..an increasing capital would give more labour, a
decreasing capital less."
1. The first important point, in Mr. Monsell's opinion, was to consider
how they were to spend the large sum necessary to sustain the people. Is
it, he asks, to be spent on productive or unproductive labour? If on the
former, the capital of the country would be vastly increased, and the
means of giving future employment increased in proportion; if on the
latter, every pound so spent would be taken away from that capital, and
the means of employing labour proportionably reduced. It seemed,
therefore, to follow very evidently that, as the leading feature of the
Labour-rate Act was to employ the people on unproductive labour, its
direct tendency was not only to pauperize the country, but to run it
into complete ruin. 2. Another fault in the Act, but one of inferior
magnitude, was that it necessitated the congregating together of large
masses of the people upon public works, which tends to demoralize the
labouring classes; and inflicts, besides, a great hardship upon them, by
compelling them to walk great distances to and from those works, making
it almost impossible for them to have their mid-day meal carried to
them.
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