2 Sir WiUiam Petty, Political Arithmetic (1765 ed.), p. 132.
' See Appendix III.
IN A SYSTEM OF NATIONALISM 129

ments in his life conditions whose influence was pernicious,
these were not the conclusions reached by contemporary
observers. For the most part, these writers saw only the
eflfect, not the cause; ^ and even those among them who

• The writers of the period were not entirely blind to the fact that the
laborer's life conditions were responsible for the indolence which they
so much deplored. Not a few pointed to the poor laws as the cause of the
tendency to relax industry when wages rose; thus said Roger North:
"The price of labor is such that they can make a good living by two or
three days' work in a week; and why work more, say they? This provides
bread, food, and ale; if we are sick or old, the parish must provide for us."
Discourse of the Poor (1753), p. 60. North's proposal was to repeal the
whole body of the poor law and re-establish voluntary charity; see ibid.,
pp. 31 ff.
This was also the theme of Defoe's Giving Alms No Charity, published
at the beginning of the eighteenth century as an argument against the
workhouse; the writer urged the necessity of training the poor in self-
reliance and pointed out that this could be done only by throwing them
upon their own resources.
At the middle of the century a number of writers took the same po-
sition against poor relief; Thomas Alcock said, " It has a tendency to hurt
industry, care and frugality . . . when a man has the prospect of the
parish to rely on in case of future wants or misfortunes." Observations
(1752), p. 10.
