so magnificent-a magnificence based upon utility -two circumstances rarely combined, but here intimately dependant one upon the other." "It may be questioned," answered Sir John, "whether a man of more extended views, or of a higher order of intellect, would have been equally successful with Manford. Great men, it has been /said, are born for particular epochs; it would, perhaps, be more correct to say, that particular trains of events, which pave the way for such epochs, call into activity, men with qualities and capacities fitted for their direction; though such men, under ordinary circumstances, would remain "unsung by fame." Mr. Manford, though not a great man, is yet a man admirably fitted for encouraging and pushing forward manufacture by steam power. Destitute of imagination, he applies himself to mathematical details, and mechanical contrivances, with unwearying perseverance, without swerving to the right or to the left, and never looking for any thing beyond what may prove accessories to these." "It is indeed very likely," continued the earl, "that a man of greater talent, of more discursive mind, and of more expanded views, would have done less for the advancement of this branch of industry, than Mr. Manford." "Experience," said Sir John, "proves this. Since the manufacture has made a decided progress, several gentlemen of fortune and education have embarked in it, and they have, I believe, hitherto, uniformly failed. Look around you, and notice the many extensive mills, large and splendid houses, and vast collieries-these are, without exception, the property of men, the majority of whom are totally illiterate, and sprung from the lower, if not the lowest class of society-and yet these very men or their immediate descendants, will, from the mere force of wealth, in a very few years, tread upon the heels of our hereditary nobles, and establish for themselves, a new order of aristocracy." "That you vaticinate rightly, Scarsbook, to some extent, I am willing to believe; that I have thought too slightly of the manufacturers, what I have seen this day has convinced me; that I have ridiculed and condemned their manners, with but an imperfect knowledge of their character, I freely confess; but I shall be slow to give credit to the assertion, that they will, ere long, approximate to, or place themselves side by side with our nobles. As one of the "order," I shall ever hail those admitted within its pale, when such admission is the reward of glorious achievements, or of domestic services. But I do most sincerely trust that mere wealth, without social refinement, will never kibe our heels." "Nous verrons, my dear lord, nous verrons.But what, ma belle Lucy! have we talked you a fit of abstraction?" into "No, brother, but after having talked so learnedly about these people, you should give us an opportunity of seeing them somewhat more closely, especially as you foretell a sort of fellowship with us -you know we are both admirers of character, and I trust that neither of us are uncharitable." "With all my heart, Lucy, I am under some obligations to Manford, and shall always be glad to show him and his family, every civility in my power. In speaking, however, of these men, my lord, as your probable confréres, I believe I may except our friend, as I imagine that were a coronet offered to him he would refuse it, and moreover, that he would do so upon the most proper grounds, namely, that it would not gratify him, and could not aid him in the prosecution of his labours; there are others, indeed, not a whit more polished, and far less worthy, who, with the vulgar ambition of little minds, would clamber into your Corinthian edifice, by the ladder of wealth-and such is the force of money, that I should feel no surprise to see them hailed as acquaintances by the descendants of our oldest families. You know what Hudibras says and don't you think the 'auri sacra fames,' is as potential in the higher, as in the lower ranks of society?" "Forbid it heaven!" exclaimed his lordship, "wealth as a means to an end, is a thing to be desired, but to say that the mere possessor of wealth, the man whose hoards profited the nobler impulses of the human heart, as little as the oaken chest which contained them-to say that such a man was worthy of rank or social estimation, would be to declare that the wooden image, worshipped in the palm-shaded Indian Pagoda, was a thing to be venerated though freed from its sacred and mysterious attributes." "There, brother-look there, brother! what an angelic-looking creature," exclaimed her ladyship, interrupting their conversation, and pointing to a female figure, that stood half concealed by a screen of tall fern by the road side. "Partially seen as she is," she continued, “she seems a very germ "of purest ray serene."" The looks of both gentlemen were directed to the point indicated by her ladyship; all they could see, however, was a glimpse of a female figure as it glided away and was lost amongst the hedge rows. "What! has our fair sister mistaken one of our buxom hoydens for an eastern Peri?" ing, 6 "I should rather suppose," said the earl, laugh"that we had talked her into a state betwixt sleeping and waking, and that as she is of imagination all compact,' she had been peopling the beautiful landscape through which we are passing with shepherds and shepherdesses, all yclad with flowers,' and, that governed by this train of ideas, the first female form she spied out, at once realized her dreaming fancies.” 6 "Laugh as you please, my two wise friends, you may depend upon it I have just seen a remarkably sweet girl, and one too that I shall endeavour to find out during my hermit life here!" and so the time passed in varied chat till they reached Vale Hall. CHAPTER VII. THE FOUNDLING A RETROSPECT. "This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Winter's Tule. Seven years before this juncture, John Manford had received an exportation of foundlings from London, in order that they might be employed in his mill. This cruel system of apprenticing young and unprotected beings was then prevalent, and consequently they often underwent the greatest hardships. Many of those which were sent down to Manford were beautiful and interesting children, affording in their physical configuration, and in an undefinable something about them, striking proofs that they were the offspring of the higher classes of society. Manford's affairs had prospered almost wonderfully, in conjunction with his brothers, and on drawing out a balance sheet, each of them found that he was now rich enough to commence a concern of his own. This they resolved to do, and John offered no opposition to the plan. As he was making his customary round of inspection, he discovered one of the children, that had arrrived a few weeks previous, fast asleep, with its head resting on the frame. This was an unpardonable offence, as the child ought to have been |