\"but i think you told me you had altered your chimneys so as toconsume the smoke, did you not?\" asked mr. hale.

\"mine were altered by my own will, before parliament meddled with theaffair. it was an immediate outlay, but it repays me in the sāving ofcoal. i\"m not sure whether i should hāve done it, if i had waited until the

act was passed. at any rate, i should hāve waited to be informed againstand fined, and given all the trouble in yielding that i legally could. butall laws which depend for their enforcement upon informers and fines,bee inert from the odiousness of the machinery. i doubt if there hasbeen a chimney in milton informed against for five years past, althoughsome are constantly sending out one-third of their coal in what is calledhere unparliamentary smoke.\"

\"i only know it is impossible to keep the muslin blinds clean here abovea week together; and at helstone we hāve had them up for a month ormore, and they hāve not looked dirty at the end of that time. and as forhands--margaret, how many times did you say you had washed yourhands this morning before twelve o\"clock? three times, was it not?\"

\"yes, mamma.\"

\"you seem to hāve a strong objection to acts of parliament and alllegislation affecting your mode of management down here at milton,\"

said mr. hale.

\"yes, i hāve; and many others hāve as well. and with justice, i think.

the whole machinery--i don\"t mean the wood and iron machinery now-ofthe cotton trade is so new that it is no wonder if it does not work wellin every part all at once. seventy years ago what was it? and now whatis it not? raw, crude materials came together; men of the same level, asregarded education and station, took suddenly the different positions ofmasters and men, owing to the motherwit, as regarded opportunities andprobabilities, which distinguished some, and made them far-seeing as towhat great future lay concealed in that rude model of sir richardarkwright\"s. the rapid development of what might be called a newtrade, gāve those early masters enormous power of wealth andmand. i don\"t mean merely over the workmen; i mean overpurchasers--over the whole world\"s market. why, i may give you, as aninstance, an advertisement, inserted not fifty years ago in a miltonpaper, that so-and-so (one of the half-dozen calico-printers of the time)would close his warehouse at noon each day; therefore, that allpurchasers must e before that hour. fancy a man dictating in thismanner the time when he would sell and when he would not sell. now,i believe, if a good customer chose to e at midnight, i should getup, and stand hat in hand to receive his orders.\"

margaret\"s lip curled, but somehow she was pelled to listen; shecould no longer abstract herself in her own thoughts.

.。xt。

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