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given me an idea, or rather has informed me of a fact which may be of great confequence in cosmology. The fun cannot have a rotatory motion, without having, at the fame time, a motion of progreffion; for there is no phyfical caufe capable of producing the one without the other. Thus the fun, accompanied by the earth, and all the planets, and all the comets that turn round him, advances in the immenfity of celeftial space, without our being able to know whither. But when we fhall observe the diftances of the ftars among themselves increase in one part of the heavens, and diminish in the other, we shall then know to what quarter we are tending. Mr Herfchel, in the Philofophical Tranfactions, has given an ample commentary on my idea; he thinks he has difcovered, that it is towards the conftellation of Hercules that we are moving; this, however, I think I have fufficient reafons for doubting. The fun turns round in a plane that differs but feven degrees from that of the ecliptic, but the constellation of Hercules differs much more.

The comets are a part of the folar fyftem which we are leaft acquainted with. From the year 1751 Mr Meffier has been employed in aftronomical obfervations; and his affiduity with the telescope has given him an opportunity of difcovering feveral comets that would otherwife have efcaped obfervation. M. Mechain is engaged in the fame purfuit; and the number of comets, whose periods are calculated, amounts now to 72.

Thefe bodies afford a perpetual fund of obfervation to aftronomers. Newton demonftrated their revolution round the fun; and that of 1682, which appeared again in 1759, confirmed his theory in the most fatisfactory manner. But the fame comet furnished us with a proof of the enormous derangements to which these stars are expofed; for its return was retarded no lefs than 18 months by the attraction of Jupiter and of Saturn. The comet of 1770 was fo much difturbed in its motion, that its orbit refembled the orbit of a planet lefs diftant from us than Jupiter, and which would revolve in 5 years. From these facts, it appears that predictions with regard to the return of comets will always be very equivocal. The late work of Mr Pingré, on this subject, contains every thing that is known of comets.

For fuch a variety of obfervations the

number of aftronomers is very fmall. But a most useful establishment has lately been formed in France for supplying the deficiency. Three aftronomers, with falaries from the King, are added to the Royal Obfervatory, whose business it is to watch alternately, that no night may pass without obfervation; and no phenomenon without obfervers; that, like Tycho-Braché, in his study at Uranienbourgh in Denmark, they may furnish the astronomers of the present and future ages with an inexhaustible fund of observations of every kind.

This useful eftablishment is not the only one for which we are indebted to the Baron de Breteuil. He formed the defign of making a voyage round the world, for the purpose of new discoveries in geography and phyfics. Two aftronomers, two phyficians, two naturalists, two painters, have been chofen for this expedition, and every inftrument they could defire has been furnished to them. I put into the hands of M. Dagelet an invariable pendulum, that M. de la Condamine carried with him to America, M. de la Caille to Africa, M. Mallet to Lapland, and M. Dagelet to the Southern continent. When this pendulum fhall have made the tour of the world, we fhall know, in every quarter of the globe, the real gravitation for indicating its flatted figure, its inequalities, and the equality or inequality of both hemifpheres.

The obfervation of the tides has been particularly recommended to the attention of the navigators. We are fufficiently acquainted with their general laws and phenomena, but the local exceptions are innumerable; for the tide does not rife above a foot in the Great Pacific Ocean, while at St Malo it rifes to the height of forty-five feet. The navigators failed the 1ft of August 1785, and a medal was ftruck on the occafion.

Other establishments have been made for the cultivation of aftronomy, and new obfervatories have been erected, at Oxford, at Malta, and at Dijon. There are many others in Europe; but there are only eight places from which the aftronomers furnith us with periodical and uninterrupted obfervations.

At Paris, M. Caffini, M. le Morier, M. Mechain, and M. Dagelet.

At Greenwich near London, M. Markelyne.

At Touloufe, M. 'Darquier.

At

March 1787. Effects of the price of labour on commercial competition. 109

At Cremfmunfter in Auftria, Father
Fiximillner, a Benedictine.
At Pifa, M. Slop.

gio.

At Milan, Meff. de Cefaris and Reg

At Tyrna in Hungary, M. Weifs.
At Copenhagen, M. Bugge.

The effect of the Price of Labour on Commer
cial Competition.

[From a Pamphlet intitled "Historical and Political Remarks on the Tariff of the Commercial Treaty."]

THERE is fcarcely any point in political economy which has been fo variously difcuffed, as the effect of the price of labour on commercial competition. It fhould be observed, that the queftion of high and low wages is not to be determined merely by the pay of the workmen, but by the proportion which fuch wages bear to the prices of all other articles, either native or foreign, and by comparing the manufactured product alfo of different countries, with a view to discover at what average price the fame goods can be equally well made in each. By fuch a mode of inquiry it will in general be found, that labour in a country of low wages is comparatively dearer, than where wages are high, and that confequently in moft cafes the rich country will be able to underfell the poor one, because its goods will more than compenfate by their quality for any excess of price. It cannot be doubted, that as "the liberal reward of nature is the neceffary effect, so is it the natural fymp. tom of increafing wealth;" for when the productive powers of labour and ingenuity are thus excited, industry muft in all its departments become more refined, as well as more dextrous and active in its exertions. In a manufactory where the different proceffes are diftributed to dif. ferent workmen, each will in his diftinct branch be more expert than if he were under the neceffity of undertaking many different branches at once in order to gain fubfiftence. Such dexterity begets competition, and this neceffarily reduces the price; "whereas in the country of low wages, it is in the power of one wealthy man, to monopolize the trade, and to fet what price he chooses on his goods." That the low price of labour will not command a market, may be fhewn by the following inftances: When the iron of Sweden arrives in England, it has paid duties of export, import, and

the expence of freight; to this must be added the cofts of carriage to and from the places of manufacture, the price of the labour there beftowed upon it, and the duty to which it is liable on its return home under this new form; yet with all this accumulated charge upon it, we are able to underfell the Swedes themselves in their own market; and every attempt on their part at competition has proved hitherto ineffectual. It is exactly the fame cafe with the Bay yarn of Ireland, which notwithstanding all the charges of importation, conveyance, and manufacture, is worked up here, and returned cheaper to the Irish market, than if it had been manufactured at home. It is not, as fome have lately afferted, the higher price of labour which has given the French an advantage over us in the Levant and Portugal trades, but rather the indifference of our manufacturers, and their unwillingness to accommodate their fabrics to the tafte of those markets, in which, by reafon of the climate, cheap clothes of a flight texture will ever be preferred to fuch as are more durable, After all, it may be doubted whether it would be worth while for our clothiers to attempt the recovery of this trade, at the risk of facrificing a better; for eve ry loom employed in the weaving of druggets, muft occupy materials and labour which might be more profitably ap plied in the working of broad cloths; added to this, that the fame competition which would be serviceable in higher branches, by rendering the goods cheap, muft here be prejudicial, becaufe the o riginal low price of the commodity would fink the neceffary reduction of profits beneath the merchant's confideration. An effort made at Penryn, in Cornwall, about 30 years ago, proved unsuccessful for want of proper encouragement, and almoft ruined the patriotic projector. Ireland indeed, by being admitted to the advantages of the Methuen-Treaty, might in time, perhaps, be enabled to fupplant France in the drugget trade. But the circumftance of being underfold is not the only ground of apprehension for the

in that part of England, as the author of Pre* I will not fuppofe fo little virtue to be pofitions for improving the manufactories, &c. of Great Britain, in 1763, would infinuate, when he fays, "this gentleman was almost ruined, because he thought it his duty to vote against the reprefentatives of the borough of Penrya, at the last general election," p. 32***

fafety

fafety of trade, with those who draw their arguments from a comparison between the value of labour in different countries. The danger of emigration has been largely infifted upon, and fears have been fuggefted, that manufactories will be transferred from a dear country, to one where the means of fubfiftence are cheap. It would be lofs of time to thew the fallacy of fuch a fuppofition, and the abfurdity of conceiving that artificers of any clafs would voluntarily exchange high wages for low, or, in other words, would quit good provisions and comfortable habitations, for meagre fare and wretched hovels. In fact, the high price even of the neceffaries of life, has feldom been injurious to the progress of induftry, nay, in fome inftances, it has been the means of calling forth new and fuccessful exertions of labour and skill, and has led to very important difcoveries in arts and manufactures. In was when the Piedmontefe were oppreffed by the taxes and exactions of the Sforzas, who for fome years perfifted in heavy affeffments of their harvests, and their mar. kets, that they firft carried their fabrics of filk to a degree of refinement and expedition, by the introduction of mechanifm into fome parts of the procefs, that no European country was able to enter into competition with them.* It is not difficult in short to conceive, that in a ftate where the balance between the prices of Jabour and of wages is left to regulate itfelf, and is never made the object of civil policy, the rate of common fubfiftence and of the conveniencies of life may be fo low as to prevent any improvement in manufactures, if not entirely to exclude them. In opulent countries fuperior kill may often countervail the effect of high wages. This is obvious in all MURATORI, Differt. 7. Tom. 3. It is through them we are indebted to this circumftance, perhaps, for LOMBE's ftupendous machine, on the river Derwent, near Derby. He procured a model of it in Piedmont, by working under the difguife of a common weaver, By s Geo. II. c. viii. sir T.LOMBE obtained 14,000l. as a reward for this fervice to the filk manufactory. The machine contains 26,586 wheels, and 97,746 movements, which work 73,726 yards of organzine filk thread every time the water-wheel goes round, which it does thrice in a minute. Its erection in this country was confidered as fuch an injury to Piedmont, that an Italian actif, it is faid, was feat over to England to affaffinate the proprietor.

thofe articles where labour and materials are the least part of the value, and may be exemplified in most of the articles in the warehouses of Manchester and Birmingham.

Extract from a paper by the Marquis de Chabert, on the use of Time-keepers in Navigation and Geography; in which the Longitude of fore places in the Antilles, and on the coast of North America, from Paris, from Fort-Royal in Marti nique, and Cape François in Domingo, are determined with greater exactness than has hitherto been done.

IT is now known, by the experience of

those who have carried out time-pieces to fea, that we can arrive at a greater degree of exactness, in determining the longitude of places, than is required by the British parliament to intitle a perfon to the rewards for this important dif covery, namely, to less than half a de gree after forty-two days fail; fo that we need not fear a greater error than from four to eight leagues, after failing 1200 or 1500 leagues; whereas, by the common reckoning, the error amounts fometimes to 100 leagues. Thus by the means of time-keepers, p. 4. an officer who has the command of an expedition in time of war, may repair to his place of deftination with certainty, and with out lofs of time, by which he may, perhaps, surprise an enemy; or, if he con voy a fleet, the fame certainty of his longitude may enable him to avoid a fupe rior force, fuppofed to be cruifing off the harbour he is bound to, by waiting at a certain diftance for a wind, which, at the fame time that it is favourable for him, obliges the enemy entirely to quit his ftation; or, if fent on a cruize of con. fequence, he can make directly for his ftation, and keep at a proper distance from land, without being obliged to reconnoitre, and thus run the hazard of a discovery.

It was to give fome proofs of these advantages, that the Marquis de Chabert embarked his time-keepers, which be had obferved carefully during four years, on board the Vaillant, which he commanded under Comte d'Estaing in 1778 and 1779, and the St Efprit, which he alfo commanded in 1781 and 1782, under

Comte de Graffe.

Accordingly, the Marquis informs us, that in the paffage of Comte d'Estaing from Toulon to the Delaware, about the

middle of their course, his obfervations from the time-keepers thewed that the common reckoning was near 6 degrees behind the true one. By this means the admiral, when he was fufficiently to the weftward of Bermudas, could pafs fecurely from fouth to north, when it would have been dangerous, according to the common reckoning; and thus the voyage was shortened, which had been very tedious, on account of contrary winds.

P: 6. M. le Comte d'Estaing, failing from Boston to Martinique in November 1778, was delirous of cruifing fome days to the windward of Defirade, in order to intercept à convoy of the enemy; he gave orders for the meridian, where he thought proper to cruize, from the lon gitude given by the time-keepers; which was found to be exact.

When M. le Comte de Broves was convoying fome fhips, among which the Vaillant was one, from Savannah to Breft of L'Orient, at the end of the year 1779, his approach to land was marked by the time-keepers with great exactness.

The land of Martinique was indicated, by the time-keepers, within a third of a degree, after a fail of fix weeks; when M. le Comte de Graffe failed with the fleet from Breft, at the beginning of May 1781.

The fituations of Cape François, in the ifland of St Domingo, and Cape Henry, at the entrance of the Chefapeak, determined by the time-keepers, in the fame fleet, at the end of Auguft following, a greed with the beft charts; and proved that the fleet, in paffing through the channel of the Bahama iflands, had been driven by the current 2 degrees and a half more to the eastward than the usual com putation.

The Marquis then proceeds to inform us, that he was enabled, by means of his time-keepers, to meafure the direction and velocity of this current, with tuffi cient exactnefs, by comparing the ship's way from the noon of one day to that of the next, refulting from the agreement of two observations, both of longitude and latitude, which the ship's way made during the fame time, according to the ordinary obfervations.

The Marquis agrees in general with Dr Franklin, as published in his little chart of the Streights of Bahama; except that he did not find the velocity of the current fo great; and fays, that a

chart is intended to be published at Paǝ ris, of that part of the ocean comprehended between the Antilles, the coafts of the United States of America, and thote of Newfoundland, in which his obfervations will be laid down.

P. 10. The Marquis had two timekeepers on board, one going by a pen dulum, another bỹ a spring; the first was put out of order in an engagement, and he recommends to take only the fe cond fort; to have two of thefe; and to obferve them every day for two months before the thip fails.

The longitudes and latitudes, which the Marquis has determined, are these : The light-houfe on Cape Hinlopen, at the entrance of the river Delaware, longitude, 77 degrees, 33 minutes; latitude, 38 degrees, 45 minutės, 30 feconds.

The light-house at Sandy-hook, lon. 76 d. 33 m.; lat. 40 d. 25 m. New York, lon. 76 đ. 31 m. 30 f. Boston, at the ruins of the light-house, on a little inland to the right of the entry of the road of Nantasket, lát. 42 d. 20 m. 6 f.

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Light-house on the highest part of the town *, lat. 42 d. 22 m. it f. Light-house at the entrance of the Sa vannah river, weft of Cape François, lon. 8 d. 38 m.; lat. 32 d. 45 1. The S. W. extremity of Tobago, E. from Fort Royal, Martinique, lon. 20 m. N. E. end of Granada, W. of Fort Royal, Martinique, lon.-59 m.

Fort Royal in Granada, W. of Fort

Royal in Martinique, lön. 42 m. 15f. Point des Salines, at the S. W. end of Grenada, W. of Fort Royal in Martinique, lon. 45 m. 15 f.

E. end of Tortuga, W. from Cape François, lon. 23 m. 15 f.

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S. E. end of the little inland of Cape Ro maine, on the N. coaft of the island of Cuba, W. of Cape François, lön. 5 d. 21 m. 45 f.; lat. 22 d. i m. 30 f. W. point of the entrance of the harbour of Matance, on the N. fide of the island of Cuba, W. from Cape François, loh. 9 d. 18 m. 15 f.

The fame point W. from the S. E. point

of Cape Romaine, lon. 3 d. 56 m. 30 f. The mountain Pain-de-Matance from Cape François, lon. 9 d. 18 m. 30 f.

• The above are from the Obfervatory at Paris, which is 2. as to the eastward of that at Greenwich.

Cape

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Omnibus Literatis, & domi & foris, qui Epiftolas ad me tranfmittere haud dedig nati funt.

BUCHANIE Comes, S. P. D. VIGINTI abhinc annis me literis penitus dedi, & poft moram forfan ni mis diuturnam in Edinburgo, Scotia urbe primaria, ut veri inveftigandi & cum Doctioribus colloquendi mihi effet facultas, valetudinis cura mihi fuadet rufticari.

Non me latent tamen commoda & voJuptas, que ab hoc literarum jucundo commercio accepi, & in hoc feceffu vivere vellem, nec oblitus meorum nec illis oblivifcendus, quorum ope & auxilio reipublicæ, quantum in me fuit, infervire a prima adolefcentia conatus fum.

Ita natura comparatum eft, ut qui fitiunt, ad eos potiffimum confugiant, qui fitim relevare poffunt, ideoque vos obfecrare mihi liceat ut fcribendi labor delectabilis permaneat, & ut lux illa quæ florem ætatis meæ illuftravit ufque ad ætatis flexum fit fplendidior, in gratiam terræ hujus quam incolimus, & cujus fumma eft & erit ambitio, me civem fuiffe non prorfus inutilem;

* Non mihi fed toti genitum me credere

mundo."

Ad impenfas veftras minuendas a tributo literario, & ne nugis meis plus oncrati quam honorati fitis, hanc fupplicationem meam, in actis publicis in

ferendam curavi linguâ Latinâ, fermone eruditorum peculiari, præfcriptionis jure, ut cum jurifconfultis loquar, quo profanum arcemus vulgus.

Hiftoria, philofophia, et artes humaniores mihi præcipue arrident, in quibus progreffus qualefcunque facere cupio fub aufpiciis veftris.

Prelum typographicum in animo eft, rus mecum portare. Nihil inde emittetur, quod non fpectat ad reipublicæ emolumentum & civium veram felicitatem, fuperftitioni & rebus politicis ut in hac infula vocantur, fub pretextu libertatis, catenas injicere infra prelum, fixum & ratum eft.

Multi Libri MSS. pretiofi blattarum & tinearum epula, in doctorum & indoctorum fcriniis jacent fepulti: Ea nunquam compilabit bibliopolarum focietas, quos non fcientiæ ardor fed lucrum femper folicitabat.

Multæ etiam epiftolæ, graviffimæ a viris doctis fcriptæ, poft literas xv fæculo inflauratas, in eodem funt ftatu mox perituro.

Tullij & Plinij Epiftolæ injuriam temporis & fuperftitionis feliciter evaferunt, quarum præftantia, & utilitas caufa eft cur alias antiquorum defideremus, quibus certiores facti effemus non tantum de vita privata Græcorum & Romanorum, fed de irradiantibus ingenij fcintillis, quæ melius fplendore extemporali illuftrantur, quam ponderofis voluminibus, quæ prelum unicum debent induftriæ & labori; sed ad rem redeamus. Pergite, amici honoratiffimi, mecum fententias veftras communicare. Me nec ingratum nec immemorem unquam invenietis. Benevolentia veftra, quam expertus fum, mihi iterum roganti, ut fpero, non deerit..

Epiftolæ quæ a regionibus exteris veniunt, more folito mittendæ funt ad Georgium Dempfterum, virum digniffimum, unum ex fenatu inferiori in publicis regni Comelijs, libertatis & virtutis vindicem ftrenuum, vel ad meipfum in Scotia. Denique promitto & fpondeo me eå amicitia, quæ omnes in ftudijs humanitatis ac literarum verfantes, qui ubique funt, connectere & conjungere debet, fore vobis devinctum.

Apud Cœnobium de Dryburgh,
Vi ante Kal. Februarii,
Anno S. MDCCLXXXVII.

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