NOTES OF THE MONTH. 219 



clothing, and therefore every facility should be afforded in postage. 

 It is quite lamentable that all we know of our neighbours is from the 

 short extracts in our own journals. If the postage were taken off we 

 might enjoy their " atrocious murders," " extensive swindling" &c., 

 and furnish them with abundant entertainment of a like nature, upon 

 equally reasonable terms. It is clear that the directors have not the 

 good of the public at heart, or they would take off this tax upon 

 knowledge. With many, a newspaper is even essential to existence 

 we encountered an old French acquaintance a short time since, who 

 does not find it convenient at this time to reside in his native country, 

 and had determined to fix his abode in Italy. He appeared to be 

 almost dying with the asthma ; " Good heavens, my dear Sir, how 

 could you leave Italy to encounter such a climate as ours ? Why you 

 will not live a month here." " Mon Dieu !" cried the Frenchman 

 piteously, coughing for his life, and bringing his shoulders upon a 

 level with his ears, " what can I do ? would you have me live in a 

 place where I cannot see the Constitulionel ?" 



PARTIALITY OF PHILANTHROPISTS. Lord Ashley has behaved nobly 

 in his endeavours to relieve the unhappy condition of the factory 

 children. He has done his utmost to remove an evil, the effects of 

 which have been so pernicious as to cause a powerful feeling of indig- 

 nation against the abettors of such cruelty. The sufferings of Negroes 

 have been held up to our commiseration so long, as to create a cru- 

 sade against their owners, while the still more aggravated wrongs of 

 our poor little white slaves have been unheeded. Philanthropists 

 seem to have exhausted all their sympathies on foreign subjects, and 

 have wholly disregarded the cries of our helpless domestic sufferers. 

 In what respect does the mercenary feeling which prompted the rude 

 soldiers of Cortez to sacrifice their victims in unwholesome mines, 

 differ from the unworthy dishonest spirit of gain which stimulates the 

 British manufacturer to the immolation of infancy ? It is this accursed 

 pervading spirit which demoralizes all classes. The wealthy are reck- 

 less of the means by which they encrease their store, and the poor, 

 by its influence, can submit to the unnatural sacrifice of their own 

 offspring. 



It was to check this diabolical system, and restore a more whole- 

 some feeling that Lord Ashley introduced his bill to limit the hours 

 of labour to take under the protection of the law all who were ex- 

 cluded from it. The spirit of Mammon, however, triumphed in the 

 reformed house, and the humane projector of the measure was obliged 

 to resign it into the hands of the ministry, to meet the views of par- 

 ties. It was deemed inexpedient to disturb the British manufacturer 

 in the management of his mill, excepting as it might please himself. 

 That Moloch may be fed, the British slave trade must be protected. 

 How shall we stand in the eyes of nations, when it is acknowledged 

 by a British ministry, that the interests of trade are paramount to 

 those of humanity when our legislature fosters the most contempti- 

 ble of all ambition, that of wealth ? We sacrifice health, comfort, and 

 honour at the shrine of gain hypocritical adulation of those to whom 

 we ostentatiously lend our treasure, we mistake for gratitude. How 



