< 337 ) 



PROSPECTS OF INDUSTRY 

 LABOUR, MACHINERY, AND STEAM. 



MANY writers on political economy put us in mind of two lines we 

 have somewhere seen, on the common run of elucidators of the 

 works of other men, 



" For commentators each dark passage shun, 

 And hold a farthing candle to the sun." 



Thus the glimmering light of political economists is perpetually 

 opposed to the glare of acknowledged grievances, pressing from all 

 sides upon the labouring poor, whether manufacturing or agricul- 

 tural, while the real difficulties of the case, and an estimate of the 

 causes which have led to it, are carefully kept out of sight, or rather, 

 it may be, are never taken into account. 



It needs no lengthened argument to prove that there is a heavy 

 pressure weighing down the energies of the industrial classes of the 

 community. If we take our stand amidst a rural population, we see 

 nothing but rags, poverty, and pauperism ; and, if we remove our- 

 selves into a manufacturing town, protracted hours of work, and a 

 constantly decreasing rate of wages, testify the unhealthy condition 

 of the labour-market. Indeed, there are few people who do not ac- 

 knowledge that considerable distress pervades the working classes in 

 general, and, though opinions differ as to the amount of this distress, 

 the difference only serves to show the universality of the opinion. 



In our present paper we propose to look forward ; to point out the 

 agents which are in operation to keep down industry; to call atten- 

 tion, not to vague surmises and generalities, but to absolute facts, 

 too patent and notorious to admit of question. In our future numbers 

 we shall pursue the subject retrospectively; take into consideration 

 the influence of the changes in the currency upon the productive and 

 consuming classes ; the altered distribution of farming property ; and 

 M.M. No. 4. 2 X 



