256

COMBINATIONS AMONGST

their work should be measured by some unbiassed,some unerring piece of mechanism ;—the time dur-ing which they are employed should be definite, andpunctually adhered to. The payments they maketo their benefit societies should be fixed on suchjust principles, as not to require extraordinary con-tributions. In short, the object of all who wish topromote their happiness should be, to give them, inthe simplest form, the means of knowing beforehand,the sum they are likely to acquire by their labour, andthe money they will be obliged to expend for theirsupport: thus putting before them, in the clearestlight, the certain result of persevering industry.

(290.) The cruelty which is inflicted on the work-man by the payment of his wages in goods, is oftenvery severe. The little purchases necessary for thecomfort of his wife and children, perhaps the me-dicines he occasionally requires for them in illness,must all be made through the medium of barter, andhe is obliged to waste his time in arranging an ex-change, in which the goods which he has been com-pelled to accept for his labour are invariably takenat a lower price, than that at which his master chargedthem to him. The father of the family perhaps, writhingunder the agonies of the toothache, is obliged tomake his hasty bargain with the village surgeon, erehe will remove the cause of his pain ; or the discon-solate mother is compelled to sacrifice her depreciatedgoods in exchange for the last receptacle of her de-parted offspring. The subjoined evidence from theReport of the Committee of the House of Com­ mons on Framework-Knitters’ Petitions, shows thatthese are not exaggerated statements.