gine, without feeling wonder
and admiration at the ingenuity of man; but this feeling is raised to a
degree of awe when you look at a locomotive engine--there is such
enormous power compressed into so small a space--I never can divest
myself of the idea that it is possessed of _vitality_--that it is a
living as well as a moving being--and that idea, joined with its immense
power, conjures up in my mind that it is some spitting, fizzing,
terrific demon, who, if he could escape control, would be ready and
happy to drag us by thousands to destruction.

And will this powerful invention prove to mankind a _blessing_ or a
_curse_?--like the fire which Prometheus stole from heaven to vivify his
statue, may it not be followed by the evils of Pandora's fatal casket?

The lower classes of Belgium have formed an idea that the introduction
of steam is to take away their bread. Let us examine whether there is
not in this idea a degree of instinctive and prophetic truth.

The axiom of our political economists is, that the grand object to be
sought and obtained is to produce the greatest possible results by the
smallest possible means. The axiom, as an axiom by itself, is good; but
the axiom to be opposed to it is, that the well-being and happiness of
any state depends upon obtaining full employment for the whole industry
of the people.

The population of Belgium is enormous. In England we calculate about
eighteen hundred souls to the square league. In Belgium it amounts to
three thousand eight hundred souls to the square league. Now it would
be impossible for Belgium to support this population, were it not, in
the first place, for her extensive manufactories, (for upon the cotton
manufactories alone, in which steam is as yet but partially introduced,
two hundred and fifty thousand souls depend for their existence,) and in
the second place, from the subdivision of the land in small portions,
arising from the laws of inheritance, which bar the right of
primogeniture; the consequence of which is, that the major part of
Belgium is cultivated by spade husbandry, and is in the very highest
state of fertility. Nevertheless, the proportion of those who receive
relief in Belgium from public institutions and private charities of all
descriptions amounts even at present to _one in eight persons_. Now,
allowing that the steam-engine should be generally introduced into this
country, the consequence must be, that machinery will supply th