1830.] at the Opening of the New Parliament. 549 



first brought forward, and advocated in Parliament, it was stated that 

 their object was to give increased employment to British machinery and 

 capital. Notwithstanding the heavy burthens under which we laboured, 

 it was asserted that we were able to produce our manufactured goods at 

 less prices than other nations, by the pre-eminence of our machinery alone. 

 It was granted that we could never compete with the foreigner by mere 

 manual labour, because at that time the price of labour in this country 

 was very high, and our population were in the possession of comfortable 

 homes, and adequate subsistence. Our superiority lay solely in our 

 skill, our industry, and, more than all, in our machinery. It would, 

 on these grounds, be allowed by the most simple reasoner that, so long 

 as we supposed our prosperity to depend upon the extension of our 

 foreign trade, the advantages which alone could make that trade 

 profitable, should be firmly and jealously preserved. This doctrine, 

 however just and reasonable it may appear, did not coincide with the 

 views of the liberal statesmen of the day. It had been the policy of 

 our fathers to prohibit the exportation of that machinery upon which 

 our superiority as manufacturers depended ; but the new system could 

 not brook such a blot upon its perfection. The prohibition was disan- 

 nulled ; and we have now been for some years exporters of the main 

 source of our commercial wealth. 



The consequences of this policy it is much easier to foresee than to 

 resist. We have no hesitation in affirming that they are, in a certain 

 degree, irremediable ; and that in a few years we shall feel them in an 

 accumulation of misery which nothing but the elasticity of our com- 

 mercial strength has hitherto warded off. We shall feel them in the 

 poverty of an unemployed and discontented population in the diminu- 

 tion of the public revenue in an increase of the pressure of taxation, 

 arising from the decrease of ability to support them. Even now I 

 appeal to any merchant conversant with foreign markets we are suffering 

 from the consquences of this rash measure. We have now to contend 

 with the untaxed labour of foreign states, who possess the raw material 

 at as cheap, or a cheaper rate than ourselves are aided by British 

 machinery, and protected by their own legislature. America is manufac- 

 turing largely, and the trade with her is now in most instances attended 

 with severe losses. The best markets throughout Europe are daily 

 becoming better supplied with home manufactured goods ; and, conse- 

 quently, less profitable to the British merchant. Whilst the exportation 

 of our cotton yarns is increasing, that of finished goods the most 

 profitable to the country, because bearing the greatest amount of labour 

 is decreasing, or if not yet much decreased in gross amount, most 

 certainly in profit. The total amount of manufactured cotton exported 

 from Great Britain during the last year was 1 28,000,000 Ibs., and of this 

 amount nearly one half, viz. 58 millions, consisted of cotton yarn alone. 

 The first object of the foreigner is naturally to invest his capital in such 

 machinery as will effect the greatest saving in labour, and enable him to 

 produce his goods in a state fit for consumption. This he is now doing 

 the power-loom is at work in all parts of Germany, Prussia, France, 

 and Belgium ; and, partially, in other states not so favourable for native 

 industry. We have seen many of the goods which have been thus brought 

 into competition with our own in foreign markets. They are, of course 

 as the first essays of art will naturally be rude and unskilful ; but, 

 notwithstanding this, they are such as could not have been produced a few 



