are in reality the salt of the land, but unfortunately they are a small band, and cannot exercise sufficient influence over the larger class to effect a visible improvement in the mass of the present generation. The temperance cause wants more advocates among them, and those who will go out into the highways as missionaries in the cause. A practical advocate of temperance could do something; not one who preaches total abstinence and practises aledrinking, but one who acts up to his profession. In the days of Franklin, the English workmen drank beer, and all the efforts of that philosopher failed to effect a reformation among his shopmates; and it will take a man with all of Franklin's arguments and all his energy to destroy the fashion of drinking ale that prevails to this day among the English; but it can be done, and it is to be hoped that the thing will be accomplished, at least partially, before the rising generation reaches the years of maturity.

The Briggate, or principal street of the town, is lined on both sides to a considerable extent (of a Saturday evening) with booths and stalls for the sale of various articles of use and comfort. The market space, in a different section of the town, is the great resort, and there one can see English low life to perfection on a market night. The poor throng the place in search of such articles as they can afford to purchase, and they seldom buy more than a few pounds of meat and potatoes, or, perhaps, apples or pears, all of which are sold by weight in England. The space is an open square, occupied on market-day by such as obtain the privilege of a place. The collection is a motley one, and the observer can see, arranged around in carts, on stalls, or on the ground, quantities of earthenware, hardware, potatoes, apples, peas, calicoes, hats, shoes, and trumpery of every description. Men, women, and children, dressed indifferently, crowd the alleys and keep up a constant Babel with their outrageous pronunciation. Punch and Judy shows, or something quite as intellectual and instructive, give variety to the medley; and a wandering German boy may be met in one section with his organ, playing, in no unmusical strains, the sweet and plaintive air of "O! Susannah, don't you cry for me!" or the once cherished American song of "Carry me back to Old Virginny's shore!" It is strange to hear these

tunes of a Saturday night, in an English town, gushing from the pipes of an instrument manufactured on the Rhine, and borne about by a fairhaired boy from Bavaria. I met such minstrels often in my rambles, and travelled for miles with them along the secluded lanes and by-ways of Old England; and let others say what they please against the itinerant organ, I ask to be allowed the indulgence of my taste in listening to the much abused and despised instrument, particularly when playing in my dreaming ear in a foreign clime the sweet airs of the land which is my birthright.

Through the friendship and influence of an American gentleman, resident in Leeds, I was enabled to visit one of the large woollen establishments of the town. The factory is distant a few miles from the city, and as every branch of the business of cloth-making, from the raw article to the perfect finish, is carried on in the concern, there was abundant opportunity afforded me for careful observation. The manner of manufacture and the machinery did not impress me as different from what we have in use; and, except the quality of the cloths and the extent of the place, there was nothing deserving particular mention. The manufactures consisted of cassimeres, broadcloths, and kerseys, of various qualities and styles, the principal portion of which was dyed in the piece. One of the workmen conducted me through the building, and as he was rather talkative, he ventured to make an advocate of free trade of me, and stated that our protective tariff was of little consequence, as it was systematically and successfully evaded by several extensive woollen houses in Leeds, the partners in which had their agents in the United States for the express purpose of smuggling. His statement may be true, and as he spoke confidently, he certainly believed it himself.

In my endeavors to obtain statistical information respecting manufactures, and other matters of importance, I found great difficulty, and was often surprised at the small number of persons, even among those who might be presumed to know, who were able to give me reliable information of the character I sought. Statistics do not receive so much attention in England as in the United States, and it is only the few who take an interest in them. In my endeavors to learn something of the number of woollen factories in Leeds, I met with no encouragement whatever. The editors and publishers of newspapers knew nothing of the matter, and all looked astonished when I asked the question. It may be stated as a fact, without fear of contradiction, that there are not fifty persons in Leeds who can tell the exact number of woollen manufactories in the town, although it is the centre of the cloth trade in Yorkshire, and contains more establishments in that line than any other town in England. Through the kindness, and commendable determination to serve me, of one of the clerks in a newspaper-office, I obtained a statement of the number of spindles and hands employed, and as it is an abridgment from a parliamentary report it is reliable. Other manufactures are named; but it is to the cloth business that I confine myself. There were in Yorkshire, in 1850, five hundred and thirty-two woollen factories for spinning only the greatest number in any one place being in Leeds-with 629,838 spindles, and an aggregate horse-power, steam and water combined, of 7431; furnishing employment for 20,153 persons, of which number 5063 were females above thirteen years, and 5819 boys, from thirteen to eighteen years of age, the balance being males above eighteen. Of weaving factories there were 180 in the county, employing 295,611 spindles, 3604 power-looms, and 14,002 hands, of whom 7000 were females. Of other woollen factories, not enumerated in the above, there were 159, employing 6128 persons, the number of spindles, &c., not being named. This does not include the worsted mills, which, although, strictly speaking, woollen manufactories, are arranged under another head. The number of yards of cloth annually manufactured is not given, nor are the wages stated; but it appears that there has been an increase throughout the kingdom, since 1834, of 51 per cent. in the woollen and worsted factories, and an increase of hands employed of 116 per cent. The consumption of foreign and colonial wools, which form less than one-half of that consumed, has advanced 64 per cent. in the same period. From this statement, necessarily much abridged, it will be observed that the manufacture is extensive, and its increase astonishing. The mills in Wales and the West of England are but few compared with those of Yorkshire.

Leeds is not famous for any events in the history of England, and, with the exception of a ruined abbey a short distance from the town, has no monuments of antiquity. The old monastery is in the usual form of a cross, and although built of common and rough stone, it is massive and imposing. Like all similar structures, it lies in a secluded valley, near a stream, and its great extent, even in decay, tells plainly how important it was in bygone years. Cattle were quietly feeding within its walls when I was there, and my echoing tread scared a flock of rooks from their nests in the dark ruin, and caused them to wheel through the air, screaming and cawing above my head. Cattle and crows are the present occupants of the once holy abode of the abbot, the bishop, and the monk. How wonderful are thy changes, O Time!

CHAPTER XXV.

HARROWGATE-KNARESBOROUGH--EUGENE ARAM-RIPONFOUNTAIN ABBEY-BRIMHAM ROCKS-REFLECTIONS.

I LOVE the deep, fadeless green of the English landscape, and glory in a ramble along the roads, when the sun is bright, and the native birds sing sweetly from the gay hedges. Others may fly through the island at railway speed; but give me the roads, the glorious roads of old England, for a ramble, and I'll enjoy the scenery and the attractions around, as none can enjoy them but the pedestrian. By rail, things are seen as we see the passing beauties of a moving panorama, for a moment only; but the "view afoot" is far otherwise. You unroll the scene at your pleasure you gaze on what interests you most, until your senses become intoxicated with the beauty of nature or the allurements of art, and feel that you are really reaping advantages unknown to those who move, mere birds of passage, over the country, and not through it.

The land may be uneven, but the roads are smooth and level, and so admirably constructed as to extort admiration from him whose lot it is to ramble at will along them. It is worth an American's while to go to England, if for nothing but to see the splendid roads and soft verdure of the fields. There is scarcely a turnpike in the island that is not as smooth as a floor, and in many places I have seen men repairing them where it was impossible for me to discover a necessity for their doing so. When away from the towns, you are away from the smoke that envelops them, and live in an atmosphere healthful and pure. Nature and science enrich the landscape, the villages have an ancient, indescribable air, and the rustic population is in strong contrast with the refined and educated middle class of the realm. There is a want of independence in the English peasant, growing out of his admiration of wealth and titles, that degrades him, and makes him appear servile to an American. He is rude and ignorant, but neither impudent nor forward to those he considers his equals, in which respect he differs greatly from the Irish. He has some dignity of character even with his rudeness, and when made an equal by those whose circumstances are better than his, seldom assumes to himself that importance so readily put on by the Hibernian peasant when a superior person is disposed to be sociable with him. There is a wide difference between the two classes of peasantry, and I am ready to confess the English infinitely the superior.

On the road from Leeds to Harrowgate, there was opportunity afforded me to observe their way of living, but it did not differ from what I saw in other sections. It was the old story as to wages, and the same statement as to food. Many of them had never been ten miles from home, and either did not, or pretended not to know anything about the country. Some of them were able to tell how far it was to the next village, provided they lived within two or three miles of it, but it seldom occurred that I met one whose knowledge of the country extended beyond that distance from where he resided. I several times asked how far I