Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

first known establishment of the kind was at Richmond, in Surrey, in about 1690. At that period Indian muslins and cloths alone were operated upon, and the demand for them interfered so materially with the consumption of silk goods, that, after several serious disturbances in consequence, the government of the day took the matter up, and placed an excise upon print works, by way of protection, very shortly afterwards—although, originally, the use of these articles was absolutely prohibited, under heavy penalties. Subsequently, financial considerations rendered the revenue thus derived of too great importance to be given up, and thus the tax remained until the general revision of the tariff some years since. To the imposition of this tax was added the vicious system of drawback upon exportation, by means of which enormous money frauds were perpetrated upon Government, to the injury of the fair trader, great loss of morality to the persons engaged in the traffic, and the infliction of a most serious blow to merchants and mercantile credit in foreign markets. If a man required money, it was an every day transaction to purchase a parcel of printed goods upon credit, ship them somewhere, obtain the drawback, and so get into possession of capital for other operations. Their ultimate destination was doubtful. They were either sent to an unsuitable market upon chance, or disposed of unfairly. If the former plan was adopted, legitimate traders found themselves forestalled, with unsaleable goods it is true, but still with sufficient stock to destroy their profit, and militate against future consignments of really useful fabrics. If the latter mode of disposal were selected, one of two methods of carrying it out was chosen ; both consisted in smuggling the goods on shore, and substituting other packages in the room of those landed. But if it were actually necessary to procure consular certifi cates as to the goods reaching their destination, in order that the bond given at the Custom House in this country might be cancelled; then the common expedient was to sink the ship-precaution, of course, being taken to preserve the lives of the crew. Salt, chintzes, and such goods as were entitled to drawback were selected as cargo, which was "run" upon some concerted spot upon the coast. When at a distance from that place, another convenient place was chosen, the boats hoisted out, a few augur holes in its sides and bottom sent the ship into deep water, and the poor wrecked mariners landed amid the commisseration of the villagers. The underwriters were, of course, victims, and considerable sums were obtained from them also. Though the penalty, upon conviction, for this offence was death, few were found guilty, on account of the difficulty of procuring legal evidence of the facts; at present the law has been improved, and evidence would be admitted now which would not then have been deemed to be sufficient. The last case which the late Lord Erskine argued as a barrister, previously to his elevation to the bench, contained a point

connected with this subject and with the previous remark. On a fine, clear summer day, off the coast of Sussex, in sight of several spectators, a ship was seen to go down suddenly; the crew landed, and were relieved, upon the representation that the accident had occurred through a leak. The circumstances which led to her being raised are immaterial, but raised she was, and the cases in which printed calicoes had been shipped were then found to be filled with rubbish. The captain and merchant were tried together for the offence, and so clear was the evidence, that they were found guilty without hesitation and sentenced to death. An arrest of judgment was however obtained, upon the ground that the court had no jurisdiction to try the case. It is unimportant whether it were at the General or Admiralty Sessions, at the Old Bailey, London, but it was at one of them. The point raised was, "when was the offence committed; at the time of agreement to do it between the merchant and captain upon land, or upon its completion by the latter at sea.". If the former were the correct view, the Admiralty could not try the merchant, who had never quitted the land, for that which was done on the sea. If the latter were right, then the captain could not be tried by a peculiarly land tribunal, for an offence which had been done solely at sea. Lord Erskine's arguments were sufficiently potent to save his clients, but before they left Gray's Inn Hall, where the case was heard, they received an admonition from their advocate to be cautious of appearing before him as a judge, or they would assuredly encounter the fate from which he had just saved them, and which, as he told them, they richly deserved. One of his lordship's earliest subsequent acts was to amend this very law.

It is upon the southern states of America that we now depend for our supply of the raw material. Previously to 1790 we imported none from thence, but the increase in the demand, and the abundant supply of slave labour stimulated cultivation to such an extent that, in 1831 we received nearly 220,000,000 lbs., and in 1856, 780,000,000 lbs., while the imports from other countries, except India, have been variable and decreasing. Any one description of machinery is not adapted to spinning every description of cotton, and, therefore, it will not answer the purpose of a manufac turer to adjust his machine for a few bales, unless he be certain that a sufficiency can be procured to keep it regularly employed, hence one great reason why the general cultivation of cotton has not gone on in other countries as in America on an increasing ratio. Some years since importations from Manilla were frequent, which realized high rates, but for this reason they have almost wholly ceased, though the quality was much appreciated in Manchester and its neighbourhood. In 1831 the West India Islands sent us 2,400,000 lbs., in 1856, 462,824 lbs. ; the Brazils contributed 31,700,000 lbs. in 1831, and 21,830,000 lbs. in 1856, the importation

SUPPLY OF THE RAW MATERIAL.

having fallen as low as 14,700,000 lbs. in 1816;,
Turkey and Egypt forwarded 8,000,000 lbs. in
1831, and 34,616,000 lbs. in 1856. This also has
varied materially, though it has been a steadily
increasing source, for instance the 8,000,000 in
1831 had steadily advanced to upwards of
14,000,000 in 1846; in 1847, 4,800,000 lbs. only
came in; the next year, 7,200,000 lbs.; in 1849,
17,400,000 lbs; then in 1850, no less than close
upon 49,000,000, an immediate drop to 17,000,000
lbs. in 1851-and not half-only 8,000,000 lbs. in
1852. Since the last year, however, the supply has
been more steady, having been 28,000,000 lbs.,
32,900,000 lbs., and 34,600,000 lbs. respectively.
There are a few other places from which cotton
comes, but in so uncertain quantities, and in
so small a proportion to the aggregate, as not to
demand particular notice. In 1831 India sent
25,800,000 lbs., in 1856, 180,496,000 lbs., but in
the first of these years is included a small quantity
from the Island of Bourbon, from which place a
large portion of the seed originally planted in
other places was procured. With the exception
of Egypt, Hindostan is the only quarter in which
an increased production has taken place; and it
would appear to that country alone can we con-
fidently look for a permanent supply.

353

the contingency. The discoveries of Dr. Livingstone in Africa fully demonstrate the possibility, and, under proper management, the certainty of an abundant supply from that continent. The climate and soil are alike propitious, while labour is comparatively worthless. It will, however, occupy a long period of time before the natives become sufficiently civilized to grow it steadily. Excellent samples have been produced at Port Natal, but immigration is necessary to develope any one of the unbounded resources of that settlement. In very many other places, in various parts of the world, the cultivation of cotton has been successfully attempted, but in none on a scale sufficiently large to do more than to show clearly the certainty that the land produces this staple. The subject has attracted the attention of the French Government also, and it is intended to extend the growth of the shrub from Egypt to Algeria. Judging by what has been done with wheat in that province, it is thought that France, before long, will set her manufacturers, in a great degree, free from their present sole reliance upon America.

That India possesses everything required for the growth of cotton may be deduced from the augmentation which has taken place in the quantity exported. The great drawback to the extension of planting in India, seems to be a want of irrigation, and means of conveyance to the seaboard. Much has been done by the Government to remedy the former, not on account of this one particular article, but for improving the land generally. Very much remains yet to be accomplished, and, before any system can be fully carried out, a more economical distribution of the revenue of India must be brought to bear, in order that larger sums may be appropriated to public works than have been paid hitherto. Private enterprise is working hard to overcome the other difficulty, and were a certain rate of interest generally guaranteed, for any feasible project, British capital would readily flow to the East for the construction of railroads, and other works. From such as have been constructed, it is evident that, comparatively, the cost is but small, while, from the reports of those already in operation, it appears that the natives eagerly avail themselves of this method of locomotion, both for themselves and for their merchandise. Where

Three things appear to be essentially necessary to the cultivation of the cotton tree-namely, a rich soil, climate not below a certain temperature, and an abundant supply of labour. Since the abolition of the slave trade, the production of those countries which were dependent upon that method of planting has fallen to almost nothing, and it is considered very doubtful if the maximum crop which can be raised in the United States, under existing circumstances, be not nearly reached. Much of the old soil has been already exhausted, and the present large yield has only been raised by extending the confines of the several estates. One negro cannot attend to beyond a certain number of shrubs, and from the agitation, now of serious moment, which prevails between the Northern and Southern States, upon the question of slavery, many years must necessarily elapse before, in the natural state of things, any great increase can be made in the number of cotton-producing labourers. The confines of the district devoted to cotton in the United States has the peculiar disad-railways could not be formed without a heavy exvantage of being subject to frost at uncertain periods, by which much damage is done, and the net quantity is reduced by an extent sufficient to cause an influence upon prices. One halfpenny per pound on the price of the raw article appears to be but a small advance, but it must be remembered that it really represents a sum of £1,800,000 added to the cost to the manufacture.

The enormous disadvantage of so great a trade being wholly dependent upon a single country for its existence, is stimulating discoveries in other regions. Many of these will, doubtless, in the course of a few years, become large producing places. But manufacturers cannot afford to risk

pense, or in inconvenient positions, a new plan of travelling has been recently projected--that of tram-roads. Their expense is trifling, and they will be formed with so much facility, that not only will means of communication be provided in a short period of time, but at a cost which will prove remunerative to the shareholders. The Endless Traction Engine," which formed so important a feature in the London civic procession last year may, perhaps, furnish an idea for drawing heavy goods upon common roads in that country. In Texas the same difficulty of transportation of merchandise presents itself which is experienced in India, only, perhaps, in a much more formidable

W

[blocks in formation]

degree, inasmuch as it is necessary there to pass over a long desert, parched, barren, and of volcanic origin. The Americans, however, set us an example in the way of overcoming difficulties. It will not answer for them to allow the rich lands in the interior to lay waste any longer, so they have introduced camels from Arabia, for the purpose of raising beasts of burthen, whch may be capable of passing the track in question. One other difficulty to an almost unlimited supply of cotton from Hindostan, though of consequence, might be more easily removed-that is, the jealousy on the part of the Company to leasing land for a long term, or to selling it. Experience of other articles has proved what can be done if European skill and capital be employed. Castor Oil, for instance, not long since was one of the most nauseous drugs imaginable, requiring a large capital and time to be employed here to make it at all fit to be dispensed by the chemist. Two young men went out to Calcutta as druggists; one of them found it profitable to instruct the natives in the proper way to prepare it, and the result has been that for many years the article has come here perfectly pure, and so tasteless as occasionally to be used for table purposes. Indigo, Lac Dye, and Sugar, all bear in the market a great distinguishing feature between native and cultivated, the latter equal, if not superior to, any produced elsewhere, the former bearing a much lower price; and so with very many other articles which might be enumerated. It was found profitable a short time since to cultivate the growth of oil seeds; and India has now completely superseded all other countries in the quality sent to Europe.

An association has been formed at Manchester

for obtaining a regular supply of cotton. It is proposed that a small annual subscription shall be raised to distribute machines, seed-and in fact everything that can conduce to a better and regular receipt, no matter from what quarter it may come. The Liverpool merchants also have lately taken the matter up, and with all the facilities which we possess at home and abroad, the only questions for solution appear to be, shall this extensive manufacture be at the mercy of one single country, and the profits be abstracted and turned over to foreigners, for the encouragement of the slave trade, which is now going on vigor. ously; or shall a much smaller amount of money be devoted to bringing out the resources of our own empire, to the real advantage of every one connected with it? Violent scenes have recently taken place in the Cortes at Madrid, and a long diplomatic correspondence is now going on in reference to the payment of interest upon the Spanish debt. Symptoms of repudiation have again been manifested on the part of a rich city on the other side of the Atlantic. No profit bas ever accrued either to individuals or to the country at large, from any of these loans. A glance at the official list of the Stock Exchange will give a slight idea of what has been lost by lending to other countries. True, losses have been sustained in forming railways and other works at home; still there is the satisfaction of knowing that it has improved, and not impoverished, the nation; and now that experience has been gained many of these undertakings are becoming remunerative to a certain extent. This experience will not be better applied than in bringing it to bear upon such of our own possessions as require it, and where a certain return can be obtained.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS.

SECOND NOTICE.

We noticed the general character of this work in the May magazine, and particularly the lectures, or sections, in which the author propounded the theory that the Mosaic narrative of creation was founded on a series of visions; stated his plan of reconciliation between science and Scripture, and his views regarding certain arguments belonging to, in his own language, "metaphysical theology." No evidence exists in favour of the supposed visions of Moses, who is in reality, perhaps, the most distinct and the plainest of historians; and no necessity for any of the schemes of reconciliation, ancient or modern, between science and Scripture ever existed; so that the new is neither better nor worse than the old, and either is supererogatory, while the metaphysical theology has not been intelligible to its critic in this instance.

His researches within his own field were vigorous and voluminous, and his descriptions of the labour and its results are beautiful and vivid, because he illustrated a happy blending of imaginative and industrial powers not often united in nearly equal proportions; but all these achievements were built upon an external foundation of the things seen and tangible, and he seems not to have been equally qualified for what he termed metaphysical reasoning. Through all his geological works the same grasping after a "reconciliation" of matters, that he might have seen required no reconciliation, for they evinced no difference, is traceable. unfortunate peculiarity in this line of thought is almost consequential upon the "thinker's" admiration of a particular study, without the development of those strictly reasoning powers that might have

The

MAN'S FREE AGENCY.

curbed this attachment. That peculiarity belongs to the class rather than to the individual, and proceeded from a perfect confidence in geological findings as they exist. It was the same with others twenty years since, and will be the same with their successors twenty years hence, although meanwhile the data have changed decisively, without any ground for supposing that they have passed their last conversion, and are now in a cool and solid state. From this mistake arose in Hugh Miller's mind an intense struggle. He believed the Bible to be true-perfectly true-word by word, as we believe. He strove to bring its declarations into consistence, not only with his facts but with his inferences. This effort led to the supposition of a visionary inspiration of Moses, which he advanced. This also was the origin of his belief in the partial nature of the deluge. Both theories were absolutely gratuitous, because, as has been said, the differences that they were framed to reconcile are fabulous phantoms that never had real form. All these efforts resemble the vehement struggles of a man in darkness and terror, to get egress by shaking the door, while, if he were a little more cool, he might lift the latch.

The fifth and sixth lectures probably required more of that intense thought, which was certainly injurious to the writer, than any of the others consisting, in a greater degree, of descriptive matter; yet these fifth and sixth lectures were written, and virtually published long ago, for the fifth was read in 1852, and the sixth in 1855. And yet, in preparing the sixth, we meet language which indicates that the writer suffered from the magnitude of his subject. He considers the origin of moral evil in connexion with man's free will-topics that probably transcend the limits of human intellect to scan thoroughly; and says, page 246:

I approach a profound and terrible mystery. We can see how in the pre-Adamite ages, higher should have preceded lower dynasties. To be low was not to be immoral; to be low was not to be guilt-stained and miserable. The sea anemone on its half-tide rock, and the fern on its mossy hill-side, are low in their respective kingdoms; but they are, notwithstanding, worthy, in their quiet, unobtrusive beauty, of the God who formed them. It is only when the human period begins that we are startled and perplexed by the problem of a lowness not innocent,- -au inferiority tantamount to moral deformity. In the period of responsibility, to be low means to be evil; and how, we ask, could a lowness and inferiority resolvable into moral evil have had any place in the decrees of that Judge who ever does what is right, and in whom moral evil can have no place P The subject is one which it seems not given to men thoroughly to comprehend. Permit me, however, to remark in reply, that in a sense so plain, so obvious, so unequivocally true, that it would lead an intelligent jury, impanelled in the case, conscientiously to convict, and a wise judge righteously to condemn, all that is evil in the present state of things, man may as certainly have wrought out for himself, as the criminals whom we see sentenced at every justiciary court work out for themselves the course of punishment to which they are justly subjected.

355

which had no connexion directly with geology, he asserts that the power to do right or wrong is the necessary consequence of man's free agency. Unless he could have sinned he could not have been a free agent. It is a common argument, or it is the explanation of an obvious fact. The author of "The Last Judgment," an argumentative poem, makes Gamiel, the cherub, say, in his accusation of Satan,

Thou art accused, last charge and worst of all,
That, like none else, self-tempted thou didst fall.
Created perfect, holy, sinless, pure,

Able to stand and from assault secure;
By no external influence moved to sin,
Thou didst thyself create the cause within.

And Michael, the angel, in his evidence, as by the poet put, states arguments along with facts:

Plain is the proof; he might have, if he would,
For others in like circumstances stood.
He fell, by swerving from the rightful use
Of his free agency to its abuse.

"Tis clear he must have been, if free at all,
Not only free to stand but free to fall;
This can no proof of imperfection be;
It proves nor more nor less than he was free.
All is not evil that may lead to ill;
Goodness could not exist without free will;
Yet evil from free agency may flow-
Evil to none save those who make it so."

As we may notice the poem in another place, we only remark that the writer uses an old argu ment-not weak from age, but one with which every reader and thinker must be familiar. Mr. Miller employed it, and then passes to its results;

And we must seek an explanation of these twin facts in that original freedom of will which, while it rendered man capable of being of choice God's fellow worker, also conferred upon him an ability of choosing not to work with God. And his choice of not working with Him, or against Him, being once freely made, we may see how, from man's very constitution and nature, as an intelligence united to matter that increases its kind from generation to generation in virtue of the original law, the ability of again working with God might be for ever destroyed. And thus man's general condition as a lapsed creature may be as unequivocally a consequence of man's own act, as the condition of individuals born free, but doomed to slavery in punish ment of their offences is a consequence of their act.

The

He proceeds, in support of these views, to consider the present condition of mankind, all origina ting in the same two human beings, but presenting in their moral and physical condition evidence of the federal tie between one generation and another. He tells us that the Adamic man is to be found in the Caucasian race, and all the others have degenerated from the models, by the circumstances and the sinfulness of their progenitors. Caucasian man, he says, has fallen least, and therefore the ladies of the English aristocracy, being the finest specimens of the Caucasian mould in Europe, more nearly resemble Eve than any other females in the world. We can scarcely admit that their ancestry have fallen least, even by a figure of speech; but the consequences of the In page 248, proceeding with his argument, fall may have pressed more heavily on the physical

[blocks in formation]

condition of peasantesses than of peeresses, which would produce the result, as to beauty, if it were produced; nevertheless, beauty is not confined to the upper ten thousand, or held by them in any exclusive manner.

become permanent varieties of the species. There are cases.

in which not more than from two to three centuries have been found sufficient to thoroughly alter the physiogmony of a race. "On the plantation of Ulster, in 1611, and afterwards, in the success of the British against the rebels in 1641 and 1689," says a shrewd writer of the present day, himself an Irishman, "great multitudes of the native Irish were driven from Armagh and the south of Down, into the mountainous tract extending from the Barony of Fleurs eastward to the sea; on the other side of the kingdom the same race were exposed to the worst effects of hunger and ignorance, the two great brutalisers of the human race. The descendants of these exiles are now disThey are retinguished physically by great degradation.

markable for open, projecting mouths, with prominent teeth, and exposed gums; and their advancing cheek-bones and depressed noses bear barbarism in their very front. In Sligo and northern Mayo the consequences of the two centu ries of degradation and hardship exhibit themselves in the whole condition of the people, affecting not only the features but the frame. Five feet two inches is an average,

The following statement, page 255, is verified by daily experience in its general character. Parents entail disease and weakness often upon their children, as they secure for them as often a life of ignorance, and, so far as they can, of crime. The same rule exists respecting races. It establishes the connexion of the past with the present. The dependence of one generation upon its predecessors, and thus by evidence open to all classes, confirms the doctrine which our author considered a "terrible mystery." It is a mystery prevailing through the entire economy of nature; a mystery that affects our condition, and may be pot-bellied, bow-legged, abortively-featured, their clothing a therefore more the object of consideration than wisp of rags-these spectres of a people that were once other matters equally too hard for us to compre-well-grown, able-bodied, and comely, stalk abroad into the hend, yet standing in a central place without the daylight of civilisation, the annual apparition of Irish ngliknowledge of the beginning or the end, the author might with propriety pronounce the origin of evil to be "terrible" in its consequences as in its nature.

But if man, in at least the more degraded varieties of his race, be so palpably not what the Creator originally made him, by whom, then, was he made the poor lost creature

which in these races we find him to be? He was made what he is, I reply, by man himself; and this in many instances by a process which we may see every day taking place among ourselves, in individuals and in families, though happily not in races. Man's nature-again, to employ

the condensed statement of the fact-has been bound fast in fate, but his will has been left free. He is free either to resign himself to the indolence and self-indulgence so natural to the species; or, "spurning delights to live laborious days;" free either to sink into ignorant sloth, dependent uselessness, and self-induced imbecility, bodily and mental, or to assert by honest labour a noble independence, -to seek after knowledge as hidden treasures, and, in the search to sharpen his faculties aud invigorate his mind. And while we see around us some men addressing themselves to what Carlyle terms, with homely vigour, their "heavy job of work," and by denying themselves many an insidious indulgence, doing it effectually and well, and rearing up well taught families in usefulness and comfort to be the stays for the future, we see other men yielding to the ignoble solicitations of appetite or of indolence, and becoming useless themselves, and the parents of ignorant, immoral, and more than useless families. The wandering vagrants of Great Britain at the present time have been estimated at from fif teen to twenty thousand souls; the hereditary paupers of England are a vastly more numerous class-have become, in a considerable degree, a sept distinct from the general community; and in all our large towns there are certain percentages of the population-unhappily, even increasing pertentages that, darkened in mind and embruted in senti. ment, are widely recognised as emphatically the dangerous classes of the community. And let us remember, that we

are witnessing in these instances no new thing in the his tory of our species; every period since that of the vaga. bond Cain has had its waifs and stragglers, who fell behind in the general march. In circumstances such as obtained

in the earlier ages of the human family, all the existing nomades and paupers of our country would probably have passed into distinct races of men. For in the course of a few generations their forms and complexions would begin to tell of the self-induced degradation that had taken place in their minds; and in a few ages more they would have

ness and Irish want."

We

The general argument here is correct, but the special illustration is only a repetition of an absurd quotation in the "Vestiges of Creation." When that work was published, its author adduced, also from an Irishman, the statement regarding the degeneracy of his race in parts of Antrim, Down, and Connaught. Who is the Irish author? remember the Irish car-driver who frightened the correspondent of a London paper into the belief that treason was concerted, by assuring him that the initial letters G. P. O. on Irish milestones were intended as a prayer for the preservation of O'Connell. The wicked carman did not mention

General Post-Office, and that solution did not suggest itself to the London traveller, who alarmed the country by proclaiming his discovery of an insurrection in perspective, because G. P. O. were letters sculptured on all the milestones. The Irish have often an irrepressible tendency to sarcasm, and bear false witness against themselves and their nation from their love of a joke. This Irish writer quoted by the credulous author of the Vestiges of Creation," and by the widely different but in this instance no less credulous author of the "Testimony of the Rocks," must have been in one of these provoking moods when he put his pen to paper; that is, if there ever was any such Irish writer.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Miller probably quoted from. the "Vestiges." We are acquainted personally with some parts of the country described. Their inhabitants are more nearly five feet nine. inches than five feet two, on an average, for those opinion, for Mr. Disraeli abhors the Saxon nose, of the male gender. Features are subjects of by a mistake more of fact than of taste; but features of some kind most Irishmen possess-even those of Mayo and Sligo, and abortive is ill applied to them; while their legs are as straight often as they should be, with calves that would recommend their owners to a standing place at the back of many carriages, if they were in that way.

« PreviousContinue »