208 



REPORT — 1861. 



should be free, facilities afforded for emiqration, public Tvorks promoted, and pros- 

 perity will follow iu the train. Capitalists, merchants, and manufacturers, whose 

 investments are largely embarked in the cotton trade, have duties devolving upon 

 them. These bodies are known to have large investments in foreign railways, in 

 the cultivation of sugar and other products, and in many dubious securities ; but in 

 the cultivation of the staple raw material of their own pursuits they have not ven- 

 tured to embark. Last year the cotton trade contributed to capital and labour fifty 

 million pounds sterling, and in the last fifty years the aggregate reward has been one 

 thousand millions. Surely from these treasures might be spared some pittance of 

 capital to fi'ee the negro, and to ensure still greater prosperity to industry. Supposing 

 the Government of our country to be willing to make all the preliminary arrange- 

 ments which will contribute to the secmity and profit of capital invested in cotton- 

 growing, the clear duty of the class referred to will be to enter upon investments with 

 no niggard hand ; and, for their encouragement, it may bo mentioned that very 

 recently an extensive Louisiana cotton-planter has asserted that he could grow 

 cotton at 3d. per lb. which is now worth 9d. per lb. in Liverpool, and of course he 

 has had to buy his labom-ers, and afterwards to sustain them. The confessed profit 

 is 200 per cent. ; but, in all sobriety of judgment, cotton-growing would afford 100 

 per cent, of recompense. Here, then, the g-oveniing, the capitalist, the mercantile, 

 and the manufacturing classes have duties in common to perfonn, and from which 

 none of them should withhold their willing help. Upon this subject the warning 

 voice has been long and often heard, and the present embarrassment in cotton sup- 

 plies has been anticipated. Having, therefore, been forewarned, may this great 

 and world-benefiting industry be fore-armed ! 



On Ten Ymrs' Statistics of the Mortaliti/ amongst the Orphan Children taken 



under the Care of the Dublin Protestant Orphan Societies. By the Eev. 



W. Caine, M.A. 



There are two of these societies in Dublin, one for the childi'en of parents both 

 of whom were Protestants, the other for the childi'en of mixed marriages. 



Their distinguishing pecidiarity is, that the children taken imder theii care are 

 not congi-egated together in one large building, but are placed with poor Protestant 

 families in Wicklow and other counties in Ireland. 



A great saving is effected by this plan. Each child costs only between £5 and 

 £6 per annum. In the workhouse each child would cost about £9. 



V ery great care is used in the selection of the families in which the children are 

 placed. The minister of the parish reports to the Committee iu Dublin at stated 

 times whether they are properly attended to, and members of the Committee vLsit 

 them every year. This supervision tends to promote cleatiliness and sobriety in the 

 families with which the oi-phans live, as they woidd be at once removed if there were 

 any deficiency in these particulai-s. 



The happy result is seen in the exceedingly small amoimt of mortality amongst 

 the children. Their ages range from 6 mouths to 14 or 15 years. 



In the Protestant Oi-phan Society the mortality during the last ten years has 

 been as follows : — 



The average number of children during the ten years has been 409 ; the average 

 number of deaths only 21 each year — not 1 per cent, per annum. 



In the other society, called the Protestant Orphan Union, the mortality has been 

 as follows : — 



"" '■"" ■ ' idied 

 in these 

 4 years. 



1 died. 



