1796.] Management of Cotton Manufactories. 5. The hours of labour are eleven and a half each day, viz. from fix o'clock in the morning to feven o'clock at night, with half an hour of intermition at nine o'clock for breakfast, and a whole hour at two for dinner. 6. 1 he only rules for cleanliness and health, are fuch as enjoin the practices mentioned in answer to the third query. 7. Seven is the hour of fupper; in half an hour after, at moft, and as much fooner as poffible the teaching com mences, and continues till nine o'clock. The schools at prefent are attended by five hundred and feven fcholars, in inftructing whom fixteen teachers are employed, thirteen in teaching to read, two to write, and one to figure, befides a perfon who teaches fewing, and another who occafionally teaches church-mufic. The mode of teaching is as follows: The courfe is divided into eight claffes, according to the progrefs of the fcholars : to each of thefe claffes one or more teachers are affigned, as the numbers in that ftage of advancement may require. To the teachers is fpecified in writing how far they are refpectively to carry for ward their fcholars; which to foon as they have accomplished, the fcholars are transferred to the next higher clafs, and the teacher receives a fmall premium for every one fo qualified. In their refpective claffes, the teachers promote emulation in the ufual way, by making the top of the clafs the poft of honour; which is ftill farther kept up by the diftribution of small rewards every half year to fuch as, from an account taken once a fortnight, appear to have been most frequently uppermoft. On Sundays, that part of the children who cannot 459 go to church from. want of accommoda.. tion, are kept bufy at school; and in the evenings, after public worship, the usual teachers fpend regularly three hours in giving religious inftruction, by caufing the fcriptures to be read, catechifing, &ct. Befides thefe night-fchools, there are two day- fchools for children too young for work, which, as well as the night-ones (excepting the providing their own books) are entirely free of expence to the fcholars. 8. The time of hiring differs with the different descriptions of children. Thofe who agree for a tipulated weekly wage, and who generally are fuch as live with their parents, are commonly engaged for four years; while fuch as are received from the work house in Edinburgh, or who are otherwife without friends to take charge of them, and who, in lieu of wages, are maintained and educated, are bound four, five, fix, or seven years, according to their age, or generally till they have completed their fifteenth year. The mode of hiring is generally by contract of the parents, or curators of the children in their behalf. 9. The fupply of workers for the mills comes, either from the native inhabitants of the place; from families who have been collected about the works from the neighbouring parishes, and more diftant parts of the country; or laftly, from Edinburgh and Glafgow, by the number of deftitute children thefe places conftantly afford. 10. When fever, or any other epidemical diforder appears in the boardinghoufe, where that defcription of workers who do not receive their wages in money are accommodated, the means ufed to prevent the fpreading of the infection are, the immediate removal of the fick to a detached part of the house, and a frequent fprinkling and fumigating of the bed-rooms with vinegar. Typhous fever has not appeared there for years, but has during that time been in the village, though never general, yet in no cafe, fo far as circumftances afforded the means of judging, did it appear to originate in the mills, or even to be communicated by the intercourfe the workers have there with each other ‡. 11. The 11. The greatest part of the workers are lodged in their parents' houfes in the village, in the immediate neighbourhood of the mills, or in the town of Lanark, one mile diftant; the principal part of their food, as is ufual in the country, confifts of oatmeal. Those who get their maintenance in lieu of wages, are lodged all together in one houfe. They confiit, at prefent, of three hundred and ninety-fix boys and girls. There are fix fleeping apartments for them, and, three children are allowed to each bed. The cielings and walls of the apartments are white-washed twice a year with hot lime, and the floors wathed once a week with fcalding water and fand. The children fleep in woodenbottomed beds, on bed-ticks filled with ftraw, which is in general changed once a month; a fheet covers the bed-ticks, and above that are one or two pairs of blankets, and a bed-cover, as the feafon requires. The bed-rooms are carefully fwept, and the windows thrown open every morning, in which ftate they re. main through the day. Of late, caft-iron bedsteads have been introduced in place of wooden ones. The upper body-clothing in ufe in fummer, both for boys and girls, is entirely of cotton, which, as they have fpare fuits to change with, are washed once a fortnight. In winter the boys are dreffed in woollen cloth; and they, as well as the girls, have complete drefs fuits for Sundays. Their linens are changed once a week. For a few months in fummer, both boys and girls go without fhoes and ftockings. The provifions are dreffed in caft-iron boilers, and confift of oatmeal porridge for breakfaft and fupper, and milk with it in its feafon. In winter, its fubftitute is a compofition of molaffes, fermented with fome new beer, which is called fwats. For dinner, the whole of them have every day, in all feafons, barley-broth made from fresh beef. The beef itself is divided amongft one-half of the children, in quantities of about feven ounces English to each; the other half are ferved with cheefe, in quantities of about five ounces English to each; fo that they have alternately beef or cheese for dinner, excepting now and then a dinner of herrings in winter, and fresh butter in fummer. To the beef and chcefe is added a plentiful allowance of potatoes, or barleybread, of which lait they have alfo an allowance every morning before going to work. 12. and 13. As far as obfervation, with regard to thefe two queries, has extended, the workers, when too big for spinning, are as flout and robuft as others. The male part of them are fit for any trades; a great many, fince the commencement of the war, have gone into the army and navy, and others are occafionally going away as apprentices to fmiths, joiners, &c. but especially to weavers, for which laft trade, from the expertnefs they acquire in handling yarn, they are particularly well fitted, and of courfe are taken as apprentices on better terms. The females very generally leave the mill, and go to private family fervice, when about fixteen years of age. Were they difpofed to continue at the mills, thefe afford abundant employment for them at reeling, picking, &c. as well as to many more young men than ever remain at them. ON THE EDUCATION OF DISSENTING MINISTERS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, IF you do not think it will be occupying too much of your agreeable Mifcellany, with the concerns of a particular body of men (a body, however, among whom, I believe, the Monthly Magazine has fome of its moft cordial friends) I fhall beg your infertion of a few reflections upon a matter touched upon by two of your cor-, refpondents-the education of Minifters among the rational Diffenters. I fee, without furprife, much ungenerous triumph over the failure of the college at Hackney, in certain diurnal and periodical writings; among which, it is natural that a monthly publication, now moft diftinguished for deviating from the character affumed in its title, fhould ftand foremost in bigotry and fcurrility. But thefe worthies may reft affured, that what they moft dread, namely, the fpirit of oppofition to civil and ecclefiaftical ufurpation, is ftill alive and vigorous; and that, however circumftances may vary its mode of operation, its grand object is by no means abandoned. This, however, is a digreffion from the proper fubject of my letter. Various 1796.] Education of Diffenting Minifters. Various unfuccefsful trials have now afforded fuch practical proof of the almoft infuperable difficulties attending the establishment of a collegiate plan of education among the rational Diffenters (I ufe the word rattonal merely by way of verbal diftinction) that it is probable the attempt will not fpeedily be renewed. The point, then, for determination will be, what fubftitute can beft fupply its place? Now the education of youth defigned for the miniftry, has hitherto been generally regarded as a fundamental object is thefe inftitutions; nor can it be doubted, that, by many, it is still fo confidered. Affuming, then, the importance of this point, I own, I think the propofal contained in Caftor's letter, a very good one, and the best expedient that can, at an equal expence, be adopted. Doubtlefs, there are many diffenting minifters very capable of teaching the whole or part of what has conftituted their own ftudies, and whofe fituation is fuch, that two or three pupils, with a bandfome allowance, would be both an agreeable and useful domeftic addition. And if there were a kind of interchange or rotation of pupils, each might enjoy the benefit of learning, from different tutors, that branch which they were beft qualified to teach. In. this cafe, it is true, they would no longer poffefs the advantage, or difadvantage, of affociation with lay-ftudents; but this (however it be confidered) is already at an end, provided the collegiate fyftem, lately adopted, is not again to be tried. No other choice feems to remain, but either an academy for ftudents in divinity alone, or, at least, principally; or fuch a dometic plan of education for them as Caf. tor recommends. But your correfpondent J. T. R. if I fully understand him, is of opinion, that the whole eftablishment of ministers to diffenting congregations is unneceffary; and that public worship may be profita bly carried on without their help. This is an enlarged idea, and has been countenanced by fome refpectable names. And, indeed, upon a fair balance of the good and evil that have arifen from fetting apart a body of men for the purpofes of religion, many may be perfuaded, that a fect which attaches no particular powers or privileges to fuch an order, but has rather been accustomed to look upon them with fufpicion, might ufefully give the example of doing without them. It may be thought, that learned men have in vain been fo long employing 461 themselves in commenting on fcripture,. and compofing fermons and forms of devotion, if their labours have not as yet enabled a fenfible layman to select from printed books every thing neceffary for the worship and inftruction of Ch iftians. And as to what is called the paftoral office, that has long ceafed to be a branch of minifterial duty among the rational Diffenters, efpecially of the fuperior claffes. Such, I fay, may be the reafoning of many thinking men upon this fubject. Yet, from a furvey of human nature, and the real motives which actuate mankind, I am well convinced, that public worship, or religious fociety of any kind, could not be kept up without a ministry, among people accustomed to its ufe. Befides the pure fpirit of devotion, and defire of inftruction, which operate on the frequenters of religious affemblies, who will deny, that reverence and refpect for a particular character, curiofity, the love of novelty, and the mere habit of yielding to profeffional authority, powerfully confpire to the fame end? When the leader of public fervice was become only one of themfelves, how many of a congregation would be tempted to fay, "Why ould I not read a fermon and prayer of my own choice to my family, rather than come here to attend upon my neighbour's reading?" The mere circumftance of the duty being in one cafe performed in public, in the other, in private, would not, in the eftimation of many, be important enough to induce them to put a force upon their inclinations. Intereft and attention would languifh; natural indolence would foon find additional reafons for staying ar home; and thus attendance would gradually dwindle away among the lukewarm, while the zealous would moftly join themfelves to other congregations provided with a more attractive eftablithment. I do not, by thefe obfervations, mean at all to enter into the queftion concerning the general use and obligation of public worthip, opposed to private; I am only ftating probable events to thofe who entertain no doubts on that head. With respect to the wishes expreffed by J. T. R for the revival of a place of liberal education for the laity among the Diffenters, warmly as I concur with him in them, I am not able, in my own mind, to furmount the difficulties hitherto experienced in the maintenance of a proper difcipline among ftudents of that cla under à collegiate plan-difficulties which have been the principal caufe of LAICUS. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. [Concluded from our laft.] -I BEG leave to subjoin to this long, and 1 fear tedious letter, an account of the circumstances of a remarkable lunar phanomenon, as they were related to me by two gentlemen who had an opportunity of obferving it. The fituation of the first obferver (his view being bounded by houfes, &c.) was not fo favourable as that of the fecond, who was travelling in the country, though the difference in the relations cannot be accounted for from this circumftance alone. To thefe obfervations cannot indeed be applied the expreffion of Plutarch, who, fpeaking of the meafure ment of mount Olympus, by an ancient geometrician, fays, the bufinefs was done ου παρέξως, αλλά μηθούν και opyarwv. Neither of the above gentlemen was provided with the means of very nice obfervation, as (for example) any inftrument for measuring angles; yet the general accuracy and fidelity of both may be fully relied on. The phænomenon took place very early (viz. between twelve and one) on the morning of the 5th of Auguft, 1795. The moon was feen by the first obferver furrounded by a halo, and a bright line, as a diameter to this halo, parallel to the horizon, paffed over the centre of the moon, on the difk of which it was feen as a fant belt: at the two extremities of this diameter, and juft without the circumference of the halo, were two parafelence, irregular in fhape, but coloured prifmatically with great vividness and beauty: from the two parafelence were extended two ample arches, alfo prifmatically coloured near to their origin, but in a faint degree: thefe arches were of unequal extent. but if they had been fufficiently extended, this obferver thinks they would have met at a confiderable diftance to the north of the zenith. Whenever light clouds paffed over the face of the moon, the parafelena loft their prifmatic colours, appearing only bright, like the halo and its diame ter; on the cloud's paffing away, the colours again became vifible. The fecond obferver, who, at the time of the phænomenon, happened to be at the diftance of about eight miles eastward of the firft, had a very diftinct and extended view of it. He defcribed the moon as only half-encircled (ie. on the upper part) with a femi-halo, the brightnefs of which he compared to that of the galaxy at the two extremities of this femi-halo, there were two parafelenæ, prifmatically coloured, and accurately round; but fading by degrees into the azure of the fky: from the parafelena, extended eastward and weftward, luminous arches, exactly parallel to the ho rizon, terminating (at what number of degrees diftance either way could not be aftertained) in two other parajelenæ, of the fame magnitude as thofe nearest the moon, but fainter. This obferver was pofitive, that no luminous diameter paffed between the two nearest parafelene over the difk of the moon. The phæno. menon continued without variation, except in brightnefs, during the whole time it was obferved, which was hardly lefs than an hour: in what time, or by what gradual changes, it ceafed, I have had no opportunity of knowing. fultry day followed thefe remarkable appearances; early in the afternoon, fome thunder clouds were feen, but the even ing was fine till eight o'clock; afterwards, the sky became overcaft, and the clouds thickened, hanging near the furface of the earth about nine, P.M. I obferved, in the fouth-eaft, fome luminous appearances, like fire-balls, falling from the lower ftratum of clouds to the ground: another luminous phænomenon occurred, which I should have judged to have been the firing of a piftol, had any report accompanied the appear ance. As the night advanced, the thick A nefs nefs and darknefs increased to an unufual degree about ten, rain began to fall, which, in the after-part of the night, and in the fpace of about four hours, amounted in the rain-gage to 1105 inches. On the evening, and in the night, of the 13th of the fame month of Auguft, we had a remarkable ftorm of thunder and lightning; in fome places, at no great diftance, it was violent almoft beyond any thing remembered by very old perions, doing much damage; and in other places it was accompanied with an inundation of rain. What connection might fubfift between the ftate of the air which gave occafion to the lunar phænomenon, and the fubfequent state, of the weather, I must leave to abler meteorologifts to determine. Entreat ing your indulgence to n y prolixity, I fubfcribe myfelf Your most obedient fervant, For the Monthly Magazine. DIALOGUE Of THE GODS. AN IMITATION OF WIELAND. M. [Note. The reader is fupposed to have perufed the two dialogues, inferted at p. 233. and 351, of the fccond volume of Varieties of Literature, as the trains of idea therein contained are here often alluded to, and occafionally thwarted] JUPITER, NUMA, APOLLO; LELIO SOCINI. Numa.THEIR own turn now, Jupiter. afterwards is coming Jupiter. Whofe, Numa? N. I was lately amid the mansions of faint Peter. The faints and martyrs were bewailing their quenched tapers, and denuded temples. Every epithet of execration, that defpairing vanity can prompt, they beftow on the proteftant ring-leaders of this epidemic reformation. I faw Hildebrand's proud fhade turn pale, and prefs the tiara clofer upon his brow. Apollo. What had been the matter? N. Some ghofts had flitted to their purgatory from the fields of Ivri. I believe they never gave over their caufe 463 ality, but the crifis of a metamorphofis long ago prepared, begun, and to be forefeen. It is the evolution merely of a new bloff m on the ever-teeming bofom of nature, which has, at length, acquired the vigour to unfold its colours to the fun, and to purfue, in its turn, the endless progrefs through maturity to decay. Man, changeful man, will now tend this opening weed, or flower, until its fruit be fet; and thake that down, in due feason, with the like ftormy impatience, when its hues fhall have faded in his eye, and its tafte have difappointed his fenfe. But, what could draw Numa to the haunts of the Chriftian deities? N. To feek a countryman of mine, whofe fhade Mercury pointed out to me, as it left the earth. It would ftay no where. It looked at the heavenly kingdom of the proteftants-viewed the good man, Luther, with a fneer, and Calvin, with a frown-bowed to Melancthon, and then hovered away, with Servetus and a few more, as if in queft of a new limbo, to people with the fages and heroes of a peculiar faith. A. I fhould expect as much from Lelio Socini? N. The fame: and he is to follow me hither. A. For a nobleman, born in the bofom of Italian refinement, he was fomewhat puritanical; but, for a puritan, certainly, the most polifhed, moft philofophical. N. How can it have happened that Apollo fhould become acquainted with his character. A. Tired out with the modern poems which the Mufes throng around me to re.. cite, I have lately, for relaxation, employed the furies in reading to me polemic theology. N. An occupation, I fhould little have imagined for the leifure of Phoebus, unlefs his fondness for divination led him to perufe fo much of the new theurgifts, as relates to the expounding of prophecy. A. Which, in this age of prying ignorance, forms no inconfiderable portion of human literature. Al LELIO SOCINI appears. 7. Approach, Lelio Socini, welcome hither, thou venerable old man. though driven by the whip of perfecution from the ftudious fhades of Vallembrofa, and fcarcely allowed, by prudent filence, to purchase a fecure afylum befide the lake of Zurich, we bid thee hail! With us Olympians, the founder of a new sect was never an object of fufpicion or aver, fion. To each his own god," has al |