peared to a little more advantage in the Cockpit than when upon the "stump" in the " Orchard." Here he addressed a very different audience, not lads and lasses principally, but men deeply interested in the practical business of the movement, and the delegates who brought the sinews of this, as of all other wars, from various manufacturing localities. He ran a tilt at John Bright, for having asserted in the House of Commons on the previous Friday evening, "that in the cotton districts of Lancashire and Cheshire the truck-system' was unknown." He declared that John Bright knew as well as Mortimer Grimshaw that the statement was untrue, and called upon various delegates to give evidence on the question; from which it appeared that the honourable member for Manchester, though doubtless honest enough in his intention, was not quite so well acquainted with certain "doings" in several localities as those who suffered from them.

Some discussion took place relative to the prices paid by Mr. Miller and a firm in Oldham; but except to the initiated it was perfectly unintelligible, owing to numerous allusions to difference in counts of "reeds," "picks," "weft," "twist," &c. The secretary concluded the price paid by Mr. Miller was twenty per cent. below that of the Oldham firm, which the meeting seemed to endorse.

Mr. Cowell made a long speech in favour of moral over physical force; defended the compilers of the balancesheets from attacks which had been made against them. Alluding to the sneer that himself and colleagues were 'paid" agitators, Cowell forcibly met the imputation by asking, "Hev the masters no paid folk among 'em? If one o' our delegates had run off with t' money, so hed one o'th masters'. Our delegate had absconded; but he as had spent t' masters' brass remained i'the country as impudently as could be. I've only received six shillings a-day for my labour, an I've given away every farthing I've not spent in meat and travelling. I never spent any on't ' drink, for I'm a tee-totaller of sixteen years' standing."

The various delegates announced the sums they brought from their respective districts, amidst the cheers of the assembled people. The total for the weavers' committee alone exceeded 2,000l. Some of the deputies humorously described the difficulties placed in the way of the collectors; others lamented the smallness of the contributions from their districts, and promised greater exertions in future. Mr. Lawless, of Warrington, concluded the business by a truly eloquent appeal to the kindlier sympathies of our common humanity, which ought to link the employers with the employed under all circumstances.

Whatever may be the degree of wisdom or folly exhibited by the operatives and their leaders during this lamentable contest, a regard for common decency and simple honourable dealing compels me to state that their general conduct was more satisfactory than the most sanguine of their intelligent friends could have anticipated under the trying circumstances. The man who can deliberately assert that the contest was instigated and carried on, either wholly or in any considerable part, by a few individuals from interested motives, must either be in possession of a heart long since dead to all suffering or all happiness without the circle of his own immediate feelings, or singularly incapacitated by mental weakness from grasping in their entirety the many great questions involved in such a conclusion. No; the doubt thrown upon the motives of such a mass, making sacrifices under such circumstances, speaks but little for the humanity of the heart in which that doubt had its birth. The struggle could not have lasted a single month if it had not been supported by a widely spread feeling amongst the people that the cause was a holy one; or if the funds had not mainly been subscribed from a sympathetic feeling and a sense of duty, rather than

through intimidation in any form whatever. Mankind in general is not, thank God, half so bad as the mutual recrimination of operatives and employers would sometimes lead us to think. Bodies of men generally err from mistaken impressions rather than from deliberate vice. In all great social contests the right is seldom if ever ultimately found to be all on one side, and, to my mind, the fierce struggle between the capitalists and labourers of Preston forms no exception to the rule.

YEZID, THE WOODMAN OF THE EAST.

NO. II.

THE next morning, at an early hour, the poor woodman repaired to the residence of the vizier, and, presenting himself to the porter at the gate, told him his business with the vizier, and begged that he would ask him to grant him an interview. The porter took his message in, but the vizier pretended to know nothing of the affair, and told his porter to send the idle fellow away, for that he was only a beggar, and had come to get assistance under false pretences. So the woodman returned home; but resolving to persevere in his suit until he obtained from the vizier the performance of his promise, he went, a few weeks afterwards to the Grand Palace again, and repeated his request. But this time the vizier was so angry that he came out himself to the woodman in the greatest fury, knocked him down at the gate, and beat him in a truly Oriental fashion, until he had scarcely a limb in his whole body which was not black with bruises.

It was several days-perhaps a week or more-before the woodman was able to go out again to his work in the forest, so severe were his contusions. But it so happened on the very first day that he went out, while he was loading his donkey with wood, in a very retired part of the forest, he looked up and saw coming towards him a lion, followed by ten camels laden with merchandize. In fear and trembling, he led his donkey homewards, but the lion and the camels still followed him till they came up to the door of his cottage. The lion then advanced a few steps, and, with a graceful bow, exclaimed, as he pointed to the treasures, Sir, these are all yours!" and then withdrew in a most gracious and royal

manner.

The woodman immediately perceived that his visitor was the same lion which he had drawn up out of the pit a few weeks previously, and proceeded, without delay, to unload the camels and unpack the bales with the assistance of his wife. On opening them, he was astonished to see the richness and variety of the shawls, satins, and velvets which they contained; then, after publishing a notice to the effect that if any one had lost such property he might claim it within a reasonable time, and finding that no one came forward to own it, he sold it in open bazaar in the neighbouring city, and realized by it a handsome competency.

The next day, he went, as usual, to his work in the forest again, for he was resolved not to part with his habits of industry on account of any sudden accession of good fortune; when he had no sooner set to work than the ape which he had liberated suddenly leaped out from among the trees, and placing in his hands a purse full of gold, said: "Sir, I thank you for your kindness, and am sorry that I have nothing better to offer you!" and immediately disappeared in the forest.

Again, the following morning, he was early at his work, when another old acquaintance, the serpent, came to him, bringing in his mouth a brilliant stone of three colours, which he laid at the woodman's feet, and saying, See, I do not forget," glided gracefully away beneath the long grass.

The woodman, overcome with his run of good luck, told the whole story to his wife that evening as they sat at supper in their little cottage. By her advice, next morning, he took the stone to the emperor's jeweller, who, as soon as he saw it, told him that the three colours of the stone had each a separate meaning.

"The purple," he said, "signifies that the fortunate possessor of this stone shall have joy without grief; the green, that he shall be rich and never want again; while the yellow denotes that he will have perfect health of mind and body as long as he lives. I will also give you another secret," he added. "If you sell it for less than its real value, it will deceive the purchaser, and come back into your own hands as often as you part with it."

The woodman soon grew very rich; indeed, so much so, that his good-luck became the common talk of all the city and country round, and reached the ears even of the emperor. It was not long before Soliman resolved to send for the poor woodman to his court, and to bid him bring with him the wonderful stone, to which such extraordinary virtue was attached.

No sooner did Yezid appear in the presence of the emperor, than he was questioned as to the virtues of the wonderful stone; and when he had recounted them at

length, the emperor offered to give him 10,000 pagodas in gold for it. It was in vain that he pointed out to the emperor that, unless the sum paid was a full equivalent, the stone would not stay a single night in the imperial coffers, but would travel back to him at his cottage in the forest. The emperor, however, was resolved to have it, whatever it might cost, so he placed it securely in his strongest jewel-box, paid the woodman his 10,000 pagodas, and sent him home.

Next day what was the astonishment of the emperor and empress on opening the royal jewel-box to find the precious stone of three colours gone. A messenger was about to be immediately despatched in search of the woodman, when the latter was announced to be in waiting at the palace gates, and desirous of seeing the emperor forthwith. On being ushered into the imperial presence he made the usual prostrations, and after many protestations of innocence, related that on waking early in the morning he and his wife had found the same threecoloured stone lying on the table in their chamber, which the woodman had seen his majesty lock carefully away yesterday among the imperial treasures. Having said thus much, he produced the stone and placed it once more in the emperor's hands, and prayed his mercy and forgive

ness.

This the emperor cheerfully accorded to his request upon condition that the woodman related to him how he had become possessed of the wondrous treasure. Yezid at once told the whole story before the Emperor Soliman and all the court, who were struck with no less indignation as they listened to his account of the vizier Haroun Osman's base ingratitude than they were astonished at the grateful behaviour of the wild animals towards the woodman. A proclamation was immediately made that the vizier of Castolada, Haroun Osman, should appear before his majesty in his imperial court, and have an opportunity of making answer to the story of the fortunate woodman. The next day but one the vizier came, and when he was confronted with the woodman he could not speak. The story of the pitfalls and of the vizier's own detention in the pit, of the promises which he had made in distress but had afterwards forgotten, while the lion, the ape, and the serpent had rewarded their benefactor, though bound by no promises so to do, and lastly the injuries which he had inflicted on the poor defenceless woodman when he came to claim his promised reward, were listened to by the emperor and his court and the whole body of nobles present with breathless attention, and there was not a voice that refused its applause when the emperor spoke

as follows: "Haroun Osman, vizier of Castolada, I raised you from a humble state and made you what you are, because I thought that having tasted the bitters of poverty you would be able to take better care of my poorer subjects in the province of Castolada; but you are proved to be worse than the very beasts of the field in selfishness, ingratitude, and tyranny; you are reported on every side to be the oppressor of the poor and friendless, and to be ungovernable in your fury and rage; the story of Yezid proves this to be true. Now therefore, proud man, I strip you of all your rank, wealth, and honours; I degrade you again to be what you were before I raised you to the viziership, and your office and place I now confer upon Yezid the woodman, and your riches I entrust to the new vizier to distribute in charity among the poor of Castolada."

"Allah be praised!" "Allah is good!" shouted every one that was present, till there was scarcely a dry eye to be seen; and there was not a voice in the hall that did not congratulate the humble woodman on his high pro

motion.

The good news very soon spread to the city of Castolada, where Yezid was already well known; and our readers may feel sure that the tidings caused universal joy. Haroun Osman spent the remainder of his days in poverty without a friend and without a home; and probably he would have been left without food to support existence, if it had not been for the new vizier, who sent him some daily from his palace to keep him from starvation. But the city prospered, and the people were happy and contented; and whenever the new vizier appeared in public, the people cried out, "Long live the mighty and good Yezid, vizier of Castolada !"

We had almost forgotten to add, that as the ex-vizier and Yezid left the emperor's palace, the first objects that met their eyes were the lion, the ape, and the serpent, and that the lion, as spokesman for the rest, said slowly, in a very solemn tone, "Yezid and Haroun, we have kept our word you will remember us!"

:

POOR HOOD'S LAST NOVEL.

NO. II.

WE have been making another dip into our stray chapters, and as the discussion touching the names of the blessed twins has made us laugh in spite of the toothache, it possibly may be as smile-provoking to others. Here it is::

WE ARE NAMED.

"It is assuredly a mercy for humankind that we are born into this world of folly as we are, mere purblind, sprawling, oysterly squabs, with no more nous than a polypus, instead of coming into it with our wits ready sharpened, and wide awake as young weasels! Above all, it is providential that we are so much more accessible to lachrymose than ludicrous impressions; more prone to tears, squallings, sobs, sighs, and blubberings, than to broad grins or crowing like chanticleer. For, while at a royal or imperial establishment, one fool has generally been deemed sufficient; at the court of a Lilliputian infant or infanta, it seems to be held indispensable that every person who enters the presence must play the zany or buffoon, and act, talk, sing, cut, and pull, such antics, gibberish, nonsense, capers, and grimaces, that ninetenths of the breed of babies, if their fancies were at all ticklesome, must needs die of ruptured spleen, bursten blood-vessels, split sides, or shattered diaphragms. Yes, nine-tenths of the species would go off in a guffaw, like

the ancient who lost his breath in a cachinnation, at seeing an ass eating figs. For truly that donkey was nothing to the donkeys, nor his freak worth one of his figs, compared to the farcicalities exhibited by those he and she animals who congregate around the cots and cradles of the nursery.

Thus, had our own little vacant goggle eyes at all appreciated, or our ignorant sealed ears at all comprehended, the absurdities that were perpetrated, said, and sung, daily and hourly, before and around us, my twinbrother and myself must inevitably, in the first week, have choked in our pap, and died, strangled in convulsive fits of inextinguishable laughter, or perhaps jawlocked by a collapse of the overstrained risible muscles.

It would have been quite enough to shatter the tender lungs and midriff of a precocious humorist, to have only seen that ungainly figure which so constantly hung over us, with that strange variegated face, grotesquely puckering, twisting, screwing its refractory features to produce such indescribable cacklings, chucklings, and chirruppings;-to have heard her drilling that impracticable peacocky voice, with its rebellious falsetto, and all its mazy wanderings, from nasal to guttural, from guttural to pectoral, and even to ventral, with all its involuntary quaverings, gugglings, and gratings,-into a soothing lullaby, or cradle hymn. It must have asphyxiated an infant, with any turn for the comic, to have seen and heard that Iö-like creature with her pied red and white face, lowing

Perhaps,' said my father, leaning his head thoughtfully on one side, and scratching his ear, perhaps Postle could suggest something. His head is like an encyclopædia.'

"He have,' said Kezie, suspending for a moment her needlework and the rocking of the cradle. He's for Demon and Pithy.'

"For what!' exclaimed my mother.

"Demon and Pithy.'

"Phoo, phoo-Damon and Pythias,' said my father, 'famous for their friendship, like David and Jonathan, in the classical times.'

"Then they're heathens, too,' said my mother, and won't do for godfathers to little Christians.'

"A dead pause ensued for some minutes, during which nothing was audible but my father's ghost of a whistle, and the gentle creak, creak, of the wicker cradle. The expression of my mother's face, in the meantime, changed every moment for the worse; from puzzled to anxious, from anxious to fretful.

666

'They're perfect Herculuses,' cried Kezia. "What think you of Gog and Magog?'

"Fiddle and fiddlestick!' exclaimed my mother, in great indignation. But I believe you would joke on your death-bed.'

"Rabelais did,' said my father. 'But come,' he added, in his genuine serious voice, for he had two, a real and a sham Abraham one, it is my decided opinion that we could not do better than to name the children after your brother. He is wealthy, and a bachelor; and it might be to the advantage of the boys to pay him the compliment.'

But

"I have thought of that, too,' said my mother. my brother doesn't shorten well. Jinkins Rumbold is well enough; but you wouldn't like to hear me, when I wanted the children, calling for Jin and Rum.'

"Pshaw !' said my father, I am philosopher enough to bear that for the chance of a thumping legacy to our

sons.'

"The genteel nurse, Mrs. Prideaux, backing this worldly policy of my father's with a few emphatic words, my mother concurred; and, accordingly, it was decided

that we should be called after Jinkins Rumbold; the Jinkins being assigned to my twin-brother, the first-born, and the Rumbold to my 'crying self.' ”

ONCE UPON A TIME.

"Once upon a time," is an old way of beginning a story, and a common one; but it is a good way, or else it would not be a common or an old one: it is a favourite

once

one with children, and not despised by "children of a larger growth." Who does not recollect, when sitting by the blazing fire, which made the circle about the hearth so cosey; when the wind whistled round the corners, or roared in the chimney, or knocked about the trees till their branches groaned again at such unusually rough play; when the rain pattered against the windows, or the hail and snow (if it was winter time), rendered, by contrast, that cheerful room still more agreeable and welcome-I repeat, who does not recollect those glorious evenings, when some one of the company began a story with upon a time"? When if the speaker was a favoured nurse, as children they crouched on their stools in a still closer circle, in mutual encouragement, at the fairy or ghost story which they knew was coming; when, as the tale progressed, so pleasingly painful in its interest they feared to turn their heads lest they might see the individual fairy or witch, or ghost, whose history they listened to with such breathless excitement ? Or if the listeners were older, and professed to be above such tales, though under the circumstances few people are, the "once upon a time" would usher in a battle scene, a shipwreck, a travelling adventure, or perhaps an incident of history, where naked savages were subdued by armed bands, as in the conquest of Britain by Rome, of Ireland by Britain, and of Mexico by Spain; where steel-clad knights, with couched lance or sweeping brand, met together in deadly shock in the European wars of the Middle Ages; or where they encountered a foe (by no means unworthy their valour) in the fierce Saracen on the sandy plains of Syria? Or if the speaker were of the gentle sex, delighting not in deeds of blood and slaughter, and loving not to dwell on the struggles of despairing knight against the overpowering encroachments of lawless might, her words would be of the difficulties encountered, but valorously surmounted by a daring lover; or of the "true love that never does run smooth," as exemplified in the case of some industrious son of toil; or she would narrate the hardships of adversity tottering on in unassisted weakness, till a fortunate event of filial love arrived from foreign climes, or the ready hand of new-found friendship filled to the brim the cup of happiness, in reward for patience and resignation to the will of Providence. "Once upon a time" is a fairy of the hearth, who stirs the fire in search of a brighter flame, draws the circle of seats into closer array, concentrates the five senses into that of hearing, and fixes the attention of the audience on the words of the speaker, who engages to recall to life characters long since passed away, and clothe them anew with interest, by narrating the incidents of their time.

MAXIMS ON MONEY.

The art of living easily as to money, is to pitch your scale of living one degree below your means. Comfort and enjoyment are more dependent upon easiness in the detail of expenditure than upon one degree's difference in the scale. Guard against false associations of pleasure with expenditure-the notion that, because pleasure can be purchased with money, therefore money cannot be spent without enjoyment. What a thing costs a man is no true measure of what it is worth to him; and yet how often is his appreciation governed by no other standard;

as if there were a pleasure in the mere expenditure itself. Let yourself feel a want before you provide against it. You are more assured that it is a real want; and it is worth while to feel it a little, in order to feel the relief from it. When you are undecided as to which of two courses you would like best, choose the cheapest. This rule will not only save money, but save also a good deal of trifling indecision. Too much leisure leads to expense; because when a man is in want of objects, it occurs to him that they are to be had for money; and he invents expenditures in order to pass the time.

CHARADE.

MONK JOCELYN sat in his silent cell,
But he marked not how the night shades fell,
For his soul was sad as a funeral knell,

And his heart seemed ready to burst;
He thought of the sins of libertine youth,
He thought of his blasphemies, breaches of truth,
And a thousand errors of darker dye,

Each a Damocles' sword to his eye!
'Alas, alas!" the poor monk groaned,
"Thefts and forgeries may be atoned,
But -" and Jocelyn bowed his knee
As he asked his conscience could there be
Forgiveness for THE FIRST.

Monk Jocelyn prayed till the morning light
Dispersed from his cell the shades of night,
Yet a shadow still lingered to curse and blight,
And his heart was sorely vext;

He strove with might and he strove with main,
The shadow but fled to return again;
And the blaze of its eye was more awful far
Than the speeches of Urquhart on the war,
Or Sibthorpe's fears of a black sedition
Conjoined with the Hyde Park Exhibition!
It seemed to say, "Away with care,
What hast thou ever obtained by prayer?
Pleasures and joys shall flow to thee
If thou wilt verily worship me.
Kneel, Jocelyn, kneel!" Up started he,
"Saint Edmund forbi! it shall not be!

No, no; thou art THE NEXT."
And the demon fled and returned no more,
And the monk perspired at every pore,
But he smiled as he never had smiled before,
For a weight was off his soul;
And from that morn in his solemn cell
The friends of Jocelyn oft would tell

How Jocelyn was THE WHOLE.

The Editing of this Journal will, for the future, be SOLELY in the hands of the Proprietress. It is, therefore requested that all communications will be addressed in her name to the Office, 3, Raquet Court, Fleet Street.

LANCASHIRE STUMP ORATORY AND REMINISCENCES OF THE LABOUR BATTLE. BY A PRESTONIAN.

CHAPTER IV.-PROS AND CONS.

MR. COBDEN publicly announced his conviction that the "labour battle" in the manufacturing districts was the result of "ignorance," not on one side alone, but on both. Now, as I am strongly inclined to agree with the talented gentleman in this opinion, I therefore naturally regret that he should have propagated his views on this most important social question, in so very concise and oracular a form. If one intimately acquainted with the mysteries of trade and commercial relations, shrinks from entering into facts and argument, we may certainly well afford to excuse the blundering attempts at a rational or práctical solution of the difficulty which emanate either from untaught operatives, or their but partially educated employers. By this remark, I mean no slight whatever; for a man may be a good cotton-spinner and an honest tradesman, and yet not possess much pretension to general logical acumen, or to the rank of professor of either moral or social philosophy. During the last few months, I have listened to the expression of almost every shade of opinion on the knotty point. Evidence the most contradictory has been advanced, and inferences destructive to each other vehemently enforced. Truisms have been thundered, and sophisms insinuated. The belligerent parties have almost exhausted the very lexicon of vituperative expression, in the pitiful desire to damage the reputation, and impugn the motives of their opponents; a feat, I suspect, somewhat easier of accomplishment, than the equitable exposition of both sides of the complicated question in dispute.

The affair truly resolved itself into a "battle," both physically and intellectually, rather than a rational attempt at the solution of the complex social problem involved in the fierce contest. The general interference of the public press, in this instance, but aggravated the acerbity of the conflicting interests, while it threw little or no additional light upon the real causes which led to

[PRICE 1d.

and influenced the great social disorganization it so vehemently and sometimes so intemperately condemned. I noticed as a general rule, that each propounder of a "conclusive argument," never wandered far from the circle of his own immediate interest, or that of his class. What was allowed to be good logic, or sound principle, when advanced for the support of one view of the question, was scouted as "utter trash," when pressed into the service of the opposition. Alas! how soon the superficial gloss of conventional deportment and ostentatious virtue becomes rubbed off in the active collision of individual or class interests. It is then the naked primary selfishness of man's fallen nature becomes unconsciously exposed. To me the latter has formed the most repulsive feature developed during the whole contest.

I remember being once closely packed in the centre of a "middle class" crowd in Manchester. Owing to the mere eagerness of each individual to press forward, and gain some real or supposed advantage over others, some danger to life and limb began to be apprehended. From that moment self-denial, gallantry, honour, nay, British courage itself, fell before an almost fiendish selfishness. The defenceless condition of respectable females, subjected them to coarse and cruel insult. The excessive exhibition of the lower animal impulses by the well-dressed crowd generally, made sad havoc with my somewhat enthusiastic faith in the "soul of goodness" inherent in all humanity; and from that moment my estimate of our comparative civilization retrograded some centuries! Living in the midst of the Preston "strike and lock-out," has not done much towards the erasure of that unwelcome impression.

But we can hope for a satisfactory solution of this great commercial and social problem, the various questions at issue must be calmly investigated, and carefully reasoned upon by purely disinterested and unprejudiced parties, and all sycophancy to one class or subserviency to another cast aside. Too little of this has yet been done. The "golden calf" has not lacked worshippers, nor empty declamation echoes and cheers!

It is singular enough, both parties often committed precisely similar blunders, and adopted parallel tactics, and yet they abused each other most heartily for so doing. Poor Burns's oft-quoted lines, would form a valuable addition to the somewhat limited stock of aphoristic wisdom, evidently "gospel" to the respective belligerents, and most sedulously preached by them :