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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Ihey would vanish whcu the s>8teiu camn into opera- 

 tion. 'Tis worthy of remaik and consideration, that those 

 trades have made the greatest progress where piece-work has 

 been the rule. It gives the industrious and skilful man a 

 great advantage over the lazy and unskilful one. It also sets 

 the energies of mind to work to find out readier and quicker 

 methods'of getting over work ; and I hope to see the plan 

 more generally adopted in Bedford. I quite believe it would 

 answer in the building trades. I have no time to enter on 

 overtime. It may do with your slow day-tpcrkmen ; but 'tis 

 of no advantage to men by the piece. We have hitherto 

 spoken mainly of the labour of the hand : we will now turn to 

 another kind of labour, and this by no means the easiest kind. 

 I mean the labour of the brain, quite as important as the 

 other — to none more so than to the working classes ; for it is 

 by the labour of the brain that man's bodily labour is pro- 

 fitably conducted, new branches of industry opened up, new 

 material discovered on which to expend labour. Many of you 

 visited the Great Exhibition, 1851, and were doubtless im- 

 pressed, as I was, with this idea — What an amount of thought 

 and ingenuity has been expended in bringing our manufactured 

 products to their present high degree of perfection ? Why 

 were we before every other nation in the excellence and va- 

 riety of our manufactures ? Simply because we had brought 

 to bear on them more mind, or, in other words, a greater 

 amount of reasoning and intellectual power ; and, mark you, 

 'tis only as we keep in advance of other countries that we 

 shall command the trade. If you could buy as good a saw 

 made in Bedford as in Sheffield, you would not send to the 

 latter place for it. So with the American — if he can buy as 

 good hardware in New York as in Birmingham, he will not 

 send across the Atlantic for it ; nor will the French, the Aus- 

 trians, the Russians, continue to send to England for agricul- 

 tural machinery, unless we continue to produce better than 

 they can get at home. So excellent as our manufactures 

 doubtless are, we must not stand still, but use every effort, 

 both men and masters, to make something still better. Im- 

 proved machinery has the effect of saving labour, and therefore 

 was supposed to diminish employment. I am aware that it 

 does BO in particular instances; but, as I will attempt to show, 

 the effect is but temporary. There is one very hackneyed 

 but very striking illustration. It is nearly four hundred 

 years since printing was discovered. Great numbers of men 

 were employed in writing and copying books. Owing to the 

 amount of labour, books were very dear. A bible cost £30, 

 so very few people had bibles. The immediate effect of this 

 discovery was, that these writers were thrown out of employ- 

 ment. Now suppose, for the sake of keeping these men em- 

 ployed, or for the love of clingirsg to old methods, the world 

 had destroyed the presses, can you estimate the loss which 

 would have been entailed on the world ? At all events, we 

 stteuld not have wanted the army of printers we now employ. 

 Take, again, the cotton and woollen trades, now about the 

 most important branches of our national industry. On the intro- 

 duction of the power-loom and Arkwright's spinning machinery, 

 great distress resulted to the hand spinners and weavers of 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire. Suppose they had successfully 

 opposed, as they attempted, their introduction, and stuck 

 to the old method, what would have been the result.' 

 AVhy, not a single hand would now have been employed in 

 the cotton trade in those districts ; the machinery would 

 have been transplanted to America or the Continent. We 

 need not, however, travel beyond Bedford to prove that 

 although machinery may for a time be injurious to one class 

 of working men, that it is beneficial to the mass. Some of 

 you are aware that at Well-street foundry we have a new 

 system of making castings by machinery. The moulders 

 of course, looked upon the machines at first with no' 

 riendly eye, for with a machine one man can do as much 

 •work as two or three could by hand. It did not do the 

 moulders much good, I confess ; nor, I think, a great deal 

 ot harm; bnt how did it affect the other branches.' In 

 this way. Last year we made 500 more implements than 

 we could have done without the moulding machines • con- 

 sequently a great number of smiths, fettlers, fitters, painters, 

 and porters were benefited, whilst the machines only 

 affected the interest of some half-dozen moulders. Again 

 look at railways. Most of us remember their introduction, 

 and what a hue-and-cry was raised about the ruin they 

 would bnng upon coachmen, guards, ostlers, innkeepers, 

 proprietors, and even farmers were dragged in, for we 



should want no horses, and therefore no liorsecorn. Well 

 the country has not been ruined, if a few of the class I have 

 named did not do so well as before. We should all be 

 sorry to go back to coach days : 123. to go to London on 

 the outside of a coach in six hours, &c. Some of us re- 

 member the war waged by agricultural labourers against 

 thrashing machines, and how they broke them up and 

 burnt them ; but time changes men's ideas, and now these 

 very men refuse to thrash with the flail. Had it not been 

 for the steam thrashing machine after the harvest of 1856, 

 we should have had bread at famine prices, for the old 

 stock of corn was all gone, and we had to live upon the new 

 crop. The demand, therefore, for the new crop was so 

 great, that all the steam thrashing machines were kept in 

 constant work for months. I verily believe, if it had not 

 been for steam thrashers, the 41bs. loaf would have been at 

 Is. 4d. Machinery raises man's 'intelligence. I don't 

 believe in man's doing the work of brutes ; I look upon 

 man as too noble to be made a machine of. I remember he 

 is made in God's image, and I hope to see the day when 

 every description of labour which taxes the physical powers 

 of man, shakes his frame, blunts his intellect, and such as 

 is only fit for beasts of burden, will be performed by 

 machinery. Surely it will be better, as in the steam 

 thrashing machine, instead of employing man's brute force 

 in exceedingly laborious occupations, to overcome them, 

 his intelligence shall be employed in directing machinery 

 to perform it. It is a startling fact, that until the intro- 

 duction of machinery, especially the steam engine, the 

 progress and population of the country went on very 

 slowly ; but who can measure all the strides it has 

 since taken.' In 1780, less than 80 years ago, just at the 

 dawn of the new era, when machinery came to the help of 

 labour, our population was about 8 millions, now it is above 

 20 millions ; while the increase from 1575 to 1750 was not 

 more than about 1^ millions. The rapid increase in the 

 number of the people, as well as their improved condition, 

 clearly indicate that the means of employment and sub- 

 sistence had been materially enlarged ; and I think you will 

 agree with me that this advance in population and wealth can 

 only be accounted forbj' the fact that the machinery, which 

 it was feared would diminish employment, has enormously 

 increased it. To oppose machinery, therefore, is to ily in 

 the face of the best friend the working men of England ever 

 had, and is about as wise as it would be to attempt to shut 

 out the light of the sun. Having endeavoured to show the 

 importance of labour, I shall, in bringing my subject to a 

 close, glance at the respectability and dignitj' of labour. If 

 we turn to sacred writ, we find the praises of industry 

 sounded throughout its pages. We read — " The hand of 

 the diligent shall bear rule." "Seest thou a man diligent 

 in business: he shall stand before princes; he shall not 

 stand before mean men." The patriarchs, the apostles, and 

 even our Saviour himself, by example, showed to their own 

 and all succeeding ages that honest labour was honourable. 

 There can be no question that some occupations are more 

 honourable than others; and every man who endeavours to 

 rise in life does well. Far be it from me to speak lightly of 

 social rank; but I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that in 

 the present day there are amongst us some who set up false 

 standards of respectability — who look down with a stupid, 

 ignorant contempt upon the lower or industrial classes, I 

 am not sure that the ability to produce wealth is not as re- 

 spectable as its mere possession. I am not sure that honest 

 labour is not as respectable, and as honourable too, as 

 luxurious indolence. I would not confound those who, 

 raised by the industry of their fathers or forefathers above 

 the necessity of toiling for themselves, devote their lives to 

 honourable and useful pursuits; but I mean a class with 

 whom the moving, acting, working world has no sympathy, 

 and which laughs at the miserable, shrivelled gentility which 

 prides itself upon having had nothing to do with trade, and 

 can never embark in any pursuit for the benefit of their 

 fellow-creatures which might bring them in contact with 

 anything so degrading as manual or mercantile indxistry. 

 These idlers of society are not, however, to be confounded 

 with those of the upper classes who devote their time to 

 honourable and useful pursuits—happily for this country, a 

 class that is becoming more and more numerous. Yes, if 

 you want to find the real " friends of the people." you must 

 jiot look for them among those who proclaim theraaelves 



