or children, his heirs at law inherit his estate. If there be a widow and children, but no will, the personal estate is divided into thirds, of which the widow takes one, and the children two. If there be a widow only, she takes half the personal estate, and the heirs at law of the husband take the other half. If there be no heirs at law of the husband, the widow takes all the personal estate. A widow is entitled to dower in all cases, unless provided for, by the will of the husband, to her acceptance. If the deceased left no will, nor kindred capable of inheriting, his estate escheats (from a French word meaning to fall, or happen to) to the commonwealth, or state. No such right can accrue to the United States. If there be a widow, all but her dower, in such case, escheats. The right of the state to take, is founded in this :-By the ancient law, every subject held his estate, in land, in some way, from his sovereign. When the tenant died, leaving no one to take his place, and perform duties to the sovereign, in connexion with the estate, the sovereign took the estate to himself, to make a new tenant. The right to take conitnues, though the reason for taking has long since ceased.

338. The judge of probate is authorized, by law, to make an allowance, out of the personal estate, to a widow of an intestate, whether her husband died insolvent, or not. This allowance depends on circumstances, on which the judge is to decide. This is a reasonable and humane provision of the law, as a widow might, otherwise, be utterly destitute, in some cases, though with a family to take care of.

339. If one dies, leaving a will, he is said to die testate; that is, he leaves proof, or testament (testis is a Latin word, meaning witness), of his will; if he dies without leaving a will, he dies intestate. If the first case, his testament disposes of his estate in the other, the law orders (1.) payment of debts; (2.) the distribution of residue of personal estate, as before stated; (3.) assignment of dower; (4.) the real estate, and reversion of the widow's dower, descend in equal shares to the children. Reversion means the right to have the land, after the estate for life, vested in a widow or other person, ends; that is, the land then reverts, or returns, to the heir. If a child dies in the lifetime of the intestate, leaving a child, such grand-child takes the share of the intestate's estate, which its parent would have taken, if living.

340. A female who owns real or personal estate, or both, and who is about to be married, may secure to herself a part, or all of her property, and put it, with the consent of her in

tended husband, beyond his control, and beyond the reach of his creditors, and hold it, for all purposes of security and use, as her own. This is done by a written contract, in which the woman is one party, her intended husband another, and one or more trustees, the third. The right of property is vested in the third party, but for the purpose of paying over to the wife all or some of the income, interest and profits. When the money comes to her hand, she may do with it as she pleases.

341. The contract which is called a marriage settlement, may contain any provisions which the parties see fit to establish; and, among others, that the wife may make a will, to the same effect as though she were an unmarried woman.

342. A widow is entitled to be administratrix of a deceased husband, and take on herself the settlement of his estate; and she may be appointed guardian of her children, if she pleases; but it is not usual to appoint a widow to both these offices.

343. It is one of the most striking defects in our system of education, that females are so generally uninstructed in the substance and forms of business. Much precious time is devoted, in early life, to some accomplishments, which are neglected and forgotten amidst the cares of married life. It would be far more useful to devote that time to make women intelligent, in those affairs which concern them deeply, as mothers, widows and guardians, and in the character of executrix and administratrix; and frequently in other employments, which require a familiarity with the forms of business. In Europe, it is not uncommon for females to have the chief management of important business establishments. They are sometimes members of mercantile houses. It is not to be desired that employments of this nature should be common among the American ladies: they can be much better employed. But, considering the frequent and sudden changes in our country, we may, perhaps, be permitted to say, that to know well the nature of contracts, and the forms in which they should appear, and to be able to keep accounts accurately, and to know the general principles of law by which their interests are affected, may be as useful, as to be able to speak Italian or French, to paint flowers and landscapes, or converse well on the comparative merits of poets and novelists. Not that accomplishments of this nature are overvalued. Everything that tends to enlarge and adorn the female mind, is a positive advantage to society; and no sensible man doubts that his own happiness depends on refinement; and that re

finement depends on the degree of moral, intellectual, and polished acquirement to which women attain. Yet, why should not females be instructed also in their social rights, and in the means of preserving what is their own? and why should they be deprived of the benefit of knowing that they can protect themselves against the barbarism of laws which crept into the social system when women were slaves, and not, as now happily they are, the friends, companions and counsellors of the other sex?

CHAPTER XXVII.

Classification of Persons.

344. THE benefits which arise from disciplining the bodily powers, the moral sense, and the intellectual faculties, consist in this that the human being is thereby enabled to obtain necessaries, and independence, and comfort, and luxuries. These results are got at by devoting one's self to some one of the departments of labor, which arise in society. These departments may be classed, and the classes subdivided almost indefinitely. The subdivisions are more or less numerous, in proportion to the density of population, and the state of the arts and sciences which are known, and in use.

345. The people of any nation fall under some one of these classes. First, those who live by muscular exertion, or simple labor, whose time is their fortune, and who may be said to sell their time, or to exert their bodily powers, in a certain way, for one or more hours, days, months, or years; and who are to be paid therefor an agreed sum, under the name of wages. This class part with nothing in the nature of property. They receive property, that is, money, or its equivalent, for the service which they render to other persons, or for the time and labor which they expend on the property of others. This class of persons is a large one throughout the world; in proportion, more numerous in the old world than in America. It is divisible into other classes, but the distinction which includes all, and separates all from all other classes, is, that they dispose of time for wages.

346. The second class are those, who use bodily powers by means of mechanical instruments, in changing the materials which come from the hand of nature, into such forms,

and fitness for use, as the wants of mankind require. These materials proceed from the surface, or the bowels of the earth; or from its waters; or from animals, which man is permitted to subdue or hold in servitude. This class includes all who are engaged in the mechanic arts. It comprises many and various classes; and, taken collectively, calls (generally speaking) for the exertion of all the faculties, and qualities, and knowledge, and science, which men have, or can

attain to.

347. Without intending to go into minute particulars, we may find in this department, (1.) The knowledge of material substances, their qualities, their adaptation to use; the modes of applying them to use; the effect of combinations of two or more; the changes which art can effect on them; whence and how they originate; in what quantities; how obtained; and through what changes they must pass, to be put in a condition for final use, or consumption.

348. (2.) The application of the abstract rules of art and science, in operating on these natural substances, to bring about the desired purposes. It is hardly necessary to say, that common school attainments are indispensable. To these may be added, all the rules of proportion, or comparative measurements, mathematical calculations and estimates; the whole round of natural and practical philosophy, that is, the action of matter upon matter, in its thousands of forms; the inventions of human genius in overcoming the state of rest, or power of attraction or gravitation to the earth; or in giving to action the desired force, or in preventing it, controlling it, or modifying it, by means of the screw, lever, wedge, pulley rope, inclined plane, and the endless variety of mechanical inventions, in which these original powers are used. To illustrate these general terms, we may trace one of the manufacturing operations, in which the course of labor, the mechanical operation, and the use of its product, may be discerned.

349. A landholder, dwelling in a suitable climate, raises cotton, by the labor of persons to whom he pays wages, or whose labor he can command. By a certain course of culture, the cotton grows, ripens, and is made fit for market. The planter sells it to the manufacturer, and receives for it money, which will be either more or less than enough to cover all the charges and expenses incurred in carrying on the plantation; and enough to live upon, according to his style, and to give him a rent or profit, on the cost of his

plantation, implements, machinery, cattle, &c. &c. If he receive more than enough for these purposes, he is thriving; if less, he is not growing, at least for that season, wealthier, perhaps less wealthy; which may be caused by the diminished or injured state of the crop, by the fall of prices, by the excess of the article above the demand for it, or by political changes. The result, however produced, is, that he takes the sum agreed on between him and the manufacturer, whether he gain or lose by the bargain. There may be, and usually are, many intermediate holders of the article, between the planter and such buyer. The manufacturer, by water or land, or both, places the cotton in his factory. Its cost to him there, is the original and all intervening cost. It is then submitted to the changes which the raw material must go through; as picking, cleaning, carding, spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, printing or stamping, pressing, &c. &c., until it comes forth from this multifarious process, a beautiful, soft, variegated cloth, which, in Queen Elizabeth's time, would have been deemed a luxury of apparel in her sumptuous court. The manufacturer passes it to the hands of the class of persons next after mentioned, for a sum which will cover all that he paid out in the original purchase, and all that he has afterwards expended, and a rent or profit on the whole cost of his manufacturing establishment, comprising all labor, and a great variety of materials necessarily used up in the process. It then passes, probably, through many hands, each one adding something to the cost, until it comes to be a garment, the wearer of which pays the whole cost, from the moment when the cotton seed was put into the ground, up to the time when the garment is put to use, and when all charges, by which profit or loss arises, end. It performs its service, and then goes into the fragment basket, reserved for the paper manufacturer. Here it takes a new start, and becomes an original material in a new process, and re-appears in a sheet of paper.

350. The same theory applies to all processes by which the products of nature are converted, by art, labor, and machinery, into articles for use. It is obvious, that this department of industry must be divided into very many. But the distinguishing characteristic of this class, is, that it operates by the application of bodily power, under that of the mind, to modify, by mechanical implements and machinery, material substances, for human use, comfort, or luxury.

351. (3.) The third class is that very numerous one, who