perate misery.* Competition in the work shops has been carried to its extreme point-the animal man has been goaded on by an irresistible necessity to labour for the greatest number of hours, and live on the smallest quantity of food which the physical machine can bear. Every glut in a foreign market, every new competitor that springs up in their own; every variation in the price of the raw material they employ; every change of policy among foreign nations causes a vibration that is felt through each fibre of her system. If the price of raw materials falls, each manufacturer is obliged to reduce the wages of his workmen, because, unless this can be done, he cannot bring the stock of raw materials he may have on hand fairly into competition with those who purchase at the new prices. Each one will feel also, that if he cannot reduce the wages of his labourers, he will be undersold by those who may have effected this change, and who may also have the advantage of cheaper materials. If the price of the raw material should rise, similar difficulties occur, the master manufacturer has to contend against the stock of manufactured goods already in market, against his rivals who may have laid up raw materials at the lower prices, and to guard against the future fluctuations of the market. On the other hand, if the price of the manufactured article should rise, the workmen begin to clamour for an increase of wages, while their employers have motives, besides the love of gain, to be cautious in raising wages, which it will be so difficult and hazardous again to reduce and these vibrations are taking place when the mass of the population is on the verge of starvation, when thousands and hundreds of thousands are obliged to depend on casual bounty and the poor rates, for the lowest means of subsistence, and are compelled to watch these changes with the embittered feelings of want, suffering and degradation. Need we wonder, under these circumstances, that we hear of combinations among the masters, combinations among the workmen, 'turnings out,' mobs, the destruction of looms, machines, manufactories, and, finally, the interference of the military, and the suppression of riots, by the destruction of the miserable offenders. This is no exaggerated picture; the testimony of the most correct and most intelligent writers of Great-Britain, the acknowledgements of * Mr. Peel, within a few weeks, congratulating Parliament on the beneficial effects which the emancipation of the Catholics had produced, mentioned by way of exemplifying the fact, that the government had already been able to withdraw from Ireland, where they had been employed to keep the miserable and discontented peasantry in awe, three reginents to add to the military force in the manufacturing districts. the journals under the patronage of the government, will corroborate all our statements. She has sought abroad for wealth and power, successfully we readily admit, but she has forgotten the happiness of her people. It may well become the labouring classes in our country, who are yet free and intelligent, to consider these circumstances, and before they give an additional impulse to this system, to examine its ultimate results, to determine whether they are willing to be reduced to the condition of the operatives in Great-Britain, and to remember, that beyond a certain point, there can be no pause or redemption. The period will approach rapidly when no small capitalist can enter into competition with a great one. It will no longer be the trial of skill, industry or economy, but the contest of machinery, which no small capital can establish or maintain-and no labourer will find employment who will not work for the lowest wages on which life can possibly be supported. It is well for them to know to what they must submit before they can render this country the workshop of the world; what is the only condition on which competition, in foreign markets, can be maintained with other nations. Considerations, equally important, should, at some moments, occupy the attention of the capitalists themselves, who are pressing this subject forward with unremitting zeal, apparently unmindful of every thing but their immediate interests. They have before them the history of the British experiment, the advantages under which it has been supported, its triumphant success, and the consequences that appear, almost inevitably, to follow that success. In the midst of that prosperity which appears to foreign nations so specious and so fair, the capitalists find themselves around the crater of a boiling volcano; while the commerce of the world moves at their pleasure, they are obliged to surround themselves with an armed force to protect their persons and property from the lawless violence of licentious mobs, from the very power they must employ to produce their wealth, and to guard against those deeper convulsions with which they are constantly threatened, and which are the more dangerous, because they proceed from misery, hopeless and irremediable. We have already seen some symptoms of this evil in the United States, while wages are twice or three times as high as in Great-Britain, and provisions more abundant; what will be the condition of our manufacturers when these circumstances shall vary-when the population in our manufacturing towns shall become dense and poor, when every change in the political relations of our government with foreign nations, every war at home or abroad, every fluctuation in commerce, nay, every variation in fashion may throw multitudes out of employment, or to speak more correctly, will suspend the demand for certain articles, and leave it a question to be settled between master and workman, whether the former is to continue a business which has ceased to be productive, and may be ruinous, or the latter will quietly consent to be dismissed and starve. In the collisions that must arise under such discussions, whither will those who are physically weak turn for protection. Will the capitalists expect that all the doctrines and principles of our government shall be changed for their convenience--that standing armies shall be created, in order that a military force may be provided to guard and preserve their workshops and their homes? And yet, unless this is done, where is their security? Will they call for the posse comitatus, the militia of the district, to suppress disturbances? alas! the militia of the district will be themselves the rioters, and their officers, to whom you must appeal, the very men, perhaps, who are wielding the axe or hurling the torch, directing and inflaming the passions of an excited populace, and ready, upon the slightest resistance or provocation, to turn against persons that violence which, at first, will be directed against property. These consequences are not the less probable, because, in the infant state of our manufacturing system, no serious incidents have yet occurred-some admonitions have already been given that may furnish food for meditation. M. Sismondi is fully aware of these results, and, according to the spirit of his system, proposes immediately to regulate society. He supposes there is a point beyond which the invention of new machinery is an evil, as lessening the demand for human labour, and therefore leaving the poor without employmentand that capital may be so amassed as to defeat its own object. When applying his reasonings to Great-Britain, and looking for an illustration of his doctrines, not in the regions of probability, but even beyond those of possibility, he exclaims, "en verité il ne reste plus qu'à désirer que le roi demeure tout seul dans l'isle, et tournant constamment une manivelle, fasse accomplir par des automates, tout l'ouvrage de l'Angleterre." In many respects there is truth in his suggestions; when a new piece of labour-saving machinery, or a cheaper or more productive method of culture is invented, it will unquestionably happen that a large portion of labourers, previously employed, may be dismissed and left to want and misery. But, in a national point of view, their distress is temporary-that is to say, the younger portion will turn while they have strength and ingenuity left, to other occupations, the elder will die off, and give no further trouble. In the mean time, however, the productive power, and consequently the resources of the country are increased, for when a great portion of that work, which was once performed by human labour, is thrown upon the blind forces of nature, or when, by her aid, more is executed by the same labour, there must be a great improvement in her physical, if not moral condition. It has been supposed by many, that man, thus far relieved from the necessity of labour, must become more independent, more enlightened, and more happy. "The faculty of amassing capital, or, in other words, value (says M. Say) I apprehend to be one cause of the vast superiority of man over the brute creation," and what it has been asked is the use of capital, if it does not tend to increase human production, supply human wants, and relieve human labour? This, if specious in theory, is not always accurate in practice. We have already remarked that the tendency of the commercial system is to excessive and unequal accumulation, the more the labour of a country is performed by machinery, the more all efforts become the mére competition of wealth-of gigantic powers moved by gigantic meats-while puny interlopers are disregarded and swept away. If by some new invention, the labour formerly executed by a hundred persons can be performed by ten, it will by no means follow, that the ninety who are dismissed, even if they have more leisure, will enjoy more happiness. Even the position of the ten who remain, may, by no means, be improved. They may only have to do what can be done by any other ten labourers. The whole benefit may, and probably will, result to the capitalist, who will have the means to set in operation the new machinery-at the fate of the ninety, we have already hinted. However, as in no country yet known, has improvement ever advanced so far as to leave no demand for labour, we have no doubt that all who are not physically disabled will find employment, but their condition will not be improved-and as we consider the time as still far off, when machinery shall entirely supersede the necessity for human labour, and extirpate the human race; when, according to the monitory exclamation of M. Sismondi, the last man, sovereign of course he must be, will be employed in turning the wheel, or rather kindling the fires which must drive the whole machinery, the mechanical automatons of a nation, and thus concenter in himself all power and all wealth, we shall not enter into any discussion respecting the measures that ought to be adopted to prevent its occurrence, any more than to guard against the advent of that comet which it is said is, at a very remote period, to impinge against the earth and disturb the calculations and speculations of many of its philosophers. The best and simplest system, the most practicable and the wisest, is for the government to employ itself in protecting the country from foreign power, in preserving among the citizens, equal rights, privileges and advantages, and then leave it to the sagacity of each individual to devote his time, his talents, or his wealth to such pursuits as he shall deem most advantageous, and to his prudence, to guard against the evils, which exist, in some degree, in every stage of society. But this doctrine is despised for its simplicity, and those whose lofty minds are incapable of bending successfully to the details of one man's business are too often the very persons who are most anxious to manage and regulate the capital and labour of every individual in the nation. "Oh fortunatos, nimium, &c." The schoolboy reads these lines with pleasure, as they recall to his memory the thousand enjoyments that the country furnishes to the unsophisticated mind. The aged politician might repeat them when reviewing the happy condition of nations, whilst passing through the early stages of their political existence-when the warmth and freshness and purity of youth still mark and dignify their conduct. If they have not wealth to make them formidable abroad, they have peace and competence at home. If they cannot disturb the uttermost ends of the earth, they can protect their own altars, and their children want neither raiment nor food. How ill exchanged are these blessings for the extremes which accompany the last stages of a commercial system, where the contrast of unbounded opulence and squalid poverty are every where visible, and constantly increasing. These times will come with the natural increase of population, and its usual concomitant, wealth-these extremes will gradually appear, but it would seem to us folly, if not madness, to accelerate their approach. It is like hurrying over, if it were possible, the joyous and vigorous years of youth and manhood to arrive at age and decrepitude, because, at that time, great wealth and higher honours are in expectancy, and may possibly await us. We have been led further than we intended into this discussion, but we will make some additional observations before we leave it. Of all the attempts which have been made from time to time to build up manufactures by force, none have been so mischievous, and, at the same time, so ridiculous as the one lately made in our own country. In its fundamental doctrines it is old enough, nay in its dotage; it is only in some of its mo |