TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 177 



lation, and consequently than our supply of labour, — and conscious, moreover, that 

 the non-reproductive sources of our material wealth, such as our minerals, are being 

 very heavily drawn upon, we are daily casting about to tind how this competition 

 may best be sustained, how the balance between capital and labour is to be pre- 

 served, and how we can best economize those supplies which we fear may some day 

 fail us. 



We are beginning to feel that the time for waste has gone by. It may, perhaps, 

 provoke a sneer from the cynic when he hears that England is becoming anxious 

 as to the possible exhaustion of her coal-measures, and is considering how and 

 where she can find water enough for her population. One cannot help being re- 

 minded of the sarcastic remark of the American traveller — that we had a tidy little 

 country enough, but that for his part he was always afraid of tumbling over the 

 edge of it. There is some truth at the bottom of the taunt ; but it is not to such 

 considerations that I wish to direct your attention. Rather I desire to point to 

 the satisfactory indications, which such inquiries as I refer to present, of the deter- 

 mination of our people to make a stand against the bane of national prosperity, — 

 Waste. I speak not only of waste of raw materials, but of waste in all its mate- 

 rials, but of waste in all its forms, — waste of power, of labour, of time, of health, 

 and of life. Year by year we are learning to make skill do the work of strength, to 

 draw greater results from equal eflbrts, and to supply our labourers with every com- 

 fort, every advantage which science can devise for enabling them to fight the bat- 

 tle of life on better terms ; and hence it comes that the question of education is not 

 only claiming a larger share of our attention, but is presenting itself in new phases; 

 and that we are looking to education in physical science, and even to technical 

 education, with such unwonted interest. We are grappling, I think, more boldly 

 than we ever did before with the difficult problems of our national life, and are ad- 

 vancing to their solution with greater breadth of view and greater confidence of step. 



Let me ofier an illustration of the economy of labour which is taking place 

 among us, by a reference to some remarkable statistics which have quite recently 

 been laid before us. Last week my friend, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, introduced the Mer- 

 chant Shipping Bill into the House of Commons ; and after pointing out the enor- 

 mous increase which had taken place in our commercial navy in the last fourteen 

 years, and showing that we had now as much sea-going tonnage as all other na- 

 tions put together, proceeded to say that, while the amount of tonnage had in- 

 creased since 1854 by no less than 50 per cent., the number of seamen required to 

 navigate it had increased by only 21 per cent. ; that in 1868 we required one man 

 less to work every 100 tons of shipping than we required in 1854, or, in other words, 

 that we could work our present marine with 55,000 fewer men than would have been 

 necessary for the same amount of tonnage fourteen years ago. And to show to how 

 great an extent this economy had been brought about by the introduction of 

 machinery and improved methods of working, Mr. Lefevre gave the particulars of 

 the manning of twenty-two large sailing-vessels in the years 1849, 1859, and 

 1869 respectively, showing that in the first of those years they required crews 

 amounting to 463 men, in the second to 417, and in the third to no more than 

 348 — the ships being identical, and the voyages nearly the same. 



I have dwelt at some length on these figures, because they suggest to me seve- 

 ral reflections. The first is one in which I think we may justly indulge, and which 

 is the counterblast to that sarcasm which I quoted just now from an American 

 critic ; — that the power of England is not to be measured by the dimensions of this 

 little island, bvit rather by those of the great empire of the seas which it has so 

 long been our boast to rule. If we were to fall over our country's edge we should 

 only fall into an element which we have made our own. England, it may truly be 

 said, that is, the mere island of Great Britain, is but the shadow of herself, and we 

 might address our rivals in the proud words of the Talbot of Shakespeare — 



" You are deceived, my substance is not here; 

 For what you see is but the smallest part 

 And least proportion of humanity. 

 I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here. 

 It is of such a spacious lofty pitch, 

 Your roof were not sufficient to contain it." 

 1869. 12 



