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ow creatures, with cheeks sunk in, and narrow faces, were not so ?"

years;" but really young men and women. The cheerless though noisy monot"I can assure you, Green, you have ony of their lives; the total absence of all seen the healthiest and best-regulated mill that can elevate the mind, even so far as in M., nay, one of the best in England. an habitual contemplation of God's works There is nobody in it who even looks un-elevates that of the plough-boy, or expands der age; and every public rule is most strictly obeyed, together with many excellent ones laid down by the owner for the benefit and comfort of his people. The inspectors hold it up as a pattern to every body, and as a proof of what may be done to soften and improve the system. The poor people would flock to it from every other establishment, only for a strict regulation to the contrary on the part of the owner; and it is to get over this, in Helen's favour, that I fear we shall find a difficulty."

it into social kindliness among loving kindred, or pleasant companions-this stamps the character of vacancy, selfishness, and gloom, on faces that should beam with the gladness, if not the intelligence, of youth. The gentle spring-time of life is checked, its budding promises nipped and blighted by the unkindliness of an atmosphere such as God never made, and such as man could never have prepared for his fellows to pine in, had not the lust of gold steeled his heart against every pleading of humanity. Machinery yields an immense

"It will not matter; for I don't want to profit; therefore machinery must be first bring her here."

"Why so?"

"I tell you," said Richard, impatiently, "It would turn her into a stone. She would droop and die. Twelve hours!" he repeated, "twelve hours a day shut up in such a place, and in such company! No, she shall go back to the country, and weed in the fields, or feed a farmer's pigs-anything but such a life as this."

Hudson looked greatly distressed. He could not bear to tell the irritated youth how very much worse in every respect was the place she at present laboured in, compared with that which they had visited. Long habit had so familiarized him with the moody, vacant looks of the factory-labourers, that he did not expect they would have made so strong an impression on the mind of his companion. In fact it is the peculiar feature that strikes a visiter whose attention is in any measure directed to the countenances of the mill-people. Seen at their work, they are a community of automata. Nothing seems to animate them. The cold listlessness of their looks sends a chill to the heart of the spectator, who, if he feel rightly, must feel it a degradation to his species to be chained, as it were, to a parcel of senseless machinery, confused by its din, and forced to obey its movements with scarcely an interval for thought or for repose. This is the case where the labourers are principally adults; not in the mocking sense of having "the strength and appearance of fourteen

cared for; and the question is, not by what means the deleterious effects accompanying its operations might be mitigated, if they cannot be neutralized, to the labourers attendant on its movements; but how may those movements be quickened into tenfold velocity, irrespective of the tenfold injury inflicted on the poor, who, for a morsel of bread are compelled to link themselves to its wheels, and to bury themselves in the heat of its cauldrons.

This refers to such as may be supposed of age to choose for themselves; and Richard had remarked mothers, probably, of grown-up families, engaged in all the departments, with elderly men, and those of middle age mingled with the throng, particularly where the great carding-machines threw out their flue so abundantly. They, of course were under no compulsion, save that of poverty; and had they rather chosen to starve, they had liberty so to do; but an immense proportion of the hands employed in the mills are mere children, driven thither by parental authority; their time, their health, their lives regarded as bare matter of merchandize between two parties, of whom the one was eager to grasp whatever the commodity would fetch, and the other to wring out from his helpless purchase the utmost value that it was capable of producing. The one careful to expedite his child to the scene of exhausting labour; the other to expedite his wheels and spindles with the least possible intermission while those

cess of daily diminution you have left only the breathless carcase, your progress, rol

poor little fingers and feet are at his disposal; the one counting his pence, the other his packages; and each jealous lestling along the middle way in your luxurihe should have failed to extract full profit from the withering frame of his human machine. And as is the child, so is the dreadful responsibility bandied from one to the other.

"I support my children," says the father, "and being a poor man, I must not keep them idle; they must do what they can to help. I hire them out to a gentleman to serve him, and if he overwork them the blame is his. I can't interfere with his establishment-I take it for granted he knows his duty, being an educated gentleman, with a family of his own probably; and of course he will do what is right."

ous carriage, or guiding the full-fed steed upon its track, will not be impeded by yon miserable group, who, stealing past upon the narrow causeway, follow a pauper's funeral. Those well-worn cloaks of rusty black are but thrown on, by parochial charity, for the occasion; the interminable toil of those now lifeless limbs, though it supplied you with the rich caparisons that. you glory in displaying, could not lay by the superfluity of a burial-fee for the victim, nor provide a mourning garment for the heart-broken, conscience-stricken survivors.

And why conscience-stricken? If they squandered in strong drink, or appropriated in idleness the child's earnings, they have indeed a terrible item to answer for in your common account with God: but if there was no alternative-if nothing short of wealth would satisfy you, where nothing short of early destruction to others was its probable, its almost inevitable price |

then will they stand, not as fellow culprits, beside you, but as accusing witnesses against your soul; at the day when worldly riches cannot avail; when worldly honours shall be proved a mocking dream; and when

"I live by the produce of my mills," says the manufacturer, "I have laid out immense sums on fitting them up, and in laying in an abundant stock of the raw material. I have an undoubted right to make what profit I can on this costly speculation, and to do so I must avail myself to the full of the capabilities of my works. It is not for me to judge what other people's children are competent to do; I leave that to their legitimate guardians, who must know the nature and extent both of their abilities and my require-worldly gratifications shall but be rememments. If these guardians accept my terms, and place their little ones at my disposal, I am bound to conclude that they are fully able to keep pace with my machinery, and I must compel them so to do, or I lose unjustly in the bargain. If they are unfit for the task, let those answer for the consequences who voluntarily send them to me."

act.

Voluntarily! No, it is not a voluntary You well know that the cravings of nature must be satisfied; and though your poverty-stricken brother asks no more than the dry morsel from which your pampered dog would turn away, still without that morsel he cannot exist. You enter tacitly, at least, into a confederacy with your wealthy compeers, and leave him no option between actual starvation and a compact whereby he obtains a scanty meal, and a shelter from the inclement sky, at the price of his own or his childrens' life-blood. With one hand you niggardly supply that vital stream, with the other you copiously drain it away; and when by this sure pro

hered to sharpen the gnawings of the worm. that dieth not; and to quicken the burnings of the fire that shall not be quenched.

"What a pretty girl is that," remarked a visiter to the junior member of an extensive cotton-firm, who was exhibiting to him the different departments of the mill. "What a fine creature she will be at twenty !"

The young gentleman looked at the beautiful creature pointed out, then glanced his eye over the whole throng of her youthful companions, and turning it on the visiter with a significant leer, quietly answered in an under-tone,-"There are not many in this room who will live to be twenty!"

When Richard Green returned home, he found his grandmother in considerable alarm, while a coarse-looking man was talking in the loud tone of self-satisfied superiority, evidently enjoying her trepidation, "And so, good woman, as I said before, fine words won't butter no parsnips. 'Tis all right and becoming of you

to thank me for waiting so long; but as I'm not going to wait longer, down, I say, with the rent."

Richard's entrance appeared to increase the widow's distress: she looked appealingly at him, not to invite but to deprecate his interference. He understood her, and crossed over to James, who placed a cold and trembling hand in his, but spoke not. "I don't believe," continued the landlord, looking round him, "that all the sticks you've got here would fetch the seven and sixpence, to say nothing of costs; but by way of example to the neighbours I shall be forced to execute. I've a deal of property in this court," he continued, pompously drawing himself up, "and what's to become of my rents if tenants go on for a matter of three weeks together without paying a rap?”

"Give me till the beginning of next week, Mr. Scott, and I promise you it shall all be paid.”

"I won't, indeed I won't; for I can't! woman. I must buy stock for my trade, or how can I live? You have children in the mill, and they get their wages punctual; but I, a respectable tradesman, sends in my bill to the same parties, and is told by the footman to call again. They forget my account, because 'tis too small for their big pockets; and you refuse it little one, because it's too big for your hey, missus?"

If any one of the party had laughed at this facetiousness, it is probable that Mr. Scott, who set up for a wit in his way, would have been mollified; but his auditors were in no laughing mood, and he became more lofty than ever.

"I tell ye, 'tis no use talking: the money to-day, or an execution to-morrow."

Richard had remained silent: his first impulse was to be rough; for his spirit was strangely chafed; but a better feeling prevailed, and he spoke with his usual civility.

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"I came to M. on business, for a gentleman in Suffolk."

"Who did you come to ?"

"Mr. H. at the great house on the hill." "The great house on the hill! ha! ha! we've great houses enow, and hills enow, about this big town. However, I know who you mean; and I've some notion of obliging you. Let me see; seven and sixpence, and two and sixpence. Well, old woman, I'll call on you when this week, that began yesterday, is out; and you'll come down with your ten shillings, will you ?”

"I will, God helping me," faltered the widow.

"Don't forget then: I can tell you, if it hadn't been for that young fellow speaking so respectfully, I'd have been as good as my word: not for any ill-will I bear you, but to set an example, as I told you before." He nodded and went out.

The widow ran to Richard, and leaning on his shoulder exclaimed, while her tears streamed fast, "I would fain have hid this from you, my child!”

"That is the worst of it, granny: you conceal from me things that I must know, sooner or later, instead of speaking out now I am here to consult with you. And you may speak out," he added, mournfully, "for I can't well be more miserable than I am."

A full explanation was at length given; and the fact appeared plain, that with all their struggling they could barely live upon the earnings of the three who laboured for them. Among other things, the system of forfeitures had been rigidly enforced against Mary, whose companions easily provoked her, by noise and in other ways, to incur the fine; and many a sixpence was thus stopped out of her The overlooker never inquired wages. into particulars, nor listened to any mitigating statement: he had redoubled his vigilance since the information was laid against him for ill-treating her, and carefully visited every infringement of the

"I'm sorry, sir, my grandmother has been obliged to keep you waiting: but perhaps you will consider how much ill-rules with the penalty. Against this there ness there has been in the family, and I'm sure she will take her promise now. keep it."

"Why, you are a civil-spoken lad, and well dressed too: how came you here?"

VOL. II.

21

was no appeal: the rules were hung up in the work-room, with the exact sum to be paid for any breach of them; and the fact once proved, the consequence was inevitable. This afforded a sad means of

oppression in some cases; for the children | "Poor as your fare is, and not enough to support you properly, still it comes pretty nigh within your gains. I can't make out the deficiency."

naturally thought less of a pecuniary loss falling on their parents than of present severity to themselves; although in the irritation of disappointment they rarely escaped double punishment at home. Some protection against idleness and insubordination on the part of his labourers, the employer must, in common justice, have; and of the two, this plan of penalties is undoubtedly the best: but that master-evil-the want of due enquiry into the temper and habits of the men to whom are committed the persons, the principles, the interests of so many young creatures, and the absence of a wholesome restraint on their bad propensities, poisons the fountain-head, and carries corruption through the whole mass.

He was then told of Mary's continual forfeits, which exasperated him: "Are not they content with kicking her about, but must they wrest her earnings from her too?"

The widow told him that it could not be avoided; Mary's conduct really provoking the penalty, as Katy herself had been obliged to admit, when closely questioned; Helen corroborating it. She had reasoned and pleaded with the child, but to no purpose, and must they wait patiently till God gave her a better mind.

"I shall talk to her though," observed Richard, "And try if all my influence Mary Green needed a strict hand to is gone. But, oh, granny, those mills control her rebellious disposition; and she are fearful places! I felt as if the hot, found one perfectly ready to do it, not for unnatural air would melt away all that her good or for the advantage of their was good for anything in me, and leave mutual employer, but from personal dis- me like one of the senseless machines, to like. She saw this, and resentment quick-do just whatever I was set about, right or ened her hot temper to more frequent ebullitions, which generally ended in an open breach of some standing rule, and the imposition of its attendant fine.

These deductions formed no inconsiderable item in the widow's list of losses: Richard had volunteered to make out an exact scale of their income and expenditure, in order to discover where the chief deficiency on the one hand, or extra expense on the other lay: the first was soon calculated and noted down, the latter reluctantly given, for the poor old woman well knew how her boy's affectionate heart would be wrung by the miserable insufficiency of their diet and fuel; but he would not be baffled, and many a time was the cuff of his jacket drawn across his eyes while writing the particulars. At last he threw the pen from him, exclaiming, "Granny, the workhouse is better

than this."

"The work-house, Richard, is not open to those who are able to labour, as we are, and can find employment."

"Able!" thought the boy, as he gazed at the withered hand which gently replaced the pen in his. "Well, dearest granny, we will look all these things in the face: go on."

The account was finished, and he said,

wrong; and you know what advantages the devil will take of that state of mind." Then, after a pause, he exclaimed, "Helen must be an angel to stand it all, and to get better and better, while the rest go to ruin."

"She is no angel," said James, whom they supposed to be asleep, "but a poor sinful mortal; yet a dear child of God, living by faith, and ripening for glory."

Richard's brow contracted, "Must every body be dying who lives like a Christian? Why does not Hudson die then ?"

"Some of us die for our good, brother; and some of us live for the good of others."

"Well, darling Jem, we won't argue about that," replied Richard, kissing the cold damp brow of the patient sufferer. "I only wish it might please the Lord to let you live for my good, and I'd work the flesh off my bones for you, James; indeed I would."

"I don't doubt it: but He who loves me better than even you do is going to take me home soon, very soon," he added, with emphasis.

Richard gazed on him; then starting up, he said, "I must go this minute to Mr. H., for he bade me be there. The day after to-morrow-early in the morning

.." He threw himself on his knees

beside the widow's chair, and clasping his | him this evening, Mr. H. entered at once arms round her wept and sobbed like an on the subject of the factory which he had infant. visited, asking what impression it had made on his mind.

And oh, how that maternal bosom yearned over the child so often cradled upon it! She had no words of comfort for him; her own heart was too full for speech; she could but mingle her tears with his. James whispered, "It will do him good; he wanted such a relief." He was right; Richard with swollen eyes, but a calmer spirit, took his hat, and with an affectionate farewell repaired to the great house on the hill, where Hudson had prepared for him a more than usually kind reception.

CHAPTER XX.

THICKENING GLOOM.

"Indeed, sir, I can't say it was a pleasant one. I never saw a place of the kind before, so could not judge of its advantages above others; and having always been used to field-labour, near the sea, I could hardly fancy myself living for a week in such a pent-up, sickly place, with the smell, and the noise, and the wearisomeness of doing the same thing over and over all day long."

"But you must do that in almost any business. For instance, in ploughing a field, don't you go on much in the same way?"

"I don't plough all the year round, sir; nor always in one field. Besides, nothing out of doors can be like those hot rooms."

"Well, what say you to a blacksmith's shop? There is violent heat, and smoke, and noise, and confinement."

Oh, but, sir, if you please, there's a deal of skill needed to become a good smith, and be able to set up for oneself soon. Then, too, a man likes to feel the strength that's in his arm, and I hope you see the difference between hammering a bar of iron and frittering bits of cotton, sir ?"

Richard, animated by his theme, suited the action to the word, and Mr. G. as he marked the proud swing of a muscular arm, rejoiced in his heart that some of England's athletic yeomanry were still left to pursue their manly occupations.

"I suppose," said he, smiling, "you would not object to be a miner, shut out from day-light, and fathoms deep from the air of heaven."

MR. H. was one of those happy individuals who, with the means, possess the will to benefit their fellow-creatures. He was not a mill-owner, nor, except with the most benevolent of that class, was he a popular character among them. The great point of difference between Mr. H. and the generality of his manufacturing friends consisted in this; that whereas they considered the personal interests of master and labourer to be things not only irreconcilable, but diametrically opposed one to another, he regarded them as identical. They looked on him as their enemy, because he was the avowed, uncompromising friend of their work-people, more particularly interesting himself on behalf of the children. He could not convince them, "I don't know that, sir; there are no nor could they unconvince him, that even on mines in my part of the country, and I the grounds of worldly policy, they would always think God suits the people to the thrive better by making less haste to be sort of work he has prepared for them in rich at the expense of involving their fel- their own places. Not that I believe any low-creatures in so much misery and sin. Englishman is made to be stewed for They wished he had a mill, and nothing twelve hours a day in such a place as I else to subsist by, confident that the plead- visited this morning, which, to be sure, is ings of self-interest would soon stifle the none of God's making. However, sir, I voice of Quixotic benevolence: he was would engage in the mines to-morrow, thankful to be spared the temptation; but and do my best in that gloomy place; and felt confident that if exposed to it his prin- at any rate," he added, in a tone that ciples would stand the test, imbibed as spoke his deep feeling, "at any rate my they were at the fountain of truth, and heart would'nt be pained by seeing weak nourished by its streams. women and young children pining about When Richard Green appeared before me. They would breathe the fresh air;

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