ones, are already gathered round the table; and thus assured that all is right, she gives a kiss round, and hurries again down stairs to the dining-room, to see that nothing is wanting to the comfort of the dinner table. At the instant that all is ready, and the last dish on the table, her husband comes in, and folds her in his arms, and says, with such emphasis as to be a sign of pregnant truth, Home, Juliet, home! May God grant that in the time coming many wanting it may have one like thisfor good homes make great men-peaceful and cheerful hearths, the purest patriotism, the best of public virtues." The plain, unostentatious, almost frugal dinner is soon over, the little ones are brought down, baby and all; when these have spent their much counted-on half hour, they are dismissed to bed, the boy and a little sister, a year older than himself, alone remaining she being privileged to sit upon papa's knee, and sitting with her arms about his neck, whispers her baby love. Sitting thus, the grave, stern, taciturn man of the day, who directs the enormous power of half-a-million of capital, (a capital so rapidly increasing, as to be necessarily before long, the most splendid power which sensible co-operation has yet created,) who uses those concreted, sacred, honest, mighty pennies of near three thousand capitalists, with the same pregnant interest, for a present and a future, as if they were his own, (and this is truth,) who directs the movements of a thousand workmen, who is laying forth plans for the employment of as many more, who is carrying onward moreover a connection between the increase of capital and moral and social progress, and who, in thus endeavouring to solve the great problem between capital and labour, has to watch the details of a hundred affecting, though minor agents, looks as free from vain-glory or self-sufficiency as his artless children, or as in those days when he made nails in Willenhall for so much a score, and was nothing more than John Ashmore the parish apprentice. No! no change is in the sterling heart of the man, though much in manner. He is no coarse demagogue whom wealth or popularity blinds and brutalizes; who is so absorbed by the magnificence of self, as to be regardless of real self-respect, or the feelings of others; but guided by nature he has striven to be a gentleman, grave, courteous, self-reliant; as much without sycophancy as without rudeness. He has succeededand as he sits here with his little children, few would think that the plain, unadorned, though well-dressed man before them, is one who has fought with, and triumphed over a rugged destiny, and now leads the way to make it clearer for those who are fighting, and have yet to fight. In Juliet there is little change beyond that of wearing a matronly look; all else is just the same as when she strove to win the love of the plain, resolute, iron-souled artisan; by this she shows her knowledge of retaining love. When people talk to her about dressing for a party, a dinner, or a ball, she answers, "Well! this is easy to me. I have but to put on a gayer gown, for I dress my hair every day to meet my husband at his dinner-hour, as if he were my newest guest." This is true, and as she now bends towards her boy, to answer some question he puts to her, the strong fire-light gleams upon her beautiful hair, and tinges with its brightness the flitting tints and many-coloured hues which fall around. This beauty as she stoops her husband sees, and though he speaks not as he glances down, yet is his soul touched with this silent homage to his love; and in her plain but carefully arranged dress, rich, as it ought to be, but perfectly unobtrusive, he sees further consideration of his wishes, unspoken though they have been, at least with regard to this point, that nothing around him, or about him, shall betoken a vulgar display of wealth, other than what dignifies and graces a position of directing genius. Tea over, Juliet consults the time-piece, and then opening a side door, leads the way into another and smaller chamber, where light and warmth are equally cheerful as in the one just left, wheels up an easy chair, places her husband's papers and books at his side, as is customary on these evenings, and then withdraws when he is comfortably seated with little Rosalind on his knee. She soon returns, however, dressed in her cloak and bonnet, and with the boy just carefully coated by Amy, caresses Rosalind, and hurries to the carriage which waits at the door precisely as the clock strikes seven from some neighbouring steeple. Driven for about a quarter of a mile towards Birmingham, it turns down a lane, and stops before a long range of iron palisading. Here she alights, and passing with her boy through the gate which the coachman opens, she reaches a somewhat tasteful building, though not one of very large dimensions. It has two long rows of oval windows running from end to end; the lower of which, brilliantly lighted from within, throw out their graceful shapes apon the snow, which though lying thick around, does not wholly hide the grass plot and shrubs of a pretty surrounding garden. Knocking, as any stranger would, Mrs. Ashmore is admitted into a wide well-lighted passage, from thence into a large room to the right, where are collected forty-five to fifty young unmarried women, employed in some of the departments of the Joint-Stock Iron Company's Works, with which is now incorporated the late Mr. Taverner's brass-foundry. They are variously employed. Some are seated sewing round a wide table, at the head of which presides our old friend Hannah, the schoolmaster's wife, now a widow, and superintendent of this home. Others are reading, others practising drawing or flower painting, so as to be able to advance a step at the "works," where many new artistic processes are now carried on, but most are employed in some homely substantial work, such as coat repairing, and trowser and shirt making, at a certain scale of prices for the young unmarried operatives employed by the Company. For John Ashmore, learning, through the miserable experience of his youth, how many of the severest evils of the masses grow out of woman's ignorance of domestic economy and management, instituted this home in 1870, the year after his marriage; the Joint-Stock Iron Company building the house, furnishing it, providing a matron or superintendent, and board, lodging, washing for the young women, and conveyance to and fro to their shops and foundries in a covered omnibus, at a certain fixed charge per week in the form of rent. Thus with fifty inmates-the usual average-ten, by rotation, perform all the household duties, such as brewing, baking, washing, and cooking; the three former, not solely for themselves, but also for the Young Men's Home," carried on upon the same system, in an appropriate building in the town, and on the Company's premises. Thus, in five weeks, the whole have gone through the routine of a week's domestic life and its duties; and to obviate all difficulties on the score of earnings, the "home week" is found the most profitable to each individual, by reason of the division, according to diligence and work done, of the profits arising out of the duties already mentioned. And so highly prized is this "home week," that almost all consider it a holiday. The forty otherwise employed have only been home from the shop about an hour, but they have already had tea, smartened up their hair and dress, as is the rule, and are occupied as we describe. Two evenings a week a master attends to give such as require it plain instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, none being allowed to be thus far ignorant; but beyond this, there is no vain attempt to make them accomplished, but rather serviceable in their probable future homes as the wives of mechanics. Few have ambition beyond this sound common sense point; but there are exceptions. Some, with a great natural love for art, do not care for the amusement of, or the earnings of the needle, but saving carefully from their weekly wages, attend certain evenings a week the Company's private School of Design, and now practise what they thus learn. One or two, with an equal taste for music, take lessons in singing, and practise together of leaves and plants as the fields and hedge-rows in the winter yield. in a room allotted for the purpose, and share in the concerts now and then given by the Company. Others have a taste for reading, and pursue it diligently. When Mrs. Ashmore has gone round the pleasant dormitories up stairs with Hannah, and seen some improvements made since her last visit, she goes through the laundry and the pantries and the dairy, takes much interest, and makes many inquiries as to the domestic labours of the week, and then returning to the cheerful, well-lighted sitting room, looks round at the workwomen, suggesting this thing to one and to another, but with no air of the Lady Bountiful, but just as a mother to children less instructed than herself. She feels and knows, and has learnt from her great-minded husband, that the penny of honest labour is as noble as the pound; that the horny hand which earns it is as sacred in its independence as the silken one which derives it from another kind or degree of labour. No! no patronage; the hand or head which honestly exerts its power, has no right to bestow or to ac-art, a comer-in, or looker-on, would scarcely think her cept any sign or token of the slave. The only thing which asks, and should have worship, is intellectual power, when nobly used in the service of God and man. And yet, though Juliet Ashmore does not say, "I am the wife and companion of your great leader, your teacher, your capitalist, your master;" or, "I am better taught, or better bred, and have known no life but one of easy affluence:" yet, never once is passed the line of demarcation which education fitly draws. There is respect without familiarity. Sitting down for a few minutes beside one of the young women busily painting a group of flowers, Mrs. Ashmore bids another less busy to go and ask her coachman for a small carriage basket, and this being brought, she takes from it a few choice geranium blossoms which she cut from the greenhouse this very afternoon. These are laid beside the painter's pallet, and then a lesson given as to their introduction into the designer's group, as yet rather dull for want of brighter tints. From this basket comes out too, some patterns of various sorts of needlework, some few articles of unmade clothing, as a job for the needle-women, and some numbers of new periodicals for the readers. These kindly distributed, she withdraws, and proceeds in her carriage to the town. The carriage is not long in arriving at its destination in the heart of the town, where the Company's great workshops and foundries, now permanently united with those of the late Mr. Taverner, cover a large and spacious area. Here alighting, Mrs. Ashmore and her child, preceded by one of the Company's servants, cross a hall of immense height, into a large and very handsome chamber, so curiously decorated and fitted up, as would at once arrest the attention of a stranger. It may be called a "Botanical chamber," as it often is, being devoted to the designers, students, and apprentices, who follow out this division of metallurgic art. Such an artistic subdivision as this could only be carried on through the means of great capital, for the purposes of what such subdivision serves, namely, perfection as a final result. But in the minute subdivision of this middle course, unity of perfection, which is thus aimed at as the great result, is not forgotten as the commencement; but through the aid of classes for mathematics and geometrical forms, the same primary course of culture is open to the young artisan, leaving his own taste and natural inclination to afterwards pursue the branch of art most congenial to himself. From the advanced wall of this room are hung vast diagrams painted on canvass, finely coloured sketches of rare foreign plants, cases, enclosed in frames, of dried flowers, and finely preserved specimens of fossil plants, gigantic ferns, and the curious twisted stems of tropical trees. The baize-covered tables, on either side the room, are enriched by more than one hortus siccus, many large-sized, and richly-coloured, botanical works; whilst heaped upon others, are such natural specimens There may be fifty or sixty students and apprentices in this room as Mrs. Ashmore enters, and returning their respectful recognition of her presence, by a graceful acknowledgment, she modestly takes her place at one of the least conspicuous of the tables, after she has led and left her little son, in a small inner room at the end of this, where a master has a class of little lads three nights a week-the children of the founders and others,— to instruct in the first easy rudiments of geometry; and in this class William Ashmore is a pupil these same two nights a week his mother presides over the artistic department connected with the study of British plants. Her class is soon formed, some twenty scholars perhaps in all, and sitting simply here, bonnet and cloak laid aside, as earnest as if she were the receiver of the benefits conferred, by her own elegant taste for floral other than a worker amongst the workers. This is the great point which John Ashmore has wished to carry out; the noble claim of labour to instruction, and more genial intercourse between the employers and creators of capital, as things of vast importance to the course of civilization and order. Since the formation of this class, five years ago, she has not only enabled several pupils to undertake higher branches of art, but enabled them to produce some designs so perfect, particularly in connection with light columnar work, as to have far surpassed anything yet effected in this department of metallurgic art. Yet there are rudimentary pupils too, those colouring their first leaf, or drawing their first stalk; but with all she is equally patient, down to the bashful lad of eight or ten, who, as she stoops and praises his lesson, half thrusts his hands into hers, to thank her as if she was his mother. The lesson over, and some directions given to the presiding master, Juliet Ashmore looks through the adjoining chambers, where the various classes of the week are being held. Here in some she sees the magnificent drawings of the higher class of designers and students, such as those who are striking out newer combinations and uses. Here, the outlines of marine animals of gigantic mould, as designs for the sea-walls of docks, breakwaters and bridge-piers, winged and colossal sphynxes, and great outstanding shapes of newer form, with which to crest the piers of vast tubular railways thrown across rivers and arms of the sea, and designs for cast iron lightho ses and coast beacons; and there, suggestive decorations public and other buildings. At length, after passing through five or six rooms, she seeks the smaller one, in which is her little son, quite proud in having reached the top of his class, all but two. When she has addressed most of the other children with respect to some domestic point interesting to each, she takes her boy's hand and inquires about his little lesson. "Very excellent, indeed!" says the master, who has a mild winning manner, though he is a great disciplinarian. "He "I sincerely hope so," replies Juliet, gravely. being my son, Mr. Seymour, must not influence you in the least. If old Mr. Field's grandson Joe, or little Walter Allison, be better or more diligent scholars than William, let such superiority appear, for he must learn betimes that it is not position or money, but industry and intellect, which make great men." "Ay, but I do love my lessons, mamma," replies William, "as well as Joe Field or Edward Allison here, and intend to learn, so as to be able to carry on papa's great Shropshire forge, one day." His mother smiles, and stooping, kisses him; and then, bidding the rest of the little scholars and the schoolmaster "good night," takes him by the hand and retires. As she crosses the hall, led by the same servant of the Company as ushered her in, a man advanced in years, and country; but, without one word of refusal, Juliet leaves her boy in the carriage, and descending, follows the young artisan to his humble door. A good fire burns in the little kitchen; it is decently furnished, and all wears an aspect of thrift and cleanliness. Following the nurse up stairs, Mrs. Ashmore finds the young mother and her new-born baby snugly curtained within a comfortable bed. The pale young thing feebly, though gladly, stretches out her hand. having the look of a respectable operative, issues from a side door, and speaking a few words, opens it again for her to enter into a sort of committee room, where the Board of Daily Management hold their meetings. All rising as she enters, the chairman, who is no other than our old friend Robert Field, looking hale and well in spite of seventy years, places a chair for her by his side, and after she is seated, he reads sume letters which have been received since Mr. Ashmore's departure at four o'clock, making an official communication, through the Secretary of State, that the attention of the Government having been directed to the remarkable moral, sanitary, and material improvement of the town of Birmingham and of a large portion of its operative classes, owing, as it is alleged, to the carrying out the Joint-Stock principle in regard to collective savings, and its application to the purposes of trade, and the progress of metallurgic art, Three Commissioners have been appointed to visit the dis-own was when I was a little child. For you see thrifty trict, not only for the object of inquiring into the principles and working out of the same, but also with the view, should the inquiry prove satisfactory, of recommending an entire revision of the law affecting Partnerships, so as to enable the less adventurous or thrifty operatives in other large towns to carry out the principle of co-operation in a like direction. As he thus reads the Government letters, old Robert Field's voice falters audibly, for the moment is one of intense pride and satisfaction to himself, not only because the Government thus wisely recognises the healthy, moral, and industrial progress of its citizens, but because the working classes have thus practically demonstrated the majestic power of the resources they can command by a rigid adherence to industry and sobriety. But a grander and a more solemn thing than even this, is the testimony which it bears to the worth of John Ashmore, and his magnificent and honourable counsels. "Oh! madam," says the old man, when he has read the official letter; "how proud we ought to be, that such a man has sprung from up amongst us as thy husband! So great, and good, and accessible, and rightly proud in his simple and unostentatious life, as to make those who well remember him thirty years ago, still recognise him as the man of great purposes, if of few words, for so he has proved himself to us and ours. Convey this letter, therefore, to him, madam, with our best and proudest thanks." Juliet is too moved to speak, but bowing her thanks, she gathers up the letters and retires, for it is a proud moment to her this, to have her husband's worth recognised on every side. Her whole thought is to hasten home, to kneel down before him, to press into his hand this proof of his great and fruitful labours; and loving him with almost sacred reverence, to make her bless the hour her own true woman's nature prompted her to value the genius and honest upright nature of the earnest, uncompromising, artisan. She is doomed, however, not to reach home so soon as she can wish. In passing through one of the narrow streets which lead to the suburbs of the town, a young artizan, who has been watching for a long time at the corner of a street still narrower, which runs into this one, hails the coachman, and coming up to the window as the carriage stops, addresses Mrs. Ashmore respectfully, as recognizing his face she lets down the window. He is one of the Company's best workmen, who married last year a young woman also engaged in the works, and one in whom Mrs. Ashmore was greatly interested. "Pardon me, madam," he says respectfully; "but my Mary got safely through her trouble an hour ago, with a little son; as this, she knew, was your night of going to the works, she has begged me to come up the street and ask you, if you have no objection, just to step to our house and see the baby; it will go half way to cure her, she is sure." It is a cold night, as I have said, and the snow begins to sweep again over the town, from the more open "I am so glad to see you ma'am," she says, "for in times like these, when one lies between life and death, past good and evil come to our hearts as if they were fresh things; so, when I thought of you, and all you taught me about home ways, and what my duties ought to be when I became a mother, my heart yearned to tell you, dear lady, all it felt, and what a different sort of home, what you've taught, has made mine, to what my husbands, like my Richard, can afford to keep his wife at home, to make it comfortable." "Well, Mary, thrift and knowledge are good things for all of us. Now, do not talk more, but let the nurse show me the baby; and recollect, as soon as you are well it will be time for you to move into the Company's new lodging-house, which I learn to-night is ready. Now, take care of yourself, and I will come and see you in a day or two.' After taking the baby into her arms, and kissing it, Mrs. Ashmore kindly bids the young wife "good night," and addressing a few cheerful words to the young husband in the kitchen below, hastens to her carriage, and is driven rapidly home. She finds her husband absorbed in some abstract papers, and Rosalind asleep upon his knee. When the children have gone for the night, she broaches the subject at her heart to her husband. He receives the news like one who expected it, or as one who only receives an acknowledgment already due. "But, dearest husband," says Juliet, somewhat surprised by his calm, grave manner, "Governments have hitherto been so slow to recognise great moral progress in their people, or the grandeur of intellectual success, as surely to allow us to take this recognition with some degree of gratulation." "If you will, sweet wife; but the position between the governing and governed is a changing thing; respect is taking the place of patronage, and good effects must grow out of this. Now, let me see these letters." He opens several letters, and presently reads some portion of one, which is to this effect : "That the aforesaid Three Commissioners are deputed to enquire verbally from all parties concerned, but chiefly from the principal Director of the Joint-Stock Company, the mode in which the capital was raised; the sums collected; under what form of joint-stock association such capital has been invested and used; whether under a simple form of Partnership, such as that known in France as Societe en nom collectif; or whether such association has been one of limited liability, either as to the limited liability of all the partners, or of some of them only; or whether it is simply a chartered company, trammelled by few regulations, as those of the New England States in America. Also, what is the amount of fixed and floating capital, the number of depositors, the division of profits, and the kind and nature of the publicity given to the Company's affairs; its organization, branches of trades, and the situation of its works; next, the physical, moral, and mental condition of the depositors; and, lastly, the processes of their various operations-chiefly those which bear relation to casting decorative iron-work." "These Commissioners will have a longer task than they are aware of," concludes Ashmore; "the beginning and end of which I suppose must be, that I must give an explanatory sort of address, and take them by night to see our Shropshire forge in work. Till they see that, they will form no idea of the mightiness of co-operative capital." The grandest, most eventful day, which has ever dawned on the great manufacturing town of Birmingham, and the one of most importance to its large operative class, is this, on which her Majesty's three Commissioners are led, after passing the night, and breakfasting at the house of the mayor, through the magnificent wrought-iron gates of the Joint-Stock Company's works, by John Ashmore. In his proud, self-sustaining dignity, the man is a veritable hero; one of the true sort-one of that gigantic brood, whose destiny it is to lead Labour onward to its noblest purposes, through the power of selfcreated capital. Company as a Bank of Deposit, receive that yearly rate of interest the division of profits affords, usually adding the interest so received to the capital invested; by this means yearly increasing both interest and capital, minus a certain sum we each set apart, according in amount to the capital invested, for the purposes of moral, religious, educational, and physical improvement. Now, gentlemen, one thing must be clearly and stringently set down in your report; our capitalists are not, by a majority of more than two-thirds, our (or, I should say, the Company's) workmen. Every brass-founder's, pin, type-casting, silver-plate, and gunsmith's shop in this town has our capitalists among its workmen-men who invest their yearly savings with us, and benefit by our A large number of the capitalists have congregated; skill and commercial prosperity. With regard to our those who are directors, and compose the several com-workmen, all are more or less capitalists; we benefit them mittees, await their arrival in the large Board Room. five per cent. more than others who have simple investThey are all men who, from their years, are evidently ments, by an addition of five per cent. per annum out of the oldest and wealthiest capitalists of the Company. our net profits. Thus our workpeople share our prosAfter some preliminary business, John Ashmore is perity. The mercantile, artistic, engineering departments examined. of our vast business are conducted by separate committees, responsible to the body of directors; whilst the greatest publicity is given to all contracts, liabilities, and other engagements, by making our accounts fully accessible to individuals, so that at any time the existing state of the Company's affairs can be ascertained, thus enabling them to learn whether the capital they may have invested remains unimpaired; the fidelity of such accounts being guarded, as you are well aware, by the stringent legal penalties of the lately-passed law. First Commissioner.-" The number of the shareholders, and the enormous extent of the works, exceedingly surprise me, Mr. Ashmore. Pray, now state, what was the nucleus of this half-million?" Mr. Ashmore." Sixpence; saved by myself at the age of fourteen! This was its germ." (Immense sensation.) Chief Commissioner.-" Pray state your age, and the amount you had saved, when you co-operated with others, and invested these savings." John Ashmore.-"I was nineteen. I had saved £90. This sum, with a small legacy bequeathed to me, and the savings of a few resolute and deep-thinking men, making in the whole a sum not much less than £500, was the capital with which we bought the original portion of these premises, and commenced business. We sunk £300 in the purchase, and had the rest for floating capital." Chief Commissioner.-" Pray proceed, Mr. Ashmore, with your statement as to the form of partnership, and other particulars." 'With regard to the extent of our business, the workshops here will scarcely give you an idea. The amount of our fixed capital is enormous, more than we can accurately state, as we have three slate quarries in Wales, two smelting furnaces in Coalbrookdale, and one in Glamorganshire, a range of warehouses in London, three shops for manufacturing encaustic tiling in Staffordshire, and here, as you have seen, thirty shops, carrying on under their roofs the processes of brass-founding, lacquering, electro-plating, papier maché, chemical preparations, glass-staining and blowing, whilst every cast and design we use is manufactured by ourselves. John Ashmore." You are aware, gentlemen, that the law, with respect to associations of this character, was very defective in 1849, the year of our commencement. "You have seen the condition of our workshops, their After some consideration, this was the plan I pursued, efficient state of warmth, ventilation, and light; our being cognizant of two stringent points; that the ex- regulations for decency and cleanliness, and our entire tension of the co-operative principle was then, as now, separation of the sexes; this the more stringently, as paying the great economical necessity of modern time; and next, married men ample wages, we admit no married women that the progress of the productive arts more and more into our works. Our hours of labour are eight in require that many sorts of industrial occupation should winter and ten in summer. We have a "home" for be carried on by larger and larger capitals. Com- our single workwomen, at least, such as those who have mencing on the principle of limited liability, that is, each no parents or friends to reside with, we have the same capitalist stood exempted from any liability for the for our unmarried operatives; and we have now just debts of the concern beyond the amount of his sub-finished a huge building, capable of containing five scription, we were necessitated to gain a special Act hundred married operatives, their wives and children. of the Legislature, through the intervention of one of our then members of the borough, legalizing our association as a "chartered Company." At the present time, however, through the improvement of the law, our association is of that kind in which the managing partners are responsible with their whole fortunes for the engagements of the concern; those associated with us only contributing definite sums, and are not liable for anything beyond, though they participate in the profits according to the laws of government we have constituted. This form of partnership is called in France en commandite, and the partners with limited means, to whom, by the French law, as it stood in 1849, all interference in the management of the concern was interdicted; though we permit (the improved law leaving us liberty in this respect) interference under certain restrictions. In fact, this form of partnership is the only one which would now fit our large projects. "In this way the matter stands; I, and others, having large capitals, and thus associating together, borrow the capital of the thrifty operatives, and they, using our Chartered With respect to morals, I will guarantee that on these Birmingham works we have not one drunkard, nor one woman of bad character, for I find that our rigid discountenance of early marriages, has in no way diminished the chastity of the female sex. As to social amusements, our Committee of Management countenance them by every means in their power. We have a gymnasium attached to these works; in summer we hold a weekly concert, in winter a weekly ball; and twice a year we have, as far as is possible, a great social gathering of our whole body. And lastly, with respect to education, the primary thing of all. With us, though we assist our schools by grants from our "progress fund," every child's friends or parents pay for its education; we permit no charity; and as we admit no child to labour till it is ten years of age; and after that, till it is fourteen, we continue its education through certain hours of the day, we guarantee sufficient instructional and industrial training. Then, gentlemen, we have an infant school, a primary school, where all receive an equal rudimentary education of the best possible kind; and lastly, our own School of Design, which you have already been pleased to mention so favour ably, will be open in all its great branches for your inspection this evening. To one thing, however, gentlemen, I wish, in concluding, to earnestly direct your attention, so that the vast principle involved may find a favourable and strongly conveyed notice in your Report to Her Most Gracious Majesty. I allude to our mathematical classes. For I believe, (and gentlemen, my belief is that of a practical man,) that not only does our industrial progress require, that the processes of exact truth should become disseminated amongst the masses, but also that their moral and physical progress largely depends upon their comprehension of fixed and unalterable principles. I do not insist that every operative should be a profound mathematician or geometrician, but that he should at least understand those few first principles which are the base of all true knowledge and perfect art. For I agree with a great and modern Englishman in saying, that "So far as civilization is connected with the advance and diffusion of human knowledge, civilization flourishes when the prevalent education is mathematical, and fades when philosophy is the subject most preferred." " "This evidence is most satisfactory, Mr. Ashmore," remarks the chief Commissioner, "but sit down awhile, we can examine Robert Field. I believe that such a Report as we shall make is destined to influence a future age. (To be concluded in our next.) Lessons for Little Ones. THE SCHOOLFELLOWS. THE great clock had struck twelve, and the pupils of the Collegiate School at S. were busily engaged in making the most of their noon-tide hour of leisure. Marbles "Hichory won't tell," said little Frank Turton, "Hichory never tells tales; and if you tell of him, Barton, we will stand up for him. He can't help being humpback, and you ought not to mock at him for it." "Right my boy, right!" exclaimed a pleasant voice behind. They all started, and looked round. It was Mr. Poole, the new usher, who had overheard the last few words of the conversation. He seated himself on a large stone that stood near. "Come," said he, "tell me who you were talking about. Was it poor Edwin Hichory ?" George Barton looked sulky, and would not answer; but the others crowded round the usher, and put him in possession of the cause of dispute. "I am sorry to hear this," said the young man when they had finished. “Though it was wrong in Hichory to strike you, Barton, it was far worse in you to provoke him to do it. His deformity ought to excite your sympathy, never your ridicule. Put yourself for a moment in his place. Had you been afflicted as he is, would you not have considered that you had enough to bear, without becoming the laughing-stock of your companions, for that which was no fault of yours?" Before George could answer, Edwin entered the gate of the play-ground. boy was within hearing; "come here, I want to speak to you. What is all this that I hear about your having "Come here, Hichory," said Mr. Poole, as soon as the struck Barton ?" did it in a passion, and I am now come to beg his "It is quite true, Sir," said the humpback, firmly. "I pardon." and leap-frog were the favourite games, and loud were the shouts and vociferous was the laughter that echoed from one end to the other of the spacious play-ground. A pallid, thoughtful-looking boy, who had been sitting apart absorbed in a book, was aroused from his studies by the merry voices of his companions, and came limping forward to join the party at leap-frog. In addition to his claimed several of the boys, touched by the poor fellow's "No, no, Hichory, he ought to beg your pardon," exlameness, he was much deformed, but this scarcely lessened his activity, and the game proceeded with undi-him long enough, and he deserved what he got. Don't frankness and generosity. "You have been patient with minished spirit. The humpbacked youth was preparing, in his turn, to vault over the back of the boy nearest him, you think so, sir?" when he was startled by a rude peal of laughter almost in his ear, and a well-known and disagreeable voice began in doggrel verse "Humpback, stumpback, hop and go one!" The singer did not complete his stanza, for Edwin Hichory, stung into excessive passion, dealt him suddenly a violent blow in the mouth, and rushed from the playground amidst a roar of laughter, followed by a roar of another kind from his persecutor, who, like all bullies, was a coward as well. The deformed boy had a conscience, and a tender one, and this conscience pricked him sorely as, his first burst of wrath over, he wandered sorrowfully away into the fields. He had been tormented sadly by George Barton; but this, he felt, did not justify him in his revengeful action. His self-respect was wounded; he felt lowered in his own esteem. Had the boys whom he had left behind in the play-ground known the generous heart that lodged in that unsightly form, surely never more would they have treated the despised humpback with contempt. While Edwin Hichory was thus meditating as he walked, his schoolfellows were discussing the late occurrence with some difference of opinion. "I will tell of him, that I will," said George Barton, whose mouth began to feel very uncomfortable. "I won't be struck by a little ugly fellow of a cripple." "But what will you say about the provocation you gave him?" asked Thomas Crowther, a grave, sensible boy, one "No, not exactly that. I am sure Hichory feels that it Barton owes him an apology for the insult he offered was wrong to retaliate in that way. At the same time, him. So, my dear boys, the best way will be for you to shake hands with each other, and mutually forgive and forget." Edwin advanced cordially towards his enemy, and took his hand, which the other suffered, rather than reciprocated. The hour of afternoon school arrived, the great bell rang, and all the boys were soon busy at their tasks. Edwin had made so favourable an impression upon his playmates by his conduct in this affair, that his persecutors ceased to torment him, and even George Barton gave way to the general opinion, and left off his continual taunts and jeers. Towards the end of this truce, George Barton was taken very ill, and had to be removed from school. His disorder proved to be the small-pox, and so frightful were its ravages, that upon his return the next half-year, it was difficult to recognise him. He now, in his turn, became the butt of the maliciously-disposed, and his irritable temper prevented him from bearing their witticisms with any degree of composure. Under these circumstances conscience awoke, and he thought with shame and sorrow upon his treatment of poor Edwin Hichory. The latter had left school during George's illness, and was now apprenticed to a bookseller in 8Here George sought him, and the two afflicted ones became firm friends, while the school-boy learnt many a |