for so the inmates of their houses are called,-they will ask a poor girl whom they meet, if she wants a place? And, if she answers that she does, the unsuspecting victim is directed to the abode of sin, where, if it shall be possible, her destruction will be accomplished. I have known a girl who was sent to our House of Correction, when she was only fifteen years old, who had thus been inveigled; and who was almost at once transferred from the pandemonium to which a base woman had directed her for service, to the prison in which I met with her. And the inmates of these houses invite there those with whom they are acquainted, holding out to them all the attractions of society and liberty. God help the poor girl, who at once finds it difficult, or impracticable, to support herself by her labours, who is but feebly established in principle, and is exposed to an acquaintance with any of the abandoned of her own sex. If she shall but be brought into the connexion of an hour with one of these female fiends, who are going about seeking the ruin of such as she is, her danger of irretrievable destruction is most imminent. I have but recently attended upon the sick bed of one of the poor girls, who has thus been deluded, and lost. She is twenty-four years old; a child of respectable parents in the country, and she came to this city," to learn the trade of a milliner." While working in a milliner's shop, she became acquainted with a young woman, who frequently went there for articles of dress; with whom, after a time, she would occasionally walk; and by whom, at length, she was conducted to the "boarding-house," of her companion. From that day, virtue and peace were lost. After about three years of progress in sin, she is now on the verge of the grave, into

which she will very soon fall, to appear before her final Judge; where she will meet her who first beguiled, and soon also, him who despoiled her. I asked her, where now is she who led you astray?' Her reply was, she is dead. And have many,' I asked, 'of those with whom you have lived in transgression, also died young?' 'Yes,' was her answer; they die very soon.' It was thought expedient to remove this young woman into the country. I asked her, if she would be carried home? O, no,' she said; I have not seen my mother these two years, and I could not now bear to see her. In a manner not very dissimilar, I doubt not that many poor girls in this city, and in all our cities, are every year immolated, and lost among us.

In following back the seduction, the dishonour and ruin, both of young men, and young women, to their causes, it is not to be forgotten, and it ought to be known to those to whom it is not known, that every lure of which profligacy can avail itself, is employed, to give attraction to the first scenes and circumstances of that course of life, which is soon to end in the deepest degradation and wretchedness. Outward appearances alone being regarded, there is not a stronger contrast exhibited in human life, than in the condition of her, who is brought into the highest class of profligates, and who is receiving the most ample hire of prostitution; and of her, the same individual,-who has descended step by step into the poor, filthy residences, where the lowest of her own sex, with scarcely garments to cover them, the wretched victims of loathsome disease, are daily deadening more and more the little sensibility which remains to them, by intemperance, profaneness and riot;-and are there the companions of men, as

lost to virtue, to shame, and to all that is human, as themselves. From these most miserable abodes, and these most degraded of human beings, there seems indeed little to be apprehended in respect to the virtuously educated among the young. There is nothing conceivable more disgusting, more revolting, than is to be seen there. But there are resorts of impurity, as well for the rich as for the poor; for him or her who is taking the first step in this way to death, as well as for the worn and hardy sensualist, who is brought as near as man can be, to the extinction of all the principles of his moral nature. I know, indeed, that there are some, who pass at once, or seemingly pass at once, into the lowest recesses of pollution and crime. But, for the most part, at least, they have been familiar with the language and spectacle of crime, even from their childhood. They have lived in the neighbourhood, and have breathed the air of guilt, and have perhaps been fed with its earnings, before they ever heard there was such a thing as virtue. There are, however, other and very different habitations of abandoned women. There are houses of ill fame, which cannot be supported but at a great expense; and which, yet, are from year to year supported in all our cities; and with equal prodigality in a time of great and general depression, as in seasons of the greatest prosperity. There are houses, in which abandoned women are living in comparative luxury, and splendor; living apparently at their ease, and possessed of abundant means to gratify their tastes and humours; and where young men and young women, of whom better things might have been hoped, are allured to the wreck of their virtue and their souls. And from whence come these attractions to sin, these re

wards of prostitution? How are these houses supported? And how are their inmates," the boarders" there, enabled to indulge in all the extravagancies of dress, which dazzle and bewilder those, who, when they can obtain employment, can earn but a dollar, or a dollar and a half in a week; and who sometimes are in want of the apparel, which is important for their comfort, or at least for that which they consider as a decent appearance, because they cannot find employment? Here, here is a sin, which cries to heaven,-I will not say for vengeance, but, for a most fearful retribution; and as surely as God is a moral Governor, the day of retribution for this sin will come upon the guilty. And who, I ask again, are the guilty? They are, not less the keepers, and the inmates of these houses, than their SUPPORTERS. They are the young men and the men of every age, the single and the mar. ried men, who at once furnish the means of this guilty luxury; and who are, in the sight of God, the destroyers of the bodies and the souls of those, to whose corruption they are the ministers. I speak plainly on this subject, because it demands plainness. I know that some of the sons of men of fortune here basely squander the treasure, which their fathers' industry and enterprise have accumulated; and that young men who cannot avail themselves of their fathers' property, for the support of all this sin, are gratifying their base propensities by the robbery of their masters, and by overwhelming themselves with debt.-I cannot enlarge on this topic. I would only show, that the evil is various in its causes, and that great numbers are concerned in these causes. And this view of the subject

is important, because, in a more partial consideration of it, we shall not arrive at the most effectual means of resisting, and of checking the evil; and why should we look at the evil at all, if nothing is to be attempted for its remedy?

Unprepared, therefore, as I am to speak with confidence of the extent of the influence of the low wages, for which females are often compelled to work, and of the difficulty which they often find of obtaining work, even at the small prices which are given for it, in leading them to dishonour and crime, I have yet no doubt that this is one of the causes, by which several are brought to debasement and ruin. I would to God, indeed, that it were the children of the poor only, or that it were those of the rich alone, who are thus falling into the deepest depravity! But, in truth, the contagion spreads to not a few of all classes. My attention, however, is called peculiarly to the moral exposures of the poor; to the exposures to crime and misery, which are incidental to poverty. In view of the remedy of the evil, let it then be our first inquiry, may any means be devised of raising the wages of the poor, and thus of improving their condition, by enabling them more entirely to provide for their own support?

To this question, I think, every political economist would unhesitatingly say, no. For, if the proportion which the supply of labourers whether male or female, bears to the existing demand for them, be small, wages will be high. If, on the other hand, the number of labourers be essentially greater than the demand for them, wages will be low. These are elementary principles; and, considered as general principles, we cannot