Section I.—Natural Tendencies of the System.

Though the proper medium between an indolent deficiency, and a pernicious excess of exertion, cannot be certainly ascertained by any general rule, applicable to all cases and circumstances; yet where the labourers are free, experience supplies a criterion accurate enough for ordinary use. When wages are sufficiently high, and still more when there is a competition for employment, it will be known how much labourers can commonly do, consistently with self-preservation and health, by what they actually perform. Hence a customary standard has arisen between the employers and the employed. The English farmer knows by usage, and so does the labourer too, what is a fair days' work at the different seasons of the year: the one will not be content with less, and the other will yield no more. A labourer may be too feeble from age or constitution to work up to the established standard; but then he must be content to receive less than ordinary pay.

Slavery, and its forced labour, preclude that fair and safe adjustment. There may be a customary quantum of work; but as the usage has grown from the compulsion of the masters, not the volition of the slaves, we cannot infer from the generality of its performance, that it can be easily or innoxiously endured.