His attention to his parishioners was great; and in | For a short time he appeared to revive a little, and a short time, his great zeal, unfeigned piety, extraordinary exertion, and impressive style of preaching, began to gather round him a large congregation.

In the summer of 1821, he visited Scotland, having been persuaded by a warm friend and brother clergyman to consult some of the medical men for whom at that time Edinburgh was celebrated. While in the capital of the north, he was persuaded by some of his countrymen who formed a deputation from the Irish Tract Society, to give an address in promotion of the object. Notwithstanding the debility of his body and the languor of his mind, he consented, and made an eloquent speech.

He did not remain long in the north. Finding that little could be done for his complaint, he returned to his native country, and met with a cordial reception from his warm-hearted parishioners.

sometimes entered into conversation with almost his usual animation, but the first unfavourable change of weather shattered his remaining strength. His cough now became nearly incessant, and a distressing languor weighed down his frame. In this state he continued until the 21st February 1823, upon the morning of which day he expired, in the 32d year of his age.

"During the last few days of his life, when his sufferings became more distressing, his constant expression was, 'This light affliction!-this light afflic tion !' And when the awful crisis drew near, he still maintained the same sweet spirit of resignation. Even then, he showed an instance of that thoughtful benevolence, that amiable tenderness of feeling, which formed a striking trait in his character: he expressed much anxiety about the accommodation of an attendant who was sleeping in the adjoining room, and gave even minute directions respecting it.

"On his return from Scotland, the writer (Mr Russell) met him at a friend's house, within a few miles of his own residence; and, on the following Sunday, "On going to bed, he felt very drowsy and soon accompanied him through the principal part of his pa- after the stupor of death began to creep over him. rish to the church; and never can he forget the scene He began to pray for all his dearest friends indivihe witnessed as they drove together along the road dually, but his voice faltering, he could only say, and through the village. As he quickly passed by, all God bless them all! The peace of God and of the poor people and children ran out to their cabin Jesus Christ overshadow them-dwell in them— doors to welcome him with looks and expressions of reign in them!'-My peace,' said he, addressing the most ardent affection, and with all that wild de- his sister (the peace I now feel), be with you!"— votion of gratitude so characteristic of the Irish pea-Thou, O God! will keep him in perfect peace whose santry. Many fell upon their knees, invoking mind is stayed on thee.' His speech again began to blessings upon him; and, long after they were out fail, and he fell into a slumber; but whenever his of hearing, they remained in the same attitude, senses were recalled, he returned to prayer. showing by their gestures that they were still offer- repeated part of the Lord's Prayer, but was unable ing up prayers for him; and some even followed the to proceed; and, at last, with a composure scarcely carriage a long distance, making the most anxious credible at such a moment, he whispered to the dear inquiries about his health. He was sensibly moved relative who hung over his deathbed, Close this by this manifestation of feeling, and met it with all eye-the other is closed already--and now, farewell!' that heartiness of expression, and that affectionate Then, having uttered part of the Lord's Prayer, he simplicity of manner, which made him as much an fell asleep. He is not dead, but sleepeth." object of love as exalted virtues rendered him an object of respect."

The habits of his life while he resided on his cure were in every respect calculated to confirm his constitutional tendency to consumption. He seldom thought of providing a regular meal; and his humble cottage exhibited every appearance of the neglect of the ordinary comforts of life. A few straggling rush-bottomed chairs, piled up with his books,-a small rickety table before the fire-place, covered with parish memoranda,-some trunks containing all his papers, serving at the same time to cover the broken parts of the floor, constituted all the furniture of his sitting-room. The mouldy walls of the closet in which he slept were hanging with loose folds of damp paper; and between this wretched cell and his parlour was the kitchen, which was occupied by a disbanded soldier, his wife, and their numerous brood of children, who had migrated with him from his first quarters, and seemed now in full possession of the whole concern, entertaining him merely as a lodger, and usurping the entire disposal of his small plot of ground, as the absolute lords of the soil.

His life was now drawing to a close a few sentences more, and we will have told all we can tell; but it will be better to allow Mr Russell himself to tell the story of his death. "About the end of November, it was thought advisable, as the last remaining hope, that he should guard against the severity of the winter by removing to the Cove of Cork, which, by its peculiar situation, is sheltered on all sides from the harsh and prevailing winds. Thither he was accompanied by the writer and a near relation, to whom he was fondly attached.

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We have to lament none of those earthly stains on Wolfe's moral character which have too often marred the loveliness of young genius, and made us regard it with disgust, fear, and pity. He was strong, serene, and secure in his innocence. Preserved in his youth from all evil by a native disposition towards cheerful and tranquil enjoyments; and in his manhood by a piety as profound as ever possessed a human soul, his course through life was pure and unstained, and his latter end was peace.

THE AUTHORS OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.

No. II.-REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

AMERICAN CHARACTER.

THERE is a set of miserable persons in England, who are dreadfully afraid of America and every thing Americanvilified-and who appear to imagine that all the abuses whose great delight is to see that country ridiculed and which exist in this country acquire additional vigour and chance of duration from every book of travels which pours forth its venom and falsehood on the United States. We shall from time to time call the attention of the public to this subject, not from any party spirit, but because we love truth, and praise excellence wherever we find it; and because we think the example of America will in many instances tend to open the eyes of English

men to their true interests.

ject for our imitation. The salary of Mr Bagot, our late The Economy of America is a great and important obambassador, was, we believe, rather higher than that of the President of the United States. The Vice-President receives rather less than the second clerk of the House of Commons; and all salaries, civil and military, are upon

though there are few classical associations, or historical recollections in the United States, this barrenness is well purchased by the absence of all the feudal nonsense, inveterate abuses, and profligate debts of an old country. Fanaticism of every description seems to rage and flourish in America, which has no Establishment, in about the same degree which it does here under the nose of an Established Church;-they have their prophets and prophetesses, their preaching encampments, female preachers, and every variety of noise, folly, and nonsense, like ourselves. Among the most singular of these fanatics are the Harmonites. Rapp, their founder, was a dissenter from the Lutheran Church, and therefore, of course, the Lutheran clergy of Stutgard (near to which he lived) began to put Mr Rapp in white sheets, to prove him guilty of theft, parricide, treason, and all the usual crimes of which men dissenting from established churches are so often guilty, and delicate hints were given respecting faggots! Stutgard abounds with underwood and clergy; and-away went Mr Rapp to the United States, and, with a great multitude of followers, settled about twenty-four miles from our countryman Mr Birkbeck. His people have here built a large town, und planted a vineyard, where they make very agreeable wine. They carry on also a very extensive system of husbandry, and are the masters of many flocks and herds. They have a distillery, brewery, tannery, make hats, shoes, cotton and woollen cloth, and every thing necessary to the comfort of life. Every one belongs to some particular trade. But in bad weather, when there is danger of losing their crops, Rapp blows a horn, and calls them all together. Over every trade there is a head man, who receives the money and gives a receipt, signed by Rapp, to whom all the money collected is transmitted. When any of these workmen wants a hat or a coat, Rapp signs him an order for the garment, for which he goes to the store, and is fitted. They have one large store where these manufactures are deposited. This store is much resorted to by the neighbourhood, on account of the goodness and cheapness of the articles. They have built an excellent house for their founder, Rapp, as it might have been predicted they would have done. The Harmonites profess equality, community of goods and celibacy; for the men and women (let Mr Malthus hear this) live separately, and are not allowed the slightest intercourse. In order to keep up their numbers, they have once or twice sent over for a supply of Germans, as they admit no Americans, of any intercourse with whom they are very jealous. The Harmonites dress and live plainly. It is a part of their creed that they should do so. Řapp, however, and the head men have no such particular creed for themselves; and indulge in wine, beer, grocery, and other irreligious diet. Rapp is both governor and priest,-preaches to them in church, and directs all their proceedings in their working hours. In short, Rapp seems to have made use of the religious propensities of mankind, to persuade one or two thousand fools to dedicate their lives to his service; and if they do not get tired, and fling their prophet into a horse-pond, they will in all probability disperse as soon as he dies.

with cart-whips, and bind with chains, and murder for the merest trifles, wretched human beings who are of a more dusky colour than themselves; and have recently admitted into their Union a new State, with the express permission of ingrafting this atrocious wickedness into their constitution! No one can admire the simple wisdom and manly firmness of the Americans more than we do, or more despise the pitiful propensity which exists among Government runners to vent their small spite at their character; but on the subject of slavery, the conduct of America is, and has been, most reprehensible. It is impossible to speak of it with too much indignation and contempt; but for it we should look forward with unqualified pleasure to such a land of freedom, and such a magnificent spectacle of human happiness.

RESULTS OF MACHINERY.

THE term Machinery is of very extensive application, meaning all those tools or utensils of which man avails himself in productive industry. A bow and arrow, a spade, a plough, a coach, a cart, a ship; these and all such articles are machines. Man, without machines or tools, can scarcely do any thing; without them, he is

the feeblest of all animals. He has no tools which are a part of himself, to build houses like the beaver, or cells like the bees. His power is in his mind; and that mind teaches him to subject all the physical world to his dominion, by availing himself of all the forces that are spread around him. In proportion, in truth, as he so avails himself, or in proportion to his invention and introduction of machinery, he rises in the scale of being, and commands the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life.

The object of machinery is to abridge labour, and render it more productive; that is, to cheapen goods. It is, in fact, attended with the same results as if a corresponding improvement had taken place in the skill and industry of the labourer. Now, nobody reckons it an unfavourable circumstance, if, by division of labour, or from any other cause, the labour of men become more productive. On the contrary, such a result is hailed as the most happy occurrence. Suppose that the same object is gained, not by the increased skill of the labourer, but by machinery, What would be the difference? There would, in point of fact, be no difference at all. The question, therefore, respecting the introduction of machinery, is at bottom the same as the question respecting the improvement of the dexterity and science of the labourer.

Recourse, it is evident, is never had to machinery unless with the view of abridging labour, and of rendering it more productive. If such a result was not gained, machinery would never be used. No man would ever think of investing capital in a machine, if he could not thereby produce the same quantity of goods at a cheaper rate. He has recourse to machinery solely because, by doing so, he can supply the existing demand for his goods at a cheaper rate, and with greater profit.

Before the art of printing was invented in 1440, books were written by the hand, and were of course in manuAmerica seems, on the whole, to be a country possess- script. Though the copiers had low wages, books were ing vast advantages, and little inconveniences; they have dear, insomuch that a good copy of the Bible is stated as a cheap government, and bad roads; they pay no tithes, having cost L.30, even in the money of that time. Why and have stage coaches without springs. They have no were books so dear? They were dear because the cost poor laws and no monopolies-but their inns are incon- of their production was dear; because they were produced, venient, and travellers are teased with questions. They not by machinery, but by the tedious process of manual have no collections in the fine arts; but they have no labour. But, by means of the noble invention in quesLord Chancellor, and they can go to law without abso- tion, the state of matters in this respect was altogether lute ruin. They cannot make Latin verses, but they ex- changed. A single printer, by means of this invention, pend immense sums in the education of the poor. In all could, even at first, it is computed, do the business of two this the balance is prodigiously in their favour: but then hundred copiers. At first sight, this seems a hardship; comes the great disgrace and danger of America-the for one hundred and ninety-nine persons were thus thrown existence of slavery, which, if not timeously corrected, out of employment. But what were the consequences in will one day entail (and ought to entail) a bloody servile a year or two? Where one book in manuscript was sold, war upon the Americans-which will separate America a thousand printed works were required; and, the price into slave states and states disclaiming slavery, and which of production being diminished, they would be sold at remains at present as the foulest blot in the moral cha- comparatively low prices, and the number of readers and racter of that people. A high-spirited nation, who can- purchasers increased in proportion. And not only were not endure the slightest act of foreign aggression, and books incomparably cheaper, but, by means of the printwho revolt at the very shadow of domestic tyranny-beating press, they were infinitely more neatly, beautifully

and correctly executed. The copiers, it is true, had to turn their hand to some other trade; but the trades of type-founder, printer, paper-maker, corrector of the press, book-binder, and bookseller, were called into existence, and several hundred, nay, several thousand times the number of persons were employed, by means of this noble invention, that had been previously engaged. The copiers generally adopted a far more agreeable and dignified employment, that of correcting the press. There are at present above 25,000 persons engaged in London alone in connexion with printing: a greater number than the aggregate amount of copiers before the invention of printing. The effects of this invention have been incalculably great. Without it, the knowledge of books must have been confined to a few, instead of being, as they now are, the guides, the best friends, the ornament of the millions, in every civilized country. Without it, there could have been no general literature, no diffusion of useful or entertaining knowledge among the great body of the people; there could, therefore, have been no properly defined public opinion, which is alone formed and maintained by the art of printing;-without that great auxiliary, indeed, public opinion, if it could be said to exist at all, must have been exceedingly rude and untutored.

machinery, and the use of cotton is now so universal, that, according to Mr Baines, if the quantity of cloth now produced were the result of the old machinery employed before 1767," the inhabitants of all Europe would be quite inadequate" for the purpose. The quality of the cloth has also, by means of machinery, been much improved. These circumstances,-the diminished cost of cotton goods, and the improved nature of the quality,have rendered it impossible for the cheap labour of India, unassisted by machinery, to come into competition with the machinery of England. The trade in India-manufactured cotton is completely gone. Not only is this the case, but we can beat the people of that country with the manufactured article in their own market. "The British navigator," says M. Dupin, "travels in quest of the cotton of India, brings it home,-a distance of 12,000 miles,-commits it to an operation of the machine of Arkwright, and of others that are attached to it, carries back the produce to the East, making it again travel 12,000 miles; and, in spite of the loss of time, in spite of the enormous expense incurred by the voyage of 24,000 miles, the cotton, manufactured by the machinery of England, becomes less costly than the cotton spun and woven by the hand near the field that produced it, and sold at the nearest market. So great," says he, "is the power of the process of machinery!"

Other means may be taken to show the effects of machinery. The following, as to the increase of population, may be given as an example:-In 1700, Lancashire, the great seat of the cotton manufactures, numbered only 166,200 inhabitants; in 1750, only 297,400; in 1801, it had grown to 672,565; in 1831, to 1,336,854; and in 1841, to 1,667,054; being about two-thirds of the whole population of Scotland. That is to say, Lancashire is, at this moment, eight times more populous than it was 130 years ago; and twice as populous as it was thirty years ago; rates of increase nearly on a parallel with the United States. In the cotton districts in Scotland, similar results can be traced. Glasgow, which is the Manchester of the North, in 1763, contained 28,300 souls; in 1841, upwards of 274,000, the increase being ninefold in ninety years. The growth of Paisley is scarcely less striking. In 1782, it contained 1700; in 1841, 60,000, having more than tripled in sixty years.

With regard to the stocking-manufacture, it may be mentioned that, previously to the invention of the knitting-frame, the luxury of stockings was unknown. Previously to the time of this invention, in 1589, the stockings, even of the royal family and nobility, were sewed by the tailor, or consisted of bandages of cloth. Henry VIII. wore nothing but cloth hose, unless there came, "by great chance," a pair of knit stockings from Spain. Without this invention, the greater number of us must have been without stockings, or have used cloth hose. But with this invention, how few of the millions of people, now in this country, are without stockings? We look on a person devoid of this piece of dress as in the lowest state of misery and wretchedness. Indeed stockings, by means of machinery, are now become so cheap, that it is a question whether it is worth while to mend them; particularly if the mending has to be paid for. Taking the population of the United Kingdom at 24,500,000; and suppose that each individual, on an average, spends three shillings a year on stockings-an estimate below the truth-the sum expended on this simple article amounts to L.4,200,000 annually. Besides, the stockingmanufacture gives employment and subsistence to up. wards of 120,000 of our population, and affords profitable investment to L.2,000,000 of capital,-circumstances that could not have obtained without the invention of knitting-sumption of them. But yet a loud, and at one time a machinery.

The result as to the application of machinery in the iron manufacture was scarcely less striking,-a subject which we mean to discuss in a separate article.

But the effects of machinery, in the cotton manufacture, are most triumphant. Before the invention of the spinning-jenny by Hargreaves, in 1767, the whole cotton goods manufactured in England amounted only to L.600,000 a year; while the number of persons employed in the manufacture was only about 40,000. These are the estimates made by Mr Baines in his " History of the Cotton Manufacture;" and are considerably higher than the estimates made by Mr M'Culloch and other authorities. Since the time of Hargreaves, the invention of Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, Watt, &c., have been introduced, and have contributed essentially to the triumphs of mechanical genius. Owing to those triumphs, though the price of the article has fallen to a twelfth of its former price, the quantity of cotton manufactured amounts to about L.40,000,000 annually, in place of L.600,000; and the number of people employed has risen from 40,000 to 2,000,000, exclusive of the sailors, carriers, merchants, engineers, &c., that through it obtain a livelihood. Nay, the number of persons, such as engineers, smiths, &c., now employed in the manufacture of cotton machinery, are nearly three times greater than all other persons engaged in the cotton manufacture itself before the days of Hargreaves and Arkwright. The commodity, indeed, is now so cheap, owing to the introduction of

Such are a few of the advantages—the vast advantages, which we owe to machinery. Machinery has abridged labour, and rendered it productive to a degree altogether surprising; and which, at one time, could not have been predicated. It thus renders all products made by it proportionally cheap, and consequently extends the con

very general outcry was raised against machinery, inasmuch as it was supposed to displace human labour, and to throw workmen out of employment. The hollowness of the objections in question are evident-if it displaced workmen at all, it did so only to a very limited extent; and the worst that could happen was a forced change of employment. Machinery, instead of diminishing employment, ultimately gives work to a far greater number of hands, as proved by the figures already quoted; and no class of men are benefited more by the introduction of mechanical force than the workmen themselves; besides, a forced change of employment results from other causes. A change from war to peace may throw the half of those engaged in the manufacture of powder out of employment, or force them to change their business. The extensive prevalence of temperance societies in America has forced hundreds to give up tavern-keeping, and to betake themselves to some new employment. A change of fashion, as a change from metal buttons to silk buttons, may have exactly the same effects, and force thousands to cultivate a new profession. And yet no complaints are heard on those heads; at least complaints so loud and clamorous as these to which we have alluded. The truth is, every prudent workman should so husband his resources, as to be prepared to meet every such contingency. He should save, and have a little capital, so that he may be possessed of an artificial power to prevent him from feeling the inconveniences that would otherwise accompany these or similar changes. But, taking the worst view of the case,