The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-29 00:00:00

to manufactures carried on by machinery. A great
capital is invested in this form, though mostly in small
amounts. Its owners, no doubt, seek a profitable re-
turn ; but this they can attain in no other way than by
furnishing the community wish a manufactured article
of great and extensive use. Destroy, as is proposed
by some persons, the capital invested in machinery, and
you lay upon society the burden of doing by hand all
the work which was done by steam and water, by fire
and steel ; or we must forego the use of the articles
manufactured. Each result would in some measure be
produced. A much smaller quantity of manufactured
articles would be consumed, that is, the community
would be deprived of comforts they now enjoy ; and
those used would be produced at greater cost by
manual labour. In other words, fewer people would
be sustained as workmen, and those less comfortably
and at greater expense. When we hear persons con-
demning accumulations of capital employed in ma-
chinery and manufactures, we cannot help saying to
ourselves, is it possible that any rational man can desire
to stop those busy wheels—to paralyze those iron
arms—to stop those steam engines—to arrest that
falling stream, which works while it babbles? What.
is your object? Do you wish wholly to deprive society
of the fruit of the industry of these inanimate but untir-
ing labourers ? Or do you wish to lay on aching
human shoulders the burdens which are so lightly borne
by these patient metallic giants ? Look at Birming-
ham, Manchester, and Sheffield. Behold the palaces of
their industry side by side with their churches and their
school-houses ; the long lines of their shops and ware-
houses ; their streets filled with the comfortable abodes
of an enterprising, industrious, and intelligent population.
All these great works are the work of capital, without
which they could not have existed. This capital, it is
true, seeks a moderate interest on the investment ; but
it is by furnishing to all who desire it that the cheapest
garment ever worn by civilized man is prepared. To
denounce the capital which has been the agent of this
wonderful and beneficent creation, is to wage war with a
system which has spread and is spreading plenty
throughout the world.
"It is hardly possible to estimate the effects on
human comfort and on riches by the application of capi-
tal to the arts of life. We can fully do this only by
making some inquiry into the mode of living in civilized
countries in the middle ages. The following brief'
notices from Mr. Hallam's learned and judicious work
may give us some distinct ideas on the subject. Up to
the time of Queen Elizabeth in England, the houses of
the farmers in that country consisted of but one story
and one room. They had no chininies. The fire was
kindled on a hearth of clay in the centre, and the
smoke found its way out through an aperture in the
roof, at the door, and the openings at the side for air
and light. The domestic animals—even oxen—were
received under the same roof with their owners. Glass
windows were unknown, except in a few lordly man-
sions, and in them they were regarded as moveable
furniture. When the Dukes of Northumberland left
Alnwick Castle to come to London for the winter, the
few glass windows, which formed one of the luxuries of
the castle, were carefully taken out and laid away, per-
haps carried to London to adorn the city residence.
The walls of good houses were neither wainscoted nor
plastered. In the houses of the nobility the nakedness
of the walls was covered by hangings of coarse cloth.
Bads were a rare luxury. A very wealthy individual
would have one or two in his house : rugs and skins
laid upon the floor were the substitute. Neither books
nor pictures formed any part of the furniture of a
dwelling in the middle ages, as printing and engraving
were wholly unknown, and painting but little practised.
A few inventories of furniture, dating from the fifteenth
century, are preserved. They afford a striking evi-
dence of the want of comfort and accommodation in
articles accounted by us among the necessaries of life.
In the schedule of the furniture of a Signor Contarini,
a rich Venetian merchant living in London in 1481, no
chairs nor looking-glasses are named. Carpets were
unknown at the same period : their place was supplied
by straw and rushes, even in the presence chamber of
the Sovereign. Skipton Castle, the principal residence
of the Earls of Cumberland, was deemed amply pro-
vided in having eight beds, but had neither chairs,
glasses, nor carpets. The silver plate of Mr. Fermor,
a wa altby country gentleman at Easton, in the sixteenth
century, consisted of sixteen spoons, and a few goblets
and ale-pots. Some valuations of stock in trade in
England, from the beginning of the fourteenth century,
have been preserved. A carpenter's consisted of five
tools, the whole valued at a shilling ; a tanner's, on the
other band, amounted to near ten pounds, ten times
greater than any other—tanners being at that period
the principal tradesmen, as almost all articles of dress
for men were made of leather.

" We need but contrast the state of things in our
own time with that which is indicated in these facts, to
perceive the all-important influence on human comfort
of the accumulation of capital, and its employment in
the tueful arts of life. As it would be highly improper
for the Government to invest the public funds in the
branches of industry necessary to supply the customary
wants of men, it follows that this must be done by
private resources and enterprise. The necessary con-
sequence is, that the large capital required for these
operations must be furnished by the contributions of
individuals, each possessing a portio❑ of the stock, or
by a single proprietor. _

I "It is rather remarkable that the odium, of which
all capital in large masses has sometimes been the sub-
ject, should be directed more against the former—
namely, Joint-stock Companies—than against large
individual capitals. This, however, appears to be the
fact. Some attempts have been made to organize
public sentiment against associated wealth, as it has
been called, without reflecting, as it would seem, that
these associations are the only means by which persons
of moderate property are enabled to share the profits of
large investments. Were it not for these associations
in this country, great works could not be carried on,
and only those within the reach of individual resources;
and none but very rich persons would be able to fol-
low those branches of industry which now diffuse their
benefits among persons of moderate fortune.
" But whether the masses of capital necessary to
carry on the great operations of trade, are derived
from the association of several, or from the exclusive
resources of one, it is plain that the interests of the
capital, however formed, is identical with that of the
community. Nobody now hoards—every thing is in-
vested or employed, and directly or indirectly is the,
basis of business operations.
" It is true, that when one man uses the capital of
another, he is expected to pay something for this pri-
vilege. But there is nothing unjust or unreasonable
in this. It is inherent in the idea of property. It
would not be property, if I could take it from you and
use it as my own without compensation. That simple
word, it is mine, carries with it the whole theory of
property and its rights. If my neighbour has saved his
earnings, and built him a house with it, and I ask his
leave to go and live in it, I ought in justice to pay him
for the use of his house. If, instead of using his
money to build a house in which he permits me to
live, he loans me his money, with which I build a
house for myself, it is equally just that I should pay
him for the use of his money. It is his, not mine. If
he allows me to use the fruit of his labour or skill I
ought to pay him for that use, as I should pay him if
he came and wrought for rue with his hands. This is
the Whole doctrine of interest. In a prosperous com-
munity, capital can be made to produce a greater re-
turn than the rate of interest fixed by law. The mer-
chant who employs the whole of his capital in his own
enterprises, and takes all the profit to himself, is com-
monly regarded as a useful citizen ; it would seem un-
reasonable to look with a prejudiced eye upon the
capitalist, who allows all the profits of the business to
accrue to others, asking only -legal interest for his
money, which they have employed.
" Without, however, pursuing this comparison among
different classes of capitalists, let us farther endeavour
by an example to illustrate the question, whether they
ought in any view to be regarded as exerting an un-
friendly influence on the labours of the community.
Take, for instance, such a case as Mr. Stephen Girard,
a great capitalist, who united in his person the mer-
chant and the banker, and who may he spoken of
plainly as he has passed away—the solitary man—and
left no one to be grieved with the freedoms which are
taken with his memory. This remarkable person began
life without a farthing, and left behind him a property
whose actual value amounted to near a million sterling,
and this acquired in the latter half of his life. He told
me himself that at the age of forty his circumstances
were so narrow that he was employed as the comman-
der of his own sloop engaged in the coasting trade
between New York or Philadelphia and New Orleans,
adding, that on a certain occasion he was forty-five
days in working his way up from the Belize to the city.
Few persons, I believe, enjoyed less personal popula- I\II,,ssBURNEY'S " LANCE OF PRIVATE
rity in the community in which he lived, and to which. , —lt is certainly to be noted as among the
he bequeathed his princely fortune. On general prig- Curiosities of Literature," that a lady who has so
ciples it may perhaps be safely said, that the class of often before graced the department of high moral fiction,
wfai
au
igtahl ittyn
aa
inn mp
cent.: tefidu
ler laurels,
men qualified to amass large fortunes by perseverance and.has in past vears earned for herself so many well-
n should,on nt
identify
resumingaetn auyy the
questioned, exercise of
and
mid exclusive devotion to businesst,hebiry
to the effect in all her claims to notice made the subject of mystifying
thrift, are not at all likely to apAplsy
bilious or corrupt designs.
speculation. Those readers, however, who remember
benefit in such a capital, managed wit:h. unrelaxin
other points of view, Iconfess I see nothing but public
g the impression produced by this lady's delightful novels
economy ; one-half judiciously employed
by the pro- of " Clarentine," and " Traits of Nature," ne2d not to
prietor himself in commerce, the other half loaned to the be reminded that she was almost as closely aMed in
What better use could have literary reputation as in family name, to her sister,
been
business
madem
om
of itu
r elity.Will it be said, divide it equallye Madame D'Arblay, the Authoress of " F,velina," and
mono the community ; give each individual in the " Cecilia." That Miss Burney has now broken
United States a share? It would hare amounted to through that retirement, which, as a writer, she had
r half a dollar each for man, woman, and child. Such a
have so long maintained, must be a subject of no small con-
distribution would not fitted out the valuable gratulation to her friends; and the lovers of first-rate
ships he did. How many ships would have furled fiction, will doubtless, in the new sunk before them,
their sails, how many warehouses would have closed I find ample reason for concurring in that sentiment.
their shutters, how many wheels, heavily laden with the
DINNER TO CHARLES DICKENS, Esn mr.
products of industry, would have stood still, how many Charles Dickens, better known by the cognomsu
of
families would have been reduced to want, and without „ Buz:, under which appellation he introduced himself
any advantage resulting from the distribution I to the reading- public, has been invited to a public din-
" Let rue not be misunderstood. I regard equality of nor in the Maechestee Athermum, which opens on condition and fortune es the happiest state of society, Tuesday nest. Some twenty or thirty eminent literary
the 'characters have also been invited. Mr. Dickens and
and those political institutions as immeasurably
beieg present.—Liver-
wisest and best which tend to produce it. All the Mr. Ainsworth (Editor of' " Berilsy's Miscellany.)
laws of entail and priMegeniture, which have for their have intimated their intention ua
object to perpetuate large estates, and transmit them Foe/ Chronic/se