e is fixed below that of
ordinary wages, in order that no person may be employed but
those who really cannot find work elsewhere. But it is
attended with this bad effect, that the people regard it
partly as charity, which is humiliating--and partly as an
imposition, in taking their labor below its usual salable
value; to which many add a third view of the
subject--namely, that this sort of half-pay is not given
them for the purpose of working, but to prevent their rising
in rebellion. None of these misconceptions are favorable to
hard labor, and the consequence is, that I never have seen
such a set of idle _faineants_ as those employed on this
system in the public works, and I am sure that,
notwithstanding the very laudable intention of those who
subscribed to form the fund, and the yet more praiseworthy,
because more difficult, exertions of those who superintend
it, the issue of the scheme will occasion full as much
mischief as good to the people engaged in it. Private
gentlemen, acting on something like a similar system, may
make it answer better, because they have not the lazy dross
of a metropolis to contend with--because they have fewer
hands to manage--and, above all, because an individual
always manages his own concerns better than those of the
country can be managed. Yet all who have employed those who
were distressed for want of work at under wages, have had,
less or more, similar complaints to make. I {p.167} think I
have avoided this in my own case, by inviting the country
people to do piece-work by the contract. Two things only are
necessary--one is, that the nature of the work should be
such as will admit of its being ascertained, when finished,
to have been substantially executed. All sort of spade-work
and hoe-work, with many other kinds of country labor, fall
under this description, and the employer can hardly be
cheated in the execution if he keeps a reasonable lookout.
The other point is, to take care that the undertakers, in
their anxiety for employment, do not take the job too cheap.
A little acquaintance with country labor will enable one to
regulate this; but it is an essential point, for if you do
not keep them to their bargain, it is making a jest of the
thing, and forfeiting the very advantage you have