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Skb , . . Thk impartial and fearless spirit with which the claims of humanity are con * stantly advocated in your highly interesting periodical convinces me that you will not hesitate to rectify any unintentional misrepresentation of the opinions ano ! sen- * thttt * t ** f to w # fl * dictated fey the dgsirer of truth add the hope ttf ameliorating thd condition of society . In the review of Hampdcm in the Nineteenth Century , ' which you state is front the pen of a correspondent , It is remarked , that * ft should he premised , that Che
Hampden of the nineteenth century has no connexion whatever with hhn of th& seventeenth $ and , indeed , his pursuits , and his torn of mind , being so totally dissimilar , we are at a loss to divine the motive for choosing a name , which , at first sight , seems as if it meant something . The intention of selecting the name of Hampden for the hero was to indicate what might have bdeti expected from iher native energies , talents , and boldness of such a character , formed by an education in accordance , with the advanced state of knowledge , and under all the circumstances ^ of the present period . ' In your own remarks upon , the e Critics Criticised , you quote , among others .
the following proposition : —' That the scientific power , now in rapid progress throughout Europe and America , saturates , directly or indirectly , all the markets of labour , and continually depresses the value of every species © f employment , manual or mental , and deprives numbers of employment altogether . Upon thia you observe : ' Its fallacy has been again and again demonstrated . It has beeri again aria * again * proved , that machinery increases , immensely , the demand fox labour : As destruction , instead of bemg that restoration of the golden age , which it should be , according to our author ' s proposition , would be such a return , through misery to barbarism , as appals the imagination * Can the author point out any one manufacture in which the number of persons employed has been permanently diminished , or has not eventually increased , by the introduction of machinery j * and if not , what becomes of his leading proposition ?'
In -nd part of ' Hampden' is the destruction of machinery advocated . —In page 184 , voL i ., to the question , ' You would not advise the abolition of machinery ?' it is replied , By no means ; for , rightly directed , it is of the greatest benefit to mankind ; and although it is true , that in the history of its progress , from the substitution of the plough for the spade , down to the termination of the late war , the temporary evils of innovation were counterbalanced by some permanent good , yet it has now attained a power which will for ever weigh down the working classes , and produce , in its extension , more confusion and disorder , until a constitution of
society is formed in which the wants of mankind will he no longer supplied through the uncertain demand for their labour and the struggle of contending interests , but by regular industry under intelligent arrangement , in which kindness and generosity will be found to be more profitable to all , than the most successful schemes of individual competition . ' In page 178 of the same volume the following dialogue occurs : — i % Peel . But are you not aware that this machinery has been found to employ more hands than were before engaged in the same fabrication , iu consequence of the article being reduced in value , and being in more extensive demand ?
' Fitzosbornc . That may have been occasionally true , until we had become a nation of cotton-spinners for the whole world : but consider the misery that was endured during the intervals of an overstocked market and a renewed demand ; for then idleness and poverty engender crime and permanent loss of character . Machinery has now reached that point when large numbers must of necessity be idle , ( as is the case in all the agricultural districts , ) and those who are employed will obtain inadequate wages . The rapidity with which every manufactured article is now produced , soon overwhelms the markets with superfluous quantities ;—the consequent depression in the prices not remunerating manufacturers for their expenses , many suspend their works until a diminished stock raises the market *
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< £ 9 l f i
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE < MONTHLY DEPOSITORY . '
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1834, page 891, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2640/page/73/
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