The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-08 00:00:00

MORNING SUN

r^`
Just rady, in 3 vols. post vo.,
E R It E It
F A ROMANCE of the REIGN of GEORGE 11.
By CHARLES OLLIES.
', Though thii be madness, yct there's method in it."---
SHAKSPEATLE.

s. 1

Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street.

ilitW NOVEL EDITED BY THEODORE HOOK, ESQ.
Now ready at all the Libraries, in 3 vols. post Bvo.,
THE PARISH CLERK.
JL By the Author of " Peter Prig ins,"
EDITED BY THEODORE HOOK, ESQ.
" These singularly clever and spirited volumes will be read
with unfailing interest and extitement. They more than sup-
port the reputation of their still anonymous author—unless, in-
deed, they have been concocted, as well as their no less racy
and original predecessor, Peter Priggins ' (ileaumont and
Fletcher fashion) between the two writers whose name and
want of name they bear."—Naval and Military Gazette.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.
UNDER the MANAGEMENT of MADAME VESTRIS.
THIS EVENING, NOV. S,
Will be performed the New Comedy, LONDON ASSUR-
ANCE.—Sir Harcourt Courtly, Mr. W. Farren ; Max Hark-
away, Mr. Bartley ; Mr. Charles Courtly, Mr. Walter Lacy ;
Mr. Dazzle, Mr. C. Mathews ; Mr. Adolphus Spanker, Mr.
Oxberry ; Mark Meddle, Mr. Harley ; Grace Harkaway,
Madame Vestris ; Lady Gay Spanker, Mrs. Nisbett ; Mrs.
Pert, Mrs. Ilumbr.
To which will be added, POPPING THE QUESTION.
Mr. Primrose. Mr. W. Farren ; Miss Biffin, Mrs. Glover;
Ellen Murray, Miss Lee; Bobbin, Mrs. Orger.
To conclude with, the Ballet of Action, entitled HANS OF
ICELAND.—Hans of Iceland, Mr. W. H. Payne ; Gill, Mr
.1. H. Ridgway ; Frederick, Mr. Gilbert ; Oglypighp, Mr. 'l'.
Ridgway ; Iceland Boy, Master Marshall ; Guth Stasen, Miss
Ballin; Iceland Girl, Miss Mar-Alan.
Doors to le opened at half-past Six----the performances to
commence at Seven. Dress Boxes, 7s. ; Second Price, 3s. 6d.;
First and Second Circ'er, ss. ; Second Price, 23. 6d. ; Pit, 35.;
Second Price. 2.,.; Gallery Is. Tickets and places for the
Boxes to be taken of Mr. Grogan at the Box-office, frem Ten
till Four, where Season Tickets may be had upon application.
Private Boxes to be had solely of Mr. Andre Rs, bookseller,
137. New Bond-street.
To-morrow, Norma, with The Wrong Man.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
UNDER THE NIANA(sEMENT OF MR. DAVIDGE
AND MR. WILLIS JONES.
Positively the Last Week of Ducrow's Stud of Horses and the
Equestrian Company.
THIS EVENING, NOV. 8
will; be aeted EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE, em-
bracing all Mr. Ducrow's magnificent Stud of Forty Horses,
taighlly-trained Palfreys, Fairy Peneyt, Equestrian Troop, and
Companies of both Theatres.
After which, GRAND SCENES IN THE CIRCLE, in the
Largest Arena in the World, in which Madame Duerow, Sig-
nor Hillier, the Great American Rider, the British Horseman,
Signor Felix Carlo, arid the First Artistes in Europe will appear.
To conclude with TIMO UR THE TARTAR, with Grand
Processions, Battles, &c., Herse and Foot.

ROYAL VICTORIA THEATRE.
7N DER THE DIRECTION OF MR. OSBALDISTON.
iamtimsed Succession of Novelties, and second week of Two
original Dcmestic Dramas of great and powerful interest.
THIS EVENING, NOV. 0,
Will he performed a New Domestic Drama, called THE
WRECK OF THE HEART ; OR, THE STORY OF
AGNES PRIMROSE.—Wm. Norwynne, Mr. Dale; Henry,
Mr. Seaman ; Old Primrose, Mr. Cullen ; Ralph, Mr. Gard.
Do-
sser ; Agnes, Miss Vincent, the acknowledged Heroine of Do-
Imestie Drama.
After which, a New Domestic Drama, 'entitled KATTY
O'SFILEL, the FOLLOWER of the FAMILY. O'Dwyer,
Mr. Dale ; Augustus, Mr. Seaman ; Guyton Gray, Mr.
James ; and Katty O'Shid, Miss Vincent.
To conclude with ROBERT MACAlRE.—RobeitMacaire,
E. F Saville; Jacques Strop, Mr. Gardner; Pierre, Mr.
Vosta.rcl ; Frederick, Mr. Seaman ; Marie, Mrs. Lee.
Boxes, 2i.—Pit, Is.—Uallery, 6d. Half-price to the Boxes
*Mr, at Half-past Eight.
To4norrow, Wreck of tne Heart, Nature and Art, and Jo-
nathan Bradford.

- _ -
THE P.,AiLWA Y SUN.
NOTICE.—A New E;:!tiort of the _RAILWAY
SUN is NOTV PUL'USHING.

THE CHINA SUN,

AND THE
PARLIAMENTARY SUN
ARE STILL ON SALE,
PRICE SIXPENCE EACH.
Nov. 8, 1841.

,fEce,

THE AV EATHER.—Noos, NOVEMBER 6.
ROYAL GALLERY OF SCIENCE, ADELAIDE-STREET.
Thermometer.. 51 1 Highest 5l 1 Lowest ...... 40
Barometer 30.43.—Wind S.W.—Freezing Point 22 Deg.

HIGH WATER AT I.ONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
DI rning.....13 minutes after 9. I Evening..«..s= minutes after 9.

LONDON :
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1841.

We have undertaken to prove that the inven-
tion and use of machinery raises wages, and as
such a :doctrine is somewhat contrary to the
popular belief, particularly in that class—the la-
bourers—lN hose interests we desire to promote,
we hope that they will read our remarks with

patience to the end. Fortunately, however, we
have one practical test of our doctrines close at
hand that may serve, if not to convince the
sceptical, to prepare the way for its favourable
reception. In Ireland comparatively little ma-
chinery has been used or erected, and in Ireland
wages are, as the rule, much lower than in Eng-
land, which abounds with machinery. Looking
at the question under the general aspect, instead
of merely looking at the temporary and local
effects of the use of machinery in displacing
some few labourers, we are at once reconciled to
the belief that it is possible for that which adds
to the sum of employment, also to raise the
wages of the labourer.
Another practical view of the question may be
taken from a comparison of wages in former
times, when there was little machinery, with
wages at present. In the fmrteenth century,
namely, in 1350, when a statute was passed for
" the unjust purpose of preventing the price of
labour from rising after the great pestilence,"
the wages of day-labourers were about equal to
three-fourths of a peck of wheat. In the fifteenth
century, when another statute was passed to re-
gulate labourers—the object of all such statutes
being, as Mr. MALTHUS remarks, the unjust one
of preventing the price of labour from rising—
the wages of a common day-labourer were about
.tid. without diet; and, according to the then
price of wheat, his wages would enable him to
purchase half a bushel of wheat, within one far-
thing. This was, however, an extraordinary
state, which did not last: In the sixteenth cen-
tury the price of day-labour was Bd., which at
the then price of wheat, 81d, a peck, would pur-
chase very nearly a peck of corn.
In 1601 wages are mentioned as 10d., which,
according to the price of wheat, would buy two-
thirds only of a peck of corn. 1651, after
the effects of the importation of silver from
America in lowering its value is supposed to
have ceased, the wages of day-labour were
ls. 2d., which, at the average price of wheat,
Bs. per bushel, would enable the labourer to
-twelfths of a peck. In
command only seven
1661 the wages were equivalent to three-fourths
have also a record of
of a peck. In 1682 we
wages commanding three-fourths of a peck. In
the early part of the eighteenth century the
wages of husbandry labourers were not more
than is. per day, and equivalent to about three-
fourths or four-fifths of a peck of wheat.
Between 1720 and 1753, wages were compara-
tively good, and a day's labour commanded
about a peck of wheat. Subsequently to that
period, and to the close of the century, during
which the prices of both labour and wheat were
nearly doubled, though the proportions between
them continued nearly the same, the price of
husbandry labour, for many years, commanded
about five-sixths of a peck of w heat. At present, as-
suming the wages of husbandry labourers to be
2s. per day, as stated by the Pro-Corn-law men,
and wheat to eF, re s., they will command a peck
of wheat a day. But we apprehend that ls. 6d.
is nearer the average, so that, without being far
wrong, we may state that the wages of husbandry
labourers now command, and have fbr some time
commanded, about two-th• lof us s a peck of wheat
per day. These facts, which are a summary of
the statements made by Mr. MALTHUS in his
" Principles of Political Economy,'' chapter " On
Wages,"show a remarkable
uniformity in the real
wages of husbandry labour, and go far
to justify
Mr. RICARDO'S definition of the natural (custo-
mary) price of labour, "that which is necessary to
eaable the labourers (in ins 1 b 1 ) with
husbandry), , one
another,to subsist and to pe • t
uate their race."
But rse
while the wages of the husbandry labourers,

...,.... .....------....-----
measured in corn, have undergone no consider- !
able and permanent change for many years,
have always been at nearly the lowest point i
which would support existence, the successive
invention and improvements of machinery have
supplied the agricultural labourer with clothing,
utensils, and instruments at a continually declin-
ing. price ; so that, supposing his labour always to
have commanded the same quantity of corn, the
little he could spare to exchange for other things,
as they were made cheaper by machinery, came
to command a continually increasing quantity of
them ; and so far the use of machinery contri-
buted to improve the condition of the agricul-
tural labourer. It has made his wages more va-
luable. But to show how the use of machinery
has increased wages on the whole, we must com-
pare the wages of those who have successively in-
t vented and used machinery with the wages of hus-

bandry labourers. The further back we carry our
view, the fewer labourers we find engaged in other
pursuits than husbandry, and, accordingly, if we
now find other artizans are better paid than
labourers in husbandry; a presumptive proof
arises that the use of machinery has tended to
improve the condition of the labourers, and raise

their wages.
Now it is plain that every new art, as it came
into existence, could not find hands ready made
to practise it. Men had to learn it, and they
were tempted to lekin it by wages higher than
they could get in husbandry labour. This is true
generally, and the consequence has been that
every new art which, as we have proved,
increased the sum of employment, gave higher
wages to those who were engaged in it. The in-
vention and use of machinery is synonymous
with the successive rise of such arts,
each one of which, by practically raising
wages, necessarily tended to raise the
standard of wages, and give to the labouring
classes a higher idea of comfort. That there has
been such a gradual elevation, since the time
when the labourers were dressed in skins, and
fed on acorns, when they watched the swine of
their lords with iron rings on their limbs, cannot
be doubted; nor can it be doubted that this
improvement originated in towns, and is most
conspicuous amongst labourers who work in the
newest arts. We can see, we think, a succession
of inventions—such, for example, as the print-
ing-press, the spinning-jenny, the steam-engine—
each of which called into existence a superior
body of labourers, gave them much higher
wages than the labourers in agriculture, and
raised the standard of reward with each in-
vention.

At present the average wages of printers are
at least, distressed as they are, three times as
much as the wages of agricultural labourers,
or, they could command two pecks of wheat
a day. Mr. -M'CuLLocn mentions, in his sta-
tistical work, that colliers can earn ss. a day,

and that, whether employed or not, they can
call on their masters to pay them 14s. per week.
Persons employed in the woollen trade, he says,
receive on an average, which includes all species
of labourers, women and children, 26/. a year,
or ls. Bd. per day. Even the -females, who are
much indebted to machinery, are much better
off than agricultural labourers. The wages of
the males engaged in this work are set down at
from 19s. to 225. Gd. per week.
In the cotton manufacture the average wages
of all classes, according to the same author, are
los. Gd.; so that the children in the factories
must get nearly as much as the male peasantry;
while the wages of engineers, firemen, mecha-
nics, &c., is 20s. 61, on the average, including
boys, or double the wages of agricultural la-
bourers. " The wages of adults," says Mr.
M'Cum.ocit, " engaged in factories, are in gene-
ral high, many of them earning from 3s. to Gs. 6d.
a-day, and some more. Employment in fac-
tories is also remarkably steady, not depending,
like work carried on out of doors, on the state
of the weather or other uncertain contingencies,
but is prosecuted almost without intermission.
Hence the superior condition of the factory
work-people."
In flax mills at Leeds and Dundee, the
wages of males are set down at 18s. and 195.,
and at 15s. Of thy; workmen in Birmingham,
Mr. M'CuLLocit wrote before the effects of
the Corn-law became so apparent, " their con-
dition is on the whole very favourable. In those
branches in which superior skill and attention
are required, their wages are very little, if at all,
inferior to those earned by the best workmen of
the metropolis." Wages in Sheffield, he tells
us, vary from his. to 3.55. and 40s. per week. We
might quote a variety of other trades, particularly
those of the millwright, or engineer, which are
notoriously much better paid than those of hus-
bandry labourers, to prove that the wages of men,
who either make the machinery in use or work
it, are uniformly higher than the wages of agri-
cultural labourers ; but these must suffice, and
we shall only say that in all these new arts the
wages were higher at the commencement of the
art than subsequently, showing both the effect
of the invention in raising wages, and the
general tendency, but for these successive inven-
tions, of wages to fall to the lowest level at which
subsistence can be preserved.
But it is of little use to quote particular facts
on this question, because it is plain that the
growth and increase of towns, and the great
quantity of employment found in them, is mainly
due to the new arts connected with machinery.
Now into the towns and the manufacturing dis-
tricts, the population of the rural districts is con-
tinually pouring, because wages in almost all
situations are higher in the manufacturing
tricts, where machinery is much used, than in the
rural districts. That is a decisive proof that the
successive inventions of machinery, and the con-
sequent successive introduction of new arts, raise
wages as they increase the source of employment.
Suppose there were no such inventions as the
printing press, and the steam-engine, and no
such arts as the printer and the engine-maker,
and that all the population had to look exclu-
sively to the land for subsistence and employ-
ment : if under such circumstances it were
possible that the present amount of our popu-
lation could exist, the competition amongst them
for employment on the land would reduce all
the well paid and well employed artisans of the
towns to a worse condition than that of the l umper-
fed Irish.
It must be known to all who have looked at
the writings of the political economists, that they
regard the naturally increasing difficulty of pro-
curing subsistence, as population increases, as a
permanent cause for a continual declension of
wages, and a continual deterioration in the condi-
oouulida
tion of mankind. According to their statements,
dearth would this condition would go on from bad to worse ;
come aftr extreme poverty, great
misery
ensue, quarrels would follow, and
mankind would devour each other; but ever and
anon the brain of man teems with some mighty
invention, and the downward progress is arrested
by some new machinery which facilitates labour
ro subsist-
and lessens the difficulty of procuring
ence. What Mr. RICARDO says n the following
passage, speaking of profits, is equally applicable
, to wages :

The natural tendeney of profits, then, •
gravitation,i as
the progress of society and wealth, the
quan-
tity of food required is obtained by the sacrifice is to
additionalfall; for, in
with
hd internals
and more labour. This tendency—this of more
it were, of people is happily checked at repeated
by the improvements in nuichinery connected ANa.
pro-
duction of necessaries, as well as by discoveries in ra
the
science of agriculture, which enable us to relinquish
ortion of labour before required; and, therefore, to
ower the price of the prime necessary of the labourer.l
On the one band, then, wages, as population in-
crease=, and as the difficulty of procuring the
necessaries of lire increase, have a tendency to
fall; and on the other, successive inventions and
improvements in machinery, lessening that diffi-
culty—for it is as much lessened by the inven-
tion of a spinning mule and a power-loom, which
enables us to purchase at a small cost of our
labour the rich productions of the virgin and un-
taxed and untithed soil of the United States, as
" by discoveries in the science of agriculture ;"
on the other hand, we say, successive inventions
and improvements in machinery lessen the diffi-
culty of procuring the means of subsistence, and,

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