"To do equal justice to all classes, the legislation of a country ought, therefore, to keep steadily in view their relative importance, not only as regards numbers, but also their powers of production, and the proportion which they severally bear of the national burdens. Unless this is the governing principle, it strikes at the root of their prosperity, and the injury inflicted on a class is evinced in the gradual decay of the whole community."
Acting upon these distinct, and, we submit, perfectly sound principles, Mr Spackman has compiled his tables in the following manner. The Government returns are quite explicit as to the number of those engaged directly in agriculture and in manufactures. Mr Spackman takes each county separately; and having set down the relative numbers of each class, he divides the remainder of the population between these according to their proportion. For example, let us instance his table of the county of Lanark, which is the great seat of Scottish manufactures. We find, from the official returns, that the following numbers are directly engaged:—
| In Agriculture, | 13,169 |
| In Manufactures of all kinds, | 61,378 |
The residue of the population being 352,425, he divides in the same proportion, and thus gives us as a result:—
| Engaged in Agriculture, | 13,169 | |
| Dependent on, | 62,257 | |
| 75,426 | ||
| Engaged in Manufactures, | 61,378 | |
| Dependent on, | 290,168 | |
| 351,546 | ||
| Total of county, | 426,972 |
In the same way, by estimating the population of Perthshire directly employed in agriculture and manufactures, Mr Spackman forms his table thus,—
| Engaged in Agriculture, | 16,302 | |
| Dependent on, | 64,233 | |
| 80,535 | ||
| Engaged in Manufactures, | 11,509 | |
| Dependent on, | 45,346 | |
| 56,855 | ||
| Total of County, | 137,390 |
The grand result for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is as follows:—
| Engaged in, and dependent on agriculture, | 18,734,468 |
| Engaged in, and dependent on manufactures, | 8,091,621 |
| Population, exclusive of those travelling on night of census, | 26,826,089 |
Lest it should be said that Mr Spackman has acted upon any wrong principle in framing these tables—for we know by experience that a certain class of political economists can see no virtue in any figures which are not of their own construction—let us turn to the Government reports, and extract from them the number of males directly employed in the two great branches of production.