X. Persons engaged in Art and Mechanic Productions, in INTRODUCTION. THE WORK AND THE WORKERS. Productive Power of the United Kingdom-Local Distribution of Occupations-The Wonders of Production-Acquisition of Wealth the Great Motive Power-The Workers and Idlers of Society-Pleasure of Labour-Conditions for efficient and successful Labour-Who are the Working Classes ?-Producers and Non-Producers-Technical Application of the Terms Higher, Middle, and Lower Classes. Power of THE Australian colonies are preparing for the Paris Productive Universal Exhibition a pillar of gold which shall re- the United present the exact quantity of the precious metal which Kingdom. they have extracted from their first discovery of the glittering ore to the present time-a brilliant testimony to the energy and avidity with which goldsearching has been pursued in that young and thriving colony. But why limit this method of illustration to the production of gold? Britain is a great beehive of human labour. Taking space and population into account, I wonder if there be any other country in the world possessing so large a proportion of labourers, where harder work is gone through all the year round, and where the reward of labour is more liberal than in the United Kingdom. Let us try to represent (1) There are no means of calculating the value of production in this or in any other country. But the amount of exports gives the value of the produce and manufacture of the country in excess of what is required for the wants of the nation; and I find that, in 1864, whilst the Local Distribution of Occupations. the sum total of what is produced by the inhabitants. of these British Isles even in one year. What a breadth and what a height would such a monument attain! Truly, there is something wonderful in the variety and extent of human labour as displayed in these Great Exhibitions. But, how imperfectly do we see, even there, represented the fruit of the toil, genius, and skill of the sons and daughters of industry. With the census of 1851 was given a beautiful map of Great Britain, showing the distribution of the occupations of the people in different parts of the country, represented by means of colour-shading and symbols. A pale green tint covered the parts where the agricultural and pastoral occupations are followed, and the parts shaded denoted the chief manufacturing districts. The various manufactures were marked by coloured symbols—such as, woollen, red; silk, yellow; flax and hemp, green; cotton, blue; pottery, orange; coal, black; the metals, grey; with a hat for hatters, a ship for shipping, a fish for fishing, a wooden horse for toys, an envelope for paper, and a key for locks; and it was interesting to see the geographical arrangement of these manifold occupations. Certain places seem to be the receptacles for everything. The great metropolis is itself a world of labour. Many of the leading occupations are represented here. Some of them are Lancashire. exclusively metropolitan. Lancashire is beyond doubt the seat of the cotton manufacture; look at Manchester, Oldham, Blackburn, and other manufacturing towns, apparently glorying in their smoking chimneys, taller London. United Kingdom exported at the rate of £5 6s. per head of the population, France exported at the rate of £4 3s., the United States at the rate of £1 11s., Italy £1 5s., and Russia 8s. In proportion to area, the United Kingdom exported at the rate of £1,322 per square mile, France at the rate of £754, Italy £286, the United States £17, and Russia in Europe £12. There is nothing romantic than Egyptian obelisks. or picturesque in Manchester. ham and think that the very land now so overladen with factories was, not a century ago, open and free, with forests and morasses, without roads, and almost uninhabited. Bir- Birmingmingham and Sheffield are celebrated all the world Sheffield. over for their hardware and cutlery, a class of articles some hundreds in number, each forming a separate trade of no light importance. Guns and swords, buttons and buckles, pins and needles, gold and steel pens, fancy seals, brooches, clasps, gold and silver plate, vases, and candelabra; these are among the produce of Birmingham, justly styled the toy shop of Europe. Knives and forks, razors and scissors, files and saws, Britannia metal, crinoline, spectacles, surgical instruments, stoves, scythes, and agricultural implements-these are some fruits of Sheffield industry. In the cotton manufacture, machinery has almost superseded human industry. In hardware and cutlery the great worker is the hand. If in Manchester there seems to be an unbounded facility of production, in Birmingham and Sheffield the wonder is, how difficult it becomes to produce anything-how many processes each article has to undergo before it is made ready for the market. And, whilst in the cotton manufacture the main portion of labour is performed by women and children, in the metal manufacture the workers are principally men in the prime of life, daily performing wonders of strength. In the one, the work is carried on in large factories, with 500 or 1000 hands each; in the other, the domestic industry is largely prevalent, and the factories are generally on a smaller scale. Newcastle and Sunderland, with their large The Mining grey dotting, are conspicuous for the existence of coal in the interior. But if you look at a geological map, you will see that the mineral wealth of the country Districts. Variety of cultural extends from Cornwall to Wales, thence to Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire. Further north, it fills Lancashire and Yorkshire; it abounds in Durham, Northumberland, and Cumberland, whilst in Scotland, all the central lowland tracts, in the basins and near the Firths of the Forth and the Clyde, are embedded with coal and iron. In England, coal, copper, lead, iron, and tin are all largely represented; in Scotland, coal and iron only. In some counties of Ireland coal is to some extent extracted, but the production is very small. The most important source of British prosperity, the parent and prop of all manufacturing industry, is thus wanting in the sister isle. Liverpool is the home of the mariner and the dock labourer; Glasgow is London in miniature; Aberdeen figures with a ship and a fish; and, if Ireland were included, we should see Belfast rich in her linen manufacture, and Dublin with a cluster of occupations. Generally, agriculture and mining seem to be everywhere; in fact, there is scarcely a spot in the United Kingdom but is cultivated and worked both above and under ground. But look at the workers themselves. If we could see, through a panorama, the different scenes of human industry, how impressed should we be with the wonderful adaptation of means to ends which obtains in every department of nature. Let us give but a glance The Agri- at the successive images depicted before our eyes. What a host do we see intent upon the cultivation of grain, fruits, and grasses, and how hard do they labour in ploughing, sowing, reaping, attending to, and gathering the precious fruits of the earth. True, vegetation covers the earth in every clime, but this spontaneous growth would afford but a limited supply of food, were it not for the labour of the husbandman. Though commerce Labourer. |