or 500 hands, the wages for boys and girls, young men and women, range according to the kind of employment. Boys and girls, from 5 to 7 shillings per week; young men and women, from 8 to 9; a few men and women, from 12 to 13 shillings per week. Piecers, as they are called, persons who work by the piece, make more wages, especially mule spinners. In one mill in Manchester, employing 959 persons, and spinning very fine numbers only, the average weekly earnings of each person were, in December, 1841, 11s. 3d. In another mill, working 357 persons, the weekly earnings of each person at the same time were 9 shillings and 6 pence. Counting a shilling at 24 cents, this would be $2,28 per week. These were comparatively good times.

But often manufacturers are obliged to work their mills every day at a certain loss. For example, there are some mills standing idle at the expense of £7000 a-year. There is one in Manchester which employs a thousand hands, and were it to stand idle for a year, its wear and tear, interest on capital, and expenses to supervise it, would amount to over 7000 pounds sterling per annum.— Of course, then, it is better to work it all the year at a loss of £6500 than to let it stand idle at a loss of £7000. Such occurrences oblige a reduction of wages and greatly afflict the operatives.

The usual hours of employment for clerks and operatives in most of the factories and business houses, vary from twelve to sixteen hours a-day. The ordinary cotton factory hands are, however, now reduced to sixty-nine hours per week, or eleven and a half hours per diem.

It is confidently asserted that the morality of the manufacturing population of Manchester is at par with that of the same number of persons living in the small towns and villages-nay, even in the country itself. Of this matter, of course, I can say nothing from my own observation. But from the statistics and published reports of the circumstances of the manufacturing population that have come into my hands, I must infer, at least, that a very large proportion of them are placed in very miserable circumstances: From a work published in Manchester itself, in 1842, I cull the following ex

tracts:

"The agent of the statistical society, in 1834, visited 37,724 of the dwellings of the working classes in Manchester and Salford, which he thus classified:

Of this number, 27,381 were found to be comfortable, and 10,443 uncomfortable. The average weekly rent paid for these 37,724 dwellings was 2s. 11d. per week, making an annual rental of two hundred and eighty-six thousand and seventy-three dollars.

More than one-third were uncomfortable! That is, somewhat above 60,000 persons were living in miserable abodes-most likely similar to those just described. In the cellars enumerated, upwards of 18,000 people were crammed! To depict the misery of their abodes, would excite no emotions but those of pain.

There exist also in Manchester, many low lodging houses, which are graphically described in a pamphlet recently published. The author says

'Let the reader imagine himself introduced into a damp cellar, or dark and dirty garret, where he sees as many beds as it will hold, (from six to fourteen in number,) ranged side by side, and closely adjoining one another; that in each of these beds he discovers from two to four persons, of either sex, and of all ages and characters, who are, however, hidden from his view by the mass of clothes taken from those in bed, and now hanging on lines in various directions about the apartment, and he will form some conception of the scene which a lodging house at first view presents. Let him imagine that the temperature of this room is at a fever heat, owing to the total absence of all means of ventilation, and in consequence of so many persons breathing and being crowded together in so small a space; let him imagine himself assailed by a disgusting, faint, and sickening effluvia, to which the pure breath of heaven is a paradise, and he may then conceive the effects produced, on entering these crowded dormitories, by the vapor and steam floating about them. Let him remember that the bed-linen is rarely changed-once in six months-and that in these beds, meanwhile, have been located an ever changeful race of diseased and sick, as well as convalescent persons; and let him imagine these beds to be likewise visibly infested with all manner of vermin, and he will form a conception, far short however, of the reality of the horrible spectacle presented, not by one, but by many hundred lodging houses in Manchester."

"The reduction in the rate of the wages of the operative is strikingly exhibited in the following extract. The Chairman of the Anti-Corn Law Conference, held in 1841, puts the following ques tion to an operative named Moore: 'Can you tell the difference between the rate of wages now, and in 1815? This is the reply:MOORE: "It is impossible for me to mention all the different fabrics of works, but I will take one-the hundred reed. In 1775, the hundred reed was paid 1s. and 8d. In 1800, it was 1s. 4d.; in 1812, it was 10d.; and in 1815, it was 9d. What was it in the year 1816! It was fourpence halfpenny. The corn laws were put on then. Very well, what is it now? Twopence farthing, or less. I was out of employ for three months this summer; and I have got a warp of the same sort as I was speaking of-fifty yards for ten shillings. It will take a fortnight to do it; cannot do it under; there is threepence to go out of every shilling, which leaves me 3s. 9d. a-week. I have not got, on an average, for these four years, 3s. 6d. a-week,

one week with another. But still I live; and there are people far worse situated than I am. Suppose I had a wife and three or four children, how were they to be kept out of that? Hundreds there are who are so situated. How they live, I cannot tell. They do not live-they only exist on water gruel and dry potatoes. It is starvation and nothing else.

"The Rev. Mr. Watson asked, Does it take as much time to weave a piece now as it did at the period referred to!' Moore: 'I find the twist to be worse now than in the year 1815; it was very good in 1815; it is now very bad; consequently it is more difficult to weave a piece now than it was then. I have been a weaver fiftythree years. I began weaving cotton when it was in its infancy; and I can trace the price from that time until now.'”

But that you may not think that these are extreme cases, or that Manchester is, in these respects, worse than many other places in Great Britain, I will state a few facts gathered on my travels in other places.

From a "Report on Mining Operations," published about the same time, I will give a few short extracts. 1st. Colleries. "I wish to call the attention of the Board to the pits about Brampton. The seams are so thin- that some of them have but two feet headway to all the working. They are worked altogether by boys from 8 to 12 years of age, on all fours, with a dog-belt and chain. The passages are neither ironed nor wooded, and often an inch or two thick with mud. In Mr. Barne's pit these poor boys have to drag the barrows with a hundred weight of coal or slack, sixty times a-day, sixty yards, and the empty barrow back, without once straightening their backs, unless they choose to stand under the shaft, and risk having their head broken by a falling coal." p. 67:

In these pits there are frequent visits of the "choke damp," "wild fire," "sulphur and water," that often occasion instant death to their unhappy inmates. Pits are worked in Shropshire only twenty inches deep. Children are frequently put to work here at 5 and 6 years old, in some form. Eight and nine years is the common time of commencement. The wages paid are, in our currency, from $2,50 per month to $7,50, according to age and ability.

In the calico printing establishments children are employed from the age of five years, and some are kept at work 12 to 14 hours per day.-Report on Children, page 50, 1841.

From Lord Brougham's speech, July 11th, 1842, we quote one passage declarative of much that we learned from various sources. His Lordship says, "There have been found such occurrences as 7, 8, and 10 persons in one cottage, I cannot say for one day, but for whole days, without a morsel of food. They have remained in their

beds of straw for two successive days under the impression that in a recumbent posture the pangs of hunger are less felt."

As to education and morals, we are in possession of still more melancholy facts; many of which are so frightful and appalling as to forbid their inscription upon these pages. At a public examination to ascertain the intellectual and moral attainments of some of these miners and manufacturers, the following answers were given. Robert Churchillow, aged 16. "I do not know any thing of Moses." "I never heard of France." "I dont know what America is.” "Never heard of Scotland or Ireland." "Cant tell how many weeks make a year." "There are twelve pence in a shilling, and twenty shillings in a pound,” and “eight pints in a gallon of ale."

Ann Eggley. "I walk about and get fresh air on Sundays." "I never go to church or chapel." "I never heard of Christ at all.”

From answers given by others I extracted, I will quote only two or three:-"The Lord sent Adam and Eve on earth to save sinners.” "I dont know who made the world;" "I never heard about God.” "I dont know Jesus Christ-I never saw him; but I have seen Foster who prays for him.”

Enough! and more than enough, you will say And yet these are among the people who declaim against "American slavery;" who tell us of "the half-fed, over-wrought, and uneducated three million of African slaves owned by American Republicans?" I apologize for neither American nor English slavery, starvation, oppression, nor ignorance. They are all beyond the pale of my communion; but certainly there is occasion, good and relevant, for reminding our trans-Atlantic brethren of an old proverb, which, it would seem, is either not in their Bible, or not read by them-"Physician, heal thyself."

I will not tell you of Temperance Societies in Manchester, or of churches and church-going people. Of these I learned but little; but that Temperance Societies are much wanting, we had many proofs. Intemperance in ale-drinking and in strong drink is a tremendous curse almost every where apparent in England and Scotland.

All that enter into the bands of matrimony are obliged, at least once in their lives, to go to church. I would appear from some of our readings that very many of those who attend church on these occasions are decidedly not a church-going people. An extract from a "Home Tour through the Manufacturing Districts, in the summer of 1835, by Sir George Head," will intimate something of this sort:

"I attended the Old Church at Manchester one Monday morning, in order to witness the solemnization of several marriages I had reason to suppose were then and there to take place. I had heard on the preceding Sunday the banns proclaimed as follows:-'For the first time of asking, sixty-five; for the second time, seventytwo; for the third time, sixty. Total, one hundred and ninety

seven.

"Having been informed that it would be expedient to be on the spot at eight in the morning, I repaired thither at that hour.— Operations, however, did not commence before ten. The latter is the usual time of proceeding to business, although, in cases of persons married by license, eight o'clock is the hour.

“When all was ready and the church doors opened, the clergyman and clerk betook themselves to the vestry; and the people who were about to be married, and their friends, seated themselves in the body of the church, opposite the communion table, on benches which were placed there for the purpose. Not less than fifty people were assembled, among whom I took my seat quietly, without being noticed. A party who had arrived in a narrow vis-a-vis fly, most exclusively paraded in the mean time up and down (as if unwilling to identify themselves with the humbler candidates of matrimony) in another part of the church. The people at first took their seats in solemn silence, each one inqnisitively surveying his neighbor; but as the clergyman and clerk were some time in preparation, the men first began to whisper one to another, and the women to titter, till by degrees they all threw off their reserve, and made audible remarks on the new comers. There was little mauvais honte among the women; but of the men, poor fellows! some were seriously abashed; while among the hymeneal throng there seemed to prevail a sentiment that obtains pretty generally among their betters— namely, the inclination to put shy people out of conceit with themselves. Thus, at the advance of a sheepish-looking bridegroom, he was immediately assailed on all sides with, Come in man; what art afraid of? Nobody'l hurt thee.' And then a general laugh went round in a repressed tone, but quite sufficient to confound and subdue the new comer.

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"Presently a sudden buzz broke out-The clergyman's coming,' and all was perfectly silent. About twelve couples were to be married, the rest were friends and attendants. The former were called upon to arrange themselves all together round the altar. The clerk was an adept in his business, and performed the duties of his office in a mode admirably calculated to set the people at their ease and direct the proceedings. In appointing them to their proper places, he addressed each in an intonation of voice particularly soft and soothing, and which carried with it more of encouragement, as he made use of no appellative but the Christian name of the person spoken to. Thus he proceeded:-'Daniel and Phoebe; this way, Daniel; take off your gloves, Daniel. William and Anne; no, Anne; here, Anne; t'other side, William. John and Mary; here, John; oh! John." And then addressing them altogether, 'Now, all of you, give your hats to some person to hold.' Although the SERIES III.-VOL. V.

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