114 IMPROVEMENT OF 



as we were able to undo it and to get the 

 workmen into the English method of working 

 as near as possibly could be accomplished with 

 the implements in use. Few if any compre- 

 hended our object. In 1845 the workmen 

 were performing more work than in 1843 with 

 almost half the bodily evolutions. In conse- 

 quence of this change different conclusions 

 were arrived at. All parties were agreed as 

 to the justness of the system of taskwork in 

 the abstract, but then a variety of consider- 

 ations, if such they may be called, got afloat to 

 prevent a unanimous opinion relative to the 

 intrinsic value of labour, the equity of the 

 specific arrangement. One party thought the 

 men were not working so hard as they did on 

 previous occasions. Another party fancied the 

 work was more easily performed ; a third, that 

 it was got over in a more superficial manner. 

 A fourth party very gravely concluded that 

 the poor fellows were beginning to fag. These 

 and many other erroneous notions were mooted 

 by parties who knew nothing of the value of 

 labour, all of which were calculated to oppose 

 the general adoption of the system, and even to 

 cramp its healthy operation where reduced to 



