works of their own
country. I'm sure the poor manufacturers of England have shown the
very noblest spirit with relation to our cause, and so have the silk
weavers and artisans of France,--at least, so I have heard; why should
we not give them a fair share of encouragement, particularly when
they make things that we are not in circumstances to make, have not
the means to make?"

"Those are certainly sensible questions," I replied, "and ought to
meet a fair answer, and I should say that, were our country in a
fair ordinary state of prosperity, there would be no reason why our
wealth should not flow out for the encouragement of well-directed
industry in any part of the world; from this point of view we might
look on the whole world as our country, and cheerfully assist in
developing its wealth and resources. But our country is now in the
situation of a private family whose means are absorbed by an
expensive sickness, involving the life of its head: just now it is
all we can do to keep the family together; all our means are
swallowed up by our own domestic wants; we have nothing to give
for the encouragement of other families, we must exist ourselves; we
must get through this crisis and hold our own, and, that we may do
it, all the family expenses must be kept within ourselves as far as
possible. If we drain off all the gold of the country to send to
Europe to encourage her worthy artisans, we produce high prices
and distress among equally worthy ones at home, and we lessen the
amount of our resources for maintaining the great struggle for
national existence. The same amount of money which we pay for foreign
luxuries, if passed into the hands of our own manufacturers and
producers, becomes available for the increasing expenses of the war."

"But, papa," said Jenny, "I understood that a great part of our
governmental income was derived from the duties on foreign goods, and
so I inferred that the more foreign goods were imported the better it
would be."

"Well, suppose," said I, "that for every hundred thousand dollars we
send out of the country we pay the government ten thousand; that is
about what our gain as a nation would be: we send our gold abroad in a
great stream, and give our government a little driblet."

"Well, but," said Miss Featherstone, "what can be got in America?
Hardly anything, I believe, except common calicoes."

"Begging your pardon, my dear lady," said I, "there is where you and
multitudes of oth