420 



JAMES WATT. 



lors of princes to the paths of wisdom, of moderation, of 

 humanity ? Was it ever pretended that they would turn 

 Pitt from unceasingly meddling in the affairs of neigh 

 bouring countries ? from annually raising enemies to 

 France in every part of Europe?* from paying them 

 large subsidies, in short, from loading England with a 

 debt of many hundred millions ? There, there is the 

 reason why the poor s-rate has increased so fast, and so 

 prodigiously. Machines have not, and could not, pro 

 duce this evil. I dare even assert that they much dimin 

 ish it ; and I will prove it in a few words. The county 

 of Lancashire carries on more manufactures than any 

 other in England. It is there that we find the cities 

 of Manchester, Preston, Bolton, Warrington, and Liver 

 pool ; it is in that county that machines were most quickly 

 and most generally introduced. Well, let us distribute 

 the entire annual amount of the poor-rates of Lancashire 

 among the whole of its population ; in other words, let 

 us learn what would be the quotient for each individual ; 

 and we shall find a result nearly three times smaller than 

 the mean of all the other counties ! You see, numbers 

 are pitiless towards the inventors of theories. 



Moreover, let not these large words of poor-rates make 

 us believ,e, on the faith of some declaimers, that the labour 

 ing classes among our neighbours are entirely devoid of 



* It is to be regretted that our author should allow his prejudices, 

 which we happen personally to know were very strong, thus again to 

 run him off the rail, and forget his promise to enter upon &quot; ce sujet 

 avec la ferme volunte d etre impartial&quot; While he assails &quot; Pitt &quot; he con 

 trives to omit the provocation and necessity of the case: but assuredly 

 it was not Pitt who broke loose, and among other wild and unprece 

 dented phantasies, invited all the nations of Europe to demolish their 

 governments. Yet what has all this to do with James Watt ? Trans 

 lator. 



