many blocks of ice, and consequently, the danger of tumbling far greater than in the first instance. A false step on the ascent would merely have brought our noses in contact with the ground, but a similar slip now might have pitched us headlong down the ravine. On reaching the inn at Northampton, the steps were let down by our friend the bar-keeper, who, as he lifted the exhausted little girl from the carriage, and observed the state of fatigue of the whole party, seemed half tempted to reproach us with our insensibility to his warning; but he managed his triumph with better taste, and merely smiled when I groaned out that he was the better prophet of the two. On the 5th of October, we proceeded to Worcester, another of those very pleasing villages which are such an ornament to New England. Here the

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weather, that for some days had been fine, changed in the course of the night; and the wind, chopping about, blew so furiously, that when I looked out of the window next morning, a shower of leaves as thick as snow-flakes, but of all dies-red, orange, yellow, scarlet, and green, swept glittering by.

At Worcester I met a remarkably intelligent person, with whom I fell into conversation on the subject of manufactures, and the measure which was then in agitation, and has since been carried, of protecting, as it is called, the domestic industry

of that country by a new Tariff, or higher scale of duties on imported goods.

He contended that the manufactures of New England in particular, but also those of other parts of the Union, had grown up during the late war, when foreign goods were excluded, and had been -enabled to flourish, more or less, ever since, in consequence of the protecting duties laid on foreign articles by the General Government. I was more anxious to hear his opinions than to give my own, and therefore merely made one or two common-place remarks on the danger of tampering with such matters, and the evils which arose from governments attempting to lead industry by roads which it would not have followed naturally if left to itself. "Yes, sir," said he," that is all true in 'theory, 'and quite suitable to those general principles which would be unerring guides, provided all the world were wise, and equally liberal and rea'sonable in such matters; but I put it to your cándour to answer me this question,How are the people of those parts of our country to live, where agriculture, in consequence of the inferior soil, is not a productive line of industry? What are we 'to do? And, on the other hand, with whom are the agricultural portions of our Union to exchange their produce? If all the world were open-well and good-but when you in England, for example,

shut the door against the introduction of American wheat and other bread-stuffs what are the inhabitants of those sections of our country which raise grain in abundance, to do with their crops? They want manufactured goods they have grain to give for them--but you who manufacture cheap things, will not accept the only payment they are competent to offer; and consequently they must apply to their own industrious countrymen of New England, who, by dint of great regularity of habits, and vigorous application, assisted, too, in a most remarkable manner, by an almost unbounded command of water-power for their machinery, as well as water-transport for their goods, are enabled by a moderate protection to compete at least we trust we shall do so with the superior skill and greater capital of England. Thus we shall not only afford ourselves a livelihood, superior to that which our comparatively barren soil can yield us, but we shall provide a market for those sections of our own country where the land is fertile, and where industry finds much more productive employ ment in bringing waste lands into cultivation, than it can in manufactures for a long time to come."

This argument may be very good for New England, but unfortunately, I fear, for that portion of the Union, its application extends but a little way over the whole country; at all events, this doc

trine of protection is vehemently opposed by the Southern States, where the raw material is cultivated, and nothing manufactured; and where, of course, the object is to get the greatest return of goods, from any quarter-no matter what-in exchange for the products of their industry. The Americans of the South feel comparatively indifferent about how their eastern brethren employ their industry; and are apt to tell them to do as they have done for many years past, that is, to drain off to the westward, into those new and rich countries, which want only the stroke of a New Englander's axe to make them start into life and vigour. Such, indeed, has heretofore been the course of things in America; and I think it not unlikely that they must eventually return to the same channel, if the recent Tariff, passed avowedly for the immediate purpose of assisting one part of the community, and only prospectively for the benefit of the whole, shall not be able to resist the efforts of those parties who suffer under its operation in the meantime.

Should this Tariff, however, really be a good measure with reference to America, it will, of course, hold its ground in spite of its inconvenience-whatever that may be-to other countries. But I suspect it will be a hard matter to persuade the opposite parties, or those who do not benefit

directly by it, to lie upon their, oars, and be contented with measures, of which the present effect is notoriously to make what they want dearer, and for any future change in which, they have only the interested I promises of those very manufacturers, who flourish, say their antagonists, only at the expense of their non-manufacturing countrymen,

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If New England were a separate and independent State, I can really discover no good argument in reply to the above reasonings, My friend, howF ever, did not make out his point, I think, in defending the Tariff; but perhaps his argument may suggest another and equally important view, namely, that these Eastern States may really have within themselves the means of becoming an independent manufacturing country. But they cannot reasonably hope to accomplish such a purpose, even with all their local advantages, at the cost of the Southern States, while both are members of the same political body; while, if they were disentangled from such association, they would have to enter the market along with the competitors of Europe. How New England would be able to stand this, remains to be seen.

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After all, it is probable, I think, that if there were no protecting duties at all, or very moderate ones, these matters would come to the same point, ultimately, and pretty nearly in the in the same interval of

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