The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-05 00:00:00

AUL

LONDON :

IIOND,4T MORNING, DECEMBER 5, 1842.

It'has been stated, by a Tory journal, in order
to discredit the manufacturing system, that wages
have declined. during the last forty years; and
the .statement has been admitted by a Whig
journal, because the supposed fact was thought
to tell against the Corn-laws. The statement is
very important. Is it true? Let us examine the
matter under two aspects--the amount of Wages
and the rate of wages.
The last forty years embraces the whole of this
century, and within that period it is well known
that ourpopulation has increased amazingly, and
that this increase is principally a town popula-
tion. In France, and generally- on the Continent,
when a man has acquired a fortune, he goes to a
town or city to enjoy himself; in England, on
the contrary, till our rural districts became un-
safe, people who made fortunes retired to live in
the country. The bulk of the owners of rent live
in the country. A great portion of the receivers
of interest also live in the country, and the bulk
of the new town population are the recipients of
wages, and live on them. It is at the same time
true, that many of the inhabitants of towns re-
ceive profits, and partly live on them. Thus
shop-keepers, master-manufacturers, merchants,
and bankers, have large capitals embarked in bu-
siness, and the major part of their income is the
profit,of their capital, but a considerable share of
it is for intelligence, skill, and labour, in ma-
naging their capital, and partakes more of the
nature of wages than of profit. Mr. COBDEN well
described, at the Sheffield meeting, the labours
of the master-manufacturers, for which they re-
ceWe)vages
The Manchester man is on 'Change every Tuesday
fronwelve to one, when business to the amount of
five or, ten thousand pOunds is transacted with a nod
of the head, or a monosyllable. He goes to Liver-
pool, the
.next day, to. buy cotton. He examines the
staple, and looks to the quality; he brings away the
invoice in his pocket, and pays the money himself.—
(Hear.) He goes home, and do you think he goes a
fox-hunting? lie daily superintends the process of
cotton-spinning and weaving. He has no lawyer with
red tape to tell him when a spindle is out of place, or
he wants a new loom. He knows where every strap
and whereabout his premises should be ; and if they
are cut of order, he himself directs them to be properly
adjusted. And what does he do with his son ? Do
you think his son is sent to the Continent, to come
back precocious in the worst vices to be picked up
there? No; his son rises at the ring of the factory-
bell ; is in the factory at six in the morning; sees
every man at his post ; and knows every one by sight
and name. This is the discipline of the factory-lord.
Besides master-manufacturers, shop-keepers,
and merchants, there are, in all large towns, an
immense number of foremen and clerks, who are
paid generally by a fixed yearly salary, and no-
body acquainted with these classes will say that
the amount of salaries or wages paid to them has
bee:. diminished. As the bulk of the increased
population live in. towns, and live on wages, it is
palrably untrue •to assert- that the amount of
wages, looked at as a whole, has declined within
the last forty years. On the contrary, the amount
has greatly, and, considering that England was
long ago described as an old country, incapable
of making much further progresses, wonderfully
increased.

Has.the rate of wages then declined ? Do the
labourers of all classes get less per head ? To
get at a fair solution of the question, w.e
must consider not only the branches of labour,
which were in existence forty years ago, but the
new branches of labour which have sprung out
of the great tree of industry. We will adroit that
the rate of hand-loom weavers' wages has de-
clined, but power-loom weavers constitute an