“With my best thanks, I have the honour to return the Notts.
letter to your lordship. I have read it with attention, but do not think I shall venture
to avail myself of its contents, as my view of the question differs in some measure from
Mr. Coldham’s. I hope I do not wrong
him, but his objections to the bill appear to me to be founded on certain apprehensions
that he and his coadjutors might be mistaken for the ‘original
advisers’ (to quote him) of the measure. For my own part, I consider the
manufacturers as a much injured body of men, sacrificed to the views of certain
individuals who have enriched themselves by those practices which have deprived the
frame-workers of employment. For instance;—by the adoption of a certain kind of frame,
one man performs the work of seven—six are thus thrown out of business. But it is to be
observed that the work thus done is far inferior in quality, hardly marketable at home,
and hurried over with a view to exportation. Surely, my lord, however we may rejoice in
any improvement in the arts which may be beneficial to mankind, we must not allow
mankind to be sacrificed to improvements in mechanism. The maintenance and well-doing of
the industrious poor is an object of greater consequence to the community than the
enrichment of a few monopolists by any im-
| A. D. 1812. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 337 |
“P.S. I am a little apprehensive that your lordship will think me too lenient towards these men, and half a framebreaker myself.”
