claims and daily cares of this world, the principle of a nobler life, and the sympathies of a diviner home.

It has been objected to this innovation, and not without much speciousness, that, in making these claims for the assistant tradesmen, we are putting into their mouths the expression of wants, of which they themselves are little conscious, and of regrets for privations, which they have left it to others to feel for them. There is some truth in this; but it is partial truth, and therefore liable to mislead us. These complaints, we imagine, have not been generally made by the body to which they are referred; but we do not apprehend that this admission can render them less just, less applicable, or less worthy of attention and redress. The slave-trade would still have been carried on to the disgrace of humanity, and the shame and sorrow of religion, if we had waited for the complaints of the slaves themselves, before we attempted to redeem them. Wilberforce, Clarkson, and others, spoke for the sufferers, who had nothing to say for themselves, though they died by hundreds in the pestilential hold, or went forth in gangs to the sound of the fetter and the scourge. We have here a kind of domestic slave-system of our own; and we must ask for it at least this justice that it be not considered undeserving of attention, because the evils and privations, complained of as belonging to it, are revealed to us but by a small number of those affected by them, or by those, who only suffer from them through the sufferings of others.

Neither can we attach any weight to the objection which is made to the claims of the assistant tradesmen for a larger share of leisure, upon the ground that they will not take advantage of it for the objects which we have in view in claiming it for them. This is an assumption which we cannot but regard as gratuitous. There is no proof-for there has been no opportunity of giving any-that the assistants would not, to a very considerable extent, devote the leisure thus obtained for them to the performance of their domestic and social duties, to the improvement of their minds, and to the cultivation of their religious affections. On the other side, we fear that the case can be made out but too strongly. We fear that numbers of young people of both sexes are, by the evil workings of the present system of business, not only deprived of all opportunity of doing justice to their own nature, but thrown into the way of temptations, which act upon them with particular force from the irksomeness and sameness of the occupations which make their lives. any one can imagine that this could have been the design and original ordination of things-that the counter can fulfil the destiny of the creature of God and the candidate for eternity—

If

we can only say, that we envy him not his belief, and that we derive some pleasure from our utter inability to share it. We wish, and we may add that we HOPE, to see the experiment tried. We would see the assistant set free to do justice to himself. If he then fails to realize the expectations we have formed for him, we must regret his misconduct, his blindness, his infatuation; but we cannot think that society has done more than a simple duty, in giving a human being the common advantages of humanity—a creature, formed and fitted for immortality, the opportunity of answering to his immortal trust.

But it is now high time to say a word of one or two of the publications which this movement has called forth. As far as our own knowledge extends, it has hitherto been a one-sided controversy-the opposing parties having confined themselves to newspaper letters, &c., without attempting any specific and deliberate exposure of the claims which they would set aside. This is a cause, indeed, in which the plaintiff is likely to have both the eloquence and the reason to himself. The defendant is left to make what he can of his ingenuity; and it is probable, that the most elaborate written defence of the system would prove a most valuable plea on the other side of the question. Meantime, we have many publications in advocacy of the projected reform. To the spirit of these (as far as our knowledge of them extends) we have already borne our willing testimony of praise. But the papers have also other merits to recommend them. They are written, for the most part, with manliness and simplicity; and some of them with no inconsiderable degree of elegance and vigour, of reach of knowledge and mastery of language. As one example of this, we would refer to the Prize Essay of Mr. Davies, published by the Metropolitan Drapers' Association, and introduced by a preface from the pen of the excellent Baptist Noel. The Essay considers the question in its relations to the three parties concerned in it-the employed, the employers, and the public. We subjoin the conclusion of this little work, heartily wishing that, by so doing, we could induce some of those whose example is influential, to look into the pamphlet itself, and then-to act upon the impression it shall have left upon them.

"The effects of this change would be beneficial to society at large. "We have seen that its tendency would be to cause a great improvement in the health, intellect, and morals of a large number of persons of the middle classes, each one of whom will be a centre of influence for good or evil, and many of whom will hereafter be householders and employers. Now, by securing their improvement as individuals, we increase the probability that their influence will be exerted for good and

not for evil. As they will become wiser and better men, they will be more competent to discharge the responsibilities of a father and master; and thus the best interests of their children and servants will be promoted. They will become more fit to perform the duties of the several municipal or parochial offices which they may be called to sustain; and thus their townsmen and fellow-parishioners will be benefited. They will be better qualified to use their privileges as citizens and electors, and will therefore be more likely to use their votes and influence for the support of good government and the enactment of wise laws; and thus the welfare of a whole nation will be advanced. In short, the direct effects of this change would be to thin the ranks of ignorance and vice, and bring a reinforcement to those of knowledge and virtue. In this manner society would be benefited and receive new life-blood into its veins.

"Besides this good, another, less direct, would result to society, from adopting the change which we desire. If there be one bad feature in society at the present day which demands our attention more than any other, it is the all-absorbing spirit of business-of money-getting. Men are losing sight of the spiritual in the carnal, preferring the earthly to the heavenly, and treating that which is temporal as though it were of more value than that which is eternal. Mammon is the bloody Juggernaut of England, beneath whose chariot-wheels human life and human happiness are recklessly and cruelly cast. The system which has been exposed and condemned in these pages, is but one part of the monster evil which overspreads our land like some huge upas-tree, poisoning the very life of society. Destroy this system, and a blow will be dealt to everything which is akin to it; for every movement in the direction of what is right, is a movement down an inclined plane, increasing the velocity of the next. Put an end to the loud and just complaints of the assistant drapers, and we shall be more likely to hear and attend to the feeble yet more mournful cry of the thousands of milliners and dressmakers who are crushed by the same evil in another and a darker form. Other trades who suffer in the same manner as the drapers now do, will not be content till they have obtained a like deliverance. The spirit of rational reform will move upon the face of society, and who knows but what the result of that movement may be the overthrow of the despotism of the money-getting passion, and the establishment in its stead of the reign of benevolence and justice, ' of righteousness and peace?'

"And now, reader, if it be true, and surely it is, that the present system of late hours is baneful to the body, mind, and spirit; that it robs man of true happiness, dignity, and excellence; if, moreover, it be true that a curtailment of the hours of business will bring disadvantages to none, but benefits to all,-then every principle of benevolence and selfinterest demands that you be willing and ready to assist in effecting a change.

If you be a customer then, lady, we entreat you, by all the benevolence and gentleness of your nature, by your regard for the welfare and happiness of your fellow-creatures, by your love of virtue and hatred of vice, avoid and discountenance that which is the main support of this pernicious system, the practice of shopping at night. Let but all the

women of London abandon this practice, let them encourage those tradespeople who close their shops at a reasonable hour, and the cause we advocate is gained.

""

If you be a master, then we beseech you, by the memory of that time when you yourself were an apprentice or an assistant, banish every prejudice in favour of long-established evils; give full play to the best feelings of your nature, and to the most enlightened views of your duty and interest; lend your sanction to the efforts which the assistants are now making, and avow your readiness to fall in with any reasonable arrangement for effecting their object.

If you be an assistant, then suffer us to warn you against hindering the advancement of your own cause by dissolute conduct or licentious habits. Give, by a contrary course, the strongest proof that when you get more leisure you will use it well. Be alive to your own interests, be ready to support your Committee, and doubt not, if you be true to yourselves, success will eventually crown your efforts; for, as it has been said of truth, so it may be said of that which is morally right, it is great and will prevail.'"-pp. 34-36.

We have also before us another interesting pamphlet, written by Mr. Flower of Liverpool, whose personal exertions in this direction have been characterized by that union of enthusiasm and discretion, which is so unfailing a talisman for success. His paper is modestly entitled, "A Glance at the Present System of Business;"-but it is a glance which could have been taken by no every-day observer. It is well and forcibly written, with that earnestness of language which betokens the fulness of the heart. We extract the following passage, as touching upon a topic of the most intense and tragical interest, and which, we are assured, if weighed by all as it should be, would give a momentum to the cause that would make it irresistible.

"There is yet another aspect in which the system of late hours remains to be viewed. It is one which exhibits that system as, in a great measure, the author and perpetuator of vices perhaps the most melancholy and disastrous of a vicious age-one which will strike home to the heart and conscience of every parent, of every brother, and of every Christian man; it especially shows how the vices hang upon one another-how insidiously they have wormed their way into the social constitution-how they are linked and confederated to destroy the happiness of mankind. It exhibits the sufferers as crying aloud from the wayside of misery for help, as craving the intercession of those menand there are such-who seem to be lifted above the common lot by the Divine influences which appear to regulate their lives. * * *

"There are persons who contend that certain reformations are impossible, because the evils in question form part and

parcel of a system involving the interests or arrangements of many classes of the people. For my own part, so far from viewing this connexion of abuses as matter for discouragement, I regard it only as a stronger incentive to exertion;-if the vices of the trading community are indeed a concatenation of injuries contrived and forged at the decree of Mammon to enslave the feeble and the friendless poor; and if, by meddling with any part of it, the whole system will be deranged,'-then, I say, we have a glorious incitement to pursue the labour which has been so well begun. In liberating the immediate objects of our care, we may perchance emancipate the million.' But to the point-to the case of the poor Dressmakers-the influence of their habits in encouraging late hours among shopkeepers, and the recoiling injury upon themselves.

6

"It is at, and after, the hour, when all shops ought to be closed-after fourteen hours of exhausting labour-when the 'sick head-ache' comes upon her-when the head swims'when every object seems to dance before her eyes'—when she can no longer SEE the work she is employed upon-it is then that the poor female slave to a fashionable Dressmaker is permitted to take a walk for an hour;'-after which her work is to be resumed; and, to amuse her mind, while she rests her eyes, she is commissioned to make such purchases as can safely be made by gaslight. She is gaily dressed-young-and, perhaps, beautiful. Pleased with the liberty to breathe, even the air of night, she forgets her thraldom; she bounds along the streets with a somewhat flighty gait; the clouds of sorrow have been dispersed, and a ray of joy beams in her face. Her business leads her through the most public streets; her course is frequently arrested by the glittering attractions which the shops present; she determines not to purchase at the first nor at the second shop; but on she goes, amused with what she sees, and by the polite attention she receives. Possibly she visits five or six shops before her purchases are effected; and, by her single agency, an hour's labour may have been added to the day's work of the already toil-worn Assistants in each of those shops.*

"This is no exaggerated statement of the manner in which the cruelly oppressed Dressmaker, heedlessly and unknowingly, retaliates upon society the injuries which have been inflicted upon herself. But here the adventure does not end ;-she is assailed by the wily blandishments of the professed Seducer-the LocustVampire, which always hovers about the shops at night, and is

* Upon a fair average, it may be assumed that fifty or sixty young men have thus incurred an increase of unnecessary attendance to the extent of an hour, through the thoughtless conduct of one person.