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134 METUODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
of a partner, or to be in any way exempted from the lams
relating to masters and workmen.
(23.) The scheme is to be considered a continuation of that
of November, 1866.
(2-4.) Employ& will be considerecl as assenting to the
scheme by merely accepting or continuiug in employment.
This schemu came into operation on the Zth of February
last, and is to continue in operation for five years.
VLI.
It does not seem to Le so generally known as it ought
to bo that, as far as can be ascertained, tho real author of the
systum I am advocating is Mr. Charles Babbage. Pr’enrly forty
years ago his admirnble work on ‘( The Economy of Manufactures
” wan published, and it is truly difficult to overrate the
genius nthich it diuplnys. I never look into that work without
discovcring that it contains the germ of some truth that has
since been rccognised, or of some truth that is likely to le
rccognit;ed. No one can read Chapter XXVI. without seeing
how entirely he anticipated tha advantages which have accrued
from this proposal. The chapter is entitled, ‘‘ On a New
System of Manufacturing,” and I shall ask your permission
to rend considerable extracts from it.
‘*A tuost erroneous and unfortunate opinion,” hc commences, “prcvails
among workmeu in many manufacturing countries, that their own
interests and that of their employcrs are at variance. The consequences
nro, that nluable machinery is sometimes neglected and even privately
injured-that new improvements, introduced by the masters, do not
recoive e fair trial-and that the talents and observations of the workmen
am not directed to the improvement of the processes in which they
ere employed. . . .
“ Convinced as I am, from my own observation, that the prosperity
and mccess of the master-manufacturer is essential to thewelfare of tho
workman, I am yet compelled to admit that this connection is, in many
cases, too remote to be always nnderatood by the latter ; and whilst it is
perfectly trne that workmen, a8 a clam, derive adrantage from the prosperity
of their employers, I do not think that ench individual partakes
of that advantage exactly in proportion to tho extent to which he contribute6
towards it ; nor do I perceive that the resulting advantage is as
immediate BS it might become under a different system.