that under such circumstances, no more will fall to the share of
the labourer than is necessary just to maintain the actual
population; and his condition will be depressed, not only by the
stationary demand for labour, but by the additional evil of being
able to command but a small portion of manufactures or foreign
commodities, with the little surplus which he may possess. If,
for instance, under a stationary population, we suppose, that in
average families two thirds of the wages estimated in corn are
spent in necessary provisions, it will make a great difference in
the condition of the poor, whether the remaining one third will
command few or many conveniencies and comforts; and almost
invariably, the higher is the price of corn, the more indulgences
will a given surplus purchase.

The high or low price of provisions, therefore, in any
country is evidently a most uncertain criterion of the state of
the poor in that country. Their condition obviously depends upon
other more powerful causes; and it is probably true, that it is
as frequently good. or perhaps more frequently so, in countries
where corn is high, than where it is low.

At the same time it should be observed, that the high price
of corn, occasioned by the difficulty of procuring it, may be
considered as the ultimate check to the indefinite progress of a
country in wealth and population. And, although the actual
progress of countries be subject to great variations in their
rate of movement, both from external and internal causes, and it
would be rash to say that a state which is well peopled and
proceeding rather slowly at present, may not proceed rapidly
forty years hence; yet it must be owned, that the chances of a