tem.

there still remain some traces of the original state of the woollen manufacture, in what is called the domestic sysAccording to this system, the manufacture is conducted by a number of master-manufacturers, generally men of small capital, who, besides carrying on their manufacture of woollen cloth, have small farms of a few acres, partly for the support of their families, and partly for the convenience of their manufacture.

The introduction of expensive machinery, and the employment of large capital in the manufacture, has greatly circumscribed the operation of this system; and without doubt, it will finally yield to the greater pecuniary advantages of the factory system. The relative benefits of the two modes of operation, considered in a mercantile light, formed a subject of investigation by a Committee of the House of Commons, in 1806, who found that there were circumstances of superiority on both sides. In a moral point of view, the domestic system is undoubtedly preferable; though, as applied to the woollen trade, the factory plan is not so dangerous to the morals of the people employed, as when applied to the cotton trade.

It is exceedingly distressing to think, that the factory system, on which the pecuniary and commercial prosperity of the community so essentially depends, should, in its present state, have a direct and almost necessary tendency to vitiate the morals, and injure the health of those who are employed in it. This, however, is undeniably the case; and it is a truth which cannot fail to damp the pleasure of every good man, in reflecting on the prosperity of a great manufacturing country, that the further the enterprise of the people is carried, and the more their pecuniary capital is extended, the more demoralizing appear to become the effects on the manufacturing community.

This reflection forces itself on the mind, in comparing the condition of the population in the woollen districts of England, where the factory system is but partially established, with that of the population in the cotton districts where it is fully developed. In the former, exist many of the comforts and feelings of domestic life; the habits and manners of the manufacturing classes are sober, de

cent, and regular; they seem to have an interest and delight in keeping up the respectability of their character, in setting a good example to their children, and in bringing them up in the paths of piety and virtue. Even before a traveller has time or opportunity to ascertain these facts, he is struck with the cleanliness and neatness of their dress and persons, with the healthiness of their looks, and with their steady and cheerful manners.

Let the same individual pass into the cotton district, and he will find the case most miserably reversed. The manufacturing classes are dirty, squalid, and unhealthy, having an appearance of debauchery and poverty strongly marked in their persons. Nor will this appearance be found on inquiry to be erroneous. The utmost ignorance and dissoluteness of manners prevail. There is, generally speaking, none of that laudable feeling of independence; none of that prospective prudence; above all, none of that religious principle,—without which, the working classes must always be sunk in poverty and vice.

The causes of this remarkable difference do not lie deep; but I can at present merely hint at them. They are all comprised in the extension of the factory system, without a corresponding extension of the means of religious instruction; or, rather, with a tendency in the system itself to preclude all the ordinary means of mental improvement. The early introduction of children into crowded factories, where confinement injures their health, and intercourse with depraved characters contaminates their morals, while the wholesome education of the school is thrown aside; and the inequality of the rate of wages among workmen, occasioned by the fluctuations of commerce, which sometimes afford them a profuse supply, and at other times reduce them to a state of starvation, (circumstances by which the cotton is distinguished from the woollen trade, in the latter of which the demand is more steady, and children are not useful to the same extent in their childish years,) are themselves fruitful causes of ignorance and depravity; and are, at the same time, indirectly productive of accumulating evils by causing the neglect of those moral influences, on which so

much of the happiness of the community depends. But these are not necessary concomitants of manufacturing operations; and my dependence on the great overruling principle of good is such, that I do not doubt the mischief will eventually correct itself; or, rather, will be corrected by what is usually called the natural progress of society, but is, in reality, no other than a fuller developement of the plans of a beneficent Providence. The depraving effects of the factory system are already begun to be felt as an intolerable evil. The case has attracted the attention of the British legislature, and some steps have been taken to discover a remedy. But it does not yet appear to have reached that point, in its downward progress, where it is destined to stop. Some further dissoluteness of morals will probably take place, before the public attention shall be thoroughly and effectually roused. The day, however, I confidently anticipate, will come; and then, by arrangements founded on Christian principle, in which the system has hitherto been most lamentably deficient, a revolution will be effected, which shall exhibit a truth. proved in a thousand other instances, in the moral as well as in the natural world, that an unseen Hand is constantly at work,

"From seeming evil still educing good,

And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression."

[If we turn from the deplorable picture given above, of the moral condition of the population engaged in the cotton manufacture in England, to the actual state of the population similarly engaged in the United States, we shall be struck with a contrast like that of light with darkness. It will be seen, that the evils which unquestionably exist there, and which grieve the heart of humanity to think of, do not exist here at all; and therefore, that they do not necessarily belong to, that they are no inseparable part of, the cotton-manufacturing system. It is not pretended that our manufacturing communities are immaculate; but it is asserted, that their morals are as fair as can be exhibited by any other large class of people, in any

condition, in town or country. In Lowell, for instance, which was created, and is now supported, by the cotton manufacture, they who are best acquainted with its condition, are ready to declare on their responsibility, that the tone of morals is as pure and high, the schools are as good, the churches as well attended, as in any other place of the same size in the Union. This happy state of things is owing in part to the previous character of the people now engaged as operatives; and in part to the care which the directors of the works have always exercised over the moral condition of those whom they have employed. Young women come from the neighboring country, to make a little independence by their labor; and having made it, either return to their rural homes, or marry in the town, and become respectable wives and mothers of families. The men often own the houses they live in, and sometimes are holders of stock in the several manufacturing companies. The children go to school till they are twelve years of age, and till that time do not enter the factories at all; nor do they entirely leave school till they are fourteen. Health, intelligence, virtue prevail, and competence and self-respect are secured. There is no present fear of any deterioration in the happy character of this population. Long may it be preserved, under the good hand of God!-as long as rivers shall flow, and man shall toil for his fellow man! AM. ED.]

EIGHTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

CLOTHING.- THE ART OF BLEACHING.

THERE is nothing so peculiar in the modern history of the linen manufacture, or in the nature of the process, as to require a detailed account. The machinery used in weaving, is nearly the same as that described in the other manufactures already mentioned; and I have elsewhere given a sufficient description of the flax-plant itself, of the mode of its cultivation, and of the early history of the

manufacture. I shall, therefore, pass at once to a process which flax undergoes, in common with the other vegetable substances used in manufacture ;—I allude to the art of bleaching.

Such substances are naturally combined, in a greater or less degree, with resinous matter, which communicates color to the fibre, and diminishes its brilliancy. Bleaching is the art by which this matter, or any accidental stain, is removed, and the pure vegetable fibre is left to reflect the different rays of light in due proportion, so as to appear white.

In regard to the origin of this art, it would soon be observed, that the action of water, together with that of the sun and air, rendered the rude cloths whiter than at their first formation; and, since the earliest step towards refinement is to add beauty to utility, as the state of society improved, a desire to give them a pure and spotless white would naturally arise. An idea which seems to have been very early entertained, that white raiment was an emblem of innocence, may probably have given a stimulus to the experiments which led to the discovery of the bleaching process. Accident, too, would assist the discovery; for it would be found, that a certain degree of putrid fermentation carried off coloring matters from vegetable fibres. The practice of macerating cloth in water mixed with putrescent animal matter, has been continued from the earliest times to the present day.

From the most ancient accounts handed down to us of India, Egypt, and Syria, it appears that these enlightened nations knew the efficacy of natron, (the nitre of Scripture,) an impure mineral alkali found in these countries, for combining with, and carrying off, the coloring matter with which cloth is stained; and, being still found in great abundance by the present inhabitants, it is used by them

*

for the same purpose. We are also informed by Pliny, that the ancient Gauls were acquainted with the use of a lixivium or ley, extracted from the ashes of burnt vegetables, as a detergent, and knew how to combine this lixivium with animal oil, to form soap.

*Book xviii. chap. 21.