ance of the children in his employ, and of the other children in the families, at day-schools or Sunday-schools. He will use his influence to induce his workpeople to attend religious worship, leaving them as free as air to select their own religious teacher. He will see that each family has a Bible. He will endeavour to put within the reach of his work people a well-selected library, including some of the best books, religious as well as of general instruction and entertainment. He will be the foremost man of his neighbourhood in promoting mechanics' institutions, eveningschools, well-regulated benefit societies, and every society calculated to diffuse intellectual and moral advantages. Above all, he will promote the building of places of worship and Sundayschools adequate to the wants of the population. In these respects he will be as far from adopting the tone of the dictator, as from acting in the spirit of the exclamation, Am I my brother's keeper?' He will be as far from wishing to control the consciences of his workpeople, as from neglecting their best interests for time and eternity. He will rather help, animate, and influence their exertions, than assume the direction of them. A conscientious sense of duty, true benevolence, and good sense, will suggest both what he should do, and what he should avoid.

It is a proud and happy thing to fill so eminent a position when its duties are faithfully discharged. The enlightened, benevolent, public-spirited, and pious mill-owner, may be the spring of countless blessings to his neighbourhood. We rejoice to know that there are many such, and that they diffuse around them as much happiness as a working population can enjoy. We would hold them up to the emulation of all their class. The immoral and irreligious mill-owner, on the other hand, or the man who cares nothing for his workpeople, except as tools wherewith to carry on his business, is a disgrace to his order, and often a curse to his dependents.

It is our belief that the prosperity of a manufacturing establishment will generally bear some relation to the good order, not only of its machinery, but of the sentient and rational beings by whom it is attended. Industry, care, watchful attention, and cheerful service, are the natural accompaniments of good morals, and the appropriate reward of the master who has promoted the well-being of his workmen. It is therefore the true interest of the master to care for the moral state of all who are in his employ.

And in another respect it is the interest of the mill-owners to discharge the duties imposed upon them by their position. So doing, they are least likely to be interfered with by unwise and mischievous legislation. It is highly probable that the admirable

state of many of the largest manufacturing establishments has contributed not a little to prevent the passing of a more stringent factory act; and certainly the cruel disregard of their workmen, by some of the smaller and more needy mill-owners, before the year 1832, mainly tended to provoke factory legislation. The more, then, the state of the factory workers is improved, the more secure will the proprietors be from legislative intermeddling.

One more important advantage results to the mill-owner whose workmen are moral and happy. His property is safer from private malice or public disorder. There are, doubtless, elements of danger in a dense manufacturing population, amongst whom discontent spreads rapidly, and is dangerous in proportion to the ignorance, immorality, and distress that prevail. There cannot be a question that the mill-owner, who is known as a just, upright, benevolent, and good man, will have many friends and few enemies, and that his person and property will be proportionably secure. A body of the working class, amongst whom there are many well-instructed men, and men who have been kindly treated, must be far less liable to inflammation and disorder than a demoralized population.

On every ground, then, of duty and interest, the mill-owners are called upon to promote the improvement and moral welfare of their workmen. Thus acting, whilst their own prosperity is advanced, they will be deservedly regarded as benefactors of their country.

ART. V. (1.) Meteorological Observations and Essays. By JOHN DALTON, D.C.L., F.R.S. First Edition, 1793. Second Edition, 1834.

(2.) A New System of Chemical Philosophy. By JoнN DALTON. Part I., 1808. Part II., 1810. Vol. II., 1827.

(3.) Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, from 1793 to 1836.

THE recent decease of Dalton, the greatest of English chemists, and one of the most distinguished cultivators of general physics, has naturally awakened a desire, on the part of many, to know something concerning his scientific discoveries and personal history. No satisfactory account has been hitherto published either of the former or the latter. We trust that the following sketch will go some way towards supplying this deficiency.

John Dalton was born at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, in

Cumberland, on the 5th of September, 1766. His father, Joseph Dalton, was originally a person of no property, but after the death of an elder brother, he became possessed of a small copyhold estate, which he farmed with the assistance of his sons. He had six children, of whom only three survived to maturityJonathan, John, the subject of this article, and Mary. The firstnamed of these obtained the estate on the decease of his father, and retained it till his own death, in or near the year 1835, when it became the property of John Dalton.

Joseph, the father, though straitened in circumstances, strove to give his family the best education within his means, and John attended a school conducted by a member of the Society of Friends, named John Fletcher, until he had attained his twelfth year. We have no means of knowing anything concerning the nature or amount of the instructions which he received at this school, (the only one he ever attended;) but he is said to have made very considerable progress in knowledge,' and he always spoke with respect of his early preceptor. That he did make such progress, and that he gave early proof of rare energy and natural capability, we may gather from the fact, that at the age of twelve or thirteen, he commenced a school in his native village, and persevered in teaching during two winters.

So modest, unassuming, and conscientious a man, as Dalton proved himself in after-life to be, must have been conscious, even at that early age, of the possession, both of knowledge, and of the power to impart it, or he would not have committed himself to so difficult a task. How he prospered in it we are not told, but probably not greatly, for we learn that his vacant time was occupied in assisting his father upon his. farm; and he is said to have taken part in the labour of altering the farm house. He manifested a strong tendency towards mathematical pursuits when very young, and had some assistance in the prosecution of his taste in that respect from a gentleman named Robinson, who, along with his wife, an accomplished woman, directed the studies of the young philosopher.

In 1781, at the age of fifteen, Dalton removed to Kendal, where his cousin, named George Bewley, then resided, as the teacher of a boarding school, with whom the brother of Dalton had lived as an assistant. Dalton succeeded his brother in this office, and resided in Kendal till 1792, actively engaged in learning and teaching mathematics and the physical sciences. During his residence in that town, he attracted the attention of Mr. Gough, a blind gentleman, who, in spite of his misfortune, was devoted to the study of physics and natural history. Mr. Gough had an excellent library and some appa

ratus, which he placed freely at the disposal of Dalton, who soon became his assistant and companion. The service required was of a light and pleasant description, and the blind philosopher, who was possessed of excellent natural abilities, and had obtained a liberal education, appears to have acted the kindest part to-. wards Dalton, who, in return, was never weary of expressing his sense of obligation to his benefactor. When Dalton published his Meteorological Essays, in 1793, he said, in reference to Mr. Gough-If there be anything new, and of importance to science, 'embraced in this work, it is owing, in great part, to my having 'had the advantage of his instructions and example in philo'sophical examination.' And although we may believe that Dalton's modesty led him somewhat to over-estimate his obligation to Mr. Gough, there can be no doubt that a person whose early education had been comparatively so neglected, must have derived the greatest benefit from intercourse with such a person as the latter is described to have been. After his death, and so late as 1834, Dalton spoke of him as a prodigy in scientific attainments, considering the disadvantages under which he laboured, and added

There are few branches of science in which he did not either excel, or of which he had not a competent knowledge. Astronomy, optics, pneumatics, chemistry, natural history in general, and botany in particular, may be mentioned.

For about eight years,' continues Dalton,' during my residence in Kendal, we were intimately acquainted. Mr. Gough was as much gratified in imparting his stores of science as I was in receiving them; my use to him was chiefly in reading, writing, and making calculations and diagrams, and in participating with him in the pleasure resulting from successful investigations; but as Mr. Gough was above receiving any pecuniary recompence, the balance of advantage was greatly in my favour, and I am glad of having this opportunity of acknowledging it.'

From the year 1784 to 1794, we find Dalton contributing largely to two works, of some celebrity in their day, but_now little remembered, entitled, 'The Gentleman's and the Lady's Diary.' In 1788, he commenced his meteorological observations, which led, directly or indirectly, to all his great discoveries, and were continued till the day before his death. In 1793, he published his first work- Meteorological Observations and Essays,' to which more particular reference will be made hereafter.

Some time previous to the appearance of that publication, Dalton had thought of qualifying himself to practise either as a physician or a lawyer, and corresponded with a friend in London on the subject. But his views were changed in consequence of the receipt of a letter, by his friend Mr. Gough, from Dr. Barnes,

making inquiry for a gentleman to fill the situation of Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, in the new college, Mosley-street, Manchester. Dalton's offer to undertake the duties was accepted, and he removed, in 1793, to Manchester, where he spent the remainder of his days.

The year after settling in that town, Dalton joined a society, which had been established for some time, under the title of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.' To the transactions of this body-the most celebrated of all our provincial scientific associations-he contributed a series of papers, containing the results of original researches of the highest value. These, along with a few others on kindred subjects, have conferred on the society's periodical publications, best known as the Manchester Memoirs,' a celebrity which has extended beyond the nations of Europe. Dalton resided for about six years within the Mosley-street institution, and continued to officiate there till the college was removed to York, in 1799, when he began to teach mathematics and natural philosophy privately, at the charge, it is said, of eighteen-pence an hour.

In this humble occupation he was engaged, when, in 1804, he unfolded the laws which he had discovered to regulate the proportions in which substances combine chemically with each other, along with the hypothesis, by means of which he accounted for their existence and expounded them. The laws and the hypothesis are generally, though erroneously, taken together, and included under the single title of his Atomic Theory.'

Here, then, we may, for awhile, arrest the course of purely biographical detail, and leaving Dalton teaching his mathematics at eighteen-pence an hour, turn to the consideration of his scientific discoveries.

We need scarcely say that it will not be possible to offer more than the briefest sketch of these; and that even this will be out of our power, unless we confine ourselves to the chief points in relation to them. We shall select, therefore, his 'Atomic Theory' as the main subject of illustration, and consider his other discoveries as they stand related to it. Great unity, and the impress of intellectual consistency, are stamped on all Dalton's labours. With few exceptions, they bear closely and directly upon each other, and on the atomic hypothesis of combining proportion, to which they ultimately led, and round which they naturally group themselves. The method which we shall follow, will serve, accordingly, both to bring out the nature and value of his discoveries in science, and to indicate the train of speculation and inquiry by which he was conducted to them.

As the first step, towards this, we have to consider the