labourer upon wealthy manufacturers of his acquaintance, and when they met him with the question,' What can we do? are we to make goods we can never sell? and give wages that will leave us no profit ?' He would answer by an example-that of his own brother, though he mentioned no name. This gentleman was in the silk trade, and during the great fluctuations to which it has been subject, he never discharged any workman without giving him two months' notice. We give one to our domestic servants, and he thought double that time necessary to persons who have families, especially when the branch of trade in which they are engaged is permanently declining, and it may be necessary for them to enter upon a new employment. And when the price of goods suddenly declined, he would never lessen wages so as to reduce them below the sum necessary for the support of a family. He said he considered his men, in a certain sense, his partners; since to their labour, as well as his own capital, he owed his wealth; and he did not think it benevolent, or even just, that they should suffer all the loss of depressed trade.

"When he had been in business but a few years, and his property did not exceed ten or twelve thousand pounds, he sacrificed three thousand, rather than let his workmen remain without employ; and to this circumstance he ascribes, under Providence, the commencement of his great prosperity. The grateful labourers soon made it known throughout the trade; and it induced a gentleman, about to retire from a very large and pros

I

perous concern, in which he wished a successor to unite with his son, to seek out Mr. Cecil, having, from this circumstance, formed the highest opinion of his moral worth.

"When I was once visiting at his house, he drove me round with him in the rounds he occasionally made to inspect the workmen at their own houses; and it was really like a beloved and revered father going amidst a large and affectionate family. The shuttle was suspended with a smile of pleasure; and wives and children were all alert in offering a chair, or showing some other little attention, to the welcome benefactor.

"Such a case as that of my poor weaver could not have occurred among his, who were never at a loss where to apply in distress; for he thought the tie between master and servant, whether that servant lived out of the house or in it, formed a near link in the chain of benevolence, which binds us to the world by reciprocal duties and obligations."

66

But, my dear aunt, I am impatient to know what you did for your poor distressed mourner.

you got him into Mr. Cecil's employ."

66

I dare say

Yes, I did. Mr. C. was so touched with the story, he said he must take him, though he had already more than he wanted. Nor has he ever repented it: the poor man was found to be altogether a superior character, and is now the foreman in the concern, with a handsome income."

"It is in Mr. Cecil's way," observed Mr. D., "and only in this way, that the evils arising out of the fluctu

ations of trade and commerce can be removed. Many, however, of these evils originate in national selfishness. The determination to rival another country in some branch of manufacture for which nature has not, perhaps, given us equal facilities, or to exclude its produce, from some equally improper motive, leads to artificial measures, which must at length, and often suddenly, fail, involving multitudes in ruin. When nations or individuals resolve to be independent of all others, they will soon be taught the danger of endeavouring to subvert the established order of Providence. The productions and peculiar advantages of different nations lead to a mutual interchange of benefits, and thus promote enlarged benevolence; and just in proportion as their selfishness opposes this design, will it inflict injury upon themselves.

"The natural retributions which follow a violation of charity, in any of our social relations, are an instructive lesson to those who think they break no law,' while seeking every man his own things;' and masters might learn that combinations and conflagrations are owing to something more than the discontented, turbulent spirits of the lower classes.""

CHAPTER XI.

SELFISH RULE OF CONSANGUINITY.-ERRONEOUS CHARITY.

DURING the next stage, when the travellers reached the summit of a lofty hill, they perceived, on the opposite height, the picturesque ruins of C Castle.

"We must now," said Frederick, "look out for the seat of our distant cousins, the Rashleighs; which I think, papa, you told us was on this side the Castle."

"If it is still theirs; but I remember seeing an advertisement, a few years since, for the sale of their estates; which confirmed a report that they were in reduced circumstances; and if this is the case, we will certainly find them out if they are in the neighbourhood."

"No, papa; you ought then to forget the relationship; they are perhaps some distant connexion, but too far off to be traced.""

"Much too far off, Frederick, if the prime object is our own advantage or honour. Poverty rises like a mist before the eye of the selfish genealogist, and prevents his seeing any but the golden branches of his tree."

"How is it," said Mrs. C.," that attention and charity toward poor relations are more neglected than almost any other duties of benevolence ?"

"Because," replied Mr. D., "it is one of the most self-denying. Pride must be mortified in acknowledging the connexion, and in meeting inferiors somewhat on the ground of equality; while there is little reward of gratitude or applause to be expected, for your relations and the world will consider your favours as an attention to just claims."

At the next toll-bar Mr. D. inquired who lived now at Rashleigh Hall.

"Nobody, I believe, Sir: the young Mr. Rashleigh is expected there, as he's come into possession upon the old gentleman's death; for he sold his life-interest in his estates, and gave away all his property, being a little crazed after he got so religious."

"Not at all crazed, my friend," said a gentleman on horseback, who was waiting for change; "I knew Mr. Rashleigh better than you; and though he did carry the virtue of alms-giving to an extreme that cannot be vindicated, he was a worthy man and a sincere Christian."

"I hav'nt lived long in these parts, Sir," replied the man, "and never knew Mr. Rashleigh; but I have heard the poor say what a generous gentleman he was; and when two squires who don't live far off, were talking about him at the last Turnpike Meeting, and saying he ought to have been shut up in a 'sylum, I cou❜dnt help saying to myself, 'twas better for him to be out, if he could give the same madness to a few others; but tis'nt many, I believe, would catch it, for I have been nearly all over England and Wales, and this is the first