they know they are in our power, where they ought to be, and they walk straight. I never would go round the mill and request a hand to do this or that; I would give him my order, and if that didn't do I would give him something else. I have been in the United States, and I wouldn't stay there. You can't find a man, woman, or child there, that don't feel as good as his employer.'

"This same spirit pervades the whole body of proprietors and overlookers: there are some exceptions to the general rule, but, as a class, they are overbearing and exacting. I have many times seen a child knocked to the floor by a blow on the side of the head, which stunned him. I have often seen little girls and women kicked unmercifully in the mills, for the slightest mistakes, that an American superintendent would overlook, or only reprove in a kind way. Beating and kicking are the most common ways of administering reproof; and, of course, you will find a down-cast look and a slavish air about the operatives.

"The children never have a stool or chair to sit on, when they have a short moment of rest from their work. In our factories we let all the hands have a chair to rest in during these intervals. When we think, that in following a pair of spinningmules in Manchester, a child must walk over 20 miles in a day; and with the improved machinery recently introduced, the distance is increased to 25 or 26 miles; and that the child has frequently to walk several miles to and from the factory, we see the cruelty of not allowing them a seat to rest on when their work is for a moment suspended.

"And I think the morals of the English operatives must be very depraved. I saw multitudes of women with their persons most immodestly exposed, at their work; and heard a good deal of lewd conversation between the different sexes. Many of the children, also, in some of the mills, are nearly naked. Indeed, it is impossible, I think, to preserve much purity among persons accustomed to such habits.

"Some of the English operatives receive nearly as high wages for their work as we pay; but they work harder to get their money, and it will not go more than half as far (nor that, I think) in procuring the necessaries of life. I went into the houses of many of the hands, and, almost without exception, they were filthy, gloomy places. Few of the comforts of life were to be seen there; and the stench was dreadfully offensive. Animal food they seldom eat, potatoes and the coarsest bread being almost their entire food: and but few of them have enough of this.

"The operatives nearly all look unhealthy — pallid, sallow, and worn-out; destitute of spirit, and enfeebled by privation and hard work. The apprenticed children are very often treated with greater cruelty than slaves, and are, perhaps, much worse off." (This, too, is the language of a warm abolitionist.)

"The hand-loom weavers are as bad off as they can be: they work nearly all the time they are not asleep, and, being obliged to compete with powerful labor-saving machinery, receive only a few pennies a day for their work. They are a very miserable class of laborers.

"I saw no factories where the work seems to cut down the operatives, and bring them to the grave so quick as the worsted mills. The rooms are heated up to 120 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer; they are not ventilated, as the fresh or cool air would injure the fabric in its process of manufacture; and thus the hands are obliged to work in apartments heated like furnaces. I am a pretty strong man, but I never step into these rooms without feeling the perspiration start in one second from every pore. I could stay in none of them more than two or three minutes; and as soon as I came out into the fresh air again, even in the warmest days, a chill went over me. No person can live long in these factories. The children nearly all die of consumption in a short time; and I never cast my eyes upon so pale and emaciated a set of human beings in my life.

"I would lay it down as a general principle, that the English operatives are sacrificed to the spirit of trade. I think the English people are as much infatuated with it, and will practise as much cruelty and injustice towards their operatives in securing the interests of trade, as do the Southrons in raising cotton. The truth is, that in England, while the rich and the noble have all that the heart can desire, the poor

man there is a slave. It is an insult to the spirit of freedom and to the common sense of mankind, for England to talk about the liberty of her people. In England, nothing makes a man free but money." Vol. I. pp. 206-210.

Mr. Lester devotes to the subject of the Corn-Laws a letter which he addresses, in his second volume, to Mr. John C. Spencer. We would extract the whole of it, if in our power. We must content ourselves with a few quotations from it, and even for that purpose are compelled to postpone our usual monthly account of the new works which have accumulated on our table,-with which we conclude our notice of this book, recommending it, with all its faults, to as extensive a circulation among American readers, as either author or publishers can desire:

"By this bill the English landlord defends himself against all the world, and enjoys a monopoly in the sale of bread-stuffs so long as he has any to sell; and when famine has bought him out, he permits grain to be imported all but duty free. It was designed by the framers of this law, that it should not fix so high and permanent a duty as would absolutely exclude foreign grain in times of great scarcity, or famine; for then the people would have risen, as a last resort, and thrown off the government; and the monopolists nicely calculated how hungry the people could be kept from the beginning to the end of the year without rebellion. To secure to him the entire monopoly of grain, the law allows the landholder to charge about double its ordinary price on the Continent and in America; this sliding tariff growing less and less, and tapering to a point of nominality, as famine, with her thousand horrors, approaches. "This brief sketch will give some idea of that deep-laid scheme to reach the daily wages of the laboring man of England, in driving competition to a distance by excluding foreign grain, except in periods of great scarcity bordering on famine.” . . .

"What do the corn laws cost the English people? It is estimated that the consumption of grain of all kinds in the kingdom is sixty million quarters per annum. Twelve years ago M'Culloch supposed the amount to be only a little less than this; and since then there has been a great increase of population. The consumption of all other kinds of agricultural produce is, without doubt, equal to the total consumption of grain. Supposing the effect of the corn-laws to be to raise the price of grain only 10s. a quarter higher than it would be were foreign grain freely imported, it follows that the burden of the bread-tax is equal to the enormous sum of three hundred million dollars a year: a sum exceeding the whole expenditure of the government, including the interest of the national debt.

"But it can be shown to the satisfaction of every reasonable man, that the corn. laws nearly double the price of grain. Mr. G. R. Porter, of the Board of Trade, in his valuable work on, this subject, states that the average price of wheat in Prussia for the last twenty-two years has been only 318. 2d. a quarter, while the price, during the same period, has been 618. in London.".

"The testimony of some of the most respectable physicians has confirmed the opinion, that multitudes starve to death in England every year.

"Says the learned and humane Dr. Howard, in a recent work on this subject: 'The public generally have a very inadequate idea of the number of persons who perish annually from deficiency of food; and there are few who would not be painfully surprised if an accurate record of such cases were presented to them. It is true, that in this country instances of death from total abstinence only casually occur; yet every medical man whose duties have led him much among the poor; who is familiar with the extreme destitution which often prevails among them, and the diseases thereby occasioned, is too often a witness of fatal results from gradual and protracted starvation! Although death directly produced by hunger may be rare, there can be no doubt that a very large proportion of the mortality among the laboring classes is attributable to deficiency of food as a main cause, aided by too long continued toil and

exertion, without adequate repose, insufficient clothing, exposure to cold, and other privations to which the poor are subjected.'

"He states that their houses are almost destitute of furniture; comfortless and uncleanly; too often damp, cold, and ill ventilated. Many live in dark cellars, in the midst of filth and putrefaction, by which the atmosphere is rendered foul and unfit for respiration, a due circulation of air being impossible. Their families are ill fed, scantily clothed, and badly lodged, three or four persons being frequently crowded together in the same bed, which is often filthy and deficient of covering. They live much on innutritious and indigestible food, and often use articles of bad quality, or such as are rendered unwholesome by adulteration, or by being too long kept.'

"It is easy to see how all these potent causes of disease become aggravated whenever there is a scarcity of bread or of employment, both of which are either directly caused or terribly augmented by the corn-laws. The scanty furniture and clothing of the poor become at such times still more scanty, all that can possibly be spared being sold or pawned for food; their houses and beds become more crowded from more living together to save rent; their dwellings are worse ventilated, for every cranny by which air could enter is choked up, that they may be warm without the expense of fuel; because of their debilitated condition they drink more gin to raise their depressed spirits, the quantity taken being more injurious; and while deep despair settles upon them, hunger gnaws at their vitals.

"Dr. Howard says, that if the horrible results of the corn-laws upon the health of the poor could be fully known, it would send a chill to every heart in Britain. The catalogue of miseries he enumerates is truly frightful. He states, that while many, under the keen cravings of hunger, make their cry heard in the ears of their fellowmen, many more, in the sullen despair of poverty, hide away in their cellars, where they lie in a listless, lethargic state, until death comes to their relief. But, says he, 'In estimating the mortality among the destitute poor from scarcity of food, we must not forget that the result is still the same, whether the privation is so complete as to destroy life in ten days, or so slight and gradual that the fatal event does not occur till after many months' suffering.' . . . .

"But let us look for a moment at the condition of the happiest peasantry in the world.' The operatives are not the only nor the worst sufferers from the corn-laws. It can be proved, that in some of the richest counties of England the average earnings of the peasantry are far less per head (man, woman, and child) than the average cost of merely feeding the inmates (man, woman, and child) of their work-houses! Look abroad among the thatched hamlets and little villages of England; over its waving fields of grain and verdant plains of pasture; among those scenes, which seem like enchanted grounds to the traveller from the top of the coach: you could find in almost every house a confirmation of the words of the working-men of Shef field in their address to the English people:

"IN ENGLAND, THOSE WHO TILL THE EARTH, AND MAKE IT LOVELY AND FRUITFUL BY THEIR LABORS, ARE ONLY ALLOWED THE SLAVE'S SHARE OF THE MANY BLESSINGS THEY PRODUCE.'

"It will assist the reader in forming a correct idea of this subject, if we consider the demoralizing tendency of the corn-laws, in connexion with the distress they oc

casion.

"Says the Devonshire Chronicle, 'It is become a subject of deep regret to find the many repeated acts of robbery committed among sheep, pigs, poultry, and potatoes, besides breaking open houses, abstracting part of their contents,' &c.

"It should be no matter of surprise that men, whose average earnings are only eight shillings a week (finding themselves), have been driven to acts of robbery to eke out their own and their families' subsistence. Lord Chief-justice Hale, who wrote in the time of Charles II., says, 'If the laborer cannot earn enough to feed his family, he must make it up either by begging or stealing.'

"When the great National Anti-Corn-law Petition, signed by half a million, was presented in Parliament, Mr. Wakeley, a member of the House, stated, that for many years, to his certain knowledge, the laborers of Devonshire (the garden of

England) had received less than seven shillings a week as the average price of their labor.

"Says the eloquent and philanthropic editor of the Anti-Corn-law Circular: 'We have had a conversation with a gentleman who has just returned from a tour in Devonshire, and we find his account of the deplorable condition of the peasantry of that rich and beautiful county more than confirms the appalling statements we gave some time ago. Our informant has travelled over Ireland and Scotland, and he says that even there he never saw equal wretchedness.'

"In passing through one of the manufacturing towns, I was arrested by this revolting announcement:

"Two guincas reward. An unnatural mother last night, about seven o'clock, left her female infant on the steps of the cellar under No. 2 Back Cotton-street, Allumstreet, Ancoats-lane, apparently not more than half an hour old. The child was, with the exception of a cap pinned over her mouth, and being laid on a white factory bat, quite naked and unwashed from its birth.'

"Unnatural mother! I should have exclaimed, had I not known she was driven to it by oppression. Is it possible to suppose that the feelings of a mother towards her dear infant, in a civilized country, could be so smothered by any thing short of absolute and clamant necessity? Is it to be imagined, had trade been free, and corn untaxed, and bread thereby cheap, that fond affection, whose depth only a mother's heart can tell, and which even the wild beasts of the forest never lose for their young, would have ceased to draw her with cords of love to her child, or that she would have left it on the steps of a cellar to perish?

"It was but half an hour old! What could have driven her so soon to forsake it? DEAR BREAD! It was quite naked and unwashed from its birth! What terrible necessity could have stifled the cries of mighty Nature, and tramped out in a mother's breast the glowing fire of maternal devotion? The jewelling of the peer's coronet, the diamond necklace of the young countess, the race-horses of the squire, all bought with high rents, artificially enhanced by protective duties, which make DEAR This is the answer.

BREAD.

"A time will come when the cries of Nature will speak in a voice of thunder to all the hollow forms that make up the sum of institutions in modern British society; and when humanity, no longer insulted, and religion, no longer unheard, shall constrain dukes to go a foot, and duchesses to go without earrings, ere infants 'not more than half an hour old, naked and unwashed from their birth,' shall be left to perish on the steps of cellars, because the mothers have not food to supply their own clamorous necessities."

"I know you often boast of your generosity to the poor; but, good Heaven! speak not of that. Are not your wines purchased with widows' tears? is not your venison sauced with orphans' hunger? You are the taunt of the world! You roll your chariot wheels over the crushed hearts of your fellow-men.

"Shame, too, upon England for bearing these things so long; and tenfold shame upon you who batten upon these cruel laws. You are plunderers of the poor; and whether you be duke, earl, marquis, or viscount, cease robbing the helpless, or abandon your pompous titles. It matters little what nickname a robber has; the world only thinks the worse of you for being a duke, when you steal from God's poor." . . . "The Rev. Daniel Hearne, a Catholic priest, at a meeting of ministers at Manchester, said: "The meeting could scarcely form a conception of the misery and destitution prevailing in the district, of which he was a witness on this occasion. He went lately to administer the consolations of religion to a poor dying woman. On arriving at her bedside, she seemed to be alone; he asked if she was. 'Johnny!' said she, and immediately a sack in the corner of the room began to move, and then another began to move; and out of these tumbled the poor woman's sons, their only bed being the inside of sacks filled with shavings.

"He had about 25,000 of his flock living within half a mile of his chapel. Scarcely a single Catholic, unless in cases of sudden death, breathed his last without sending for the priest; and of these-and he spoke from personal observation-at least one half died from starvation!'"

MONTHLY FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL ARTICLE.

THE events of the past month continue, in a marked degree, to illustrate the great struggle that is going on between the real substantial business of the country, upon a cash basis, and the efforts of the paper credit system to sustain itself. In former articles we have endeavored to point out the evidences of the present great commercial prosperity of the country, in contradistinction to the distress and bankruptcy that are overwhelming all paper credits. The cries of the speculators, jobbers, and stockholders, whose misfortunes are great, have been mistaken for evidences of distress among the industrious masses of the people. This is a great error. The mercantile business and real wealth of the country were never greater than at this moment, when this pseudo credit may scarcely be said to exist. A curious illustration of this fact may be found in the state of the public revenue. At the late extra session of Congress, it is well known that a loan of $12,000,000 was authorized for the use of the general government, at a rate of interest not to exceed six per cent. At the time this loan was created, the receipts into the Treasury for the year were estimated by Mr. Clay and others not to exceed $12,000,000, and Mr. Clay notified Congress that a new loan of $16,000,000 would be required at the present session. These measures grew out of the fact that the business of the country was underrated, and the ability to borrow money overrated, as is evident from the result; for while the government has offered its loan in every possible shape, it has been unable to obtain more than $5,432,726. On the contrary, the receipts from the customs have exceeded the estimates near $5,000,000. The receipts in New York for the third quarter of 1841 exceeded those of the corresponding quarter in 1840 by fifty per cent. This is a remarkable fact; and when we take into consideration that these imports have not been the proceeds of money borrowed abroad, but are in exchange for exports of our produce, it in an eminent manner corroborates our view of the state of the commerce of the country. The evidences of the increased internal trade are strongly indicated in the comparative returns of the tolls on the New York State canals, and also of the Welland canal, which ⚫ are as follows for the season of 1841 as compared with 1840:

TOLLS ON THE NEW YORK STATE CANALS, AND ON THE WELLAND CANAL, FOR 1840 AND 1841.

These figures demonstrate the improved condition of the inland trade of the country over that of last year; and by examination of the points at which the greatest receipts are made on the line of the Erie canal, we find evidence that the causes are general ones, operating upon the whole business of the Union. For instance, the receipts at tide-water, which show the quantity of merchandise sent inland, present a great increase, and likewise the receipts at the extreme end of the canal, showing the quantity of produce received from other States, indicate an increase, while a great decrease is manifest at those intermediate points