It is difficult for the Mind to embrace all the Advantages which must flow from the Successful Progression of this great National Object; for if we contemplate the progress of the Cotton Manufactory we shall see that at the commencement of the Eighteenth Century the quantities of raw cotton imported into England did not exceed Two Millions of Pounds weight.  At this period it amounts to more than Twenty Millions; and altho’ its price has considerably advanced, yet Manufactured Cotton Goods have fallen full Two Hundred per cent.  This prodigious diminution in price is attributable to no other cause than the introduction of Machinery, by which the expense of Manual Labour is comparatively reduced to nothing.

Now, repeated experiments have demonstrated that the same Machinery is equally applicable to every Branch of the Woollen Manufactory, and in truth it would long since have been adopted, but for the popular Clamour that thousands of Labourers would be thrown out of employment.  “It cannot be denied,” say its Opponents, “that Machinery would reduce the price of Woollen, as it has done that of Cotton Cloths, but the two Cases bear no Analogy, for when Machinery was applied in the Manufacture of Cotton the increased Quantity of the raw material furnished abundance of Employment in some other branch to those whose Labour the Machine superseded.  Make but the same experiment in the Woollen Manufactory, and its fatal effects upon the poor will soon be felt; for as you cannot increase the quantity of Animal Wool now being brought into the Market, any Invention that has a tendency to diminish Manual Labour is, and must be, pernicious.”

This reasoning has had great weight on the Minds of best informed Men; but if we can by our united Efforts (as assuredly we can) raise in this Colony any Quantity of fine Wool, all its force would be at once demolished.  Whatever the demands of Great Britain may be for that Commodity, we certainly may supply it.  The universal use of Machinery might then be safely sanctioned, and the British Manufacturers would be enabled so to reduce the price of Woollen Cloths, as would assure throughout the world the most Monopoly that any people ever possessed.  We also should largely participate in the profits of this gainful Trade and should enjoy the pleasing Consolation that our Labours were contributing to the Support and Prosperity of that parent Country to whom our debt of Gratitude can never be paid.

JOHN MACARTHUR.

EMANCIPIST CONTROVERSY

+Source.+—­Historical Records of Australia.  Vol.  VII, pp. 245, 580-617

A storm of protest was aroused among the free settlers by the action of Governor Macquarie in recognizing convicts as ordinary members of society directly their terms of imprisonment had expired.  The free community became sharply divided into emancipists and anti-emancipists.

GOVERNOR MACQUARIE TO VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH