By the laws of most civilised nations, no man is compelled to work at any particular trade or manufacture; but at some trade or other, every one who has no property must work; and as the employment of the husbandman is limited to such a number as the capital of farmers enables them to employ, all above that number must betake themselves to other kinds of employments; and from circumstances attending each person, that person is determined to such or such a trade, which it is next to impossible for him to avoid. A tailor more easily brings up his son to be a tailor than he can to be a mason. A fisherman more easily makes his son a fisherman or a sailor, than of any other trade. Thus, with regard to the father, it was hardly optional; but, with regard to the son, altogether out of his power to make any choice in the matter.
If a poor man is employed by a master, and is paid by him the price of his hire, no injury is supposed to be done; on the contrary, it is thought that the finding employment for the labourer is beneficial to the individual as well as the public. But this is true only in a very limited sense. To be of service to the public, and indeed to the labourer, the product of the labour ought to be of such a kind as to be useful, and to consist of something that contributes to
