abuses of a worn out system, that England expects that society shall be tranquillized, and the "spirit of the movement" rebuked. But, however great may be the evils occasioned by the actual state of the English laws, we are far from demanding a sudden or a radical change; such a shock would too much endanger individual fortunes. In every state that dates not from yesterday, a certain number of circumstances must necessarily be found peculiar to it, which should be taken into account, in the application of social and economic principles. What, we ask, is a gradual amelioration-a progressive liberty! He who possesses a grove of trees badly planted, would be deprived of shade, if he were to cut them down at once; but if, little by little, he replaces the old plantation with one better designed, he ends with possessing a beautiful grove, without beginning with a desert.

Some writers in England have lately made an attempt to hold up the Gospel as the remedy of all social evils! But such men must be strangely ignorant of the purposes for which the Gospel was given, and what it is that the evangelists have thought. Social evils may arise from political institutions, from commercial regulations, from the state of the currency, from the pressure of taxation, from a thousand causes wholly unconnected with religion or morals; and the Gospel was no more designed to supply a remedy for these, than for the diseases of the human body. The Hutchinsonians who sought a system of physic in the Pentateuch—the Levellers who proposed to base English law on Leviticus, were wise men compared with him who makes such a proposition. The Gospels offer a remedy for the evils in the individual, not for those arising from the state of society, else they would have laid down the principles of a political institution; but this was expressly disclaimed by the Great Author of Christianity, who declared, "My kingdom is not

of this world.”

It is fortunate that that great body corporate, styled a nation—a vast assemblage of human beings, knit together by laws and arts and customs-by the necessities of the present and the memory of the pastoffers in this country, through these its vigorous and enduring members, a more substantial and healthy frame-work than falls to the lot of other nations. Our stout-built constitution throws off with more facility and safety those crude and dangerous humors which must at times arise in all human communities. We are preserved from those reckless and tempestuous sallies that in other countries, like a whirlwind, topple down in an instant an ancient crown, or sweep away an illustrious aristocracy. And this very constitution, which has secured order, has consequently promoted civilization; and the almost unbroken tide of progressive amelioration has made us the freest, and may yet make us the wealthiest and most refined society of modern ages. But still, the condition of the peasantry and the laboring population is yet strongly susceptible of improvement. A vigorous investigation of the evils is the best means of discovering remedies: a good physician begins by inquiring into the nature of the disease, a quack by compounding nostrums. Above all things we deprecate angry controversy, violence, and invective, in so important a discussion; and to the consideration of all who write or speak upon the subject, we recommend an aphorism of the late Bishop of Limerick -"He who appeals to the passions of his countrymen, is their worst enemy; he who appeals to their affections, is their best friend."

It has been jusly observed, that the picture of the man who draws from the stern reality of nature, has a fearful extent of applicationthe details indeed individualize the delineation, but the outlines belong to the invariable and unvaried laws of humanity and society. The simple pathos with which Bailie Nicol Jarvie details by what means Rob Roy was changed from an enterprising grazier into a daring leader of banditti, has never been praised proportionately to its merits, because amongst us no such scenes have been exhibited; but in Ireland, for instance, where rustic insurrections are as fixedly periodical as the return of the comets, the passage will be recognised as a description equally powerful and true of occurrences that are matters of daily observation. But the "Northern magician" himself, has hardly produced a more faithful portraiture of life and manners, than the little book of Mr. John Hopkins contains; it records not a single incident which our eyes have not witnessed; and our ears have heard the exact words the peasants have used in expressing their anxiety and concern. But of what avail will this exposure of ills be, unless the people set about the task of removing them, themselves? The lazy countryman calling on Hercules, instead of putting his own shoulders to the wheel, but faintly typifies the folly of those who call on government to effect a moral or a political revolution. They rather resemble Hercules, sitting with his hands in his pocket, a pipe in his mouth, and a jug of whisky punch beside him, entreating a pigmy to cleanse the Augean stables.

That the science of political economy is about to undergo a great change, is manifest to all acquainted with its history. Like chemistry, it originated in visionary schemes, proposed by theoretic philosophers; but as experimentalists succeeded the old alchemists, so have practical observers taken the place of the speculative economists. The parallel might be carried farther, because the course of all sciences based on observation and experiment is nearly the same. To show how far political economy has advanced towards becoming a perfect science, we need only observe, that abstract science is, by its nature, incapable of moving any passion or exciting any feeling; there is not an appeal to the heart or the affections, in all the books of Euclid. Now, do we find the Malthusian controversy thus dispassionately conducted? far from it;—the partisans of Malthus and Sadler appeal to our sympathies, our passions, and our prejudices, more than to our judgment, thereby tacitly confessing that their science is not sufficiently certain to be entrusted to the decision of reason alone. The fact is, what has above all contributed to render political economy, even at the present hour, a sort of vague science, without any stable foundation, is, that all those who have touched upon economic questions have brought to the discussion, desires, moral sentiments, views of amelioration, and notions of perfectibility.

It is always the sign of an unnatural or transitional state of society, when inquirers show a restless anxiety about the tendency of a truth, and desire to learn its practical result before they venture to develope the truth itself. Thus the Newtonian system of the universe was in some countries proscribed,—not with reference to its truth or falsehood, but to its supposed bearing on the authority of Scripture; in this instance, the tendency was misunderstood; and in the case of most other truths, the anticipated dangers will be found similarly to vanish. Another error of the

economists, is their loose and inaccurate use of terms, and a perversely inaccurate classification; -take, for instance, the words consumers, producers, laboring class, unproductive class, etc.

With respect to the unproductive or idle class, we know nobody to whom the name is applicable but the parish paupers in England. But suppose the most voluptuous rich man, living in pomp and luxury, spending in idle ornaments the vast rents raised by the laborers on his estates his education cannot have been wholly null; the word of advice which he carelessly lets fall to his inferiors,-the caprice which demands some new commodity, destined hereafter to become an article of extensive commerce- - these and similar matters contribute to the prosperity of his country. If he encourages artists, -if his treasures are expended in promoting industry, does not this rich man, whom you despise and stigmatize as idle, pay back, in many instances, the debt he contracts all his life with his fellow-citizens, by whose labor he is supported?

In short, the economists have paid too much attention to modern statistics, and too little to ancient history: statistics only furnish us with partial facts in an incomplete form, and necessarily leave us ignorant of modifying circumstances. Observation in political economy must be as rigidly conducted as experiments in chemistry, before it can assume the substance and form of a certain science.

ART. V.-CULTURE AND COMMERCE OF SILK.

To the Editor of the Merchants' Magazine:

render

THE mercantile and commercial importance of silk, may the following brief commentary on its past and prospective culture, manufacture, and commercial transportation, an appropriate subject for insertion in the Merchants' Magazine. It was read before the American Institute, for whom it was prepared, pursuant to request of the legislature of Kentucky, through the Hon. C. A. Wickliffe, lieutenant, and acting governor of that state, and his excellency, the governor of the state of New York. The resolutions calling for the information cover a wide range of inquiry, and the replies in consequence, embrace a synopsis of the silk culture and silk trade of the states: as my practical acquaintance with the subject is limited to four or five years only, a part is necessarily drawn from history and tradition.

The silk known in commerce is the produce of the silk worm, which, by Linnæus, ranks in fifth class of animals, and in Lepidoptera or third order of insects, genus Phalena, species Bombyx, variety Mori. It is a native of Asia, where, since a very remote period of time, it has been cultivated for its cocoon of silk that encloses the chrysalis or middle state of existence.

The silk worm was introduced into Europe early in the Christian era, and into the North American colonies early in the seventeenth century. Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas, were the first to engage in the silk culture, and raw silk formed an important integer in the total of their exports one hundred years ago.

Connecticut engaged in the silk culture about the year 1760, and about 1770 the people of the northern colonies (middle and eastern states) generally, were roused to a sense of the importance of silk in the domestic economy of the country. Dr. Franklin, and contemporaneous writers and philanthropists, urged the importance of a reeling establishment, which was erected at that time in Philadelphia, under the auspices of the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania. In the summer and autumn of 1771, the reeling establishment or “filature,” received two thousand and three hundred pounds of cocoons; six hundred pounds of which were reeled for the owners, and seventeen hundred pounds were purchased by the managers from the producers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; the first named state furnishing about two thirds, and the latter about one third of the whole quantity. About ninety individuals furnished the cocoons, and in a list of their names and residences now before me, I find John Etwine, of Northampton county, Pa., furnished one hundred and ten pounds, being the largest quantity from any one person. At that period, and up to 1774, the colonial silk culture attained a rank of much importance; more on account of the large number of philanthropic individuals engaged and determined to persevere in it, than from the amount of silk produced in the aggregate; and it is probable that the impetus which the business then received, would in a few years, under ordinary circumstances, have given it a rank in amount of exports, of still greater importance. But extraordinary cir cumstances suddenly arrested all advances in the arts of peace. The inherent rights claimed by the colonies, and disputed by Great Britain, led to open hostilities; the conflict was long, obstinate, and deadly. On the return of peace, in 1783, poverty, and a want of the necessaries of life, pervaded the states. Of the former silk culture no vestige remained except in Connecticut, where, in one county, a little remote from the busy conflict, it continued and still continues to flourish and increase in magnitude and importance.

Up to 1812 the silk of Connecticut was principally manufactured into sewings. The raw silk employed for the manufacture of coach lace, tassels, and fringe, was imported at an average cost of about six dollars per pound. The war between Great Britain and the States cut off the supplies, and in 1814-15, raw silk rose to thirty dollars per pound. A gentleman of Newark, N. J., at that time employing about twenty hands in the manufacture of coach lace, informs me that he obtained his supply of "Floss Silk" (raw silk freed from the natural gum) from Mansfield, Conn., and the quality, both in strength and lustre, was "much superior to the best imported silk." Since the peace of 1815, the manufacture of "Tuscan" for hats, has materially increased the consumption of raw silk in the States, and the supplies are mostly drawn from abroad; a part coming direct from ports to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, and the remainder from the European Continent, by the way of England, where it is not cultivated, but is manufactured to an amount of many millions of dollars annually. From the commencement to the first quarter of the present century, occasional articles through the periodical press drew the attention of many to the importance of commencing or extending the silk culture. The subject was discussed in the national legislature, a voluminous report made to, and a manual on silk culture issued by the Congress in 1826. The subject was also discussed in the

pages,

state legislatures, and Massachusetts, as usual, was among the first to act in the patriotic work; in 1831 the legislature appropriated six hundred dollars to compile and print a manual on the culture of silk, for disuibution in the city of Boston, and in every town in the commonwealth. The work, by order of the governor, was prepared by J. H. Cobb, Esq., of Dedham, Mass.; it is known by the name of "Cobb's Manual," and is published by Carter, Hendee, and Co., Boston. As a manual on silk culture, it is by far the best that I ever saw, and intrinsically worth more than all the other "books and pamphlets" on the subject, that have been issued from the European or American press; it treats the subject in a plain common sense style, is concise, has less than one hundred 12mo., contains full and ample information, can be read in one evening, and from its perusal all persons of ordinary intelligence may be fully competent to manage the culture and reeling of silk. The book also contains some erroneous calculations on the profits of silk culture, and it is to be regretted that a work otherwise so accurate and useful should have contained such extravagant over-estimates of the quantity of silk that can be produced on an acre, and the profit to be derived from it; such calculations are however mostly quoted by Mr. Cobb from some other author, and among them it is not uncommon to estimate from an acre of trees, 500 or 600 pounds of silk; an amount at least seven times greater than was ever produced from an English acre, under any circumstances, in any climate or country. The Massachusetts Legislature passed an act to encourage the silk culture in 1835, and repealed it by a new act in 1836, giving a bounty of 10 cents per pound for cocoons, and one dollar per pound for raw silk made in the state.

The Legislature of Connecticut in 1832 passed an act granting a bounty of one dollar for every 100 mulbery trees transplanted, and fifty cents per pound for all "reeled" (raw silk) made in the state; this act was repealed in the winter of 1838-9.

Maine in 1836, by legislative enactment, gives a bounty of five cents per pound for cocoons, and fifty cents per pound for raw silk made in the state. Vermont gives, by enactment of the legislature, a bounty of ten cents per pound for cocoons; and New Jersey in 1836 enacted that for five years cocoons raised in the state should receive a bounty of fifteen cents per pound; the act "excepted bodies corporate and politic," and was repealed the following year. Acts similar to the foregoing were passed by other legislatures about that time, and many stock companies were incorporated for the manufacture of silk. The country was prosperous beyond any former precedent; and in one year (1836) the importations of silk (mostly manufactured goods) amounted to twenty two millions of dollars; more than twofold greater than the average importation of the same article in former years; other circumstances also assisted to render the present a very memorable epoch in the history of silk in America. The legislative bounties, incorporations of manufacturing companies, and general prosperity, raised up a new branch of the trade, inappropriately named the "Silk business." It consisted of the growing, purchasing, and selling of mulberry trees; fancy and captivating names were given to new varieties of old species; and different individuals and periodicals were urgent in claiming superior excellence for some favorite species or variety. From various causes the "Morus Multicaulis" (inferior to most other kinds for the silk culture) took pre