Star.
London, England, 1830-01-16 00:00:00

MR. OWEN.

TO THE IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT OF GREAT

BRITAIN.

The population of the British Empire is oppressed by
a superabundance of wealth, and by an excess of poverty.
It seeks the means of relief from both these
Other civilized nations are beginning to experience the
same effects from similar causes ; and the most enlight-
ened individuals in these countries look to the wisdom of
your councils for a remedy.
All who reflect now perceive, that the immediate cause
of these is an excess of production, unaccompanied by a
knowledge of the means by which that excess may be ad-
vantageously distributed. These evils were first expe-
rienced in the year 1810, when a new era commenced
with regard to supply and demand. Up to that period the
supply never equalled the demand ; it was therefore the
chief business of political economists and others to devise
and point out the best means of increasing the supply.
The introduction, within the last fifty years, of ma-
t hinery into the manufactures of Great Britain, over-
came this difficulty ; and in the year 1810, the period of
a deficient supply was passed, for the first time in the
history of nations. It was passed, too, in the midst of a
general, and most wasteful war ; proving that the
powers of production were become not only ample for a
period of.peace, but were also more than sufficient to
meet the exigencies of the most wide-spread warfare,
simultaneously carried on by the most powerful nations
of the world. Since that eventful year, the distress
which has arisen in Great Britain and the United States
of North America, and in many of the civilised countries,
has uniformly arisen from an excess, continually in-
creasing, of supply over demand.
In consequence, a necessity at that period commenced
for a change in the commercial policy of society ; that
necessity daily increased, producing periodical distress
among the industrious classes, until at length its severity
in 1816 became such, that the proceeds of a large public
subscription were inadequate to afford relief to the extent
required. Under these circumstances, a public meeting
was held in London, to consider of the cause of the- evil,
and of its remedy.
At this meeting a Committee was appointed to inves-
tigate the subject, composed generally of the most re-
spected public-spirited Statesmen, Political Economists,
and others, and the late Archbishop of Canterbury was
selected to preside over its deliberations. It appeared
inexplicable to the Members of this Committee, how
such general and alarming distress could arise among the
agricultural labourers and manufacturing operatives,while
there was at that moment, throughout Great Britain and
Ireland, a greater superfluity of productions, both agri-
cultural and manufacturing, than had existed at any
former period.
At the first meeting of this Committee, various con-
jectures were offered by different Members, as explana-
tions of this singular anomaly, but none were deemed
satisfactory. The writer, who was supposed to have
some useful practical knowledge upon the subject, was
requested by the Chairman and others to state his view
of the case, which he did, but probably in a very im-
perfect manner, as he was then unaccustomed to public
speaking.
He attributed the difficulties, the causes, and remedy of
which they were met to consider—to the rapid extension
of machinery and other scientific inventions and disco-
veries, which had been introduced during the late war,
and which had superseded the necessity for so much ma-
nual labour as had formerly been called into action. Thus
a large surplus of all kinds of productions was created,
and a diminished supply became unavoidable: the newly-
acquired scientific power produced more economically
than did manual labour; manual labour was, in conse-
quence dismissed from employment, and machinery was
retained. The Committee considered that this statement
contained a reasonable and satisfactory explanation of
the subject. and the writer was requested to draw up a
report on the existing state of the working classes, and
to propose a remedy for the evils under which they were
suffering. He accordingly, in the Spring of 1817, pre-
sented to the Committee a detailed report upon these
subjects.
The distress of the working classes .had become so
general, and pauperism had in consequence increased to
such an alarming extent, that your Lower House was
induced to appoint a numerous and highly respectable
Committee, under the title of a " Committee on the
Poor Laws," to trace the subject to its source, and through
all its ramifications.

When the writer presented his report to the General
Committee, of which the then Archbishop of Canterbury
was Chairman, the subject was deemed by them too im-
portant to be passed slightly over ; and they recom-
mended that the report should be submitted to the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons on the Poor Law*,
which was then sitting.
It was presented, accompanied by drawings explana-
tory of the practical arrangements proposed; and the
writer offered to be fully examined as to the cause of the
evils under which the country was suffering ; the princi-
ples on which he proposed to apply a remedy ; and as to
the detail of the practice which be recommended.
The report, the plans, and the offer of examination,
were under the consideration of the Committee, with
closed doors, for two days • at the termination of which
time the writer was officially informed by one of the
Members, that the Committee, after a long and interest-
ing debate, had come to the resolution not to receive the
Report, or to examine the writer upon the subject. The
Committee judged wisely. The public had not then been
sufficiently prepared by commercial difficulties, or by dis-
tress among the lower orders, to believe that a change so
extensive as the one proposed was necessary, nor indeed
would become at no distant period unavoidable.
The report and detailed reasoning thereon were, how-
erter, at that time extensively published in the newspapers,
to prepare the public for the adoption of the principles
and the plan when the further extension of mechanic and
other scientific producing powers should compel all classes
to seek relief from the overwhelming effects of over-
production, and of competition between scientific power
and manual labour, and when the increased knowledge of
the people should have convinced them of the necessity
of changing the policy of the empire, in order to apply this
new power in aid of, instead of being, as it now is, op-
posed to human industry, and the general prosperity
of the British dominions. _

In proof of the benefit arising from the practical
adoption of his plan, the writer now begs leave to refer
to the experiment commenced in 1818, in the Nether-
lands, under the sanction of the Government and the
auspices of the Royal Family, when some of the prin-
oiPles, and much of the detail, were put to the test of
experience. That experience, during a period of nearly
twelve' years, has now abundantly proved these emi-
nently calculated to diminish pauperism, and to hn-
prove generally the habits and condition of the indus-
trious &Mei. •
The .principles and practice. recommended in the report
to the House of Commons are no longer hypothetical ; it
having been proved that they have raised the condition