Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

g to prevent voluntary combinations among workmen ; e trust they will not be understood as being intende ountenance, in the slightest degree, the atttempts that equently been made by combined workmen forcibly to pre hers from working, except on the conditions they have -r the guidance of their own conduct. Every such atte an obvious breach of the peace; and if not repressed rompt and suitable punishment, would be subversive not the freedom of industry, but of the national welfare. ason that combinations among numerous bodies are ra jurious is, that the motives which individuals have to b f from the combination are so numerous and powerful, can seldom be maintained for any considerable period. those who adhere to the combination were to be allowe altreat and obstruct those who secede from it, this prin ould be subverted, and the combination might becom ery injurious as to require the interference of the legisla r its suppression. This, therefore, does not really seen a case in which there is much room for doubt or differ opinion. It is plain, that we must either reduce the w en to a servile condition, or authorize them to refus ork, or sell their labour, except under such condition ey may choose to specify. But when they are allowed uch, they are allowed all they are entitled to; and if › one step further-if they attempt to carry their point olence, either towards their masters or their fellow-work ey are guilty of an offence that strikes at the foundat

the manufacturing and commercial prosperity of

country, and which no government can or ought to tolerate. It is indispensable that that system of intimidation which the workmen in some places have endeavoured to organize should, at all hazards, be effectually put down. And to secure this. object, every practicable means should be adopted for facili tating the prosecution, speedy conviction, and punishment of those who are guilty of obstructing and intimidating others.

These remarks proceed from no unfriendly feeling towards the workmen, but from a desire to do them serviee. It is the extreme of folly to suppose that any combination can maintain wages at an artificial elevation. It is not, as we have already shown, on the dangerous and generally ruinous resource of combination, but on the forethought, industry, and frugality of work-people, that their wages, and their condition as individuals, must always depend. If they attempt, by adding violence to combinations, to force wages up to an artificial level, one of two things will follow; they will either draw down on themselves the vengeance of the law, or they will bring about their permanent degradation by forcing the transfer of that capital, from which alone they derive their subsistence, to other businesses, or to countries where it will be better protected.

CHAPTER VIII.

Interests of the Labourers promoted, and their condition improved, by increased facilities of Production and Exchange.—Circumstances which have conspired to prevent the Inventions and Discoveries of the last half-century from effecting a greater change for the better in the condition of the Labourers.Influence of Taxation.

Though the labourers engaged in a particular trade may occasionally suffer from the introduction into it of new or improved machinery, or of new or cheaper methods of production, such suffering is but of brief duration, while the entire labour

CONDITION OF LABOURERS.

ing class is sure to be benefited by the change. This has bee demonstrated over and over again, and is a proposition of th truth of which no doubt is now entertained. An increase facility of production immediately increases the command o all classes over necessaries and conveniences; and it furthe leads, by increasing the demand for the articles whose cost ha been reduced, to an increased demand for labour. When th cost of cottons was reduced by the introduction of the spinning frame, it is plain, as that reduction did not affect the deman for labour, or the rate of wages in other employments, tha the condition of the labourers generally must have been im proved by their being able to supply themselves with cheape cottons. The fall in the price of the latter was, in truth equivalent to a corresponding rise of wages; while the in creased demand for cottons, and the powerful stimulus which was thereby given to invention and discovery, by still furthe lowering their price, and bringing them within the command of a constantly increasing number of consumers, has so much increased their consumption that the cotton trade is now next to agriculture, the most important business carried on i the kingdom, employing millions upon millions of capital, and hundreds of thousands of work-people! And such is invari ably the case, in a greater or less degree, with every increase facility of production. An increase of supply is sure to occa sion an equal increase of demand. In this case, therefore, a in all others, the interests of the manufacturers and employer of labour are coincident with those of the labourers. Every additional facility of production really raises wages, or, which is the same thing, it gives the labourers a greater quantity o produce in return for the same amount of labour or of money

Plain bobbin-net lace is said to have sold, in 1813 and 1814 for about 21s. a square yard; and the same article, but of a improved quality, may now be had for about 3d. the squar yard! Hence, as compared with bobbin-net, wages are nov about eighty-four times higher than in 1813-14.' And the

1 This takes for granted that money wages have not fallen in th interval, which they have not done.

number of hands employed in the manufacture of the article has increased at least a hundred-fold in the interval.

The employment of machinery, and the increased facility of production consequent thereon, has also a tendency to raise the condition of the labourer, by bringing the powers of his mind more into action. Some of the most laborious operations of industry-such, for instance, as the thrashing out of cornare now either wholly or principally performed by machinery, the task of the labourer being confined to its construction (in which he is usually assisted by other machines) and guidance. And the presumption is, that this substitution of the powers of nature for those of man will be carried to a much further extent, and that he will be progressively still more and more employed in making new applications of their exhaustless energies.

The same results follow from the repeal of prohibitions on importation, and from the opening of new commercial channels, by which produce may be brought from abroad cheaper that it can be furnished at home. It is proper, however, in the view of preventing any sudden shock being given to any great branch of native industry, that such changes should be cautiously introduced, and be accompanied with the necessary safeguards. But, apart from the temporary injury that it may occasion to a particular class, every additional facility given to commerce, like the additional facilities given to production, never fails to add to the well-being of the public. Owing partly to improvements in agriculture, and partly to greater facilities of importation, the price of corn was not, during the four or five years ending with 1852, more than half its price previously to the termination of the late war; so that, as compared with this most indispensable of all articles, wages may be said to have more than doubled since 1815. There is nothing, in truth, either isolated or in any degree peculiar in the situation of work-people. On the contrary, their interests are inseparably associated with, and promoted by, all that contributes to national opulence, civilization, and good government.

CONDITION OF LABOURERS,

9

After what has now been stated, the reader will be pr pared to hear that the condition of most classes of work people has been much improved since the close of the Ame rican war, and that they are at present better fed, bette clothed, and better lodged, than at any former period. W are aware that Lord John Russell is reported to have said in 1844, that the labouring classes had retrograded withi the last century, and that they were not then so well off a they had been in 1740. But, despite the deference justl due to so high an authority, we are satisfied that this an erroneous statement. Most things on which wages ar expended are as cheap now as in 1740, and very manyincluding all articles of clothing—are much cheaper. Not withstanding the well-founded complaints of the badness the lodgings of the lower classes, they are incomparabl better now than they were in the last century, or at an anterior period. The older portions, indeed, in all our town and villages, are precisely those in which the poor are in al respects the worst lodged. The bread, also, which is used poor families in the present times is much superior, an in towns, at least, the consumption of butcher's meat by th labourers has greatly increased. Drunkenness and immo rality, if they have not been materially abated, have not in creased; while the manners of all classes have been human ized and softened. The great improvement that has take place in the health and in the longevity of the population could not have been realized had not their condition beer materially bettered.

in

At the same time, we are ready to admit that the condition of the labouring class is far from prosperous; and Lord Joh Russell was quite right in saying, that they do not appear te have profited as much as they should have done, or as much as the middle classes have done, by the extraordinary im provements that have taken place during the last half century and especially by the fall in the price of most articles sinc 1815. The middle classes have, however, always evinced far more prudence and forethought than those below them, and

« AnteriorContinuar »