An Interesting Calculation.
By Editor
[The following is an extract from an article furnished by an English gentleman to a Boston paper, published in 1843. Of course we cannot vouch for its accuracy, though there is reason to believe that it is quite or nearly correct. This disparity of income and wages is now growing up in the United States. "Millionaires" are now very common, but they are very modern in America. There is every reason to fear that American laborers will not look upon this contrast with that complacency that has marked the poorer classes in England, as there they were raised with an aristocracy that owned the country. The Lord has warned the "rich men" who "heap together treasures for the last days," Jas. 5, but they have no idea of heeding the warning. But there is another injunction of the apostle, in that chapter, which we hope will be well heeded: "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord."—ED. SIGNS.] ABOUT seventy years ago, England received a terrible blow by the commencement of the American struggle for independence. In 1783 that work was consummated. Soon after, a revolution more destructive to the interests of the workingmen of England took place than any that had preceded it. I allude to steam. The power-loom and spinning-jenny were set in motion by steam power, and hundreds of thousands of honest, industrious workingmen were ruined by its application. The great perfector of the spinning frame, Sir Richard Arkwright, has died lately, worth $35,000,000. In the year 1797, there were manufactured 23,000,000 lbs of cotton; in the year 1841, there were manufactured 528,000,000 lbs. The wages paid to the spinner in 1797 were 7s. 6d. British money, or nearly $2 per day; but in 1841, it was only 1s. 5d., or nearly 33 cents American money. Thus, whilst the trade of the country had increased 23 fold, wages had decreased upwards of four-fifths. The English people complain the law of primogeniture. By its unnatural and unjust tendency, it has retained 77,000,000 acres of land in the hands of about 30,000 oligarchical families. The eldest son of a peer invariably inherits the estate; the next son is sent into the army, the next into the navy, and the simpleton of the family often into the church. They complain that there is an Antichristian law church, supported by the bayonet, drawing sixty millions of dollars per annum from the poor. They draw comparisons between the scanty pittance earned by themselves and the income of bishops and landlords, who draw such immense salaries from the people. A workingman's wages average about 8s. or $2 per week. Archbishop Canterbury draws £20,000, or about $100,000 per annum. Contrast thus:— Workingman $2 per week, or $100 per annum. Archbishop's salary divided by the workingman's wages, $100)$100,000(1,000 Thus, it would take a workingman a thousand years to earn the salary of the Archbishop of Canterbury; or, in other words, the Archbishop has, for the support of his family, as much as one thousand of his neighbors have for their families. The Duke of Buceleuch has $1,250,000 per annum. It would take a workingman 12,500 years to earn his salary. The Marquis of Salisbury has $1,750,000 per annum. It would take a workingman 17,500 years to earn his salary. The Marquis of Westminster has £520,000 per annum, or $2,600,000. It would take a workingman 26,000 years to earn his salary. These are only a few of the many who draw such immense sums from the people. By the recent statistics on the income tax, it is very clearly ascertained that the landlords draw about one thousand millions of dollars per annum, as rent; and the State church about $60,000,000. They also complain that the rich are well fed, well clad, and well housed, whilst a poor-law bill was passed that compelled an able-bodied man to exist on 15 pence per week, in a poor-law bastile, and outraged nature and nature's God, by separating husband from wife, and children from parents. They complain that a centralized system of police, numbering 26,000, are in full operation to crush the spirit of the people. They complain that there is an army of about 120,000 men, to shoot and dragoon the people, should they complain of the injustice practiced toward them. They complain that $150,000 were expended on dog kennels for the Queen, when they themselves were starving. They complain that thousands of industrious artisans are compelled to live in damp, dark, dirty, ill-ventilated cellars, where the lives of their families are often shortened by such privations.