OF INDUSTRIES. 57 



few years, we are told by specialists, India will 

 be self-supporting for iron. Nay, it is not with- 

 out apprehension that the English manufac- 

 turers see that the imports of Indian manufac- 

 tured textiles to this country are steadily growing, 

 while in the markets of the Far East and Africa 

 India becomes a serious competitor to the mother 

 country. 



Why should it not be so ? What might prevent 

 the growth of Indian manufactures ? Is it the 

 want of capital ? But capital knows no father- 

 land ; and if high profits can be derived from 

 the work of Indian coolies whose wages are only 

 one-half of those of English workmen, or even 

 less, capital will migrate to India, as it has gone 

 to Russia, although its migration may mean 

 starvation for Lancashire and Dundee. Is it the 

 want of knowledge ? But longitudes and lati- 

 tudes are no obstacle to its spreading ; it is 

 only the first steps that are difficult. As to the 

 superiority of workmanship, nobody who knows 

 the Hindoo worker will doubt about his capaci- 

 ties. Surely they are not below those of the 

 36,000 children less than fourteen years of age, 

 or the 238,000 boys and girls less than eighteen 

 years old, who are employed in the British 

 textile manufactories. 



Twenty years surely are not much in the life 



