by women, and previously coloured; and they carry on the manufacture at their own homes, having beforehand received instructions from the merchant respecting the quality of the goods he may require, their colours, patterns, &c. After the goods are finished, the merchant carries them to the custom-house, where each shawl is stamped, and pays a certain duty, the amount of which is settled according to the value and quality of the piece. The officer of government generally fixes the value beyond what the goods are in reality worth, and the duty levied on this estimate is one-fifth. Most shawls are exported from Cachmere unwashed, and fresh from the loom. Amritsir is the great shawl mart, and there they are better washed and packed than in Cachmere; but of those sent to the westward, many are worn unwashed.

MANUFACTURE OF DIAPER.

The town of Dunfermline, in Fifeshire, has long been famed for the manufacture of diaper, or table linen. Table cloths are here prepared of almost any length, breadth, and fineness, with whatever coats of arms, or mottos, wrought into them, that may be required. During the last half century, great improvements in weaving this fabric have been made. Formerly, two or three persons attended, and united their labours in the operation of weaving one web; but now, by means of the fly shuttle, and what is called a frame for raising the figure, a single weaver can, without assistance, work a web of two yards and a half in breadth.

The corporation of Dunfermline preserves, as a

singular specimen of ingenuity, a man's shirt wrought in the loom about a hundred years ago, by a weaver of the town, called Inglis. The shirt has no seam ; and every thing was completed without aid from the needle, excepting a button for the neck.

MULEY ISMAEL.

The olive plantations in the provinces of South and West Barbary, do honour to the agricultural taste of the Emperor Muley Ismael. Some of these cover about six square miles of ground; the trees are planted in right lines, at a proper distance; the plantation is interspersed with openings, or squares, to let in the air. These openings are about a square acre in extent. It appears that they were all planted by Muley Ismael, whose indefatigable industry was proverbial. Wherever that warrior (who was always in the field) encamped, he never failed to employ his army in some active and useful operation, to keep them from being devoured by the worm of indolence, as he expressed it. Accordingly, wherever he encamped, we find extensive plantations of olive trees, planted by his troops, which are not only a great ornament to the country, but produce abundance of fine oil. The olive plantations at Ras-el Wed, near Terodant in Suse, are so extensive, that one may travel from the rising to the setting sun, under their shade, without being exposed to the rays of the effulgent African sun.

THE JAPANESE.

As an instance of the industry and activity of the Japanese, it deserves to be mentioned, that they import from the Kurile islands, into the interior of Japan, herrings spoiled by keeping, to serve as manure for the cotton plants. They first boil the herrings in large iron kettles, then put them in presses, and let all the liquid flow into the same kettles, from which they take the oil for their lamps. What remains of the herrings, is spread upon mats, and laid in the sun to dry, till they become almost converted to ashes. They are then filled into sacks, and put on board the boats. The earth round each cotton plant is manured with them, which causes the crop to be extremely abundant.

TURKISH EXACTIONS.

Nothing can be more oppressive, or more likely to cripple industry, than the policy adopted in the Ottoman Empire. The revenues of a certain district, perhaps ten or twelve villages, are to be disposed of. The person who wishes to farm them, after ascertaining their value with all practicable accuracy, goes to a minister, and offers what he thinks proper for the term of one, two, three, or four years. As the government is always indigent, the offer of ready money is generally accepted; and nothing more is required to enable the farmer to exercise unlimited dominion over the district in question, and to augment his revenue by every means of fraud, violence, and

extortion. Thus, what was originally supposed to produce fifteen purses, he perhaps makes to yield forty. The peasantry are thereby ruined; since the farmer must oppress, in order to reimburse himself for his enormous expences, or he must fall. The peasant being rated in proportion to the gross produce of the land he cultivates, cannot possibly do more than glean a scanty subsistence, which may be obtained by slight exertions, and the most wretched system of husbandry; and thus, whilst there is, on the one hand, a strong positive motive to oppress, the stimulus to production on the part of the landholders is the most feeble negative that can be imagined. The practical effects of this system are seen in the depopulation of the country, and the increase of robbers and rebels; the great body of whom it is known are composed of peasantry and other subjects of the Porte, who have been thus stripped of their possessions.

AMERICAN INDIANS.

The first step towards marriage among the American Indians, is a proof of the industry of each party. The parents on both sides having observed an attachment between two young persons, negociate for them. This generally commences from the house where the bridegroom lives, whose mother is the negociatrix for him, and begins her duties by taking a good leg of venison, or bear's meat, or something else of the same kind, to the house where the bride dwells, not forgetting to mention that her son had killed it. In return for this, the mother of the bride, if she other

wise approves of the match, which she well understands by the presents to be intended, will prepare a good dish of victuals, the produce of the labour of woman, such as beans, Indian corn, or the like, and then taking it to the house where the bridegroom lives, will say, "This is the produce of my daughter's field, and she also prepared it." If, afterwards, the mothers of the parties are enabled to tell the good news to each other, that the young people have pronounced that which was sent them, very good, the bargain is struck. It is as much as if the young man had said to the girl, "I am able to provide you at all times with meat to eat!" and she had replied, "and such good victuals from the field, you shall have from me!" From this time, presents of this kind are continued on both sides; and the friendship between the two families daily increasing, they do their domestic and field work jointly; and when the young people have agreed to live together, the parents supply them with necessaries, such as a kettle, dishes or bowls, and what is required, as well as with axes, hoes, &c., to work in the field.

THE JESUITS IN PARAGUAY.

A remarkable example of a society of mutual co-operation, was formed by the Jesuits, about the beginning of the 17th century, in Paraguay. They found the inhabitants in a state little different from that which takes place among men, when they first begin to unite together; strangers to the arts, subsisting precariously by hunting and fishing, and hardly acquainted with the first principles of subor