spects for the instruction and edification of those persons who may not possess leisure to peruse more copious volumes, the present work will be acceptable. The plan of it is judicious, and the execution is on the whole respectable, and must have cost the Editor no inconsiderable expense of labour. His object is, to explain the phraseology of the Scriptures by interposing concise remarks, in the manner of paraphrase, between the several sentences of the verses. He has omitted large portions of the respective books, from an apprehension that he should thus best consult the accommodation of families, for whose use principally he has prepared the work. Such omissions, he informs us, have been deemed by some of his learned friends, somewhat injudicious; an opinion in which probably they will not stand alone, but for our part, we are not disposed to censure the principle of selection which the Editor has adopted. His work would otherwise become so inconveniently large, and so expensive, as to defeat his purpose. Some passages that have been excluded, might, however, with great propriety have been inserted; as, for example, the address of Lamech, Gen. iv. 19—24.

Explanations are sometimes offered without occasion, as in Gen. xviii. 2. "And he lift up his eyes (having fallen to worship the Divine Majesty) and looked, &c." It is quite clear from the narrative, that no worship had been presented. Occasionally, the remarks savour of a theology that we cannot approve; as in Lev. viii. 6. "And Moses brought Aaron and his 66 sons, (to the door of the tabernacle of the congregration,) "and washed them with water: (So Christ our high-priest,

as it were to consecrate that element for our baptism, "was himself baptized.") Sometimes we meet with explanations that are purely conjectural, and by which nothing is in fact explained; as in Gen. xix. 16. "And while he lingered "(praying perhaps to God to spare the city.)"

Art. XI. An Appeal to the Public on the subject of the Frame-work

Knitters' Fund. 8vo. pp. 18. price 6d. Leicester, 1819. WE have already had occasion, both incidentally

and specifically, to advert to those national distresses and oppres. sions which, in opposition to the assurances of statesmen and political dissertators that they were but teinporary and transient, have not only continued, but increased. We are, it is true, still

, assured, in defiance both of argument and fact, that the evil is by no means permanent, and that the gathered and bursting cloud will pass away; but respecting the limit of its devastation, or the period of its course, we are now left somewbat more to vague conjecture and agitating uncertainty. We are always anxious to avoid, as far as is consistent with fairness and honesty, mere political discussion, and we have no design to entangle ourselves in it on the present occasion ; but it is impossible not to feel, that dark and conflicting passions and designs are at this awful moment loosening the deep foundations of the commonwealth; that the institutions of England are reeling in the strife; that the extreme parties are in unconceding hostility, and that the numbers of the moderate and conciliating are lessening daily, by the desertion of those whom the unrelaxing oppressions of a disastrous and aggravated system are urging into the ranks of discontent, and of those who are driven by their dread of popular violence, to applaud and to support the injurious and impolitic severities of power.

It is only to a portion, though by no means an unimportant one, of the prevailing distress, that our attention is called by the admirable little tract before us. Though principally adapted to local purposes, it contains much that is suited to general consideration. It is written with consummate simplicity, force, and beauty; and while it studiously disclaims and puts aside all pretensions to original disquisition, it presents, in a most attractive and accessible form, considerations which all are called upon to weigh, and all may easily comprehend.

It is known, we presume, to our readers, that the manufacture of worsted hose is carried on to a great extent in the county of Leicester ; and they may possibly be also aware that, as in all other extensive manufactures of articles of universal consumption and cheap fabric, the labour of the artisan has not, at any time, supplied bim with more than the means of procuring the necessaries, or, in soine cases, the inferior conveniences of life, During the late war, the demand was brisk : the supply of our armies, the traffic with America, the large requisitions of our own country when prices were high, and the means of purchase sufficiently furnished, tended to keep the frame-work knitters in active and competently-paid employ. This state of prosperity,

however, prepared the way for a season of difficulty and distress, by overstocking the trade with hands of all descriptions. The manual part of the operation is easily acquired; women and children were placed at the loom, and in a very short space of time qualified for the coarser fabrications; the usual forms of apprenticeship were neglected, and hands were indefinitely multiplied, with a short-sighted regard to a state of activity which was obviously only temporary. When the return of peace gave leisure to feel the exhaustion of war, the artificial and forced demand ceased, and the miseries of destitution and helplessness, came at once, and with unbroken force, upon the unemployed workman. It was less irksome to his spirit, and less destructive to his health, to work at prices reduced from a maximum which was never high, than to protract life on the wretched and reluctant pittance afforded by the parish. He tendered his labour at a lower and a still lower rate, until the system of depression reached a point at which re action became inevitable.

There were several co-operating circumstances which assisted in aggravating this state of things. A more active competition among the master-manufacturers, was a necessary effect of the reduced demand. The number of these was much increased by the addition of many persons who, having acquired a general knowledge of the various processes of the business, as warehousemen, travellers, and apprentices, had embarked in trade on their own account. The slender capitals of this class of manufacturers, rendered it imperious on them to go on making and selling on almost any terms of profit, however small, as the only means of standing their ground.

Another cause of depression had its source in the necessities of another description of small manufacturers, men of industrious habits, who, having themselves worked in the frame, had saved money, purchased machinery, and taken apprentices, still remaining in the employ of the larger and established houses. But when these last found the demand falling off, and came under the necessity of dismissing a portion of their workmen, the class of artisans to which we have just adverted, were the first discharged, as requiring a larger supply of work than the single knitter. Hence these men were compelled to manufacture on their own accoun', and to bring their stock into the market, at any price short of actual loss. This last evil was indeed of a more complicated kind than we can find space to unravel; and in its various ramifications contributed actively to the deterioration of price.

But a cardinal plague in these complicated visitations, preented itself in the determination on the part of parishes, opressed by the burden of innumerable claimants, to engage in e manufacture of hosiery. It mattered not to them whether

1

they sold at a profit, or at first cost; the workman was employed, and the sale of his produce, in either case, covered, if nothing more, the expenses of his maintenance. The parish went into the market with present money, bought the materials at the lowest price, and was thus enabled to tender the wrought article to the salesman or the shopkeeper at a miserably low rate. Against this overwhelming competition, the regular manufacturer found it impossible fairly to contend, and a variety of shifts and expedients were resorted to in order to meet it; but the inevitable result of every change, was the still further depression of the workman. The calamity, aided, of course, by the rapacity and selfishness of individuals, at length reached its extreme point of infliction. The men assembled, formed committees, and negotiated with their employers. A Statement of prices was drawn up, and agreed to; but, as usually happens when interest and honour clash, the pledge was no sooner given than violated, and things gradually returned to their previous state of deterioration. A few months since, the Frame-work Knitters again combined, desisted from work, and entered upon a more systematic, and, as we trust, an effectual plan of operations. After obtaining a second and more distinct series of stipulations from the masters, they have steadily turned their attention to the means of perpetuating their power of peaceable resistance to unprincipled encroachment. This they expect to accomplish by the establishment of a fund for the support of unemployed knitters, thereby taking away the necessity of working under price; and they have, after settling a rate of weekly contribution among themselves, appealed to the public for assistance.

We have felt it expedient to collect this preliminary information, though we feel that the necessity for compression has made it in some important respects incomplete, as an introduction to the pamphlet under review, of which we shall now proceed to give some general indications. It has been published with the benevolent purpose of drawing the public attention to the distressed situation of the stockingers, of awakening in their favour the sympathy of their employers and neighbours, and of soliciting, on the grounds of argument and humanity, effectual contributions to their projected fund. The vanity of authorship bas evidently had no place in the Writer's mind. Here is no elaboration, no effort, no obtrusion of self, no affectation of fine composition: all is close, simple, business-like, in the statements and reasonings of this Appeal; yet, with all this, there is, if we mistake not, an energy and beauty in its style, and a power and distinctness in its strain of argument, that betray the master-hand through all its studious concealment.

After a short introduction, the Writer adverts to the economical axiom, that the rate of wages, like that of all other articles, should be left to find its own level, and that all attempts at artificial adjustinent, even by voluntary assuciation, are mischievous. Admitting this as a just and authoritative maxim in its application to commerce at large, he contends that there is a peculiarity in the case of manual labour, which exempts it from the application of the general principle, and entitles it to specific regulation.

"When the price,' he remarks, of a particular commodity sinks so low as not to produce the ordinary profits of stock, a part or the whole of the capital is withdrawn; a less quantity is produced in proportion to the diminution of the demand,' in consequence of which, the price rises to its former level. Thus the irregularity correcte itself, and little or no permanent mischief ensues. But the situation of the labourer is widely different; he has no other article to dispose of besides his personal industry and skill, on which he depends for his subsistence from day to day, nor can he without being reduced to immediate distress withhold them from the market, or even diminish their exertion to any considerable degree. The only commodity he has to part with is of such a nature, that it will not permit him to adjust the supply to the demand. He must instantly offer it to sale at whatever price it will fetch; or suffer all the agonies of want. Hence, this is the kind of property of all others the most defenceless, and which most needs protection. That the rate of wages has a tendency to keep pace with the price of the necessaries of life is undeniable, but from the cause we have now mentioned, it is long before that tendency becomes effective: the labourer and the me chanic are the last who experience the beneficial effect of an eleva. tion in prices.' pp. 4, 5.

He afterwards proceeds to shew, that this vaunted principle has been repeatedly violated ; and specifically instances thore blunders in legislation, the Corn Bill, and the Wool Tax. He asks why the Frame-work Knitters are less entitled to legis. lative protection by the enactment of a minimum, than the weavers of Spitalfields; and expresses his conviction that the extension of that measure to the stocking manufacture, would find an active supporter in Mr. Wilberforce. Waiving, how ever, the discussion of this point, he proceeds, by various arguments and pressing appeals, to recommend the support of the fund which we have before described, as a measure less bold and hazardous, and to point out the benefits which, in his view, it is likely to produce, as well as the calamitous consequences wbich it will tend to avert.

He argues forcibly both with the antagonists and the languid approvers of the scheme In opposition to the selfish persons who witbhold assistance because not individually concerned, he urges that