Mr. J. Stapleton, Member for Berwick-on-Tweed, has delivered a lecture
to his constituents on the price of labour. His points were, that the prosperity of the labourer benefits every class of society, the higher class more especially, as diminishing the income-tax and increasing the value of land, and that he saw one great danger looming in the future. China might one day buret the bonds of ages, and with her vast population compete with Europe in the supply of all manufactures, and beat her, from the low price of her labour. The coal is there, the iron is there, the labour is there, and a stroke of the pen may some day set them all free to revolutionise the markets of the world. That sounds quite formidable, but we may just remind our readers that in India there is coal, there is iron, there is labour, and there is freedom, but there is no particular competition with Birming- ham except for fine sword blades. The Chinaman is no doubt a better workman than the Indian, but then he knows it, is greedy to excess of money, and has notions about the organisation of labour which would make Broadhead turn pale. Chinese miners would not be at work a week before they had formed a Hoey or secret trade society, the rules of which would be enforced by death, and would materially limit competition. If low-priced labour were all, Ireland ought already to beat the world in all manufactures requiring little coal, and Ireland does not do it.
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