Although the chase had now set every sail she could carry, the corvette still gained on her.

"Those heavy tea-chests require a strong breeze to drive them through the water," observed the master to Harry. "I rather think, too, we shall have one before long; I don't quite like the look of the sky, and we are not far off the hurricane season."

The crew were piped for breakfast, and the officers who could be spared from the deck went below. De Vere had been attacked by fever at Bencoolen, and was in his cabin. The master remained in charge of the deck.

Breakfast was hurried over.

When Harry and the captain returned on deck, a marked change had taken place in the weather; dark clouds were gathering in the northern horizon, and fitful gusts of wind came sweeping over the ocean, stirring up its hitherto calm surface, and sending the spoon-drift flying rapidly over it. Still the chase kept her canvas set, having altered her course more to the southward.

"They hope that we shall get the wind first, and be compelled to shorten sail, and that she will thus have a better chance of again getting ahead of us," observed the master.

Still the corvette carried on. The captain had his eye to windward, however, prepared to give the order to shorten sail. She had come up fast with the chase, which she at length got within range of her guns. A bow-chaser was run out and a shot fired. The stranger paid no attention to it. A few more minutes were allowed to elapse, when another shot was fired with the same result as at first. On this Headland ordered the English flag to be hauled down and that of France substituted. No sooner was this done than the stranger, hauling down the red ensign, hoisted the tricoloured flag.

"I thought so," exclaimed Headland; "shorten sail."

The studding-sails were rigged in, the royals handed. Again the British flag was hoisted instead of that of France, and a shot fired. On this the stranger took in her studding-sails and loftier canvas, and as the Thisbe ranged up alongside, fired a broadside.

The Thisbe's crew returned it with interest, and before the enemy could again fire they delivered a second broadside, which cut away some of her standing and running rigging, and caused other damage. The stranger again fired, but after receiving a few more broadsides, evidently finding that she had no hope of escaping from her active antagonist, she hauled down her colours.

The wind had during the action been increasing, and the sea getting up, it was necessary to take possession of her without delay, as unless her canvas was speedily reduced, in all probability her masts would be carried over the side. Harry volunteered to go on board, and, a boat being lowered, accompanied by Jacob and seven other men he pulled alongside. He had just gained her deck, and was receiving the sword of the officer in command, when the gale which had long been threatening struck the two ships. The Thisbe's crew having secured their guns, were swarming aloft to take in

her canvas.

The deck of the prize presented a scene of the greatest confusion. Several of her men lay wounded,

had gone aloft to take in sail, but the greater number were running about, not knowing what to do. Harry ordered his men to let go everything. The top-gallant sails, which were still set, were in an instant torn into ribbons, the fore-topsail was blown out of the bolt ropes, and the mizen-mast, which had been wounded, was carried over the side. The prize lay a helpless wreck amid the raging seas, which every instant threatened her destruction.

CURIOSITIES OF THE CENSUS.

"WHAT

BY CHARLES MACKESON, F.S.S.

IV.

HAT am I to be?" is a question which has so material an interest for all of us at one period of our lives, and which will be asked again and again by each succeeding generation as long as the world lasts, that it will be neither uninteresting nor useless if we show from the census reports what a variety of occupations are open in our own little island. Here is work for the brain and work for the hand; work which calls forth the clearness of the eye and the acuteness of the ear; work which opens out a noble opportunity for the exercise of human sympathy in the relief of bodily, mental, or spiritual distress, and work which at the first glance seems only calculated to inflict pain; work which causes man to feel the high nobility of his being, and work which too often tends to remind him that he is indeed but one step from the lower animals; work which grows out of work, and work which simply supplies the needs of those whose lot it is to rest; work for the highest, and work for the lowliest; work for the oldest and for the youngest, the richest and the poorest; work, in short, suited to "all sorts and conditions of men,' aye, and of women and children too, for in this busy picture distinctions of age and sex are unknown.

For males there are in all three hundred and eightyfive different forms of occupation returned, but even this large number scarcely represents the exact state of the case, for under each subdivision we have a line devoted to the miscellaneous branches of the particular employments which are too numerous to be separately classified. The only heads under which we find more than half a million of our eleven millions of males are those of the agricultural labourer, of whom there are 764,574, and the general labourers, numbering 509,000. The occupations which give employment even to upwards of a hundred thousand are also very limited in number, including only farmers and graziers, of whom there are 225,569; farm servants, 134, 157; engine and machine makers, 106,437; carpenters and joiners, 205,624; plumbers, painters, and glaziers, 103,382; cotton manufacturers, 188,272; tailors, 111,843; shoemakers and bootmakers, 197,465; coal-miners, 268,091; iron manufacturers, 178, 114; blacksmiths, 112,035; and persons of undefined occupation, 171,226. In a very considerable number of the remaining classes there are less than 10,000 persons, and no small proportion of the whole are under 2,000.

Looking first at the Professional class, we find that the Civil Service gives employment to about twentyfive thousand persons, who are engaged in the various grades of clerical as distinguished from mere messengers' work, ranging from the Prime Minister

than the majority of other professional men-between twenty-five and thirty-five. The great body of the law clerks are between fifteen and twenty, probably owing to their admission to the higher branches of the profession in after years, although a very large number remain "clerks" to the end of their days. In the medical class it is noticeable that dentists begin their work early in life, there being thirty-eight between ten and fifteen, and nearly four hundred in the next period of age. Under the head of artists the comparatively new science of photography gives employment to four thousand men, and there are eight hundred sculptors. The greatest number of musicians is to be found between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. The table of theatrical persons tells a melancholy tale of early engagements, there being several hundred under fifteen. The number of males engaged in educational work at a youthful age is completely out of keeping with all the other professions; but this is easily explained by the large number of pupil-teachers who are employed in our national and British schools. The number of "teachers, professors, and lecturers" fluctuates very curiously, as it stands at five thousand between fifteen and twenty, then falls to twelve hundred between twenty and twenty-five, next rises to two thousand during the succeeding ten years, and again falls to twelve hundred between thirty-five and fortyfive. The probable explanation of this variation is that the pupil-teachers enter upon other pursuits before they reach twenty years of age, and that the great influx between twenty-five and thirty-five is caused by the introduction of a large body of young clergymen and university men, who take a tutor's post simply pour passer le temps, and who resign it directly they fall in with any permanent employment more congenial to their tastes. In a word, these figures prove what unhappily we had only too good reason to suspect, that the profession of a teacher, instead of being regarded as a noble calling worthy of the best energies of a man's life, is simply looked upon as a make-shift-as a means of employment in passing from college to the real business of life. Nor can this be wondered at. The position of undermaster-the opprobrious term "usher" is happily dying out with the associations which it inevitably calls up is so badly paid that we can scarcely be surprised if men forsake it as soon as they can obtain anything more remunerative; and thus it is that the most important work in many of our large schoolsthe teaching of the junior classes-is entrusted to men who are themselves only half-fledged scholars, and whose interest in their work is on a par with their capacity for it. Whether our School Boards and our Public School Commission will remedy this evil time alone can show, but there can be no question that the vacillation betrayed by these figures, and the withdrawal of men from the profession at the very point when their practice and experience would begin to fit them to discharge its duties, are much to be deprecated.

The second great division of the occupations of the people is termed the Domestic class, including all "persons engaged in entertaining and performing personal offices for man," using this latter word, of course, as answering to the Latin homo, purely as a generic term for the whole human race. The extent of the public-house" business of the country is exhibited very clearly under this head, where we find upwards of sixty-one thousand male innkeepers, thir

66

teen thousand beersellers, and to these must be added sixteen thousand women of the first and three thousand of the second class, giving a total of ninetythree thousand persons occupied in this trade under its several branches, from the hotel-keeper down to the proprietor of the little wayside beerhouse of our rural districts. These figures may almost be taken to represent, with very slight deductions, the number of houses of public entertainment, as they are euphoniously described, in England and Wales, for the servants employed at them appear in a separate table. And what an astounding revelation is this! Deducting from the whole population the six millions who are under fifteen years of age-and one would fain hope that the publican gathers but little of his trade from mere boys and girls-we have ninety-three thousand publicans for sixteen millions of men and women, or nearly six for every thousand.

These figures cannot strictly be accepted as a proof of the drinking propensities of the English people; because, in the first place, a very large number of the higher class of hotels are simply used as lodging-houses, while it may also be urged that they contain a considerable number of children under fifteen who are excluded from the above calculation. We will at once concede that such is the case, and will admit that out of every six hotels or inns, one is used simply for purposes of board and lodging, and therefore merely stands to the traveller in the place of his own house for the time being; but having made this deduction—and it is a tolerably fair onewe still have what we cannot help regarding as the gigantic evil represented by five publicans, or beersellers, to every thousand people over fifteen years of age, or one to every two hundred. This result is startling, but it is the creation of the census report, and therefore it must be taken for what it is worth, and to our mind it should furnish a text for many a sermon, lay and cleric. We do not argue-nay, we should be very loth to argue that every signboard which hangs at the street corner is a proof of the drunkenness of the people; but we do assert without hesitation that it represents the means of temptation to the weak, while it is a constant source of waste of time, and even of idleness, to those who resist the grosser sin.

It is not for us to point to a cure for such an evil as that which is here so plainly exhibited, but one remedy is indicated in the very same tables side by side with these figures, when we find that for the whole of our enormous population there are only some five thousand coffee and eatinghouses. Here, then, is, we believe, the suggestion of a remedy. Prevention, we all know, is better than cure; and although the results of the earlier closing of public-houses effected by the late Government, coupled with the penalties imposed on habitual drunkards, has had a very important effect in checking what is proclaimed in every pulpit to be our national vice, yet it stands to reason that the more powerful measure would be to secure, by the time the next census is taken, at least a double supply of refreshment-rooms where the sale of intoxicating drinks is not made the first consideration. This is, we believe, one of the paths in which the philanthropist might well direct his efforts. Compare the exterior and the internal arrangements of these coffee-shops with the attractions of the gin-palace and the beershop, and what a contrast do we see! The one bright with gas and plate-glass, with an inviting fire, a

But we must pass on. The male domestic servants of all classes are most numerous between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five, although no less than twelve boys between ten and fifteen returned themselves as coachmen, about eight hundred of the same age as grooms, three hundred as gardeners, and a thousand as hotel servants. Even when seventy-five is reached the old family servants seem to remain at their posts, although popular experience tells us that the race is fast dying out.

The Commercial class, might be more correctly described as a list of persons employed in trade and navigation, for it not only includes all men engaged in mercantile pursuits, such as merchants, bankers, salesmen, and the varied occupations of the commercial traveller, and insurance agent, and the clerk, which grow out of their trade transactions, but it also combines the vast army of men and boys employed in the conveyance of goods, whether by land or by sea, under which we find the whole of our mercantile marine, and also those who perform the subsidiary duty of conveying messages, whether by telegraph or by hand. Here, in fact, we have the commercial enterprise of the community gathered into a focus, and, as might have been anticipated, as age advances, the number of those engaged in the work of money-making-for that is what commerce really amounts to-decreases with far less rapidity than the number of men employed in other professions or trades. The merchant or the banker, as we all know, very frequently prefers to die in harness, and the figures prove that so far from the anxiety inseparable from such a calling causing men to withdraw from it, they hold on even to such advanced ages as sixtyfive and seventy-five. The number of commercial travellers is greatest between twenty-five and thirtyfive, probably owing to their absorption into the other branches of their respective firms after going the round of the country for a few years. Added to this, the work is of itself so arduous, involving journeys north and south, east and west, with comparatively little opportunity of rest, that it is easy to understand the tendency to leave it in the years of middle life for a less exacting duty.

The Agricultural class furnishes the greatest proportion of aged workers, for here we find, for instance, the number of farmers and graziers gradually increasing up to the age of fifty-five, while up to sixty-five and seventy-five there is a comparatively slight fallingoff in the number in proportion to the average of other occupations, and even above seventy-five there

though apparently out of harmony with the law which holds good elsewhere, is easily explained, as the farmer literally dies on his homestead in the midst of his flocks and his herds, and practically never retires. As with the master so with the man, for the agricultural labourer seems to cling to his spade or his plough as long as he can hold the one or guide the other, and for him there is no rest this side the grave. The same rule applies to all outdoor occupations, increasing age being no bar to continued labour. The contrast here furnished between the workers without and the workers within doors is thus very great, but it will appear with still more force in our next paper, when we shall look in detail at the varied employments of the great industrial classes of the country, and the ages of our artisans. So far, it should be borne in mind, we have, unless otherwise stated, been writing exclusively of the male population.

THE SAFE AND SPEEDY:

AMALGAMATED PROVIDENT AND GENERAL INVESTMENT CLUB.

CHAPTER II.

T has been already told that after her father's burial Mary Dixon took up her abode in the house of her friends, the Batesons. There was plenty of room for her, for it was a better house than many in the street, and the shop in which the work was carried on was a separate building at the rear. The constant skir-r-ring of the stockingframes was heard in the distance, and however harsh the sound to ordinary ears, it had a pleasant savour of good times to those who were accustomed to it. Daniel Bateson himself worked in one of the frames, for he was not a manufacturer proper, but a receiver and worker-up of materials for a larger establishment. Mrs. Bateson took charge of the seaming, and Mary Dixon helped her, giving some of it out to women in the neighbourhood, and doing a part themselves. Mary received from the railway company the five-and-twenty pounds to which she was entitled by virtue of her poor father's insurance; and had also a considerable investment in the post-office savings-bank, the result of her careful management of her father's earnings and her own. John Bateson was an industrious young man, with a good salary from his employers and a prospect of a rise. Altogether the household is thriving and prosperous; and when Mary can recover a little from the shock of her poor father's violent death, and the mourning shall have been put off, and the pain of her bereavement softened, there will be a marriage in the family.

It is early yet to think of this, though, of course,

it is well understood among them, and people will | think of such things. John Bateson thought of it incessantly, and Mary knew it; though his conduct towards her in the first days of her sorrow was as respectful and considerate as could have been desired. The glazier did not fail to circulate the prospectuses and other papers of the "Safe and Speedy," in Burton Street and its neighbourhood, and special copies were left at Daniel Bateson's house, addressed both to himself and "Miss Dixon." There was a great deal of consultation about them; for though they were looked at in the first instance without much interest, yet the report of what had passed at "The Feathers," and the fact that several of the neighbours had resolved to go in for a good thing, reached their ears, and Daniel Bateson and his son soon felt a desire to do the same.

"It seems hard now," said he, one evening, when the little family were assembled in the parlour-"it

Some thirty, some sixty, some an hundredfold," he continued, reading from the motto of the "Safe and Speedy; "that's a Scripture promise, ain't it? Look it up, John, in the Bible."

The Bible was a large and heavy one, and though always ready on a side-table, was, unhappily, not very often opened. Mary found the text, however, without difficulty, and read the parable of the sower and the seed aloud. "I don't see the application of it," she said, gently, when she had finished.

"It's Scripture, anyhow," said Bateson; " and it seems to show how much a man ought to get who works for it, whether he ploughs and sows or makes stockings."

"Don't say 'ought,' Daniel," said his wife; "we have always got a fair return for our labour; there's no promise of thirty, or sixty, or a hundred per cent. for money after it's made and saved. We have no right to expect that it will grow by itself, as it seems

seems hard that I should only get two and a half per cent. for my money, while others can have five or ten, and sometimes make a lucky hit besides, like that cent.-per-cent. story," pointing to one of the pamphlets.

"A bird in the hand's worth two in the bush, Daniel," said his wife; "your money 's safe where it is, and you can get it when you want it; that's worth something; and thank God we have enough to go on with, and to spare."

Daniel was silent for a moment. "I don't see why I shouldn't do better for myself, though, if I can," he answered. "It's true we get work enough, and I don't want to be idle; but the greater part of the profit goes to the factory-owners now. If I could set up clear for myself, and supply the trade direct, I might live to be a rich man yet, old as

I am."

"I wouldn't be tempted, if I was you, Daniel?" "I don't mean; but you don't understand these things it's worth thinking about, at all events.

to do in this club. I don't understand it, as you say, but that's how it strikes me."

"Here's another bit to the point," said John, who had been turning over the leaves of the Bible, sitting very near to Mary that he might do so with the more convenience; "Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds." And he read the parable.

"That also was a return for honest labour," said Mary, and she pointed to the words, "how much every man had gained by trading."

"Well, but," said the other, "it's all one; for it says lower down, 'Wherefore gavest thu not my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have received mine own with usury?""

"That might mean the savings-bank," said Mary, "if there had been one in those days; and the usury' would only be a proper payment for the use of the money; that is a moderate rate of interest, such as we get now. The post-office bank is better than a napkin, anyhow."

"You're a clever lass, Mary," said John, admir