DOWN-TAKINGS.

"CHAMBERS'S I

NBURGH JOURNAL.

SATURDAY, AU

243

dress to a considerable distance, and the fright with which she was seized rendered her for several moments insensible. As soon as she had regained her consciousness, she raised herself, went in search of a light, and returned to the chamber, where she found the Lady Ouang still extended immoveably on the ground.

At the instant, when she would have procured assistance, she heard some one strike softly on the door of the house. She doubted not that it was the merchant of Kiang-si, who was coming in search of the wife whom he had purchased. She wished to hasten to his reception, and introduce him into the chamber of her sister-in-law. Her eagerness, and the scruple which she had against showing herself without a headdress, caused her to pick up the mourning one of the Lady Quang, which she found at hand.

It was truly the merchant of Kiang-si, who had come earry off the lady promised him. He had brought edding-litter, decorated with silken streamers, with ons of flowers, and innumerable beautiful lamps. 9 surrounded by domestics bearing lighted and a band of musicians with flutes and All this retinue was drawn up in the street, instruments being played or noise being merchant himself was detached from it, gently at the gate. But having found ed the house, with some of those who x to show the way.

A..
beggar,

Scotland, the author being one Habakku ONE day, passing that rare kind of mansion in Britain, note, which is in a different hand from the bo a nunnery, we were surprised, and then amused to that Bisset's father was caterer to Queen Mary, think that we should have been surprised, at ob- that, when about to have his child baptised, he took serving a shop-porter unloading a barrow covered the liberty to ask the queen to assign a name. She, with bottle-baskets at the gate, and carrying the said being about to go to mass, said she would open the inmates. We are so much accustomed to think of strike her eye, she would assign it for a name to the able meal-bag baskets into the house, evidently for the use of the Bible when in church, and the first name which should that to be informed that they occasionally drink prophet Habakkuk, which was accordingly bestowed end o't!" The verg porter, comes upon the mind with a very peculiar upon the future author of the "Rolment of Courts." the feelings of the eve

effect. Our reason instantly rallies to make the ad

This proceeding was simply odd or droll; and were

behind the

channel, and the

Dame Yang appeared, the merchant mourning head-dress, which was m; and being, besides, charmed d some glimpses of her counteher, like a hungry gled upon his train hastened up, card her in the litter, which tion. She made a good selves, that it was not Irish of instruments

mission that nuns, as well as other human beings, may ordinary persons only concerned, it would pass merely amidst universal laughter.

relish a draught of porter, and may as innocently indulge in the gratification. But, nevertheless, the idea

Such effects may be
of cold water introduced

as such. But, told of a queen so lustrous in beauty, and whose memory is so steeped in tears, it has a of their getting a weekly supply of this article from a down-taking effect. Mary must have laughed when steam-engine; and in this h she told her caterer the result of her research; and able analogy which exists betwe set of females who have put themselves so much aloof that she should have even laughed, takes her back things. When we see the et into the fields of common life. Sometimes the chroan enthusiast after a down-take, v

shop, is inconsistent with all our common ideas of a

from their kind, and who have been figures in the

common mortals. In short, it is a down-taking.

Similar down-takings result when we learn any very

persons who are usually regarded with romantic feel

would in all cases do.

example

1 her voice, whilst he more good will,

A come to herThe great disf the house neasiness. instruwhich

phantasmagoria of fiction since ever they existed; and nicling of a merely minute and unimportant detail of doubt that in his secret nature o we cannot deny that they descend at once, through the life of such a person, has the effect we speak of. less palpable than steam has been the force of this simple circumstance, to the level of It is known, for instance, that, the morning after her application, leaving his mind in a husband Darnley was blown up, she took an egg for her state from what it was in a minute before. homely or facetious circumstance respecting historical perhaps too much to say, that to relate such circum- success of such poems as Don Juan chiefly .. breakfast in bed, with the curtains closed. It is not It is on this principle of ludicrous contrast ings. Mary Queen of Scots is a personage in this pre- them down, than bringing home to them serious guilt treated for some time in appropriate terms, w stances of an exalted personage, avails more to take A solemn or elevated thing is introduced, suddenly at last comes in some mean or fami In the case of any one who is addicted to any kind imagery, to take down what has just been said. For of mental extravagance, the effect of a little home truth has a remarkably down-taking effect. Beau Tibbs, in the midst of his fine speeches about his house and his views (which Bill Squash the Creole so much appreciated), is drawn from his altitudes in an instant, when his blundering Scotch servant discloses the awful fact that his wife is washing his "twa sarks" at a neighbour's house, the said neighbour having taken a vow never again to lend her tub. So was a village politician, whom we once knew, seriously taken down, when, in the midst of a fireside harangue before some neighbours on the national debt, his sober-minded wife insinuated, "Ah, John, I wish you would mind your own debt!" Domestic cruelties like these should be considered as indictable offences. It is related of a penurious nobleman, who used to sell the fruit from his garden and the milk from his cows, but at the same time entertained the vainest ideas respecting his rank, that he one day accosted a little girl who was tripping through his park with a pipkin, asking her what she carried, who were her parents, and so on. At length he said, "You seem a very nice little girl, and I shall therefore do you a great honour (kissing her). Now, my dear, you may hereafter tell your children to hand it down to your grandchildren, who will again transmit it to succeeding generations, that you were once kissed by the Earl of." It must have been a rich treat to any bystander, when the girl looked archly up, and said, "You always take the penny for the milk, though." This was a splendid down-take. A still better occurred to a recruiting sergeant, who, with a gaily ribboned party, was endeavouring to astonish the senses of a crowd of rustics at a village fair. The trumpets had flourished; the drums had been beaten ; a brilliant procession, with drawn blades and glancing cockades, had marched through the street; and it was then the duty of the sergeant to stand up and make a rhodomontade speech on the delights of a soldier's life-on glory, patriotism, and plunder; the great bounty given to deserving young men, the prospect of promotion, and his majesty's munificent pension to the old and wounded. Our sergeant had just concluded one of his most brilliant orations; the crowd of rustics were standing round, gaping with admira

dicament, to which her beauty, her rank, and her misfortunes all alike have contributed. Not to speak of the serious errors imputed to this princess, there are some memorabilia of her private life that have a strange effect, as relative to a being so embalmed in the romance of history. It is curious, for instance, to learn that, when reigning in Scotland, she occasionally dressed herself in men's clothes, and frolicked about amongst her attendants; that on one occasion, on a Monday following Easter, she put on the garb of a citizen's wife, and, causing her attendants to do the same, went through the streets of Edinburgh on foot, begging from every man they met a contribution towards a supper which was to take place in the evening; and that, when she wrote not in French, it was in broad Scotch. In a letter addressed by her to her ambassador in France, giving an account of Darnley's murder, she says, the house was laid in ruins, "to the very grund-stane." A more extended specimen of her native Doric may be given, from her instructions to an ambassador who was commissioned to excuse her marriage with Bothwell to the English queen :-" Ye sall grund yow upon the conditioun and stait of ws and oure realme, declarand how we wer destitut of ane husband, our realme not throuchlie purgit of the factiounis and conspiraceis that of lang tyme hes continewit thairin, quhilk, occurring sa frequentlie, had alreddie in a maner sa weryit and brokin ws, that be oure selfe we were not abill of ony lang continewance to sustene the pynes and travell in oure awin persoun, quilkis were requisite for repressing of the insolence and seditioun of oure rebellious subjectis, being, as is knawin, a peopill als factious amangis thameselfis and as fassious for the governour as any uthir natioun in Europe; and that, for thair satisfactioun, quhilk could not suffer ws lang to continew in the stait of widoheid, movit be thair prayeris and requeist, it behuvit ws to yield unto ane mariage or uther."+ A whimsical anecdote is told of Mary in a note upon an old manuscript book in the Advocates' Library. This book is entitled the "Rolment of Courts," and is a treatise on the laws, constitutions, and antiquities of

*Von Raumer's Contributions to Modern History: 1837. Keith's History of the Church and State of Scotland.

mo

tes

at

"They mourn'd for those who perish'd in the cutter, And likewise for the biscuits, casks, and butter." The principles of down-taking, which we are here endeavouring to treat philosophically, are instinctively understood and practised by many individuals, and are sometimes applied with great force against the aspiring and ambitious, as well as against the enthu siastic. There is, indeed, a well-recognised body of persons in the social world, to whom the appellation of down-takers may be given, being a sect or variety of the ancient fraternity of dampers, who, we believe, have been treated of by former essayists. The downtakers are a heroic and disinterested little party, who, like knight-errants of old, devote themselves, at great personal hazard, to the duty of keeping down vain and aspiring persons at a certain fixed point of moderation. It is a most useful employment, and, both for its gallantry and its good effects, ought to be handsomely acknowledged. It tells particularly well against any one who is guilty of family pride. Here the plan is to bring into view some family circumstance respecting which the reverse of pride will be felt. For example :-An Earl of Glencairn, in the last century, married the daughter of a rustic musician, named M'Guire, who had become almost by accident possessed of a large fortune. At a county ball, his lordship's local rival, the Earl of Cassillis, remarked to him that his father-in-law would have given them good music, if he had been still alive. This was the down-take direct; but it was well retorted, for Glencairn instantly replied, "Yes, my lord, and I remember one of his best tunes was the Gipsy Laddie"-the air of a ballad descriptive of the disgraceful elopement of a former Countess of Cassillis. This, therefore, is a double instance of the down-take of family pride. We need scarcely remark, that for this branch of the art, a memory well stored with genealogies is absolutely necessary. Another broad mark for the downtakers is the vanity of those who have risen from a lowly condition in life, and are so foolish as to think themselves entitled to spend their earnings according to their own taste. All the left-behind open after such a case full-cry. Has any topping trades

offer. Mr Gibson next exercised his ingenuity by making a prospect of the same size and price for the Duke of Roxburghe, through which, in a clear day, a sparrow could be seen on the roof of Berwick steeple, at a distance of twenty-four miles.

Mr Gibson made the Irish pipes upon an improved plan, on which he played with exquisite skill and taste. His tone and execution were reckoned no way inferior to those of the most celebrated pipers. He was a self-taught musician, played upon a great variety of instruments, and never received a lesson from a master. Mr Short's reflecting telescope, in the observatory, Calton Hill, Edinburgh, had been rendered useless, owing to a spot of rust upon the larger speculum. No optician in the metropolis would undertake to remove it. A gentleman from Kelso recommended Mr Gibson, who successfully removed the rusty spot, and at the same time greatly improved the instrument, for which he received a remuneration of fifty guineas.

Mr Gibson, some years before his death, visited London, and received a very kind reception from Mr Dolland, who humorously told him that his ears had been stunned for some time past with the fame of a wild fellow about the Cheviot Hills, who excelled all the opticians in London in making achromatic prospects, and that he (Mr Dolland) was glad to see the artist.'

As a mechanic, in the execution of any piece of work, Mr Gibson was unrivalled. He melted and refined the glass for his own purposes. In reasoning upon optical and astronomical topics, few were a match for him. In his actions he was sharp, in his conceptions quick. He possessed a most retentive memory, understood every subject at first sight, and made such progress in the Latin language by his own application alone, that he could translate with ease Lewenhoeck's Árcana Naturæ,' an author of whom he was extremely fond. This ingenious man died in September 1795."

LAURA BRIDGMAN-A DEAF, DUMB,
AND BLIND GIRL.

IN a lately published Report of the Massachusetts
Institution for the Blind, there appear some interest-
ing details respecting a pupil, named Laura Bridgman,
who was placed in the establishment a few years since,
in the deplorable condition of being blind, deaf, and
dumb. She had been in this state of deprivation ever
since she was little more than a year old, and there-
fore possessed no knowledge whatever except what it
had been possible to communicate through the senses
of feeling and taste. Being introduced to the school of
the institution, a methodic plan of instruction was
commenced by means of the tangible alphabet for the
blind, which led to the most agreeable and surprising
results. The extent of her intellectual and moral
advancement will be learned from the following ex-
tract from the Report :-

"The intellectual improvement of this interesting being, and the progress she has made in expressing her ideas, are truly gratifying. She uses the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes with great facility and great rapidity; she has increased her vocabulary so as to comprehend the names of all common objects; she uses adjectives expressive of positive qualities, such as hard, soft, sweet, sour, &c.; verbs expressive of action, as give, take, ride, run, &c., in the present, past, and future tense; she connects adjectives with nouns to express their qualities; she introduces verbs into sentences, and connects them by conjunctions; for instance, a gentleman having given her an apple, she said, Man give Laura sweet apple.

She can count to high numbers; she can add and subtract small numbers.

But the most gratifying acquirement which she has made, and the one which has given her the most delight, is the power of writing a legible hand, and expressing her thoughts upon paper; she writes with a pencil in a grooved line, and makes her letters clear and

distinct.

She was sadly puzzled at first to know the meaning of the process to which she was subjected; but, when the idea dawned upon her mind, that by means of it she could convey intelligence to her mother, her delight was unbounded. She applied herself with great diligence, and in a few months actually wrote a legible letter to her mother, in which she conveyed information of her being well, and of her coming home in ten weeks. It was, indeed, only the skeleton of a letter, but still it expressed in legible characters a vague outline of the ideas which were passing in her mind. She was very impatient to have the man carry this letter, for she supposed that the utmost limit of the Post-Office department was to employ a man to run backward and forward between our institution and the different towns where the pupils live, to fetch and carry letters.

She has improved very much in personal appearance as well as in intellect; her countenance beams with intelligence; she is always active at study, work, or play; she never repines, and most of her time is gay and frolicsome.

She is now very expert with her needle, she knits very easily, and can make twine bags and various fancy articles very prettily. She is very docile, has a quick sense of propriety, dresses herself with great neatness, and is always correct in her deportment. In short, it would be difficult to find a child in the possession of all her senses, and the enjoyment of the advantages

that wealth and parental love can bestow, who is more
contented and cheerful, or to whom existence seems a
greater blessing, than it does to this bereaved creature,
for whom the sun has no light, the air no sound, and
the flowers no colour or smell."

INSCRIPTION FOR A CEMETERY.

BY SWYNFEN JERVIS.

The grave, whatever thy degree,
Thy final resting-place must be.
What matters it, if few or more
The years which our frail nature bore?-
If we upon the roll of fame
Left an imperishable name,
Or in some silent, safe retreat
Escaped the turmoil and the heat,
The stir, the struggle, and the strife,
That make the sum of human life?
Of all the family of man,

Since first the sons of earth began
To make this glorious world a stage
For rapine, blood, and lawless rage,
How little can be said beside,

But that they lived, and loved, and died!
Of this be certain: 'tis the doom
Of all, within the quiet tomb

To find, life's dangerous quicksands past,
A shelter and a home at last!

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS. ELOQUENCE. The following is an extract from a speech delivered by a member of the Indiana legislature, on a bill to encourage the killing of wolves, which in sublimity has seldom been surpassed :—

"Mr Speaker-The wolf is the most ferocious animal that prowls in our western prairies, or runs at large in the forests of Indiana. He creeps from his lurking place at the hour of midnight, when all nature is locked in the silent embraces of Morpheus; and ere the portals of the east are unbarred, or bright Phoebus rises in all his golden majesty, whole litters of pigs are destroyed."

WILLIAM TELL OUTDONE.-We learn from a paper,
published in Northern Pennsylvania, that some time
since a feat was performed in Ridgebury, Bradford
county, which throws that of William Tell into the
shade. A man named Lathorp Baldwin, with a rifle,
shot an apple from the head of Thomas Fox, at eigh
teen yards' distance. There was no cap on Fox's head,
his hair was combed down smooth, and the apple was
a small one. Both were somewhat in their cups.-
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser.

ducked by a parcel of boys for whipping his wife, sued
VIRGINIA JUSTICE.-A fellow in Virginia, who was
them for damages. The boys were very properly sen-
tenced to duck him again.

UNPRODUCTIVE LAND.-A New Jersey paper states
that there are lands in that state which will not support
three whippoor-wills to an acre, any way you can fix
it, under the best cultivation. He of the Boston Times
says that these must be like some lands in New
Hampshire, which the owners are obliged to fence, in
order to keep their cows from going on and starving!

A DISTINCTION.-A dry-goods dealer in Bangor, had, by his conduct, obtained the name of "the little rascal." Being asked why this appellation had been given him, he replied, "To distinguish me from the rest of my neighbours, who are all great rascals !”

YANKEE DINNERS.-Baked beans, it is said, form now the only decidedly fashionable meal for Sabbath noon in " Bosting." Whether they wash them down with any thing stronger than "lasses and water," the informant said not; but it seems to be not altogether unlikely, as a minister in "them parts" has computed that he has preached regularly every Sabbath after noon to fifty-five bushels and three pecks of baked beans, while their owners were mostly asleep."

YANKEE PERSEVERANCE.

The following little anecdote, which we cut from the Boston Post, would have done honour to Sam Slick, had he been the subject of it :-

An itinerant map-seller went into a merchant's counting-room near our office the other day, and asked the occupant if he wished to purchase a map. "No," was the tart reply. "Will you look at one?" "No; I have more of my own than I have time to examine?" "Will you allow me to look at yours, then ?" "Yes; there they hang." "Well, while I am looking at yours, I'll just unroll mine-that, you know, won't hurt any body." So the map-vender displayed several of his best at full length upon the counter, and then quietly commenced looking at the merchant's which hung against the wall. After making a few observations about some curious water-falls, caves, &c., at places which he traced out upon the map before him, he managed to engage the merchant's attention, and at last referred to his own map, lying on the counter, for a more perfect illustration of his description, and finally so much interested the auditor that he bought three different maps, at six dollars each, of the pedlar, and very politely asked him to call again when he got out a new edition.

A TRAVELLER.-As we were about leaving the hotel at Philadelphia this morning, there seemed some delay from a passenger in the third story. Pretty soon, we heard a sharp altercation up stairs, followed by the appearance of a short fat man with a red face, who preceded a negra

with an armful of boots. The short fat man hobbled to the bar; and in a sort of ominous whisper, as though he took some credit for not being in a towering passion, said,

"Landlord, where are MY BOOTS ?"

"Why, really, sir, I— what number were they?"
"What has that to do with it ?" said the fat man, be-

ginning to get excited. "I don't know the number; I
believe they were 8, with low heels and pegged."

"Ah, you mistake; what is the number of your room ?* "Forty-five."

"And did you put the number on your boots, when you took them off?"

"What have I to do with marking boots? Do you think I carry a bottle of ink in my pocket to prevent my boots being stolen?"

"But there was a piece of chalk on the stand where

you took them off?"

I'll tell you what, landlord, this wont do. The simple "A piece of thunder and lightning!" said the other. question is, Where are my boots? I took them off in this house, and you are responsible for them. That's law all over the world."

"Carriage waiting," said the driver.

"Let it wait," said the fat man. "Suppose I can go without my boots ?"

66

"Here be one pair that wern't marked," said the black; are them um ?"

"Them um, you rascal, why they are an inch too short, and the heels are two inches high."

"Carriage waiting, and the boat will leave if I wait any longer," shouted the driver, while we in the carriage were all urging him to start.

The fat man gasped for breath. "Landlord, I again ask, WHERE ARE MY BOOTS?"

66

Why, really, sir, I"

"Go, or not ?" said the driver.

The short man seized the unmarked boots, and strained

and pulled till he got them on, and, groaning as though his feet were in a vice,

"I'll tell you what it is, landlord, I call all these people to witness"

"Carriage starting," said the bystanders. The fat man started too, and was just getting into the coach, when the black touched his coat tail, saying, "Remember the servant, sir."

"Yes," said the other, turning round and laying his cane over the waiter's head, "take that, and that, and try and see if you can remember me, and my boots, too."

After we reached the boat, and for a long time, the fat man seemed lost in a reverie, looking at his new boots. I once heard him mutter, "After all, if I get the heels cut off, they wont be so very uncomfortable, and mine did leak a little."

INDUSTRY AND PERSEVERANCE.-We have the in-
formation from undoubted authority, that an indivi-
dual in Braintree has bottomed, during the past year,
950 pairs of men's thick boots, 150 pairs of boys' thick
boots, and 80 pairs of brogans; read two weekly news-
papers, with pamphlets, magazines, &c., besides 21,000 is waiting, and the boat about to start?
pages of the Library. We boldly ask, who has done
better?-Quincy Patriot.

Thus may we draw comfort from the worst of ills, for what is worse than losing one's boots when the carriage

THE BENEFIT OF ADVERTISING.-A merchant in one

of our northern cities lately put an advertisement in
a paper, headed "Boy wanted." The next morning he
found a bandbox on his door step, with this inscrip-
tion on the top, "How will this one answer?" On
opening it, he found a nice, fat, chubby-looking speci-
flannel!
men of the article he wanted, warmly done up in

MISSISSIPPI.-A very able writer in the Pincy
Woods Planter, states the interest on banking capital
paid by the people of Mississippi at 16,128,000 dollars
per annum. His enumeration of the various classes
of inhabitants is singular. He says there are in the
state thirty-five thousand free white male citizens over
twenty-one years of age-of this number he estimates
that one thousand are engaged in mixing liquor, seven
hundred and fifty in making paper money, about one
thousand in the laudable occupation of pleading law,
expounding the Scriptures, manufacturing pills, and
teaching the young idea how to shoot-the aggregate
number of idlers is estimated at three thousand six
hundred and forty, leaving thirty-one thousand three
hundred and sixty persons engaged in agriculture,
commerce, and the mechanic arts.

THE HOSTILITY OF POPULAR PREJUDICE TO THE
DEVELOPEMENT OF SCIENCE.

There is no great improvement which has ever been

proposed or effected, no discovery of art or science, whe ther affecting the physical or mental condition of mankind, but has met with opposition to its developement; if, therefore, those discoveries which the last century has produced, and which touch so lightly the habits and manners of the million, have, before reaching their present perfection, had to struggle not only with the imperfect knowledge which the first discoverers had of their principle, but the active opposition and lazy ignorance of the multitude, with how much more fervour has that opposition been displayed when science has dared to meddle with the ignorance of antiquated custom! We all remember when the illumination of the streets by gas was commenced, the fears, the apprehensions that were raisedthe very watchmen, who seldom thought at all, trod the pavement with fear and terror. It was known that tubes of inflammable and poisonous air were carried under the streets; it was prognosticated that London would be lost, as the agent of fire and pestilence was brought to every man's door.-Polytechnic Journal.

ORR, Paternoster Row; and sold by all booksellers and newsmen.-Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.

LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by W. S.

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE," "CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c.

man built for himself a goodly mansion out of town, it is immediately christened his folly." Even a poor tailor cannot get up a smart box in the suburbs with a green door and green palings, but it at once becomes Cabbage Hall all the world over. A house built by a successful milliner near Edinburgh about sixty years ago, was called Lappet Hall. By such means the pride of the constructors is effectually taken down, for not even Aladdin's palace could maintain its dignity against a nickname. It is really pleasant to observe the interest which so large a part of mankind thus take in keeping one frail member of their corps in order. It shows how we are, as Wordsworth says,

"each bound to cach

In cords of mutual sympathy." When honours, moreover, befall any one of us, it rarely happens that there is not some one, like the figure in the ancient triumphs, to remind the elevated, if not elated individual, that he is mortal. From his own order, from the ranks of his own profession, some one is sure to start forth, and hold up the mirror of humility before his eyes. It is told of a certain pope of old times, that, having been a peasant in his youth, he preserved the clouted shoes he had worn in that character, and had them hung up in his hall of audience to remind him of what he had once been. This must have been a most superfluous proceeding, for if the conclave of cardinals was composed of ordinary human beings, there could not fail to be at least one honest soul amongst them disposed to take upon himself the duty of keeping down his holiness's pride.

Upon the whole, there is little reason to believe that there ever will be a short-coming of the sect of downtakers amongst us, for, while jealousy or envy shall exist, while selfishness shall repine at another's good, and pretension with difficulty bear any rival, the spirit which animates the party must continue to flourish.

POPULAR INFORMATION ON POLITICAL

ECONOMY.

SEVENTH ARTICLE.-PROFITS.

EVERY addition made to the wealth of the community, must, according to a division generally adopted by economists, make its first appearance in one of three forms-wages of labour, rent of land, or profits of stock. The former two of these have been already considered: it is here proposed to bestow a few remarks on the last.

crease. Before more particularly considering the drag
which restricts this state of progression, let us notice
briefly another element which affects the amount of
profit.

As the produce of the capital employed, after pay-
ing rent and taxes, has to be divided between the
capitalist and his workmen, the more the latter get,
the less there will be for the former, or the greater is
the proportion paid in wages, the less is that realised
prevent misunderstanding, for it very generally hap-
in profits. The word proportion is here necessary to
pens that when the wages of the labourer are large,
the profits of the employer are so too. A state of
society where the wages of the workman are large,
although at the expense of the capitalists, must be
looked upon as a good one, if it be permanent. It
shows that the labourers have not multiplied so as
ruinously to underbid each other, and that the capi-
talists too are content, as, if they were not, they would
take their money out of the field. In the competition
in favour of the labourer, for it must be recollected
with the capitalist, indeed, sympathy will always be
that it is open to the moneyed man to become a work-
man if he is discontented with the profits of his capi-
tal, but it is not open to the labourer to become an
employer. Such a state of matters, however, is unfor-
tunately apt to be of short duration, for it is by the
increase of capital laid up from profits that the fund
to employ the additional number of labourers tempted
into the market by high wages can be employed; and
not only does smallness of profit prevent this accumu-
lation from taking place, but it induces the owner to
rise of wages is factitious, caused by combinations or
withdraw the capital already invested. When the
otherwise, so as to reduce the profit from some parti-
cular investment below that of others, from that em-
ployment capital immediately takes wing, and wages
depart with it.

Let us now look to the principal circumstance which, as we before hinted, stands in the way of an increase of profits, and tends to their reduction. This is a reduction in the amount of produce, when compared with that of the capital laid out. It is pretty clear that in manufactures this is not developed, nor can we easily imagine it to be so in that branch of industry. But manufactures are not the only branch of industry-there is agriculture. It is the peculiarity of that method of investment, where the soil employed is limited in extent (as in Great Britain), that the greater the amount laid out on it beyond a certain line, the less in proportion is the return. One tract of land will produce 100 quarters of grain for an outlay of L.200, but when there is a call for a more sterile district to be taken into cultivation, it may take an expenditure of L.300 to produce from it the same crop. Under the head of rent, the circumstance out As we shall show more fully afterwards, wages and of which a call would arise for such an inferior deprofits are often so closely blended with each other, scription of soil being brought under the plough, was that the public lose sight of the distinction between specially considered, and it was shown that the differthem. It may here be remarked, that what is pro- ence in the cost of production goes as rent to the perly called profit is the net return which is brought to landlord. Rent is thus increased, while the produce the employer of a sum of money in any particular capa--the fund out of which wages and profit come-is city, after the sum itself is replaced, and all expenses reduced. But it may be said there are other investconnected with the speculation are paid. Interest of ments besides that of agriculture, and as profits always money might at first present itself to the mind as find a level, the money engaged in farming operations purely answering this definition; but though interest will be withdrawn when the profits are reduced. It is generated by profits, and in a great measure regu- is true that profits find a level, but the level in this lated by their amount, the elements of the two are case is unfortunately that of agriculture, to which distinct. In as far as respects each separate transac-manufacturing profits will be dragged down. In fact, tion, interest is generally fixed, while profits always by the circumstances which render it necessary to depend on contingencies. Interest is a sum paid for have recourse to a less productive agriculture, these the use of money which the borrower obliges himself profits are already reduced. The people must all to repay, and which he continues under the obligation have food. The more their numbers are increased, to restore, though he himself should lose it. The per- through the operation of manufactures, the greater is son, however, who puts money out of his hand to make the quantity of the food required; and when it beprofit, stands the whole risk himself of losing not only comes necessary to resort to poorer lands, the greater the profit, but the principal sum invested. must be the proportion of the population employed in As the fund out of which profits are made is some-producing that food. The people having in this manthing over and above that laid out in the speculation ner to pay more for their food (or to bestow a greater by which it is cleared, the greater the value of the proportion of their labour in producing it), can afford produce the greater is the amount of the profit, and less for other commodities; and thus it is, that when the greater the proportional amount of produce the the price of food rises by the pressure upon it, manugreater is its value. The chance of obtaining this facturing profits sink, and the capital that would be greater proportional amount, is the inducement which employed in this branch of industry is directed towards keeps the world in perpetual progress. A, by laying the production of food. As the produce, after reout L.100, can produce a ton of a certain commodity, placing advances, is the fund out of which wages as making a profit of L.10: B finds out a way by which well as profits are paid, the labourer's remuneration he can produce a quarter of a ton more of it by the will sink under such a state of circumstances, but not same outlay, worth in the market L.27, 10s. more. in the same ratio with profits. The labourer must If the demand were to continue correspondent, and have enough to preserve life, otherwise he will cease no one were to follow B's example, he might thus con- to produce, but the profit of the capitalist may be intinue making 27 per cent; but in the general case, definitely reduced. The operation of this principle the example of a new and successful investment is so will depend entirely on the extent to which the exexpeditiously followed, that the person who first chalks pensive production of food must be had recourse te, it out may be prompted to modify his price, and con- and consequently profits, as well as wages, will be resequently his profits, that he may get a considerable duced by any system which tends to increase this portion of the produce disposed of before he is outbid expense by prohibiting recourse to a cheap produce. by rivals. The recourse to machinery, and other It has been observed, that in America this drag on means of increasing produce in this country, is caused profit is almost unknown, for there the trouble of by the action of this principle; and it is by similar spreading itself abroad is all the inconvenience that motives that the American extends his dominions the population has had to undergo in increasing its and has recourse to new fields. In the former in- supply of food. In this country, the evils of a presstance, however, there is a restriction, as we shall sure have been materially mitigated by improvements presently see, of a very serious nature, which does not in husbandry, which have in many cases made the apply at least with the same force-to the latter. If poorer lands produce grain at no greater cost than was all capital could be invested in operations, the produc- necessary in the case of richer soils half a century tiveness of which would continue to increase as rapidly ago. Experience has, however, taught us that it is as that of manufactures has done, it is difficult to say not possible for the effect of agricultural improve at what rate profits, and consequently capital, and ments to keep pace with a population increasing at consequently the means of employment, would in- the rate of very nearly 1000 daily.

Taxes may create an incidental check on profits, and it is chiefly in this form that they can impoverish a country; for the simple handing over of money from one portion of the community to another, will not make the whole poorer. Their effect in this direction, however, is not so powerful as it would naturally at first appear. The importer who pays customs, and the manufacturer who pays excise, have each just so much more outlay, and must charge their customers accordsuch as this, on which in general only average profit ingly. It is pretty clear, however, that an expenditure can be made, covering so large a proportion of the cost of a commodity, must be an impediment to enterprise. The duties on some commodities are nine times as much as their prime cost. If a man have L.1000 to embark in a trade, knowing that on L.900 of this, which he spent in duties, he cannot have more than average profits, he has not the same inducement to open up new channels as if he had the spending of the whole L.1000 according to his own discretion. The pressure of taxation in this direction to a very great bonding system, it may be observed, has reduced the extent. Taking taxes in the mass, the greater part of them probably press on profits-a circumstance which, it would appear, has received no better demonstration than this, that it is difficult to see what other fund they can be paid from but that which remains over after meeting the cost of production. It is a doctrine strongly maintained by political economists, that rent does not affect profits. It is undoubtedly the case, that in any given country the rate of profit made by the farmer who cultivates rich land at a high rent, capital on poor soil at a small rent. It is pretty clear, will not be less than that of him who employs his however, from the considerations brought forward above, that the same circumstances which increase rent decrease profits. The increase of the pressure on food, which causes a recourse to the poorer lands, while it decreases the produce to be shared between the capitalist and the labourer, increases the rent on the better soils. There is a point, however, at which this increase will stop, and retrogression commence; but for a fuller explanation of this, we refer back the reader

to our article on Rent.

We hinted above, that profits, and the wages of labour, were often so intimately combined, that in many cases the public do not distinguish between them. When a man is engaged in active business from morning to night-has created a branch of remunerating business to himself, and keeps it in active existencewe cannot well say that those returns, which would decrease or disappear in the hands of an indolent and unskilful proprietor, are wholly the profits of stock; a great portion must frequently constitute wages of labour-but what particular proportion should be so allocated, it might be difficult to determine. The price, indeed, which the use of mere money will bring, is the current market interest of the time; and whatever is gained above this, must, in the general case, be set down either to wages of labour (varying according to the amount of skill and energy of the employer), or indemnification for risk. When the large returns sometimes obtained by merchants are contemplated, the latter is a consideration frequently overlooked. If the remuneration for toil, however, is to be set down as a compensation for the bodily pain which accompanies its developement, the profits made in commercial speculations might be not unfairly estimated as a recompense for the mental anxiety which they call forth. Among all the mental agonies which the ambition, pride, and passions of mankind, with their cərresponding disappointments and sympathies, create, we believe few are more intense than that of the merchant, who, having lived in opulence and liberal splendour in the bosom of an affectionate family, and feeling that the moderate incomes of a multitude of trusting friends are entwined with his apparently prosperous fortunes, knows that a sudden breath of fortune is likely to hurl the whole fabric of his prosperity to the earth. The wages of labour, as we have just now viewed them, are, in general, inextricably mingled with the remuneration of risk, for it is owing to the speculator's consciousness of his own ability to counteract the causes of danger, that it is generally braved. The trade of a publisher may be cited as an instance; the profits are sometimes great, but the risk is equally so. It is a profession in which the rash, ignorant, or indolent man will soon ruin himself, however great his capital; and the profits realised by which, are generally the reward of great discrimination and industry.

As respects wages, strictly so called, or remuneration for labour, their amount doubtless depends on the simple circumstance of demand and supply-not by any means on their actual or intrinsic value. There is, generally speaking, only a certain portion of profits in trade which can be distributed in the form of wages, and the fewer among whom the distribution is to be made, the larger will be the share of each person. Yet, the share which each person receives from the mass is often governed by very capricious circumstances, in relation to the peculiar taste of society. An actress will receive a wage of L.100 per night, and realise in the aggregate a much larger revenue than the President of the United States; and so on with a thousand other cases. In these, as in all ordinary engagements, the scarcity of the article, and the great demand for it, are the true causes of the highness of price. The correction of the public taste may ultimately place remuneration for labour more

As soon as the Lady Ouang heard this proverb, drawn from the vessel, she better comprehended the meaning of the secret discourse of her brother-in-law." She broke out into lamentations and sighs, and abandoning herself to grief, shut herself up in her chamber, where she wept, groaned, and bewailed herself. "Oh! I am most wretched," cried she; "I know not who may become my husband. Lin the Pearl, my brotherin-law, and my friend, on whom I could have depended, is on a journey; my father, my mother, my parents, are far distant from this place; if this affair be precipitated, how shall I be able to apprise them? I have At this agreeable intelligence, the Lady Ouang, no aid to expect from our neighbours; Lin the Trea- hastily assuming the black head-dress, which had been sure is a terror to the whole district, and they know left by Dame Yang, opened with eagerness, expecting that he is capable of the greatest villanies. Unfortu- to find her good brother-in-law Lin the Pearl; but nate being that I am, I shall never escape his snares! in vain her eyes sought him; she perceived only Lin If I fall not into them to-day, I shall to-morrow, or the Treasure. The latter proceeded to his apartment; within a very short time. Every thing well considered, but not finding his wife there, and remarking a black let me close this painful existence; let me die in good head-dress on the head of his sister-in-law, he then time-that will be much better than enduring a thou-feared his misfortune. "Ha! where then is your sand and a thousand deaths: and what is my life, if sister-in-law?" said he to Ouang. "You should know not one continual death?" better than I," replied that lady, "since it is you who have contrived this nice intrigue." But," replied Lin the Treasure, "why wear you not the white headdress? Have you laid aside your mourning?" The Lady Ouang had the condescension to relate to him what had occurred in his absence.