Melbourne gets as much as 37. a week. That must be good wages.

Master. Stay. Melbourne is, you know, close by the new gold country; money is, in consequence, plentiful there.

Richard. What a blessing to the country those goldfields must be! I should like to go and settle there.

Master. I fear you would be much disappointed. Abundance of gold does not make people peaceable, moral, or religious; and you would find much to shock you in that gold country. But let me answer Harry's question, and see whether those high wages he named are really good. Do you know, Harry, whether the labourer can find house-room very easily at Melbourne?

Harry. I should think not, for I heard Mr. Dorkins the mason say, that if he were in Melbourne, he could make almost any money by house-building; for houses were so scarce, that people gave a hundred a year for cottages, which would not let here for more than ten.

Master. And do you know that, at one time, bread at Melbourne was 4s. the quartern loaf, and other things dear in proportion? I am afraid your labourer, Harry, with 37. a week, would not find it so easy to get his living as you fancy. Besides, as labour is so scarce, the butcher and baker might not be able to get food enough for his customers at any price. So that you see, after all, 37. a week there might not procure for a man much more than 10s. does here. Perhaps you might at first fancy that any country in which there is plenty of gold must be very rich; but if gold were as common as stones, it would not be valued more than stones are; and besides, if everybody had plenty of money in his pocket, it would be of no use, unless there were in the country the things which he wanted to buy. If a shipwrecked sailor were cast upon a desert island, the most useless thing he could have with him would be a pocketful of gold.

Money, then, is of no use, except to procure necessa

There are

ries and comforts for ourselves and others. some people who hoard money and will scarcely spend the smallest sum, even to buy themselves food. I suppose that, at first, they must begin with saving their money in order to be quite sure that they shall never want: but as they probably began in a selfish spirit, doing no good to their fellow-creatures, they have been punished by their folly being permitted to increase; they learn to love gold for its own sake, which, when unemployed, is of no more value to the possessor than the stones of the earth. Such persons are called misers a proper term, for miser means a miserable man.

At one time an idea very generally prevailed among chemists, that it was possible to discover some means of turning all substances into gold, and many men spent their lives in labour and poverty, vainly attempting to discover this secret. Hear what was the opinion of a Frenchman, who lived in those days, but was far wiser than most of the men of his time:

"I tell you, on the contrary, that we had better have in France a plague, a war, and a famine, than six men who could make gold in such abundance as you say. For, after all had been assured that it was possible to make it, everybody would despise the cultivation of the earth, and would study to find out how to make gold, and in this way the whole land would be left fallow. They who have studied histories say that a king having found some gold-mines in his kingdom, employed the chief part of his subjects in extracting and refining the said metal, which caused the lands to remain fallow, and famine to arise in his dominions. His queen (as being prudent, and moved with charity towards her subjects) caused to be made secretly pullets, pigeons, and other' viands of pure gold; and when the king would dine, she caused those viands to be served, whereat he was glad, not understanding the point at which the queen was aiming; but as no other food was brought

to him, he began to lose his temper, seeing which, the queen supplicated him to consider that gold was not meat, and that he would do better to employ his subjects in the cultivation of the ground than in the search for gold. If you are not convinced by so good an example, consider within yourself, and be assured, that if there were, as you say, six men in France who knew how to make gold, they would make so large a quantity thereof that the least of them would wish to establish himself as a monarch, and they would wage war with each other; and after the secret had been divulged, so much gold would be made that none would be willing to give in exchange for it bread or wine."*

CHAPTER VI,

HIGH PRICES.

WHEN, from any cause whatever, bread is dear, the consequence is felt throughout the whole land, and the poorer classes suffer most, because bread is their principal article of food. Wages may rise in agricultural districts as the price of corn rises; but in most places, the rise, if there is any, does not make up for the increase of price, and it becomes a hard matter for the poor to live.

This should remind us how thankless we too often are when we are blessed with plenty. Even in the midst of hardships there is much reason for gratitude. We read of famines in other times and in other countries, whereby thousands of men perished from actual starvation; and it is not many years since there was a grievous famine in Ireland.

In times of distress, we are generally impatient; and wicked and designing men sometimes take advantage of this impatience to move the more ignorant to acts of violence and wrong. An outcry is raised against

* 'Palissy the Potter,' vol. ii. p. 167.

High Prices. At one time the bakers, at another time the millers, then the corn-dealers, and then the farmers, are said to be in fault; and mobs perhaps assemble, to endeavour to frighten the Government into passing some laws to make food cheap. They will at times go even further, and break open shops and warehouses where food is stored

up.

No one will pretend to defend acts of plunder and robbery which can only lead to waste and confusion.

But would it not be possible to make some laws by which the distress might be relieved, and would it not be just to do so? It is worth while to consider this.

Who are to blame? Bakers, who pay dear for their flour, cannot sell their bread cheap; but if any one of them were to try to make more than his fair profit, there are plenty of others to undersell him, and he would soon lose his customers. Millers, again, have to buy their corn, and must sell their flour according to the price they pay for the grain, and one of them may attempt to sell at more than a fair profit; but there are a sufficient number of millers competing with each other to prevent a few of the class keeping up the prices. Even if a number of millers were to combine together for this purpose, others would soon start, and undersell them. There may be a combination of bakers and millers in a particular locality for a short time, but this combination soon defeats itself, by causing fresh tradesmen to be introduced.

The best security for keeping down the prices of any article is competition among those who sell it. No law can work half so surely. And if there were a law strictly enforced, it must of necessity be so oppressive, that people would give up their trades altogether, or carry them on only when they could make large profits; so the consumer would, in the end, have fewer persons to deal with, and consequently would have to pay more for his goods.

It may, however, be objected that, "if the miller and baker are not to blame, it must be the farmer, and he should be forced to sell his corn at a reasonable price." As to what is a reasonable price, there will always be much difference of opinion; and if the law is to settle at what rate a farmer is to sell his produce, it should also settle the price of shoes, and coats, and all other articles of trade. This system would soon ruin both shopkeepers and manufacturers.

Besides, there is competition in farming as well as in other trades. Each farmer is glad to get money for his wheat, and takes care to sell it to the best advantage to himself. When there is plenty of corn in the country, prices are never high for a long time, because so many are anxious to sell.

It is just, too, that the farmer should at one time make more than ordinary profit, because at other times he suffers great losses, and he has to bear the expense of cultivating the ground, whether the crops turn out good or bad. If farmers were bound never to make more than a certain profit, they would not be able in some years to afford to till the ground. One bad year might ruin them, and so less corn would be grown, and the quantity of food in the country would be seriously diminished.

But sometimes, when there is much corn in the country, do not farmers, or corn-dealers, keep back their stores in hopes of getting higher prices? Should not this be prevented?

Why do they thus hoard up their stores? Because they expect corn to be scarce at some future time. If they turn out to be wrong, they are obliged to bring out their stores, and this makes corn cheaper in the end; but if they are right, the stores will come in at a time of scarcity, and so help to prevent famine.

The only permanent harm which keeping back corn can do, is to spoil it in granaries, and the dealer's own