by nearly a _million_ than the population of all Scotland; ◆¹ and the truth is that, although the unfortunate class has, with the increase of population, increased in numbers absolutely, yet relatively, for at least two centuries, it has continued steadily to decrease. In illustration of this fact, it may be mentioned that, whereas in 1850 there were _nine_ paupers to every _two hundred_ inhabitants, in 1882 there were only _five_; whilst, to turn for a moment to a remoter period, so as to compare the new industrial system with the old, in the year 1615, a survey of Sheffield, already a manufacturing centre, showed that the “begging poor,” who “could not live without the charity of their neighbours,” actually amounted to one-third of the population, or _seven hundred and twenty-five_ households out of _two thousand two hundred and seven_. Further, although, as I observed just now, it is in a certain sense true to say that, relatively to other classes, the unfortunate class has been getting poorer, the real tendency of events is expressed in a much truer way by saying that all other classes have been getting more and more removed from poverty. [Sidenote ◆1 We shall find that they have no such significance, nor disprove in any way the extraordinary progress of the vast majority.] [Sidenote ◆2 What then are the causes of this progress?] ◆¹ What the presence, then, and the persistence of this class really shows us is not that the progress of the labouring classes as a whole has been less rapid and less remarkable than it has just been said to be, but that a certain fraction of the population, for some reason or other, has always remained hitherto outside this general progress; and the one practical lesson which its existence ought to force on us is not to doubt the main movement, still less to interfere with it, but to find some means of drawing these outsiders into it. ◆² This great and grave problem, however, requires to be treated by itself, and does not come within the scope of the present volume. Our business is not with the causes which have shut out one-tenth of the poorer classes from the growing national wealth, but with those which have so signally operated in making nine-tenths of them sharers in it. [Sidenote ◆1 They are of two kinds: spontaneous tendencies, and the deliberate and concerted actions of men.] We will accordingly return to these, and consider what they are. ◆¹ We shall find them to be of two kinds: firstly, those which consist of the natural actions of men, each pursuing his own individual interest; and secondly, their concerted actions, which represent some general principle, and are deliberately undertaken for the advantage not of an individual but of a class. We will begin with considering the former; as not only are they the most important, but they also altogether determine and condition the latter, and the latter, indeed, can do little more than assist them.