sist as well by
working not more than half as much as in the days of Elizabeth, or our
boasted machinery is useless. By making the wind, the water, the
elastic fluids, and new combinations of the mechanical powers, perform
our labour, we compel Nature to work for us; and, though in a northern
latitude, we place ourselves in the very situation of the inhabitants
of the Tropics, where the ever-bountiful climate feeds the people with
slight exertions of manual labour. Yet, is such the effect? Enquire of
our labouring classes, who toil for inadequate subsistence from twelve
to fifteen hours per day! Does not some malevolent influence then
deprive us of the advantages of our ingenuity? Doubtless it is so; and
the #Demon of War#, who has so long hovered over this deluded nation,
and whose calls for blood and treasure are so insatiable, is the
sufficient cause. But on this subject the voice of reason and humanity
have been raised so often, that it seems to be as useless as the
appeals of a mother, standing on the seashore, to the tempest which is
destroying her children in a visible wreck. Infatuated nations are
like exhilarated dram-drinkers; they ridicule and despise warning,
till a palsy or apoplexy renders them a proverb among their
neighbours, and brings on a death-bed, but unavailing, repentance!

I had not time to view any of the other ingenious and valuable
manufactories of this place; but, perceiving that the manufacturers
formed a numerous and opulent class of inhabitants, and that there
were many elegant mansions of families living on their fortunes,
besides many respectable shop-keepers, I was induced to seek
information in regard to the state of society and mutual intercourse
in a country-town possessing such capabilities. On enquiring at the
principal Inn, I found that a subscription-assembly was held six times
in the year, at an expence of three guineas, but it had only
thirty-two subscribers, though within a mile there then were a hundred
families that kept their own carriages, and another hundred qualified
by habit and manners to give and receive pleasure at such an
entertainment. I learnt, however, that this solitary establishment,
the only means by which the inhabitants can practically feel that they
do not live in a wilderness, is poisoned at its source by a strict
ballot, which places the privilege of admission in the discretion of
any two or three narrow-minded and impertinent persons, who may have
becom