been pursued without forethought or restraint. Fine linen and silks became more general, and Mr. Hume, quoting Sir Josiah Child, says, "That gentlewomen, in those earlier times, "(1650) thought themselves well clothed in a

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serge gown, which a chambermaid would, in "1688, be ashamed to be seen in; and that, "besides the great increase of rich clothes, plate, jewels, and household furniture; coaches 66 were, in that time, augmented a hundred

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In this manner show and parade gradually absorbed that income which was before devoted to maintain the sturdy independence of each provincial chieftain.

“Thus the cumbrous charge of a Gothic "establishment (as Mr. Burke expressed it), is "shrunk into the polished littleness of modern

both king and queen, and all the court, went about masqued, and came into houses unknown, and danced there with a great deal of wild frolic."

In the lively pages of Grammont, we find innumerable sketches of the profligate gallantry and thoughtless profusion of the higher ranks.

* Hume's James II. ch.71. Adam Smith has admirably exemplified the beneficial effects that arose from this change of expenditure.- Wealth of Nations, book iii. c. 4.

"elegance and personal accommodation; it "has evaporated from the gross concrete, into 66 an essence and rectified spirit of expence, "where you have tuns of ancient pomp in a "vial of modern luxury." *

The third period, during which another great change insensibly has taken place, reaches from the Revolution to the present day.

In the interval, pomp and parade have been sacrificed to comfort and convenience; refinement and elegance have taken the place of ostentation; and luxuries are so widely spread, that various products of the most distant lands are found in the meanest of our cottages, and are in common and daily use among the poorest of the people. † "The rich subjects of the "realm have altered their economy, and turned "the course of their expence, from the main"tenance of vast establishments within their "walls, to the employment of a great variety of "independent trades abroad." ‡

* Speech on Economical Reform, vol. iii. p. 279. + Tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, and cottons.

+ Burke.

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CHAP. V.

ON THE PROGRESS OF LUXURY, AND THE ADVANTAGES THENCE ARISING.

THE

HE word luxury will, of course, vary in its meaning, in different ranks in life, in different countries, or different periods of the same coun

try.

If we take this word, however, in its ordinary meaning, as intending some artificial necessary, supposed to add to our gratification by its possession, then, in this sense, the gradual increase of luxury must be highly beneficial, more especially, if dispersed among all ranks of the community. So long as these luxuries are not positively injurious to their possessors; if they are neutral in their effects, and do not of themselves lessen the sum of human enjoyment, then the pursuit of them, the dormant enterprise and industry they bring into life, are of the

* Wealth of Nations, book v. c. 2. p. 333.

highest consequence to the welfare of the coun

try.

The more rational our luxuries are, the less selfish, and the more they increase and perpetuate good effects, the better; but any luxury (which involves no guilt in its acquisition and enjoyment), is far better, as regards the nation, than no luxury at all.

Among a few persons, indeed, the desire for some of these artificial necessaries, is so strong, and so ill regulated, as to induce them to betake themselves to crime and fraud for their gratification: but among the mass of mankind, in a free and well governed community, this desire acts as a new spur to exertion, and calls forth the latent ability, or incites the perseverance of competitors. Many of the articles of life which are now considered as necessaries, and essential to comfort, were at their first introduction, a few years ago, called idle superfluities, and probably abused as luxuries. *

"Dans un pays où tout le monde allait pieds "nuds, le premier que se fit faire une paire de

An interesting account of the advantages derived from the use of luxuries, as tea, tobacco, wine, &c., in Mr. Malthus's Political Economy, c. 7. s. 5. Vide Sismondi Rep. Ital. c. 91. p. 47.

"souliers, avait il du luxe? n'etait ce pas un "homme tres sensé et tres industrieux?

"N'en est il pas de meme de celui qui eut "la premiere chemise? - Cependant ceux qui

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n'etaient pas accoutumés à porter des chemises "blanches, le prirent pour un riche effeminé "qui corrompait la nation.” *

Thus chimnies were not commonly used in England till the middle of the sixteenth century, and in the introductory discourse to Hollinshed's Chronicles, published in 1577, there is a bitter complaint of the multitude of chimnies lately erected, and of the exchange of wooden platters for earthenware or pewter. Another old author laments that nothing but oak is used for building instead of willow as heretofore; which change, and its consequences, he vituperates in the exact fashion of modern old gentlewomen: "Formerly (says he,) our houses, in"deed, were of willow, but our men were of oak; now that our houses are of oak, our men

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are not only of willow, but some altogether "of straw." +

* Voltaire's Questions, sur l'Encyclopedie.

+ Lord Chatham might have had this passage in his mind when he compared, so contemptuously, the silken barons of the present day with the iron barons of old.