Manchester, 4 March 1858 

Dear Moor, 

So once again the cabinet noir”? has well and truly honoured 
you with its attentions. I had expected something of the sort but 
it's a bit steep to go and intercept letters. I think you would do 
better to have the address done in another hand, in which case 
they will only open the letters sent to you. I was expecting an 
acknowledgment from you and therefore took PparticuLar care to 
ask our messenger daily and in so many words whether there were 
any letters for me—each time the answer was in the negative. And 
yet we have the asinine Félix Pyat announcing to the world qu'il n’y 
a pas de police politique proprement dite, en Angleterre.* Rarely have I 
come across a more bungled concoction, style and all.” Still the 
same old faith in the Constitution of 1848; one might almost be 
face to face with our own jackasses of the Imperial Constitution.” 
And what a ghastly style! Aprés tout’ the idiots have achieved their 
aim and will, perhaps, earn themselves a cheap form of 
martyrdom. Cette béte de“ Derby, falling straight into the trap like 
that, and allowing the riff-raff to have their way. 

As to the question of machinery, it’s difficult to say anything 
positive; at all events Babbage“ is quite wronc. The most reliable 
criterion is the percentace by which a manufacturer writes down his 

4 that properly speaking there are no political police in England - > However - 
¢ That ass - 9 Ch. Babbage, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. 

machinery each year for wear and tear and repairs, thus 
recovering the entire cost of his machines within a given period. 
This rercenrace is normally 7'/,, in which case the machinery will 
be paid for over 13'/s years by an annual deduction from profits, 
i.e. will be replaceable without loss. E.g. I have £10,000 worth of 
machinery. At the end of the first year, when I draw up my 
balance-sheet, I enter , 

from which I deduct 7'/9% for wear and £10,000 
tear » 750 
£9,250 
Expenditure on repairs £100 
Cost of machinery £9,350 
At the end of the 2nd year I deduct 7!/5% 
[of] £10,000, and 71/5% fof] £100 » 75710 
£8,593 10 
Expenditure on repairs » 306 10 
Present cost of entire machinery £8,900 

etc. Now, 13'/s years is admittedly a long time in the course of 
which numerous bankruptcies ' and changes occur; you may enter 
other branches, sell your old machinery, mtroduce new improve- 
ments, but if this calculation wasn’t more or less right, practice 
would have changed it long ago. Nor does the old machinery that 
has been sold promptly become old iron; it finds takers among the 
small spinners, etc., etc., who continue to use it. We ourselves have 
machines in operation that are certainly 20 years old and, when 
one occasionally takes a glance inside some of the more ancient 
and ramshackle concerns up here, one can see antiquated stuff that 
must be 30 years old at least. Moreover, in the case of most 
machines, only a few of the components wear out to the extent 
that they have to be replaced after 5 or 6 years. And even after 15 
years, provided the basic principle of a machine has not been 
superseded by new inventions, there is relatively little difficulty in 
replacing worn out parts (I refer here to spinning and flyer 
frames), so that it is hard to set a definite term on the effective life 
of such machinery.. Again, over the last 20 years improvements in 
spinning machinery have not been such as to preclude the 

incorporation of almost all of them in the existing structure of the 
machines, since nearly all are minor innovations. (Admittedly, in 
the case of carding, the enlargement of the carding cylinder was a 
major improvement which supplanted the old machines where 
good qualities were concerned, but for ordinary qualities the old 
machinery will be perfectly adequate for a long time yet.) 

Babbage’s assertion is so absurd that were it true, England’s 
industrial capital must continually diminish and money simply be 
thrown away. A manufacturer who turns over his capital 5 times 
in 4 years, hence 6'/, times in 5 years, would, in addition to his 
average profit of 10%, have to earn annually a further 20% on 
approximately */, of his capital (the machinery) if he was to recoup 
without loss his outlay on the old machinery—i.e. would have to 
make 25%. This would, of course, vastly increase the cost price of 
all articles—more, almost, than it would be increased by wages— 
in which case where is the advantage of machinery? Annual waces 
amount to perhaps '/3 the cost of the machinery—undoubtedly 
less in the case of the smaller spinners and weavers, and wear and 
tear is supposed to amount to /;—the thing is ludicrous. There is 
certainly not a single establishment in England in the regular Line 
of big industry which replaces its machinery in 5 years. Anyone 
foolish enough to do so would go to the wall at the first chance; 
the old machines, even though much inferior, would certainly 
have the advantage over the modern ones and would be able to 
» produce much more cheaply, for the market follows not the 
people who charge 15% for wear and tear on every pound of 
twist, but those who charge only 6% (approx. 47, of an annual 
depreciation of 7'/2%) and hence sell at cheaper prices. 

Ten to twelve years are enough to bring about changes in the 
character of the suk of machinery, thereby necessitating its 
replacement to a greater or lesser extent. The period of 13/5 
years will vary, of course, depending on bankruptcies, breakage of 
essential parts where a repair would prove too expensive, and 
similar contingencies, so one could make it a bit shorter. But 
certainly not less than 10 years. 

I had finished ‘Burmah’ when I was ‘ompelled to make diverse 
necessary abbitions from another source. So I haven’t done with it 
yet and the thing will have to wait until Tuesday. It will run to 
nearly 3 pages. There are still a few details to be looked up for 
‘Bomarsund’. On top of that I have to snatch whatever opportuni- 
ty I can, since library hours are so similar to office hours that I 
can’t always get there. As soon as I’ve dealt with these wretched 
things—likewise ‘Bilow’ and ‘Beresford’, which suffer from the 

same snag—lI shall again have a Fair galloping Country ahead of me 
and be able to clap on spurs with ‘Cavalry’, etc. 
Many regards to your wife and children. 

Your 
F. E.