest. If their wages, or the amount of the necessaries and conveniences of life which they obtain in return for their labour, have not increased quite in the same proportion, it must be in consequence of the faulty direction given to the distribution of the produce of labour by the artificial circumstances to which we have already alluded, and which we shall hereafter explain. In the same way the productiveness of an English day-labourer

VARIOUS DEGREES OF ABILITY.

89

is perhaps twice as great as that of a Frenchman, four times that of a Russian, and six or eight times that of a Hindoo. His wages ought therefore to be proportionate, and probably would be so under an equitable system of economical policy.

The reward of the industry of the higher classes of labourers will in the same manner rise with its productiveness. An artisan of superior natural abilities, who has had the advantage of the instructions of a master in some peculiar business, and has applied himself assiduously to acquire the manual dexterity and the practical arts of his trade, has gained a degree of ability, which, as contributing much more largely than that of an inferior workman to the marketable means of enjoyment, is enabled to command in the market a propor tionately larger share of the general stock. The wages, or market value, of personal ability of any kind, will depend partly on the degree of study or application and the expenditure of time required on the average to produce it. But it is, moreover, influenced in a great degree by monopoly, i. e. the more or less exclusive possession of ability of any description, whether consisting in secret processes, the craft and mystery of particular trades, or of peculiar qualifications, natural, or acquired under more or less extraordinary combinations of circumstances. It is the rarity of particular kinds of talent that confers the greater part of their value upon them. The average wages of fiddlers is perhaps, taking into consideration the time spent in acquiring the art, little more than that of ploughmen; but when the combination of rare genius with equally rare assiduity creates a Paganini, he

is able to command almost any price in return for his exertions. There occurs but one Lawrence in a century, and this it is which enables such an artist to put a value on his productions, perhaps a hundred times what an ordinary dauber is happy to get for the same quantity of paint, canvass, time and trouble.

But the possessor of superior ability, in any line of industry, is not only enabled to put a monopoly value on the produce of his labour directly exerted, he has it likewise in his power to communicate to others, by instruction, his own superior qualifications; and whilst he requires, of course, payment from them in exchange for these instructions, he puts it in their power to obtain in turn a proportionately high recompense for their industry in consideration of its comparative rarity. The value of such instructions is sometimes heightened by the communication of secret processes, which give to their possessor a decided advantage over his competitors in the same line of art. In general, how. ever, it consists in the communication of a variety of delicate and difficult manipulations; such as can only be learnt by actual exhibition and repeated experiment under the eye and tuition of an experienced master. The high premiums of apprentice+

* A remarkable instance in proof of the necessity of per sonal instruction in some of the useful arts, was related by Mr. Ostler, a manufacturer of glass beads and other toys, to the Committee of the House of Commons on artizans and machinery; and is quoted in Mr. Babbage's valuable work on the Economy of Manufactures. Mr. Ostler, it seems, had received some years since, an order for upwards of five hun dred pounds worth of doll's eyes. But notwithstanding his having some of the most ingenious glass toy-makers in the

IMPROVEMENTS OF ABILITY.

91

ship taken by those who are engaged in the superior departments of the useful and ornamental arts, arise chiefly from this source; and the proportionately high wages that are earned by journeymen or masters in these several callings follow necessarily from the expensive course of instruction they have undergone, the assiduity with which they have endeavoured to perfect themselves in their art, and the more or less rare excellence to which by these means, aided perhaps by superior natural abilities, they have attained in its practice.

In this way the skill or acquired ability of one man is handed down from father to son, or from master to pupil, through successive stages, accumulating as it passes on by the added improvements of its various possessors. But as every pupil or

kingdom in his service, he could not succeed in making the article, and was obliged to renounce the order. "About eight months ago," he continues, "I accidentally met with a poor fellow who had impoverished himself by drinking, and who was dying in a consumption, in a state of great want. I showed him ten sovereigns; and he said he would instruct me in the process. He was in such a state that he could not bear the effluvia of his own lamp; but though I was very conversant with the manual part of the business, and it related to things I was daily in the habit of seeing, I felt I could do nothing from his description. (I mention this to show how difficult it is to convey by description the mode of working.) He took me into his garret, where the poor fellow had economised to such a degree, that he actually used the entrails and fat of poultry from Leadenhall market, to save oil, (the price of the article having been latterly so much reduced by competition at home.) In an instant, before I had seen him make three, I felt competent to make a gross; and the difference between his mode and that of my own workmen was so trifling, that I felt the utmost astonishment."*"

apprentice is enabled to instruct a considerable number of others, there is a constant tendency in every improved process or secret to spread through a wider circle. There are, moreover, many processes of art which can be communicated by written directions, without personal exhibition; and these, sooner or later, get wind and become disseminated very extensively wherever the blessing of a press, more especially a free press, exists. Once committed to printing, a receipt or peculiar process travels in all directions, not only through the country where it was invented, but many others likewise, and is handed down, with little or no chance of loss, to distant ages and generations. It is to the splendid inventions of letters and printing that we owe the rapidity with which the process of mutual instruction in the productive arts is now daily increasing the wealth of modern societies. Without their aid, example and precept might hand down some improvements in human ability; but they would be subject to frequent loss and destruction; and the intercourse of minds must, under such circumstances, be slow, torpid, and unfruitful of those inventions which are now rapidly augmenting the efficiency of skill and industry, and multiplying the aggregate of production, in countries blest with just and free institutions, where every valuable piece of information is allowed to circulate with unlimited freedom.

These are the things that constitute useful knowledge.' The vast superiority in the productiveness of a Watt, an Arkwright, or a Wedgewood, over that of a clever savage, is almost entirely owing to the influence of accumulated ability