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The marriage festival being over, the young spouse is taken back to her father's house, which continues to be her principal abode until she has grown up into a state fit to discharge all the duties of matrimony. This epoch is a new occasion for joy and feasting. The relations attend to celebrate it in the same manner as the marriage, and the greater part of the ceremonies then practised are now repeated. It is notified to the father and mother of the young man that their daughter-in-law has now become a woman, and is qualified to live with her husband. Then, after completing the ceremonies to which this occasion gives rise, she is conducted in triumph to the house of her father-in law, where she is detained for a while to accustom her to the society of her husband; and after a month or two her own parents return and take her home with them.

The residence of the young woman is thus, for the first and even the second year, divided between the house of her husband and that of her father. This is accounted a mark of good understanding subsisting among them. It is, however, a concord, which most probably, alas! will too soon be dissolved; when this same young wife, beaten by her husband and harassed by her mother-in-law, who treats her as a slave, shall find no remedy for ill usage but in flying to her father's house. She will be recalled by fair promises of kinder treatment. They will break their word; and she will have recourse to the same remedy. But at last, the children which she brings into the world, and other circumstances, will compel her to do her best, by remaining in her husband's house, with the show of being contented with her lot.

In general, concord, the union of minds, and sincere mutual friendship are rarely found in Hindu families. The extreme distance kept up between the two sexes, which makes the women absolutely passive in society, and subject to the will and even the caprices of the men, has accustomed these lords of their destiny to regard them as slaves, and to treat them on all occasions, with severity and contempt. It is therefore in vain to expect, between husband and wife, that reciprocal confidence and kindness which constitute the happiness of a family. The object for which a Hindu marries is not to gain a companion to aid him in enduring the evils of life, but a slave to bear children and be subservient to his rule.

ART. IX.-American Manufactures.

[The essay of Indagator in our last number presented the arguments against additional duties with considerable force; the following shows the opposite side of this question, which every one who impartially investigates will find it difficult to decide. It deserves very full discussion, and this Journal will gladly be made the instrument of candid inquiry still further prosecuted; provided the communications are written, as they will be received, in the sincere and disinterested wish to ascertain and exhibit the truth.]

[Communication.]

On the Encouragement of American Manufactures. THE people of this country are remarkable for no quality in a greater degree than for sound practical common sense, and require only the means of judging to be enabled to form a correct decision upon any question of public policy.

The discussion now carried on, with so much animation, of the subject of American manufactures and the encouragement expedient to be given to them, will, therefore, I doubt not, eventuate in the adoption of such a system as will best comport with the true and permanent interests of the nation. And all observations upon the object of this inquiry, however weakly, if dispassionately and candidly, made, possess more or less a degree of value, inasmuch as though they contain nothing in themselves new or ingenious, yet they may draw towards the subject the attention of minds capable of striking out new lights, or of giving to the arguments already used a more forcible and elegant expression. In this view of the matter, and without further apology for my temerity, I shall proceed to state to the readers of the Analectic Magazine [if this essay shall be deemed worthy of an insertion] that I am an advocate for the encouragement, or the forcing, if it must be so called, of American manufactures, by prohibitory duties on imported manufactures to the utmost extent. And I believe that the wealth, tranquillity, morality, commerce, and agriculture of our country, as well as the manufacturing interest by itself, will all be benefited by the adoption of such a plan. My reasons I will briefly suggest—a full detail would require too much time and occupy too much space.

I shall cite no foreign examples; I concede that we can learn little, with certainty, from the systems of Britain and the continental nations of Europe, because of the total dissimilarity between them and our own country, in every respect, of soil, government, population, and capacities. My arguments, like every thing else that I use, I like the better for being of American manufactureand it is from the actual situation and evident prospects of the United States that I think all our reasons, on both sides of the question, should be drawn.

It is not denied that this country is in an embarrassed, and, comparatively with past experience, a distressed condition; although, in comparison with the suffering state of Britain, our situation is eminently happy. Whether this effect has for its cause the conduct or the misconduct of the banking institutions, or the cessation of European wars, it is not necessary to inquire-causa latet, vis est notissima.' Within a short period twenty millions of dollars, or of bank paper which performed the duty and circulated as the representative of this sum, are believed to have been withdrawn from circulation in Pennsylvania alone. And there is no reason to suppose that that amount will return into circulation again, at least not so long as the bank of the United States exists. The effect of such

an enormous diminution in the currency needs no comment,-the wings of commerce have been so closely clipped that they must require a long time to grow out again. And some new expedient seems called for, in a way that foreign history furnishes no example of, to give a new spring to enterprise and a new aim to industry.

"

What would be the effect of extensive manufactories? Let us suppose for the sake of a criterion, that Mr. A, a merchant, possesses ten million pounds of cotton, valued at ten cents per pound, but unable to sell it, because no man can send it abroad without loss, and no home manufacturer can work it up into cloth without loss-his family suffers, his neighbour the ship-owner suffers, and the ship-chandler; and the farmer, who usually supplies flour to be made into bread for this ship owner's vessels, &c. The misfortune is felt through every ramification of society. This is precisely an epitome of our present situation-raw material is redundant, talent abounds, enterprise and experience are not wantingthis may be said of every part of the country, and yet the raw material, not cotton only, but many others, are lying unwrought; the energies, mental and bodily, of the people are not half exerted for want of object; the staples are rotting, talent wasting, capital dissipating, for want of being put to their proper and obvious use. Now the manufacturer is enabled by the effect of a simple resolve of congress which saves him from foreign competition, to set his factory to work upon the raw material; he borrows a few bank notes with which he is able to induce men, women, and children, by hundreds, to labour for him at his machinery, who, in turn, are enabled thus to live comfortably, by exchanging the bank notes which they receive as wages for food with the farmer, and by and by for some of the goods which they have helped to manufacture. When the stuffs are made, the ship-owner, or shipping merchant, or wholesale dealer, or all three, purchase them from the manufa:turer at a price which enables him to discharge his debt to the banks, and, after paying all his work-people, to retain a profit for himself the new purchasers distribute them abroad-the productions of distant parts of the union are received in exchange-part is carried by the shipper to foreign countries, whose productions or money is brought home, &c. This is an individual operation, but as 'sands make the mountain,' and 'moments make the year,' so would the aggregate of such examples make the prosperity of the whole nation.

In this view we see activity, happiness, and wealth obtained, instead of the listless, desponding, poverty-stricken condition of our population at present. And all this is to flow from a single act of

congress.

If this picture be justly sketched, and there be no countervailing disadvantages, surely there could be little doubt of the proper course to be pursued. But it is urged against this scheme,

1. That the act of congress discouraging importations of foreign manufactures, would destroy our remaining commerce:

2. That it would diminish the profits of agriculture, already too small for the good of the country:

3. That it would endanger or corrupt the morality of our population:

4. That it would impose a tax on the consumer of foreign manufactures, by their enhanced price before the American manufacturers are ready to supply the demand; thus taxing the many for the benefit only of the few:

Besides many other less prominent objections.

Of these in their order; and first, as to commerce.

If our commerce were now profitable and active in the degree that it has been, or nearly so; if our sails whitened every ocean as formerly, it would be madness to interfere with it or restrict its energies by any statutory regulations. But the carrying trade is lost; and we have no prospect of such a state of affairs in Europe as to give us its advantages again. We can trade only to a few countries, and the only exportable article of any importance which at present yields a profit, is money. But our stock of gold and silver is very limited, and when it is gone we shall have scarcely any thing to send abroad. Our staples are few though abundant in quantity, and commerce can only be prosperous and lucrative while our staple productions are exportable, or we have a carrying trade of the productions of other countries. Cotton is not now exportable so as to give any profit, and, unless the British cease to use East India cotton, it will not become so. As far as cotton is concerned, therefore, we depend upon the policy which Britain may adopt; and our commerce is at her mercy. It is not likely she will adopt the course which would be most agreeable to us. Our foreign market for wheat is equally unpromising; so that any change in the commercial situation of the country will be at least as likely to be for the better as for the worse. An act of congress

prohibiting or discouraging the importation of foreign manufactured goods of wool and cotton, would interfere with the profits now made on shipments of such articles from England to this country; but who will estimate these profits for the last year, except the profits to the custom house and the auctioneer, as any thing worth caring for in a national point of view? while, if in consequence of such an act of congress, our domestic factories are set to work, the profit even to commerce will be immense.

Why cannot we export manufactured cottons? Britain will not receive them; but South America will, and pay handsomely for them too; and the European powers, jealous as they are of England and disposed by interest and feeling to encourage our rivalship, would gladly facilitate the introduction of our fabrics into their territories in preference to those of England. I see nothing to prevent our exchanging every variety of cotton manufactures for the German linens, the Russian hemp cloths, the French silks, the South American hides and gold, and for the peculiar product of every country which does not manufacture the staples peculiar to

VOL. XIV.

18

ourselves. The effect of such a state of things upon commerce would be most beneficial; our merchants would be fully employed, and well paid, in carrying the productions of our industry all over the world, and every turn of our spindles would bring additional wealth into the national treasury. The planter would have a safe and steady market for his cotton, and would be secured against impositions by the competition of the foreign market which would still be open to him. Nor would it require the lapse of many years to produce this result. The moment manufacturers are secured by legislative protection, they can commence their operations to every advantage. The machinery is built already, or much of it. Labour is easily procured, the raw material is plenty and cheap, and the monied institutions would gladly lend their capital to aid manufacturing enterprise, as soon as the prospects of success, opened by legislative patronage, should make it their interest to do so. But while their British rivals are allowed to send goods in any quantity here, and sell them at a less price than they could afford to make them for in England, except in a time of distress and pauperism— manufacturers cannot command credit with the banks, nor bear the effects of competition of men, in England, determined on ruining themselves and their establishments at once, rather than allow their American rivals to succeed. The commercial, therefore, no less than the manufacturing interests, demand that we should lay aside general rules to meet the particular exigence of the times.

A great portion of the foreign goods imported are sent here by the British themselves; but let any man ascertain the amount of profit made by American ship-owners and merchants from the importation of British goods in the last two years, and he will be satisfied that it would have been a cheap purchase for the nation if that sum could have been given for the quantity of American manufactured goods which would have been produced within these two years, if all our manufactories had been in that state of activity which they would have been, if the importation of British goods had been prohibited,

us.

Secondly, as to our agriculture. Once in three or four years the harvests in England fail, and they are forced to buy bread of It is supposed, that whatever profit we derive from that source would be lost if we refuse to take in return their manufactures; but this source of gain is, in the first place, precarious and temporary at best; and what is well worthy of observation is, that the opening of the ports of England, at such seasons, is not a measure of policy or choice, but of necessity, and they must have our wheat even if they are obliged to pay gold for it, while nothing but necessity will induce them to take it at all. The price of flour at other times would not be affected; and so long as wheat brings but one dollar a bushel, the amount of capital that can safely and profitably be embarked in agriculture must be limited so as to leave room for manufactures without injury to it. The whole quantity of wheat exported is very small, probably less than one-twentieth

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