Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/81

Rh There is no voluntary compact equally advantageous on both sides, but an absolute compulsion on the part of masters, and an absolute necessity on the part of the workmen to accept of it; and which, therefore, might be considered just as the taking so much from the workman by the master: and, of course, fortunes amassed in this manner cannot be just.

It is easily seen that the acquisition of fortunes by tradesmen is in reality nothing but a participation of landed property, which is the basis, the source, and substance of all wealth, and into it all must be resolved.

a preceding chapter, we have endeavoured to show that wealth is power over the labour of the poor. But it seems that wealth is not only a certain definite species of power in the rich over the labour of the poor; but that it is a great means of procuring for, and securing to the possessors of it, the power of almost every kind which exists in