passage from the end rollers to the warp-roller, the multitude of threads receives the dressing. The yarn passes first between two wooden cylinders, the lower of which revolves in a trough of size or paste; it is thus saturated with the dressing, but unevenly, and therefore the machine gives it first a brush on the upper, and next on the under surface, to lay the paste evenly on it, by means of a couple of brushes, which have an odd movement, connected with cranks. It is then passed up towards the warproller; but as it goes, it is perfectly dried by the action of a rapid vane, which blows hot air across the threads; it is then wound up and ready for the loom. As the process goes on, the machine counts the proper length for the "piece," and by a bell summons the tenter to mark the place in red paste, as a guide to the weaver in his operations. Some of these machines will dress a mile of warp in an hour! Of all the tremendously noisy, deafening places in the whole factory, the weaving-room or power-loom-department is the most so. As for conversation, it is altogether impossible; hearing a person bawling into your ear with all his force is about as much as is to be expected here. Conceive an enormous room containing one thousand power-looms arranged in long rows, and all helping to raise the most awful din that can salute mortal ears. Each loom consists of a number of complex mechanisms driven by straps and pulleys from the ceiling in endless multitudes. The warp-roller being placed at the back of them, is gradually unwound, and by the assistance of the shuttle, and other contrivances, the yarn assumes at length the woven texture of the piece of calicocloth, the preliminary steps in the formation of which have occupied so much of our time. From the loom the piece is conveyed into the storehouses, is measured by being alternately hung on a couple of hooks a yard apart, is then folded smooth, put in the packing-press, receives its last embrace from machinery, to the weight of eight or ten tons, and is sent off to market, or to the wholesale dealers. Before leaving the factory, we were shown the room where the size is prepared for dressing the goods. Several large tubs heated by steam are arranged round the sides for boiling the paste, while it is agitated by an iron agitator in the interior; and upon the floor, in the centre, were a number of large casks full of paste, covered with the fungi in a coating a quarter of an inch thick. One would suppose it was all spoiled, but the manager assured us it was just at the prime, and ready for use. In the operations of one firm, eight hundred barrels of flour are used every year for this purpose; but it is necessary to mention that it is of a quality unfit for human consumption. Each loom has been calculated to consume three pounds of flour a week. It is not an easy task to give the average number of yards of calico made in a day at one of these immense places; nor, if it were, is it easy to estimate it at its due amount. It is said that one manufacturer declared, if a ship were to fasten to her stern one end of a piece of cloth, and sail away therewith, he could supply sufficient to keep up with her, sail as fast as she might! Such is a short account of our visit, and it presents, as we believe, a succinct statement of the present state of the cotton manufacture, at least from the Pod to the Piece. Chambers' Edinburgh Magazine. SHORT REVIEWS AND NOTICES. THE YOUNG COUNTESS. The interest of the "Young Countess," is made to depend upon materials of a slighter texture than usual with Mrs. Trollope. A young and beautiful widow-an Austrian countess of great wealth-invites a party to her château, where she has hitherto lived almost in seclusion, with a fair and gifted protegé, Caroline de Marfeld, and the zest of the story is made to depend upon the love borne by the countess for a certain Count de The Young Countess; or, Love and Jealousy. By Mrs. Trollope. 3 vols. Henry Colburn. Hermanstadt, and the jealousy she experiences, and not without reason, for the preference given by the count to Caroline. This is certainly slender material enough, but sufficient in Mrs. Trollope's hands to produce a work of interest, and containing less that is objectionable than any previous publication of so unsparing, and often so unscrupulous a satirist. Here all is pleasant and tasteful. Scenes of pastoral simplicity, and fashionable folly are most curiously mingled together. How amusing when the countess, by happily becoming a widow, sets to work to make a kind of Lochsenberg or fac-simile of an old castle, of a ruinous old edifice, the original stronghold of the Counts of Rosenau! How ably is she assisted by the veteran Morritz, and the lively Caroline! And then again, when the visitors arrive at the restored castle, how distinctly is every individual brought out the Princess Loffendorf, handsome, vain and spoiled: Prince Altenthon stately and impertinent; the hero, Alfred de Hermanstadt, "with thoughtful brow, coal-black hair, moustache, and soft, violet-colored eyes;" sister Bertha, so fair and so good, and her lover, Count Bergstaz, so elegant and charming; Geno Alberti, the enthusiastic violin-player, whose genius we may respect, but not so his having wooed and won with his violin a rich and fair young English lady; and lastly, as a foil to all these, the pedantic, over-dressed, and vulgar Mrs. Griffiths, whose acquaintances are all potentates or members of the Institute, the goodhumored, fat, and foolish Hilbury, and Mademoiselle Chambray, bent upon the destruction of poor little Hilbury's peace of mind, and the independent use of his English gold. It can be easily imagined how well Mrs. Trollope can play with such a group of personages. The love-story is chiefly told through the medium of tableaux vivans, the by-play of the other parties by the very simple machinery of so many breakfasts and dinners, and so many rides and rural amusements. The interest, however, never flags; and when a change is brought over the scene by the jealousy of the countess, which, fed by the evil counsels of a spiteful attendant, vents itself in the most cruel vengeance upon the poor protegé,-it is like a dark cloud coming over the face of all that was before bright, clear, and beautiful. The countess pays for her crime by a conventual life, and Caroline wins the hero with the violetcolored eyes, poetical justice and a happy conclusion being brought about at the same time. a general, and is named Haviland, after his property of the same title in Yorkshire. The old general, in a momentary pet with his nephew and heir, marries the youngest daughter of a clergyman, and this event hastens Percy's doom, for Edith has admired Havilands, and retains more vivid recollections of its beauties than she does of her first lover. Percy, however, is not the man to sink under his altered prospects, and whilst Sinclair is wooing his maiden fair, our hero makes his obeisance to his uncle, and establishes a flirtation with his young and innocent aunt. The dénouement of this story of wayward and worldly love is pathetic but rather unsatisfactory. Percy shoots himself, recommending the general's widow to his friend Beckenham, and Edith to his friend Sinclair. This is the first work, in the popular style of a novel of the day, which Miss Costello has yet written; and even though we are inclined many writers out of the path they would, in to regret that the taste of the public leads so but rejoice that so agreeable an addition has preference, choose for themselves, we cannot been made to the light reading of the time as that of Clara Fane. The plot of the story is exciting and romantic; yet such events as are recorded in it are of more frequent occurrence fiction does well who selects for his narrative than is ofttimes imagined, and the writer of the singular in life, in place of that which is common. We by no means intend to imply that Miss Costello has avoided the domestic scenes and the occurrences of ordinary life; she had produced some of the most amusing on the contrary, it is in working out these that features of her novel. But her forte evidently is in the delineation of characters, wherein loftiness of thought, of mind, feeling, and refinement, tenderness and sensibility most prevail, and in proof of this we may adduce the portraits of Claudia and Sybilla, two charming It was an unlucky night on which the young, sisters; perfect gems of beauty and grace. Be open, happy, thoughtless Percy introduced his sides the exercise of the skilful novelist's art, more sedate, experienced, and wily friend Miss Costello reminds us, most pleasantly, that Sinclair to the love of his boyhoood, Edith she is a traveller, and conducts us, with willing Aspinall. While affecting to contemn the feet, amid scenes rendered by Nature attractive choice of his friend, Sinclair, by slow, at all times, but doubly so at the present mosteps, wins Edith's affections from her first frankment, when war and confusion point them out and confiding, but bashful suitor. PERCY OR THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW.* but sure Percy has a tyrannical old uncle, who would have been a Captain Absolute only that he is Percy: or the Old Love and the New; by the Author of "The Hen-Pecked Husband." 3 vols. T. C. Newby. to all Europe as spectacles of interest. We travel with Clara Fane along the banks of the Danube, visiting many places which, since the narrative was written, have acquired a melan * Clara Fane. A Novel. 3 vols. By Louisa Stuart Costello. Bentley. choly celebrity; and, leaving sites now marked | &c.—make a grand trunk line, canal or railby desolation and bloodshed, gladly penetrate with her into the romantic wilds of Austrian Switzerland; we listen to the mysterious legends of Servia, now first presented in an English garb, and welcome the tender songs of the Kozàcs · a race hitherto suspected of no such peaceful accomplishment as the cultivation of poetry; with her, also, we traverse the Alps, and descend to the beautiful plains of Lombardy, seeking repose and luxury in the marble villas of the Lake of Como, whose enchanting shores are now, and, we fear, are long destined to be deformed by slaughter! The descriptions of scenery and the snatches of song scattered through these volumes show the imaginative taste and brilliant fancy, for which the author has long been distinguished. It would be better for the manners of the day if more writers followed such a track, and chose the better part of nature as the most proper for record, instead of descending to find excitement in the worst. "Clara Fane" is a work such as a refined mind alone could have conceived, and such as refined minds will hail with welcome. It has a novelty and philosophic beauty in it, which at once surprise and attract; for easy and simple as the style appears, there are depth of feeling and powerful thought in every page. CANADA IN 1848, &c. By M. H. Synge. This pamphlet professes to be "An Examination of the Existing Resources of British North America, with Considerations for their further and more perfect Development, as a Practical Remedy, by Means of Colonization, for the Prevailing Distress in the United Empire, and for the Defence of the Colony." The proposition of the writer is, that the imperial government shall undertake an enormous system of public works in that colony-establish a regular, frequent and independent scries of steam communications between London and Liverpool and Montreal, way, across the American continent,— and A translation of the papers by M. Thiers which originally appeared in the Constitutionatic or elementary for English readers, and nel. The arrangement is perhaps too systemsome of the arguments are without much fundamental novelty, as the subject has long since been settled in England for students and thinkers. But, like his speech on substitutes, the general idea of which was taken from Adam Smith, M. Thiers has so well enforced his positions, by new illustrations drawn from contemporary experience or knowledge, and directly applicable to the business in hand, that established truths come before us with all the effects of novelty and the interest of a current topic, set off by a style animated and close, yet facile and fluent. BRITISH INDIA.* In a paper on the early history of India, published some time ago in this magazine,† we commenced our observations by referring to the indifference exhibited by the home publie to all topics connected with our Asiatic empire; and we did so, as we then stated, not because the circumstance was either striking or anomalous, but for the better reason of its practical importance. "We could," as we then expressed ourselves, "little hope for any marked improvement in the social condition of the natives of India, until the people of these countries had such an acquaintance with it, as that a public opinion could be formed on the subject, and was known to exist." "It was only," we added, "to such pressure from without that the difficulties which attend the promotion of Christianity in India- the main sanitary provision for all its ills, spiritual, moral, and even industrial-would ever give way, and that one of the first steps towards the formation of this public opinion, was the diffusion of some knowledge of the history and statistics of the country." In humble In humble aid of this object we then took up our pen, and with like purpose we now resume it. In regard to the fact of ignorance of, and apathy to, Indian interests, we find our views corroborated by what we believe we are entitled to call the highest authority on such a point, the Times newspaper, which, in a leading article of two years' later date-that is, on the 14th of June, 1847, dwells on the circumstance as a woeful truth, and cites the saying of "one of our most accomplished writers and speakers, at this moment a member of her Majesty's cabinet," whom most of our readers will easily recognize as the able and eloquent Mr. Macaulay; and who "avowed his conviction that not one in ten of our most highly-educated gentlemen had the faintest conception of these incidents of British Indian history, which would correspond with the victories of Alfred, or the landing of the Conqueror, in our domestic annals." We gladly admit that since the appearance of our previous paper, this insensibility to Asiatic interests has been a good deal lessened. This is partly an effect, and one which we an "Mill's History of British India." Edited, and now completed, by Horace Hayman Wilson, M.A., F.R.S. 9 Vols. London: Madden, 1848. +"The Life of Lord Clive." By the Rev. G. R. Gleig. London: Murray. 1848. ticipated, of the rapid, regular, and frequent communication by what is miscalled the "overland passage," which passes over no land except the hand's-breadth at Suez. This acknowledged improvement must, however, be most of all ascribed to the felt jeopardy to which our Indian empire was exposed by the unexpected aggression of the Sikhs. That taught us for, perhaps, the first time, deeply to appreciate the value of our imperial colony, and our views of interest were blended with nobler feelings in the triumphs which followed. Although India is immeasurably the most important of all our great dependencies, there is not another in regard to which we have an equal tendency to indifference. The philosophy of the cause of this appears to be, that it is the only one with which we are not nationally identified by colonization. Every Englishman who goes there hopes to return; nobody loves to live there; none settle; no one regards it as his home. Hence the lack of personal interest in the country; and hence, again, the general coldness of which we have been complaining. The duties of all in office are performed faithfully and well; but they are performed as duties, and such sympathy as strangers feel, is, like their connection with the soil, temporary. We notice the defect, not for the purpose of disparaging our government of India, which is, beyond all question, the best its nations have ever known-one which gives them that great elcment of social happiness, security of person and of property, and what we are disposed to regard as of almost equal importance, immunity from agitation. We notice the defect, not, we say, for the purpose of underrating the horrors of anarchy and terrors of misrule, from which our government has saved the people of India; or of depreciating the higher degree of civilization which it has been, to a great extent, the means of introducing; but for the purpose of showing that to compensate for a defect which appears to be inherent in the nature of our connection with India, we are bound the more carefully to consult her interests, and, as a means towards this, to make them more known, in various forms, through the press. Interest and pride seem alone to link us to India-interest in its rich resources pride in the honors we have won there. We long to be united to that country by a holier tie-by that good | Drake's circumnavigation voyage that our feeling which must arise from well-directed efforts to improve the condition and raise the character of its many peoples. Our humble sphere is, to aid in making these known, and our first step an attempt to outline their history. The India trade was, from the earliest period, looked on in the West as the most magnificent of all commercial objects; and each European nation, as it rose in maritime importance, aspired to a participation in its golden fruits. It is characteristic of the genius of Alfred, justly named the Great, that he endeavored to direct the attention of our merchants to that line of trafic. He, as we are told by William of Malmesbury, sent, in the year 883, Sighelenus, bishop of Sherburne, to India, under the pretext of making offerings at the shrine of St. Thomas; and the monk adds, that at the date of his chronicle, some of the commodities which the bishop brought back were to be seen in the church at Sherburne. The crusades, in later periods, made us somewhat better acquainted with the usages and productions of the East; but it was not until about the period of the Reformation, when, and much owing to that event, we were becoming a manufacturing people, that the expanding spirit of commercial enterprise began to exhibit itself in vigorous efforts to extend our trade, and then intercourse with India became our first object. The earliest of these attempts was the voyage of Robert Thorne, in the reign of Henry VIII., in the year 1527, to discover a north-west passage to India. Then followed the fatal voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby, who, with all his crew, perished on the coast of Lapland. This voyage was in search of a north-east passage, and was made in the reign of Edward VI., in whose time, and that of Elizabeth, others of a like character were repeatedly undertaken by such well-known navigators as the Cabots, Frobisher, Davis, Hudson; some to seek out a north-west, others a north-east passage to India. These intrepid mariners failed in finding for their country the short track to the gold of Cathay, or to the diamond mines of Golconda; but they taught her a better service, in rendering her sons hardy and accomplished seamen. The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, by Bartholomew Diez, in 1486, and the actual voyage made to India, by Vasca de Gamo, in 1498, revealed the long-sought-for course. We have, in our former paper, noticed the steps by which the Portuguese and the Dutch, availing themselves of this discovery, established their connection with the East. It was not until English merchants directed their attention to the course to India by the Cape. Drake, who had passed that promontory in fair weather, disrobed it of the terrors with which it had been invested by the Portuguese and Dutch; and his voyage, which had given new impulse to the enterprise of our traders, was soon followed by an incident well calculated to stimulate their desire for gain-we mean the capture of some Portuguese Indiamen with immense treasure, and with papers affording information of greater value. Besides the details thus made known, there had been a good deal of knowledge on the subject of the Indian trade, collected by an association called the Levant Company, which had been for some years established, and which conveyed goods from Aleppo and Bagdad, and thence by the Tigris to Ormus, on the Persian Gulf. This company succeeded in opening a very extensive intercourse with India; but the expenses of the transit were so great that the returns were not very lucrative. Encouraged by the hope of larger profits, and prompted, as we have said, by the spirit of maritime enterprise, vessels were fitted out, and voyages made to India, some by government vessels, and some by vessels fitted out by individuals. They, in all cases, partook of a piratical character, and their gains were usually enormous. Still the hazards were found to be too great for private capital, and an application, in consequence of this, having been made to Queen Elizabeth, she, in December, 1600, granted to the petitioning merchants a charter, erecting them into a corporation, under the title of "The Governors and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies. This charter gave them the privilege of exclusive trade; but the crown reserved to itself the right of resuming its grant, after a three years' notice. The early intercourse of the company was with the Indian islands, and their chief station was at Bantam, in Java. They subsequently found it advantageous to open a trade with the continent of India, which was first attempted at Surat, in 1609. The Portuguese, who were at that time in possession of the trade there, showed every disposition to oppose them; but they quailed before the determination of Sir Henry Middleton, who commanded the company's ships. Our merchants soon made some character with the native traders, and gained no little influence with the nabobs and princes of the country. On the 11th January, 1612, they obtained from the Emperor Jehanghire, a firman, authorizing them to hold establishments in cer |