6. By the great pleasure and interest every working man will feel in teaching to others his handicraft; for by doing his duty in this respect, speedily and efficiently, he will in this way procure for himself the surest means of shortening the hours, days, and years of his own labour. The universal prevalence of this feeling will form a most pleasant and beneficial contrast with the present dislike and even alarm felt by many working men when they see great numbers of apprentices entering their trades, whom they very often regard, not as brothers, but rather as enemies, who have come to overcrowd the trade, and thus to reduce the wages of the skilled mechanic. In the new social state just the reverse influences will be active, and the skilled artizan will not only be pleased to teach apprentices with the greatest willingness, but he will also find his task greatly facilitated by the superior intelligence and ardour of the novices themselves. He will especially show great regard to those persons who at the introduction of the new social arrangement may be handed over to him from the learned professions, the commercial and shopkeeping classes, or from other trades and occupations which have either become diminished or extinct. Even those who now form the idle classes of society will, under his guidance, learn useful trades.

The equal distribution of labour does not require that every man, woman, and child shall participate in all the various handicrafts and manufactures. All occupations having been brought under six classes,-viz., 1. dangerous; 2. repulsive; 3. unwholesome; 4. hard; 5. monotonous; 6. easy and agreeable labour-every person will only be obliged to work in one of the trades belonging to each class, and he will therefore have to choose and learn six occupations, besides being skilful in agriculture. These seven characters of a man's activity in the new social state may very often require a change of locality, but this will not be universally the case. If locomotion is required for every one of these occupations, a person may have to make six or seven journeys a year,* which still very favourably contrasts with the present monstrous passenger traffic.

*The railways of the United Kingdom carried last year 477,840,411 passengers. But in this number are not included the season-ticket holders, who all travelled a great number of times, many of them more than once

CHAPTER XLI.—SUPPRESSION OF IDLENESS.

IT is a characteristic feature of the present anarchical state of

society that it harbours an immense amount of idleness under the ægis of charity, freedom, and necessity. The idle vagrant, the sturdy beggar, the parish pauper, are considered worthy objects of charity; the idle annuitant and independent gentleman enjoy full freedom in doing nothing, and the idle soldier is tolerated as an object of necessity.

The following list contains the greater number of idlers, many others being omitted who have already been mentioned in previous chapters:

each day. Allowing for these, it is not an over-estimate to assume that in the present year (1875) the number of passengers will reach five hundred millions. That number would allow thirteen journeys a year, or one journey every four weeks, to each man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom, including the extremely aged, the infant, the invalids, paupers, and inmates of prisons and asylums.

* "Through the administration of the present poor-law, and the granting of in-door and out-door relief, especially to able-bodied paupers, a greater encouragement is held out to idleness and extravagance than to industry and frugality. The industrious, temperate, and comparatively virtuous, are compelled to support the ignorant, the idle, and the vicious.” -ROBERT OWEN.

Of this immense number, the greater part will, in the future social state, become available to be enrolled in the rank of useful workers. Pauperism will then become extinct; the imposition of the sturdy beggar and the idle errands of the professional tramp will then become unprofitable and impossible, as nobody will have anything to give away. The great number of gentlemen and gentlewomen now living on accumulated or inherited capital will have their support of idleness destroyed; for money being abolished, nobody will be able to accumulate or transmit wealth, and everybody will thus be compelled to become a labourer,* artizan, factory operative, sailor, miner, etc. The great number of persons inheriting wealth, not only in estate, but also in money, and the amount of idleness created thereby, may be guessed from the following list of every fortune exceeding £250,000 personality, transferred by death within the past ten years:

"In a world where everyone lives on the products of labour, it is a matter of simple justice that everyone should do his share. The man who does not work lives upon the work of his neighbour. He gets food, clothing, shelter, comforts, and luxuries, for which he renders no equivalent. The idle man is a thief and a robber, shirking his share of the world's work. Somebody gathers his food, makes his clothes, builds his house, supplies his wants, and he does nothing in return."-Dr. T. L. NICHOLS, in his "Manual of Manners and Morals.”