Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/348

314 be admitted, that this would be an interference with capital, which, if allowed, should, in the present state of our knowledge, be examined with great circumspection in each individual case, until some general principle is established on well-admitted grounds.

(378.) An instrument called a gas-meter, which ascertains the quantity of gas used by each consumer, has been introduced, and furnishes a satisfactory mode of determining the payments to be made by individuals to the Gas companies. A contrivance somewhat similar in its nature, might be used for the sale of water; but in that case some public inconvenience might be apprehended, from the diminished quantity which would then run to waste: the streams of water running through the sewers in London, are largely supplied from this source; and if this supply were diminished, the drainage of the metropolis might be injuriously affected.

(379.) In the north of England a powerful combination has long existed among the coal-owners, by which the public has suffered in the payment of increased price. The late examination of evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, has explained its mode of operation, and the Committee have recommended, that for the present the sale of coal should be left to the competition of other districts.

(380.) A combination, of another kind, exists at this moment to a great extent, and operates upon the price of the very pages which are now communicating information respecting it. A subject so interesting to every reader, and still more so to every manufacturer of the article which the reader consumes, deserves an attentive examination.