could mean, and chose out of a hundred
conjectures the most feasible, namely:—that
it referred perhaps to the "getting up" of
some portion of a lady's dress, or knocking
up some article of attire or convenience in a
hurry. I asked persons connected with all
sorts of handicrafts and small trades, and
could get no satisfaction. I therefore
determined to enquire at the "Knocking up"
establishment itself. Thither, accordingly, I
bent my steps. On asking for the master,
a pale-faced asthmatic man came forward.
I politely told him the object of my visit,
adding, that from so small a return as 2d.
a week, he ought to get at least half profit.
"Why, to tell you the truth, Sir," rejoined
the honest fellow, "as my occupation requires
no outlay or stock in trade, 'tis all profit."
"Admirable profession!" I ejaculated. "If it
is no secret, I should like to be initiated; for
several friends of mine are very anxious to
commence business on the same terms."

Not having the fear of rivalry before his
eyes, he solved the mystery without any
stipulations as to secrecy or premium. He
said that he was employed by a number of
young men and women who worked in
factories, to call them up by a certain early hour
in the morning; for if they happened to over-
sleep themselves and to arrive at the mill
after work had commenced, they were liable
to the infliction of a fine, and therefore, to
insure being up in good time, employed him
to "knock them up" at two-pence a week.

On further enquiry, he told me that he
himself earned fourteen shillings per week,
and his son—only ten years old—awoke factory
people enough to add four shillings more to
his weekly income. He added, that a friend
of his did a very extensive "knocking up"
business, his connexion being worth thirty
shillings per week; and one woman he knew
had a circuit that brought her in twenty-four
shillings weekly.

There is an old saying, that one half the
world does not know how the other half live.
I question whether ninety-nine hundredths of
your readers will have known till you permit
me to inform them how our Manchester friends,
in the "Knocking up" line, get a livelihood.

STATISTICS OF FACTORY SUPERVISION.

THE Rev. Mr. Baker has recently issued a
pamphlet, defending the moral tone of the
factory system against the charges brought
against it in the Rev. H. Worsley's Prize
Essay on Juvenile Depravity.  We purposely
abstain from discussing the merits of the
controversy, believing that the truth lies
between the two extremes advocated respectively
by the reverend disputants.  Mr. Henry,
however, gives a table of statistics, an abstract
of which we cannot withhold. It shows the
number of spinning and power-loom weaving
concerns in the principal manufacturing
districts of Lancashire and Cheshire; also, the
number of partners, so far as they are known
to the public.

It appears that in Ashton-under-Lyne,
Dunkinfield, and Moseley, there are fifty-three
mills in the hands of ninety-five partners;
Blackburn, and its immediate neighbourhood,
has fifty-seven mills and eighty partners;
Bolton, forty-two mills and fifty-seven partners;
Barnley, twenty-five spinning manufactories
and forty-six proprietors; at Heywood
there are twenty-eight mills in the hands ot
forty-six masters. Manchester, it would
appear, is not so much the seat of manufacture
as of merchandise. Though it abounds in
warehouses for the sale of cotton goods, there
are no more than seventy-eight cotton
factories, having one hundred and thirty-nine
masters. Oldham has the greatest number of
mills; namely, one hundred and fifty-eight,
with two hundred and fifty-two proprietors;
Preston, thirty-eight mills, sixty-two partners;
Stalybridge, twenty cotton concerns and forty-
one proprietors; Stockport, forty-seven mills
and seventy-six masters; while Warrington
has no more than four mills, owned by ten
gentlemen. The total number of cotton
manufactories in these districts is five hundred
and fifty, which belong to nine hundred and
four "Cotton Lords."

Mr. Baker's "case" is that a proper moral
supervision is exercised over the tens of
thousands of operatives employed in these factories;
and that such supervision is not delegated from
principals to subordinates. It would seem,
from his showing, that of the nine hundred
and four proprietors, no more than twenty-
nine do not reside where their concerns are
situated; and that of the entire aggregate of
mills, there are only four in or near to
which no proprietor resides. Lancashire and
Cheshire cotton factories, therefore, are as
regards absenteeism, the direct antithesis of Irish
estates. The consequence is, that while the
former are in a state of average, though
intermittent prosperity, the latter have gone to ruin.

COMIC LEAVES FROM THE STATUTE BOOK.

THE most manifest absurdities while remaining
in fashion receive the greatest respect; for
it is not till Time affords a retrospect that the
full force of the absurdity is revealed. When
men and women went about dressed like the
characters in the farce of Tom Thumb, we of
the present day wonder that they excited no
mirth; nor can we now believe that Betterton
drew tears as Cato in a full-bottomed wig. A
beauty who a dozen years ago excited admiration
in the balloon-like costume of that day,
would now, if presenting herself in full-blown
leg-of-mutton sleeves, excite a smile. The
more intelligent natives of Mexico are now
more disposed to grin than to shudder, as
they once did, at their comical idols. Everybody
has heard of the monkey-god of India.
In our day, those who once adored and dreaded