An allowance, however, must be made for the increase in the number of the labourers. That is of course obvious, and we will at once proceed to make it. But when it is made, the case is hardly less wonderful. The labouring classes in 1843 numbered _twenty-six millions_; at the present time they number _thirty-three millions_.[47] That is to say, they have increased by _seven million_ persons. Now assuming, as we have done, that Labour by itself produces as much as _fourteen pounds_ per head of the population, this addition of _seven million_ persons will account for an addition of _ninety-eight million pounds_ to the _five hundred and fifteen million pounds_ which was the amount of the national income fifty years ago. We must therefore, to make our comparisons accurate, deduct _ninety-eight million pounds_ from the _hundred and forty-five million pounds_ just mentioned, which will leave us an addition of _forty-seven million pounds_. We may now say, without any reservation, that the labouring classes of this country, in proportion to their number, receive to-day _forty-seven million pounds_ a year more than the entire income of the country at the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria. [Sidenote ◆1 Every labourer anxious for his own welfare should reflect on these facts.] ◆¹ To any labourer anxious for his own welfare, to any voter or politician of any kind, who realises that the welfare of the labourers is the foundation of national stability, and who seeks to discover by what conditions that welfare can be best secured and promoted, this fact which I have just stated is one that cannot be considered too closely, too seriously, or too constantly. Let the reader reflect on what it means. [Sidenote ◆1 They show him that the existing system has done, and is doing for him far more than any Socialist ever promised.]