444 



Mr. Sadler's Speech. 



[Oct. 



fitancc, which is now introduce'!, being in- 

 creased by millions of pounds weiglit per 

 annum ; but answer me whether, for the 

 additional labour thus imposed, a corres- 

 ponding increase in the amount of wages 

 tor making it up, has taken place ; nay, 

 whether for the increased work, even equal 

 wages have been obtained ? The reverse is 

 the melanclioly fiict, in that and all the 

 other manufactures so interfered with. And 

 this great diminution in wages demands an 

 increase of labour for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing even a scantier subsistence ; hence the 

 supply of goods is necessarily increased ; 

 and mark the double and disingenuous use 

 the economists make of this! They attri- 

 bute the distresses they can no longer deny 

 to over-production : and stiU tiiis over-pro- 

 duction they use as a proof of prosperity ! 

 I will only add, tliat the statesmen who can 

 fehcitate themselves or the country, on this 

 cheapening and increase of human labour 

 amongst us, would have been fit political 

 economists for a celebrated tyrant of old, 

 Pharaoh, wlio, while he withheld tlie allow- 

 ances, in(Tea.scd the tasks of an oppressed 

 people. 11-e people of England produce 

 enougli, labour sufficiently ; who doubts it ? 

 But, alas, " they spend their strength for 

 that whi(^h is not bread, and their labour 

 for that which satistieth not !" — In the eyes 

 of our calculators, tlie temple of British 

 prosperity may indeed appear vast in its 

 proportions, magnificent in its ornaments, 

 and rich in its several parts ; it may be 

 filled with the votaries of wealth, and echo 

 with tlie sounds of mirth and mutual con- 

 gratulation ; but let them cast their eyes to 

 its foundations ; — there are seen its secret 

 ^upporters, the living cariatides of the sys- 

 tem, a miserable multitude of both sexes 

 and of all ages, from over-laboured and 

 crying infancy to decrepit age, who are 

 bowed to the dust by the load of labour im- 

 posed upon them, and wliose health, and 

 morals, and life itself, are sacrificed to the 

 mammon of political economy — Capital. 



But it is now said, in answer to the pre- 

 ceding argument, and still in defence of 

 free trade, and with an air of triumph (for 

 such is the ignorance of these reasoners) 

 that all branches of manufactures, as well 

 as those immediately interfeied with, are 

 plunged into distress, consequently the sys- 

 tem cannot have been injurious to any. 

 Since the suffering can no lunger be denied, 

 their favourite theory is to be saved by ad- 

 mitting its universality ; now, it appears to 

 me, that of all the absurdities ])olitical eco- 

 nomy has yet put forth, and they have been 

 .suiliciently numerous and glaring, this is 

 the greatest; it is one of which the lowest 

 mechanic would feel ashamed. .Su|-posing 

 that previously lo this fatal inroad u))on our 

 home markets in some important branches 

 ©f British industry, that, taking (he wliole 

 •t<?gelh(r, the demand and suj'ply was aicu- 

 ratcly balanced, (lie subsc<iueiit surdiarge 

 •ef any particular branch must necessarily 



affect the whole. Those whose labour i* 

 supplanted in one pursuit must resort to 

 another, overcharging that also ; injuring 

 therefore, most certainly, the entire market 

 of' labour. The man, therefore, who pro- 

 poses to supplant a certain number of silk- 

 looms, by foreign goods of that description, 

 will afiTect in reality so many cotton ones, 

 and these again will interfere with linen 

 operatives, and so through every brancli of 

 national labour. The marvel is that so 

 plain a position could be overlooked^-one 

 which must be true anv where, excepting in 

 such a country as India, where the indus- 

 trious classes are separated into castes, and 

 rigidly reject all change of employment un- 

 der any circumstance whatsoever. Bat in 

 England, where the introduction of ma- 

 chinery has superseded in so great a de- 

 gree manual ingenuity, the equijioise of 

 labour is speedily adjusted and preserved, 

 however it may be disturbed. Interfere 

 by your new system then, with the labour of 

 nearly a million of hands, and in 'their dis- 

 tress the rest will assuredly partake ; they 

 will suffer, not a sympathetic, but a real, 

 not a remote, but an instantaneous injury. 



I\Iany other observations on the new doc- 

 trines might be added, but I shall not fur- 

 ther enlarge. Their object seems to be to 

 serve the mere capatalists, the jobbers, the 

 commission brokers, the foreign agents ; 

 those of whom Locke has truly said, that 

 they prosper and grow rich by the very 

 means which impoverish the rest of the 

 community. To instance only one of tliese, 

 absenteeisms — this it is now taught is no 

 injury to a country, a position whose ab- 

 surdity can only be equalled by its perni- 

 ciousness. The absentees of England and 

 Ireland are the enemies of their country, 

 depriving tens of thousands of their daily 

 labour and bread, and deeply injuring hun- 

 dreds of thousands more. I think, with 

 Adam iSmith, that such individuals art- 

 fair objects of exclusive taxation, avoiding 

 as they do all the burdens of the country 

 from which they derive them all, and va- 

 cating all their duties, whether those of 

 patriotism or humanity. If they remain 

 dead to every worthier motive, I would ap- 

 peal to something more on a level with 

 their principles and feelings; I would touch, 

 and deeply, their interests. 



But, gentlemen, it will be naturally ex- 

 pected that I should, on this occasion, ad- 

 vert somewhat particularly to the interests 

 of shipping, as more peculiarly affecting 

 tliis respectable town ; and one to which 

 you pointedly alluded in the written invi- 

 tation with which you have honoured me. 

 And first I may say, that without any ap- 

 peal to documents wliatever, I am certain 

 that to allow full scope to the reciprocity 

 system, in regard to shipping, cannot but 

 he fatal to Jls prosperity. Wlicn I consi- 

 der tlini bctvicen many of the ports of Eng- 

 land and the conlinent, there arc but a few 

 days', I mi^ht say, in sonic instances, 



I 



