Now, your doctrines, instead of increasing the amount of labor in France, diminish it; that is to say, you reduce us to misery." (Number of October 13, 1846.) "It is true, that when there are too many manufactured articles to sell, their price falls; but as wages decrease when these articles sink in value, the result is, that, instead of being able to buy them, we can buy nothing.

Thus, when they are cheapest, the workingman is most unhappy." (Gauthier de Rumilly, _Moniteur Industriel_ of November 17.) It would not be ill for the Sinistrists to mingle some threats with their beautiful theories.

This is a sample: "What! to desire to substitute the labor of the right hand for that of the left, and thus to cause a forced reduction, if not an annihilation of wages, the sole resource of almost the entire nation! "And this at the moment when poor harvests already impose painful sacrifices on the workingman, disquiet him as to his future, and make him more accessible to bad counsels and ready to abandon the wise course of conduct he had hitherto adhered to!" We are confident, Sire, that thanks to such wise reasonings, if a struggle takes place, the left hand will come out of it victorious.
Perhaps, also, an association will be formed in order to ascertain whether the right and the left hand are not both wrong, and if there is not a third hand between them, in order to conciliate all.
After having described the _Dexterists_ as seduced by the _apparent liberality of a principle, the correctness of which has not yet been verified by experience_, and the _Sinistrists_ as encamping in the positions they have gained, it will say: "And yet they deny that there is a third course to pursue in the midst of the conflict; and they do not see that the working classes have to defend themselves, at the same moment, against those who wish to change nothing in the present situation, because they find their advantage in it, and against those who dream of an economic revolution of which they have calculated neither the extent nor the significance." (_National_ of October 16.) We do not desire, however, to hide from your Majesty the fact that our plan has a vulnerable side.

They may say to us: In twenty years all left hands will be as skilled as right ones are now, and you can no longer count on _left-handedness_ to increase the national labor.
We reply to this, that, according to learned physicians, the left side of the body has a natural weakness, which is very reassuring for the future of labor.
Finally, Sire, consent to sign the law, and a great principle will have prevailed: _All wealth comes from the intensity of labor._ It will be easy for us to extend it, and vary its application.

We will declare, for instance, that it shall be allowable to work only with the feet.
This is no more impossible (for there have been instances) than to extract iron from the mud of the Seine.