The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-12 00:00:00

The English Wage Classes.

On Thursday afternoon Mr. Edwin Chadwick de-
livered the second of his lectures at the Royal Insti-
tution on the physical and moral condition of the
English wage classes. A great portion of the lec-
ture was directed to the - refutation of the opinion
expressed by Adam Smith, Mr. Stuart Mill, and
other political economists, of the incompatibility of
manual labour with the best exercise of the intel-
lectual faculties. A certain amount of bodily labour
is necessary to the maintenance of health, and
when the health is injured, the powers of the intel-
lect are also impaired ; therefore the exercise of the
muscles, if not in excess, is favourable to the exer-
cise of the mind. Luxury and idleness are destruc-
tive to mental effort as well as to health, and it has
been always found that when men who have been
accustomed to manual labour become rich and leave
off their former occupations, they deteriorate in con-
dition, both bodily and mental—increase of wealth
being their bane. Not only is manual labour com-
patible with the highest exercise of the mind, but the
two may sometimes be carried on advantageously at
the same time. He mentioned as an illustration that
a manufacturer noticed that the men in one room in
his factory had greatly improved in the work they
turned out ; and on inquiring into the circumstance
he ascertained that anidle apprentice had entertained
the men by reading to them, and the excitement thus
produced had stimulated their manual efforts, and the
consequence was that he compelled the apprentice to
continue to do as a task what he had been doing
from disinclination to work. The effect is similar,
Mr. Chadwick observed, to that of the sound of
music in steadying and stimulating soldiers in march-
ing. There are, he said, several political economists
who are pessimists, and conceive that the wage
classes are becoming worse and worse, that the supply
of labour is increasing more rapidly than the demand,
and that ultimately there must be a want of food.
Mr. Chadwick thought there were no sufficient
grounds for such an opinion, and that with "the in-
creased introduction of machinery the condition of
the wage class is improving. He showed that bathe
introduction of steam power and machinery more
skilled labour is required to attend to it, and it is
paid a higher price. The capitalist who has invested
a large sum of money in providing complicated
machinery, cannot afford to let it be injured by
employing incompetent persons to attend to it,
and thus there has arisen a demand for a higher k
class of workmen. He adduced as an instance
of the wonderful effects of machinery in re-
ducing the art of manufacture, the compe-
tition between Manchester calico and the native
product in the Indian market. At Calicut, where
cotton is grown, it is spun by the distaff by women,
who receive for their daily wages only a few hand-
fuls of rice. The yarn is then woven by a weaver
who pays no rent, but spreads his loom on the
ground under a tree ; and the calico thus cheaply
produced on the spot where the cotton is grown ,
cannot compete in price with the Manchester calico,
though in the production of the latter immense sums
had been expended in transport and carriage, in
machinery to spin and weave the cotton taken from
the same place, and in much higher paid wages to
the men employed. The course of events, Mr. Chad-
wick observed, often flows differently from what is
the anticipated result of given causes. Thus it was
predicted that the distress caused by the cotton
famine in Lancashire would produce a great preva-
lence of fevers and disease, but the result had con-
tradicted that anticipation, for the consequence of
taking so many families from the mills, where they
had been crowded together, had been to diminish
the usual amount of disease in the district. One of
the effects of distress also was that it stimulated
improvements in manufacturing processes ; for when
a manufacturer is prosperous he is inclined to let
well alone ; and it is only when the demand for his
goods slackens, and he is met with formidable com-
petition, that he seeks to improve his manufactur-
ing processes. Mr. Chadwick's programme for his
next and last lecture comprises among other im-
portant considerations " the future of the wage
classes."