62 



Observations on the 



[July 



goods, and give employment to some hundreds of ships for supplying 

 them with the raw material, and re-distributing their manufactured pro- 

 duce, to almost every part of the habitable world. For the navigation 

 of these ships, some thousands of mariners are required ; to build and 

 keep them in repair, many thousands of artisans. Add to these, up- 

 wards of a million and half of persons, employed in making, and su- 

 perintending the working, of the manufacturing machinery, and then, 

 we may be able to form an estimate, but I fear an imperfect one, of the 

 value of this branch of industry to Great Britain — a branch, which con- 

 sidered in this comprehensive point of view, we may safely affirm gives 

 direct employment to upw ards of two millions of British subjects. When 

 to these benefits, which the British nation almost exclusively derives 

 from the mere manufacture of the produce of this humble shrub, we 

 add those which it confers on the countries from which it is procured, 

 by affording a livelihood to many millions of persons, of all conditions 

 and ages, occupied in its culture, and fabrication into cloth for home 

 use, and from these data, attempt to estimate its value to mankind, the 

 subject becomes too vast for the grasp of human intellect. 



Much has been said and written, on the effects of machinery in im- 

 proving the condition of mankind, too often, it is true, at the expense of 

 great present suffering to the labouring classes, whose occupations it 

 had superseded. 1 know no instance more in point than India now af- 

 fords. We learn from history, that the cotton manufacture originated 

 in India, upwards of three thousand years ago. From that time to the 

 beginning of the present century, she may almost be said to have held 

 the monopoly of this branch of industry ; so far, at least, as muslins and 

 the finer sorts of cotton fabric are concerned. The Hindoo weaver 

 skilful, from long practice, in the use of his simple implements, and 

 having no competitors, did not think it necessary to tax his ingenuity, 

 for the invention of new and improved spinning and weaving machinery, 

 but went on, as his progenitors had done, spinning and weaving, with a 

 wheel and loom still of the simplest construction. 



The process of fabrication, by suchprimitive methods, is so slow, that 

 a man and his family, in constant employment, can do little more than 

 support themselves by their labour. When, on the contrary, the raw 

 material is exported at heavy cost to Britain, and manufactured there, 

 with the aid of improved machinery, it can be brought back and sold, 

 after paying the expenses of a second voyage, from 20 to 30 per cent, 

 under the produce of the same quality of the native loom. Owing to 

 this difference, when the trade was thrown open, and free access was al- 

 lowed to British manufactures, their cheapness soon drove the Indian ones 

 out of their accustomed markets, and caused at first great distress to our 

 manufacturing population. Now, however, the scales are re-adjusting 

 themselves to our altered circumstances, and the advantages of the 



