Star.
London, England, 1830-12-21 00:00:00

tar

THE INCENDIARIES AND MACHINE BREAKERS.

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Proms tlie' East Meehan.
To reason with a lunatic in the very paroxysm of his
nisiiness is to be almost as mad as himself. We must wait
lit the fit of fury has subsided before we can expect toinake
an% impression on his mind. Symptoms of abatement are
now discernible, and the first opportunity should not he fore-
gone to awaken those ignorant and misfr,uided people who
have destroyed the property or threatened the persons of in-
divi.'uals, to a sense of the folly and injustice which they
have been led to commit. In the present article we address
theni. Next week we shall take the liberty of address-
ing those who move in a very different sphere of life.
Their folly consists in destroyieg that property whichaup-
plies the means of giving them employment ; their injustice
consists in wreaking vengeance on indiviluals ter the mil-
chiefs arising out of national institutions and civilized society.
1. No min in his senses can believe that by setting tire to
a farmer's corn stacks, or by destroying his machitier , he
enables that farmer to furnish him with mere repi ir eat-
ment, or to pay hint higher wages for it Unit ho
could have done before. He must know that the destrie,tien
of corn is not the way to make bread cheap: he must knot.
that by destroying that capital which is destined for reproiliie-
tion, not for idle waste and extravagance : by destroying that
proterty, the security of which alone encourages bill, anti
the sale of which alone enables him, to cultivate with pro-
fit ; he must know that, by such destruction he takes away
from the farmer the only inducement he has to give him
work, and the only means he has to pay for it. It's fanner
was pretty sure of getting a profit on all the labourers he
could employ, he would employ all he could lay his bends
on ; the more profit he gets from his farm, therefore the
more money he is encouraged and enabled to isy out on its
improvement: and the more he can save in one way the
more he can lay out in another which pays him better.
Thus, suppose a thrashing machine displaces the labour of
three or four men from a barn during the winter months :
suppose the farmer saves fifty pounds a year by the use of
it. Is it not as plain as possible that this additional saving
in one direction encourages him to an additional outlay in
another ? If he is compelled to spend fifty pounds a year
more in thrashing his crop than is necessary, he has fifty
pounds a year leas to spend in hedging, ditching, draining,
marling, mucking, or in some other field operations ;
which, by yielding a more profitable return, would
probably enable him to employ four or five niea
abroad for the three or four be has displaced front Ins
barn. A good thrashing machine is also said to
get the corn cleaner from the straw by three or
four per cent. than the flail. If this be true, its usefulness
becomes very much enhanced : and there is no doubt that
it furnishes the market with a more regular and steady sup-
ply than the flail can do, which is an object of much greater
consequence to those very people who have broken so many
of them in pieces titan they are at all aware of. On a rise
in the market, the farmer instantly sets his machine to work
and throws in a seasonable supply, which keeps down the
price. On a depression in the market he puts his machine
aside for a time, and, with the same advantage to all par-
ties, he prevents a glut. It is the interest of the large ca-
pitalists who speculate in corn to produce sudden fluctuations
in the price, and to avail themselves of the ups and downs
which they have produced. On the contrary, it is the in-
terest of the consumer, and particularly of the working
classes, that there should be no ups and downs, but that the
market should be regularly supplied, and the price steady.
Thrashing machines, therefore, as they enable the termer to
counteract the designs of the speculator, operate beneficially
to the public. The barrow displaces more men from the
hand-rake, and the plough displaces more men from the
spade, than ever the unfortunate thrashing machine did, or
will do, from the flail. And yet veneration is given to one,
and vengeance inflicted on the ( ther. So much for pre-
judice and caprice ; so much for wilful ignorance or folly.
11. A word or two, now, on the injustice of visiting on
individuals the mischiefs which arise out of national insti-
tutions. It is notorious that the farmers themselves, whose
property in the first instance has been threatened and en-
dangered by the late tumultuous assemblages, have refused
to be sworn as special constables for the purpose of re-
sisting them. They would protect the property of one
another, no doubt, but they have shown rw yenrsol in-
clination to protect ti.e property, either of the tent-oa nets
or the tythe-owner ; on the contrary, the New papers fur-
nish ns with many instances where they have joined the la-
bourers, besieging, one may say, both the landlord and the
c:ergyman, and driving them by intimidation or violence
into terms of capitulation ; that is, into a hominid agree-
ment that they will reduce their re-its and their where If
the labourers know no better, these farmers must surely be
aware that any agreement extorted by intimidation or actual
violence is not binding in the eye, ither of reason or of
law ; it is invalid in the outset, aid may be set aside when-
ever it suits the couveuience or inclination of the pa ty
which has been coerced. As to tythes, every body knows
that a certain portion of the produce of the land is set asithe by
the law of the country for maintaining the Ministers of the
establishment, and for cementing by this means a " holy al-
liance" between church and state. That it is the worst possible
mode of providing for the clergy, has long been universally
felt, and is now very generally acknowledged. The system
is obnoxious to pubic opinion because it is injurious to the
interests of society, having a tendency, among other evil
consequences, to disturb the harmony and good feeling which
ever ought to subsist between the clergyman and his pa-
rishioners. The clergy, therefore, will probably no longer
oppose then selves to the spirit of the age, but will rather
promote than obstruct any legislative measnre for a general
commutation. But let the attack be made against the sys-
tem, not against individuals : attack not those personally
whom the law of the land entitles to certain advantages
which that system, bad me it is, has front time imineu:orial,
conferred upon their order. Nor can it be said of the clergy,
as a body, that they are rigid in exacting the full measure
which the law gives them. As men of education, moral con-
duct, social manners, and holding much intercourse with the
world, they estimate the good opinion of their neighbours ; and
in order to preserve that good opinion the majority of them
make great personal sacrifices of the tribute which the law
allows. It is proverbial that " grey-coat parsons" are more
rigid in the exactions of tithes than the clergy. Tbey are
often men of more limited education : perhaps, too, having
purchased their imptquiations, they feel entitled to make
the most of them. The case of the lard ord is different.
Tithes are national property conferred by the state for the
support of the national church: the tithe to them always
implies, if it does not always require, the performance sit'
specific duties iu return. Not so with rents: no legislative
interference can ever regulate them. They are a private
agreement between the parties concerned. Property in land
is private ; and if a landlord should choose to let his estate
lie untilled, the legislature could not call him to account for
his aegligence. But in the progress of wealth andpopula-
tion, the principles of free competition will force themselves
into action t and any attempt to prevent the ?Me of rents
would be as eb4urd as an attempt to prevent the depression of
them'; with this additional feature of absurdity, that it
would he ad attemto exclude eampetieore frees the use-
.frust of ,Farmers are anxious to have long knees,
that they ofay.get a return of the investments they maks
upun the soil. But hog leases are attended with inevitoble
risk of such a diminished return oa capital, a to ruin knee
who are indissolubly bound by the terms of Ilse ageempost.