mixing old materials with new, and in substituting one commodity for another, and in passing the whole off upon their customers as genuine, new, and real productions; thus committing as flagrant an act of robbery, as if they stole the difference in value out of their neighbours' pockets.

And that great numbers of them do this is no imaginary supposition; for abundant proofs are constantly afforded, through the press and otherwise, of the nefarious doings of some, and of the detection and punishment of others. We are frequently hearing of adulterations being carried on to an enormous extent; commodities being often mixed with vile and disgusting ingredients, calculated to injure health and endanger life; of establishments where old and worn out materials are dexterously blended into new fabrics, and where every artifice is used to make inferior goods pass for those of a superior quality. We hear, almost daily, of some mean petty act, of vending spurious articles, of disposing one thing for another, of base metal passed off for the genuine, and of the public being cheated in weight, measure, and quality.

Persons who can thus act, who, for the sake of making money faster than their honest neighbours, can place themselves thus on a level with pickpockets and swindlers, cannot be supposed to have much regard for veracity, when falsehood is likely to serve their immediate purpose. Accordingly we find them unscrupulously asserting that their commodities are genuine, when they know them to be spurious; puffing them off by every false and fraudulent device; and declaring to their customers that they cost them double of what they really did.

Such delinquents against truth and justice have no excuse, (which morality can sanction) in their neighbours unjust doings; in the difficulty of meeting the competition of others; or in the prevalence of similar proceedings.

For such conduct is as immoral, and as much opposed to the well-being of society, as any other mode of stealing the property that belongs to another. And when we take into account the pernicious and unwholesome nature of the commodities those persons often vend, the spurious character of which it is so difficult for the mass of their customers to detect, their offence becomes far worse than that of ordinary theft.

But those persons not only cheat the industrious out of their hard-earned wages, and injure their health and that of their families with their unwholesome commodities; but by being able to undersell the honest manufacturer and dealer, they often drive him out of the market. In this way the working classes are deprived of conscientious employers, and constrained to be instrumental in making the fortunes of men destitute of principle; and consequently regardless of the interests or welfare of their work people. Society, at the same time, is more extensively injured and demoralized by the increase of such unjust and fraudulent persons; whose interest it is to keep each other in countenance, and to connive at each other's wrong doing.

In our intercourse with other countries, to what an extent has our trade been injured by unjust manufacturers and dishonest dealers. No sooner has a profitable trade been effected in any country, by the vending of sound, durable, and wholesome articles, made by manufacturers who pride themselves on their extended reputation for the goodness of their productions, than a set of unprincipled· men are often found to mar it; persons who not only make up slight showy imitations of the same article, to offer at a less price; but who frequently forge the name and distinctive marks of the honest manufacturer, the better to dispose of their own vile trash.

The purchasers, subject to such deceptions, are either

induced to try some other market; or, failing that, to procure the commodities they need at the cheapest rate; not being always able to distinguish the false from the real. In either case the trade is injured; for the honest manufacturer, who began with disposing of a sound and good production, is constrained to manufacture an inferior one, or give up the market altogether to the unprincipled persons who first began to injure it.

Another form of dishonesty, in the trading and commercial world, is seen in the conduct of those, who, with little or no capital, but with false and plausible pretensions, and a show of respectability, manage to obtain credit to an amount beyond what they have any possible means of paying for. If the business or speculation they embark in succeed, they may manage, by trickery and device, to prevent their worthlessness from being known; but if it fail, as is often the case with such reckless persons, they have no means of escaping bankruptcy or insolvency.

But having neither wealth nor principle to lose, they are comparatively careless of such result; they manage to lead a gay life during their business career, and having once cleared the court, and got their certificate, are again on the look out for fresh victims.

Such immoral proceedings as these, evidently tend to weaken the business confidence of society, and injure the credit of the honest and well deserving; in addition to the injury they inflict on those merchants and manufacturers, who were induced, by false appearances and promises, to entrust such fraudulent persons with their property.

Another mode of injustice is seen among those employers, who, under some form, compel their work people to purchase their provisions and clothing at their shops, or at those in which they have some interest; as well as to frequent such public houses they may direct them to, under the

pretence of paying them there their weekly wages. The first of these modes unjustly deprives their work-people of buying in the cheapest market; while the latter compels them to waste money in drink, which might be wanted to purchase bread for their children.

But in noticing these different forms of fraud and injustice, and their effects upon society, we must not forget their demoralizing influence on the families of those who practise them; for the husband cannot be engaged from day to day in a system of falsehood and fraud, and his family escape contamination. The prying observation of his children will not fail to discover his unjust doings, and despite all his caution, they will not be slow in imitating their father's example. His injustice may have yielded him sufficient to surround them with affluence and abundance; but having pointed out the way by which wealth may be acquired by unrighteous means, he will have left them a legacy of evil that may hereafter work their destruction.

DUTIES AS MEMBERS OF SOCIETY.

ON THE PUNCTUAL FULFILMENT OF OUR ENGAGEMENTS.

As the principal part of the business of society is carried on on credit, or on the faith reposed in promises, the punctual fulfilment of them becomes a moral obligation of serious importance.

For while the due fulfilment of business engagements facilitates the transfer of capital to those who are most likely to use it, in employing productively vast numbers of the industrious classes, the non-fulfilment of them is almost certain to produce disturbance in trade and commerce, and to expose the same classes to discomfort and privation.

Happily, in this country, the number of the dishonourable are few, in comparison with the large number of just and punctual men of business; and therefore the evil they occasion is limited, though producing a similar effect upon a small scale. For the tradesman who issues his promissory notes, and fails to fulfil his promises at the specified time; the merchant who gives his bills and fails to meet them with punctuality; and the speculator who purchases scrip without the means of meeting the demands upon him, all produce distress to the extent of their obligations, and very often involve the downfall of others by their disgraceful proceedings.

But lamentable as are the results often arising from the non-fulfilment of engagements, on the part of tradesmen,