ENGLAND'S TRADE AND COMMERCE. Mary. Father, I heard a gentleman say that our ships, colonies, and commerce are the glory of Great Britain." Is that the truth?

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As a

Father. In one point of view it is. Christian I might perhaps have said, that "the Bible, the Gospel, and liberty," are our chief glory. But, speaking as a merchant, regarding our national wealth, there is reason to say that our ships, which number above 30,000, trading

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to all parts of the world; our colonies, which have been formed on every part of the earth; and our commerce, which is carried on with all nations, do form much of the glory of Britain.

Mary. I have read about the British colonies in many countries; and I have seen, I suppose, thousands of our great ships in the port of London; but I don't seem to understand the commerce of our country.

Father. My dear Mary, it would be wonderful if you did understand all about it; for many aged and intelligent persons have only very imperfect notions of the vast extent of British commerce, as that includes our home trade, and our dealings with foreign nations in various articles.

Mary. I have heard that there are various branches of trade and commerce: what is meant by them?

Father. You have, perhaps, heard of the coal trade, the corn trade, the iron trade, the provision trade, the wine trade, as these are great branches of our commerce; then there is our home trade, our coasting trade, our colonial trade, as the East India trade, the West India trade, and our foreign trade, all of which afford materials for instructive conversation.

Mary. I have heard of these, but I want to know more about them; will you give me some particulars of any branch of our trade?

Father. I will, most gladly: perhaps you will be interested by some particulars relating to one of our great branches of industry-and we will take the cotton trade.

Mary. Is that what they call the Manchester trade?

Father. It is though many are employed, in

and around that populous town, in the manufacture of woollen and silk; but cotton is now the largest branch of British manufactures, though this trade is not yet two hundred years old in this country.

Mary. How many people do you suppose are employed in the cotton trade?

Father. The cotton branch of our manufactures is reckoned to give employment to the large number of 1,400,000 people.

Mary. If this cotton trade is not yet two hundred years old, how did it begin in England?

Father. Cotton is a very fine kind of vegetable wool, growing in all the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America; and fine cloth made of it used to be imported from Calicut, on the Malabar coast, in the East Indies, and from that place called Calico. Large quantities also were brought from Kyang-ning, a city of China, and from that city called Nanking or Nankeen; but, for the last eighty years, our cotton cloths have chiefly been made in and near Manchester, aided by several wonderful inventions.

Mary. I want to know all about those inventions.

Father. For many years cotton was spun by hand, as you may have seen women in the country spinning wool to make worsted: this is a very slow process, and is nearly the same all over the world: but, in 1767, James Hargreaves, a carpenter, at Blackburn, in Lancashire, invented the spinning-jenny. This admirable contrivance enabled eight threads to be spun as easily as one; but it has been so improved as to enable a little girl to work no fewer than from eighty to one hundred and twenty spindles. About 1782, Sir Richard

Arkwright invented the spinning frame, which was for spinning by means of rollers. Some time after, Mr. Crompton invented the mule jenny, an ingenious compound of the jenny and the spinning frame; and soon after the power-loom, to weave the cloth by machinery, was invented by the Rev. Mr. Cartwright. By all these inventions, which have since been improved, the quantity of cotton that is manufactured into various kinds of cloth is truly prodigious.

Mary. I should like to know how much cotton is worked up every year in England.

Father. Although I may tell you in figures, it will be difficult for you to form a just idea of the magnitude of that article. I will give you the quantities for a few different periods.

In 1781 the total quantity of cotton
imported was
In 1791 the total quantity was

lbs.

5,198,778 28,706,675

56,004,305

91,576,535

In 1801 it was

121,420,000

. 288,674,000

At the present time, the quantity is believed to exceed this last amount, and is, probably, more than 300,000,000lbs.

Mary. I wonder where they get so much cotton to supply England?

Father. You may well wonder; but the growing of it has become a rich trade in several countries, especially in the United States of America since the year 1790.

Mary. Do tell me, if you please, the countries that supply us with cotton.

Father. I am glad you are so inquisitive

America, Brazil, the East Indies, and Egypt, supply us with large quantities; so that, of the 288,674,000lbs. of cotton wool imported into the United Kingdom in 1831, 219,333,000lbs. were from the United States, 31,695,000lbs. from Brazil, 25,805,000lbs. from the East Indies, 334,000lbs. from Columbia, 366,000lbs. from Turkey and Continental Greece, 344,000lbs. from Malta, &c.

Mary. What sort of places are the Manchester cotton manufactories?

Father. They are very large buildings, erected generally near a canal, and the machinery is worked by steam engines. Some of the mills employ several hundreds, or even a thousand, of work-people; but, if possible, I will some day take you to see one of these wonderful mills, and the manner of spinning, weaving, and printing.

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES. -The Holy Scriptures are as a rich overflowing fountain, which, the deeper you dig, the more you find it abound with water; in like manner, the more you search the sacred volume the fuller you will find are the veins of living water.-Brentitus.