There are very few places in the world that bear the mark of progress so strongly as this town, destined, beyond all doubt, to be the Manchester of the United States, and to enter—­indeed it is now entering—­into active rivalry with the Old Country in her staple manufactures, cottons and woollens.  In the year 1821, few visited the small, quiet village, of about 200 inhabitants, situated in a mountain-nook at a bend of the Merrimac, at a point where that stream fell in a natural cascade, tumbling and gushing over its rocky, shallow bed, quite unconscious of the part it was to play in the world’s affairs.  This village was twenty-five miles north-west of Boston, not on a high-road leading anywhere; but, nevertheless, it began to move on, as usual, by the erection of a saw-mill, as at that point it was found convenient to arrest the downward progress of the timber, and convert it into plank.  And so it went on, and on, step by step, till it became the splendid town it is, so large as to have two railway depots:  one in the suburbs, and the principal one in the centre of the town—­for the Yankees think the closer their railways are to the town the better.

Lowell now covers five square miles, with handsome, straight streets; the principal one, Merrimac Street, being a mile and a half in length, and about sixty feet wide, with footways twelve feet wide, and rows of trees between them and the road.  The appearance of this street reminds the spectator of the best in France.  The loom-power of a manufacturing place, I understand, is estimated by the number of spindles, and this works 350,000; the mills employ 14,000 males, and 10,000 females; the number of inhabitants reckoned stationary, 12,000.  It has lately been raised to the dignity of a city by a charter of incorporation, which, in the state of Massachusetts, can be claimed by any town when the number of its inhabitants amounts to 10,000:  thus it appoints its officers, and manages its own affairs, as a body corporate and municipal.

The most striking feature of the social system here, is the condition of the mill-workers, of which, as it is so different from ours, I shall give you some particulars.  The corporation of Lowell has built streets of convenient houses, for the accommodation of the workmen; and nine-tenths of these are occupied by the unmarried.  These houses are farmed by the corporation to elderly females, whose characters must bear the strictest investigation, and at a rent just paying a low rate of interest for the outlay.  They carry on the business under strict rules, which limit the numbers, and determine the accommodation of the inmates, two of whom sleep in one room.  Females, whose wages are 12s. per week, pay 6s. 6d. per week for board and lodging; for males, the wages and cost of board are about 15 per cent. higher.  These females are housed, fed, and dressed as well as the wives and daughters of any tradesman in Edinburgh or London.  The hours of work at the mills leave