MEMOIR OF SAMUEL SLATER, THE FATHER OF AMERICAN Manufactures, connected with a History of the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in England and America with remarks on the moral influence of Manufactories in the United States. By GEORGE S. WHITE. pp. 500. Philadelphia: 1836. New-York: WILEY AND LONG.

A MEMOIR of the man to whom the United States is indebted for the introduction of the Arkwright cotton machinery into the United States, and a history of the precious article which has contributed so much to enrich the country, and of its manufacture, were proper subjects for record and illustration; and the public are indebted to Mr. White for undertaking the task, and for the industry he has exhibited in performing it. A notice, at some length, of his labors will not be unacceptable to the readers of this Magazine who reside in the numerous manufacturing towns of the Union-nor can the example which the subject of his memoir presents to the youth of our country be otherwise than salutary.

The work under notice consists of twelve chapters, the first of which is devoted to the biography of Samuel Slater. It is preceded by a preface, in which the writer acknowledges his indebtedness to the authors of whose labors he has availed himself in composing his work. An introduction follows, giving a view of the colonial policy of England on the subject of transatlantic manufactures, and her successful exertions to put them down at the close of the war of the independence, by deluging the country with the various products of her labor, and selling them at such cheap rates as to defy competition thereby cramping the American manufactures in their incipient and imperfect condition, and greatly retarding their progress.

Samuel Slater was born in the year 1768, and was the son of a farmer and timber merchant in Derbyshire, England, who died when his son was fourteen years of age. He was then bound apprentice to Mr. Strutt, the partner of Arkwright in the business of cotton spinning. A fac simile of the indenture is engraved for the Memoir. At this time the cotton business, on the new system, was confined to a small district in the town of Belfer. Having served all his time, he became the right-hand man' of his old master, and remained with him for some time, to obtain a more general knowledge of the cotton business and its machinery, with a view of introducing it into the United States. This design he was finally induced to attempt, in consequence of seeing in a Philadelphia newspaper, first, a reward offered by a society there for a machine to make cotton rollers—second, an account of the grant of one hundred pounds by the legislature of Pennsylvania for a carding machine far inferior to the kind introduced by Arkwright, and which Slater understood — and third, from a knowledge that a society had been incorporated by that body for promoting manufactures. He arrived in New-York in the year 1789, and early in January, 1790, went to Providence, Rhode-Island, where he formed a connexion with those who had attempted to spin cotton in Providence. Finding that their 'billies,' 'jennies,' and carding machines were good for nothing, he determined not to use them. As the severe laws of England prevented the exportation of machinery, or of models, drafts, etc., he was obliged to depend on his memory and skill for their construction. He went to work, and in the following December started three cotton cards, a drawing and roving machine, and a water-frame with seventytwo spindles. The cards were made, under the direction of Mr. Slater, by Phineas Earl, of Leicester, Massachusetts, and were his first attempt at any thing beyond hand cards. A steel engraving is given of the whole establishment, and of the state of machinery as constructed by Mr. Slater in 1790. From this small concern, all the cotton mills in the United States may be said to have originated; and as early as 1809, such was the effect of the example, that seventeen cotton mills were in operation

within the vicinity of Providence, working 14,296 spindles, and using 640,000 lbs. of cotton, which yielded 510,000 lbs. of yarn; 1000 looms were employed in weaving, and seven more mills were erecting in that state or section of country. In the year 1812, his cotton cloth sold for forty cents per yard, with an unlimited demand; in 1829, beside having greatly extended his business, he had $50,000 in mortgages on real estate, besides his extensive and valuable establishments, so that his property was estimated, by those who knew best its value, at one million of dollars.

Mr. Slater has also the merit of having first established a Sunday School at Pawtucket in 1796-the first in New-England; and it is honorable to his memory, that the example has been followed in most if not in all the numerous factories in that portion of the Union. In 1794, Mr. Slater first made sewing thread of Sea-Island cotton, the manufacturing of which soon spread into Europe, and was generally supposed to have originated in England.

Beside being a model of industry, Mr. Slater had improved his mind by reading the best authors, and by extensive observation of men and things. He was endowed with quick perceptions, and a penetrating mind; was the firm friend of mechanics, and of inflexible integrity. He was cautious, and rather reserved in his conversation with strangers, but was always ready to assist those who would try to help themselves; but no one was a greater enemy to idleness. He died at Webster, (Mass.) April 20th, 1835, aged 67, leaving a widow and four sons in very affluent circumstances.

To the memoir of this valuable man, Mr. White has added a variety of useful matter, on various cotton factories of New-England, New-York, and other statestheir capitals, machinery, and amount of work done, in calico printing, etc. The following is a synopsis of the remaining portions of the volume:

Engravings of 'Plan of Cotton Mill,' Fly Frame,' 'Carding and Drawing,' 'Throstle Frame,' and four different Spindles, from the Spinning Master's Assistant; remarks on wages; on the relative advantages possessed by England, France, and the United States, as manufacturing nations; on the growth of cotton, by Tench Coxe, with two engravings of the microscopic appearance of Sea-Island and other species of cotton; a biographical notice of the immortal Whitney, inventor of the upland cotton-gin, with a plate of his invention; details of the early, steady, and important services rendered to the cause of American manufactures, and the growth of cotton, by Tench Coxe, assistant secretary of the treasury with Hamilton; interesting extracts from Barnes and Ure on cotton, and its manufacture; and on the cultivation of cotton, by Whitemarsh, Seabrook, and other planters; the advancement of machinery, including a history of the power-loom, dresser, speeder, American improvements, etc.; plate and chapter on calico printing; ten engravings on silk machinery, including the latest improvements in England, from Dr. Ure, as well as those from the Congress Manual of 1828, by Dr. Mease; a beautiful plate of the silk worm, in all its stages; a valuable article on dying silk and cotton; a profile likeness and autograph, with a notice of the late Samuel Witherill, of Philadelphia, the first manufacturer of fustians and jeans in America, in 1782; notices of Fulton, Fitch, and Evans; the origin of steam-boats and steam-wagons. To the whole is appended a new edition, revised by the author, of Mr. Woodbury's late useful letter on the manufacture and foreign trade of cotton -a production abounding with facts and statements, from numerous authorities, of the greatest importance to those who wish to inform themselves on the subject.

DRAGOON CAMPAIGNS TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS: being a History of the Organization and first Campaign of the Regiment of United States' Dragoons; together with incidents of a soldier's life, and sketches of scenery and Indian character. By a Dragoon. One volume. pp. 288. New-York: WILEY AND LONG.

WITHOUT possessing preeminent merit, in any respect, there is much pleasant matter in this volume which will repay perusal. Aside from the records of abuses and oppressions to which the subordinate members of the 'Dragoons' were subjected, numerous descriptions of western scenery and manners are given, and collateral points of interest are introduced with a liberal hand. Indeed, it may be objected to the work, we think, that it is too rambling and desultory, and that its facts and incidents are too miscellaneously piled together. Many passages have considerable picturesque merit; and taking into consideration that the writer is as yet unpractised in the art of regular composition, the language is not unworthy of our applause. In some instances there is a displeasing minuteness of detail, which detracts from the general impression of pleasure created by the work. We can produce only the following extracts in illustration of our opinions. The first has a wholesome sprinkling of national pride, and is by no means extravagantly prophetic. Would that we could stand upon an eminence, some fifty years from now, and be gifted with uninterrupted vision to look down upon this glorious land, crossed and re-crossed in all directions with rail-roads, gleaming with canals, and dotted every where with cities, now rising, or that will then have arisen, as if by enchantment!

"Had Rip Van Winkle but taken a deeper potation, and continued his nap till now, the old gentleman would surely have died of grief and disappointment. To have opened his eyes upon this age of rail-roads, and twelve-mile trotters; of steam engines and percussion locks; of lucifers and loco focos; of aërial voyages and safty-valve diving bells; and in short, in this age of improvement and rapidity, would of a truth, been too much for the nerves of even the mild, easy-going, indifferent, honest Rip. But, notwithstanding the mighty change that hath come over this land, the Rocky Mountains are not much nearer to their cousins along the Hudson than they were in the days of honest Rip Van Winkle. There hath been a boundary to these doings, and as yet no rail-road intersects the western prairie beyond the Arkansas and the Mississippi. No post-coaches rattle along the Macadamized turnpike over the Pawnee Peaks. There the elk and the bison still range, and the Indian hunter still dwells amid the wild region that encompasses them. But every year hath made encroachments upon this vaunted region; emigration hath 'poured like a torrent down upon a vale,' from every quarter of the globe, upon the skirts of this wild dominion; and should posterity and peace follow up the unabated progress or our country's advancement, but a few years more will not only find the well-guarded trading party, or the troop of mounted and armed soldiers traversing these regions, but the sound of the hammer of the artisan shall ring across the prairie, and the woodman's axe shall resound through the forest.

"Indulge me, if not with me, for a moment, whilst I look through the horoscope, and tell what is now hidden behind the curtain of futurity. See that wild and lovely prairie, waving as the air breathes upon its deep green mantle, spangled with ten thousand times ten thousand flowers, of the brightest hue, and yielding a delicious fragrance; like a boundless ocean, no pathway divides it. Look again, see those towering piles of castellated rocks, beetling above the cloud-capped summit of the mountain; that roaring torrent dashing from crag to crag, from precipice to precipice. Look through that opening vista, and see, like Ossa upon Pelion, mountain rearing its crest above mountain. Stretch forward your eye, and look along that deep green vale, studded with groves, and watered with crystal streams. Climb to yonder pinnacle, and gaze upon the world beneath it- no human habitation, no vestige of improvement greets your view; nature still reigns triumphant over the broad expanse. Let me draw aside the curtain-fifty years have flown away, many a head hath been laid low in the dust, and many a new actor hath made his début upon the stage of life-what seest thou? 'On yonder pinnacle of the mountain, from whence I gazed upon the trackless prairie, stands a proud dwelling, with its towers and porticoes- its halls are filled with groups of visitors; I see a stairway leading up the mountain, carved in the solid rock, and as it winds amid the clusters of trees, I can see many groups resting, as they ascend the summit. See yonder steam-car darting across the prairie, having in its train an hundred passengers. Yonder canal connects the Columbia with the Mississippi, and those boats are carrying bales and boxes of merchandise to the various towns along its line. There, amid the crumbled fragments at the mountain's base, are a group of students gathering specimens for their cabinet and see that happy and merry group of boarding-school

girls frolicking over the prairie. What a change! The splendid steamer now disturbs the waters of the Mackenzie and the Columbia; civilization hath strode across the land: yonder shrivelled Indian is the last of his race; his people are no more -- his hunting ground hath yielded to the plough his wigwam is destroyed - and he stands soli

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tary and alone, the last relic of a mighty race.'

Is all this visionary? No: he who watches the signs of the times, and reflects for a moment over the events of years gone by, then bends forward his eye to look through the intervening space of a few years more, must readily imagine that such must and inevitably will be the result."

The following lively passage is a pleasing specimen of a different vein:

"I was led to reflect that the daring and fool-hardy spirit of Mike Fink had not become extinct among the boatmen, when our steamer came to, for a few hours, at Natchez, on her way down the Mississippi. This city, which on the heights displays a beautiful appearance, is nevertheless more noted on the river here for the character of the lower town, or Natchez-under-the-hill,' which the boatmen make a kind of rendezvous, and is the frequent theatre of a royal row. At the time of our stop there, over fifty boats of different descriptions were lying off in the river opposite this place. Close to the wharf, upon the deck of a broad-horn, stood a fellow of powerful muscular appearance, and every now and then he would swing around his arms and throw out a challenge to any one who dared to come and take the rust off of him,' styling himself the 'roarer,' and declaring that he hadn't had a fight in a month, and was getting lazy. "The men standing around seemed neither disposed to take much notice of this fellow nor to accept his challenge; and from this I imagined that he was a regular bruiser, and no one cared to oppose him. For some time he continued throwing out his challenge, and interlarding his speeches with the usual boast of a western bruiser, that is, that he was 'half horse, half alligator, half steam-boat, and half snapping-turtle, with a little dash of lightning,' &c., &c.

"Presently a little stubbed fellow came along, and hearing the challenger dare any one to rub the rust off of him, stepped up, and in a dry kind of style looked up in his face and inquired, Who might you be, my big chicken, eh ?'

"I'm a high-pressure steamer,' roared the big bully.

"And I'm a snag,' replied the little one, as he pitched into him, and before he had time to reflect, he was sprawling upon the deck.

"A general shout of applause burst from the spectators, and many now, who before had stood aloof from the braggadocio, jumped on board the boat, and enjoyed the manner in which the little fellow pummeled him.

"This scrape appeared to be the signal for several other fights, and in the evening a general row ensued, which ended in the demolition of several edifices and the unhousing of several scores of their inmates; however, during the night our boat left the town, and I learned nothing farther connected with this scrape."

THE DOCTOR. Two volumes in one. pp. 220. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS. DELIGHTFUL, unapproachable 'Doctor!' Since the day of quaint old Burton, who has given to the world so charming an omnium gatherum as thine! But let us leave apostrophe, and pass to a brief consideration of the book, than which nothing more thoroughly saturated with all sorts of interest has appeared, we know not the time when. Throughout, it bears the stamp of a master. A taste of the introduction alone, invites the reader to devour the book. We see at once that the writer is a man of strong parts — that, to use an expressive Amercanism, he is 'saucy-able;' for he throws his offspring before the public with the indifference of an ostrich-if they like it, well- if otherwise, not otherwise; if it is attributed to other authors, he begs them to allow the report to pass uncontradicted, while he himself defies discovery. Learning the author has, and in abundance — not merely of the lazy, indical kind, but deep and various. He never suffers his erudition, however, to encumber his imagination. His satire is polished and cutting, and there are bits of humor that would transform a broad-brimmed quaker into the likeness of a laughing hyena. Fresnoy was not a greater reader — and yet his mental treasures seem ever at command, as if each had its appointed place in a well-regulated intellectual store-house. His wit now and then

bursts upon the reader as if from an ambush; and the delicate and subtle turnings of the multifarious digressions are alike unexpected and felicitous. An easy gayety enlivens the most indifferent portions, and pathos, tenderness, and sound philosophy have their appropriate places. In choosing two or three from a dozen marked extracts, or even from the entire volume, we feel the force of what the French term l'embarras des richesses: how beit, we will begin with a short chapter, wherein the author ventures an opinion against the prevailing wisdom of making children prematurely wise:

"What, sir,' exclaims a lady, who is bluer than ever one of her naked and woadstained ancestors appeared at a public festival in full die-what, sir, do you tell us that children are not to be made to understand what they are taught? And she casts her eyes complacently towards an assortment of those books which so many writers, male and female, some of the infidel, some of the semi-fidel, and some of the super-fidel schools have composed for the laudable purpose of enabling children to understand every thing. 'What, sir,' she repeats, 'are we to make our children learn things by rote like parrots, and fill their heads with words to which they cannot attach any signification?"

"Yes, madam, in very many cases.'

"I should like, sir, to be instructed why.'

"She says this in a tone, and with an expression both of eyes and lips which plainly show, in direct opposition to the words, that the lady thinks herself much fitter to instruct than to be instructed. It is not her fault. She is a good woman, and naturally a sensible one, but she has been trained up in the way women should not go. She has been carried from lecture to lecture, like a student who is being crammed at a Scotch university. She has attended lectures on chymistry, lectures on poetry, lectures on phrenology, lectures on mnemonics; she has read the latest and most applauded essays on taste; she has studied the newest and most approved treatises, practical and theoretical, upon education; she has paid sufficient attention to metaphysics to know as much as a professed philosopher about matter and spirit; she is a proficient in political economy, and can discourse upon the new science of population. Poor lady, it would require large draughts of Lethe to clear out all this indigested and indigestible trash, and fit her for becoming what she might have been! Upon this point, however, it may be practicable to set her right.

"You are a mother, madam, and a good one. In caressing your infants you may perhaps think it unphilosophical to use what I should call the proper and natural language of the nursery. But doubtless you talk to them; you give some utterance to your feelings, and whether that utterance be in legitimate and wise words, or in good extemporaneous nonsense, it is alike to the child. The conventional words convey no more meaning to him than the mere sound; but he understands from either all that is meant, all that you wish him to understand, all that is to be understood. He knows that it is an expression of your love and tenderness, and that he is the object of it.

"So, too, it continues after he is advanced from infancy into childhood. When children are beginning to speak, they do not and cannot affix any meaning to half the words which they hear; yet they learn their mother tongue. What I say is, do not attempt to force their intellectual growth. Do not feed them with meat till they have teeth to masticate it.

"There is a great deal which they ought to learn, can learn, and must learn, before they can or ought to understand it. How many questions must you have heard from them which you have felt to be best answered when they were with most dexterity put aside! Let me tell you a story which the Jesuit Manuel de Vergara used to tell of himself, When he was a little boy, he asked a Dominican friar what was the meaning of the seventh commandment, for he said he could not tell what committing adultery The friar, not knowing how to answer, cast a perplexed look round the room, and thinking he had found a safe reply, pointed to a kettle on the fire, and said the commandment meant that he must never put his hand in the pot while it was boiling. The very next day, a loud scream alarmed the family, and behold there was little Manuel running about the room, holding up his scalded finger, and exclaiming Oh dear! oh dear! I've committed adultery! I've committed adultery! I've committed adultery!"

was.

A love passage has quite as sound reasoning and good sense as the above extract:

"I said that Daniel fell in love with the burgemeester's daughter, and I made use of the usual expression, because there it was the most appropriate for the thing was accidental. He himself could not have been more surprised if, missing his way in a fog, and supposing himself to be in the Breedestraat of Leyden where there is no canal,