Star.
London, England, 1830-03-10 00:00:00

DIVISION OF LABOUR.
By W. WiCKENS.--SADNDERS AND OTTLgY.

The wonders atcl:ieved bythe division of labour in the
mechanical world, as displayed in the productions of Bir-
mingham, Manchester, and other seats of manufacture,
are become familiar to the public, and have ceased to ex-
cite surprise. To the adoption of this principle the
country is indebted for the expedition with which the
various articles are fabricated, as well as for their superior
quality. A valuable pamphlet has been just published,
by Mr. WILLIAM WICKENS, recommending the exten-
sion of the principle. It is entitled, "An Argument for
more of the DIVISION OF LABOUR in civil life in this
country, Part I. in which the argument is applied to
Parliament."—The hurried and imperfect mannem-4c
which a great portion of the business of Pa/filament is
transacted, and the evil consequences that must neces-
sarily ensue to the public, as also the excessive weight with
which it presses particularly upon the House of Com-
mons are universally acknowledged, and have been long
the subjects of complaint. To avoid the one, and lessen
the other, is the meritorious object of the present work,
from which we have only room at present for the fol.
lowing extract :
- -

" A second class-of matters which, In our view, do most plainly
indicate themselves as proper to be withdrawn from out of the juris-
diction of Parliament, are all matters capressly of a scientific
character.

" The propriety of the change we are contending for, we shall
not pretend, in the case of scientific matters, to rest solely on the
easement which it is netzstry to effect for Parliament ; although
the relief which their withdrawal would operate, would be great
indeed. Separately from the clogged state of Parliament u a ge-
neral position, it is our fate to think, that • variety of questions
are now from time to time brought under consideration, and often
with much pertinacity debated there, which are only fit to be enter-
tained by a purely professional tribunal: which are only fit to be
entertained, we mean, by engineers, by medical or surgical pro.
fessors, by architects, or by other Individuals eminent for their
practical knowlege In the particular art or science that happens to
be concerned.

" At once to enter upon our evidence here :—During the last
few years, we have seen Parliament plunging into all the mysteries
of the doctrine of Contagion; immediately prior: to this, it had
been busying itself about, and pronouncing upon, the most proper
mode of treating Ophthalmia; and before that, or at about the
same period, the country was edified with accounts of honourable
members formally taking boat, and, with all gravity, proceeding
down the river Thames, to explore the sub.soll, and determine upon
other recondite particulars touching the proposed site of the new
London Bridge !
" Now, we confidently ask, whether any thing can equal the
preposterousness of submitting subjects like these to the considera-
tion, or of suffering them to abide by the award of a Legislative
Assembly ? unless, indeed, the community where this occurs
openly acknowledges itself to be but in a half-organised—that is to
say, in a semi-barbarous state.
" But further, .Parliament is the great canal, dock, pier, harbour,
road, and rail-way maker..the drainer, and embenker, too, of the
United Kingdom. It is to the two Houses that every single un-
dertaking, falling under either of these heads, is required to be
brought here it is that the practicability and expediency of what
is proposed are professedly demonstrated : here It is that plans are
presented, arguments pro and eon canvassed, and from this tribunal
it is that the decree ultimately approving or disapproving every
such project Issues. Over most cases involving questions in the
fine arts (that of the Elgin marbles is a memorable instance), Par-
liament claims to possess sway, and in an especial degree is it con.
senator of all our public buildings.
"There doubtless may be something flattering to the pride of Par-
liament in having, in addition to the multiplicity of its other duties,
Cares of the kind we are now specifying, imposed upon it. To
enjoy the reputation, which they thus prima fade at least do, of be-
ing conversant with the whole circle of the Arts and Sciences—of
being living Encyclopedias of Knowledge—must unquestionably
be soothing to the self-love of members. The sounding language
also, in which, among other exaggerations, Parliament is not un-
frequently described as of power Omnipotent—may, perchance,
have engendered the impression in some Members' minds that
with the attribute of Omnipotence there has devolved upon them
—what is but fair should accompany it—that likewise of Omni.
science. The difficulties in the way of what we are now more par.
ticularly proposing, may hence be unluckily augmented ; but we
shall not on that account argue the less strenuously in its Wulf.
" An objection of a most formidable kind to the entertainment
by Parliament of Questions of a distinctly Professional or Men-
title nature, presents itself, as it appears to us, at the very outset.._
in the party character of most of the members of this Tribunal.--
We are well aware that by dint of high principle, and resolute
self-government, the effect upon the mind of the habitually has.
tile disposition and array that exist there, may be overcome ; but
between what it is just within the reach of human ability to com-
pass, and what is most ordinarily done, the difference, we all
know, to be most wide. In the state of things we speak of, when
a proposition is made, there 1., at least the greatest danger, that the
success or defeat of an individual, of a coterie of individuals, or of
that side of the house from which the proposition emanates, may
weigh with members, more than the nieritstof what has been sub.
mitted to the house.

" In the few instances in which we can suppose it to be a point of
honour—to say as little as possible of conscience--scrupulously to
investigate, and faithfully to pronounce, according to these merits,
how difficult will it often be, to guard against an undetected bias
or inclination of the mind, caused solely by the quarter whence
what is submitted happens to come ! And the baleful--the, it may
be, withering effects of political prejudice, of party feeling, where it
is purely a matter of the useful arts, or a question of science, that is
concerned, all thinking people must admit to be a most special
grievance.
" That we are not conjuring up here a mere phantom of the ima-
gination ; that the public in reality have no: that guarantee which
they ought to have, and which they might have, of a calm consi-
deration—a temperately conducted and dispassionately arrived at
award—in the cases we refer to, can be no secret to those who are
watchful observers of Parliament.

" When it was proposed in the House of Commons not long
since, to make some remuneration to Mr. M'Adam, for his activity
and seal, in endeavouring to introduce throughout the country, a
more scientific system of Road-making—than which no topic., one
would have though; was less likely to engender irrscible feelings,
--it was openly stated, (we think by Mr. Fyshe Palmer) that dis-
putes ran so high in the Committee to which the subject had been
referred, as to render it all but a forlorn hope that any result what-
ever would attend the appointment of the Committee.
" Who, too, can have forgotten the bitterness and acrimony that
marked the debates—kept up, if we mistake not, through several
Sessions, upon what we call the Opthalmie question ; and where
the points that were most ravenously disputed, resolved thennelves
into the simple, and, as might have been imagined. very unexciting
one, of—whether Sir William Adams was, or was not, the pink
of oculists ?

'• Wbo, again, but must remember the circumstance, which was
in every body's mouth at the time, of one of the countless Com-
mittees of the Ilouseof Commons upon the London Bridge now
erecting, in which two of the potent, but certainly not very grave
signor, who were sitting in judgment upon the matter, became
worked. up w such a pitch of rage, that they fairly dashed the init.
stands of the Committee.tableat each other's heads."