for doing so, nor could he invite the owner to dine with him at one of his handsome entertainments without some sort of introduction. He was very anxious to effect an intimacy with Montacute, because he really believed that he could realize a very pretty property if he could get a share in the works, or a hold on the proprietor of them. It would give stability to his credit as a banker, to be known as the joint-owner of so flourishing a concern as the Coalbrook Tinned-plate Works.

He turned the matter over and over again in his mind, but turn it which way he would he could see no way of effecting his object. He knew not how to get even on speaking terms with Montacute, for he knew no one who knew him, and all his money matters were transacted without having recourse to the Maythorn Bank. He felt irritated and annoyed, and almost made up his mind to introduce himself by asking permission to see the works, or on some other plea as frivolous and vexatious.

One evening as he sat pondering over this most fruitful source of trouble to him, Ernest Lowe heard a knock at his outer-door, and his servant wished to know if he was at home, as one Mr. Montacute wished to speak to him.

It is needless to say, that Mr. Lowe was at home, and that ere his visiter had been seated many minutes, two bottles of his very best wine, with biscuits and fruit, were placed before him.

This, however, was putting himself to an useless expense, and his servant to unnecessary trouble. Montacute was not a wine-bibber. He needed no stimulant to give him courage to make a mere business proposal, nor was he likely to make a sacrifice of his interests by suffering intoxicating drinks to deprive him of his intellects. He drank two glasses of wine before he proceeded to make known the object of his calling on the banker, and then in a collected, straightforward manner, explained to him the nature of the invention, which he felt assured would prove very profitable, and his wish to obtain some person as a partner, who could supply the capital necessary for carrying it out.

Ernest Lowe listened attentively, and without hesitation, closed with the proposal that had been made to him. In a few days the necessary papers were prepared and signed, and the patent secured. The old works were speedily levelled to the ground, and new ones erected in their place. In a very few years additions were made to them, workmen's cottages erected, and what had been a mere handful of huts, was now a large and populous village,

A change as great as had taken place in the works, had been effected in the cottage-not in the building, for that remained as it had stood for years-but in the inhabitants. Mr. and Mrs. Montacute were no longer nobodies. They visited and received visiters; kept a carriage, and were on intimate terms with the neighbouring gentry, but with none so intimate as with Ernest Lowe, "the friend of the family," and partner both as banker and tinned-plate worker with Montacute, under the names and titles of Lowe, Montacute, and Company. The bank was left to the senior partner to conduct it, and the junior was engaged entirely at the works.

Prosperous were they beyond their fondest hopes; but as riches in

creased, avarice gained ground in their hearts. Money, money, money, was their cry-it was indeed their God. Their influence was such in the borough of Maythorn, that, with the aid of the lawyer, they could return the member, and they would return no man who would not pledge himself to introduce and support measures that were calculated to forward the interests of trade at the expense of agriculture. Their object was to lower the prices of provisions, that they might lower the wages of their workmen, and so gain larger profits, and make their fortunes more speedily. They had already adopted the truck system with their "hands," and paid their wages in bread, meat, and grocery, and even in articles of dress.

As they had some difficulty in procuring a gentleman to represent Maythorn, who would carry out their views to the full extent, Mr. Ernest Lowe suggested that his partner should come forward and represent the borough, or rather the iron-works himself.

This, as Mr. Lowe expected, he declined doing, under the plea that he could not, without great detriment to the business, absent himself from Coalbrook. Mr. Lowe therefore kindly undertook the M.P.ship himself, and was returned without any opposition.

He placed a responsible person in the bank, and went to reside in the mansion, formerly occupied by the family who, for so many years, had sent the Member for Maythorn to Parliament, but who were now so much reduced by many untoward circumstances, as to be obliged to dispose of the family property, and retire to some humbler and distant home.

Here Mr. Ernest Lowe "carried on the war," as he called it, most gloriously. The house was refurnished from garret to cellar. Wines of the finest vintages were purchased at the highest prices. Pictures were sent down by waggon-loads at a time. Artists and dealers were there for months cleaning, fresh backing, and hanging them in the most favourable lights.

The library was cleared of its ponderous volumes, and left to the good taste of a first-rate bookseller, to be remodelled and fitted up after the newest fashion, and with the most expensive modern works. Then there was a billiard-room and table erected; a music-room furnished with harps and pianofortes, and all sorts of music. In short, every body said that Ernest Lowe had most princely notions, and deserved to be as rich as he was.

Hothouses for

Out of doors the same spirit was exhibited. peacheries, pineries, and graperies, were erected. The garden was filled with the choicest fruit-trees and flowers. The stable department was unexceptionable; and in carriages, Ernest Lowe might have competed with Long Acre itself for style and variety of build.

"What a capital fellow Lowe is," said the great and demi-great who ate of his good dinners, drank his choice wines, partook of his forced fruits, played at his billiard-table, rode his horses, and lolled in his chariots, phaetons, or britchskas. But what did the poor say? Nothing aloud. They whispered indeed that it was not as it was in the olden time. They were employed and were paid for their labour; but where were their little comforts to which the old family never neglected to attend? Where were the blankets and warm hose, thick shoes, and

comfortable cloaks and coats at Christmas. Where were the bibles and prayer-books with which each of their children was supplied when the village schoolmaster or mistress announced the child's ability to use them? Where were the baskets of meat, wine, and jellies for the recovering sick; and the medicines, broths, and gruels while their illness lasted? Gone-all gone.

The village schools were turned into dog-kennels, and the children as soon as they were able to clean iron plates, were sent to the works to wear out their puny frames amidst the smoke and heat of sulphureous furnaces.

The character of the population--the rising generation-was entirely altered both in appearance and in principles. The men became half infidels and whole politicians. The women no longer reverenced chastity, but shared in the orgies of their husbands, and indulged in language too horrible to be recorded. Morality had fled from Maythorn-infidelity and licentiousness reigned in her stead.

Mrs. Montacute, I must say in justice to her, did all she could to stay the torrent of vice; but she could do but little. She was kind to the poor, and would have educated the children had it been in her power. The parents, however, cared for nothing but the means of indulging in their debaucheries, and sent their children to work as soon as they could procure them admission to the factory, that they might thus add to their earnings, and procure an increase of their indulgencies.

Montacute himself was an altered man. He received the remarks of his wife on the moral, or rather immoral, condition of the factory children, and their ignorance of the simplest religious obligations, with a smile which might safely have been called a sneer, and intimated that education, except in mechanics, was useless to them; that they could not spare the time-for time was money, and other similar remarks, which issue from the lips of those who worship Manimon, and look on human beings as mere instruments in his service.

The clergyman of the neighbouring borough exerted himself strenuously to remedy the evil which he saw was increasing; but his exertions were vain-the parents would not go to church, nor compel their children to attend the Sunday schools, which he had had enlarged to meet the necessities of a rapidly increasing population. He was unsupported by the great men of the town and neighbourhood, who seemed to think of nothing but joining in some speculation or another to enable them to compete in wealth and luxurious living with the partners of the firm of Lowe, Montacute, and Company.

He

The head of the firm, Mr. Ernest Lowe, was still a bachelor. spent most of his time in London, or in a pretty little cottage on Wimbledon Common, during the sitting of the house. When the sessions were over, he returned to Maythorn Manor, accompanied, or followed in a few days, by a crowd of curious characters of both sexes. There were actors and actresses, poets and poetesses, authors and authoresses, musicians, singers, gentlemen and ladies with no apparent means of living, wits of the first water, billiard players, deep hands with a hand of cards, pugilists, horse-jockeys, and funny fellows, who sang comic songs, imitated pigs and poultry, ventriloquized, and performed all

sorts of pleasant practical jokes. The house, in fact, contained a concentrated essence of wickedness and debauchery.

The country ladies declined visiting Maythorn Manor during the shooting-season, which was the period when debauchery was rife within its walls, but the gentry were, with a few favourable exceptions, delighted to share in the orgies, and participate in the revelries that were carried on day after day, and night after night.

Of the effects of such a pernicious example upon the lower orders, I need hardly speak. Marriages in Maythorn were of rare occurrence, though the number of its inhabitants did not decrease. Great was the increase of the number of beer-shops and spirit-houses. The brewer and the spirit-merchant became flourishing men. Their customers were ragged and wretched.

CHAP. III.

TIME flew on, as the old fellow always does, with rapid wings. The young Montacute had finished his education at a public school, and was entered at Cambridge. His father had in his boyhood destined him for his successor at the works; but prosperity altered his views as much as it had altered himself. He determined to bring his son up to one of the liberal professions-he did not care which. He resolved to educate him with that view, but to leave the choice of law, physic, or divinity to himself.

The hopeful boy had already made up his mind to follow neither one nor the other, but to wait, as he said, until "the governor was turfed," and then to spend the earnings of a long and successful life, as a man of independent property should do, which, in his estimation, was precisely as Mr. Ernest Lowe was doing at Maythorn Manor. He resolved to "get his hand in" by practising on a small scale as soon as he should go up to reside at Cambridge.

An event occurred, however, which put an end to these very prudent resolves.

I have already described the enlargement of the factories, and the great increase of the population of Coalbrook. There were at this time upwards of five hundred men employed at the works, besides women and children. The great weekly expense incurred in paying such a multitude, although it was principally in food and goods, induced the proprietors to take advantage of a slight fall in the market to lower the wages of the workmen.

The " screw was applied," and caused much dissatisfaction, which showed itself at first in murmurings, and surly, sulky looks. After a while, meetings were held, and those who had been political orators in the various drinking-shops, were converted into promoters of rebellion against their employers. Meetings were held nightly, and eventually a strike was resolved upon.

A committee was formed to wait upon the masters, and demand an increase of wages, and those wages to be paid in money, and not as heretofore, in dear and bad provisions, and inferior articles of clothing.

This committee was formed by drawing lots, and the ten men who drew these lots, would willingly have declined the office which fortune had imposed upon them. One among them, however, a daring, dissolute fellow, a scoffer at religion, and a leveller of all ranks in society, threatened, that if they refused to act as they had sworn to do, he would go to Mr. Montacute and make him acquainted with the conspiracy which had been formed. He also told them that he should recommend him to shut up the works, and starve the hands into submission.

These threats had the desired effect. They went to their master in a body. Hunter, the mob orator, agreed to be the speaker.

Mr. Montacute was just sitting down to a seven o'clock dinner, when the committee were seen approaching the cottage. He started and turned pale, for he suspected the object of their visit. He went out to meet them, and demanded of them what they wanted.

Hunter respectfully but firmly intimated their wishes. The master listened to them attentively, but replied that he could do nothing in the matter without consulting his partner, who was then in London. He promised to write to him on the morrow, and communicate the result to the men so soon as he should have received an answer.

The committee went away, and the master went to his dinner, but with very little appetite for the dainties set before him. There was a something in the look of the hands which boded serious mischief, and his conscience whispered him that justice was on their side.

Before he retired for the night, he wrote a long letter to Mr. Ernest Lowe, explaining what had occurred, and stating his fears of the result.

The answer was

"Dear Sir,

"Call upon the magistrates to swear in a body of special constables, close the works, and starve the scoundrels. "Your faithful friend,

"E. LOWE."

Upon this wicked advice Montacute was wicked enough to act. When the hands came to the works on the following day, they were told that their services were no longer required, unless they consented to work upon the same terms as they had hitherto done. This, Hunter, on behalf of his fellow-workmen, declined doing, and the works were closed.

During the whole of this day the beer-houses and spirit-shops were filled with men, and groups of women might be seen standing in various parts of Coalbrook and Maythorn. Individuals were now and then seen passing from one group to another, conveying interesting tidings in whispers. None of the committee of ten were observed during the day, and Hunter kept himself quite close in his own. lodgings.

The shops were all closed, but why no one knew, as there was no sign of an outbreak, or of any violent act being meditated. The Mayor of Maythorn had, at the suggestion of Mr. Montacute, sworn in some sixty or seventy special constables, who having been cautioned to be