had scourged from the open light of nature to the filthy cellars of the smoky town. Collected thus from various districts, by similar distress, they had nothing in common but ignorance and want. Once involved in factory labor, their condition was destiny. They had no other refuge on which to fall back; live they might, while work was for them, and when it failed, they must be paupers, or they must die. From the plough to the cotton mill, was like the passage to the grave; it could be made but once, and could never be retraced.

Here, then, a distinctive class was incorporated with the nation; and this class had distinctive wants. What had been done for these people? Did each person bring from his native district a decent education, with which his native district had supplied him? No provision existed for any such supply. Armies abounded for the peninsula of Europe and the peninsula of India, but schoolmasters were scarce for the cottages of Ireland and the cottages of Britain. With solemn cathedrals, and venerable colleges, with triumph of arms, and conquest of empires, England has allowed generations of her children to live and die in a most forlorn ignorance; with vast revenues for state, for nobles, for hierarchies, she has nothing to spare for the souls of the poor. Would it be wonderful, then,

if masses, thus goaded for mere existence, thus neg. lected, should start up in the madness of their want and the fury of their passions, and stain their age with deeds which history would shudder to record? But no. Gloriously they have borne misfortune; patiently they have endured injustice; valiantly, wisely, and humanely they will redress their wrongs.

There is hope for the toilsmen of England! Yes; but where? In themselves; not in peers and princes, not in parties or statesmen; but in their own stout hearts, in their own enlightened exertions, in their own moral and intellectual exaltation. The virtuous cannot be despised, and the wise cannot be conquered; and no one can doubt, who has watched the progress of events, that, within a few years, virtue and wisdom have made progress among the operatives of Britain. Thousands and thousands have passed blamelessly through suffering, which in other times would have had the praise of martyrdom. Imprisoned men, forgetting all vindictive feeling, have used their hours of confinement to send forth instruction to their brothers clad in noble diction, and breathing a high philosophy. Humble men from the Chartist ranks, dragged to jail for sedition, have shown their power for such lofty, intellectual, and moral achievement. Let English toilsmen take courage; ay, and English toils women also.

Have we not evidence of graceful and elegant attainment in this country among a laboring class of the fair sex; evidence, that heads are not idle, while hands are busy? American factory girls, with a vivacity of mind which no fatigue can depress, have added to our literature; and their contributions are distinguished by an excellence of thought which needs but small indulgence from the critical, and by a purity of sentiment which merits all the praises of the good.

Let this voice from the heart of toiling womanhood go from the girls of America, and fall upon the weary spirits of their British sisters; and let it come back across the wild Atlantic in joyous echoes of exulting hope. The daughters of labor, even in England, may not despair of redemption. The sons of labor can gain it for themselves, and help their weaker companions. They have many examples and predecessors; kingly men, from plough and hammer, from hill-side and dyke. An era, I would fain believe, is coming for the English toilsman, when his labor will purchase him more than a living death; when an existence will be fairly within his reach, which will include whatever confers pure enjoyment and moral elevation; he will then be sustained in his own self-respect. He will not be ashamed of a virtuous calling; and none will dare to regard his position with contempt; no dastard blush

will suffuse the brow which has been wrinkled by the care of a hard but honest occupation; and the hand will seek no concealment, which has been roughened by industry, but has never been soiled by corruption. Under any circumstances, in any state of things, in any country, if we appreciate truth and reality; if we are not cheated by sham, and glare, and vanity; if we are not deceived by gaud and shadow, the fustian

which covers an upright soul is a garb of honor; and that is the most kingly sheen which clothes the most kingly worth.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born November 10, 1728, in Pallas, County of Longford, Ireland. Other places contend for the honor of his birth, but this has the claim of authority. His father was a clergyman, with a numerous family and slender means; with no faculty of economy, and a strong desire for expenditure. It is needless to dwell minutely on a life so well known as Goldsmith's, or one that may so easily be known. His childhood had some eccentricities, and his college career was marked by a few rows and freaks; but with all his wildness, his writings show that the kind heart of his childhood continued fresh to the end, and that his college experience left him, at least, classical knowledge and classical tastes. Having been a medical student in Edinburgh and Leyden, then he became a pennyless wanderer on the continent of Europe; after piping to peasants and spouting in convents, he returned