The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-10-23

one man; for it is not certain either that the mas
tiers can carry on their business, or that the men
will comport themselves properly under the new
regime.
"a great rise in the price Of labor will affect the
naval and military service public works, the prin
cipal branches of national industry, the cost of con
Quoting railways-in fact, every department Of
public private business. tdoes not follow that
the present state of things will continue because
population will be at stand-still Commercial
enterprise and social development require an ac-
tually increasing population, and also that the IN
crease shallbe in the most servceabe, that is the
aborious part of the population, for otherwise 1t
will not be sufficiently at the command Of capital
and'skill. These considerations assume no little
gravity, with the prospect before us-when we are
threatened with population not increasing, per
haps even diminishing in the aggregate, while the
most useful, that is the working class, Is continu-
ally becoming less numerous, compared with the
rest Doubtless limited supply of labor may be
met, to very great extent, by the many new IN
venons for economizing il; but is scarcely credi
BILE that country which has enjoyed so long su-
perabundance of labor should be able at once,
without inconvenience, to adapt itself to totally
different state of things. Man has not had his
proper value in these islands for the last half cen
fury 1t may be for the ensuing half century to
correct, perhaps very emphatically, the error Of
the past
No enemy of Britain ever penned severer
truths than these. No more formidable indlct-
ment against British policy can be imagined
| than that which might be framed from these
allegations. Note, for example, the admission
that the existence of So lower class, redundant,
necessitous, ignorant and manageable" is a
fundamental element in the institutions of
| Britain--an ingredient essential to the mante-
nance of g an upper class, wealthy, exclusive,
united, and powerful" The wealth, splendor,
and dominion of the empire require as their
basis vast strata Of poverty and squalor.
| Without such foundation, the Times AYERS,
the " institutions and customs of the country
cannot be maintained; and it therefore sees
dangers ahead, arising out of the strong contrast
presented by American society, and the ample
rewards which 1t presents to well-dlrected
skill and industry. Note, in the next place,
the confession of the great free-trade oracle that
Fan inexhaustible supply Of cheap labor" is es-
sential to the prosperous management of British
industrial undertakings. The aim of the free
traders is to obtain possession of the markets Of
the world; to do this they must undersel every
other manufacturing country; to sell goods
cheap. they must be able to produce them at
trihng cost; they must be able to command la
Dor at their own price; and therefore they per-
ceive that they require "what is called a re-
dundant population"
In these declarations of the Times we have
a complete exposition of the rationale of the
free-trade policy; and we pray American me-
chanics and laborers to mark it well. Let
them ponder over the picture of two men hunt
ing after one master, each beating down the
wages of the other to just about starvation
point. Let them mark the acknowledgment
that "man has not had his proper value in
these islands for the last half century," and re-
membering that this depreciation of manhood is
the foundation of British prosperity, let them
resist the attempts of free trade philosophers IL
engraft the same principle upon American insti-
|