little savings—as important to him as large sums to the wealthy-will teach him to understand the rights of property; and the growing comfort of his condition will remove the prejudice he has contracted against the appeals of the Christian; and will also settle the question of his political enfranchisement by rendering it obviously safe.

About twenty-two years ago, a few poor flannel weavers in Rochdale, resolved to form a co-operative society. Their number at first was 28, and afterward increased to 40. They commenced by paying 2d. a week. When they had raised £28, they took a little shop in Toad Lane. Half their money was spent in fitting up a shop. The other half was laid out in goods. "Ah! ah!" said a tradesman in the neighbourhood, "I could wheel away all their stock in a barrow." In 1845, they took out a license to deal in tea and tobacco, and were obliged to raise their subscription to 3d. a week. Their progress for some years was slow, but sure. In the year 1850 they had 600 members, with a capital of £2299, and a weekly sale of goods to the amount of £338. According to the latest statement of their enterprise the author has seen, they numbered 4580 members, their nett profit for a quarter of a year was £4934, the cash received for goods sold during the quarter £45,835, the reserve fund £1352, and the value of their property £52,997. During the Lancashire distress, this thriving band of labourers contributed regularly £10. a week to help their neighbours. Of how much self-respect, and self-restraint, and virtue in other forms; of how much benefit to society; of how much hopefulness in regard to the religious welfare of the men and their families; and of how much good to the next generation, these facts are the index, none but the omniscient One can understand.

A single illustration sometimes affects us more than aggregate results. Mr. Alderman Livesey, of Rochdale, related the case of a labouring man steeped in poverty to the very lips, and owing about £15 to his grocer, who resolved to join a co-operative society. He told the grocer, who was naturally indignant at his purpose, that he was prepared to pay the debt in such instalments as the County Court might decree, or that if no legal steps were taken he would pay of his own accord. To this latter offer the tradesman at length consented. It cost the poor man and his wife a hard struggle for some years to pay the grocer, but his promise was honourably kept. The society which he joined prospered; and he was, when Mr. Livesey made the facts public, the owner of the house he lived in, and also of some other property, which latter he greatly prized as giving him a county vote. No Christian, it is presumed, will doubt the close connexion of such improvement in the habits and hopes of the people, with the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour.

Rochdale has a large population, and some readers may be disposed to conclude that the co-operative principle is applicable in such places only; but that conclusion would be erroneous, as might be shewn by many examples, one of which must suffice. In the county of Northampton is the village of Long Buckby, containing probably somewhat more than two thousand inhabitants, almost all of whom are agriculturists and shoemakers. A few poor men met, and after raising a little money, resolved to make a commencement by opening a small grocery store. They have since taken up the trade of butchers, bakers, drapers, tailors, and coal sellers. Their balance sheet is printed quarterly, and a rather recent one shewed their number was nearly 300, and that their property amounted to £2000.

They resolved to provided a factory

The workmen of Rochdale have aspired to greater deeds than those described above. They commenced a flour mill, and after struggling through preliminary difficulties, found that they were successfully grinding and selling 1700 sacks a week. become cotton manufacturers, and with the latest improvements in ventilation and machinery at a cost of £40,000, every shilling of the cost being paid before it was opened. There are in England and Wales at least 450 registered co-operative societies. Some cultivate land, some are masons, some shoemakers, some grocers, some millers, and some devoted to other occupations. A few years ago the many seemed to be sinking down into "hands," who followed their millhorse round of toil, lived from hand to mouth, and found their only solace in the beer shop. But to their own great credit, they have discovered the means of escape from this state of degradation; and assuredly will go on to assert and vindicate their right to a partnership in the fruits of their own labour. The means of their elevation, namely their own thrift and intelligence, no man can complain of; and in the progress of the good change that has begun, Christians it may be hoped will take the liveliest interest.

In conclusion the reader may be reminded, that to dwell on the thousand graceful modes in which, in private life, sympathy may be shewn with the poor, and help extended to them, formed no part of the purpose of this Essay, which was purposely limited to public measures of relief, because they only can overtake and effectually mitigate the woes of the millions. And the public measures recommended are, a resolute effort to bring to an end the curses of war and standing armies; the payment of the public debt, which in many ways presses heavily on the poor; a determination, for

the same reason, to bring the current expenditure of the realm under the supervision of men of business, with a view to a great and speedy reduction; the abrogation of the poor law; and a hearty sanction of such noble measures as those explained above, by which the labouring classes are combining to secure their own elevation in the social scale.

U

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE STATE OF THE DEAD.

THIS world is the home of but few of the race of Adam. The uncounted millions of all past generations are gone from it. The readers of these pages may have followed many of their own relatives and friends to the grave; and both writer and readers will themselves soon go to the dead." Hence the deep interest of the present subject.

In man, body life and intelligence, in other words, body soul and spirit, are united. Death reduces man to fragments. The life or soul, untraceable, except by its effects, in childhood youth and age, wholly eludes our inquiries at the time of man's decease. The body

remains, but devoid of all power, and destined quickly to corrupt and crumble into dust. The spirit survives in a disembodied and conscious state. Materialists have no right to complain of the dogmatic form in which these views of man and of death are presented, because they correspond with the common belief of all ages, have been everywhere engrafted on the languages of civilized men, and are confirmed by the testimony of the Bible. The barbarous people of Africa, the practical Romans, the polished Greeks, the Hebrews; all tribes and nations of all ages, as far as is known, have grasped the conception of the existence of man after death, and of a place or state into which the spirit of the departed enters when the body becomes lifeless. If therefore any· doubt be raised as to these points, the burden of proof