manufacturers of fancy goods in Glasgow and other parts of Scotland; but that trade had now become unprofitable in consequence of Belgium having entered into competition with it, and having succeeded in transferring the whole of the trade in that article to itself." "Paternal legislation" is a cruel kindness, and its results to the persons protected by it are similar to what happens to children spoilt by the indulgence of their parents; it causes the ruin of the parties they so foolishly try to save. If all the factories in the world agreed to work their mills only fifty-six hours per week, the arrangement might be justifiable; but to grumble at a "falling-off " in the demand for our manufactured articles, that by our policy we have virtually shut ourselves from being able to make as cheap as others, is alike foolish and useless. There is a cause for the demand falling off; if we want to keep up the supply, we must remove the cause that has checked the demand. The law of the "survival of the fittest " applies to manufactures and trades, and our suicidal policy, our stupid attempts to put aside the law of "supply and demand," have lost us the command of the markets of the world. " Thirty-five years ago, Great Britain and Ireland possessed 850,000 flax-spinning spindles, or four and a-half times more than the Continent, which owned 190,000. At present the United Kingdom has 1,292,000 spindles, but continental competitors now possess 1,705,600, or 32 per cent, more than Britain. . . . British spinners are rapidly losing ground in home, as well as in continental markets. . . . The exports of linen yarn for the six years before the Factory Act of 1874 came into operation,.