the means of promoting education, or improving in some other way, the condition of the lower classes of the community. To do good, and to increase the virtue and happiness of our race, evidently constituted the business and pleasure of his life. serve a spirit of improvement manifesting itself in various directions. Thus, roads are being formed through districts, which, for want of access, were placed beyond the protection of the laws; bogs are being drained; cultivated fields are creeping up the sides of the mountains, which were before almost unproductive of food for man; benevolent individuals and societies are actively engaged in promoting instruction and encouraging industry; commerce is rapidly increasing; light and knowledge are spreading; and, in proportion as they prevail, we may confidently expect that superstition and ignorance will cease to exist. While, however, the large proprietors of the soil are adding to their reve About this time we find a notice of the receipt of cotton from Africa, the seed of which had been sent from England. This cotton appears to have been raised at the colonies of Sierra Leone and Gambia. It had long been an object with the opponents of slavery, to encourage the natives of Africa to trade in the natural productions of the soil, as one method of withdrawing them from the traffic in the persons of their countrymen; and on this point, W. Allen in-nues, through the improvement of their estates, forms us, he had been labouring for upwards of thirty years. Some opposition to the trade with Africa was early made by the agents of the North Carolina slaveholders, who were desirous of monopolizing the traffic in such articles themselves. As a measure favourable to the encouragement of free labour in preference to that of slaves, our friend felt himself bound to use his influence with the members of the government to facilitate the admission of African products. In one of his letters he expressed a belief that the system of slavery in the United States could not be supported if they had no vent for their cotton. Hence he was anxious to procure a supply of that article through the instrumentality of freemen. In the summer of 1835, William Allen was again subjected to a trial, the depth of which can scarcely be appreciated by any but those who have had similar experience. His wife, who had been for some time in a delicate state of health, became suddenly very ill, and soon appeared to lose all consciousness of what was passing around her. In this condition she continued two or three days, and then passed quietly away. To her worth and religious dedication, her bereaved husband bears an emphatic testimony; and while his memoirs furnish ample evidence of the keenness with which this stroke was felt, they also prove the depth of his resignation, and the strength of his dependence upon the never failing Supporter of his children and people. In the summer of 1836, W. Allen paid a visit to several parts of Ireland, particularly the south and west. The principal object in view, was to obtain an insight into the moral and social condition of the peasantry, and the agricultural resources of the country. After spending about a month in this journey, he observes: "I was renewedly thankful in having been preserved through this journey, with nothing to regret on looking back, and having very fully accomplished every object that I had in view. The lamentable effects of ignorance, idleness and vice, consequent upon a demoralizing system, have been long deplored by every humane traveller; but it is cheering to ob the persons and cabins of the great mass of the people, still exhibit a specimen of dirt, rags, and wretchedness, not to be equalled in any other country in Europe; but we are consoled in observing, that public attention is powerfully excited in the consideration of what can be done to ameliorate the condition of the peasantry of Ireland." The miseries of this country are complicated. "They may, with justice, be, in some degree, referred to the want of suitable education, and consequent gross ignorance-to the want of a fair opportunity for the exercise of honest industry-to ecclesiastical oppression of one sort or other-to a blind subserviency to the priests, and, above all,-to the immoderate use of whiskey. This occasions the jails to be filled, and is the most frequent cause of the murders and catalogue of crimes, which have so long disgraced many parts of that unhappy land." In the 2d month, 1840, William Allen left home on a visit to the continent of Europe. In his progress from Ostend to Ghent, he had the satisfaction to observe a great number of cottages scattered along the road, each of them having a small portion of land attached, upon a plan very similar to the one which he had been labouring to encourage and promote, in his own and other countries. These farms contained from five to twelve acres, and on them the occupants, by industry and frugality, were obtaining a comfort able support. It may be recollected that he had published, and extensively circulated, a tract, under the title of "Colonies at home," in which a plan of this kind for preventing or relieving the distresses of the agricultural labourers, was recommended; but we are not informed whether these improvements were owing to his exertions or not. In Belgium he visited the prisons and manufactories, held several religious meetings, and laboured with his accustomed assiduity to promote the physical and spiritual improvement of the people among whom he was travelling. In the prison at Ghent he found one old man who had been there sixty years. He had once been liberated, but afterwards returned, saying that all whom he had known were dead, and he was left alone in the world. engaged a superintendent to take the oversight, purchased potatoes for seed, and gave allotments to upwards of one hundred poor families, upon certain conditions, in which the observance of moral conduct, &c., was included. In this journey, W. Allen had the company of Elizabeth Fry and her brother, Samuel Gurney, who heartily joined in his concern for the relief and elevation of the poor, and the improvement of prisons. They visited the little companies of Friends at Minden and Pyrmont; attended their "The success of this plan has been, every year, meetings, and laboured to promote their temporal more and more encouraging. The crops of poand spiritual interests. The indications of re- tatoes have usually been very abundant, and of ligious sensibility with which these labours of excellent quality, partly in consequence of the love were received, might furnish a salutary inti- care taken to provide good seed, and partly from mation to some others, who being more fre- good spade cultivation, the superintendent seeing quently favoured with the visits of gospel mes-that the plans laid down were attended to. Imsengers, are liable to regard them with too little respect. Near Dusseldorf W. Allen visited an interesting institution under the care of Count von der Recke, of which the subsequent account is given: provement has been perceptible in the health and moral conduct of the families, and being reAt Berlin a large company was convened at lieved from the pressure of abject poverty, the their hotel, among whom were many of the no-tone of their minds is raised, and they are more bility, to whom our friends explained the leading fitted to fulfil the duties of life." objects which had claimed the attention of the philanthropists in England, and solicited their co-operation in similar labours. Among these were the improvement of prison discipline, and the influence which the Prussians might exercise in the extinction of slavery. W. Allen observes, "It was obvious, in the course of the evening, that the truths delivered frequently found entrance into many hearts, and, in closing the meeting, I felt that we had great reason to be thankful for the opportunity. Thus we have to set up another Ebenezer." At Berlin they met with another exemplification of the advantages resulting from a plan similar to W. Allen's colonies at home, of which the following account was given by its principal promoter: "There are at Berlin, as in other populous towns, poor widows, whose resources are insufficient to supply their daily necessities; there are also many poor artisans, similarly circumstanced, whose earnings are much reduced, in consequence of the changes of fashion in the articles they manufacture. The number of these has latterly much increased, and their sufferings in winter, when the price of provisions is high, and wages are low, are often very great: indeed they are rarely able, by their utmost exertions, to procure even sufficient potatoes for their families, and are thus compelled, by the claims of hunger, to become paupers. "The miserable circumstances of these poor people much affected some benevolent individuals at Berlin, who considered in what manner relief could be most effectually afforded. The idea at length arose, that the most effectual means of improving their condition, would be to furnish them with a small quantity of land, to cultivate potatoes for themselves; a little employment in the open air being very conducive to the health of those much confined to close rooms; and it might also be the means of employing the different members of the family. In order to carry these views into effect, a society was formed at Berlin, and a small sum of money collected; these true friends of the poor hired some land, "The Count is descended from a noble family, which was possessed of many large estates prior to the wars of Napoleon Bonaparte: most of these estates fell a prey to the conqueror. Soon after the peace, many fatherless and destitute children were found upon the roads, begging or stealing: these poor out-casts strongly excited the compassion of this generous youth; and to some of them he afforded an asylum in his own house, and boarded and educated them himself. The comfort and pleasure resulting from these deeds of mercy, and the increasing number of these pitiable objects, induced him to found a little establishment for their education, near his paternal castle at Overdyk, not far from Elberfeld, about the year 1817; and this is thought to have been the first asylum for destitute children on the Continent. Some years afterwards, these philanthopic feelings continually increasing, he adopted the resolution of making it the chief object of his life to relieve the distressed and instruct the ignorant; and the whole of his noble family, who had themselves felt the distress of the war, encouraged him in it. He instituted a society which he called Menschenfreunde,' or 'Friend of Man,' and purchased the large estate, called Dusselthal Abbey, in the year 1822. Here he took in a number of poor, destitute, and even some criminal children. It appears, from the information we have received, that for several years this establishment proceeded on a very extensive scale: in its fourth year two hundred and thirtysix persons were boarded there every day, and the buildings were increased. Although very considerable gifts were received, the out-goings exceeded the income, and debts were incurred. A concern of this magnitude appears almost too much to rest upon an individual, unassisted by any committee. His excellent wife, however, the mother of eight children, is a powerful support, and his unmarried sister and brother, and a few female christian friends, who, from the attraction of the conduct, character, and object | charity. The compassion of Hoffman was of the Count and Countess, reside with them, cheerfully aid their plans, and, in great measure, supply the place of a committee. A remarkable spirit of christian philanthropy seems to pervade the whole family. The devotedness and selfdenial of the dear Count and his estimable wife, are very remarkable. Though brought up in affluence in their younger years, they submit to live, with their own eight children, and a few faithful friends, under the same roof with one hundred and twelve destitute children,* subject to be called upon almost every hour of the day to attend to some details of the establishment, or to inquiries connected with it. The children receive sufficient school instruction, and, above all, have much religious care extended to them, great pains being taken to lead them to a knowledge of their God and Saviour. The pleasing proofs of a grateful affection, evinced by many of those who have been brought up in this establishment, have cheered the Count and Countess in their arduous labours. In one of his reports he says, • Great are our wants sometimes greater than our faith; therefore, I hold up one of my hands to the Father in Heaven, without whose notice not a sparrow falls to the ground, and I stretch out my other to you, dear christian friends, who may have received much of the goods of this life-a talent to be employed in the cause of the kingdom of God, for your assistance in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and instructing those who are ignorant of their duties to God and to man.' 999 In the 5th month, the company arrived in England, after an absence of ten or eleven weeks. Though William Allen had now reached what was formerly deemed the usual limit of human life, his concern for the improvement of the poorer classes did not permit him to remain long at home; for we find him in the summer of the same year travelling through some parts of Ireland, with a view of promoting agricultural plans for the labouring poor. With his labours in their cause, he appears to have felt satisfied. Shortly after his return from Ireland, W. Allen left home on a visit to the continent, which proved his final one. But of this journey our limits will not admit of any particular account. There is one circumstance, however, which came under his notice, which appears too interesting to be passed over in silence. In the neighbourhood of Stuttgard he visited an establishment, under the care of a man named Hoffman, of which the subsequent account is given. "One first-day afternoon, in the year 1822, several guests were dining with Hoffman, when a lit le boy, between five and six years of age, came from a neighbouring district to ask for The number is now increased to one hundred and ixty. 6 awakened by the exposed situation of children, who at so early an age were trained to gain a subsistence by begging, considering that they would probably, by little and little, become idlers and thieves: and he thought, if he were rich enough, he would build a house for destitute children, where they should be lodged and boarded, receive school instruction, and be trained up in industry; but this was not in his power. The company conversed for some time upon the subject, and, on rising from table, one of the guests went up to him and gave him a twentyfour kreutzer piece, saying, Do not abandon the idea of building a house for destitute children.' The same year Hoffman had a notice printed, in which he first showed the blessing that had attended the establishment of Count Von der Recke's Institution, and then expressed the wishes of himself and his friends, that a similar one should be formed in the neighbourhood of Kornthal; in which poor, destitute, and orphan children, or children of worthless parents, might be boarded, clothed, and educated, either gratuitously, or for a very small sum. The parties expressed their desire to know the will of God in this matter, and wished to ascertain whether the needful support would be obtained from benevolent individuals, who were friendly to the cause. They soon received very encouraging letters, with assurances of support, and the institution at Beuggen was mentioned as a cheering example of success. "Towards the middle of the year 1823, Hoffman announced that the proposed building was about to be commenced, and solicited funds in aid of the undertaking. Contributions accordingly flowed in from all quarters, both far and near, and stones, wood, and labour were freely offered. The King subscribed liberally, and in a few months, half the house was opened for the reception of the children, ten of whom were first admitted, but the number was soon increased, and in the summer of 1825, when the second half was completed, it amounted to fiftyseven. The following year the report bears a mest satisfactory testimony to the improvement of the children, in many of whom, it is stated, 'a joyful change had taken place.' During the last fourteen years, the average number at Kornthal has been about seventy: the plan of employing them in manual labour answers well; and the healthiness of their occupation, as well as of their situation and manner of living, is proved from the fact, that, during this period, notwithstanding many, when they first came, were, through neglect, weakly or diseased, there have only been two deaths in the institution." At the close of the year 1840, he remaiks:"This year I have spent five months on the continent, and travelled about five thousand miles, *Valued at twenty-two cents. by sea and land, and I have gratefully to acknow- | some medicine. It will taste badly, and make ledge the goodness of our Almighty Preserver, you feel badly for a little while, and then I exwho supported me and kept my spirits from ut-pect it will make you feel better." The doctor terly sinking in low seasons. Though sometimes I am afraid to call myself the Lord's servant, and am almost ready to wonder that I should feel peace in attempting publicly to advocate His blessed cause, yet I may acknowledge that through the influence of His Holy Spirit, He has, at some favoured seasons, enabled me to preach His everlasting gospel to my own humbling admiration. "O, I have very distinctly felt that the power and ability were solely from Him, and that no merit attaches to my poor self. To Him be all the praise of his own work!" prepared the medicine, and the boy took it like a man, without any resistance; and he would take from his mother anything that the physician had prescribed, but would take nothing else from her. She had so often deceived him, and told him "it was good," when she gave medicines, that he would not trust to anything she said. But he saw at once that Dr. B. was telling him the truth, and he trusted him. He knew when he took the bitter draught just what to expect. This simple incident contains instruction of deep and solemn importance, deserving the careful consideration of every parent.-London Saturday Journal. For Friends' Review. The remaining portion of his life was spent, as most of the preceding had been, in active exertions to increase the happiness of his fellowmen, and fulfil his allotted duties in the militant MEMOIRS OF ELI WHITNEY, INVENTOR OF church. On the 30th of 12th month, 1843, after an illness of no great duration, he was quietly released from the conflicts of time. It is very possible that some of our readers, who have had the opportunity, either through the medium of this Review, or the much more extended narrative of his biography, to observe the ardour with which, during great part of his life, he pursued the acquisition of knowledge; the facility with which he appeared to unite in the multiplied schemes that presented for relieving the wants of the poor; and the intimate intercourse which he maintained with men in the upper ranks of society, may be ready to suppose that he had in his composition too much of the courtier and man of the world, to be a humble and devoted follower of a meek and crucified Saviour. Yet the writer of this notice can bear his testimony to the belief, that a careful inspection of his writings, with a just regard to their general import, must lead to the conviction, that his attainments in science, rectified and subdued as they were, only increased the depth of his reverence for the incomprehensible Author of nature; that his intercourse with the great ones of the earth was employed solely to enlist their influence and power in the cause of religion and humanity; and that in his movements through life he was eminently careful to set his Divine Master at his right hand that he might not sin against him. SPEAK THE TRUTH TO YOUR CHILDREN. Dr. B. was called to visit a sick boy, twelve years of age. As he entered the house, the mother took him aside, and told him she could not get her boy to take any medicine except she deceived him. "Well then," said Dr. B. "I shall not give him any." He went to the boy, and, after an examination, said to him, "My little man, you are very sick, and must take THE COTTON GIN. He was born at Westborough, Massachusetts, near the end of 1765. His father was a farmer, in the middle class of society. Indications of a mechanical genius were developed at an early age. His father had a workshop with a variety of tools, including a turning lathe, where young Whitney used to employ himself in the construction of various pieces of mechanism, to the frequent astonishment of beholders. The structure of a watch greatly excited his curiosity, but as he was not permitted to examine the interior of this admirable machine, he seized the opportunity which was afforded by his father going to meeting on a First day morning, and leaving him and his watch at home, not only to inspect its motions, but to take it entirely to pieces; and so dexterous was he, that he put the whole together so completely as to elude discovery, until he disclosed the circumstance himself several years afterwards. When fifteen or sixteen years of age, he used to employ a portion of the time which he could abstract from the labours of the farm, in the construction of knife blades and other articles, which exceeded the skill of the country artisans. As he approached the period of manhood, he became anxious to procure a collegiate education, but was unable to accomplish it until he was in his twenty-fourth year. The cost was chiefly, if not wholly, defrayed by himself; partly by the profits of his mechanical skill, and a village school which he taught for a time previous to entering the college, and partly by the products of his industry after leaving it. During his residence at Yale College, one of the tutors mentioned in his hearing, an interesting philosophical experiment which he would gladly exhibit to his class, but that the apparatus was out of order, and must be sent abroad to be repaired; when he offered to undertake the task himself, and actually performed it, to the entire satisfaction of the Faculty of the College. At the end of about three years, E. Whitney obtained his diploma, and soon afterwards made an engagement as a private tutor in a family in Georgia. On his voyage to the South he had the company of the widow of General Greene, who was returning to her residence near Savannah. As he had recently passed through the small pox, and was not entirely recovered, she invited him to take up his residence with her, till his health was restored. As a requital for this hospitality, he procured the virus, inoculated all the servants of the household, more than fifty in number, and had the satisfaction to see them pass safely through the disease.* Upon his arrival in Georgia, he was informed that the man in whose service he was engaged, had employed another tutor, and he was consequently left without resources, in a strange land, and with no other friends than those whom he found in the family of the widow Greene. She, however, encouraged him to undertake the study of law, and to make her house his home. This offer was accepted, and his legal studies commenced; but a circumstance, trivial in itself, soon brought his mechanical skill into view, and gave a new direction to his pursuits. The widow was engaged in a piece of embroidery, in which she used a frame, called a tambour; but which she found badly constructed, and apt to tear the delicate threads of her work. Eli Whitney, hearing her complaint, set to work, and speedily produced a tambour frame, upon a plan entirely new, which she and her family regarded as a remarkable proof of ingenuity. Not long after this event, a large party, composed chiefly of officers who had served under General Greene, met at the residence of his widow; when the conversation turning upon the state of agriculture among them, some of the company expressed great regret that there were no means of separating the seed from the wool of the green seed cotton. It was observed that the lands which were unsuitable for rice would yield large crops of cotton, but until ingenuity could devise some machine which would greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, it was in vain to think of raising cotton for the market. Separating one pound of the clean staple from the seed, was considered a day's work for a woman, and probably a man would do very little if any more. This business was usually performed in the evening, after the labours of the field were over, when the slaves of all ages, and both sexes, were collected in circles, under the eye of an overseer. We may then readily conceive that a company of tired and sleepy negroes would make dull work of it. Our narrative gives no information respecting the condition of these servants. Their number, and the facility with which they were intrusted to the charge of such a neophite in medical science, suggests an apprehension that most of them were slaves. While the men were conversing on the subject, the widow Greene remarked, "Apply to my friend, Mr. Whitney, he can make any thing." She then conducted them to the room where her tambour frame and some other specimens of his ingenuity were to be seen; and subsequently introduced them to Whitney himself, and recommended him to their notice and friendship. He modestly disclaimed all pretensions to mechanical genius; and when they explained their object, he replied that he had never seen either cotton or cotton seed in his life. But his attention was arrested to the subject; and as the season was past when cotton in the seed was readily found, he went to Savannah and searched among the boats and warehouses till he found a small parcel, which he carried home. The widow Greene, either previous to this time or not long afterwards, became the wife of Phineas Miller, a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College. To this man Whitney disclosed his intentions, and a work-shop was assigned him, to which none but his patrons, Miller and his wife, were admitted. Employing such rude materials as a Georgia farm could supply, he made the requisite tools and drew his own wire, of which the teeth of the first gins were composed; an article not then to be found in the market of Savannah. In the course of the winter, he proceeded so far in the machine that very little doubt was entertained of ultimate success. As nothing but a ready method of clearing the fibre from its seed was wanting to render the cultivation of cotton a source of great emolument to the planters of Georgia, a number of men from various parts of the state were invited to see the new machine and witness its performance. We are not clearly inforined what quan tity was cleaned in a day by the gin first exhi bited; but we find it stated in a letter to President Jefferson, written in the autumn of that year, that fifty pounds of clean cotton was the stated task of a negro for one day. Hence, it appears that about fifty times as much green seed cotton could be cleaned with the gin, as without it. The importance of the invention was quickly perceived, and the inventor was urged to secure the profits of his ingenuity by a patent; but he was aware of the difficulty which was likely to attend an attempt to enforce the patent law, in case the machine should answer their expecta tions; and he therefore inelined to pursue his legal studies, as a more probable means of profitable employment. But his friend, P. Miller, proposing to join in the enterprize, a partnership was formed, under the firm of Miller and Whitney, in which it was agreed that the forraer should defray the expenses of maturing the invention till the patent was obtained; and that the profits afterwards derived from the sale and use of the gin, should be equally divided between |