It is observed by the manager of the Saco mills, who, we are told, emigrated from the United Kingdom, that the cotton factories of America are chiefly situated in three districts-viz.: first in the eastern, which comprehends Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the eastern part of Massachusetts;-second, the middle district, which includes the western part of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut ;-third, that which comprehends New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and a few other places. Lowell, which is the most important in the United States, Waltham, Taunton, Fall River, Springfield, and Three Rivers, are in Massachusetts; Dover, Great Falls, Newmarket, and Nashua, are in New Hampshire; and Saco in Maine. These establishments are possessed by jointstock companies.

The factories at Providence and its vicinity, including Pawtucket, Smithfield, Lonsdale, Coventry, Cumberland, Cranston, Warwick, Scituate, Johnston, together with Newport, comprehend about eighty mills. Greenville, Cabotsville, Williamantic, Norwich, Jewitt's city, and a few others are situated in Connecticut.

Some of these factories in the middle district belong to corporations, but the greater number are the property of private firms or individuals; the machinery is generally old, from these factories having been the first established.

Patterson, in New Jersey, as to the number of factories, is next in importance to Lowell; Matteawan (New York), Manayunk, near Philadelphia, Baltimore, &c. &c., have all cotton factories, and are established, both in respect to machinery and management, as nearly as circumstances allow, after the models of Manchester and Glasgow. In Rhode Island, also, the machinery is almost the same as that used in New York.

The machine manufactories are chiefly at Lowell, Providence, Pawtucket, Patterson, and Matteawan (New York).

The following extracts from that pamphlet descriptive of those mills are interesting:

"The cotton mills are nearly the same in the different districts. None that I am aware of exceed five stories in height, except two at Dover, which are six stories on one side and five on the other; the general height of the mills in this country is three or four stories with an attic. But the mills recently built at Lowell are five stories high, with a plain roof; from which it seems probable, that though the double roof has been the plan generally adopted, it is likely to be abandoned, as it is certainly the most expensive, nor does it give so much room for machinery as the five stories and a plain roof.

"The general height of cotton mills in Scotland is six stories, with a plain roof. Those in England are from six to eight stories high; Stirling and Becktow's mill, Lower Mosley-street, Manchester, is nine stories high.

"There are a few mills in this country driven by high-pressure steam-engines. There are four in Newport, and one in Providence, Rhode Island; and three in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The coals used, whether anthracite or bituminous, cost from seven to eight dollars per ton. In general, the mills throughout the United States are moved by water; indeed, the water power resources of this country are incalculable, and many years must elapse ere they can be fully brought into use. In arranging the mills, the water-wheels are necessarily put under cover, so as to be kept in an atmosphere considerably above the freezing-point in winter; otherwise the severity of the frost, which frequently descends to nearly thirty degrees below zero, would prevent them from operating a great part of the year.

"The cost of the buildings, machinery, &c., is a great deal higher in America than in Britain, as well as the general rate of wages, particularly in the carding department.

"After comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each, it appears that the British manufacturer can produce his goods at least nineteen per cent cheaper than the American.

The British have, no doubt, attained to great perfection in the art of manufacturing cotton goods; but whether they will be able to maintain that high pre-eminence to which they have arrived, or have to yield to the increasing improvements of foreign nations, are questions of difficult solution. Their most powerful rivals are, doubtless, the Americans. [No, the unprotected Swiss cotton.] The manufacturers of no other country can purchase their cotton so cheap, and it is presumed no country possesses such extensive water privileges; only a small portion of which has yet been occupied. If we add to these, the intelligence and enterprising spirit of the people, it will at once be evident to every unprejudiced mind, that the American manufacturers are the most formidable competitors with which the British have to contend in foreign neutral markets. This can only prove true when lands become scarce and dear, and the wages of labour low in America."

Moral Character and Health of those employed in the Factories.-A writer on American manufactures, in a recent number of Hunt's Magazine observes, that "The people in this country (Massachusetts) are peculiarly jealous of all those measures of policy whose tendency is in any way to debase the more active classes; and it is well known that they watch with lynx-eyed vigilance all those interests which abroad have induced in any measure such a result. It is also well known that it is in the power of the majority at all times to discountenance measures which lead to the consequences that we have described. The principles of our holy religion are too deeply implanted in the soil to further that course of policy which might lead either to vice or ignorance; and it is well known that in no other part of the globe are moral principles more widely diffused than in that particular section of the republic where the manufacturing system the most extensively prevails. The husbands, the fathers, and the brothers of those who constitute the active agents of this system, are themselves voters, and some of them even the legislators of the country. We have, moreover, so much faith in the conscientious integrity of the factory owners themselves-many of them true-hearted men as we know them to be-as to believe that they would never be willing to foster any course of legislation which should have a tendency, in the remotest degree, to endanger the intelligence or the morals of their fellow citizens, and equal confidence in the people of the country, who we believe will never countenance any form of national abuse. Nor do we believe that the condition of the tactory operatives of the United States is such as to warrant any fears respecting their present state. In the interior of New England, we all know, that many of them are employed near their own homes, and within the range of the oversight of their friends; and so far as morals are concerned, it is believed that the factory establishments afford as much purity in this respect as is found in other branches of occupation. As regards the health of the active agents of the cotton establishments, evidence has been from time to time adduced upon that subject even here; and it would seem that the advantages of the operatives in this respect are as great as are furnished by most other kinds of active employment. We learn from a work which has been recently issued, that the health of six females out of ten is better than before being employed in the mills, and that of the males, one-half derive the same advantage. Nor is factory labour pursued here as in England-a continuous business for life. The young men and women of the country, in those places where the factory system prevails, employ their industry in these establishments, not as a main object of pursuit, but as a stepping-stone to a future settlement, or to other occupations. When they have, by dint of labour, procured for themselves a small sum, it not unfrequently happens that they marry and engage in other pursuits, or emigrate to the broad and rich fields of the west, where the soil, like a kind mother, opens its arms to receive them, and where they settle down permanent freeholders, perhaps the future legislators of the country.

Hours of Labour.-As regards the hours of labour-taking Lowell as a test-it appears, that work is commenced in the morning, from the 1st of September to the 1st of May, at daylight, or as soon as the operatives can see, and is discontinued during these eight months at half-past seven in the evening. From May to the first of September, five o'clock in the morning is the time for the commencement of the work, and it is stopped in the evening at seven o'clock. Half-past twelve is the dinner hour during the year, forty-five minutes being allowed for that purpose during the summer months, and thirty during the other eight. The following table from an experienced manufacturer, Mr. Montgomery, gives the average hours of labour during the year. Average hours of work per day throughout the year

"This statement may, perhaps, apply to most of the manufacturing establishments in the

eastern portion of the country, although the hours may vary somewhat in the middle and southern districts. The four holidays, fast, independence day, thanksgiving, and Christmas, besides the sabbath, of course, are devoted to rest, religious duties, and amusement. It may be mentioned, also, that the average wages of females at Lowell is two dollars a week, besides their board, and that of the men is about eighty cents per day, besides their board."*

EXPORTS OF DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES OF COTTON FROM THE UNITED

STATES.

The following statement, showing the annual amount of the exports of domestic manufactures of cotton to each of the different countries to which they were chiefly exported from the United States in each year, from 1826 to 1842, have been compiled from the annual reports of the secretary of the treasury, on commerce and navigation;

MEXICO has been a regular, and, for several years, a large customer, as well for coloured as for white goods. Of the former, in 1826, she took 20,464 dollars; in 1835, 291,780 dollars; since then there has been a falling off in the amount, so that, in 1841, it was only 52,079 dollars. Of white goods she received, in 1826, 309,807 dollars; in 1835, 1,054,608 dollars; which has since gradually declined to 61,583 dollars, in 1841, owing, probably, to the perturbed state of that country :

CENTRAL AMERICA has regularly received from us since 1826, but to a comparatively small

TEXAS, considering the unsettled state of the country since its independence, has formed a

"The average time of working in the mills per day, is about twelve hours and a quarter. The female operatives remain in the employ of the companies, on an average, a fraction over three years. Their average ages probably range from fifteen to twenty-four. Very few are under fifteen, and not many over twenty-four. The expense of a female employed in the mills, exclusive of board, need not exceed forty dollars per annum, even when she dresses elegantly on sabbaths and holidays, and well every day. She may therefore save, in three years, 186 dollars, enough to purchase a small farm in the western country, or to decently furnish a young mechanic's or farmer's house in New England. It is a very important fact, that most of the girls employed in the mills take good care of their earnings. The cashier of the savings' bank informs me, that of 386,000 dollars deposited in that institution, 250,000 dollars belong to the operatives, mostly females, employed in the factories. Some young females come here from the surrounding country, work a few years, and employ their earnings to aid their fathers to pay small debts; some to procure the means of completing a genteel education at some one of our numerous New England academies. The majority, however, save their money to furnish the houses of their future husbands. It is supposed that their chances of marrying are increased, rather than diminished, by their residence and employment in the city. Not a few are betrothed before they enter the mills; and while the young men, to whom they were to be wedded, are labouring here or elsewhere for the means to purchase a farm and build a house, they labour for the means to furnish it, and in most cases successfully too."-Note to article in Hunt's Magazine.

VOL. II.

4 L

considerable outlet for American manufactures, and, when established, will no doubt afford a per manent and extensive market. The first exports appear to have been made in 1837 :—

:

HONDURAS has taken, nearly every year, both white and coloured goods, and the export is

CHILI has uniformly been the largest customer, especially for white goods, receiving at the same time, to some extent, coloured goods also:

1834.

BRAZIL furnishes the next largest market for both white and coloured goods :

The CISALPINE REPUBLIC commenced receiving American manufactures in 1837 to a small

extent:

BUENOS AYRES, till 1828, and during the remainder of the period, the Argentine Republic received cotton goods regularly from the United States :

No further exports ap

PERU, from 1820 to 1832, was a regular customer, excepting in1831. pear to have been made till 1837 and 1838, since which time they have ceased.

COLOMBIA has been a small but regular customer from 1826 to 1838, when Venezuela and New Grenada took her place :

Included under general term of South America, after this year.

VENEZUELA, in 1839, received of coloured goods, 2003 dollars; 1840, 12,569 dollars; 1841, 3988 dollars; and of white goods, in 1838, 16,945 dollars; 1839, 49,549 dollars; 1840, 80,621 dollars; 1841, 26,083 dollars.

NEW GRENADA, in 1839, received all white goods, 2858 dollars; 1840, 3527 dollars; 1841, 1794 dollars.

SOUTH AMERICA, generally.-Under this head, in addition to the foregoing, there were exported in 1827, 2339 dollars; in 1829, 967 dollars; in 1834, 90 dollars; in 1839, 12,276 dollars; in 1840, 58,810 dollars ; and in 1841, 37,760 dollars, all white goods ; and in 1840, 766 dollars, and in 1841, 21,051 dollars, of coloured goods; in 1842, 27,960 dollars, white goods, and 44,729 dollars, coloured; in 1843, 1859 dollars, white, and 38,376 dollars, coloured goods.

CHINA does not now, for the first time, receive American cotton manufactures, having, since 1826, been a customer to a considerable amount, viz. :

TURKEY, the LEVANT, and EGYPT.-With the exception of 417 dollars in 1828, and 172 dollars in 1829, have received all in white cottons.