As iron is with us almost as plentiful as stone, we do not think much about it. But there is a great deal to be done, much thinking and inventing, before so simple a thing as a sixpenny knife could be procured; and, without the thinking and the inventing, all the strength of all the men that ever lived, never could procure it; and without the machinery to lighten the labour, no ingenuity could furnish it at a thousand times the expence.

And why, then, can an ordinary workman procure it for the price of a few hours' labour? The causes are easily seen. Every part of the labour that can be done by machinery, is so done. One turn of a wheel, one stroke of a steam-engine, one pinch of a pair of rollers, or one blow of a die, will do more in a second than a man could do in a month. Another advantage in the manufacture is, that the labour is divided. Each man has but one thing to do; and, in course of time, he comes to do twenty times as much as if he were constantly shifting from one thing to another. The value of the work that a man does, is not to be measured in all cases by the time and trouble that it costs him, but by the market value of what he produces-which value is determined, as far as labour is concerned, by the price paid for doing it in the best and most expeditious mode. He that fells a sapling by one stroke of his axe, does just as much work as he that should take a week to rip it asunder with his nails, or gnaw it with his teeth, according to Joseph Foster's expression,

And does not all this machinery, you still say, deprive many workmen of employment? No. By these means the iron trade gives bread to hundreds, where otherwise it would not have given bread to one. There are more hands employed at the iron-works than there would have been if there had been no machinery; because without machinery men could not produce iron cheap enough to be generally used.

Then the number of founders and smiths! The pans and kettles, the pipes, the grates, the thousands of

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iron things that we see, all employ somebody; and every body is benefited by the use of them. We make bridges of iron, roads of iron, waggons of iron, boats of iron, steam-engines of iron-and in fact, so many things of iron, that if we were deprived of it, our country would not be worth inhabiting. As many iron pipes have been laid down for supplying water and light to the inhabitants of London alone, within the last twenty years, as, without machinery, would have kept all the world busy for a century,-or rather, could not have been procured at all.

Then there are the tools of every trade. All the working parts of them are made of iron, and very many of them are made of iron altogether. How would the hedger proceed without his bill, or the ditcher without his mattock? The first could not do with wood at all, and the last would make but sorry work. Then come the spade, the hoe, the scythe, and the sickle. How could they be had without iron?-or what would be the condition of the labourer, if iron and iron tools were sold at the price of making them without machinery? His tools now cost him only a few days of his own labour -in many cases they are supplied to him. If they were made by hand, they would cost him the labour of many weeks to purchase them, if they could be purchased at all. His tools are, however, a first neces sary of life to the labourer; he cannot earn his bread without them. If he bought the tools at the dear rate, he would probably spend half his earnings in buying them, and then he must be paid double.

But instead of there being any thing to pay double wages to the labourer, every body would be in the same necessity as himself; and the necessity would be, that he and they would pay double for all that was bought, or work for half price. The axe, the saw, the plane, the gimlet, and the nails would consume all the earnings of the carpenter; the needles, the shears, and the goose, would be a burden to the tailor; the farmer would be obliged to pay, in the additional price

of iron, what he now pays to his labourers; and labour itself would be at an end.

The machinery that is now employed in the irontrade, not only enables the people to be supplied cheaply with all sorts of articles of iron, but it enables a great number of people to find employment, not in the iron-trade only, but in all other trades, who otherwise could not have been employed; and it enables every body to do more work with the same exertion, by giving them better tools; while it makes all more comfortable, by furnishing them with more commodious domestic utensils.

There are thousands of families on the face of the earth that would be glad to exchange all they have for a tin-kettle, or an iron-pot, which can be bought here for eighteen-pence. An English gypsey carries about with him more of the conveniences of life than are enjoyed by the chiefs or rulers in countries which naturally have much finer climates than that of England. But they have no machinery, and therefore they are wretched.

One or two facts will shew still more forcibly the value of machinery in the iron-works. In 1788, the whole iron made in the year did not amount to se venty thousand tons: and seventy thousand tons more were imported in bars from Sweden and Russia, which must have been paid for out of the labour of the people in England. At present the quantity annually made in Britain is not less than six hundred thousand tons. The quantity made yearly has increased nearly ninefold in the space of less than half a century.

Nearly all the people now engaged in iron-works are supported by the improvements that have been made in it by machinery since 1788. Yes, wholly by the machinery; for before then, the quantity made by the charcoal of wood had fallen off one-fourth in fortyfive years. The wood for charcoal was becoming exhausted, and nothing but the powerful blast of a machine will make iron with coke. Without the aid of

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machinery, the trade would have become extinct. The iron and coal employed in making it would have re mained useless in the mines. abi30 i

IN

SIR, In your last Number, some allusion was made to the "Temperance Society," and, as many of your readers may not be acquainted with the designs of that society, nor even with its existence, I beg to inform them, that it has been recently established, for the purpose of ar resting that fatal propensity to drunkenness which now prevails; and to promote the laudable virtue of temperance. I have now before me one of the papers published by that society, and I find, that, in the course of last year, no less a quantity than thirty millions of gallons of spirituous liquors were drank in England. This, at the rate of ten shillings per gallon, which I understand to be the price, amounted to the enormous sum of fifteen millions of pounds. Now, much distress is said to prevail among the labouring classes; and, in' part, the complaint is true. But how many comforts," and what a vast supply of relief, would 15,000,000%! afford, if it were distributed among the really neces sitous in food and clothing? What incalculable benefit, then, would be conferred upon that class of per sons, if they would be persuaded, instead of spending their money in drinking, to carry it home to their hungry wives and families. Poverty and distress would be no more complained of; and comfort and happiness would be the certain result. And these are the objects which the Temperance Society has in view; and hopes, some day, to accomplish. It consists already of nearly forty thousand persons, who have willingly

engaged to abstain from the drinking of ardent spirits, and to pass a life of general sobriety. Great good has resulted in Ireland, Scotland, and America, where societies of this nature have been established, the consumption of spirits having been considerably reduced. And why should not the same results follow in England? Why should we persevere in this ruinous habit of drinking, any more than they?

Persuaded that my countrymen are a reasonable people, I merely request them to reflect upon the subject; and to consider, whether they would not like to become members of this wise and excellent institution; assuring them, at the same time, that a life of temperance and sobriety is by far the happiest.

If this letter be favourably received you shall hear from me again.

Being, Sir, your sincere well wisher,

P. A. We beg to assure P. A. that his letter is "favourably received," and we think it must be plain enough to every reflecting person, that if fifteen millions of pounds are spent in drinking of spirits, here is quite sufficient to account for the poverty which plagues our land, and for the wickedness which threatens it with destruction. What an enormous tax are drunkards laying upon themselves! A drunkard taxes himself more in one week than he pays to the government in a twelvemonth.-ED.

EPITAPHS.

To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor.
SIR,

LATELY passing through Camerton church-yard, a village in the neighbourhood of Bath, I observed two epitaphs, which I thought you might like to have for