NORFOLK SOCIETY. 305 



number of hands employed, and we should like to know what 

 they obtain. The true profit of all manufactures, is the em- 

 ployment of labor. Capital will find profitable investments al- 

 ways, in one thing or another, if not here, elsewhere, and it is 

 a matter of little consequence, whether it yields six per cent or 

 ten per cent. ; but our interest in the reward of labor is deeper, 

 for on the amount of that depends, in fact, whether on the 

 whole we are prosperous or otherwise. If the 15,000 men and 

 women employed in the factories of this county earn four and 

 a half millions annually, it will do ; but if they are cut down 

 to half that sum, the effect will be seriously felt, not in the 

 value of property only, but in the education and the welfare of 

 the whole people, and in all the relations of life. 

 39 



