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delight the 600 spindle mule, now on the point of being introduced; may, as a mechanician, glory in the self-acting mule; for no man, who inspects them, can deny to them the praise of being triumphs of art; but what shall the philanthropist and the political economist say to a condition of things which is gradually, but hermetically, shutting up the labour-market. He may call it, as Mr. Southey calls it, a "wen," a "fungus;" or he may talk more like a man of observation, and say it is a new era in our social history; but in whichever way he may speak, he will hardly be disposed to deny that the expelled labourer ought to be looked after. "If," says Dr. Ure," any check were given to the cotton manufacture, nay, if its continual expansion shall not prove sufficiently great to re-absorb those adults whom it is continually casting out, then the improvements in machinery might be said to have a tendency to lower wages;' but hitherto these improvements have materially benefited the Operatives, not only by enabling a greater number of persons to enjoy the advantage of the enormous rate of earnings attainable in this important branch of human industry, than would otherwise have been the case, but they have enabled an Operative to earn a greater sum of money at the end of the week than he would have earned had the condition of machinery remained stationary.

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"Could we suppose that machinery were suddenly to reach a degree of perfection which dispensed altogether with adult labour, while no greater number of adolescents and children, than are at present employed, would be required for turning off the quantity of work now executed, it is clear that the adults would be forced to compete with children in the labour-market, and that their earnings would be regulated by those of children.

"Fortunately for the state of society in the cotton districts of Great Britain, the improvements in machinery are gradual, or, at any rate, are brought very gradually into general use. Hence the fall in the price of the manufactured article is gradual; and the extension in the demand for it, arising from the decrease of price, bringing it continually within the range of the means of greater numbers of consumers, is likewise gradual, and keeps up the demand for adult labour, and thus counteracts the effect of improvements of machinery, which operate to displace it. Hence no diminution of earnings for adults has thus far arisen."

This is strictly the truth as far as it goes, but it is not the whole truth, the evidence of which Dr. Ure himself very liberally supplies; and even were it the whole truth, as to wage, it overlooks one main point. That the employed labourer is well paid is known to every body who has inquired; but how does this happen? Oh! remarks Dr. Ure, by the extension of production and increased facility of producing. Very true; but both men and masters have a closer practical acquaintance with the operation of machinery than to make this their explanation.

"The misconceptions which the Operatives entertain as to the real effect of machinery on the price of labour are the main causes of turnouts and strikes. They produce rankling discontent towards their masters, and deserve a full exposure.

"It is certainly of great consequence that the Operatives themselves should be satisfied that the improvements in machinery tend to raise the amount of money that they gain, individually and generally, for the same number of hours' work." Undoubtedly; but the Operatives who feel machinery, are often at variance in opinion with those who talk about it. Now these improvements all tend to lessen the demand for human labour-consequently, to lower its value; and yet, says Dr. Ure, wages have not fallen. Granted. How does this happen? "In cotton-spinning it would be possible to reduce the wages of labour, because, since the mules have been enlarged, there is always a sufficiency of hands: but it has never been the policy of the masters to do so, unless absolutely compelled by the want of profits, knowing that the lower the workpeople are reduced in circumstances, the less dependence can be placed upon their attention. The Operative spinners, aware that a great excess of hands would have the effect of reducing their wages, combine to pay the expenses of sending their unemployed comrades away to America. Mr. H. Houldsworth, of Glasgow, states that he knows this fact from the individuals themselves and from their wives, and has been occasionally solicited to aid the families in their emigration, and to forward to them sums contributed by the Union for their temporary support. Within the last three years there have not been less than 80 or 100 spinners shipped from Glasgow, which is perhaps one-eighth of the whole." This seems to us to be at variance with what Dr. Ure has previously stated; namely, that "the extension of trade, arising from improved machinery, has not yet affected the interest of the Operative, except in a beneficial way." How far the fact of one-eighth of the Glasgow spinners being expatriated by these causes, is applicable upon beneficial principles, we do not perceive.

"The number of mule-spinners at thirty-five to forty shillings weekly wages is indeed reduced one half, relative to the number of spindles, and of children in action: but all the docile good hands have got employment in the new-built factories. The self-actor has already dispensed with the services of many young children, and in its further progress will dispense with many more.' This again by

no means agrees with the account given before-that to keep up wages, the Unions were obliged to transport their supernumerary fellows; unless we suppose that the one-eighth were bad hands,—a conclusion not at all probable.

"The necessity for enlarging the spinning-frames created by the Union decrees, has recently given an extraordinary stimulus to mechanical science. It is delightful to see from 800 to 1000 spindles of polished steel, advancing and receding, in a mathematical line, each of them whirling all the time upon its axis, with equal velocity and truth, and forming threads of surprising tenuity, uniformity, and strength. In doubling the size of his mule the owner is enabled to get rid of indifferent or restive spinners, and to become once more master of his mill; which is no small advantage."-" By this marvellous elongation one spinner comes to manage a pair of mules containing from 1500 to 2000 spindles, and to supersede the labour of

one or two companion spinners." "The iron man, as the Operatives fitly call it, or the self-acting mule, sprung out of the hands of our modern Prometheus, at the bidding of Minerva-a creation destined to restore order among the industrious classes, and to confirm to Great Britain the empire of art." In the middle of last year, this machine was in operation in upwards of sixty mills, working between 300,000 and 400,000 spindles, and to that extent of course rendering the masters independent of human labourers. The same in the printing and sizing departments: mechanical contrivances of the most wonderful ingenuity, all finding motive power in steam, are thrusting out on every side the Operative.

It is here that we call the attention of our political economists. Our manufactories are becoming palaces, filled with prodigies of art, in the shape of machinery. The vast extension of the trade is no resource to the unhoused labourer; being a premium only for mechanical contrivance. Such being the case, we are constrained to look a little in advance and with the two undoubted facts before us-namely, the rapid expulsion of the labourer, and the equalization of adult and infant labour, to ask ourselves, what must be the consequences of this state of things? One effect we have already abstracted from Dr. Ure,-the encouragement of emigration by the Operatives of the surplus members of their own body. This is, however, a palliative of a temporary and expensive nature. very singular circumstance, which we have lately had an opportunity of watching, is the continuance of Unions amongst the great body of the Operatives, and the growth of an union between the masters and the most highly paid labourers-the spinners. Hitherto these hands have constituted the aristocracy of the Cotton Operatives-have been the most turbulent and unmanageable workers; and this precisely because they have seen and felt the rapid encroachments of machinery upon their field of labour. Bitter experience seems to have shown them-that all their efforts have been unavailing-that their struggles have only tended to tighten the chain-to hasten the catastrophe; and hence they now submit to the introduction of selfworkers, content to keep up their wage by a sacrifice of some part of their body. In thus acting, they are undoubtedly showing their wisdom and prudence; and so long as the masters are not forced, by competition, to reduce the wages of these parties, it is probable that matters will go on smoothly between them. But how long will this be the case? and what must happen when the crisis comes? when self-actors will fill our manufactories, and when not one-third of the hands, now required in them, will be needful? That we are rapidly progressing to this, every page of Dr. Ure's book gives the most striking evidence. His opinion, though not broadly expressed, and though guarded and modified by contingent expectancies, nevertheless points to this; and if we contemplated such a consummation merely as mechanicians and tradesmen, we should hail its approach as a magnificent triumph of science. But there is another matter besides science to be taken into consideration, and this is the labourer. It is idle to talk of the extension of manufactures, and point to this source as a refuge, because every new mill that is built, is built on

the most modern plan; the chief improvement in which is increased adaptation of machinery: and this machinery has as yet only reached a low point of its certain growth.

ment.

Pressed upon, as we are on all sides, by supernumerary labourers, the progress of mechanism becomes a subject of fertile speculation. We have made Dr. Ure our only work of reference-and this, because his authority is indubitable, and because his book is certain of becoming a standard one, and it deserves to be so. All its details are clear, its scientific deductions philosophical, its tone excellent, and the amount of information which it embodies, is creditable-not only for its extent, but for its accuracy and its methodical arrangeIt is the best and most complete work which has issued from the press on our Factory System-the first book, treating on the general principles of Manufactures; the second, on the Scientific Economy of the Factory System; the third, on the Moral Economy of the Factory System; and the fourth, on the Commercial Economy of the Factory System. It has our very hearty commendations with the drawback we have mentioned, and we dismiss it with the certainty of its becoming favourably known to the reading public. Our own opinions on the extension of Mechanism are worth Dr. Ure's examination he is in possession of materials for satisfying himself that they are neither visionary nor crude.

THE MEDICAL STUDENT IN LONDON.

WALKING THE HOSPITALS-OPERATION HUNTINGMORALITY OF STUDENTS.

IT was in the year 182— that I commenced what is popularly denominated "walking the hospitals:" a finer satire than this phrase conveys can hardly be conceived. Great stress is laid by people in general upon this portion of the student's education. I am sorry to undeceive them: it is little more than a farce, and I will challenge any man to prove that he has derived much real and substantial information from it. My own attendance at the Hospital was punctual for a while, in order that my person might be known to the parties who would have to sign my certificate; had this not been needful, I should have stayed away altogether. Though I was exceedingly anxious to take down a few cases, with their treatment, diagnosis and prognosis, my note-book shows a beggarly account of bare names and mere sketches; nor can this be wondered at, when it is known what was the system pursued. It was as follows: Dr. C—————, for instance, made his appearance about eleven o'clock; after spending some time in the board-room, he proceeded through the

wards, followed by a crowd of twenty or thirty young fellows, all elbowing and pressing to plant themselves round a narrow bed, and thrust their faces forwards so as to get a sight of the patient. In this strife the brief period devoted to each case was consumed. Scarcely a word was spoken-the house apothecary received what directions were thought necessary to be given; no clinical instruction was afforded, and half an hour sufficed to get through a dozen or two patients. The Doctor retired, the pupils dispersed, and the "hospital had been walked" for one day.

"Walking the hospitals" through the surgical wards was much of a piece with what I have described as constituting the peripatetic philosophy of the physician's district, but still more crowded and more roughly conducted, as a great number of pupils contented themselves with seeking their medical certificate by attending the practice of some public dispensary. Nine months were required there, and six months at the hospitals, but the expense was considerably less. No such evasion could be practised with surgery, and this accounted for the difference, both in number and respectability, existing between the great body of medical and surgical pupils at most of the hospitals. I have frequently seen fifty, sixty, or seventy young men forming the "tail" of a celebrated surgeon, and dogging his steps through the wards, almost suffocating both him and his patient by pressing round and most grievously annoying those to whom repose and quietude were essential.

There always appeared to me something cruel and degrading in thus making the unfortunate creatures spectacles and objects of exhibition, more especially the females, who were treated as if modesty and feminine feelings were extinct amongst them. That this was not so, was sufficiently indicated by the agitation and uneasiness visible in the countenances of the sufferers, when they found themselves surrounded by so many persons of an opposite sex, by whom they were treated as if they had been insensate beings.

The greatest absurdity, however, which characterized the London Hospitals and London students, was the anxiety to witness surgical operations. No sooner was it known that a great operation was to be performed at any of the hospitals, than the whole posse of students from all parts literally swarmed to the appointed theatre. Orders were repeatedly given to the door-keepers, to exclude all but the gentlemen attached to the hospital. A regiment of soldiers would have been required to have executed this command. The doors were stormed; the keepers trampled under foot; and several times it happened that they suffered very severely from bruises and kicks. The confusion arising from the cause was extreme, and another evil consequence was, that as the operating theatres in most of the hospitals were far too small to accommodate comfortably one half of those who were squeezed into them, there was nothing but complaints and efforts to escape from those who were nearly smothered by the press; whilst the place became hot as a furnace, to the serious detriment of patient, surgeons, and pupils. On one occasion, just as the patient was being removed, the whole paraphernalia of forms and railing gave way, and precipitated the pupils head over heels on

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