AND THE MODE OF TEACHING THEM. 445 



Britain was under fifty thousand ; it now amounts to a million and 

 a half!* 



The legitimate the direct effect of machinery is indeed to 

 diminish the amount of labour necessary to the production of a 

 given quantity of manufacture. But, in so doing, it lessens the 

 cost ; and the effect of this, again, is to augment the demand, and 

 of course also the production, to augment it to such an extent, as, 

 notwithstanding the reduction of price, to increase greatly the actual 

 value of the produce. The number of workmen, therefore, so far 

 from being lessened, is in general increased by the introduction of 

 machinery, and by the means which it supplies of rapid fabrica- 

 tion. We are to remember also, that, by lessening the cost of any 

 one article of manufacture, an increased stimulus is given to the 

 production of every other. The restless activity of man, disencum- 

 bered of the toil before necessary for the supply of his wants, or 

 enabled to satisfy them at a less expense, bestows the labour or the 

 money thus saved upon some new object. New wants arise, new 

 gratifications are indulged ; his physical condition is bettered at 

 very step, and he advances in the scale of civilisation. 



Thus the result of the application of machinery, so far from 

 corresponding with the forebodings of unwise economists, and 

 misguided artisans, is, in fact, to increase the demand for labour. 

 And when we turn our view in the other direction, we find that 

 its effect its much most important effect is to extend the advan- 

 tages and the comforts of the products of labour, from the wealthy 

 classes downwards, to the lowest grade in society ; to elevate the 

 inferior, without prejudice to the interests of the higher ranks; 

 and thus to smooth down the inequalities of our artificial con- 

 dition. 



In illustrating the benefits which the applications of science 

 have conferred upon the condition of man, and the social progress 

 which has resulted from them, I have dwelt chiefly upon the 

 discovery and employment of steam-power, both on account of 

 the universality of its application, and the gigantic magnitude of 

 its effects. In fact, a powerful and economical agent once obtained, 



* In the town of Stockport alone, says Mr. Babbage, the number of hand-looms was 

 reduced to less than one-third, while that of the power-looms increased fivefold, in the 

 ten years ending in 1832 ; yet the number of workmen, so far from diminishing, in- 

 creased by one-third during the same period. 



