to the Prosperity of the Working Classes. 303" 



pick-axe, plough, and driller, found favour with this blind 

 herd ; and, if one thing in the history of this mania astonished 

 me more than another, it was, that they spared the horses, 

 which, in reality, are a kind of machines, kept up comparatively 

 at a cheap rate, each of which daily executes the work of six 

 or seven labourers. 



Political economy has now happily taken its place among 

 the sciences of observation. The experiment of the substitu- 

 tion of machinery for manual labour has now so frequently 

 been resorted to, that we can draw general results, though not, 

 perhaps, quite free from accidental irregularities. These re- 

 sults are as follows : — 



By saving the labour of man, machinery effects a reduction 

 in price. The effect of this reduction is increased demand ; 

 and to such an extent, so great being our desire to improve 

 our condition, that, in spite of the almost inconceivable re- 

 duction of price, the pecuniary value of the total merchandize 

 produced, every year surpasses what it was previous to the 

 introduction of these improvements, and the number of work- 

 men which these employments require, increases with the in- 

 troduction of the means of more rapid fabrication. This last 

 result is precisely the opposite of that which the adversaries 

 of machinery predict. At first sight, the fact appears paradoxi- 

 cal ; but, notwithstanding, it is demonstrated beyond dispute, 

 by an examination of the most satisfactorily determined results. 



When, three centuries and a half ago, the printing-press 

 was invented, copyists supplied books to the very small num- 

 ber of the wealthy who could afford this very expensive gra- 

 tification. A single individual of these copyists, by means 

 of the new invention, being able to accomplish the work of 

 two hundred, they did not fail at the time to characterize 

 lit as an infernal invention, which, in a certain class of so- 

 [ciety, would reduce to beggary nine hundred and ninety-five 

 [persons out of evei-y thousand. Let us compare the actual 

 results, with this sinister prediction. 



Manuscript books were little in demand ; printed books, on 

 the contrary, on account of their very low price, were sought 

 after with the greatest avidity. The great works of the prin- 

 cipal Grreok and Komau authors required to be reproduced 



