of resort from Boston, recommended by the beauty of the Merrimack river, and the excellence of the salmon which it afforded.

It now contains thirty-two cotton mills, besides other manufactories. The power for working these mills is entirely supplied by the river, and is now, we understand, fully occupied. The mills, as is generally the case in America, are carried on by chartered companies. The annexed table of statistics, the accuracy of which may be depended on, furnishes many interesting particulars to those desirous of comparing the English and American cotton manufacture.*

• We would recommend to those of our readers who may be interested in the subject, a book by James Montgomery, manager of the cotton manufactures at Saco, U. S. A., on the Cotton Manufacture of the United States and Great Britain. This book contains a great deal of valuable information.

The principal advantages possessed by the English over the Americans appear to be, 1st, The difference in the prime cost of a mill and machinery. Montgomery estimates that a mill which in the United States would cost £21,000, would cost in England only £9,000. This advantage must lessen daily; and if, as is expected, the restrictions on the export of machinery should be removed next year, the prices of machinery in America must be at once greatly reduced. 2nd, The greater abundance of capital in England. 3rd, Greater economy in the management of the mills, arising in part from hard times, and in part from the mills being owned by individuals, and managed by the owners, who feel the immediate benefit of any small saving effected. And, lastly, The somewhat lower rate of wages in England. The latter cause, however, has been, we believe, greatly over-estimated; for the difference between the average wages per head is not much less in our best factories than in the best factories in America.

In looking for the causes of the present prosperity of the American cotton manufacture, in comparison with ours, we shall find the principal one to be the lower price at which they obtain their cotton; and this cause, we fear, must be regarded as permanent, unless the East Indian cotton can be much improved. The cause which at present appears the next in importance, is one that will act only as long as the Americans are their own principal consumers; when they become exporters to any extent, they will probably feel the evil effects of a system of protective duties, which gives an unhealthy impetus to particular manufactures, and turns the attention of capitalists from trades which would be naturally profitable to others, the profit on which must be taken with heavy deductions from the pockets of the consumers. America, young and vigorous, has nothing to fear from free trade; her inexhaustible resources would be called out, not injured, by competition. But the Americans possess a more important and enduring advantage in the superior character of their workpeople, arising principally from their good education; and it is to this latter cause, aided by the hopefulness and enterprise engendered by free institutions, that we may, in great part, attribute the unexampled prosperity of America, in spite of a rotten banking system, and the fetters of short-sighted legislation.

The cotton manufacture of the United States has, for the last few years, been prosperous and profitable (paying on an average ten per cent.), while our own manufacturers have been working to a loss; and some of the advantages which we possess over the Americans, and which have proved insufficient to protect us, must be, from their nature, but transitory. On the other hand, if we would avoid the misery and ruin attendant upon decline, our manufacturers must exert all their energy to supply their place, and to raise the character of their work people.

4

The Lowell Offering.

STATISTICS OF LOWELL MANUFACTURES, JANUARY 1, 1840,

Commenced operations

1822

1823

1825

1828

1828

How warmed

Hot Air Fur-Steam and Hot Steam and Hot Hot Air Fur-Hot Air Fur

Assuming half to be Upland, and half New Orleans and Alabama, the consumption in bales averaging 361 lbs. each, is

One hundred pounds of cotton will produce eighty-nine pounds of cloth.

53,340

As regards the health of persons employed, great numbers have been interrogated, and the result shows, that six of the Females out of ten enjoy better health than before being employed in the mills; of Males, one half derive the same advantage.

As regards their moral condition and character, they are not inferior to any portion of the community.

Average wages of Females, clear of board

Males, clear of board

Medium produce of a Loom on No. 14 yarn

No. 30

Average per splindle, 1-10th yards per day.

Persons employed by the Companies are paid at the close of each month.
Average amount of wages paid per month

A very considerable portion of the wages are deposited in the Savings' Bank.
Consumption of Starch per annum

Flour for Starch in Mills, Print Works, and Bleachery, per ann.
Charcoal, per annum

To the above-named principal establishments may be added, the Lowell Water-Proofing, connected with the Middlesex Manufacturing Company; the extensive Powder Mills of O. M. Whipple, Esq.; the Lowell Bleachery, with a capital of Dol. 50,000; Flannel Mill, Blanket Mill, Batting Mill, Paper Mill, Card and Whip Factory, Planing Machine, Reed Machine, Flour, Grist, and Saw Mills; together employing above 300 hands, and a capital of Dol. 300,000.

The Locks and Canals Machine Shop, included among the 32 Mills, can furnish machinery complete for a Mill of 5,000 spindles in four months, and lumber and materials are always at command, with which to build or rebuild a Mill in that time, if required. When building Mills, the Locks and Canals employ, directly and indirectly, from ten to twelve hundred hands.

The initiated will perceive how much larger a quantity of work is done by the same machinery, in the same time, than with us. But the most striking peculiarity is the much greater proportion of females.

The chief manufacturing population of Lowell is not a permanent one. The operatives are chiefly young women who remain a few years, and then, having saved a little money, return to their families or marry. The average stay of the operatives is stated at three or four years; perhaps when the mills have been longer established the average may be a longer term. Their age averages twenty-three or twenty-four years. Very few children are employed, the throstle being used for spinning instead of the mule. While residing at Lowell the girls live together in large boarding houses, mostly belonging to the companies, and let to respectable housekeepers, whose interest it is to have their fare good, and their house comfortable, as the girls have the right of selecting their own boarding house. The rate of board is fixed by the companies, and is 14. dol. (5s. 2d.) per week. The wages of all the operatives averaging 3. 10. dols. (128. 11d.) per week, they have 7s. 9d. for their other expenditure. Some classes of female hands earn as much as 4 dols. per week. As may be seen in the work before us, they are accused of spending too much of their surplus earnings in dress, but though it is natural to suppose many do so, a great proportion is deposited in the Savings Bank, besides what is sent home to add to the comforts of aged parents, and in some cases to clear from mortgage the distant home. The number of factory girls depositors in the Lowell Savings' Bank, July 1839, was 978. The amount of their deposits 100,000 dols. (about £20,800.) It is not uncommon for a factory girl to have in the bank 500 dols. (£104), this being the highest sum on which they pay interest.

These young women being New Englanders, have, for the most part, received a good education for their class in life, and the managers believe that the want of a long apprenticeship, and the high rate of wages, is compensated by the consequent superior intelligence. A fortnight's notice only is required, before leaving the mills, for the instruction of a new hand.

The average wages of the men in the cotton mills is 26s. per week (1.05 dols. per day). Out of this they have to pay their own board. This high average of wages is caused, in some degree, by the relatively large proportion of overseers of rooms, arising from the employment of females, for much of the work which is done here by men, and the average would be found, therefore, somewhat lower in the print-works and woollen-mills where men are

more generally employed. In some of the cotton mills the men are not allowed the use of ardent spirits; this is not made a point of morality, nor is a pledge exacted, but they know that they will be dismissed, as rendered untrustworthy by their use. The hours of work average about twelve hours a-day. The head managers are each responsible for their own departments, whether that be the management of the machinery or the hands, or the purchase and sale of materials and goods, and many of these are chosen more from their abilities being considered suitable, than from their regular education to the trade.

The neatness of the mills is very striking. It is made more easy, no doubt, by the use of water-power instead of steam, by the mills having been built at once, and not being in a state of constant alteration and increase, and by the cotton used being of cleaner and better quality; but great attention is paid to it as a part of the management of the hands, which is considered pecuniarily a most important part of the factory management. With regard to the health of the girls, which in America, as here, has been the subject of heavy charges against the factory system, Dr. Bartlett, a highly respectable physician, many years resident at Lowell, says :

"The general and comparative good health of the girls employed in the mills here, and their freedom from serious disease, have long been the subject of common remark among our more intelligent and experienced physicians. The manufacturing population of this city is the healthier portion of its population, and there is no reason why this should not be the case. They are but little exposed to many of the strongest and most prolific causes of disease, and very many of the circumstances which surround and act upon them are of the most favourable character. They are regular in all their habits. They are early up in the morning, and early to bed at night. Their fare is plain, substantial, and good, and their labour is sufficiently active and sufficiently light to avoid the evils arising from the two extremes of indolence and over exertion."-Vindication of the Character and Condition of the Females employed in Lowell Mills, p. 13,

The religious state of the Lowell operatives, as far as statistics can tell it, is favourable. Regular attendance on public worship and sabbath schools, though only one branch of religious duty, we have found, among that class of life particularly, indicating a right performance of many others. There are fifteen churches in the city. The returns from nine of the fifteen give 5,559 as having joined them by profession; from eight to ninetenths of these were females, a large proportion of whom worked in the mills. The number of scholars contained in the ten