Smiths soon arranged that Ann was to be married on the same evening as her sister Sally. On the morning of the double-wedding day, Mr Biley, the law-agent of Mr Morison, called on Mary, having only returned to town on the previous evening. "I have to congratulate you on an improvement in your affairs, Miss Morison," said this honest lawyer. "I am afraid, sir," said Mary, "all improvements have come too late, for I feel that I have not long time to live. The cruel things I have had to endure have left me too low to enjoy any thing this world can give." "Say not so, my dear; you are but a young woman, and bright days will yet come. Your father's embarrassments arose from the supposed failure of a foreign correspondent, who is to stand after all, and not only will every body be paid, but as much will be left over as to keep you handsomely all your life." "Riches will not make me live." "But revenge will-all women like it. Look here at this paper; with it, you can crush the scoundrel Lithgow. Old Smith borrowed money from your father, and gave him this bond over his half of the Minerva. Smith has not paid it, and, from the extravagant living of his family, cannot do it. The Minerva is entirely your own, and you can kick the puppy out this hour if you will." "Give me the bond, and tell him to call upon me in an hour." "Who do you mean by him—is it Smith or Lithgow ?" said the lawyer. "It is Will- I cannot pronounce the name, Mr Biley; but you know who I mean." "I do, I do; and I am glad you are going to punish the rascal." An hour afterwards Lithgow made his appearance-he hung down his head, but could not summon courage to speak. Mary looked at him steadily-for the innocent and injured are ever strong. "Do you know all?" "I do." "William, you have broken my heart, but you need not break another's. Take this paper, and do with it as you please, and may God forgive you, as I shall try to do. Nay; no thanks or apologies-the mockery of words would sicken me. Farewell-and farewell for ever." The guilty man slunk from her presence; but at the marriage hour he came not. The alarmed guests waited in terror and suspense; and search and inquiry were instituted to no purpose. He had called at his uncle's dressed for the ceremony, and told them that, feeling unwell, he intended taking a walk on the pier before going to Mr Smith's. The harbour was dragged, and his body was found, the feet and wrists being tied together with his own hands, as if for the purpose of preventing any after attempt at life, for he was known to be uncommonly expert as a swimmer. Ann Smith married in three months afterwards; and about the same time, the stranger gentleman, Mr Wight, who had formerly lived with Mary's father, came to town. The first place he sought for was the churchyard; and, long after sunset, he was seen gazing with clasped hands on a white marble slab bearing the simple inscription"MARY MORISON." [The above sketch has been handed to us for publication by the literary legatee of the "Unfortunate Author," referred to in No. 13, page 252 of the Torch. Our correspondent states that he has other sketches in reserve, if the one now sent meets with approval.] SAMUEL CROMPTON, AND THE MULE JENNY. Or the great inventions of Hargreaves and Arkwright, namely, the Spinning-jenny and the Water-frame, we have given an account in our two preceding Numbers. These inventions established the cotton manufacture, as by far the most important branch of business, in this country. But perfection is seldom attained suddenly. The water-frame, for example, spun twists for warps, but it could not be advantageously used for the finer qualities, as thread of great tenuity has not strength to bear the pull of the rollers when winding itself on the bobbin. This defect in the spinning was remedied by the invention of another machine called the Mule Jenny, from its combining the principles of Arkwright's water-frame and Hargreaves' jenny. Like the former, it has a system of rollers to reduce the roving; and, like the latter, it has spindles without_bobbins to give the twist, and the thread is stretched and spun at the same time by the spindles, after the rollers have ceased to give out the rove. By this arrangement, comprising the advantages both of the rollers and spindles; the thread is stretched more gently and equally, and a much finer quality of yarn can therefore be produced. "This excellent machine," says Mr Baines (Hist. of Cotton Manufacture, p. 198), "which has superseded the jenny, and to a considerable extent the water-frame, and which has carried the cotton manufacture to a perfection it could not otherwise have attained, was invented by Samuel Crompton, a weaver of respectable character and moderate circumstances, living at Hall-in-the-Wood, near Bolton, Lancashire." This machine was at first called the Hall-in-the Wood wheel, from the place where the inventor then lived; but, owing to its combining the principles both of Hargreaves' and Arkwright's machines, it soon obtained the name of the mule jenny, which it has since retained. Mr Baines happily adapts the following couplet to Crompton's invention: The force of genius could no farther go; To make a third, he joined the other two. The short and simple annals of Samuel Crompton are easily told. He was born in 1753. He began to contrive his machine in 1774, when twenty-one years old, and he did not bring it to maturity till nearly five years afterwards, namely 1779. Amid unambitious obscurity and indigence, he devoted his spare hours and the energies of an ingenious mind to the invention and fabrication of a machine which has enriched his country, but which to himself or his family brought no substantial or lasting advantage. Being of a retiring disposition, he did not secure a patent for his invention; and only regretted that public curiosity would not allow him "to enjoy his little invention to himself in his garret ;" and to earn, by his own manual labour, undisturbed, the fruit of his own ingenuity and perseverance. (Vide Mr Kennedy's Brief Account of Crompton in Memoirs of the Lit. and Philos. Society of Manchester, vol. v., second series). In the following simple, but interesting, letter to a friend, he says, "In regard to the mule, the date of its being completed was in the year 1779. At the end of the following year, I was under the necessity of making it public, or destroying it, as it was not in my power to keep and work it; and to destroy it was too painful a task, having been four and a half years at least, wherein every moment of time and power of mind, as well as expense, were devoted to this one end, the having good yarn to weave; so that to destroy it I could not.' Poor Crompton having made no effort to secure by a patent the exclusive enjoyment of his invention, it became public property; and was immediately turned to advantage by the active enterprise of manufacturers, regardless of the claims and worth of the inventor. The remainder of his ill-fated history cannot be better told than in the words of John Kennedy, Esq., long an eminent manufacturer in Manchester, and now resident at his seat, Knocknalling, Kirkcudbrightshire : : "About the year 1802, Mr G. A. Lee and myself set on foot a subscription for Mr Crompton, which amounted to about L.500; and with this he was enabled to increase his little manufacturing establishment in Bolton, namely, of spinning and weaving. He was prevailed upon also to sit to a London artist for his portrait, which is now in my possession. He was left a widower when his children were very young; and his only daughter kept his little cottage in King Street, Bolton, where he died, and where she is now (1829) living. Being a weaver, he erected, several looms for the fancy work of that town, in which he displayed great ingenuity. Though his means were but small, his economy in living made him always in easy circumstances. In 1812, he made a survey of all the cotton districts in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and obtained an estimate of the number of spindles then at work upon his principle, which amounted to about four or five millions [the number is now above ten millions!] On his return, he laid the result of his inquiries before Mr Lee and myself, with a suggestion that Parliament might grant him something. With these data before him, Mr Lee, who was a warm friend to genius of every kind, with his usual energy entered fully into his merits, and made an appointment with the late George Duckworth, Esq. of Manchester, who also took a lively interest in the scheme, and gratuitously offered to draw up a memorial to Parliament in behalf of Mr Crompton. This was signed by most of the principal manufacturers in the kingdom who were acquainted with his merits He went to London himself with the memorial, and obtained an interview with one of the members for the county of Lancashire. He remained there during the session, and was in the House of Commons on the evening that Mr Perceval was shot, and witnessed the catastrophe. A short time before this disastrous occurrence, Mr Perceval had given him a promise to interest himself in his behalf; and, in accordance with this assurance, had brought in a bill, which was passed, for a grant of L.5000 in full, without fees or charges. "Mr Crompton was now anxious to place his sons in some business, and fixed upon that of bleaching; but the unfavourable state of the times, the inexperience and mismanagement of his sons, a bad situation, and a misunderstanding with his landlord, which occasioned a tedious lawsuit, conspired in a short time to put an end to the establishment. His sons then dispersed; and he and his daughter were reduced to poverty. Messrs Hicks and Rothwell of Bolton, myself, and some others, in that neighbourhood and in Manchester, had, in 1824, recourse to a second subscription to purchase a life annuity for him, which produced L.63 per annum. amount raised for this purpose was collected in small sums, from one to ten pounds, some of which were contributed by the Swiss and French spinners, who acknow The ledged his merits and pitied his misfortunes. At the same time, his portrait was engraved for his benefit, and a few impressions were disposed of. [A very striking print of him is given in Baines' book, already referred to.] He enjoyed the small annuity only two years. He died January 26, 1827, in the 74th year of his age, leaving his daughter, his affectionate housekeeper, in poverty." NOTES BY A BIOGRAPHY READER. THE INDUSTRY OF GENIUS. Who, we should like to know, was more laborious than Sir Walter Scott? Are the "Waverley Novels" not a monument of his industry? And then his miscellaneous prose writings, of course they were not written by machinery. He wrote a few poems also, but, perhaps, these won't count! He was one of the clerks of the Court of Session too, but that was trifling. And then in addition to these, he was one of the partners of a great printing office. He was pestered night and day also by correspondence. He had, we dare to say, letters from half the needy authors of Great Britain, asking advice and assistance. He was a country gentleman, and had his property to superintend. He was for years the lion of society, and saw more company, perhaps, and was at more parties, and attended more public meetings, than any man of his day. Verily, his life was no sinecure. Speaking of Sir Walter Scott very naturally brings us in remembrance of another industrious author, the Ettrick Shepherd. Surely none will doubt his industry. He wrote for everything and for everybody. Essays for weekly periodicals, and tales for monthly ones; treatises on sheep, and long poems about long pilgrimages to the sun; sketches for the newspapers of the day, and novels for those who could afford to buy them. Like more commonplace men, too, he had other duties. He was married, and had a family. But whether married or single, shepbeen a man of hard untiring industry. herd or farmer, his written works show him to have Of the living authors of the present time, especially of the novelists, there is little cause to complain. The female writers, in particular, appear to be trying who can write most. Mrs Gore, Mrs Howitt, Mrs Ellis, and Mrs Johnstone, are ceaseless in their endeavours to cater for the public. What a pity, we often think, that the latter named lady confines her writings so much to the periodicals. What a great treat would be a three-volumed novel, all at once, from the all-accomplished Mistress Margaret Dods. We have no hesitation in saying, that her labours in periodical literature are equal to about seventy novel volumes a year. There is industry! To gain some MEN of genius, according to Mr Gilfillan, the author idea of what Mrs Gore and the Howitts (William of a "Gallery of Literary Portraits," are very much and Mary) do, it is only necessary to look occasionakin to their neighbours in regard to industry, indo- ally at the newspapers. Seldom a week passes that lence, vanity, irritability, poverty, and the many other there is not a new announcement from one or the "ills that flesh is heir to." That is to say, that they other of them. G. P. R. James is a frightful are, in a great measure, just like their more prosaic "shedder of ink." Catch him idle. Some person brethren who are busily engaged in trade and com- once said, that he was so accustomed to write, that he merce. There can be little doubt about the truth could never stop; and that, sleeping or waking, it was of the observation. Some authors are remarkable all the same: write he must; and in sooth, one for their industry and economy of time, and others would suppose it was quite true. Biographies, are less so. It is the same in trade. We may take novels, or essays for periodicals, are all the same to it for granted, that in all cases where men arrive at G. P. R. James. He dabbles in everything. Poor distinguished excellence, either in the world of let- man! we are afraid it is quite a steam-leg case. ters or in the world of trade, labour-much labour-"What a terrible fellow that Jerrold is," said a friend must have been employed. In fact, a prodigious deal of nonsense has been written in regard to the peculiarities of men of genius, and much has been said, in particular, about their laziness. It is all humbug. "The richest land will not yield corn without tillage and seedsowing on the contrary," says Mr Cromwell, in his Essay on Genius, "it will be possessed by weeds, whose number and luxuriance will be in exact correspondence with its native fertility. So genius will Lord of ours one day: "why, he's never done writing. task was his defence of the unfortunate Queen Caroline! 66 And the classics-what about them? Hear Gilfillan :-" Homer seems to have been as active as most ballad-singers; and verily their trade is no sinecure. Eschylus was a tragedian, a leader of armies, and a writer of ninety plays. Demosthenes talked perpetually; and to talk at his pitch for a lifetime was something. Pindar added the activity of an Olympic jockey to the fury of a Pythoness. Virgil polished away all his life, and the labour of the file is no trifle. On what subject has Cicero not | written? And an encyclopediast is not thought the most indolent of animals. Horace, we admit, was indolent. Not so Lucretius, who, besides other things, was at the pains of building up an entire system of the universe in a long and lofty poem.' Talking of Horace,-De Quincey, in a recent number of Tait's Magazine, thinks Gilfillan quite wrong in his admission of Horace's idleness. Mr De Quincey says, that although he wrote less than Lucretius, yet he bestowed much more pains upon what he did do. "The curiosa felicitas of Horace in his lyrical compositions, the elaborate delicacy of workmanship in his thoughts and in his style, argue," says De Quincey, "a scale of labour that, as against any equal number of lines in Lucretius, would measure itself by months against days. There are single odes in Horace that must have cost him a six weeks' seclusion from the wickedness of Rome." De Quincey is right. A man's industry is not according to the size of his produce, but according to the amount of time, labour, and thought he bestowed upon it. Let us back to " Old England." Shakspeare, "the immortal bard," the swan of Avon, wrote thirty plays before he was fifty. Who wrote more than Dryden? Milton was a working man; feeling himself always in the eye of his great task-master, labour was to him a thing to love. The author of Robinson Crusoe, as well as being a most active citizen, was a most voluminous writer, both of novels and other works. Pope was a great polisher of his writings. It is said of him that "he wrote much, but polished more." Goldsmith must write, if from nothing else but vanity and desire of praise. Cowper never was indolent, except when in a fit of derangement. "Byron had all the activity of a scalded fiend." Wordsworth has been called indolent. He has, however, written "The Recluse ;" and it is long since Jeffrey sought for a "powerful calculus" to compute its colossal magnitude. Southey was the most regularly industrious man of his day. Coleridge was of an indolent constitution; and yet, besides talking incessantly, he wrote a great deal. "Shelley gave himself no rest till his glorious eyes were shut, and his warm heart hushed in death. He had drank poison, and he slept no more." Robert Burns wrote a very great deal; and, in addition, he was a farmer and an exciseman. Allan Cunningham, besides writing many volumes of novels and biography, was, for a number of years, foreman to Sir Francis Chantrey, the eminent sculptor, and his duties in this establishment were far from being light. In a preceding number of the "Torch," our readers got some idea of the industry of J. C. Loudon, whose widow, also an authoress, we are glad to perceive Sir Robert Peel has rewarded with a pension of L.100 per annum. Dante, the author of the "Divine Commedia," the lover of the blue-eyed Lady Bice, had too restless a soul for an indolent man. Petrarch, Boccacio, Tasso, Metastasio, and Alfieri, were all of them hard-working men. The number and elegance of finish of | their works, is good evidence of the fact. Luiz de Camoens, the "warrior bard," the poet of Portugal, is a striking example of the hardships that men of genius occasionally endure. His life was a great series of privation and labour. Erasmus wrote a book on a journey. All the great painters have been great workers; and those amongst them who have achieved the most fame, have been the greatest. We may merely mention Caravaggio, Salvator Rosa, Raffaelle, Titian, and Murillo, as examples. Neither have our modern artists been triflers away of their time. How many hours of hard and persevering labour had Wilkie to endure before his native talent, displayed in a shop window at Charing Cross, called the attention of the public to his genius? We might enumerate numerous other painters of eminence, whose road to fame has been rough enough. These are but a few instances of the industry of men of genius. Many more could be cited, but, for the present, we conclude. ON THE PRICE OF MONEY. "There is no contract, public or private; no engagement, national or individual, which is unaffected by the exchange. The enterprises of commerce, the profits of trade, the arrangements to be made in all the domestic relations of society; the wages of labour, the transactions of the highest amount and of the lowest ; the payment of the national debt, the provision for the national expenditure on the one hand and the command which the coin of the smallest denominatian has over the necessaries of life, on the other are all affected by it."-Sir Robert Peel. THERE is no subject on which more misconception exists than on Foreign Exchanges; and although all who read the earnest words of the Premier above quoted will admit that the matter is of grave and personal import, yet their perception of this is vague and indefinite, and many give their assent to the soundness of what Sir Robert says, without really knowing what is implied in his warning words. This should not be. The foreign exchanges are understood by those who have practically to do with them, and we do not see why they should not popularly be understood as well as other technical topics. There is nothing inherently difficult in the subject; and if such of our readers as do not understand it will give us their attention for a few minutes, we think we shall, with the assistance of an article from the Companion to the British Almanac, be able to make the preliminary points so plain, that they have only to go to a regular treatise on political economy, in order to master the subject thoroughly. Suppose that A, a grocer in London, buys figs from B, a fruit-merchant in Spain, to the amount of one hundred pounds. In due course B has to be paid, and A can pay him only in one of three ways. 1. He can send goods in exchange. 2. He can send a bill of exchange. 3. He can send 100 sovereigns, technically called bullion. If B wants none of the goods that A can send him, the first plan must be abandoned. The third is a plain simple method, but it is liable to two objections; the carriage is expensive, and the risk is so great that recourse must be had to insurance, which of course increases the cost of transit. Say that freight and insurance were to cost L.3, it would evidently be desirable to remit by a bill of exchange, if that could be done for L.1. But what is a bill of exchange? It is this. A has a neighbour, C, a leather-merchant, who has sent leather to the value of one hundred pounds to D, a second party in Spain. C of course draws on D for the amount; but as he is about to send the bill to his banker, A steps in the price of his figs be raised. Whoever, then, sweats a sovereign, or clips a shilling, may enrich himself, but he clearly robs some other man; and if he practises his roguery to a great extent, he impoverishes his country by raising prices. The effect of degrading the coinage of the realm was strikingly illustrated in the time of Henry VIII. and his successor, Edward VI., the former monarch having depreciated the value of the currency by an undue admixture of alloy. It is stated in a pamphlet written at the time, "that there began to be some disorder in the price of all wares and commodities." This was farther increased by Edward VI., who diminished still more the quantity of pure silver in each coin, and the consequence was, that the English pound sterling, which heretofore exchanged abroad for twenty-six Flemish schillings, became worth no more than thirteen Flemish schillings," the price of English commodities being at the same time proportionally increased. When settlement of a foreign account can be accomplished by a bill of exchange, such as we have mentioned, at a cheaper rate than it could be done by sending gold or silver, the exchange is said to be in favour of this country; in other words, the exports of Britain exceed the imports to such an extent, that debts due by (i. e. bills due by) foreign merchants can readily be got at a small premium. But if, on the other hand, Britain should buy more from, than she sells to, foreign countries, then the exchange must be against her; and if she can buy In the reign of William III. the silver coin had bills at all, it must be at a high premium, for the become depreciated, owing to wear and tear, and simple reason, that foreign merchants owing us little fraudulent clipping, more than 25 per cent., and the or nothing, we cannot purchase claims against them consequence was, that the nominal exchange bewherewith to settle individual obligations. Bills of tween England and Holland was 25 per cent. against exchange being thus unprocurable, we must remit England when the real exchange was at par. Beby bullion; and if the remittances are heavy, there fore the reformation of our gold coinage in 1774, will be a scarcity of coinage money at home, and a the guinea contained so much less than its standard consequent pressure in the money-market. Bank weight as to be degraded from 2 to 3 per cent. when notes represent money within a country, so long as compared with the current French coins; and the the party issuing them is solvent; but if that party exchange between England and France was comcannot, when required, meet all demands in coin, or puted to be 2 or 3 per cent. nominally against this other property convertible into it, their notes are country. Upon the improvement of the gold coin worth as little as the promissory-notes of a private the exchange rose to par. The Turkish government, bankrupt. The mere possession of bank notes does in the course of the last forty years, have made not prevent a monitory or bullion panic, any more three great alterations depreciating the intrinsic than an over-stock of unsaleable goods will prevent value of their coins. Before these frauds were coma shopkeeper, who has sunk his capital in buying mitted, the Turkish piastre contained nearly as much them, from being pinched for ready money. A drain silver as the English half-crown; and in exchange of specie on this country consequently shows, that the par was estimated at eight piastres to the pound the balance of trade is against us-that we have to sterling. But the consequence of these adulterations buy more than we have to sell-and that having to has been the reduction of the silver in the piastre buy that more with the only kind of money which to one-half, and a fall in the exchange of one huna foreign country will equitably take, namely, specie, dred per cent. Bills on London have been bought of which we are short, it follows that prices in this in Turkey at the rate of sixteen piastres for every country must rise. To obviate such a difficulty as pound sterling. This was several years ago; but it this, the new currency regulations provide, that the shows distinctly the effect of a depreciation of the amount of the circulating medium is to fluctuate currency on the nominal exchange. Although it in accordance with the exchange; that is to say, may not be certain that this great fluctuation in the when an adverse exchange occurs, with a demand exchange was entirely to be attributed to the defor gold to export, that gold is to be taken from the preciation of the coin, because the balance of trade circulation of the country, which will consequently as regarded England and Turkey may have had some be reduced exactly in proportion to the foreign de-effect; yet "the exact correspondence of the fall of mand. The effects which are expected to follow are an increase in the rate of discount and interest; a fall in the price of goods; a decreased importation of those commodities which can only be imported at a profit while prices here are high: an increased exportation of commodities at the reduced prices; a consequent increase of foreign bills; diminished exportation of gold, whose place will be supplied by those foreign bills, which will thus turn the exchange. the exchange with the acknowledged depreciation of the coin, shows that it proceeded almost entirely from that cause." We have mentioned that the value of foreign currencies is ascertained by means of the assay; but as it would be very expensive and troublesome if and a every merchant was obliged to discover the purity of foreign coins by actual experiment, tables are published, which have been prepared with great accuracy, and supply the required information. Sir Isaac Newton, when Master of the Mint, caused the principal coins in Europe to be assayed, and their values ascertained. His tables were published in 1719, by order of the Privy Council, and were for a long period taken as a guide by the exchange and bullion merchants. But since their publication so many changes have taken place, that further assays became necessary; and of those which have been made the tables of Dr Kelly, published in his "Universal Cambist," are perhaps the most accurate and It will not do, as some have imagined it would, to debase the coinage; because, whatever name we may give our coins, their exact worth in foreign countries is the precise quantity of pure metal that they contain, the same being valued at the current market price. Thus, if our sovereigns only contained as much gold as we say a half sovereign contains, then if A had to remit in specie for his figs, he would have to remit two hundred instead of one hundred sovereigns, and in that proportion would ECONOMY AND EDUCATION IN FAMILIES. THE Word Economy, like a great many others, has, in its application, been very much abused. It is generally used as if it meant parsimony, stinginess, or niggardliness; and, at best, merely the refraining from expending money. Hence misers and close-fisted men disguise their propensity and conduct under the name of economy; whereas the most liberal disposition, a disposition precisely the contrary of that of the miser, is perfectly consistent with economy. ECONOMY means management, and nothing more; and it is generally applied to the affairs of a house and family, which affairs are an object of the greatest importance, whether as relating to individuals or to a nation. A nation is made powerful and to be honoured in the world, not so much by the number of its people as by the ability and character of that people; and the ability and character of a people depend, in a great measure, upon the economy of the several families, which, all taken together, make up the nation. There never yet was, and never will be, a nation permanently great, consisting, for the greater part, of wretched and miserable families. In every view of the matter, therefore, it is desirable, that the families of which a nation consists should be happily off; and as this depends, in a great degree, upon the management of their concerns, the present work is intended to convey, to the families of the labouring classes in particular, such information as I think may be useful with regard to that management. I lay it down as a maxim, that for a family to be happy, they must be well supplied with food and raiment. It is a sorry effort that people make to persuade others, or to persuade themselves, that they can be happy in a state of want of the necessaries of life. The doctrines which fanaticism preaches, and which teach men to be content with poverty, have a very pernicious tendency, and are calculated to favour tyrants by giving them passive slaves. To live well, to enjoy all things that make life pleasant, is the right of every man who constantly uses his strength, judiciously and lawfully. It is to blaspheme God to suppose that he created men to be miserable, to hunger, thirst, and perish with cold, in the midst of that abundance which is the fruit of their own labour. Instead, therefore, of applauding “happy poverty," which applause is so much the fashion of the present day, I despise the man that is poor and contented; for such content is a certain proof of a base disposition, a disposition which is the enemy of all industry, all exertion, all love of independence. Let it be understood, however, that, by poverty, I mean real want, a real insufficiency of the food and raiment and lodging necessary to health and decency; and not that imaginary poverty, of which some persons complain. The man who, by his own and his family's labour, can provide a sufficiency of food and raiment, and a comfortable dwelling place, is not a poor man. There must be different ranks and degrees in every civil society, and, indeed, so it is even amongst the savage tribes. There must be different degrees of wealth; some must have richer than the least rich. But it is necessary to the very more than others; and the richest must be a great deal existence of a people, that nine out of ten should live wholly by the sweat of their brow; and, is it not degrading to human nature, that all the nine-tenths should be called poor; and, what is still worse, call themselves poor, and be contented in that degraded state? The laws, the economy, or management, of a state may be such as to render it impossible for the labourer, however skilful and industrious, to maintain his family in been the management of the affairs of this once truly health and decency; and such has, for many years past, great and happy land. A system of paper-money, the effect of which was to take from the labourer the half of his earnings, was what no industry and care could make head against. I do not pretend that this system was adopted by design. But, no matter for the cause; such was the effect. Better times, however, are approaching. The labourer now appears likely to obtain that hire of which he is worthy; and, therefore, this appears to me to be the time to press upon him the duty of using his best exertions for the rearing of his family in a manner that must give him the best security for happiness to himself, his wife and children, and to make him, in all respects, what his forefathers were. The people of England have been famed, in all ages, for their good living; for the abundance of their food, and goodness of their attire. The old sayings about English roast beef and plum-pudding, and about English hospitality, had not their foundation in nothing. And, in spite of all refinements of sickly minds, it is abundant living amongst the people at large, which is the great test of good government, and the surest basis of national greatness and security. If the labourer have his fair wages; if there be no false weights and measures, whether of money or of goods, by which he is defrauded; if the laws be equal in their effect upon all men, if he be called upon for no more than his due share of the expenses necessary to support the government and defend the country, he has no reason to complain. If the largeness of his family demand extraordinary labour and care, these are due from him to it. He is the cause of the existence of that family; and, therefore, he is not, except in cases of accidental calamity, to throw upon others the burden of supporting it. Besides, "little children are as arrows in the hands of the giant, and blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them." This is to say, children, if they bring their cares, bring also their pleasures and solid advantages. They become, very soon, so many assistants and props to the parents, who, when old age comes on, are amply repaid for all the toils and all the cares that children have occasioned in their infancy. To be without sure and safe friends in the world makes life not worth having; and whom can we be so sure of as of our children? Brothers and sisters are a mutual support. We see them, in almost every case, grow up into prosperity, when they act the part that the impulses of nature prescribe. When cordially united, a father and sons, or a family of brothers and sisters, may, in almost any state of life, set what is called misfortune at defiance. These considerations are much more than enough to sweeten the toils and cares of parents, and to make them regard every additional child as an additional blessing. But that children may be a blessing, and not a curse, care must be taken of their education. This word has, of late years, been so perverted, so corrupted, so abused in its application, that I am almost afraid to use it here. Yet I must not suffer it to be usurped by cant and tyranny. I must use it; but not without clearly saying what I mean. Education means breeding up, bringing up, or rearing up; and nothing more. This includes every thing with regard to the mind as well as the body of a child; but, of late years, it has been so used as to have no sense applied to it but that of book-learning, with which, nine times out of |