that great quantities of hats were made in America and shipped to other countries to their injury, and parliament struck at the root of the evil by an act which prevented the exportation of hats from the colonies to foreign countries, and from being carried from one plantation to another. They prohibited hats from being laden upon a horse, cart, or other carriage in America, with intent to be exported to any other plantation, or to any place whatever; and no hatter in the colonies was allowed to employ more than two apprentices, or to make hats at all, unless he had served an apprenticeship of seven years to the trade. Thus the fabrics of Connecticut might not seek a market in Massachusetts, or be sold in New York. An English sailor, or merchant, arriving at the port of Boston, was also prohibited from purchasing woolens of the value of more than forty shillings.

In 1750, parliament passed a law prohibiting the erection or contrivance of any mill, or engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel in the colonies, under the penalty of two hundred pounds. And to secure the enforcement of the law, they declared all such mills to be common nuisances, and the governors of the colonies were directed to abate them, or forfeit five hundred pounds to the crown.

Enactments like these seem so strange at the present day, so contrary to all natural principles of right and justice, so repugnant to common sense, that men are almost incredulous of their former actual existence. It may be said that these laws, enacted by the English Parliament, were intended not to regulate American industry, but to prohibit it entirely, and the intolerable injustice of this course of procedure was not only not perceived, but even defended by the ablest and most renowned of British statesmen. "The interests of the landed proprietors," says a writer on the subject, "with the monopolies of commerce and manu

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factures, jointly fostered by artificial legislation, had so corrupted the public judgment, that there was not even secret compunction."

The injurious effect of these laws was not wholly confined to the colonies, but became equally so to England, from their effects on the connection between America and the mother-country. Trade, instead of being encouraged, was interrupted; and commerce, which should have been a bond of peace between the two nations, was made a source of constant hostility, and an instrument for distributing the germs of disaffection, which afterward ripened into civil

war.

In every age and country the naturally slow progress of profitable industry has been rendered more slow by the perpetual inclination of those in authority to divert industry from its natural and profitable channels. It was, therefore, wisely said by a committee of merchants to Colbert, the prime minister of France in the reign of Louis XIV., when he asked them what measures government could adopt to promote the interests of commerce-" Let us alone; permit us quietly to manage our own business." It is undeniable that the interests of all are best promoted when each is left free to attend to his own interests, under the necessary social restraints which prevent him doing a positive injury to his neighbor. It is thus that agriculture and manufactures are essentially allied in their interests; that unrestrained commerce is equally essential to the real and permanent interests of agriculture and manufactures; that capital and labor are equally united in their most essential interest, which is, that there should be cheap production. While these principles are not understood at all, or while they are imperfectly understood-as they are still by many classes and individuals-there must be a vast deal of bickering and heart-burning between individuals who ought

to be united, and classes who ought to be united, and nations who ought to be united; and so long as it is not felt by all, that their natural rights are understood and will be respected, there is a feeling of insecurity which more or less affects the prosperity of all. The only remedy for these evils is the extension of knowledge. Louis XV. proclaimed to the French that the English were their "veritables ennemis," their true enemies. When knowledge is triumphant it will be found that there are no "veritables ennemis" either among nations, or classes, or individuals. The prejudices by which nations, classes, and individuals are led to believe that the interest of one is opposed to the interest of another, are, nine times out of ten, as utterly ridiculous as the reason which a Frenchman once gave for hating the English-which was, "that they poured melted butter on their roast veal ;" and this was not more ridiculous than the old denunciation of the English against the French, that "they ate frogs, and wore wooden shoes." When the world is disabused of the belief that the wealth of one nation, class, or individual must be created by the loss of another's wealth, then, and then only, will all men steadily and harmoniously apply to produce and to enjoy to acquire prosperity and happiness-lifting themselves to the possession of good

"By Reason's light, on Resolution's wing."

CHAPTER XII.

EMPLOYMENT OF MACHINERY IN MANUFACTURES AND AGRICULTURE.-ERRONEOUS NOTIONS FORMERLY PREVALENT ON THIS SUBJECT.-ITS ADVANTAGES TO THE LABORER. SPADE HUSBANDRY.-THE PRINCIPLE OF MACHINERY.-MACHINES AND TOOLS.-CHANGE IN THE CONDITION OF ENGLAND CONSEQUENT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY.-MODERN NEW ZEALANDERS AND ANCIENT GREEKS.-HANDMILLS AND WATER-MILLS.

ONE of the most striking effects of the want of knowledge producing disunions among mankind that are injurious to the interests of each and all, is the belief which still exists among many well-meaning but unreflecting persons, that the powers and arrangements which capital has created and devised for the advancement of production are injurious to the great body of working-men in their character of producers. The great forces by which capital and labor now work-forces which are gathering strength every day are accumulation of skill and division of employments. It will be for us to show that the applications of science to the manufacturing arts have the effect of insuring cheap production and increased employment. These applications of science are principally displayed in the use of MACHINERY; and we shall endeavor to prove that, although individual labor may be partially displaced or unsettled for a time, by the use of this cheaper and better power than unassisted manual labor, all are great gainers by the general use of that power. Through that power all principally possess, however poor they may be, many of the comforts which make the difference between man in a civilized and

man in a savage state; and further, that in consequence of machinery having rendered productions of all sorts cheaper, and therefore caused them to be more universally purchased, it has really increased the demand for that manual labor, which it appears to some, reasoning only from a few instances, it has a tendency to diminish.

In the year 1827, a Committee of the English House of Commons was appointed to examine into the subject of emigration. The first person examined before that Committee was Joseph Foster, a working weaver of Glasgow. He told the Committee that he and many others, who had formed themselves into a society, were in great distress; that numbers of them worked at the hand-loom from eighteen to nineteen hours a day, and that their earnings, at the utmost, did not amount to more than seven shillings a week, and that sometimes they were as low as four shillings. That twenty years before that time they could readily earn a pound a week by the same industry; and that as powerloom weaving had increased, the distress of the hand-weavers also had increased in the same proportion. The Committee then put to Joseph Foster the following questions, and received the following answers:

Q. "Are the Committee to understand that you attribute the insufficiency of your remuneration for your labor to the introduction of machinery?

A. "Yes.

2. "Do you consider, therefore, that the introduction of machinery is objectionable?

A. "We do not. The weavers in general, of Glasgow and its vicinity, do not consider that machinery can or ought to be stopped, or put down. They know perfectly well that machinery must go on, that it will go on, and that it is impossible to stop it. They are aware that every implement of agriculture or manufacture is a portion of ma