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and we may add, is so full, that little remains to be desired, except what might gratify curiosity. In observing the climatic and terrestrial changes which preceded the production of man, we can hardly fail to observe another of those innumerable instances of all-wise adaptation and arrangement which meet the inquirer on every side; and thus the Book of Nature combines with the Book of Revelation in proclaiming "That GoD saw everything that He had made; and behold, it was very good.'

SUMMER INSECTS.

THESE tiny loiterers on the barley's beard,
And happy units of a numerous herd
Of playfellows the laughing Summer brings,
Mocking the sunshine on their glittering wings,
How merrily they creep, and run, and fly!
No kin they bear to labour's drudgery;
Smoothing the velvet of the pale hedge-rose ;
And where they fly for dinner no one knows—
The dewdrops feed them not-they love the shine
Of noon, whose suns may bring them golden wine.
All day they're playing in their Sunday dress—
When night, repose,--for they can do no less;
Then to the heath-bell's purple head they fly,
And like to princes in their slumbers lie,
Secure from rain, and dropping dews and all,
In silken beds and roomy painted hall.
So merrily they spend their summer day,
Now in the corn field, now in the new-mown hay,
One almost fancies that such happy things,
With coloured hoods and richly-burnished wings.
Are fairy folk in splendid masquerade
Disguised, as if of mortal folk afraid :
Keeping their joyous pranks a mystery still,
Lest glaring day should do their secrets ill.

JOHN CLASE.

COTTON,

AS AN ELEMENT OF INDUSTRY.

BY

THOMAS BAZLEY, Esq., M.P.

[Delivered before the Society of Arts, London, in connection with the Exhibition of 1851;

His Royal Highness the PRINCE CONSORT, presiding.]

THOUGH I am presuming to offer a lecture upon the industry in which I am interested and engaged, I feel that I shall require both for myself and my subject the indulgence of my audience. Permit me, therefore, to crave that kind attention which I believe is never withheld on any such occasion as the present, and to remark in extenuation of many omissions, which will be apparent, that I have left in the wide field in which I have gleaned, materials for numerous lectures upon every section and department of the cotton trade; having selected only the most graphic facts for your consideration, my practical purpose being to bring prominently before you-"Cotton as an element of Industry; its confined Supply, and its extending Consumption from increasing and improving Agencies."

By the Great Exhibition of 1851, an epoch has been attained whence may be surveyed the difficulties attending the first progress of inventions, the application of art and science to the developing

industry of ages, and the solid possession of accumulated manufacturing skill and knowledge; and from the same point or eminence may be contemplated those possible improvements in every sphere of usefulness which the experience of the past warrants the rational mind in conjecturing, even to a speculative extent; for, surely, the wonders of the world's physical and moral progress are neither completed nor wholly anticipated, but there doubtless remain for the toiling sons of genius and of labour, rewards rich in discoveries and beneficial in application, to the maturing and reasonable wants of accountable and intellectual man.

In considering cotton wool as one of the most important raw materials that now occupies the labour of a large portion of the inhabitants of Great Britain, France, of other parts of Europe, and of Africa, Asia, and America, in the manufacturing and mercantile operations of which great capital is invested, we may refer with advantage to our subject to its origin and history.

Probably the cotton-tree, or plant, is indigenous in every tropical climate. Cotton appears to have been first recognised in the East Indies, and was known to exist there more than 500 years before the Christian era. In ancient Egypt it seems to have been unknown, and there are no records to prove that the Greeks or Romans were practically ac quainted with it. On examining the manufactured fabrics afforded by the existence of the mummies of Egypt, no trace of cotton, as a material or as a cloth, is ever found; flax alone having supplied the cere and other wrappers used in embalming the dead. Whether the Asiatics in remote ages manufactured cotton into fine fabrics, is exceedingly doubtful, but historic evidence does prove that it had coarse and useful applications, which might, with the combination of experience and skill, lead to those productions of the loom famed for their exquisite

delicacy,-"India muslins" having had the reputation of possessing beauty with an almost invisible existence. From the first century of the Christian dispensation to the early part of the eighteenth, there existed an extensive domestic manufacture of cotton, extending in the latter period from Hindostan to Persia, Syria, Turkey, the Levant, England, and to many parts of the continent of Europe. This domestic trade was of necessity exceedingly limited, for the production of cotton itself made evidently slow progress, and the distaff and spindle were implements incapable of establishing, by mere personal labour, a trade which could sustain a comparison with modern traffic, the result of scientific and intelligent perseverance. But in the East there has been from the earliest ages to the present moment a great consumption of cotton wool, for the Hindoo not only with his dexterous hand spins the yarn and weaves his garments of it, but to give the latter the advantage of increased warmth and substance, he employs raw cotton as a wadding material, and for many other kindred purposes, such as the stuffing of cushions and saddles. Besides an extensive home consumption in India, merchants have always carried the manufactures of that country to the remotest regions of the earth, whilst for many ages the Chinese have been buyers and consumers of its cotton wool; hence data exist for assuming that in time past there has been in the East a great and growing trade in the very raw material which appears destined to minister to the comforts of mankind in every land, and where the elements of mechanical power, coal and iron, exist to afford profitable labour to those who toil and spin.

The cultivation of cotton in its extending growth has pursued a track from east to west; and still in the United States of America, the direction in which new fields are cultivated for its increased production is westward.

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