Outlines of Anatomy and Physiology. Translated from the French of H. MILNE EDWARDS. By J. F. W. Lane, M. D. Boston: Little & Brown. 1841. 8vo. pp. 312. - This is a work of great value, and admirably suited to the wants of our higher schools, and the general reader. It possesses the highest scientific authority, emanating as it does from a man, well known and eminently distinguished in his profession. The translator has done his duty faithfully, and the publishers have done theirs, and the public may buy with an assurance of getting their money's worth, which, in these times of making books "to order," is saying not a little.

The Hour and the Man. By HARRIET MARTINEAU. 1841. 2 vols. 12mo. This, in a literary point of view, is the best of Miss Martineau's productions we have seen. It is upon the whole well sustained, and it indicates a higher order of literary talent than we had given Miss Martineau credit for. She has thrown somewhat of the charm of romance over the negro character, and made us feel as much interest in the fate of her personages, as if they were white men and women. In Toussaint L'Ouverture she has drawn a noble character, and that, too, without deviating far from historical truth. Her book will serve to make us study the past history and present condition of Hayti, and, perhaps, to make us think more favorably of the capabilities of the negro race.

Récits des Temps Mérovingiens, précédés de Considérations sur l'Histoire de France. Par AUGUSTIN THIERRY. 2 tomes. 8vo. 1840. -The name of Thierry is a sufficient guaranty for the interest and value of any work, to which it is attached as author. His narrative always has the charm of a romance, and his philosophical views, which are never unnecessarily obtruded, are profound and just. We always reach the end of one of his historical works with regret, that there is no more of it. His History of the Norman Conquest, which ought to be translated, affords a juster key to English history than any other work we are acquainted with. The work before us, of which two volumes are yet to appear, is designed to sketch the state of society in France under the first race of the Frankish monarchs, in the sixth century, an epoch, in which the barbarians and GalloRomans occupy the same soil; but before their manners have become at all assimilated, and before the population has assumed anything of a homogeneous character. This is done by a series of narratives, which, though historically correct, read very much like romances. The work is preceded by considerations on the history of France, of great value.

66

Boston, March 24, 1841.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE LOWELL OFFERING."

LADIES,I have received the first and second numbers of your periodical, for which I beg you to accept my thanks. Your paper is conducted with spirit and ability, and I read it with pleasure. I am particularly interested in it, for I am told that it is written entirely by girls employed in the Mills. It is highly creditable to their talents and taste, and may turn out to be of no slight advantage to them.

I perceive, ladies, that you labor under a slight mistake in regard to me. You seem to have taken it into your heads that I am hostile to you, and have slandered you. If I may be allowed to be my own interpreter, I have had no thought of speaking disrespectfully of you. My sympathies are with the laboring classes, and I have done what I could to ameliorate the condition of both workingmen and workingwomen. I have been an operative myself for no small portion of my life; I have no sympathies with the aristocracy; I have burned with indignation at the injustice done to those, who are obliged to support themselves by their own labor; and this indignation I have expressed as best I could; and for expressing it, I have fallen under the condemnation of your masters and employers. This alone, it would seem, should be sufficient to satisfy you, that I have had no intention of slandering you.

The passage, which has offended you, I think you must have misinterpreted. I have said nothing against you; I have merely spoken of the injustice the world does you; and I have represented that injustice as great enough to "damn to infamy" the most worthy and virtuous girl, if she be a factory girl. Now, it may be possible, that the feeling I have spoken of is not as strong as I have represented it; but, if you will read the article in which my remark appears, you will perceive, I think, that my object was to rebuke your employers and the community generally, not to speak ill of you.

My offence consists solely in saying, that there is in the community

an unjust prejudice against girls employed in factories. Is not this true? That there is a prejudice against you I know, and that it is unjust, I have not a doubt. You are, in my judgment, every way equal to the daughters of your employers, and far more useful to the community. Will those daughters treat you as equals? Do they invite you to their parties? and would their brothers be willing to select their wives from your midst, providing always, that you were willing to accept them for your husbands?

There is no need of words on this subject. I know, and so do you, that you cannot assume that rank in society, as factory girls, which you could as daughters of factory owners. Moreover, in most places, you know the factory population forms a population by itself. In most factory villages, in which I have been acquainted, I have found that portion of the population not employed in factories, looking down on the operatives in the Mills. I have rarely known a young man, not employed in a factory, choosing a factory girl for his wife; and I know well the strong prejudice that is felt by operatives in other employments against those in factories. You cannot, as a general rule, return to your early homes, after having spent several years in the Mills, without being made to feel, that the phrase "factory girl" has a meaning not the most pleasant.

You yourselves admit, in the article in which you give me so severe a lecture, that there is a prejudice against you, though you contend it is less than it was. I shall be happy to find it less.

I have asserted the existence of this prejudice, and condemned it. I have never charged it to you as your fault, nor have I ever so regarded it. I charge it to the factory system. I am opposed to that system, and opposed to it, among other reasons, because it subjects you to the prejudice of which I have spoken.

Now, my good friends, what sin have I committed against you and your sisters? I have represented you as suffering from the workings of an iniquitous system; I have condemned that system, and asked that you should be better rewarded for your labors. Is this wrong? I have asked for you a social position equal to that of the wives and

daughters of factory owners; is this wrong? Is this to prove myself hostile to you? I have condemned those who grow rich by your labors, while your wages are not enough to enrich you. And is this hostility to factory girls?

No. I have confidence in your good sense, and your love of justice. You have not understood my language in the sense I used it; but have understood it in the sense given it by those who would prejudice you against me, because they fear that, if I am not rendered odious to the community, I may do something to prevent them from fattening on your labors. My enemies are your enemies; and believe me, they laugh right merrily at your simplicity in condemning me. They would, if they could, prejudice you against every man who has the good sense and the firmness to speak out for the laborer. You may believe them rather than me; but you should remember that I have no interest in prejudicing you against them; while they have a strong interest in prejudicing you against me.

I am contending for a social reform; I would put the "plough into the hand of the owner," and also the spindle and the loom. Your employers do not wish for this change. I wish you, the operatives, to be not only operatives but owners. For this I am laboring. Do you not see then that I am laboring for you against your employers? Do not then be caught in their trap. Do not war for your natural enemies against your friends.

But I am wearying your patience. I have addressed you this letter, because I perceived that you felt yourselves wronged, and that I had wronged you. You were entitled to demand of me an explanation. I believe you wronged, deeply wronged; but not by me; for I have merely stated and condemned the wrong which others do you.

I will merely add, that touching the morals of factory girls I have rarely spoken. I saw some publications in a Boston newspaper sometime since, concerning the girls employed in the mills at Lowell. Those publications were not to your credit; and what is worse, they remain to this day uncontradicted. The feeble attempt of a Lowell paper to contradict merely tended to confirm them. For my own

part, I have no reason for believing the morals of factory operatives are materially different from those of the rest of the community; and certainly because some may be bad, I am not the man to infer that all are. With the population of New England factory villages I have had some acquaintance, and I have known individuals employed as operatives in the Mills, to whose morals I could bear a cheerful and an honorable testimony.

You, ladies, have demanded of me an answer. I have given it; and beg leave to subscribe myself,

Yours very respectfully,

EDITOR OF THE BOSTON QUARTERLY REVIEW.