Now, however the existing state of things may be in this country, or in other countries, arising out of a variety of arbitrary circumstances, foreign to the natural, and in all cases the ultimately inevitable course of industry, it is a matter of justice, clear and undeniable, that every improvement in society ought to be the property of the many, and not of a few; and that it ought either to lessen the quantity of labour necessary for acquiring the means of living, or to increase the profit to be gained by continuing the same quantity of labour. Nor does there seem any reason for believing that, in point of fact, the actual distribution of things is so far from according with this principle of justice as some superficial and prejudiced observers are fond of representing. The labourer, or artizan, may now work a greater number of hours daily than he did years ago; but how seldom do we find this to be the case without his comforts being more than proportionally multiplied, and his ultimate independence from labour essentially promoted. In general, however, the fact is, if we may give credit to well informed economists, that the working classes do not labour more than formerly, and yet live, or at least have the means of living better; and that by working even less than formerly, they can obtain the means of living quite as well. Let the real state of matters in this respect, however, be as it may, the question comes to be one merely as to the distribution of the produce of nature and of art, and instead of opposing improvements because they tend to encrease that produce, the object of those who have really the good of their fellow-creatures at heart, ought to be, to encourage such improvements as much as possible, but at the same time to obtain a correction of any partiality or injustice which may have crept into the distribution of their beneficial consequences. It is not to be denied that all new improvements which interfere with and change the occupations and habits of the working classes of people, must at first expose them to inconvenience and distress, against which it is in fairness the duty of society to protect them; but let not that temporary inconvenience and distress which can and ought to be provided against, be held as an insuperable obstacle to the adoption of an improvement the ultimate tendency of which it is to better the condition of mankind. It is likewise true that the manufacturing classes often suffer great want by the occasional suspension of employment, and sometimes actual oppression, by the demand for labour; but that involves a question more immediately connected with political economy than the present subject. It is not the machinery that is in fault in such cases, but those speculators who occasion an inordinate excess of employment, or those statesmen who, with their folly, derange the great machine of human interests and intercourse.