§ II.-ENGLISH SCENES, AND ESSAYS ON SUBJECTS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE.

ON THE ADVANTAGES OF MACHINERY.

THE following little incident may serve to illustrate the real use of machinery in agriculture and manufactures; and may, perhaps, also aid in removing some of the prejudices which still maintain their ground on this important subject.

As I was lately walking with a friend through this parish, we met an old woman tottering under the weight of two buckets, which she was labouring to carry up a steep hill. After some few general inquiries on both sides, between the clergyman and his parishioner, the good dame remarked, that "she should do pretty well with her family, but it was one person's work to fetch water;" adding wistfully, “if we had but a pump handy, instead of being obliged to go to the well half a mile off, we should have no cause to complain." And no one will doubt she was in the right; a pump would have saved a world of trouble, both to her and her children. But let us ask, what would a pump have done for them? Why, it would have set at liberty a certain quantity of labour, which was now employed unprofitably, and then the family earnings of the week would be increased. But a pump is a machine; and this is in truth the effect which the introduction of machinery into agriculture and manufactures does actually produce: the aggregate earnings of that great family, the nation at large, are thereby increased. "True," it will be replied; " but this poor woman's family, if they were relieved from drawing water, could find immediate occupation; whereas those hands which are thrown out of work by any newly-invented or improved machine, must remain idle." Not so; we allow that the immediate

effect is to put them out of work; but we deny the necessity for them to remain idle. On the contrary, it is a most indisputable result from our experience, that the ultimate consequence of machinery is to increase the demand for manual labour. New channels of industry are constantly opened; and he who has left off carrying water, will soon, if he look about him, find something else to carry. It cannot however be denied, that this transfer of labour is a difficult, and to the individual a painful, process, especially in those cases where much depends on acquired skill and experience. This is undoubtedly a real evil; but we may observe, that while the good produced is general and permanent, the evil with which it is alloyed is partial and transitory. Here lies the distinction. Nor is this provision at all at variance with the ordinary dispensations of God's providence. Our duty clearly is, in this and all similar cases, to accept the good with thankfulness, and at the same time to do all we can to mitigate and remove the evil which accompanies it. Much may be done on both sides;-by the rich, in taking care that no means of relief are suffered to pass by unimproved;-by the poor, in applying to these occurrences the same sort of forbearance which they are so often called upon to exercise in other matters. This, like all such distresses, will only be aggravated by violence and impatience; and those who seek to redress themselves by destroying the obnoxious machines which they believe to have caused the mischief, will at last be no better off than Pharaoh's lean kine, which swallowed their thriving brethren, without any improvement of their own condition or appearance.

BENEVOLUS.

THE STEAM-ENGINE.

OUR readers are well acquainted with the extraordinary qualities of gunpowder when employed as a mechanical power. The whole art of war was suddenly changed so soon as it was discovered that a

mixture of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal, when touched by a single spark of fire, would drive to an immense distance any hard substance rammed into a tube of iron. By this contrivance cannon and muskets became the principal instruments of war: the work of death being remarkably changed by substituting these for the ancient weapons of assault. It is probable that the poor monk,* who is said to have been the inventor, little dreamt of the fatal use which military men would make of his discovery. Those of more peaceful disposition hoped that it would lead to very important advantages in other arts, and it was naturally expected that such a force might be successfully applied, instead of human strength, to perform many great and difficult works. Thus mines and quarries, which before the invention of gunpowder were excavated with much labour, came to be worked with far greater ease and rapidity by the process of blasting. The great defect of gunpowder, when employed as a mechanical force, arises from its being only instantaneous. The power ceases the moment after it is produced. Water supplies a force of great value in driving machinery, but this power has the objection of uncertainty. It is only in peculiar situations that water-works can be erected, and a frost or a drought may suddenly put a stop to the movements. Machines agitated by wind are liable to similar objections, and are subject to others peculiar to themselves.

The Steam-engine has supplied exactly what was wanting in them all. It furnishes a force more powerful even than gunpowder; it possesses the great additional quality of being perfectly manageable, and may therefore be applied with safety and dispatch to the minutest as well as the greatest undertakings. It has the further advantage of being applicable to all situations; it is subject to no change of weather, and the whole machinery may be placed in the compass of a closet. The variety and extent of its powers are wonderful. "The trunk of an elephant, which can pick up a pin, or rend an oak, is nothing

* Swartz of Cologne, 1340.

to it. It can engrave a seal, or crush masses of metal like wax before it-draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble into the air; it can embroider muslin, and forge anchors-cut steel into ribbands, and impel loaded vessels against winds and waves."

Like most other great inventions, the discovery was not completed at once. So early as the middle of the seventeenth century, the Marquis of Worcester made known the principle upon which steam might be applied to mechanical purposes. In his Century of Inventions he calls it "a forcible method of driving water by fire." Most of our readers probably know that water is not elastic.* It cannot be pressed into a less space than it naturally fills; but when fire is applied it is thrown off in the form of steam, and becomes then so elastic, that it will act against any thing opposed to it with astonishing force: a simple proof of this may be seen when a tea-kettle boils over; that part of the water changed into steam expands and presses the water out of the spout, or if this be stopped, it will drive off the lid with violence. In 1696 Captain Savary employed this principle to force the water from mines, and in 1705 it was greatly improved by Mr. Newcomen; but it was reserved for the late Mr. Watt to carry it to the high degree of perfection which it now possesses. This gentleman was a working mathematical instrument maker at Glasgow. It happened that among the models of machines belonging to the Natural Philosophy Class in that University, there was a model of Mr. Newcomen's Steam-engine, which Watt undertook to repair. A careful inspection of the principle of its construction, induced him to give his whole attention to improve it, and availing himself of a valuable discovery relative to latent heat made about that time by Dr. Black, he at length produced the machine now universally known and distinguished by his name.

The Steam-engine, thus improved, has effected a

*The later experiments of Mr. Perkins appear to have proved the compressibility of water.

mighty revolution in the mechanical arts. The invention of the Marquis of Worcester, which was rather curious than useful, became in the hands of Mr. Watt a machine of the highest value to mankind. The almost boundless extent of its advantages cannot yet be estimated, for every day adds something to its utility and importance. How greatly it has facilitated the labours of the miner, and enlarged the sphere of our commerce and manufactures, will appear on inspecting any extensive works in which the mechanical power of steam is now applied. Those who have leisure and inclination for such inquiries, may readily see the labour of many hundred hands performed by a self-acting machine, whose operations appear like magic. The block machinery in the dock-yard at Portsmouth, seems, to an inexperienced eye, to be animated with intelligence, so wonderful is the precision and velocity of its movements-the revolution of a wheel now executes that painful drudgery from which the workman is happily released, to turn his attention to such duties as require the hand of an intelligent agent. The immense saving of time and labour enables the manufacturer to produce innumerable articles of utility and convenience, at a price which places them within the reach of millions who never could have enjoyed them but for this beautiful invention. While it thus ministers to the comfort of all classes of our fellow-countrymen, and greatly improves their condition at home, it opens to them inexhaustible resources of mercantile profit abroad, by extending these blessings to nations the most remote, thus diffusing wealth and comfort among them, and imparting life and energy to the commerce of the whole world.

The application of this invention to navigation has opened to us a scene truly astonishing. The steam vessel now triumphs over impediments hitherto deemed insuperable, pursuing her rapid course without regard to wind or tide. Though we can scarce calculate the rapid progress of improvement, it requires little effort of the imagination to anticipate a period when