THE EFFECTS OF INDUSTRY AND ENTERPRISE, EXEMPLIFIED IN A SHORT ACCOUNT OF FOUR BROTHERS.

NUMEROUS are the instances in which skill, industry, and perseverance have been able to overcome the disadvantages of birth and situation, and change the face of fortune. By these qualities Dodsley became, from a footman, the wealthy and respected companion of men of the highest eminence in science and literature; and by these, Franklin, from being a journeyman printer, has left behind him a name, equally distinguished for its reputation in philosophy and politics. Time and

chance, indeed, happen to all men; but it is only the man who possesses the qualities above, named who can make time and chance subserve his interests. The prosperity of four brothers of the name of Paris will afford at once an interesting and useful illustration of the truth of these remarks.

These brothers were the sons of an innkeeper, who kept small wine-house at the foot of the Alps. This inn was a solitary house, and without village or hamlet; and all the four brothers were employed as servants, to clean horses, wait at table, &c. All the four were tall and well-made. An event, singular enough, brought them into notice. The French army, of Italy, commanded by the Duke de Vendôme, after the defeat of Marshal Villeroy at Cremona, was in great want of supplies, occasioned by the intrigues of an intendant, who was at enmity with the chief commissary, and hoped by this means to ruin him. The commissary, who saw his danger, travelled the whole length of the Alps, in order to find any method of conveying some supplies over them till others should come up. Happily for him, and for the army, he passed near this lonely inn on the mountain, and made inquiries there, as he had done elsewhere. The innkeeper appeared to have much quickness, and led him to hope that some passage might be discovered for him when his sons returned. They returned towards evening. A consultation took place. The commissary found them possessed of so much intelligence and resource, that he left the matter to them, who engaged to make the transports he required. He sent for his

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convoy of mules as speedily as possible, and, guided by the four brothers, who pursued roads known only to them and to their neighbours, and which were, in truth, very difficult, although short, he passed the Alps without any loss, and joined the army of M. de Vendôme, completely arrested in its progress for want of bread.

After receiving this seasonable supply, which enabled him to pursue his designs, the duke had time to listen to the commissary. The intrigues of the intendant were discovered-his disgrace begun from this period, and the fortune of the brothers Paris began from this time to improve. The commissariat rewarded them, and gave them employment. Their mode of conducting business procured them rapid promotion, secured to them the confidence of their employers, and became the source of great profits to them. At last they became commissaries themselves, got rich, came to Paris to seek a still greater fortune, and found it there. It became, indeed, so great in the end, that they governed every thing, openly and secretly, under the Duke of Orleans; and after short eclipses, became again financiers and controllers-general, acquired immense wealth, made and disgraced ministers, and saw the city and provinces at their feet. After this, who shall say what shall be the limits which shall be assigned to the efforts of skill, industry, and perseverance?

SIR,

SAVINGS' BANKS.

To the Editor of the Family Monitor.

Liverpool, Feb. 7, 1831.

I OBSERVE, in the first number of your valuable work, a very able and very kind letter, entitled "Friendly Hints to Servants." In that letter, the writer makes an allusion to the Banks for Savings. Those excellent establishments are, I believe, pretty well, and generally understood at present; but still it may be useful to show your careful and industrious friends, the domestic servants, by how easy and certain a method they may secure to

themselves comfort and independence when the demands of a young family, or the effects of sickness, or the sure progress of years, may require more from them than the efforts of the passing hour can supply. The following table, taken from Mr. Morgan's calculations, will, I hope, suffice for this purpose, and show the great advantage of laying by sums, which, although so small at present as to be scarcely felt, will very soon swell to a considerable amount. A friend of the writer told him, that one of his servants, out of wages that were under £20 a-year, contrived to have £30 in the Savings' Bank in six or seven years; while another friend states, that a footman in his family saved, during the course of five years, £70, which was found in his box at the time of his death, and which would have amounted to a larger sum, had he placed it in the bank for savings. Wishing every success to your laudable undertaking,

I am, &c.

A. B.

TABLE,

Showing the produce of Weekly Sums, at Compound Interest, 4 per cent.

10th ditto 31 4 3 62 8 7 93 12 10 124 17 3156 1 6187 5 10 218 10 1

116

MEMOIRS OF A FAITHFUL SERVANT.

(Continued from page 73 of No. 2.)

OUR last article concluded with a short character of the Reverend Mr. Freeman, and, notwithstanding the reproach and calumny with which the clerical order is too often assailed by men who cover their hatred of religion under their abuse of its ministers, such is the character of the great majority of the resident clergy at this day. It is not our intention to indulge ourselves in praises of an order which stands in no need of our feeble voice in its behalf, but we cannot omit the opportunity of saying that which is just of a body of men who are the steady friends of their poorer brethren; who spend much of their time amongst them, in teaching, comforting, and directing them," so to pass through things temporal, as finally to lose not the things that are eternal," and who are qualified both by their education and their habits to entertain and communicate sound and practical views of the interests, the duties, and the obligations of their humble and industrious, but less instructed flocks. In visiting the cottage of William's parents, the reverend gentleman very soon took notice of the quiet, docile, and well-behaved little boy. He, on his part, was always ready and pleased to show every mark of respect to the gentleman who was so invariably kind to his good parents and himself; especially as his mother, who had now begun to teach him the Church catechism, took care to explain to him the duty of humility and obedience, so well set forth in that most excellent instruction for youth: so that little William knew that it was his duty to submit himself to all his governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters, and to order himself lowly and "reverently to all his betters." And this leads us to observe how frequently parents neglect to imprint this lesson upon the minds of their children, ahlthoug it be a lesson of the greatest importance to the present and future well-doing of their offspring;—a neglect which is sure in the first place to bring with it its own punishment to the parents, by making the children head-strong, self-willed, and despisers of parental authority and in the next place, to the children, by making them discon

tented with their lot, conceited, insolent, and proud. It is not liberty nor independence of principle, but haughtiness of spirit and impatience of control, which make men unwilling to submit themselves to the station in which God has placed them. All men, it is true, are equal in the sight of God, but it is by no means true that they are, or ever were intended to be, equal with respect to one another. He has ordained, and he will maintain that difference in rank, wealth, and intellect, which occasions the different steps in society-which makes it necessary, in obedience to his word, to render honour to whom honour is due, tribute to whom tribute; and while he governs the world, all classes in it will find that there are those whom they may without servility call, nay whom they cannot without disobedience and impiety refuse to call, their "betters," and to whom it is their bounden duty to "order themselves lowly and reverently." These truths were acted upon by the parents of William, they influenced their own conduct, and were early instilled into their children. The good Rector, in visiting the cottage on a fine July evening, observed to the mother that he had been thinking of a plan by which he might be able to benefit her little boy, if she could spare him from his task of attending to his little brother and sister. This plan was to send him daily to a school in the parish, which he had himself lately established upon the Madras system, which was supported chiefly at his own expense and where he spent a portion of every day. The proposal, it will be readily imagined, was gratefully accepted, for the Grimes were not people to let a little additional labour or trouble stand in the way of their child's true interest. At this school little William quickly distinguished himself, and in a very short time became one of the monitors. William was not remarkable for the quickness with which he could receive instruction; but there were a patience, steadiness, and perseverance about him, that more than compensated for this want of quickness. Whatever he was set to acquire, he gave all diligence to master; what he once mastered he very seldom forgot; so that he was a great favourite with the teachers, and particularly with the Rector. By the time he was thirteen he wrote a good legible hand, understood the common rules in arithmetic thoroughly, and could read distinctly and fluently in his bible. In reading