ONE of the first duties of a great city, is to apply the remedies that may be in its power, to the evils necessarily arising from its own extensive population. It is incident to any such mass of population, to concentre within itself, not only the idle and the vitious from all the country, but a great class of improvident people, who are honest and willing to earn their living, but who do not readily see the means of saving what they earn. This class of people often fall into distress for want of some easy and familiar method of placing their surplus earnings, at one season, in such a situation as to be safe and always within their reach in times of need. What is not immediately necessary to their comfort, they squander in useless and perhaps vitious gra tifications, creating factitious wants, and inducing habits of idleness, which lead to misery, then to crimes, and finally to punishment; augmenting the poor-rates, rendering property insecure, and thus multiplying the evils, and diminishing the benefits of a dense population.

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Let us suppose a case to which I make a direct reference. servant receives 20 dollars for wages due. He is well disposed, and if he knew of any mode of placing it where it would be safe and productive, he would not only lay up the greater part of this sum, but he would be adding to it every month, till with its interest it would amount to a considerable sum, and enable him to

rear and educate a family. But for want of such facility, he will not probably have a dollar left at the end of the month. Some new article of dress or ornament, the theatre, or a worse gulph has absorbed all. The case here referred to, is but one instance out of thousands in this city, among journeymen, labourers, menservants and women-servants: useful classes of people, who compose a considerable portion of the population of every great town, all of whom receive more wages than are necessary to their real or customary wants.*

These evils, like many others usually neglected, are not without an obvious remedy. Let the Treasurer of the Corporation be the banker, and let there be a clerk allowed him to attend to the particular duty of the Chest of Savings. Let him receive and book every sum that is offered, not less than one sixteenth of a dollar; and give a bank-book, to be made at the expense of the Corporation, to every person who shall have deposited to the amount of ten dollars, in which may be entered by the clerk each sum deposited or drawn out. Every credit of five dollars and upwards should entitle the creditor to an interest, at the rate of five per cent. per annum, for any period over sixty days. Credits in the CHEST OF SAVINGS may be transferred at the office with the same formalities as bank shares, but no sum less than fifty dollars should be transferable except by death. A creditor might be permitted to demand and receive, at all times within office hours, any part, or the whole of the sum due him, without any other formalities except that of presenting his book, and having it entered therein by the clerk, provided that no smaller sum than one dollar be drawn out at a time, unless a smaller sum be the whole balance due.

The public advantages that must arise from the plan are extremely obvious: as, 1. There is no surer shield that can be devised to the morals of the labouring and poorer class of people. 2. It would save them in a great measure from tippling, gamb

*The wages of servants are from 8 to 16 dollars per month. Coachmen (a numerous class) have the latter sum, and many of them 20, and more, dollars, per month; but in the latter case they board themselves.

ling, and other modes of dissipation and idleness. 3. It would probably save to this city 50,000 dollars a year in poor-rates. 4. It would serve as an example to other cities, and possibly it might lead to other reforms in public discipline, education, and police, on which few persons have reflected, but which are still wanting in the progress of civilization.

I do not pretend to the entire originality of this plan, and probably it may tend to enforce the propriety of adopting it, to inform that such a bank was instituted by the famous Mirabeau, and established by law in Paris, in the commencement of the French Revolution; the movers of which, amid all their projects of ambition and political aggrandizement, have never lost sight of every measure that could in the least tend to add to the resources of the nation, to give employment to the people, or diminish the unavoidable evils of their military government. The bank is called in English, the "Bank of Savings," and is at this day in full operation, and I have understood has been productive of the greatest advantages. It is also similar in its operation and effect to “Benefit Societies,”* which are very general in England, where they have been found to diminish the enormous poor taxes, under which that country groans, more than any legal or general regulation which has yet been attempted; and are spoken of in the warmest terms of commendation, by the well-informed writers on political economy who have appeared since their institution. If necessary, numerous authorities might be referred to in proof.

The above are merely the general outlines of the plan: much more might be said on the advantages which would result from its general adoption in every great capital: the minor details of its arrangement would be suggested to every intelligent officer acquainted with accounts, and are therefore deemed unessential in this place.

These Benefit Societies are associations of the labouring people, or all orders of mechanics, who appropriate some small part of their earnings to a fund from which they may draw succour in the hour of need. The mechanics of several branches in Philadelphia have such associations, and I have understood from some of the members, that very great advantages have been derived from them.

128

ON THE

CLOT

MANUFACTURE OF SAIL-CLOTH.

THE manufacture of canvas is an object of the greatest importance to a commercial nation; its quality ought to be the first, its price only of secondary consideration.

It may appear strange, but it is true, that this article of indispensable necessity to the British navy, on which depends in so great a degree, the safety of the fleet and the empire, is now vastly inferior in quality, to what it was thirty or forty years ago.

While in their dock-yards, the greatest attention is bestowed on the quality and seasoning of the oak, none at all is thought necessary to the canvas, although of equal importance to the safety of the ship, and the lives of the sailors.

The very rules and regulations issued by the navy board for the manufacture of government canvas are defective; and it is impossible, according to those rules, to produce a good quality; however, it does not seem to be the aim of the board to obtain the first fabric, they are content with a humble mediocrity, that the owner of a fishing smack would despise.

The inferiority of government canvas cannot be attributed to the manufacturers, for they make it according to their instructions; but to the mistaken policy of the navy board, who limit the price, and of course the quality-who imagine that canvas of a certain rate is sufficient for the purpose, and have no wish that it should be of a better quality, because then, it would be too good for the use. Thus, trifling with the great interests of the nation, as though his majesty's ships and the lives of his brave seamen, were of less importance than a revenue cutter or a Bridport smack; neither of which would use such canvas as government receives, although it were afforded to them for nothing.

The professed reason for ordering this middle sort of canvas is, that it can be obtained at a middle price; it is neither the high

est nor the lowest that the country produces, but it is thought good enough for a man of war. It is, however, a common observation, and perhaps a true one, that the highest priced manufactured commodities are generally the cheapest in the end. Being made of better materials and more labour bestowed on their finishing, they compensate the purchaser by long service, as well as their superior fitness for the purpose intended.

Government canvas is made of a warp or chain of flax yarn, weighing about 20 lbs. laid double, the woof or shute is of hemp yarn drove on single, weighing about 24 lbs. Both warp and woof yarn are once boiled in an alkaline ley, and suffer a waste of about 7 per cent., which is again recovered by the application of starch to the chain, and the bolt when finished, for a No. 1, weighs 44 lbs.

Bridport canvas, which is the best in the kingdom, is made wholly of flax yarn, boiled in alkaline salts and bleached by grassing, by which operations it suffers a loss of about 25 per cent.

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To ascertain the difference of value to the consumer, between these two kinds of canvas, it is only necessary to observe, that the great defect of all canvas, is its aptitude to mildew, from its alternate exposure to warm and cold, dry and wet weather. Mildew, is the first perceptible symptom of fermentation to which all vegetable substances are liable, and its progress will be rapid or slow, in proportion to the quantity of mucus they contain. The fermentation of all vegetable and anímal substances induces new compounds, and consequently separates their component parts; hence their gradual decay, and at last, their final dissolution.

On this principle we may determine the superiority of Bridport canvas. It is cleansed by alkaline salts, and the process of bleaching to a loss of 25 per cent., and we may reasonably conclude that the mucus is altogether removed, or nearly so. It will not therefore be so apt to mildew as government canvas, which is only cleansed to a loss of 7 per cent.

The difference of price between Bridport and government sailcloth is 6d. or 8d. per yard; and what does this paltry saving signify to a great nation, compared with the consequences that may