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ployed on it, were not known in society, as a body, before the invention of the printing-press. The party opposed to machinery, must wage war against the principle of it, and not against the mere materials of wood and iron, and it would be well that they at once settled the question by breaking their own heads on the printing-press.

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Machinery does not impair the fund out of which industry is supported, neither does it lessen the amount of industry, but only alters the distribution of it, and makes it more productive than before." +

The party, who ruffle the drums of political strife, strike up, that this country is suffering under the effects of over-production, and yet they will find,

For the history of this most valuable of all arts, I must refer to "A Dictionary of Printers and Printing, with the Progress of Literature, Ancient and Modern, by C. H. Timperley." This is a work of the research and labour of many years. The author of it, in a note to his preface, informs his readers, that after having served his country, and obtained his discharge from the 33d Regiment, for wounds received at the Battle of Waterloo, he applied himself to the profession of a letter-press printer; and, with the enthusiasm of a man eager for knowledge, compiled a work which contains nearly a thousand closely-printed pages, full of interesting historical and biographical knowledge, relative to the art of Printing, and subjects connected with it.

† Dr. Chalmers' "Political Economy: On Machinery."

that stocking-weavers cannot afford to wear stockings! But no beat of drum will drown the fearful fact, that this unhappy class of labourers, and all others earning about ten shillings a week, pay in direct and indirect taxation on their food, fifty per cent of their hard-won wages! This is a fact demonstrated in this work. Another fact is established by the Gazette, that on the fifteenth of this present month, the duty on foreign wheat imported into this country, was twenty shillings a quarter, equal to forty-six and a half per cent on the market-price of that necessary of life! The duty on wheat and other farinaceous grain varies in its rate, but the fact has been demonstrated, that the taxes on corn have the effect of increasing the rents of land from 20 to 25 per cent: and another fact has been proved that a Duke, with an income from land to the amount of one hundred thousand pounds, receives in that sum a bonus, about four times the amount of all the taxes, direct and indirect, which he contributes to the support of the government and institutions of the country!

These few facts and figures give the key to the secret of the whole system of British fiscal arrange

ments, and to the apparently complicated system of British politics.

Our whole system is founded on principles impolitic, unmanly, and unsoldierly. The impolicy consists in resting the revenue of a great empire on such a variable and uncertain source as consumption; it is unmanly, by laying on the poor and weak what ought to be borne by the wealthy and strong; it is unsoldierly, as it breaks the law, and disregards the etiquette of extreme danger. Nelson on the wreck, or Wellington in the siege, would have divided the weevil'd biscuit with the cook's mate, or the ration of brown bread and horseflesh with the common soldier. And why should it be different in aristocratic legislation! Is a people to perish, on the discussion of the duty on a bushel of wheat? or to pass through the flames of revolution, to obtain fair play and common justice?

5, UPPER HARLEY STREET,

22nd April, 1843.

The Author of these pages cannot resist the opportunity of alluding to the melancholy event of the other day, the loss of the "Solway "steam-ship, and of recording the noble conduct of Captain Duncan, who in his death has done a heroic service to his country, by an example to all British seamen and soldiers to stand and sink with their vessels, or perish on their posts when duty demands the sacrifice.

Here was a man of the peaceful profession of the commercial seaman, and free from the excitement of battle and its emulations, calmly standing on the deck of his sinking vessel with the water up to his middle, and with active exertions and under the anxiety and responsibility of a brave man hurrying women and children into the boats: and as the water rose upon him, deliberately getting up on a higher stand, and giving his last commands to his sailors to save themselves in the rigging. Perhaps in the annals of danger there is scarcely to be found a picture of more calmness, humanity, and gallantry than exhibited by Captain Duncan, as described by the surviving officers and passengers of his vessel.

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