cumstances had led the accomplished Baronet to look at the subject in another and not less true aspect, no man in England could have described with more persuasive pathos than himself, the injurious effects of the manufacturing system upon the moral health and the domestic happiness of the working people of this country.

No one, I am sure, would be more likely than the eloquent speaker I have been quoting to feel and to deplore the complete alteration in all the feelings and habits formerly attached to home, which has grown out of the practice of spending all the long day from morn till night in these huge factories, and then going to the dingy dwelling in a dingy town, rather as a mere shelter and brief resting place from toil, than to the seat of a family, with family duties to be performed, and family affections to be enjoyed. If the mother be at home the daughters are sure to be at the mill, earning some money indeed, and providing for themselves the means of being much better dressed; that is, dressed in more finery, on Sundays than otherwise they could pretend to; but alas! for their minds and morals. And then the sonsthe hardy, blithsome boys that used to bewhat of them?

"The boy, where'er he turns, Is still a prisoner; when the wind is up

Among the clouds, and roars through the ancient woods;

Or when the sun is shining in the east,
Quiet and calm. Behold him-in the school
Of his attainments? No; but with the air
Fanning his temples, under heaven's blue arch.
His raiment whiten'd o'er with cotton flakes
Or locks of wool, announces whence he comes.
Creeping his gait, and cowering, his lip pale,
His respiration quick and audible;

And scarcely could you fancy that a gleam
Could break from out those languid eyes, or a blush
Mantle upon his cheek. Is this the form,

Is that the countenance, and such the port

Of no mean being? One who should be clothed
With dignity befitting his proud hope;
Who in his very childhood should appear
Sublime from present purity and joy!
The limbs increase, but this organic frame,
So gladsome in its motions, is become
Dull; to the joy of her own motions dead;
And even the touch, so exquisitely pour'd
Through the whole body, with a languid will
Performs its functions; rarely competent
To impress a vivid feeling on the mind
Of what there is delightful in the breeze,
The gentle visitations of the sun,

Or lapse of liquid element-by hand,

Or foot, or lip, in summer's warmth-perceived.
Can hope look forward to a manhood raised
On such foundations ?"

But this nicely-observing poet is not insensible to the glories which attend upon the great triumphs of art in assisting the operations of human labour.

In the following passage, he will be found expressing exultation like that which Sir George Murray appears to have felt at the triumphant achievements of machinery, but he accompanies this exultation with views befitting a high moralist :

"Yet do I exult,

Casting reserve away, exult to see
An intellectual mastery exercised
O'er the blind elements; a purpose given,
A perseverance fed; almost a soul

Imparted to brute matter.

I rejoice,

Measuring the force of those gigantic powers,

That by the thinking mind have been compell'd
To serve the will of feeble-bodied Man.

For with the sense of admiration blends

The animating hope, that time may come
When, strengthen'd, yet not dazzled, by the might
Of this dominion over nature gain'd,

Men of all lands shall exercise the same

In due proportion to their country's need ;
Learning, though late, that all true glory rests,
All praise, all safety, and all happiness,
Upon the moral law. Egyptian Thebes-
Tyre, by the margin of the sounding waves—
Palmyra, central in the desert-fell;

And the arts died by which they had been raised.
Call Archimedes from his buried tomb

Upon the grave of vanish'd Syracuse,
And feelingly the sage shall make report
How insecure, how baseless in itself,
Is the philosophy whose sway depends
On mere material instruments; how weak
Those arts and high inventions, if unpropp'd
By virtue. He with sighs of pensive grief,
Amid his calm abstractions, would admit
That not the slender privilege is theirs

To save themselves from blank forgetfulness!"

If, indeed, we could attain to such a point of excellent arrangement in society that all the wonderful arts devised in modern times for the assistance of manual labour, might go in mitigation of the toil of the labouring community, without taking away the means of their subsistence-if thus they might be enabled by greater

mental cultivation, and by a study of what is good in thought, word, and deed, to rise above the condition of mere human animals, and to become religious, reasonable, and refined—it were indeed a glorious consummation! But alas! the temper of the present time affords no hope of this. A pert, prying, small conceited littleness, preys upon the public spirit, like vile animalculæ on a noble body, at once degrading and enfeebling it. Machinery in these times may be great, but mind is frittered away upon mere contrivance-it is drivelling: and manners have become an unpleasing compound of the frivolous and the dull.

Let us gather from the forcible, yet gentle exposition of Sir George Murray himself, what he thinks of the working of the present popular spirit upon the public mind in Manchester, and the remedy for the moral evils which exist among the people. After describing, as we have related, his admiration of the power of the steam-engine, he proceeded thus:

"But I have seen another power in operation, which does not work with smoothness and regularity, nor under the guidance of reason, but with a jarring and a discordant noise-which does not work always for good, but often for mischief-which does not effect the close union of distant nations, but disturbs the tranquillity of our own-which does not bind together interests that have a common, just, and natural

connection, but exerts a force which, when used for an ill purpose, is sufficient to tear asunder the British empire. The power to which I allude, is the power of agitation. No words are more dangerous to the welfare of the country and the interests of the people, than the words'agitate-agitate-agitate.' I complain not of agitation in connection with such a subject as the Reform Bill, but I complain that it should become the constant habit of the people. Nothing can be more injurious to the British empire than this agitation, which some individuals, far more for their own interest than for that of the country, exert themselves to prolong. No man can be more strongly impressed than I am with the value of education, but it must not be a one-sided education. The principles of religion must be entwined with those of intellectual improvement, in order that education may be complete and successful. Unless sound religious impressions are conveyed, education cannot be advantageous, either to the individual who receives it, or to the community of which he is a member. By withholding, or by weakening, sound religious impressions in early life, the foundation is laid for impressions of a superstitious nature, whenever the individual encounters misfortune or sickness, and when death approaches. Without religious impressions early conveyed, the great precepts of our divine religion, which require a man to reve