TIE MHit NOVEMBER 26, 1842. No. XIII. Price One Penny, And now the time in special is, by privilege, to write and speak ivhat may help to the f urther discussing of matters in agitation. The Temple of Janus, with his two controversal faces, might now not unsignifiean tly be set open: and though all the winds of doctrine were let hose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter. Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.— MILTON'S AREOPAGITICA. TO ADVERTISERS. In a former announcement, it was stated that Advertisements could not be received at our printer's later than Thursday noon ; but as it is desirable to extend the time, we have trans- ferred our advertisements from the first to the fourth page, by which alteration we shall be enabled to receive the favours of our advertising friends until Thursday evening. Our fourth page will, we believe, be a very good situation for advertisements ; for there arc very few of our readers, we imagine, who do not dwell, with more or less pleasure, on the poetry and scraps to which that page is usually devoted. The principle upon which the business of the " Fiee Press" is conducted by our printer, is that of low prices and no credit. Our charges for advertisements arc— One to three lines.. 2s. Od. I Including the goy- Four to six 2s. 6d. V eminent tax of Seven to nine 3s. Od. j Is. Gd. and so on in proportion to the number of lines. LOCAL DOCUMENTS. ON THE RECENT CENSUS, AND THE VITAL STATISTICS OF HALIFAX AND SKIRCOAT. A Lecture delivered to the Members of the Halifax Mechanics' Institution, on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 1842, by Win, Alexander, M. D. President of that Insti- tution. In a country like Great Britain, of small superficia1 extent when compared with its thickly strewed popu- lation, affording an average of about 270 persons to the area of each square mile, the advantages, political and domestic, of a periodical enumeration of the people, must he obvious to all. Vet it was not until the year 1801 that this important desideratum was undertaken; since which time we have had a decennial Census. The parochial authorities were the enumerators on the four first occasions, but the late Census of 1841 was very properly confided to the Registrar General and his superintendents, scatter'd over their respective Districts. Each period has shown a progressive in" crease of population ( amounting to 14 and 15 per cent,) on its predecessor, so as to have advanced the number of the Inhabitants of Great Britain, from about 11 to 19 millions within the last 40 years. The Ratio of Increase during the last 10 years would appear to have latterly somewhat declined, but even at this rate the population of the country might be expected to double its present numbers in little more then half a century ; a threatened augmentation the very idea of which has often struck terror into the patriotic and contemplative mind, lest, in the end, and that at no very distant period, population should exceed the means of subsistence. Progression would thus seem to be the order of providence, and such must he our motto in the Arts, Manufacture, and Agriculture. It is chiefly by comparison that Statistics can convey intelligible and useful information, and I shall, therefore, endeavour to contrast present results with those of former corresponding periods. The increase of population in England from the year 1700 to 1750 has been estimated to have amounted to about 17J per cent only ;— that from 1750 to 1800, to 52 per cent ; whilst from 1801 to 1841 the results of the Census inform us that it has been 79 per cent. As might be expected, this increase has been very unequally distributed, being greatest in Towns and in the Counties of Monmouth, Durham, Lancaster, and Stafford, and least in rural Districts, in Hereford, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Norfolk, and Oxford ; whilst during the last ten years 7 Scotch counties have sustained an actual decline of population, altho' in Scotland as a whole the rate of increase is found to he the same as that of Wales, viz, 11 per cent. Tne population of Ireland last year was found to be nearly 8 millions and a quarter, and the increase during the 10 previous years amounted only to5J per cent, which is remarkable, since the former census of 1831 shewed an augmentation to the amount of 14 per cent, the greatest rate of increase occurring, to the extent of 21 per cent, in the least informed part of that Island, viz, Connaught. Into the causes which have led to this comparative decrease, and the amazing general national increase of late years in the population of this country, I cannot be expected to enter, since it would open a wide field of inquiry, and furnish materials for a whole course of Lectures rather than a single one. The mean rate of the increase in England and Wales has, during the last ten years, been 200,000 per annum; the Births exceeding the Deaths by 150,000; and emigration from the United Kingdom is supposed, on an annual average, to have been to the extent of 100,000 persons, 5 6ths of which find their way to Canada, the States of America, and Australia. 50,000 people are supposed to come over from Ireland and Scotland every year, to reside in this country and Wales. The returns show an excess of females over males to the extent of half a million in England and Wales, — to nearly 6,000 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and to 600 in the population comprised in the Halifax Union; a redundancy which accords with the establish- ed fact, that the mean duration of life is longer in the one sex than the other. The mortality of males, indeed, is ascertained to be about 7 per cent, higher than in females, and the prevalence of intemperance and exposure to external aeencies in the former, will scarcely suffice to explain this circumstance. The average age for contracting marriage in England is 27 for men, and 25 for women. As already observed, the great towns and the mining counties, furnishing coal and iron, have experienced the most rapid advance in population during the decennial period, amounting in Glamor- ganshire and Monmouthshire to 37 per cent; then come the Manufacturing Counties, then Middlesex, and lastly the agricultural, as Westmoreland for instance, whose increase is but 2J per cent, in the ten years. The Island of Jersey exhibits the large increase of 30 per cent, but the Islands of the British seas, taken generally, 19£ per cent. London, Manchester, and Birmingham, doubled their aggregate populations in the 25 years terminat- ing with 1836, and Glasgow has done the same in 20 years, its increase amounting to 50 per cent during the decennial period. So densely congregated are the inhabitants of some of the metropolitan districts, that there are but 16 or 18 yards to each person, or 240,000 persons situated over the area of a Geogra- phical Square Mile. ' Altho' still inferior in respectof wealth, Lancashire lia § now displaced our own County from being the leading one in the United Kingdom in the amount of its population. It has upwards of 900 inhabitants to every square mile of its surface, whilst Yorkshire has but 267 ; and their united numbers, 3 millions and a quarter, constitute about a fifth of the whole people of England. The West Riding has now 1,155,000 inhabitants, having increased at the rate of 18 per cent since the census of 1831, whilst Yorkshire generally has very nearly doubled its people within the last 40 years. The population of our own District, comprising the Halifax Poor Law Union, in the year 1831 amounted to nearly 90,000. From the late Census we learn that it is now 109,000, having increased during the last ten years at the rate of 21^ per cent., bv an annual addition of nearly 2,000 persons. The entire parish of Halifax exceeds this amount by 21,000, and whilst it is larger in superficial area, viz. 76,000 acres, than the County of Rutland, and six times its popu- lation, it has double the number of inhabitants of either Westmoreland or Huntingdonshire, and greatly exceeds several of the Welsh and Scotch counties in this respect. Halifax has 20,000 inhabitants. The increase of this township during the decennial period, accord- ing to my calculations, has been at the high rate of 29i per cent, or an addition of 450 persons ; being more than 2J per cent each year to its population ; and since the number of births exceeds the deaths by 217, it follows that out of the annual increase of 450, the rest, viz. 233 persons, is due to the influx of strangers to the town. For the township of Skircoat, the aunual increase of 114 persons, is owing to the excess of 70 births over the deaths, and the reception of 44 strangers, which is therefore the reverse of Halifax, the princi- pal source of increase being derived from its native population. Halifax has doubled its inhabitants within the last 28 years, whilst Skircoat has done the same in 35 years. It may be remembered by some of my hearers, that when I adverted briefly to the vital statistics of Halifax and Skircoat, two years ago, in my Treatise on the Horley Green Chalybeate, their respective po- pulations were estimated at 18,000 and 4,500, which seemed a sufficient addition to the census of 1831 to justify my subsequent statements as to the rate of mortality, the mean of two years being declared to be 1 death, per annum, in 40 of the inhabitants of the first named place, to about 1 in 42 of the latter. The rate of increase, however, in manufacturing towns is often remarkable and defies all accurate calculations, probably because it fluctuates with the state of trade; and the population was thus in both cases understated. In the absence of a recent census, it is usually computed according to the observed mean geometrical ratio of the two preceding decennia, and this I think would form a tolerably fair criterion of the increase of the entire of England and Wales, but not of individual towns. The late census, how ever, has supplied me with what was then defective, and having acertained the precise numbers resident in the two townships, more correct results will be obtained, comprising a more extended period for observations on this and one or two other points, alike important to medical science and the public welfare. Skircoat has now 5,200 inhabitants; its ratio o£ 2 THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. increase since the Census of 1831 haying nearly equalled that of Halifax, being 28 per cent in the de- cennial period, or the addition of 114 souls annually to its population. This large augmentation, I believe, is to be ascribed to a part of the Township situated in the populous vicinity of Bolton Brow and Sowerbv Bridge, having of late years been selected for the erection of dwelling houses. Halifax is the smallest Township in the parish, with the exception of Fixby, and contains 990 acres, which affords 240 yards to each person of the present population, whilst the area of Skircoat gives 1247 square yards to each individual; spaces amply suffi- cient for all sanitary purposes, had they been more equally distributed. In 1831 there were 3,244 houses inhabited in Halifax, and 264 untenanted. In Skircoat 808, and 81 respectively. Last year there were in Halifax 3913 occupied, 220 vacant, and 150 building. In Skircoat at the same period the numbers were 1021, 98, and 5 respectively, since which time I learn there has been a rapid increase of building. From MSS. referred to by Watson in his History of Halifax, it would appear that about 400 years ago there were in Halifax in all but 13 bouses, and I therefore assume that altho' there might be detached isolated dwellings scatter'd over the township and not comprehended in this list, yet the rest of what constituted the town itself must have been situated across the Hebble over Clark Bridge in Southowram Bank, for doubtless certain parts of the Parish Church, charters to encourage trade, and other evidence, de- monstrate 7 or 8 centuries at the least. With respect to Houses generally, an increase in their number may be considered, except in large towns, as a favourable index of increased comfort to the people. From the late returns I learn that whilst the population of Great Britain has advanced since 1831 in the ratio of 14 per cent, the number of in- habited houses has increased - about a third more rapidly. As a test of an improved state of things, however, it is not conclusive, inasmuch as the remis- sion of the House Tax and the duties on slates and tiles in 1834, would doubtless lead some families to use more houseroom. It is true that the House Tax affected such houses only as were rated at £ 10 aud upwards, and raised a million and a quarter annually, but still its repeal would operate to the increase of houses, as a diminution of duty did upon four wheeled carriages. There are now in Great Britain 5 3 persons to each house on the average, whilst in 1831 there were 5.7. In the West Riding there are on an average 5.4 persons to a house, in Halifax Township 5.1 and in Skircoat 5.09 or nearly the same number. The greatest increase of houses compared with population has occurred in the Agricultural Counties of England and in Scotland, inhabited houses having there increased in a more rapid ratio than population. In London we find the reverse of this ; the average in Middlesex being now 7.7 persons to a house, whilst 10 years ago there were but 7.5. When the census was taken last year, ' there were in Great Britain nearly 3J million houses occupied, 120,000 of which only are assessed to the window duty; about 200,000 uninhabited, and 30,000 build- ing ; the latter or untenanted bearing the proportion to the former of 7 per cent, whilst in the year 1831 it was not quite 5 per cent. From the returns it appears that there were 5,000 persons travelling en route on the night of the 30th of June when the census was taken, which is probably the average number during six nights in the week. Intimately connected with a correct periodical enumeration of the people is a system of registration of the births, deaths, and marriages. Important, however, as this subject undoubtedly is, it had not, until of late years, met with much attention, and were it not that the speculators in the perfecting of their tables for the assurance of lives rendered some- thing of this kind necessary to their security, and called public attention to it, it is very possible that few investigations as to all those circumstances which appear to affect the health and to prolong or abbre- viate life in particular localities, would, on a national and comprehensive system, have taken place. In England the imperfections of the parochial registration, even where the registers were not de- stroyed, defaced, nor lost, were such as to render accurate results difficult of attainment, particularly as regarded births, of which no cogniaanee was taken until the children were brought to the baptismal font. Many of these infants uied and were interred without any previous entry having been made of their exist- ence, whilst others, at all ages, not buried in the parish church yard, were under similar proscription. The church records ( regulated by an act passed in 1812, previous to which there was a stamp duty of 3d. per head,) were therefore strictly speaking re- gisters of baptisms and not of births, of burials and not of deaths ; and as to those who were not baptized or buried according to the rites of the Established Church, they furnished no evidence whatever. The great objcct, therefore, of the Registaation Act of 1837 was to provide an authorized legal and general register of births and deaths for persons of all re- ligious persuasions-, on which the disposition of pro- perty, assured annuities, and other contingent civil circumstances of life, often depend, and from which we shall be enabled to procure exact results on a large scale, and construct tables in reference to the law of sickness and mortality in town and country districts, to the great advancement of vital statistics, and the accurate government of those valuable provi- dent societies, sick- clubs and life assurances. Moreover, tins civil registration, tlio' hlthorto con- fined to England and Wales, embracing their entire population, independent of ecclesiastical distinctions,, is accompanied by annual abstracts of the bills of mortality, stating the specific causes of death in each instance, and the whole arranged according to an ap- proved system of classification. In a medical sense we have thus facilities afforded in forming tables and collecting facts of essential importance in the eluci- dation of circumstances of locality and relative salubrity not otherwise to be correctly ascertained, from which much benefit may be expected to accrue in the perfecting medical science, and consequently to the community at large. The advantages are thus political, affording data upon which to legislate wisely ; medical, for the reasons already assigned and in determining and directing certain sanitary municipal operations » legal, in establishing descent, consanguinity, and identity ; social and it might be added moral, since besides indicating in some measure the prosperity or decay— the excessive or the comparatively slight mortality of a place or community, it will afford a fair index of the habits prevailing, temperate or licentious, by the class of fatal diseases with which they are visited ; and throw much light upon the in- fluence of local climate and the effects of destitution or comparative comfort. With the exception of the statistical reports of the British Army when on foreign stations, and these of the United States Army as collected by Dr. Forry of the Medical Staff, the geographical distribution of diseases is as yet very imperfectly known, and that little not always confirmatory of our preconceived and generally admitted notions as to climatorial influence. ( To be Continued.) THE WEALTH OF BRITAIN.— In what consists the wealth of this kingdom ? Doe3 it consist in the national possession of the precious metals, which, in the whole of the currency, bullion included, amount only, in the aggregate, to about £ 30,000,000 ? In the congregated masses of building in the metropo- lis and other towns, which, if deserted, as the com- merce- forsaken citics of Italy now are, would be of no value : or in the mere soil of these islands, which, with the burden of a pauperized population, would be worthless, even as a gift ? No! the nation's wealth consists in an overflowing abundance of every exchangeable commodity, that man's honest in- genuity and industry can produce and procure. And the element which alone sustains this wealth is the power of our industrious masses, by the aid of ma- chinery, to produce, in almost miraculous abundance and cheapness, all useful commodities ; and the un- restricted freedom of our enterprising merchants to exchange them in every country for the necessaries and comforts of life, wherever these can be most cheaply obtained,— combined with the essential re- quisite, that the ability of the operatives to consume them, be in nowise narrowed, by any legislative monopoly. This condition of society is the true and only basis on which rests the nation's wealth,— L. Heyworth. OUR LETTER BOX, THE ALLEGED DECLINE OF SOLID LEARNING. To Hie Editors of the Free Press. Gentlemen,— When I last addressed you on this subject, I thought I had settled the question. I see, however, that " PrEemonstrator" has asked me a few questions, which, though they have very little to do with the question I discussed with Mr. Mackintosh and his umbra " A Lover, of Knowledge," I will an- swer. But, first, I wish to say a few words upon Mr. M.' s " Statistical Facts showing a decline of taste." He jays there is little sale for the new edition of til e " Encycloptedia Britannica," Now I have been informed, from a quarter which I consider quite as veracious a3 Mr. M., that the demand so far is quite as great as for any of the preceding editions. But if it were not, as the above- mentioned authorily ob- served, would it be at all strange if the seventh edition of a work at thirty- five guineas did not sell as well as- the first edition, since almost all who would want such a work must have been supplied with one of the six preceding editions ? Mr. M. next alludes to the Manchester Mechanics' Institution. I make no comment on his detected misrepresentations respecting this Institution ;— they need none. I must observe, however, that I look, with distrust upon his accounts of the Scotch Socie- ties ; nor, since I have no means of ascertaining whe- ther or not they are true, will I admit them as argu- ments. His assertion respecting the manner in which the proceedings of the British Association are treated by the press, is " notoriously false," as lean prove from files of newspapers. I think the manner in which Mr. M. has been treated by the scientific societies of the alleged disrepute into which he says they ( lecturers) Halifax and Huddersfield, a strong argument against are falling. Any person reading the correspondence between Mr. Gibson and Mr. M. would sa)-, " why, it is no wonder, if they have no lectures in towns, when an inhabitant of a village points out scientific blunders which one of the crack lecturers has com- mitted." Mr. M. says " about ten murders have lately re- sulted from reading such books as Jack Sheppard." This is all of a piece with the Manchester " Statistical facts." Seven out of the " about ten," ( I wonder he did not complete the dozen) were never heard of before. It is a gross falsehood to say that whirling tables, electrical wheels, & c. were ever instruments of amuse- ment amongst the aristocracy generally. I wonder at what period he will say it was ; for, not long ago, cock fighting was the prevailing amusement. The conversation of the young nobility was modelled af- ter that of stable- boys; nay, it is a notorious fact that one young peer spoiled a beautiful set of teeth, by having holes bored through two of them, in order that he might be able to spit as far as an Oxford coachman! I now take my leave of Mr. Mackintosh, wishing him, as the archbishop wished Gil Bias, " all manner of prosperity with a little more taste," in the compi- lation of " Statistical Facts ;" and confessing my to- tal inability to advance any argument against the " thousands of facts" which he says " might be men- tioned." Praeinonstrator, after enumerating the absurd pro- positions of Mr. M., asks if I have overturned them ? He admits that my arguments were " in some res- pects convincing," and then exclaims " hut what of that I" Of course I knew, when I wrote my argu- ments against " The Alleged Decline of Solid Learn- ing," that the public would judge for themselves, without any need of Pramonstrator's imperative moods; and I confidently await their decision. There are about a dozen lines, from which I have quoted one or two, and shall quote a few more, which few persons could equal in absurdity. What can be more extraordinary than this?—" D. argues that, previous to establishing of these journals, that portion who read them now were not readers. Be it so. Does that establish the fact laid down by Mr. Mackintosh ?" Now I have only one objection to this, viz. that it is nonsense. It would be very strange if one of my arguments " established the fact laid down by Mr. M." I trust I am not yet accus- tomed to the polite accomplished of cutting a stick for my own back. If Prseaionstrator chooses to speak in riddles, he should remember that Davus sum, non JEdipus. But now I look at the quotation again, I have another objection to it,— it contains a misrepre- sentation of my words. He has artfully contrived to make the passage read as if I had intended it to be understood that the publication of these trashy news- papers had caused a class to read who, but for that, THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. 3 would not have begun. That he means to do this is « vident from a subsequent passage, in which lie tells me, " that if these publications were to die to- mor- row, those who now read them would not cease to read !" I was not aware that I said they would. I lament, as deeply as any person can, that bad taste of such individuals as read these abominations. What I said was this. Thirty years ago, tbe class which now read these papers read nothing at all. From that X deduced the inference that society has progressed. That the taste of the cluss above mentioned will be- come gradually purified, I have great reason to hope and believe j for I do not permit the evil I see, to blind me to the mighty means which are employed for tbe professed object of disseminating truth, or to the astonishing progress they have made and are making. As to the story of the young lady who ivas burnt to death in bed, and whom an editor charitably suppo- sed to be reading a novel, when, for anything he knew, she might have been reading Baxter's Saints' Rest, I have nothing to say, except to protest against this tale being nicknamed " an argument" in favour of the Decline of Solid Learning, which ( as he seems to have forgotten) is the chimerical fear I disputed, and will dispute. Praemonstrator, after expressing a desire to " go to facts, supposes an ideal village respecting the size and number of inhabitants of which he leaves us in a state of the most delightful ignorance. lie then says, " in this village there are twenty individuals, who each purchase every week his paper of the above stamp." lie then asks me if it would not be better for these people to subscribe for books of a soiid kind. Of course it would. What need to ask any body of common sense such a question ? Prajmonstrator has made an observation which to- tally overturns the theory of a decline in learning. He asks if such works as Chambers' Journal, & c. would not " be more useful ( for that is what we must look at now)" than the scandalous prints of which we have been speaking. In that parenthesis there is contained a tacit acknowledgement of the interest which is felt in anything tending to utility, which ought to be the end of all knowledge. The people of England are really awake, and thirsting after infor- mation. A friend of mine told me that he saw a rag- ged boy come into a bookseller's shop, in Halifax, for three copies of " Chambers' Information for the Peo^ pie." Their advancement in knowledge may be seen in the system of classes now so common in Mechanics' Institutes, iu the conversation of mechanics, and the influence they have begun to exercise upon public opinion. Why, Geology itself, Mr. M. should remember, owes its existence, as a science, to tbe last thirty years. Previously to that period, it was only a col- lection of vague, half- disputed speculations. Much has been said against our magazine tales; but, by thinking men, they are considered as import- ant engines in the spread of true moral and religious philosophy. I ask, is not the character of Aubrey in the novel of " Ten Thousand a year," a better means of causing admiration of Christian fortitude and re- signation than a thousand treatises upon those vir- tues ? Are not the hideous clfects of drunkenness exhibited in a more appalling light in Caleb Stukely, than in a speech of the Birmingham Blacksmith? They who study the signs of the times with care, will not fail to perceive tbe impulses which are quietly urg- ing us onward in the inarch of Intellect. The future is pregnant with great and glorious discoveries and events, which will convince man that lie is indeed " made but a little lower than the angels." Halifax, Nov. 22, 1842. D. _ TMKSSAYIST. EXERCISES, REVIEWS, AND ACTION. NO. IX.— A BULL IN A CfiJiV/ t- SHOP ! Who has not heard of a bull in a china- shop, and pictured to himself the strange scene of disorder and destruction that would be occasioned by this strange intrusion,— tbe downfall of piles and pyramids of glass and earthenware, and tbe smashing of cups, saucers, mugs, jugs, basins, ewers, vases, pitchers, plates, dishes, tureens, butter- boats, cream- jugs, tea- pots, and punch- howls, besides sundry wine- glasses, jelly- glasses, dessert services, and valuable cut- glass decanters? No one for a moment doubts tite physi- cal strength of the bull to accomplish all this mis- chief. True, we may he aware that for the same rea- son that " it is dangerous to play with edge- tools," so the sharp edges of the porcelain might seriously wound the animal; indeed some of the broken glass might enter the flesh, cause it to fester, and occasion great pain, perhaps end in mortification: or the poor bull, in withdrawing from the scene of action, might get bis horns entangled, or be himself set fast in the window sash or door- frame. One thing is beyond a doubt, that the unfortunate owner of the bull could under no circumstances be a gainer; on the contra- ry, it is equally beyond a doubt that he would be in- volved in a very serious expense for the loss and da- mage incurred ; sufficient, perchance, to ruin him, if a poor man ; and to amount to a heavy tax on bis income, if in tolerably good circumstances. Now any one imagining this disaster, would sup- pose it to be a case where a bull had to be driven in a given direction, past tbe door of a china shop, and that the door standing wide open, tbe animal stu- pidly or stubbornly entered iu, notwithstanding all the endeavours of the driver to prevent. No one could suppose it possible that the hired servants of the owner of the bull, men who were paid liberal wages to tend the fanner's cattle, and to take care they should not stray or break their bounds, would preine- ditately take the animal from tbe meadow in which he was quietly grazing, and recklessly drive him into the china- shop for a mere frolic, or for a still worse object— that they might plunder the barn and the pantry, whilst the attention of the farmer and his family were directed to the fracas. No one would dream of anything so monstrous as this. But what if such a casa shall actually have occur- red, that a farmer shall have had such villainous servants ! And what if they shall have conspired to obtain the dismissal of a faithful out- door occasional assistant, who would not be induced under any cir- cumstances to enter into the plan ; and that the fel- lows mis- represented him to the farmer as one who would not work, or who did his work imperfectly, because he refused to stiind by quietly and see his employer injured! And what if the faithful servant, even after he was dismissed, still used every endea- vour to protect the property of his old master, and keep the cattle within their pastures; would, if al- lowed, even have " taken the bull by the horns" to prevent his going into the china- shop, and actually roared out and bellowed almost as loudly as a bull to warn the neighbours of what was going on I When the extent of the mischief was discovered, the rascals dismissed, and the fidelity and vigilance of this individual ascertained, would he not, ought he not, to be selected as the man, of all others, to be entrusted with the cattle ? And would not the farmer be most anxious to secure the services of one who had manifested such valuable qualities ? This is no imaginary case. The Whigs and Tories combined have driven John Bull into China, where he is demolishing pagodas and palaces ; destroying fire- sides and families; helpless infancy, vigorous manhood, and decrepit age, are indiscriminately crushed, whilst the victims are as passive as the man- darins with round faces, or the women with small feet painted on their porcelain. Nor can any good whatever possibly result from the conflict: the poor English soldiers who are sacrificed, may leave widows and orphans, or aged parents, to perish in starvation in this bread- taxed country, or to be locked up in the Union. The unemployed workmen of England wanted consumers and custom- ers, not cold corpses. The tens of thousands of the " enemy," as they are called, who are cut off ( but as well might we apply tbe term " enemy" to the bleat- ing- latnb), can no longer be consumers of the calicoes of Lancashire or Lanarkshiie, of the woollen cloths of tbe. west of England or the West- Riding of York • shire, of the hosiery of Leicester or Nottingham, of the hardware of Birmingham or Sheffield— nor can they any longer produce, for our use in return, the refreshing Souchong, orthe grateful Hyson. Instead of receiving from them Gunpowder tea to exhilarate and refresh, we send gunpowder and opium to murder and destroy. And all these things go on ; and for what object ? That we may have a tax on our income to defray the expense; or worse still, that whilst our attention is called to the fracas, our cupboards and larders may be robbed, by perpetuating bread- tax aud sugar- tax. Yet was there, one voice continually uplifted to point out the injustice and impolicy of attacking China, and although it was not sufficiently heedea to prevent the calamity, the record of it bears testimony of the vigilance of the individual, and the earnestness of his remonstrance. Let us turn to the evidence. " Do you think it creditable for honest people to allow their money to be expended in forcing opium at the cannon's mouth, down tbe throats of the Chinese ? Do you not see it is just the proceeding which you would term rascal. y m any body else V'— Vol. V: p. 402. " There would be nothing a whit more unreason- able in setting a drunken soldiery upon Leeds or Birmingham in consequence of their resistance to the prohibition of foieign corn, than in doing tbe same to a Chinese town on tbe ground of ils resistance to the introduction of Foreign Opium. Tbe scoundrelism would only be the same ; and those who would do the one would do the other. — Vol. V. page 422. " Then came the Chinese felony ; where forty thieves, whose place would have been on the tread- mill, were brought up by a British minister, to tell the House of Commons they were interested in the smuggling of opium by force into an unoffending country."— Vol. V. p. 18a. He describes the passive disposition of the poor victims :— " Now look at the Chinese, who in some respects are not unlike a Quaker community. They make war with nobody, kill nobody, blow up nobody : they are formal, grave, and harmless, living much by the rules of the elders and tbe custom of friends. They are much given to trade, but they prefer tbe quiet paddling from province to province, to the gaudier risk of commerce in foreign goods, for which they feel no great anxiety. In some of these points they may be right and others wrong ; but on the whole", there is certainly something Quakerish about them." — Vol. V. p. 431. His indignation is very strongly expressed; and he sees that one of the probable results will be to create another titled murderer, to be pensioned on tbe pub- lic, for the feats performed in " the murder of the in- nocents." " We are in daily expectation of hearing of their cut- ting the throats of our harmless tea- makers in China, and having to support a ' Lord Laudanum,' and a ' Viscount Morphine,' as our personal contribution towards those most filthy murders. We have the same feelings on the subject, that we should have if asked to pay for a ' Marquis Courvoisier;' the same hearty contempt, hatred, and individual aversion to both principals and instiuments."— Vol. V. p. 125. " There will be a ' Lord Laudanum' aud a'Vis- count Morphine,' to pay for shortly, and 5- 011 will have to keep them and their posterity for ever, or at least to pay your share, out of your aching head and smarting eyes. And those who live by still harder labour must do the same. The child who brings home its ' sair won penny fee' ou Saturday night, has paid its share, which if it could be traced, would be found lodged in the shape of a handful of oats for the carriage horses of some London opium dealer, or a tenth of an inch square of lace on the liveries of the footmen of one of my lords aforesaid."—- Vol. V. page 328. And he viewed the whole transaction as dishonour- able iu the highest degree. " There is no honour in serving felons ; this be the great verity which, be the risk what it may, it is our business to impress upon the world. Fight, as John Wesley's soldiers said in Flanders, " knee deep in blood," where it is for justice, for liberty, for sound and real honour and renown. But do not fight for the chance of having it said, '' There goes a man who had his leg knocked olf in serving villains." Think of a man displaying a timber toe and saying ' Some smugglers here wanted to cram opium down the throats of another nation ; and this is my share of what came of it,"— Vol. V. page 59. If the limits allowed, we might multiply quotations to a great extent, but sufficient are produced to show the nature and origin of the attack on China ; and of the strong indignation with which it was viewed by the author of Exercises. Nor were these expressions uttered in a corner. Though excluded, for the time being, from the House of Commons, by a cabal to whose proceedings his vigilance and honesty were an inconvenient check, and though tbe London press was chiefly under Whig or Tory guidance, and there- fore did not afford a favourable channel for his elo- quent denunciations, he availed himself of the un- trammelled provincial press, through which did he weekly explain tbe enormity of tbe China and other Eastern wars. The articles from which the forego- ing extracts are made, and others of a sitiular charac- ter, were published in the provincial press in many of tbe chief towns of England and Scotland ; amongst others,— Manchester, Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham, Ipswich, Bolton, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Perth, Dun- dee, and consequently tbe districts and the minor towns to which each of these is a centre. If, then, we disapprove ( and who can do otherwise than disap- prove) of the war in China, and every other unjust war, what would be the plain and simple way of pre- venting the recurrence of similar abominations ? What so effective as the voice of the people to demand that COL. THOMPSON, who, if not the only public man that gave the alarm, was at least far more active and zealous in. his exertionsjthan any other individual, should be placed in a position where his influence would have the greatest weight,— namely, amongst those on whom peace and war depend,— tbe executive government of the country— the responsible advisers of the crown ? AN ADJUTANT* James the First, in one of his addresses to his Par- liament, curiously remarks—" That wisdom in a sub- ject is as inferior to wisdom in a monarch, as the glit- tering of a nail in a horse's shoe is to the splendour of a star in the firmament! ! !" This brilliant speech was, no doubt, a proof of bis Majesty's modesty ! * For reasons better known to himself than to us, our Correspondent" Coadjutor" has now adopted this signature. — EDIT. THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. POETRY. ORIGINAL. LINES TO ENGLAND. Hail, England! I love thee, sweet land of my birth ; I greet thee as fairest of all upon earth; Thy hills and thy mountains,— thy sweet smelling flowers, Thy green shady walks, interspersed with green bowers,— All kindle a charm which time cannot efface, For thee— land of Liberty, Beauty, and Grace. Hail, pride of the nations! thou land of renown, The envy of empires,— the cause of their frown; The birth place of freedom for Afrie's poor slave; The home of the noble, the good, and the brave; The harbour of justice,— the camp of the free, The loveliest of islands wash'd by the bread sea. Hail, England! the land of the honey and wine, Where flow'rs ever blossom and beams ever shine; Where Virtue and Beauty together employ Their sweet hours of pleasure,— their moments of joy; Where the smiles of the fair, and the songs of the gay, Are lamps to enlighten onr desolate way. Hail, Isle of the ocean! the home of the wise, Who have travers'd the sea, and explor'd the blue skies; For wisdom and learning thy schools are renown'd, A halo of genius encircles thee round ; The Poet, the Painter, the Sage, the Divine, By thee are protected— thou claim'st them as thine. Cavalry Field, Halifax. C— y. LINES, ADDRESSED TO MR. C. ON HIS LEAVING- ENGLAND FOR A FOREIGN SHORE. Why would'st thou leave thy native home, And bid adieu to those that love thee ? Why wish ; n distant lands to roam, With an alien sky above thee » Think'st hou that thy friends could bear To hear the farewell ever spoken; Or that thy presence they could spare, Or let thee go with hearts unbroken. Why would'st thou go ? Can foreign clime, Yield pleasures ever unbeclouded : Or deem'st thou there that youth's gay prime In gloom is never to be shrouded. Does friendship in the torrid zone, Form bonds which nought on earth can sever ? Does love then there, and there alone, Exist, prove true and faithful ever ? But say if called in foreign land. Or on the dark and bounding billow, At stern affliction's dread command, In pain to press thy dying pillow. Will strangers kindly o'er thee bend, In pity to thy sad complaining; Or like thy sisters fondly tend Thy dying couch as life is waning > When carried to thy last long home, What stranger thee will follow weeping, Or scatter flowers upon thy tomb, Wher cold and lowly thou art sleeping ? Yes; thou mayest wander far away, And other friends may smile and greet thee $ But friends in other climes betray, And sorrow still will ever meet thee. And ne'er, Oh! ne'er will stranger feel A sister's love his bosom warming; Nor like a parent seek thy weal When clouds of grief are round thee forming,, Oh ! why then would'st thou leave thy home, And bid adieu to those that love thee ? Why wish in distant lands to roam, With an alien sky above thee \ Halifax. j. TAXLQR. SELECTED. THE CONFESSION. There's somewhat on my breast, father, There's somewhat on my breast; The live- long day I sigh, father, At night I cannot rest. I cannot take my rest, father, Though I would fain do so; A weary weight oppresseth me, This weary weight of woe. ' Tis not the lack of gold, father, Nor lack of worldly gear ; My lands are fair and broa. d to see;, My friends are kind and dear. My kin are leal and true, father, They mourn to see my grief; But, oh, ' tis not a kinsman's hand Can give my heart relief. ' Tis not that Mary's false, father, ' Tis not that she's unkind ; Though many flatterers swarm around, I know her constant mind. ' Tis not her cruel apathy That chills my labouring breast; — ' Tis that confounded cucumber I've eat, and qan't digest. OUR SCRAP BOOK. " A thing of Shreds aud Patches." THE LITTLE WOMAN WITH THE LITTLE BABY.— On the fourth night after leaving Louisville we reached St. Louis, and here I witnessed the conclu- sion of an incident, trifling enough in itself, hut very pleasant to see, which had interested me during the whole journey. There was a little woman on hoard, with a little baby ; and both little woman and little child were cheerful, good looking, bright- eyed, and fair to see. The little woman had been passing a long time with her sick mother in New York, and had left her home in St. Louis, in that condition in which ladies whi5 truly love their lords desire to be. The baby was born in her mother's house, and she had not seen her husband ( to whom she was now re turning) for twelve months, having left home a month or two after their marriage. Well to be sure, there never was a little woman so full of hope, and tender- ness, and love, and anxiety, as this little wowan was : and fill day long she wondered whether " Me" had got her letter ; and whether, if she sent the baby ashore by somebody else, " He " would know it, meeting it in the street; which, seeing that he had never set eyes upon it in his life, was not very likely in the abstract, but was probable enough to the young mother. She was such an artless little creature, and was 111 such a sunny, beaming, hopeful state, and let out all this matter clinging close about her heart so freely that all the lady passengers entered into the spirit* of it as much as she, and the captain ( who heard all about it from his wife) was wonderous sly, I promise you ; inquiring every time we met at table, as if in forget- fulness, whether she expected anybody to meet her at St. Louis, and whether she would want to go ashore the night we reached it ( hot he supposed she wouldn't) and cutting many other dry jokes of that nature. There was one little weazen, dried- apple- faced old woman, who took occasion to doubt the constancy of husbands in such circumstances of bereavement; and there was another lady ( with a lap dog) old enough to moralize on the lightness of human affec- tion," and yet not so old that she could help nursing the baby now and then, or laughing with the rest, when the little woman called it by its father's name, and asked it all manner of fantastic questions con- cerning him in thejov of her heart. It was something of a blow 10 the little woman, that when we were within twenty miles of our destination, it became clearly necessary to put this baby to bed. But she got over it with the same good humour ; tied a hand- kerchief round her head, and came out into the little gallery with the rest. Then, such an oracle as she became in reference to the localities; and such face- tiousness as was displayed by the married ladies ; and such sympathy as was shown by the single ones ; and such peals of laughter as the little woman herself ( who would just as soon have cried) greeted every jest with. At last there were the lights of St. Louis, and here was the wharf, and those were the steps ; and the little woman covering her face with her hands, and laughing ( or seeming to laugh) more than ever, ran into her own cabin, and shut herself up. I hava no doubt that in the charming inconsistency of such excitement she stopped her ears, lest she should hear " Him " asking for her ; but I did not see her do it. Then, a great crowd of people rushed on board, though the boat was not yet made fast, but was yet wandering about, among the other boats, to find a landing place ; and everybody looked for the husband : and nobody saw him : when in the midst of us all— Heaven knows how she ever got there— there was the little woman clinging with both arms tight round the neck of a fine, good looking, sturdy young fellow ! and in a moment afterwards there she was again, actually clapping her little hands for joy, as she drag- ged him through the small door of her small cabin, to look at the baby as he lay asleep !— Dickens's Notes. HAYMAN, THE ARTIST.— Hayman was a painter of the Old English School, and was the first librarian to the Royal Academy. He painted the iioxes and grand room of Vauxhall Gardens; and when he was paintins his picture of British heroes, for the grand room, the gallant and good- natured Marquis of Granliv paid him a visit, at his house in St. Martin's Lane, and told him he came at the desire of his frend Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, to sit to him for his portrait: " but, Frank," said the hero of Minden, " before I sit to you, I insist on having a set- to with you.'' Hayman not understanding him and appearing surprised at the oddity of his declaration, the Marquis thus eyplained himfelf:—" I have been told you were one of the best boxers of the school of Broughton; and I am not altogether deficient in the pugilistic art; but, since I have been in Germany I am a little out of practice. Therefore, we'll have a fair trial of strength and skill." Hayman pleaded his age and gout as insuperable obstacles. To the first position, the Marquis replied that there was very little difference between them : to the second, that exercise was a specific remedy, adding, that a few rounds would give a glow of countenance that would give animation to the canvas. At length, to it the fell ; and, after the exertion of much skill and strength, on both sides, Hayman put in such a blow on the stomach, or, as it is phrased by boxer?, bread basket, of the Marquis, that they both fell with a tremendous noise, and brought up stairs the affrighted Mrs. Hayman, who found them rolling over each other on the carpet like two enraged bears WAGES.— Malta compared with the Ionian Islands, seems to afford a demonstrative proof that wages the wages of the agricultural labourer as well as of the artificer— are not regulated by the price of bread or of food generally, lint by the demand for labour, In both, the larger proportion of corn consumed is imported ; the price of bread in both is about the same, but the wages are very different. In the Ionian Islands they are rather more than twice as high as in Malta ; the one thinly peopled, the other densely; in the one an excess of land for cultivation, in the other a deficiency. And, that the demand, cieteris paribus, fixes the price of labour seems farther to be proved by the fact already mentioned in page 416, that, the time of Malta's great commercial prosperity when there was ample occupation for the people, the wages were very much higher.— Davy's Ionian Islands, PUBLIC SPEAKING.— One of the greatest errors committed by public speakers, when addressing largi bodies of people, is speaking fast. They forget that distance has the same effect upon sounds as it has upon architectural or other ornaments ; it melts, as it were, the more minute parts into a confused mass Elaborate and ornate passages in music cannot be appreciated by a moderately distant listener, while the bold and distinct slow movement cau be felt and understood by him with ease. ADVERTISEMENTS. TO BE SOLD, a [ quantity of REMNAKTS of PILOT CLOTHS,. BEAVERS, and other Goods suitable for Charitable Purposes. Also, a small stock) of (. BLANKETS, PRINTED DRcqoEis, and FINE GOODS, all of which will be sold very low. Apply to Mr. JOHN BARRACLOUGH, Manufacturer, Lister- Lane. LB'BTER HOUSE, NO. 1, Northgate End, Halifax. Esta-. blished for the Sale of all kinds of the best and cheapest Stockings, Knitting Worsteds and Yarns, Gloves and Ready- made Shirts, & c. Women's Stockings and Gloves, Men's Stockings and Gloves, Children's Stockings > nd Gloves, in great variety.— Men's Merino and Lambs' wool under- Shirts, Drawers, and Pantaloons, much cheaper and superior to Flannels— Many qualities of men's cotton and linen ready made shirts, shirt- fronts, shirt collars, stocks, and braces — Purchasers are rsspectfullylinvited to try the Le'ster House where there Is kept an extensive assortment of Stockings and Gloves.— Elastic wool under- shirts and drawers, recom- mended as a sure preventive of rheumatism and gout.— Every article belonging to the hosiery business, and par. ticularly suitable for the present season, is sold at astonish- ing low prices, at the Le ster House, No. 1, Northgate End, Halifax. JAMES WHEWALL, Proprietor. November 25th, 1842. TO THE TRUSTEES UNDER THE IMPROVEMENT ACT FOR THE TOWNSHIP OF HALIFAX. GENTLEMEN,— As the resignation of Mr. MICHAEL GARLICK, your present Clerk, has now placed that Office at your dis- posal, allow me most respectfully to announce to you that I am a Candidate for the. situation he has so long occupied in connexion with you. Of my qualidcations, you will no. doubt form an opinion without any special reference on my part, and, perhaps, with more satisfaction to yourselves than a statement of my own might produce.. Should you consider me worthy of your support, the favour of your Vote and Interest will be highly esteemed. If elected to the office, I shall endeavour to discharge its duties to the best of my ability. I am, Gentlemen, Your most obedient Servant, JOSEPH COCSIN HOATSON. West Hill, Halifax, Nov. 3, J 842. VENICE.— If I were to assign the particular quality which conduces to that dreamy and voluptuous exis- tence which men of high imagination experience iu Venice, I should describe it as the feeling of abstrac- tion, which is remarkablein that city, and peculiar to it. Venice is the only city which can yield the magical delights of solitude. All is still and silent. No rude sound disturbs your reveries. Fancy, there fore, is not put to flight. No rude sound distracts your self- consciousness. This renders existence in- tense. We feel everything; and we feel thus keenly in a city not only eminently beautiful,— not only abounding in wonderful creations of art; but each step of which is hallowed ground, quick with associ- ations that, in their more various nature, their nearer relation to ourselves, and perhaps their more pic- turesque character, exercise a greater influence over the imagination, than the more antique story of Greece and Rome. We feel all this in a city, too, which, although her lustre be indeed dimmed, can still count among her daughters, maidens fairer than the orient pearls with which her warriors once loved to deck them. Poetry, Tradition, and Love,— these are the Graces that have invested with an ever- cbsrm- ng cestus this Aphrodite of cities.— D'Israeli the Younger- POETICAL MOODS AND TENSES.— Let us examine the moods and tenses of the poets. He who plays off the amiable in verse, and writes to display his own fine feelings, is in the sentimental or indicative mood. Didactic poets are in the imperative, satirists in the potential, your amorist in the optative. The classifi- cation i? defective in the other moods. The fame of those who write personal satire is in the present tense ; that of most poets in the imperfect: the great ones who are dead, in the perfect. The great ones who are living must be considered to have theirs in the future.— Southey. A Fop.— Mr. Richard Shute, a London Merchant, in the time of Charles, ( says his grand- daughter, Mrs. Thomas,) " were very nice in the mode of that age ; Is is valet being some hours, every morning, in starching his beard and curling his whiskers ; during which time, a gentleman whom he maintained as a companion, always read to him upon some useful subject." MEN- WOMEN ACTORS — In the time of Charles If, female characters were fr, quently, though not always, represented on the staue by men. On one occasion, the " Merry Monarch " was impatient for the draw- ing up of the curtain ; and Davenant, the manager, answered him,—" Sire, the scene will commence as soon as the Queen is shaved." ADVICE TO A PHYSICIAN.— When the late Dr. James Hope, author of a much esteemed work on Morbid Anatomy, was about to commence practice, his father said to him, with great dignity and solem- nity ;— Now, James, I shall give you the advice I promised ; and if you follow it, you will be sure to succeed in your prolession. First, never keep a pa^ tient ill longer than you can possibly help: secondly, never take a fee to which you do not feel yourself justly entitled: and thirdly, always pray for your patients." A short time before his death, Dr. Hope said that these maxims had been the rule of his con- duct, and that he could testify to their success." VENICE BY MOONLIGHT.— It is by moonlight that Venice is indeed an enchanted city. The effect of the floods of silver light upon the tumbiing fretwork, of the Moresco architecture, the perfect absence of all harsh sounds, the never- ceasing music on the waters, produce an effect on the mind, which can- riet be experienced in any other city.— D'Israeli the younger. HALIFAX:— Printed and Sold, for the Proprietors, at the General Printing Office George Yard.