'The views and opinions of Brigadier General John Jacob, CB. Aide-decamp to the Queen; Aide-de-camp to the Governor General of India, &c. &c. &c.; late commanding in chief the British forces in Persia; at present commanding the Sind Irregular Horse, and Political Superintendent of the North-West frontier of Sind.' [‎24] (55/481)

24
This had, I thought, been considered by well-informed
persons as axiomatic, at least since the timeW Edmund
Burke. (Vide his "Thoughts and Details on Scarcity.")
But there are higher and nobler principles than any
which has touched on, which point to the selfsame
end as do considerations of immediate profit and loss.
We have no more right to force any man to labour for
less than he chooses to work for, than we have to steal his
household property. To attempt to do so is criminal;
and to speak of the " extortionate " demands of labourers
appears to me to imply confused ideas of natural right and
wrong.
The labourer demands nothing: the employer may
possibly demand the labourer's services, and—as formerly
in Sind, until the practice was prohibited and abolished by
me—may sometimes enforce his demand by unjust vio
lence , but the poor labourer can only offer his services,
and—having no capital but those services—he must either
obtain work or starve.
Nothing tends to repress the productive energies of a
people more than a sense of injustice. The labourer
working for Government has a right to such a share of
the public wealth as the labour which he performs may
represent, or may be fairly equivalent to. This cannot
be arbitrarily assigned ; it can only be known— only he
ascertained —by allowing every man to fix his own price
on his exertions.
If he value these too highly, we need not employ him :
hunger will soon teach him what his labour is really worth
in the market.
On the other hand, the labourer has no right to more
than this due share; and to give him more has also a
depressing effect on productiveness, as it may tend to