344 PROSPECTS OF INDUSTRY. 



ware turned ; glass cut, and pier-glass formed; the drawing-room, 

 dining-room, kitchen, pantry, closets, &c. all owe to steam their 

 most essential requisites." 



A goodly catalogue truly ! so that when our roads are traversed 

 by steam-carriages, a steam-engine in every township, and a foundry 

 in every parish, with a few dozen engineers, foremen, and labourers, 

 every cottage-roof may perish. What a picturesque country we shall 

 have if these utilitarian schemes are ever fully carried out ! We 

 once heard a very eminent manufacturer express a wish that the 

 country would grow nothing but factory-chimneys Mr. Gordon 

 and he may shake hands. 



We do not object to this progressive developement of the power 

 and applicability of steam ; but in the interim we should be pre- 

 pared for its effect upon our labouring population. The writer, whom 

 we have just quoted, congratulates the labourers upon the fact, that 

 by substituting steam for horse-power, food equal to the consumption 

 of sixteen millions of people will be set at liberty : it may be so, but 

 unless some means are found for these sixteen millions paying for 

 this food, we do not see how they are to be benefited by it. If this 

 extra quantity of corn is to be produced, we presume the mechanists 

 must suppose that the English farmer is to become an exporter : but 

 here taxation comes into question with the money value, both of 

 labour and of food ; and these must occupy our attention in a future 

 number. 



G. 



