ON THE EXPORTATION OF COTTON YARN.

MR EDITOR,

I KNOW not whether you be that dignified and determinate sort of inan which ordinary people, like me, in their extreme simplicity, are apt to set down for the conductor of a literary journal. But if power, and the love of sway consequent on the possession of it, have not yet wholly corrupted your understanding, bear with me, for hinting to you, that among the many improvements as to mere arrangement, and the other far more essential ones in point of spirit and talent, of which, above all others, your young work exhibits so many proofs,-I think it is still much deficient in what relates to the financial and commercial concerns of the country. Let me draw your notice to them as, in every direction, and at all periods, deserving of your best attention. It is to them, next to the more pressing matters of personal security and civil liberty, that the anxious curiosity of that part of your readers which best deserves to be pleased is drawn at this moment. Thither it must be drawn for a long time, while we hardly know into what channels our commercial relations with other countries shall settle down, or how we shall recover from the agitation consequent on our deep-drawn and breathless contests, or the stunnings of our sudden success.

To understand these relations well, and to estimate fairly the phenomena which vill still be emerging under altered rcumstances and new connexions,

your readers should be furnished, too, with as much as possible of suceinct and tastefully arranged fact, concerning all the countries and colonies with which we are connected. I intreat you humbly to keep these things in view; and to lay under contribution, for these purposes, such able and well-provided correspondents, as the personal influence of yourself and your Publisher, and the internal attractions of your Work, may have brought about you.

From an account* printed by the House of Commons, 20th March last, it appears, that for the years 181516-17, the official value of cotton yarn exported abroad was, in each of these years respectively,―£2,907,276, -£1,781,077,-£2,707,384.

I find

from the Annual Finance Books, published for the use of Parliament in 1812 and 13, that the official value of the same article, in the four years proceeding 1814, stood as follows:1810, £1,097,536—1811, £1,075,237

1812, £545,237-1813, £966,007.† While an alarming decrease, therefore, has taken place in the demand for our cotton fabrics, occasioned by the other countries of Europe becoming, as well as America, manufacturers for themselves, an increase in the foreign purchase of our cotton twist has, from the same cause, been made apparent. England, as well as the other countries of Europe, must remain dependent on America for a supply of the raw material of cotton; and if America continues to work up such immense quantities of that article, it is highly probable, that large supplies of spun cotton will find their way from thence to Russia and France, and other countries of the European Continent, with which the Americans have a direct trade. England, however, is a coal country, and has excellent machinery in abundance; and though nothing can work a charm against the effects of excessive taxation, there may be grounds for hoping that, in the process of time, she may be able to enter into effectual competition, at the best markets of Europe, with the manufacturers of Rouen and Prague, with her

* Parl. Pro. 1817, No 141.

+ The following shews the fluctuation of for the same period:-1810, official value, our exports in cotton manufactured goods £18,634,614 1811, £18,033,794—1812, £11,715,533-1813, £15,972,826.

laid a heavy duty on cotton wool or yarn, imported in foreign vessels "during the present hostilities;" and the newly acquired strength of Ireland purchased for her, from the English ministry, a free trade, one of the immediate consequences of which to her was, that in one year, viz. 1782, her exports of cotton yarn rose to 8798 lbs. In 1783, Ireland imported only 5405 lbs. I have thus given you a small specimen, Mr Editor, of what, it occurs to me, your readers may expect of you from time to time. In my next letter I shall send you the account to which I have alluded, and some facts regarding the progress of cotton manufactures in America. H.

ON THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR.

MR EDITOR,

THE writer of an article in the last No. of the Edinburgh Review, "On the Causes and Cure of Pauperism," has, in a very bold and masterly strain of argument, pressed upon our notice the remedies which are most likely to prove ultimately effectual in the cure, or at least the alleviation, of this great disease of the nation. We are much obliged to him for so doing. We contemplate, with feelings of admiration, the picture which he has drawn of the beneficial effects resulting in his own country from the diffusion of charities, not wrung, as they are here, from the people by the compulsatory influence of law, but prompted by the stronger impulse of religious duty. And while we could wish that such too were our circumstances, we thank him for putting us in mind of the means which we certainly possess for raising the minds of our poor from that lamentable state of degradation, that shamelessness of dependence, which are such striking features in the moral constitution of the people at this time. It is so obvious, that the want of employment, the want of comfort, the want of almost every thing which raises man "above the brutes that perish," must have a tendency to degrade and vitiate the mind,—that it is perfectly astonishing to me, that men are not more eager to rescue the juve nile part of the population from the contagion of bad habits. We have talked and argued about Lancaster and Bell for the last six years, and

yet I believe very little has been done, except in large towns, for the spread of education. It does not seem to have occurred to the inhabitants of our country towns and villages, of what inestimable advantage a set of parochial schools might prove to the community, and how completely every objection which has been elsewhere urged, and with some reason, against larger schools, as collecting together the bad and good, often to the corruption of the latter, may be set aside by the circumstance of the teacher's and patron's influence extending beyond the walls of the school-room. With regard to the religious and moral culture of the mind, there can be no question but that, under such circumstances, the juvenile population of the country stands on much better ground than that of a large town. There the bond of neighbourhood, the attachments of locality, are wanting between the teachers and the taught. They separate after the business of the day is over, and in all probability know nothing more of one another till they meet again in the same room. The very names of the individuals forming the body are mostly unknown, and over whatever passes beyond the walls of the school-room, the eye of the teacher does not and cannot watch. It is obvious that I do not mean to detract from the merit and exertions of those who are connected with such schools. On the contrary, it is easy to see, that in proportion to the magnitude of the evil to be encountered, and the difficulty of encountering it, is the honour of having so done. All I wish is, to see others sensible of their superior advantages with regard to the performance of a great duty, and not slumbering over a comparatively easy task. I do not speak from enthusiasm, but from what I see and know, when I maintain, that the wealthy in every parish have in their own hands, and are in a large degree accountable for, the character of their population. In a country village every face is known, every being is in some degree dependent on another, and there the faults, the misfortunes, and the good deeds, of every individual, are sure to be known. On what vantage ground then do we stand, when we take the sons and daughters of our poor under our own care, and are enabled, by our influence, to correct, restrain, and re

form, those habits which we thus have it in our power to watch over, as they are displayed in the transactions of every day? We have as yet heard little, but of the vices engendered by the present lamentable state of distress. Are we so blind, are we so senseless, as not to see, that the descendants of those whom we now reckon among the most worthless of our community, must come in for a double portion of their guilt and their opprobrium, unless we take some pains in training them to better things? Many of the idle and vicious now, have not perhaps always been such. But those whose earliest days are passed in idleness, and surrounded by every thing that is degrading, we cannot reasonably expect will, of themselves, become respectable characters. The evil is a moral one,-it must be encountered by religious and moral means. We will not believe, that those beings whom we are endeavouring to save from vice, and in whose minds we are implanting, not the elements of knowledge only, but the desire and the means of being respectable, will, of themselves, for the most part, prefer dependancy and shame to usefulness and honour; and shall we ascribe less powerful effects to our religion? "A man," says the Reviewer," in cultivated life, would recoil from the act of falsehood, not because he has been rebuked out of this vice by the lessons of an authoritative code, but because his whole habit, formed as it insensibly is by the circumstances around him, carries along with it a contempt and disinclination for so odious a transgression against all right and honourable principle. And thus it is with Christianity in reference to pauperism. Out of its code there may be gathered materials for raising a barrier against the progress of this malady among the people.' "Christianity_may,' he adds, quoting from a fine writer, "elevate the general standard of morals among a people, even though a very small proportion of them shall, in the whole sense and significancy of the term, become Christians."

We come now to speak of the means by which education may be diffused throughout our towns and villages. In the country, I believe, it will generally be found that schools for boys have to struggle with many difficulties, and cannot often be productive of

as much good as might be desired. The children are very early removed, at least as soon as it is possible for them to earn something by agricultural employments. The chief object, therefore, is necessarily the education of girls, and of boys who are considered too young for such employments. I would not advocate the cause of country CHARITY schools, in the strictest sense of the term. The object should be to furnish good instruction at the least possible expense, not to do it tuitously; and it is a fact, that in every case which has come under my observation, a greater readiness has been expressed by the parents to send their children where they have contributed something towards the defrayment of the school expenses, than when they have done it without pay

ment.

gra

Of this I could give several striking instances; and it is worth while urging the point upon the consideration of those who would be startled at the proposal of plans involving expense. I am warranted in saying, that, taking the weekly contribution of 40 children at 2d. each, and the superintendent's salary at £14 per annum, the average annual expenses of such a school will seldom exceed £8, provided the school-room be rent-free. I have not, at the same time, adverted to the profits arising from the children's work (which in some cases, and with good management, are considerable), because these must necessarily be dependant on local circumstances, and have not always been worth consideration. It is obvious, that the ORIGINAL expenses of fitting up and furnishing school-rooms must also vary, according to necessity, and according to the pleasure of the managers. But the average annual expenses, when once established, I repeat, are small, and did they amount to a sum many times larger, it would surely be for the interest of the individuals of every parish in the kingdom to establish them; for, to say nothing of the happiness thereby conferred,—to make no appeal to their just and generous feelings, let us at once appeal to their sordid principles; let us ask them if they can possibly expect their burdens to be less, and the demands on their stores less frequent, when every day is bringing to maturity those weeds of vice which have sprung up from the productive soil of idleness,

MR EDITOR,

that

Ir is one of the miseries attending any attempts to illustrate ancient facts of Scottish history or manners, such praise-worthy labours have a tendency to awaken the vexation of those whose forefathers happen thereby, incidentally, to be exhibited in less flattering colours than might have been every way pleasing to the vanity and self-love of their descendants. This national foible is less ordinarily associated with those of high as of obscure descent,-while its victims have an antipathy to every thing degrading, they are sometimes too easily deluded by every idle fiction, extravagantly exalting the rank and importance of, not unfrequently, supposititious ancestry. Though well apprised, by experience, of this propensity, I little imagined that in our days it was to betray itself in all its genuine eccentricity, or that the seemingly harmless and delectable article of the "Saltvat," by exciting the animosity of the family of Allanton, or of their allies, was to elicit the strange performance which their able apologist, with more zeal than wisdom, so necessarily obtrudes upon the public.

Has then Candidus, the devoted friend of the "learned and worthy Baronet," the admirer of his talents, and more especially of his style, so contemptuously slighted those weighty canons of his " respected friend," inculcated in a performance of which, at no very distant period, he was the author, facetiously entitled, "The Genealogical History of the Stewarts refuted,

"Of what importance to the public,-of what profit to the general reader, are exhibitions of pedigree, or specification of titles, or proofs of consanguinity ?"-(page 158.)

Should controversy or competition at any time arise (upon such topics), it ought carefully to be confined to private discussion. -If these ideas be founded upon justice, what evidence of vanity-what mark of weakness can be figured more indubitable, than to obtrude it (genealogy) on the world ?"-(page 157-8.)

Again, addressing himself to a person afterwards to be more particularly attended to,

"The writer, who imagines that by genealogical histories of any name, he is to engage the notice of the world at large, will be speedily undeceived. A distant prospect of the wide gulf of oblivion will soon convince him that its yawning jaws are never shut, but are ready to swallow up all unprofitable labours."—(page 159.) "Jam Theba juxta et tenebrosa vorago.'

Stat. Thebaid. L. vii. v. 382!

Owing to their unquestionable insignificance, an opinion, too, in which the "learne,' and worthy Baronet" is thus so ready to concur, I at first felt inclined to permit the lucubrations of Candidus to sleep in their unmolested oblivion. Perhaps, after all, this might have been the advisable course-the more expecially as they are founded upon mere assertion-without a vestige of any thing in the shape of authority-no doubt a most easy, though not very convincing mcde of managing an argument—and impeaching the veracity of a respectable author.-But I have been drawn aside by curiosity, to inquire how far the high pretensions assumed by this family in a contest, which I believe most people will imagine they have stirred, could be borne out by any thing in the shape of real evidence-whether they themselves might not form a good elucidation of the infatuation which, two centuries ago, had been satirized even by our own countryman, Barclay.*

A better excuse, however, for this investigation-the results of which I am about to state (and in doing so, Į no doubt draw largely upon the pa

Of the Scotch, he observes," Nulli tamen magis memores suæ stirpis quibus per diversa terrarum quærentibus opes-et ad preconia suæ nobilitatis obstinatis, sæpius audientium risus, quam lacrymæ et fides accessit."-Satyr. p. 324.