they impose on
the wages of labor; setting forth, that a great variety of orders has
from time to time been issued by magistrates under the authority of
these laws, interfering in an oppressive manner with the minutest
details of the manufacture,--such as limiting the number of threads to
an inch, restricting the widths of many sorts of work, and determining
the quantity of labor not to be exceeded without extra wages; that by
the operation of these laws, the rate of wages, instead of being left to
the recognized principles of regulation, has been arbitrarily fixed by
persons whose ignorance renders them incompetent to a just decision;
that masters are compelled by law to pay an equal price for all work,
whether well or ill performed; and that they are wholly prevented from
using improved machinery, it being ordered, that work, in the weaving of
which machinery is employed, shall be paid precisely at the same rate as
if done by hand; that these acts have frequently given rise to the most
vexatious regulations, the unintentional breach of which has subjected
manufacturers to ruinous penalties; and that the introduction of all
machinery being prevented, by which labor might be cheapened, and the
manufacturers being compelled to pay at a fixed price, under all
circumstances, they are unable to afford employment to their workmen, in
times of stagnation of trade, and are compelled to stop their looms. And
finally, they complain that, notwithstanding these grievances under
which they labor, while carrying on their manufacture in London, the law
still prohibits them, while they continue to reside there, from
employing any portion of their capital in the same business in any other
part of the kingdom, where it might be more beneficially conducted.
Now, Sir, absurd as these laws must appear to be to every man, the
attempt to repeal them did not, as far as I recollect, altogether
succeed. The weavers were too numerous, their interests too great, or
their prejudices too strong; and this notable instance of protection and
monopoly still exists, to be lamented in England with as much sincerity
as it seems to be admired here.

In order further to show the prevailing sentiment of the English
government, I would refer to a report of a select committee of the House
of Commons, at the head of which was the Vice-President of the Board of
Trade (Mr. Wallace), in July, 1820. "The time," say that committee,
"when monopolies could be success