4.

[333] See Bagehot's remarks upon J. S. Mill's version of this doctrine
in _Economic Studies_: chapter on 'Cost of Production.'

[334] Another illustration of the need of such considerations is
given, as has been pointed out, in Adam Smith's famous chapter upon
the variation in the rate of wages. He assumes that the highest wages
will be paid for the least agreeable employments, whereas, in fact,
the least agreeable are generally the worst paid. His doctrine, that
is, is only true upon a tacit assumption as to the character and
position of the labourer, which must be revised before the rule can be
applied.

[335] J. S. Mill, too, in his _Political Economy_ makes the foundation
of private property 'the right of producers to what they themselves
have produced.' (Bk. ii. ch. ii. Sec. 1.)

[336] Mr. Edwin Cannan, in _Production and Distribution_ (1894), p.
383.

[337] A definition, says Burke in his essay on the 'Sublime and
Beautiful' (introduction) 'seems rather to follow than to precede our
inquiry, of which it ought to be considered as the result.'

[338] _Works_, p. 34 (chap. ii.). Rent is there defined as the sum
paid for the original and indestructible powers of the soil.

[339] _Works_, p. 132 (chap. xvii.). He admits (_Ibid._ p. 210 _n._)
that the labourer may have a little more than what is absolutely
necessary, and that his inference is therefore 'expressed too
strongly.'

[340] See _Letters to M'Culloch_, p. xxi.

[341] 'The assaults upon Malthus's "great work,"' he says (_Works_, p.
243, ch. xxxii.), 'have only served to prove its strength.'

[342] _Letters to Malthus_, p. 226.

[343] _Works_, p. 58 (ch. v.).

[344] _Ibid._ p. 211 _n._ (ch. xxvi.).

[345] _Ibid._ p. 258 (ch. xxxii.).

[346] _Works_, p. 248 (ch. xxii.).

[347] Bain's _James Mill_, p. 211.

[348] Editions in 1821, 1824, and 1826.

[349] _Autobiography_, p. 204.

[350] The first edition, an expanded version of an article in the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, appeared in 1825.

[351] _Latter-day Pamphlets_ (New Downing Street). M'Crowdy is
obviously a type, not an individual.

[352] See Mr. Hewin's life of him in _Dictionary of National
Biography_.

[353] Fourth edition in 1827.

[354] Ricardo's _Works_, p. 164 _n._

[355] _External Corn-trade_, preface to fourth edition. J. S. Mill
observes in his chapter upon 'International Trade' that Torrens was
the earliest expounder of the doctrine afterwards worked out by
Ric