The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 20, 1866.

as roomy an appearance as many of my neighbours'.
I had a clerk who evinced more than ordinary
shrewdness and capacity for business ; he seemed
intuitively to comprehend all my ideas and carry
them out without any extended directions. When
he had finished his term of apprenticeship, I pro-
posed to give him what I supposed was a fair salary.
What was my astonishment when he declined my
offer and demanded twice the amount. I refused.
He gave me notice. I told him the sooner he went
the better. In a few days he called upon me and
asked for a recommendation, saying he hoped he had
been of use to me. Of course this was not to be de-
nied. You know, my dear niece, lam not natu-
rally unkind, only I do like to have my own way,
and I did'nt like the air of independence in which
he had spoken to me. But now that I looked in his
manly face, and read and knew the truth was in his
honest eye ; when I remembered, too, that he had
served me faithfully; that oftentimes, when I had
been harsh, and perhaps overbearing, he had never
answered even by a look, I could'nt, now that he
was going away, help feeling a little interest in him.
So I said, as I handed him his recommendation,
"Where do you intend going, Mr. Jonathan ?" for
that was his name. "Do you intend procuring a
situation near here; are you going abroad ; or have
you any fixed plans as yet ?7,
" Well, Mr. Bull,"
he replied, " I thought, as I was young, and had a
long life before me, that with resolution, applica-
tion, and a will, I might in some locality have a
chance to get a situation in some new established
house, and by and bye work myself up into a part-
nership where I should be independent." As the
young chap said this, he was standing tall, firm, and
erect before me, and I thought I saw in his whole
manner that self-confidence which in the end nearly
always insures success. I now remembered that
I had long contemplated establishing a branch in
the newly-discovered country of America. I
had heard of other houses who had succeeded very
well in barter trade with the Indians, and I thought
here was the opportunity I desired. Remaining
intent a short time, and turning the matter over in
my mind, I finally concluded to make him an offer.
" Young man," I remarked, " how would you like
to go to America, if I will supply you with a stock
of goods, and a small vessel to carry them over.
Remember, it is a new country ; you will be on your
own resources, you can take out two or three com-
panions to assist you. I will
pay the expenses and
supply you with the goods, which you must repay
me for when sold." Young Jonathan folded his
arms, bent his head down as if considering the
matter, and then, after a few minutes, he said, 4, 1
will go." Well, I loaded a little vessel called the
May Flower, and, after seeing him safely off, I re-
turned to my business. During the space of many
years I heard from him, received his remittances,
sent him goods at my own prices, and I am ashamed
to say I think now that I charged him rather heavily,
though at that time I did not think so ; for you see
I had supplied him with the goods, started
him in business, and gave him credit when
no one else knew him. His letters soon changed
in their character, he was becoming ungrateful, he
charged me with being exorbitant in my prices. lie
stated he could purchase the articles much less at
other places. Then we became mutually angry. I
told him he should pay what I charged, or I would
ruin his credit, prevent his purchasing anywhere
else, and in the end break up his business. He
defied me, and informed me that he should an-
nounce to all his friends that he had no connection
with my house. I had no conception of the strength
and extent of the firm. Alas, since then I have
learned to my sorrow I lost the best customer I
ever had. At last I succumbed. I had money, he
had credit. Since then he has been a good cus-
tomer of mine, but I no more enjoy the monopoly.
He trades with the very houses I do, and has esta-
blished manufactories in America equal to those
that supply my house with goods here. It has
always been a sore subject to me, the senseless
quarrel between Mr. Jonathan and myself.
After a time there was a partner admitted in
Mr. Jonathan's, who owned one-third of the busi-
ness. Ile was a fiery, hot-headed gentleman, who
did not like much work. He despised Mr. Jonathan,
although Jonathan was the richest, because he
attended to all branches of the establishment, was
there early and late, supervising, directing, improv-
ing, and extending, never hesitating at any employ-
ment, even though it spoiled his hands, so long as
it was for the general good of all. Mr. Rub,
the junior partner, disliked all this ; but he
was fond of dictating and demanding certain
experiments should be continued, which Mr.
Jonathan, wiser than he, believed would probably
prove detrimental to the general good. And, con-
sequently, whenever they were proposed, he firmly
but courteously opposed their extension. They had,
besides their factories, vast estates north, south,
east, and west. Mr. Reb had owned all the cotton
branch, and from his extended fields and planta-
tions he brought, as they say, " a good deal of grist
to the mill." He knew the full value of the por-
tion which he had added to the common stock, and
knowing a little more inde-
pendent than usual, ha feelingthought he would again pro-
pose his favourite scheme to the senior partner.
" Mr. Jonathan," remarked Mr. Reb, " You must
be aware that my experiments have proved remune-
rative, and also that there is less trouble, less labour,
and less anxiety in the working of my share of the
business than yours. Now, as you won't let me
carry on the experiment in any new property, I
propose to smash the concern ; and smash it I
will."

Mr. Jonathan replied-.." Mr. Reb, this is a per-
petual partnership. You have signed the papers,
all profit is to go into the general concern, and
neither you nor I have a right to dissolve it ; and I
give you fair warning that if you attempt it there
will be trouble."

Mr. Reb said nothing more, but sullenly and
angrily he was leaving the counting-house, when
Mr. Jonathan, holding out his hand, said, " Don't
go, let us talk things over. I will prove to you
that your theory, and the extension of any part of
the establishment for the purpose of carry-
ing it out, will prove injurious to us. You
know it has caused a great deal already. Let us
close the experiment. What it has caused us already
I am willing by degrees shall be taken out of the
general reserve fund. Is not that fair ?"
" No," replied Reb. "If you do not choose to
let me carry on the experiment in this establish-
ment, remember I claim one-third of the property ;
and if I cannot have it by fair means I will have it by
foul. I'll split the whole infernal establishment up,
and carry on the concern myself ; we'll see who's
got the power."

" Now, my friend, Reb," said Jonathan," I have
spoken smoothly to you, but if you attempt any of
your mad business in our house you'll perhaps find
yourself severely whipped before you get through ;
so just beware, that's all 1"
That night Mr. Reb, having prevailed upon a
few friendly spirits to join him, having the ad-
vantage of a surprise, committed sad havoc in the
head department. Many of the valuables were
seized, articles necessary for carrying on trade were
destroyed, the most important machines were muti-
lated, barricades were erected, cutting off one-third
of the establishment, and so much good use did the
malcontents make of their time that when morning
came they had improvised an establishment of-their
own, Mr. Reb starting business with an immense
show of activity.
But how acted Mr. Jonathan when he was
aroused from his slumbers? At first he was para-
lysed with astonishment ; he could not believe that
Reb would either be so rash or suicidal as to attempt
anything so bold, and commit a series of acts which
would ultimately irretrievably ruin him, But he
sounded the alarum, and those who were faithful to
him soon rallied around his standard. Ile told
them what had occurred, that he intended before he
had finished he would let Mr. Reb know that he could
not be so easily trifled with. lam for war, open,
terrible war, until he submits. One or the other
must give way ;
there is not room for two firms,
Mr. Reb, carrying off the goods which he had
seized from the central establishment, determined
on defending his estates. Mr. Jonathan was
equally determined to bring the wayward, hot-
headed youth back.

Now Mr. Jonathan posse3,sed some fine vessels,

and he found it would be policy to be friends ; and
so sending over he informed me of his difficulties,
and asked if I could supply him with certain goods
he was in want of. Of course I was too glad to
do so. In the meantime Mr. Reb sent an agent
over with the same request. Being a business man,
I bad nothing to do with their quarrels, and of
course I filled both orders. But Mr. Jonathan bad
blocked the roads to Mr. Reb's new establishment,
so that he couldn't obtain his goods. Many of them
he seized and sequestered. Then Mr. Reb's agent
swore with a terrible oath that Mr. Jonathan
should have no vessels to carry over his goods. lie
would drive all his ships off the sea. I advised him
not to do anything hastily. He then wanted to have
built a pretty little craft in a ship-yard I was inte-
rested in. I told him my business was cash. That
was perfectly satisfactory. But mind, I remarked,
nothing unlawful. You must not play pirate, or
put guns on board. "All right, sir." "I assure you,
Britannia," said Uncle Bull, "at this time you
couldn't have ever refused him. He was a most
insinuating young dog, and liberal as a prince.
Well, here is where all my trouble begins. We
built the vessel in one part of the establishment, and
he goes to another branch and buys some other ma-
terials, which he puts into a small craft. Well,
when the trim craft we have sold leaves, by some
unfortunate coincidence she meets the other on
the seas, and she is converted into a regular—but
I wont mention it. I only know if my clerks car-
ried on the game with any mutual understand-
ing, I was ignorant. Now, unfortunately many
of Mr. Jonathan's vessels with valuable goods
connected with his business crossed the path
of Mr. Reb, and he in a spirit of revenge and vin-
dictiveness burned them ; the loss to Mr. Jonathan
was very great, who, hearing of it, says he will hold
me responsible. I wrote to him and told him I was
not responsible ; that if a customer come to my
shop and bought some laudanum for the toothache,
I couldn't tell whether he was going to commit
murder or suicide. I told him if a person bought
a gun of me I could not ask if he was going to
kill the first gentleman he met ; if a gentleman
bought a ship I couldn't tell that in every box
he took on board were the materials for con-
verting her into a privateer. Finally, in my
absence, I was not accountable for the conduct of
my clerks, and with this 1 begged he wouldn't
bother me any more about it. Ile then wrote me,
and said he was confident he was right, and he
would leave it to any one outside. I told him I
knew my own affairs. It appears now he has settled
with his former partner, and taken Mr. Reb in this
time as a silent, not active member of the house.
His business has prospered and increased ; he has
leisure time on his hands, and he intends to put me
through. In fact, he is trying to bully me." This
concluded Mr. John Bull's story.
"My dear uncle, may I ask this," said Miss
Britannia, " were the things furnished from your
establishment, and hadn't you some slight idea of
what was going on ?"

" I don't choose to reply to any impudent ques-
tions !" growled Mr. John Bull, evidently in no very
agreeable humour.

" May I ask, then, whether you would not rather
pay this than lay yourself open to the same injury
in case of a split in your firm ? Is the amount too
large for you, Uncle?"

" I must certainly say it's unpleasant, and I
should not like it to occur to me. As for the
amount, it's a mere bagatelle."

" Now, Uncle," earnestly spoke Miss Britannia,
" I know you are sometimes gruff, but you are
always just when you are convinced ; and I
am sure that it is better„ if you believe your
case good, to leave it to the decision of a mutual
friend. This continual bickering may yet lead to an
open breach, the embers may be fanned into a
flame, as you are aware. Mr. Jonathan may find
means, if he desires, of injuring your business ;
whereas, by giving him a fair hearing, by laying
the case before chosen friends, an amicable arrange-
ment may be arrived at, and you will be better and
stronger friends than ever, while the mercantile
world, whatever the verdict may be, will give you
credit for fairness and justice." Here Mr. Bull
nodded acquiescence. And I agree with Miss
Britannia. It is your duty, Mr. Bull, and all
of us Bulls, to consider the case of the Alabama not
only on the ground of right, but of expediency,
policy, or whatever you may choose to call it. The
commerce of our metropolis alone in a single year
has amounted to three hundred and serenty-jire
millions (375,000,000) sterling. Tyrc, Carthage,
Alexandria, Byzantium, Venice, renowned for their
commerce in former periods of the world, conducted
a small trade in comparison with this. Our sails
dot every sewand spread their wings over every
ocean. Our colonies are scattered in every known
quarter of the earth. 11Thy lay up in store a pun-
ishment that may overtake us at any moment ? The
rumblings that come across the Atlantic are not
pleasing to the ear. Ido not say they fright your
soul, Mr. Bull, for ages have testified to your valour
and bravery ; but why not remove all cause of
anger ? Let the message be of peace, instead of
the defiant roar of the lion, and the shrill screech of
the angered eagle as she soars proudly aloft. Let
Columbia and Britannia be your ambassadors ; they
have only one messenger, the dove. Well do I remem-
ber at the time of the Trent affair, when the clouds
rose ominous and dark above the peace of the two
countries, a cartoon in Punch. It represented Co-
lumbia standing on the shores of America looking
across the broad blue expanse of waters to where
Albion's white cliffs were. On her right shoulder,
though chained, was the eagle, emblematic of war ;
he was ready to bear any message of defiance ; but
on the forefinger. of Columbia's left hand was a
dove ; with her right hand she was softly stroking
its head. There Columbia stood, hesitating, irre-
solute; at last a smile of sweetness irradiates and
illumines her countenance ; the little blue rib-
band is detached, and the dove sails away
the messenger of peace; and so now I hope
John Bull will have as much sense. Leave it to
Britannia; chain the lion in his den ; but let the
dove bear across the Atlantic a message, and let it
be a draft in full. Then John Bull may sip his
port wine, take his "forty winks" in security, and
not be afraid of the rap-rap of the postman bring-
ing unpleasant letters at unseasonable hours.

THOMAS RAWLINGS.
103, Gresham House, Nov. 16.

MR. D. FIELD'S ADDRESS ON JURISPRUDENCE.—
On Monday, 12th inst., Mr. Dudley Field, a gentle-
man who has achieved a wide-spread reputation as one
of the Commissioners for the Codification of the
Laws of the State of New York, delivered an ad-
dress to the Jurisprudence Department of the Social
Science Association in the rooms of the Society of
Arts. The Hon. George Denman, Q.C., presided
at the meeting, which was attended by those inte-
rested in the much-vexed question of Codification
v. Digestion. Mr. Field is one of the ablest advo-
cates of codification, and he has it in his power to
supply an amount of practical information on the
subject, such as no one in this country can possibly
possess. True, it by no means follows either that
the excellent compendium of the law of New York
on which we lately offered some remarks will be
found to fill the place required of a complete code,
or that, if it does, the same course could be taken
with equal success in this country ; but the ventila-
tion of the question will be greatly assisted, and the
necessary field of discussion materially narrowed,
by an accurate knowledge (such as Mr. Field can
impart) of what has been done in the country whose
laws and circumstances are, of the whole world, the
most similar to our own. The ability displayed in
the introduction to the " Civil Code of the State of
New York" is such that we would gladly transfer
the whole of it to these columns did our space per-
mit.--Solicitors' Journal.
LADTEnnsEMENT.l—Holloway's Ointment and Pills.—
Biliousness, Dysentery.—Thera is no organ in the human
body so liable to derangement as the liver. Food, fatigue,
climate, and anxiety— all disorder its action and render its
secretion, the bile, more or less depraved, superabundant,
or scanty. The first symptoms should receive attention.
A pain in the side or top of the shoulder, a harsh cough
and difficulty of breathing are signs of liver disease, which
aro removed without delay by friction with Holloway's
inestimable ointment. Tho pills should also be taken early.
For all diseases of this vital organ the action of these con-
joined remedies is a specific by checking the over supply
of bile, regulating its secretion, and giving nervous tone.

SPIRI r OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

3 THE " WEEKLY DISPATCH" ON PICTURE-FLAYING AT
) THE NATIONAL GALLERY.—The value of a public collection
b of choice works by renowned painters is obvious. A fine
picture, unlike a great poem, cannot be indefinitely multi-
E plied. Its design, it is true, may be disseminated by en-
graving or photography ; but the peculiar quality which
distinguishes it from both sculpture and engraving—the
subtle imitation of nature, by gradation of substance and
k harmonious blending of colours, no merely mechanical
process can adequately render. To the formation, then,
of that accurate perception of beauty ,in nature and art,
termed "taste," the study of pictures by the great masters
is indispensable ; and it, of necessity, follows that sound
judgment on the part of those deputed by the nation to
' purchase and preserve such works is of the very utmost
• importance. For fine pictures, from the subtlety of the
method of which they were produced, are peculiarly sus-
ceptible of injury. The person in whose charge they may
. be can, if he will, alter them to suit his notion either of
nature or of the artist's intention, and this by the process
termed "cleaning." With regard to this term let us not
be misunderstood. On a picture that has been painted
for centuries dirt to some extent must inevitably ad-
here ; but this, if the work has not been ignorantly
covered with bad varnish or oil, will be so small in
quantity as not to materially interfere either with the
effect of the work or the pleasure and profit derivable from
it by spectator or student. Still, the removal of this dirt
would unquestionably be a gain, provided it were done
without damage to the paint ; but cleaners almost always
take off, with the dirt, that delicate coat of colour by which
the great painters imparted finish to their works, termed
" glazing." Their process of painting was broadly this. On
a ground more or less dark or transparent they modelled
the picture in tints formed by mixing white lead with co-
loured pigments, thus producing an effect which, as com-
pared with their ultimate intention, was crude, cold, opaque,
and technically speaking, "dead coloured." To this pale
preparation they imparted life, warmth, harmony and rich-
ness of tone by repeated coats or glazings of colours more
or less transparent ; and a picture thus produced has the
additional and invaluable quality of luminousness, result-
ing from light and opaque tints shining through colour
rich but thin. Now it must be evident that pictures pro-
duced by this complex process can be injured at will. Let
the- owner or curator consider lightness or paleness a
merit, and the glazings are at once torn off as "dirt"
Thus were treated a picture by Rubens and two by
Guido in 1844 and 1845. Four more pictures were
flayed in 1846, and so strong were the expressions of
public indignation that in 1847 Sir Charles Eastlake
resigned the keepership and Mr. Unwins took his place.
Till 1852 the pictures had a rest ; then, seized with
a spasm of destructiveness, Mr. Unwins tore off the glaz-
ings from nine fine works. Press and public were roused,
Mr. Morris Moore taking thelead. A Parliamentary com-
mittee examined witnesses of repute, and the opinions
given amounted to 149 condemnatory of the " cleaning,"
and but 45 in its favour, 31 of these being uttered by the
parties implicated. Mr. Uuwins was now deprived of the
keepership, and, strange to say, Sir Charles Eastlake, the
inaugurator of the " cleaning" era was once more placed
over the gallery with a large increase of salary. Warned,
however, by experience, he, from that time till his recent
death, avoided the rock on which he had wrecked his re-
putation ; but Mr. Boxall, his successor, is less cautious.
Of the pictures " cleaned" under the direction during the
late vacation and shown to the public when the gallery re-
opened on Monday, Nov. 5, two' of the landscapes by
Gaspar Poussin (No. 31) and by Rubens (No. 66), are of
chief importance, though others have been flayed to which
we shall allude hereafter. Through a system of ill-usage,
the nature of which wo will presently indicate, the sur-
face of the Poussin had become dull ; but the Rubens was
in fine condition--that is to say, the colouring was rich,
harmonious, and natural, whilst the dirt on it was so
trifling in quantity as not to endure with the general effect.
The dirt is now gone, and with it the master's rich and
transparent glazings. To the cultivated eye the work
is now, compared with what it was, inexpres-
sibly painful. To the young student it is worse than
valueless, for it falsifies Rubens's intention and can only
mislead. To the nation its pecuniary value is materially
diminished. For " cleaning" the Poussin there was more
pretext. We remember—for our intimate knowledge of
the National Gallery and matters connected therewith
dates back full twenty years —when this picture was in
good condition, rich in tone, sublimely ideal in massive
breadth of treatment, and worthy its Roman* fame as
" the painter's masterpiece." Mark its decline and fall.
The only varnish that can be applied to the surface of a
picture without ultimate injury to it is that made by
gum mastic dissolved in spirit. It preserves the paint
from discolouration by foul air ; it is subject to
little, if any, change of hue. The gum, when the spirit
has evaporated, can either be revived by allowing it to ab-
sorb more spirit, or it can be removed by gentle friction,
and fresh varnish substituted. This method of treatment,
known and always used by intelligent experts, was not the
one in favour with Mr. Seguier, who, on Sir C. Eastlake's
first accession to office in 1843, and for some years after,
was employed at the gallery and did to the pictures what
he would. In his evidence before the committee of 1853 he
states that " when the pictures first came to the gallery
they were not in a bad state. They were in a fine condi-
tion; there was no oil or dirt upon them ;" and he then,
strangely enough, says—" I have been in the habit of var-
nishing pictures (the gallery pictures) with a mixture of
boiled oil and varnish—my gallery varnish'— magylp ;
particularly dark and absorbent pictures. It is my opinion
that this oil varnish has a great tendency to attract dirt,
and that, if it continue any length of time on a picture, it
will get yellower and blacker from day to day." Worse !
he speaks of " occasionally rubbing them up with oil after-
wards"—an operation repeated, too, by certain of his suc
cessors. Now, among the pictures thus scandalously used
was the "masterpiece" of Poussin. We have watched
for some years with painful forebodings the gradual en-
croachments on it of superficial obscurity, till at length
the " cleaner" has torn off with the oil varnish all the
painter's finishing work—all that gave the picture truth,
tone, and sublimity; and has left, only, to our astonished
gaze the cold, dead, opaque preparation. Against this
Vandalism we raise our voice—against this ignorant de-
struction of works which can never be replaced we pro-
test in the interests of art, of the nation, and of the world.
As Mr. Boxall—in contempt of the overwhelming evidence
against the National Gallery process of "cleaning," given
before the committee of 1853 -in contempt of the facts
then deposed to by Mr. Morris :Moore, Mr. Wm. Coningham,
Sir David Brewster, Mr. David Roberts, R.A., and other
competent witnesses with reference to the nature of glaze
and the irreparable injury caused by its ignorant removal—
in contempt of the universal condemnation of the Vandal-
ism of 1852 by the Press—has thought fit to recommence this
method of destruction, thereby not only depreciating the
value of publicproperty to the extent of thousands of pounds,
causing injury which no money can repair; and as the
"cleaning" is probably still in progress, two pictures—one
termed a warrior adoring the infant Christ (No. 234); the
other a Tintoretto (No. 16), known as "St. George," being
absent from their frames when we visited the Gallery on
Monday last—a proceeding which, the vacation over,
is unusual, nay,we believe, unprecedented--we demand, in
the name of the public that all operations that come under
the head of "cleaning" be at once stayed, and that no more
pictures be removed from public sight until Parliamentary
inquiry has again probed this matter to the root. When
this inquiry takes place evidence of a startling kind will be
brought forward both with regard to the recent flayings
and to the injuries from the use of the "oil varnish," which
has been indiscriminately employed in the Gallery for
more than 20 years.
" THE EXAMINER" ON THE GREATEST OF OUR MANU-
FACTURES.—Every one knows at once that this can mean
no other than the cotton manufacture, the greatest that
the world has ever seen or is likely to see. The raw mate-
rial of this mighty manufacture is nothing more or less
than the pappus or flock of the seed vessel of an exotic
plant which will not grow at all in our climate, nor very
well in any European climate. Greeks and Romans and
men of the middle ages knew nothing about it. We ourselves
and the other nations of Europe received the raw material
from the Arabs of Spain, asits name imports, and the Arabs
had it, they knew not by what means or when, from the
Hindus. This is the simple material out of which is pro-
duced the fabric which clothes half the population of the
world, and of which wo aro the principal manufacturers.
The sketch we are about to give of the wondrous manu-
facture we take from a paper of great ability and enlighten-
ment, lately read at the social sienco meeting held at Man-
chester by Mr. H. Ashworth, late chairman of the Chamber
of Commerce of Manchester, himself an active labourer in
the mighty hive of ingenious and indefatigable industry.
The vastness -of tho cotton manufacture is founded on the
natural cheapness of the raw material, and its peculiar
adaptation to machinery. A garment of the cheapest
fabric of wool, that is flannel, will cost 35., of linen '2s. 4d.,
but of cotton only 11d., and thus you can easily have two
garments of cotton for one of linen, and three for one of
wool. But cotton, in the early period 'of our manufactures,
was as clear as lint, or even wool, but skill in growth
and economy of transport in time altered all this. Sixty
years ago, a pound of American cotton of an ordinary
quality cost 25., and it fell to 6d., or one-fourth of this,
still paying the planter and the merchant equally well.
Down to the year 1767, barely a century ago, cotton and
other thread or yarn was made by the distaff iu every
country of Europe, as it still is in India and China, and as

it ever had been since the time when linen thread was
spun for the weaving of Egyptian mummy cloth. It is in
the preparation of the yarn that the chief economy is pro-
duced in the cotton manufacture. Lancashire is now, and
always has been, the great centre of the trade, and it was
here that sprung up the inventions which have made it
great. In 1767 Hargreaves invented the " Spinning Jenny,"
Arkwiight, two years after, the "Water-frame,"Crotnpton,
in 1775, the "Mule," so called because it was a combination
of the two previous inventions. 'Thus, within eight short
years, discoveries were made which had before baffled the
ingenuity of the world, from the day man began first to
clothe himself in a textile fabric. Before then the labour

' Notc.—The Poussin came from the Colonna. Palace,
Rome. No work by Poussin now exists in Rome so fine
as this was once.

of three Lancashire spinsters was required to furnish yarn
for one weaver. The new inventions soon removed every
obstacle, and the weavers had an ample sur ply, for, in 3
wonderfully brief time the Jenny and the Water-frame
could spin a pound of cotton to a thread 19 miles long, but
the Mule to one of 950 ! The inventors of these wonderful
machines were not men of education or rich men, but they
were, notwithstanding, great men in the best sense of the
word. Hargreaves and Crompton were ordinary operatives
and still more unfavourably circumstanced wasArkwrigh'l
for ho was a barber distinguished from other barbers only
by cheap shaving. "Startling," says Mr. Ashworth, " LIS
it may appear, discoveries of such importance have been
disclosed to the world by a few untutored men from the
ranks of labour. Thanks to them, the machinery thus
constructed has completely revolutionised the arts of &Tin-
ning, and has put in motion an instrumentality and a sys-
tem of manufacture where the fibrous products 01,13°,11f
are utilised to the service of man ; fitted alike to
to the refined taste of the wealthy, and to supply the POI."
important and urgent needs of the poor!" The machines
first applied to cotton, and which, had there been no cotton,
would certainly never have been invented at all, have since
been successfully applied to other textile materials, as the
wool of the sheep, the hair of the goat, the camel, and t"°
.
alpaca to flax, to hemp, to Indian jute—even to the fib'"
of the tropical Banana, and to the intestines of a cotter'
pillar. Other nations have borrowed our inventions. Thfe
jenny and the mule are iu Europe to be seen from Sp3'n
to Russia, from England in a westerly direction across diet
Atlantic, and in an easterly as fax as the eastern shores °A
Hindustan. All who do not manufacture themselves, °-
many who do, receive from us plain and coloured cottons'
and cotton yarn to the extent last year of better than
£57,000,000. We are the greatest consumers, but if
we consume no more than £43,000,000 we have here a Pro'
perty of a hundred millions a year created in one hundred
years' time, an estate a good deal more valuable than °lll'
Indian Empire, which we began creating at the same ante'
Nothing could stay the rapid advance of the cotton manu-
facture after James Watt had improved, or for all
practical
purposes rather had invented, the steam engine. The
heaviest blow, short of the overthrow of our own in-
stitutions by a conqueror, was given to it by the civil Of
in America, which nearly destroyed our best and largest
supply, raising the price of the raw material frum
sixpence up even to five sixpences, and which is compute",
to have inflicted a direct penalty on us little short of
£70,000,000, exclusive of enhanced cost to the consumer
We are, however, rapidly recovering from this great cs
tastrophe, and soon the cotton manufacture will be gren,er
,:
than ever. We have but one objection to offer to the ,l,
and instructive essay of Mr. Ashworth, and it is this
his admiration of the principles of freedom of commerce'
with which we are entirely in unison, he makes no all°Z
ance for—and, indeed, no mention of—another pelver:,„
promoter of the cotton manufacture as of avail nth
branch of British industry. This is the influx of the Prr
cious metals. The influx has been to the amount of maul
millions a year now for 18 years. The silver brought
the
market has equalled the gold, for the two metals bear t"1
same relative values which they did before. The old rt
and silver also come from the mines as they did before,
the
this mighty addition has not depreciated the value a
precious metals. In the 16th century the precious Met h
were depreciated, because they flowed into a little sluggle,
market which could not absorb them. In our time they
have flowed into a mighty one, and simply stimulated t'f.
creation of new wealth equal to their own amount.
sly
Ashworth's own figures will, we think, show indisputabd
how gold has helped free trade. In 1840, before fir;
trade principles were in operation, our exports a eet.°O.
goods were estimated in round numbers at £24,000,00
In the next five years, which included three years' imPre'le.
ment in the tariff, they rose to £26,000,000. In the follorir;
ing five years, ending with 1850, which included four ye:
of corn-law abolition, the exports rose to £28,000,000.
that free trade, then, had done in 10 years' time °Sir
the
precious an increase of £4,000,000. The influx of ,--s°t
precious metals began in 1849 and 1850, so that the 'nit
years of free trade especially had received some sin.;
assistance from it. In the first five years of free VI
helped by gold, our exports rose to £34,000,000, and I° t
next five, ending with full supply of the raw material, they
amounted to £52,000,000, or in ten years' time they haall. 0,
creased by £18,000,000, against the £8,000,000 of the COeil)
responding decennial period, when free trade had no boo
from the new gold. Mr. Ashworth has a mind that
readily grasp such subjects, and when he gives the 4,e°'6,
tion his consideration, we are satisfied that he will
with David Hume and Wm. Huskisson in thinking that
influx of gold is a great promoter of national prosperiti.