540 PANORAMA OF MANCHESTER. 



sumption, and labour, would, however, tell a tale replete with fore- 

 bodings. 



It is to be wished that some better account had accompanied the 

 Panorama of Manchester of what chiefly interests strangers namely, 

 the interior economy and management of the mills, which are the 

 only curiosities in the town. These are indeed congregations of 

 mechanical and moral wonders, and cannot fail to fill the mind with 

 the most singular emotions. The stories of our childhood, as to 

 magic and supernatural power, dwindle into insignificance before the 

 strange realities which are presented to us. 



In viewing these most wonderful works of human ingenuity the 

 question forces itself upon our attention, what is to be the result of 

 mechanical adaptation upon the labouring population ? Will it gra- 

 dually force human power from the field; and if so, what is to become 

 of the millions of hands now dependant on this branch of industry ? 

 It is acknowledged on all sides that there is already a considerable 

 pressure upon the labouring community, and that it is in a state of 

 feverish excitement any thing but satisfactory. This uneasy state is 

 evidenced too openly by combinations and turn-outs, in all of which 

 the men inevitably suffer. This result, though perfectly natural, and 

 though gratifying to the lover of order and social union, will before 

 long teach the men a painful and dangerous lesson. They will learn 

 from the iron hand of poverty that they are the weaker party, and 

 that in many branches of trade they have a rival daily, nay hourly, 

 treading upon their heels, and swallowing up their resources. This 

 is mechanism. This lesson once taught, the struggle will begin a 

 struggle which will either make or mar us as a manufacturing 

 country. 



It unluckily happens that the great political writers of the present 

 day are dealers in abstract propositions and generalities and too 

 often mere ' doctrinaires/ who frame theories, and then simple souls 

 good-naturedly imagine that the wants, the wishes, and the crimes 

 of their fellow-men will accommodate themselves to their peculiar 

 opinions. The leading writers in the great periodicals, which, gene- 

 rally speaking, express the prevailing opinions of the political par- 

 ties which they represent, one and all agree in declaring that every 

 new application of mechanical power must benefit the labouring 

 classes in some way or other. Nothing is so easy as to make an as- 

 sertion ; but we wish some of these closet philosophers had conde- 

 scended to point out how such a desirable consummation is to be 

 brought about. 



It is true that some of them talk of waste lands, some of emigra- 

 tion, and some of abstinence from marriage, in order to check the 

 increase of population. Writers of this last class evidently know 

 nothing of human nature; and we beg leave, with all modesty, to 

 hint to them, that if people do not marry, still children will be born. 

 This is doubtless a natural phenomenon they cannot understand ; but 

 it is true nevertheless. 



"Rupiam vincula, dicas 



Num luctata caius nodum arripit, at tamen ilia 

 Cum fugit, a collo trahitar pars longa catena." 



