IMPROVED MACHINERY. 467 



have been opened, or must have been abandoned. It is well 

 known that, by the consumption of one bushel of coals in the 

 furnace of a steam-boiler, a power is produced which, in a few 

 minutes, will raise 20,000 gallons of water from a depth of 350 

 feet an effect which could not be produced in a shorter time 

 than a whole day through the continuous labor of twenty men, 

 working with the common pump. By thus expending a few 

 pence, an amount of human labor is set free, to employ which 

 would have cost fifty shillings ; and yet this circumstance, so 

 far from having diminished the demand for human labor, even in 

 the actual trade where the economy is produced, has certainly 

 caused a much greater number of persons to be employed in 

 coal-mining than could otherwise have been set to work.&quot;* 



It certainly is matter of congratulation, rather than of com 

 plaint, that more foojd is produced to be eaten, more clothing to 

 wear, and more fuel with which to warm our habitations and to 

 apply to other purposes of utility, necessity, or enjoyment; but, 

 in looking at the seventy and long continuance of toil to which 

 a large part of the laboring portion of the community are sub 

 jected, and how, in many of the arts and operations of manufac 

 tures and trade, human health and comfort are wholly disre 

 garded, and human life is used up with as much indifference as 

 fuel is thrown into the furnace of the steam-engine, one cannot 

 help deeply lamenting that the burden cannot be lightened on 

 the back of the hard-driven animal, and that they whose toil 

 produces every thing are put off with the smallest and meanest 

 portion of the fruits of their own industry. How far govern 

 ment should interfere, in such a case, between the employer and 

 the employed, is a question not without great practical diffi 

 culties. Human society is such a complicated web, that the 

 extreme tension of any single thread disorders the whole piece. 

 Every provision should be made for the protection of the young 

 and helpless; opportunity should be afforded for the full devel 

 opment of their physical powers, and for the education of their 

 minds. No pains should be spared to protect good morals and 

 decency, and to secure human life against any extraordinary perils. 

 The hours of labor should not be too long extended, nor the 

 hours of seasonable rest encroached upon ; and, in any case 



* Progress of the Nation, vol. i. p. 335. 



