THE ML MARCH 4, 1843. PRESS No. XXVII. Price One Penny, And now the time in special is, by privilege, to write and speak what may help to the further discussing of matters in agitation. The Temple of Janus, with his two ontroversal faces, might now not unsignificantly be set open: and though all the winds of doctrine were let loose 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. ADVERTISEMENTS. HALIFAX MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.—' The Members and Friends of the Institution are respectfully informed that a Lecture entitled " The Prosecution of Scientific Pursuits not Incompatible with the Claims of Religion," will be de- livered In the Old Assembly Room, on Wedne.- day Evening, March 8, by the Rev. A. Ewing, A. M. The Lecture to commence at Eight o'Clock. Members admitted on show- ing their Tickets, and Non- Subscribers on payment of Sixpence. Ladies' Tickets, admitting them to all the Lec- tures for the year, Four Shillings each. HALIFAX GENERAL CEMETERY— The Shareholders in this Institution may receive the FIRST DIVIDEND ( declared at a Meeting held on the 27th ult.) by applying at the office of Mr. STANSFBLD, Solicitor, Halifax. March 1st, 1843. An Advertiser in a Hull paper expresses himself to be in want of " an active man, well experienced as , shepherd, and capable of managing sheep, either single or married!" We wonder whether the single or married sheep are the most difficult of manage- ment. The British and Foreign Anti- Slavery Reporter states that the methodists of the United States are estimated to possess 80,000 slaves; the baptists, 125,000 ; the presbyterians 70,000 ; the Campbellites, 100,000 ; and the episcopalians, 80,000. NEW ZEALANDERS, THEIR STATE AND PRO SPECTS.— There is a striking peculiarity in the char- acter of the New Zealanders, which is very encouraging to the hope of their ultimate civilization ; namely, the eagerness they have shown to visit foreign countries, and to see with their own eyes whatever might gratify curiosity, or prove subservient to use- fulness. Even in the days of Cook, this spirit of re- search displayed itself ; and every one is aware of the difficulties which in more recent times have been overcome by these enterprising islanders in seeking an acquaintance with distant lands. Mr. Marsden remarks, " My opinion is, that if half the New Zeal- anders were to die in their attempt to force themselves into civil life, the other half would not he deterred from making a similar effort; so desirous do they seem to attain our advantages." It is well known, ' oo, that they are proud to array themselves in the dress of Europeans; and endeavour, as far as they can, to imitate their manners, and even their modes of feeling and thinking. The natives, so lately sepa- rated from the cultivated portion of their species, not more by their geographical position than by the deep barbarism in which they were involved, are now brought into the light of knowledge and religion, and are no longer ignorant that there are other pursuits than those of war, and other enjoyments than those of revenge. Christianity, which is in every sense of the word the religion of civilization, has gone forth among them attended by literature and the arts; and it is not possible that she should not eventually triumph over all the ignorance, prejudice, and ferocity with which she has here to contend. Such is the mild sway which her sublime faith is exercising over their rude minds, that it can hardly fail to restrain their destructive animosities, and abolish their san- guinary superstitions. Perhaps no feeling less ardent ihan a sense of religious duty could have supported the labourers in such a cause, surrounded by the difficulties and discouragements which met them at almost every step. But their task has gradually become easier and more cheering ; while few gratifications can be equal to that which they must enjoy, when they contemplate, as the fruit of their efforts under a benignant Providence, a general amendment of man- ners and a great increase of comfort among the savage people whom they had undertaken to instruct. — Edinburgh Cabinet Library, No. XXXIII. Poly- nesia. COMPARATIVE STATE OF EDUCATION IN DIFFERENT COUNTIES OF ENGLAND AND WALES. In the annual reports of the Registrar- General of births, deaths, and marriages, in England and Wales, there is generally given a table showing the propor- tion per cent in the metropolis, in each English county, and in North and South Wales, of persons married during the year included in the report, who, instead of writing their names in tbe marriage register, signed with marks. In the fourth annual report of the Registrar- General, there is given a more extended average, viz.— a table exhibiting the Mean Proportion, for Thi ce Years ending June 30,1841,' of Men and IVomen signing with marks the Marriage Register. Counties arranged according to the Education of the Men. Mear. propertic" per c « nt. Counties. Men. Women. Cumberland 16 36 Westmoreland 19 33 Northumberland 19 39 East Riding and York 19 41 York N. Riding 23 42 Durban 26 49 Devon 27 41 Kent ( except Greenwich) .. 29 40 Gloucester 30 43 Sussex 31 41 Dorset 31 41 Derby 31 50 Surrey ( part of) 32 35 Middlesex ( part of) 32 36 Hants 32 39 Rutland 33 26 Warwick ( mean of England and Wales) 33 49 Leicester 33 51 Lincoln 34 47 Nottingham 34 53 Oxford 35 44 Cornwall 35 54 Chester 36 62 Somerset 37 48 Northampton 37 52 Hereford' 39 43 York & West Riding 39 64 Lancaster 40 66 Berkshire 42 45 Bucks 43 54 Salop 43 54 Norfolk 44 50 Wiltshire 44 56 Stafford 44 61 Huntingdon 46 54 Cambridge 46 56 Worcester 46 61 South Wales 46 69 Suffolk 47 53 Essex 47 55 North Wales 47 70 Hertford 51 56 Bedford 52 65 Monmouth 52 66 Upon looking back to the third annual report, for the year ended 31st June, 1840, we find that the pro- portion of " marksmen" in that year, in England and Wales, was 33 ; * omen, 50. Westmoreland has im- proved since then ; centestimal proportion of married persons who could not write being then,— men, 22; women, 34 per cent. The East Riding of Yorkshire was then,— men, 21; women, 40 per cent. Passing over those counties which in this respect are station- ary, or show an improvement of not more than one per cent, and that in one sex only, we find that in 1839 40, the married marksmen in Sussex were 33 per cent, so that there is an improvement of at least two per cent in the men, while the women are sta- tionary. In Dorset the proportions were in that year,— men, 34 ; women 34 per cent, who could not write their names ; so that this exhibits an improve- men of at least three per cent in both sexes. In the returns as to Rutland there appears some error : the markers are stated, in 1839- 40, to be,— men, 28; women, 35 per cent; in the mean proportion for three yeirs,— men, 33; women, 26 per cent. In Oxford there is an improvement, the proportion of marksmen, in 1839- 40, being 37 ; while the mean of the three years is 35 per cent : the women have ad- vanced one per cent. The West Riding shows con- siderable improvement, the markers three years ago being,— men, 41 ; women, 66 per cent. Lancashire, in which the proportions of markers, in 1839- 40, were,— men, 39; women, 66 percent, appears, on the mean of three years, to be improved as to the education of men one per cent, while that of the women is stationary. In Berkshire there must be some mistake, as the proportions, in 1839- 40, were stated at— men, 40 ; women, 47 per cent; mean of three years,— men, 42 ; women, 45 per cent. In Buckinghamshire there appears an indication of im. provement, as the proportions, in 1839 40, were,—- men, 46 ; women, 56 per cent. In Cambridgeshire, the mean proportion of the three years, as to markers, shows an improvement on the year 1839- 40 of two per cent, as to each sex. In Essex there is a large improvement as to the men, the proportion in the year 1839- 40 being 50, the mean of three years 47 per cent. In Bedford, the markets, in 1839- 40, were,— men, 54 ; women, 68 per cent: the mean of the three years exhibits an improvement of two per cent in the men, and three per cent in the women. In North Wales, there is an improvement of one per cent in the women, and in South Wales, of one per cent in the men, as to this rudimentary part of educa- tion. In Cheshire, the mean of three years exhibits an improvement of one per cent as to each sex, over the year 1839 40. It appears by an extract from the report, that in England and Wales, on " the average of three years, 33 men in 100, and 49 women in 100, signed with marks; it is therefore probable, that only 67 men and 51 women in 100 can write their own nam es. There is a slight increase in the proportion of men who wrote their names." THE PRESS — But in all these modes we see the Press operating as one of the most powerful causes in favour of tbe civilisation which tends to the for- mation of great cities. Its natural effect is to give dominion to intelligence, and not to mere force. Its momentum is a power on the side of industry, in genuity, and commerce, and as such on the side of civic greatness. It may raise up an aristocracy of capitalists to compete with an aristocracy of land- lords, but its much stronger tendency is to give ascendancy, in effect if not in form, to the natural aristocracy of intelligence and virtue. It is not ne- cessarily opposed to the two former elements of social power, but it hold sspecial allianec with the latter. Superstition and feudalism have alike paled before it; and while it has done much to put down those forms of oppression on the one hand, it has done much to establish the freedom, and consolidate the powers of man, as a citizen, upon the other. It is a foe which may be chained in one region, but will be sure to avenge itself by the fuller exercise of its power in another. Its destruction is no more pos- sible than the annihilation of the entire social system of the civilised world; and it must cease to exist before it can cease to be the agent it has been. Its evils, where it has full licence, are many, but all are trivial compared with its good.— Vaughan's Age of G'eat Cities. Venus, though the most brilliant planet in the heavens, is not well situated for observation this year; the best time for viewing her by the naked eye is during the present month and in July. Lord Campbell stated in the House of Lords, the other evening, that a person who laughs when he hears a libellous epigram read, is liable as the pi}!}* lisher! 2 THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. ADDRESS TO OUR READERS. When we projected the publication of the Free Press, we commenced the trial of an ex- periment, the result of which it was very diffi- cult to foresee. With the exception of a few newspapers, the periodical press has generally failed, as a speculation, even in the largest and most important of our provincial towns ; and that a similar fate awaited the Free Press, was the confident prediction of many friends, as well as of foes. The experiment has, however, had a trial of six months, and has been so far attended with success as to encourage us to per- severe, with renewed diligence, in the course that has been so auspiciously begun. With the present number, which commences a new quarter, we enter upon a new arrange- ment,— the delivery of our weekly sheet at the residences of our subscribers. According to the terms of a previous announcement, the deli- very will extend to quarterly subscribers only, because the payment of single pennies, from week to week, at the doors of our subscribers, would often be productive of trouble and in- convenience. The credit price will be 15d., and the cash price 13d. per quarter. To those who have, either as subscribers or as advertisers, given their support to our humble undertaking, we tender our cordial thanks ; and trust that the future course of our periodi- cal will be such as to merit arid obtain their continued and extended encouragement. RESPONSIBILITY. The fidgettiness of the Premier, under the imputation of " personal responsibility " for his measures, is amusing and instructive. A dis- tinction is often drawn, by men in office, between official aud individual responsibility ; and the real difference appears to us to be this,— when there is any credit to be obtained, or any pecuniary benefit io be derived, from any official proceedure, the holder of office is very willing to incur all the personal and individual responsibility that may attach tothe transaction; but, when there is blame, or reproach, or odium, to be incurred, then it is found rather incon- venient to hold the notion of personal responsi- bility ; and the official character is called in, as a cloak to shield the perpetrator from the unpleasant consequences of his acts. When Sir Robert Peel and his party were on the opposition benches,— seats so uncomfortable to Tory place- hunters,— they again and again spoke of the Whig ministers, as being personally responsible for the measures oftheir administra- tion. And this is the law of the constitution. Blackstone, speaking of the constitutional prin- ciple that " the king can do no wrong," ex- plains it to mean that " whatever may be amiss in the conduct of public affairs is not chargeable personally on the king ; nor is he, but his ministers, accountable for it to the people." ( Book iii, chap 17.) Why, then, should they, when in office, shrink from the responsibility which they formerly attached to their pre- decessors ? Because their perseverance in ill- doing has begun to make their seats rather uneasy and their berths rather uncomfortable. We do not, however, believe that Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues intend to shrink from their " personal responsibility" for the ad- ministration of the affairs of the country. The furious ebullition of wrath and terror, on the part of the Premier, was but a piece of stage- trickery, to avoid the unpleasant necessity of attempting to answer Mr. Cobden. The people can see through the manoeuvre ; and will not forget that the speech of the member for Stock- port stands without even the shadow ofa pretence of refulation. Before Sir Robert's accession to office, he re- fused to prescribe for the national disorders, because he was not then the fee- retained phy- sician, properly called in, and officially in attendance upon the patient. Now, after pre- scribing, and after glorying in his nostrums, it cannot be suspected that he objects to take upon himself the whole responsibility of the case ; for Peel's corn- law, Peel's tariff, are boasted of as forming some of his peculiar claims to our gratitude and admiration. What notions the Tories have of consistency, may be gathered from the conduct of the Times. That fast- and- loose journal denounced, with its usual vehemence and blackguardism, the senti- ment of Mr. Cobden, that the premier was res- ponsible for tho results of his mischievous policy ; and yet that very same journal, speak- ing, only last week, of tlie Poor Law, attribu- ted quite as much " personal responsibility" to Sir James Graham, [ laving enumerated the principles of what, in its opinion, would consti- tute a just and proper Poor Law, it exclaimed, " Woe be to the Minister who attempts perma- nently to sustain a poor law which does violence to every one of them." Here is an imputation of " personal responsibility," as regards the Home Secretary ; and that from the organ of a party who denounce, with horror, the idea of similar responsibility attaching to the Premier, — the minister who is, as the head of the Cabi- net, the most conspicuous and most responsible of the servants of the Crown. THE LABOUR TEST. " The course of true love," says the poet,— bah ! the passage is worn too threadbare for genteel quotation ; and we desire not to cite what is trite and unfashionable, even though it should happen to be true. Well! what the poet says of " the course of true love," we can feelingly and experimentally assert of the ca- reer of editorship. " Since printing came into the world," said that patriotic wit, Andrew Marvel, " such is the mischief, that a man cannot write a book but presently he is answered." If this could be said a ceutury and three quarters ago, how much more weigh- tily will it bear on us now ! Oh ! that we could but be allowed to write and print what we please, and be as safe from reply as our farmers are from the intrusion of foieign corn, or as our cotton- be- siiked premier would be from " personal responsibility !" Well! and what then ? Is not the collision of mind with mind, like the striking of flint upon steel, the most efficient me ans of eliciting the spark of truth ? Is not the breath of controversy the surest preventative of the waters of literature becoming stagnant ? And is not a nice bit of controversial flare- up a capital thing to attract public attenlion to a periodical work ? Aye, to be sure ; and having roused an oppo- nent, let us gird ou our armour for the contest. After our last number had gone to press, we received a letter in reply to our article on the " out- door labour test;" and we now insert it. To the Editors of the Free Press. GENLTEMKN,— An article in your Free Press of Saturday last, on the labour test, is a most curious, incomprehensible, inconclusive, contradictory, yes- and- no piece of composition as. ever found its way into a public print. There is great propriety in de- signaling your publication the Free Press; had tbe smallest degree of restrain, beer. i, exercised or in- tended, such articles could never have found their way to the public through its medium. Tbe writer appears more inclined to excite the passions ot his readers, than to inform their judgments. Instead of stating the question fairly, and arguing upon its own merits, he begins by abusing the Guardians in very coarse and indecorus language, designating one of them the " Bully." He ought to have known, and also to have informed vour readers, that the Guardians never attempted to impose tbe labour test until the Assistant Commis - sioner came down upon them to enforce the order, declaring most clearly and unequivocally, that should they continue to grant relief to able- bodied paupers, without first imposing the labour test, they would be liable to the payment of the money out of their own pockets. Now under these circumstances how could anyone presume to blame or ridicule them, or designate any one of them a " Bully," thereby insinuating that the rest of the Guardians were mean enough to be bullied. He has no objection, however, to a fair and reason- able test being applied, but maintains that it will either lower wages, or lessen the quantity of labour available to the ; free and independent labourer ; and that iu some cases both these effects will be produced l> y the adoption of the test. Now should this be the case with Hie test indiscriminately applied, it will be the same if partially applied, tbe only difference being the extent of tbe evil; he admits the principle, and only cavils, as many of the Guardians did, with its indiscriminate adoption. He also objects to the provision of labour, " either at the cost, or under the superintendence, of the pa- rochial authorities, or of any other public function- aries." The reason he assigns for such objection is, " that these public bodies can afford to under- bid the regular labourer, the effect of which would be, to de- preciate the value of free labour." Now if the test be tried at all, the labour must be provided either by public bodies, or by private individuals, ar. d surely he will allow that the public have a much stronger claim to tbe benefit arising from the work being done at a lower price, than any private individual can possess. He maintains most stoutly that by dividing the labour between the free labourer and the pauper, the former will be injured by the price of all labour being lowered to the pauper estimate. There might be something in this argument provided the free labourer had no poor rates to pay, on which tbe pauper had to subsist ; but the advantage of dividing tbe wages only between tbe parties, over that of dividing both wages and labour between them, may be difficult to discover. Wages have lately fallen most seriously in this land, without the interference of pauper labour ; they varv considerably in amount in different countries where there are neither poor- laws nor labour test, where the labourer is little cared for, and where paupers are not known— where not even a " WISEACRE" is appointed to watch over either. How much better tbe author would have been employed inproposing some less objectionable remedy for tbe evil of increasing pauperism, than iu condemn- ing the labour test, aud ridiculing those who happen to be called upon to enforce it indiscriminately, even against their will, and contrary to their judgment. I am, Gentlemen, Yours respectfully, A LOVEll OF FAIR PLAY. Halifax, Feb. 22nd. T. S. I wish your correspondent would favour us with his sentiments on the propriety of imposing tbe " labour test" upon the STATE paupers. Now for a few words in reply to this mag- nificent epistle; and we will fira't notice the concluding paragraph, though we shall not treat the letter wholly as witches do their prayers, and read it backward. It is said of the gentler sex, that when they indulge in the luxury of epistolary corres- pondence, they usually postpone the most im- portant parts of their letters to the postscripts. " A Lover of Fair Play" seems to have done something of Ihe satue kind ; and, probably with the view of diverting us from the real question at issue, and of taking us off'the scent, he has introduced a new subject for discussion. We thank him for the hint, and will put it in pickle, to keep until wanted. In the meantime, we will confine our attention, as well as we can, to the matters at issue between us and our corres- pondent. The epithets he applies to our article, we take as a compliment rather to his own shrewdness, than as bearing upon ourselves. A man who is not convinced, always considers his opponent's argument " inconclusive ;" and it is very easy, and not very uncommon, fora reader tosay that a piece of reasoning is " incomprehensible," when the waul of comprehension arises either from his own want of wit or want of capacity. That our article was, in any respect, a " con- tradictory, yes- and- no piece of composition," was a discovery that could only have been made by some very profound and very original thinker,— some " Daniel come to judgment;" and we leave the discoverer, like him who finds a barren and uninhabited island in the wild waste of waters, to enjoy all the honour and the benefit of his g « od fortune. We are satisfied thfit it contained no self- contradiction; and shall wait until he furnishes the proof. Our correspondent tells us that there is. " great propriety" in our title,— the Free Press, inasmuch as it freely inserts articles of which he does not approve. Does not the printing of his rigmarole now under discussion, confirm the notion that we are truly free? At all events, we shall make free enough with him, before we have done. It is alleged against us that we used abusive epilhets to those innocent and immaculate creatures,— the Poor Law Guardians. We did, certainly, employ a few choice expressions, such as we thought they deserved. They helped to season our article ; and, in these clays of hot- pick! e- and- Indian- spice writing, it requires a little cayenne, to induce the public appetile even to taste, and much more to make it go down with gusto. It is not said that they do not deserve the epithets to which we refer. As the writer of the letfer before us is one of the body, we may fairly take him as a sample. Expede Herculem. The queer logic which we are about to expose, and tl- e confused mis- apprehension and mis- statement of our argu- ments, confirm us most decidedly in attributing to that body considerable ignorance of po- litical economy. That they are " paltry petti- fogging pedlars " in that important science, is clear from the letter before us. We are also told that we ought to haye in- formed our readers that the labour test was not adopted by the Guardians voluntarily, but was forced ou them by the order of the Com- missioners. How were we to know this ? The only public source of information, the Halifax Guardian, is so notorious a liar, that we always doubt or disbelieve j and' ( he; 3 THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. stronger the probability of their truth, the more are we compelled to disbelieve its state- ments. From the way in which ihe Guardians were reported as debating about the test, we could come to no other conclusion than that their adoption of it was optional. Passing over a few minor nutters, the notice of which might extend this article to an undue length, we come to a misrepresentation of out- words. " He has no objection," says " A Lover of Fair Flay," speaking of our remarks, " to a fair and reasonable test being applied, but maintains that it will either lower wages," & c. The misrepresentation lies in the assump- tion that the " fair aud reasonable test" of which we expressed our approval, was a labour test; but it was no such tiling. If we had meant a labour test, our arguments would have been ridiculous and suicidal, but it will be ob- vious even to the most cursory reader that we could mean no such thing. What " A Lover of Fair Play" says about the public having " a much stronger claim to the benefit arising from the work being done at a lower price, than any private individual can possess," has a very plausible sound ; but what does it all mean, and what has it to do with the question ? Just nothing at all. To make our meaning clear, we will briefly restate the case, and our agument upon it. It is proposed that the Guardians shall pro- vide labour as a test for the out- door paupers. We contend that, if they do so, they will either take labour out of the hands of the independent labourer, or lower the general rale of wages, or do both. The main evil of which the working classes have now to complain, and that which has caused such a fearful and rapid influx of pauperism, is the want of employment, arising from the de- pressed state of trade. There is not work lo be had, for all who are able and willing to work. Even the independent labourers,— by which term we mean all who are able to earn a sub- sistence without parochial relief,— even those, we say, have not full employment. If, then, the Poor- Law Guardians attempt to provide labour for the paupers, they must either with- draw from the open market some of the work that would be otherwise given to the inde- pendent labourers, and consequently drive some of them to seek aid from the poor- rates; or they must effect the same result by reducing the rate of wages paid to the independent labourers. If, in consequence of tliis unnatural interference with the labour market, some of theindependent labourers become pauperized, then the evil pro- duced is greater than the gain. That such is likely to be the result of the labour test, was our position ; and that position has not even been assailed by our correspondent. We now come to a paragraph which contains as gross a fallacy, and as glaring an absurdity, as ever fell under the lash of Bentham or his disciples. " He maintains," says our Corre- spondent, afflicting to lecite our argument, " most stoutly that, by dividing the labour between the free labourer and the pauper, the former will be injured, by the price of all la bout- being lowered to the pauper estimate." This, it is obvious, is not a fair statement of our argu- ment ; but we proceed to the next sentence :— " There might be something in this argument, provided the free labourer had no po. ir- rates to pay, on which the pauper had to subsist;" & c. Now, it really did require the wit of some such " wiseacre" as one of the Halifax Board to pen this precious piece of nonsense; and will require more than even his stupidity lo swallow ( he absurdity, ilovv the fact that the independent labourer has to pay poor- rates, can render it more just 16 take away part of his employment, is truly " difficult to discover." It is, in fact, a stronger argument against llie proceeding than for it; tor surely, to take away labour from a man who pays poor- rates, and give it to a receiver of those rales ; and by this trausfei to make them both receivers, is a still greater injustice and hardship than to take it from a man who does not pay rales. There are, in our Correspondent's letter, other points to which we might refer; but we have already extended this article to an undue length; and must defer, for the present, any farther consideration of the subject. We think we have shown that the genius who calls himself " A Lover of Fair Play," can misrepresent and rcis- state, as well as argue illogically. OBJECT OF THE LATE STRIKES. Those with whom the late strike was a matter of wages, whose real object, and not merely their pretext, was " a fair day's wages for a fair day's work," were either very ignorant or very inconsiderate, and must by this time feel that they were wrong ; for, in the first place, those who commenced the strike, those who voluntarily left their work, and those who were forcibly turned out, were, on an average of men, women, and children, in receipt of regular earnings to the amount of not less than 10s. a week ; and as generally more than two, and often three or four, of a family were employed, their joint weekly income could not be less, one with another, than 25s. or 30s. In many cases it far exceeded this amount. Now, although these wages are somewhat lower positively, and very much lower relatively to the price of pro- visions, than they were in 1836, yet they are still so much beyond the earnings of the great majority of English labourers, that we cannot do otherwise than condemn, in the strongest terms, the folly of those who could gratuitously reject them, and the selfish wickedness of those who could seek to intimidate others into resigning so advantageous a position. The total loss to the working classes during the tinee weeks that the general cessation from labour con- tinued, could not have fallen short of £ 500,000, aud probably far exceeded this estimate. In the second place, the cry of " a fair day's wages for a fair day's work," though the demand may at first sound plausible enough, involves a very palpable and shallow fallacy. In the great majority of cases, neither the labourers nor the emploj- ers of labour have any more power over the rate of wages they will receive or pay, than they have over the tides of the sea, or the winds of the sky. If the price of the manufactured article will not afford a remunerating profit to the manufacturer, he cannot long continue to pay remunerating wages to his workmen. If there are thousands of operatives out of employment, and yet anxious to obtain it, an advance of wages cannot by any possibility be obtained. Yet this is precisely the condition of the disturbed districts at the present time. Our streets swarm with unemployed artisans; and our manufacturers incur a heavy loss on the articles they produce. And it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the minds of our uneducated labourers, that the price obtained for any article will always regulate the amount of wages which the producer of that article can afford to pay; and the extent of com- petition for employment will always regulate the amount of wages for which the operatives will be conte nt to work. At present the supply of manu- factured goods exceeds the demand for them, and consequently prices have fallen, and would have fallen though every manufacturer had been in league to raise them ; and the supply of labour exceeds the demand for it, and consequently wages have fallen, and must have fallen, though all the operatives in the kingdom had been united to prevent the result. Those, therefore, who cannot obtain " a fair day's wages for a fair day's work " ( and unhappily there are many such), must direct their indignation, not against the employer of labour, who is altogether powerless in the matter, and is indeed a sufferer like themselves, but against those who, by hampering our commerce and limiting our markets, have depressed to so grievous an extent both the profits of capital, and the remuneration of labour. " There are persons who speak of wages as if they could be fixed by some combination of the masters on the one hand, or the operatives on the other ; and as if the price of labour, like that of every other com- modity, did not depend on the relations between demand and supply. I once asked the opinion of an operative on this subject; and his answer was a com- plete explication of the problem. lie replied, • When two masters are looking for one man, wages will be high ; but when two men are looking for one master, they will be low : that's all about the matter.' It would he well if the political economy of fustian- jacketcould be generally diffused through broad cloth. There is, however, this difference between labour and other commodities— that there is always a more pressing necessity for industry to sell, than for capital to buy. Labour is the most perishable of articles ; it is measured by time, and every hour it remains unemployed is so much of its stock absolutely destroyed."— Dr. Taylor, p. 106. Those to whom the charter was the object of the recent insurrection, have been guilty, if possible, of still more egregious folly. People who can allow themselves t-> be so misled, and by such misleaders, will always he looked upon with alarm, mistrust, and something like contempt; and they may rest satisfied, that every outbreak for the charter puts them farther from the charter. In this country, tumult and violence v. ill be speedily put down ; and, apart from violence, a " sacred month," even were it feasible, would do nothing for the chartists. General cessation from work can ineau nothing hut general starvation, or systematic plunder. But plunder would exhaust its own resources in a week. The baker whose shop has once been pillaged will bake no more ; the miller will cease to grind ; the butcher and the gardener will no longer bring their produce to market. Plunder kills the goo3e that lays the golden eggs, The charter can assuredly be gained by no such means as these.— Westminster Review. ONE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL'S PIGS. A COUNTY COURT CASE. A good tempered looking Irishman, bearing a re- markable likeness to Feargus O'Connor, and to whom it was whispered he was distantly related, appeared to sustain a summons against Mike Sullivan, an Irish pig dealer, for the sum of eighteen shillings. " Arrah, I wish the pig was lieie to spake for itself, machree," said Dinny O'Connor. ( Laughter.) Commissioner: State as nearly as you can the nature of your claim.— Dinny O'Connor ( scratching his head) : Sure thin and didn't Mike Sullivan sell, me a pig, and wasn't that same pig a furriner ( foreigner) ; and sure the countliry didn't agree with him, and he tuck the rnazles and died, bad luck to him. ( Laughter ) Commissioner : Didn't Mike Sullivan tell you it was a Tariff pig .'— Dinney O'Connor; Bad manners to him not a bit iv it; he told me it was one iv a lot from Bandon, County Cork, yet somehow yer hanner whin I put him in the stye along wid me rest iv the pigs, I found out he was a furriner dayrectly meachree. ( Laughter.) Commissioner : Indeed, and how did you discover that? " Bekase yer reverence," replied Dennis O'Connor—" Bekase the rest iv the pigs wouldn't spake to him no how. ( Roars of laughter.) Och, bad luck to yez, ses I, sure darlint and your one iv Bobby Pale's Tariff childer ! Come out iv that, ses I, yer no company for the likes iv them Irish pigs. Come out, ses I, honey—( laughter)— and so I claps his furrinship in a stye all by himself, and two days afterwards he died, partly from niazles ( measles), and partly through frettiu for his friuds aud relations, in furrin parts !" As soon as the laughter had partly subsided, the worthy Commissioner inquired what became of the P'S' " Sowld him, in course," replied Dinney; " I sowld him to Bill Sykes, the Garmin sassage maker ( symptoms of nausea), and all I want uow is me money back, barriu the half- crown I got for the pig. ( Laugh ter.) Commissioner : What do you say to tliis, Michael Sullivan? Mike Sullivan: As I hope to see father McTwolter alive again, it was no more a furrin pij? than any other gintleman present. ( Laughter.) And as to the mazles he spakes of, why shouldn't a. pig die as well as a Christian, agra ? ( Laughter ) Commissioner: Do you swear that it was not a foreign pig ? Mike Sullivan : I wouldn't give a " traneen" for Sir Robert Pale and all his pigs to the fore. ( Laughter.) Tariff pigs is all say sick. Commissioner:' That is no answer, Sir. Was it a sound wholesome pig when you sold it to Dinney O'Conner ?—" Sure then Dinney O'Connor wouldn't have been such a gossoon as to buy a bad pig any how," replied Sullivan, still evading a direct answer. After some further discussion, the jury decided that Mike Sullivan should refund the sum of 9s. to Dinney O'Connor. Och, bad luck to the Tariff, inesilf wouldn't care if The pigs would but die in a natural way; Like furriners squeaking', a regular tak- in, Och, Sir Robert you bother by night and by day. So sung Mike Sullivan as he elbowed his way out of Court. THE WOOL TRADE.— The falling off in the impor- tation of foreign wool ivas last year 52,083 bales principally in the trade from South America and Germany, though the consumption of these descrip- tions has not fallen off to any thing like the same, extent, being 2,570,000ft, whereas the 52,083 bales, would weigh 9,000,0001b at least. Taking into ac- count the increased importation of the colonial fleece, and the gross consumption of all descriptions, it results that the actual frilling off in the consumption of wool, in 1842, was afout 1,700,0001b. A trade circular recently published says, the quan- tity of chicory used last year for the purpose of' adulteration cannot have amounted to less than frc(& 3,000 to 4,000 tons ; of this nearly 1,000 tons wer, fe foreign; 4 POETRY. SELECTED. HALLOW E D JOYS. BY LORD MORPETH. Rejoice not, if the rosy smile Of woman's love thy path beguile; If mirth and music charm thy bower; If pleasure wing each honied hour; Rejoice, if in a world of pain Its sorrow may efface its stain. Rejoice not, if the trump of fame Ring to the echo of thy name; If thronging croM'ds around thee press, If monarchs love, and nations bless: Rejoice, that on the eternal throne The Saviour marks thee for his own. Rejoice not, if the tuneful lay Roll through thy lips its sounding way; If thy hand wake to life and fire The breathing and the burning lyre: Rejoice, that thy faint note of praise Shall swell the strain that seraphs raise. Rejoice not, if this earth display The wealth and wonder of her day, Her gay delights of sound and scene, The vocal grove, the vernal green: Rejoice, that to the meek are given The golden palaces of heaven. ENIGMA. . Though I'm often concerned in a wicked affair, ^ Tis from no ill design, I can truly declare; And if in all ranks and assemblies I'm found, Especially where wicked works most abound, To improve and enlighten is always my aim ; Those who witness my deeds must acknowledge the same. The lass at her toilet, the learned divine, Alike must solicit my favours benign. " When the office of constable falls to my lot, I'll tell you a new- fashion'd method I've got Of securing the thief, which you would not suppose; Why, I catch him alive on the end of my nosel * For, to tell you the truth, all my business is done By my nose and my mouth, for of hands I have none; But a couple of arms,— call th^ m legs if you please, With something like eyes placed at each end of these; And a foot, you will find, to each arm is affix'd. Do not smile, I entreat, when I say that betwixt My nose and my mouth you will certainly see That another foot grows; for in fact I have three: Yet, when you remember their number and place, You'll admit I'm not fitted for running a race. No, indeed ; I consider it pleasanter far To travel about in my own private car. I subsist but on one sort of food, you must know; Yet I pick up a living wherever I go ; Though, like many beasts, I'm still all the day, And wait till ' tis dusk ere I search for my prey. Nor have I much trouble in seeking for it; Since many kind friends will afford me a bit; Indeed, to such lengths their politeness extends, That they often feed me ere they wait on their friends. One foible I have,-— not a rare one, I know ; I carry a snuff- box wherever I go: But I keep it close shut for my own private use; For my friends decline taking the snuff I produce. Perhaps you imagine I'm single and sole. Alas ! if I weres 1 should look rather droll; For should any rude creature so mischievous be, As ohee to dissever my partner and me, No longer would any one care to provide A morsel of food, but would throw me aside: But our union is firm ; and we're even content Not to open our mouth but by mutual consent. A hard stipulation this seems, I allow ; But, alas ! ' tis too late to repent of it now. OUR SCRAP BOOK. " A thing of Shreds and Patches." EKDS AND MEANS.—" The Earl of Manchester,' savs Clarendon, " thought all means lawful to com pass that which is necessary ; whereas the true logic is, that the thing desired is not necessary, if the ways are unlawful which are proposed to bring it to pass." A man with eleven daughters was lately complain ing that he found it hard to live. " You must husband your time," said the other, " and then you will do well enough." " I could do much better," was the reply, " if I could husband my daughters." DANIEL 0' CoNNELi..-- Tben arose Daniel O'Connell, perhaps the most remarkable of all the remarkable men who had ever advocated tbe Catholic claims. Grattan, and Curran, and Plunkett were Protestants t some of the unhappy men whose lives had been for- feited to the laws which they had violated, were re- markable more for their mistaken enthusiasm than for any qualities of judgment or prudence; the Roman Catholics had hitherto felt that their advo- cates had been with them than of them. But here appeared a man, a Roman Catholic, a barrister, not a feeble, attenuated creature ; nothing to remind them of the physical deficiency of a Grattan or a Curran but a brawny broad- shouldered Irishman, with broad, laughing, grinning face, " more Irish than the Irish themselves," a rich provincial " brogue," ready and racy vocabulary, familiar with the moral and mental constitution of his Roman Catholic countrymen, and ever ready to incorporate himself with their feelings by coarse or droll joke, vigorous vituperation, or rough but deep- toned eloquence, All tbe qualities of the demraogue he had in full unflinching impudence, audacmns assertion, restless motion, and reckless power. But above the qualities of the demagogue there were other and higher qualities— untiring energy, soaring ambition, ex- quisite tact, and instinctive sagacity. Such was the raa- i whom his warm- hearted countrymen ultimately bailed as the Irish " Liberator;" he whom tliev con sidered as having achieved their full freedom. By is side stood little Shell. Daniel O'Connel was sui generis, the Mirabeau of Ireland. But Richard Lalor Sheil was, in many respects, a perpetuation of the Grattans or the Cumins : as insignificant in person as careless in personal attire, his taste was as culti- vated and even more refined, and his eloquence as rhetorical and electrical. These were the two lead- ng men who organized the Irish for more combined and desperate effort: Daniel O'Connell originated the " Catholic Association;" devised the terms by hich admission to it might be obtained, namely, by payment of a " Catholic Rent;" pointed out how, in heir proceedings, tbe law must be adhered to, even in tbe letter ; and pledged Roman Catholics not to vote at elections for Members of Parliament unless they were favourable to the Catholic claims.— Sir Robert Peel and his lira. WEARING THE BREECHES.— His grand distinguish- ing characteristic, decision united with resistless de- termination to sain his end, appeared early. I well recollect of him, when he was a child in petticoats, after be had got his first boy's dress, but before he was allowed to wear it daily, going up to his mother one day when she was sewing in the kitchen, and saying to her, as he took his stand by her side, Mother, I should get on my other clothes now." " You will get them on," she replied, in a tone of authority, raising her voice as she spoke, without looking at him, " you will get tbein on when these ones are done." The moment she said so, he left her side without speaking a word, and walked straight into the room. In a few minutes he came back slowly through the kitchen, and went out at the door, with his petticoat torn into a long narrow strip, winding out after him like a serpent. Thus his end was gained f the netticoat was done, and tbe " other clothes" had to be " got on." Throughout life, it may be added, the same decision of character dis- tinguished him. Whenever he was pushed or in diffi- culty, he took high ground, and had recourse to decisive measnies. Indeed, the child was the perfect miniature of the man ; almost every thing that was ever developed in the man being indicated more or less distinctly in the child.— Life of Robert Pollock. It is on record ( says a recent writer) that three bishops, in fifteen years, left £ 700,000 to their families. A Bishop of Clogher went to Ireland with- out a shilling, and after eight years died worth about £ 400,000. The Bishop of Clovne, who died in 1820, left £ 120,000 to his children; and a Welsh Bishop, who died recently, although his Bishopric was called a poor one, left £ 100,000 to his children. By tbe probates at Doctors' Commons, it appeared in 182S that tbe personal property of 24 bishops, who bad died within the preceding twenU years, amounted to the enormous sum of £ 1,649,000— an average of nearly £ 70,000 for each bishop. Doctor," said a hard- looking brandv- faced cus- tomer the other day to a physician—" I'm troubled with an oppression, an uneasiness about tbe breast. What do you suppose the matter is?" " All very easily accounted for," said the physician; " you have water at the chest." Water I come, that'll do well enough for a joke, but how could I get water on my chest, when I haven't touched a drop this fifteen years ? If you had said brandy, you might have hit it." NORTH EAST PASSAGE TO CHINA.— As this scheme bus been lately started as something new, it will be interesting to know that, in 1721, a small book was printed in London, entitled ' Ihe New Passage to China and Japan, by the way of the North Pole. Tue book is said to tie very rare. MERITS OF DISCONTENT.— However paradoxical it may appear, we are more indebted to man's discon- tent than to his nobler qualities for the comforts we enjoy ; since, had he remained content, society would have made little advance.— The Prism of Thought. THE SOUTH SEA WHALE FISHERY.— Of all the world's sporting none so abounds with romantic ad- venture— none is so replete with a high spirit of enterprise— none so calls forth all the energies of the sportsman as that of the South Sea whaler. He cir cumnavigates the globe in pursuit of his quarry. And what a " mighty hunter" is he whose chase en- dures for three uninterrupted years, and whose " meets" are so farseparated as Saint Helena, T ristan d'Cunha, Australia, and the Falkland, Sandwich, and Nicobar Islands! His dangers arise not merely from the power and ferocity of his game, but from the storms and hurricanes of the Atlantic— from the rocky dangers of coasts little explored, arid from the fury of their savage inhabitants. Yet I have found among these men an ample refutation of the too often credited assertion, that mental pursuits and the pursuit of game are incompatible. Tbe captains of tbe whalers are usually well- informed men, i: nd imbued with a fondness for literature aud science. The very last whale ship with which I came in contact was at St. Helena, in tbe August of the present year; and her captain was a good naturalist. During his then un- finished voyage he was making a collection of all tbe acquatic birds to be met with in the southern hemis- phere, and had a great many of them on board alive.— Sportsman. AMBASSADORS.— A man who receives £ 11,000 a year to show hospitality and exhibit state, ought to do both ; but there is another and much more im- portant point for the nation to consider. Why should £ 11,000 a year be given to any ambassador at Vienna, or at any other court of tbe earth ? Or what is the actual result but to furnish, in nine in- stances out of ten, a splendid sinecure to some man ot powerful interest, without any, or hut slight re- ference to Ids faculties ? Or, is there any necessity for endowing an embassy with an enormous income of this order, to provide dinners and balls, and a central spot for tbe crowd of loungers who visit their residences, or to do actual mischief by alluring these absentees from their own country ? We see no pos- sible reason why the whole ambassadorial esta- blishment* might not he cut down to salaries of £ 1,500 a year. Thus men of business would be em- ployed, instead of the relatives of our cabinets. Dinner- giving would not be an essential of diplo- macy ; the ambassador's house would not be a centre for* all the ramblers and triflers who preferred a silly and lavishpife abroad to doing their clutv at home ; and a sum of much* more than £ 100,000 a year would be saved to the countiy. Jonathan nets the only rational part on the subject. He gives his am- bassador a sum | on { which a private gentleman can live— no more. He has not the slightest sense of giving'superb feasts, furnishing huge palaces, sup- plying all the rambling Jonathans with balls and sup- pers,' or astonisbingfJJohn Bull by the tinsel of his appointments. Yet be is at least as well served as others. Ilis man is a man of business ; his embassy is no showy sinecure ; his ambassador is no sbowv sinecurist. Tbe office is an understood step to dis- tinction at home; and the man who exhibits ability here is sure [ of eminence on his return. We have not found that tbe American diplomacy is consigned to mean hands, or inefficient, or despised iu any country.— Blackwood. A HAZARDOUS CALLING.— Dr. Graves, a Dublin physician, in seconding a resolution of the " Medical Benevolent Fund Society of Ireland," lately, gave the following startling account of the mortality of the healing profession in that country :—" Compared with the other professions, physicians are very short lived. Even lawyers enjoy greater longevity. But in Ireland the mortality amongst medical men is in- finitely greater than in England, for, in this country, typhus fever alone cuts olf more than one- fourth, as will soon appear from a most important statistical report drawn up by Doctor Stokes and Cusack." The proportion of tbe colonial trade was in 1£ 40 abont[ fifteen and a half millions out of fifty- one and a half. In 1841, thirteen and a half out of a total nearly similar. The whale fishery of the United States employs 650 ships, of a burden of 193, COO tons, and gives em- ployment^ to 16,000 people. SURNAME,— The etymological meaning of the word surname is additional name: a name added to a primary name. It is then by means of a surname— added to what we call the christian name— that we distinguish every particular person from tbe mass of individuals with whom he is surrounded. This method also serves to distinguish families; it marks tbe course of desce't from father to son, and enables families to trace their genealogy. It is stated that 1,500 paupers were removed to their own places of settlement, in the course of last year, from townships within the Stockport Union. CURIOUS FACT.— Dr. Smith, in a recent lecture on geology, mentioned a curious circumstance connected with the Mississippi river. It runs from north to south, and its mouth is actually four times higher than its source, a result due to the centrifugal motion of the earth. Thirteen miles is the difference be- tween the equatorial and polar radius ; and the river in 2,000 miles has to rise one- third of this distnnce, it being the height of the equator above the pole. I f this centrifugal force were not continued, the rivers would flow back, and the ocean would overflow the land. DR. MII. NER AND HIS MOTHER.— One evening a party of friends, assembled at the bouse of the Rev. Joseph Milner, were discussing, among other religi- ons topics, the character of St. Paul. Joseph Milner expressed very strongly bis idea of tbe privileges and happiness of those persons who enjoyed opportunities of personal intercourse with the apostle; and said that he could scarcely conceive a higher gratification than to have sat in his company, and heard him con- verse. " Av, bairn," interposed his mother, in her broad Yorkshire dialect, " but thou wouldst not have let him have all the talk to himself; thou would'st have put in thy word, I'll warrant thee."— Life of of Dr. Isaac Milner. NIGHT versus DAY.— We find in Tacitus that the Germans, and iu Caesar that the Gauls, computed time by nights, not by days. Vestiges of this custom still remain in Germany and in Britain. We say se'nnight and fortnight; last Monday se'nnight, this day fortnight. By tbe Salic law, title 49, tbe time allowed for appearing in court was computed by nights instead of days. Chambers, in bis dictionary, tells us that, in a council held in this island A. D 824, a cause was heard after 30 nights. SINGULAR COINCIDENCES.—" During the year 1842 there died," says tbe Courrier Francais, " the last of the Abbesses crosses of France ( Madame the Countess de la Marche) ; the last of the Chanoinesses of Remiremont ( tbe Countess of Anna de Monspey) ; ( lie last of the Prelate Abbes of Flanders ( tbe Abb£ Delvigne) ; the last of the Augustininn Monks of France ( the Abb*; Mollard) ; tbe last of the Hermits of Switzerland ( the Herinil KaulTmanJ, found frozen in tbe forest of Dufikon ; the last of the Councillors of tbe Parliament of Navarre ( M. du Parage) ; tbe last of the companions of the famous Paul Jones, and the last of the companions of Cook. This is an en- tire society, an entire age, which has disappeared !" OUR CHATTER BOX. Several communications, both in prose and verse, remain unadjudicated upon ; but the parties shall have sentence pronounced in a week or two. To the accepted, a little delay will be of no consequence. To the condemned, it will be a prolongation of hope, and consequently a postponement of sorrow. We will thank R. for some corroboration of his statement. HALIFAX :— Printed and Sold, for t h e Proprietors, at the General Printing Office of H. Martin, Upper George Yard.