550 The Condition and Prospects of the Country, [Nov. 



years ago, when unaided by the advantages of our machinery. Besides, 

 it is well known, to merchants at least, that we can only find a sale in 

 foreign markets for the lowest qualities of our manufactured goods ; and, 

 with the protection which the foreigner enjoys, and the greater cheapness 

 of labour, we anticipate a time when he will be able to compete 

 successfully with our superior skill, from the additional quantity of 

 labour he can command for the same amount of money. It is well 

 known too, that the continental powers have become aware of the 

 strength they may in time create by the encouragement of these first 

 essays of manufacturing industry. They are promoting the investment 

 of capital to the utmost of their power, and protecting their own infant 

 strength from rude contact with the gigantic power of Great Britain. 

 The manufacture of yarns has not yet been much cultivated, because, 

 consisting almost entirely in the operation of most expensive machinery, 

 the British merchant, from his superior resources, and the lower rate of 

 interest which he pays for capital, can produce it at a much cheaper rate ; 

 but, as money and attention become gradually turned into the channel 

 of commerce, we may expect to be equally opposed in this branch of 

 our manufacture. 



We have never in the whole history of legislation met with one in- 

 stance of self-destructive policy, so complete and so irreparable in its 

 effects as this measure of the late parliament. We may retard its pro- 

 gress by timely interference, but our utmost effort cannot avert its 

 ultimate consequences : the entire change it will effect in the principles 

 of human society, the happiness of which consists in the dependence of 

 one class of the people upon the interests and exertions of another. We 

 have entered upon an awful struggle with the world, and with our own 

 population. This contest will be in machinery, the powers of which we 

 must increase as the only means of regaining the advantages we have 

 madly thrown away. We must reduce man the lord of the creation 

 and the image of his Maker to the mere puppet of a machine, in com- 

 parison of which he feels as Lord F. L. Gower confessed at Manchester 

 te that he is an inferior being," a useless member of society. And he 

 will be useless ! He may live like the beast of the field, and must be 

 fed by Nature and his God ; for his fellow men will only support his 

 wants so long as they need his toil. We may grind down the wages of 

 our Operatives till they become the mere shadows of human beings 

 we may decrease our profits our expences and our taxes ; and when 

 we have ruined every branch of industry pauperised our agricultural 

 population defrauded the public creditor (for to this it must eventually 

 tend) ; we shall find that we have pursued a baseless scheme of aggran- 

 dizement which has melted in our very grasp. The foreigner must and 

 ought to protect the interests of his own population. He must employ 

 his own mechanics and his own capital, in preference to that of another 

 nation, and he will do it. 



But it is needless to pursue any other course, in shewing the utter 

 worthlessness of the whole system, than the bare enunciation of facts. 

 We have now had sufficient time and ample opportunities to view its 

 operation, in detail, through its various channels, and generally as a 

 whole. We have been long enough deluded by the nattering picture 

 of its advocates, and looked forward with enthusiasm to the coming of its 

 attendant blessings. Where shall we find them ? Is one great branch 

 of the community prosperous ? Not one we affirm it in the face of the 



