might have been on another day), James Hargreaves was 'at play,' as the weavers termed it, for want of weft. His wife had given birth to an infant, and was still in bed, and could not spin. The spinning women were all too well employed to give him weft, except as a very great favour, though highly paid; and, now that he was a married man, favours were not so readily obtained. Besides, under ordinary circumstances, his wife could spin more weft than most other women. She was such an extraordi

nary spinner for diligence and speed, that people called herSpinning Jenny.'

James at last determined to step across the waste' and the stone quarry to Peel Fold, and borrow weft. Neighbour Peel he knew to be a careful man: doubtless he would have enough for the lads (Edmund, Robert, and Jonathan, who were on the loom-William was otherwise employed), and might have some to spare. True, he was a shade beyond being careful-he was narrow; but James Hargreaves had taught the boys how to use the fly-shuttle-a recent invention of the Brothers Kay of Bury. He hoped, therefore, they would not refuse a loan of some weft.* James reasoned rightly. He was accommodated with weft, and invited to partake of their frugal supper. Had you been present while the rustic mess was preparing, and Hargreaves was employed in sorting out and counting the copes of weft, you would have observed that the kitchen in which you sat was large enough to hold two looms, a carding stock, a reel, and other implements of in-door and outdoor labour, with space still unoccupied. You would have seen the reeds and headles to be used in the looms when required, hanging from the joists; the oatmeal jannock (the common bread in Lincolnshire in those days), hanging over spars like leather; bundles of yarn; bacon, for family use and for sale; some books, of which one was the Holy Bible, covered with untanned calf-skin, the hair outside a part of the same skin which Robert Peel wore for a waistcoat. You would have seen that he wore a coat of homespun wool, undyed; breeches of the same, tied at the knee with leather thongs; an apron of flannel; stockings made of the undyed wool of a black and a white sheep, mixed; clogs, made of leather above, and wood and iron below; a brown felt hat, once black, turned up behind and at the sides, and pointed before. His sons were dressed in the same manner, except that they had buckles at their knees instead of leather thongs, and waistcoats of stuff like their mother's linsey-woolsey gown, instead of calf-skin. You would have seen or heard that Mrs Peel trod the stone floor in wooden-soled clogs, while the clat-clatting of little Anne gave the same intimation. On seeing the family seated around the table uncovered, you would have observed, by their golden tinged hair, short and curly, that they still retained the Scandinavian temperament of their Danish ancestors, who, as rovers of the sea, are supposed to have brought the lineage and name of Peel to England. Their neighbour Hargreaves, you would have seen, was a short, broadly-formed man, with hard black hair. He did not stand above five feet five; Robert Peel stood five feet eleven inches, rather more.

Being seated, and seeing his wife sit down, he said, ''Lizabeth, are you ready?' to which she, having put a portion of the supper on a platter, to cool for the younger children, and lifted her finger in sign of admonition to be silent and still, answered, Say away, Robert,' and bowed her head. The father looked around, and, seeing that his children had bent their heads and were still, bowed his own, and addressed himself to the Most High. He be sought a blessing on their food, on all their actions, on all their varied ways through life, and for mercy to their manifold sins. To which they all said, Amen.'

Soon after William, the eldest son, came in from Blackburn. He said, Harry Garland and other chapmen had come as far as the Pack Horse, at the Brook, but had gone in there, and he thought Garland was not much short of tipsy; they had been drinking at the Black Bull in Black

The weft of a web is the cross threads wound into copes or pirns, and placed in the shuttle; the warp is the longitudinal threads.

burn before starting. Saying which, he asked, 'Mother, is there no supper for me?' She replied, In t' oven; in t' dish; dinnot fear but thy share were set by for thee.' Presently, the dogs, Brock and Flowery, began to bark, and the sound told they were running up the path toward the plantation. This indicated the approach of a stranger. Anne and little Lawrence ran, spoons in hand, their clogs clattering on the stones, and returned in fright, saying it was a man who wore a red coat, and with a sword in his hand; and he was like to cut off the heads of Brock and Flowery with it for barking at him. Upon which, William observed, he dared say it was Harry Garland. Robert, the third son, laid down his spoon, saying he would call in the dogs. But his father bade him stay; he would go himself, and went. It was Harry Garland. Mr Peel, desiring to speak with him privately about the printing at Cray, took him into another apartment. They remained there more than an hour. The girl and the youngest boy looked through the keyhole, and, returning to the kitchen, said, the stranger was showing father such beautiful paper, and such a curious piece of wood, and such lovely things. But their mother interrupted them, saying, 'Howd thee tongue, and sit thee down.' James Hargreaves, thinking, correctly enough, that his presence stood in the way of some private business, took the copes of weft in his apron, and went home. Presently the private conference was at an end, and the visiter, with Mr Peel, went to the kitchen.

Harry Garland was a handsome young man, in his twentieth year. He had dark brown hair, tied behind with blue ribbon; clear, mirthful eyes; boots which reached above his knees; a broad-skirted scarlet coat, with gold lace on the cuffs, the collar, and the skirts, and a long waistcoat of blue silk. His breeches were buckskin; his hat was three-cornered, set jauntily higher on the right than on the left side. In his breast-pockets he carried loaded pistols, and, dangling from his waistbelt, a short, heavy sword, sufficiently strong to cut the branches from a tree, or kill a highwayman. He thus appeared on ordinary days in the dress and accoutrements which a Manchester chapman only wore on holidays, or at a wedding, or at church. Mr Peel had invited him, when in the pri vate apartment, to stay all night; but no, he must be in Blackburn, he said, to go early in the morning to Preston. Besides, he had friends at the Pack Horse, down at the Brook, awaiting his return. Would William, Edmund, and Robert step that length with him? Their father, answering, said, 'No, they cannot go out.' They inclined to go: the smart dress of the handsome Harry Garland, his lively conversation, his knowledge of the social and commercial world, so far exceeding theirs, inclined them to his company. But their father had said 'No.' They said nothing.

Robert Peel had work for himself and his sons which required to be done that night. He accordingly called them together, and said it was not so much that he objected to their being with Garland, though doubtless they might find more profitable company, as truly as they might find worse; but he had objected to their going out because there was work to do. Seest thou a man diligent in his business,' he quoted, he shail stand before kings.' He then told them to get the hand-barrow, the sledge-hammer, the iron wedges, the pinch (an iron lever), the two crowbars, and the pick, and that perhaps they might also require the spade. They put the wedges, hammer, and pick on the barrow, and Anne and Lawrence on the top of them. William and Edmund took their places upon the shafts; their father went on before with the spade under his arm, Robert with him, walking sturdily with the iron lever on his shoulder. It was a clear moonlight night. When they came to the quarry, they removed some surface earth and rubbish, and, having laid bare a stratum of rock likely to split into slabs, they began to use the pick. They marked a surface of solid stone five feet long and twenty inches wide, or thereabout. They made a series of incisions along the line, about five inches apart, into which they set the iron wedges. After tapping them gently, to make their points lay hold, Mr

Peel, who was the steadiest hand at the large hammer, swung it round his head, and gave each of the wedges a blow in turn, until the block was rent from the mass, as desired. The points of the pick and lever were then inserted in the rent. The crowbars, unfortunately, were found to be short and powerless. The father and two of the sons laid all their weight and strength on the long pinch; another worked the pick as a lever, and poised the block outward and upward. Jonathan had a small hard stone ready, and Anne another a little larger. The smallest was dropped, as directed, into the opening. Then they let go with the levers, and took a deeper hold, the small hard stone keeping the block from subsiding to its place. Having got a deeper hold, they gave their united weight and strength to the leverage again, and the opening being wider, Anne dropped in the larger of the hard stones. Again they let the block rest, and, getting a still deeper hold, they poised it upward and outward farther, and Jonathan, having got a larger hard stone, dropped it in. By two other holds and rests, conducted in like manner, they overturned the block, two-and-twenty inches thick, or thereabout, to its side. On examining it all round, and detecting no break nor flaw, they estimated that, could they split it into four equal slabs of five and a half inches thick, they would have as many stone tables as were required. To split the block into four slabs, it was necessary to make three rows of incisions with the pick, into which to introduce the wedges. This was done, and the slabs being split, were dressed a little at the ends and sides. Turning one of them on edge, they placed the hand-barrow on edge beside it, and brought barrow and stone down, the stone uppermost, as desired. Turning it crossways, that its ends should project to the sides, and enable one at each end to attach his sustaining strength, Robert and Edmund were allotted to that duty. Their father and William, as the stronger of the four, took their places between the shafts-the father behind, William before. They got it out of the quarry by the exercise of sheer strength. But to get it over the steps going out of the waste into the plantation, required skill and caution as well as strength. It was both difficult and dangerous. Nor were they clear of danger going down the path which led athwart the slope. Their feet had a tendency to slip, and the stone naturally slid to the lowest side; but the youth who had charge of that end kept it up manfully. Without hurt or mishap, they got it to the kitchen door. So, in due time, they got the other three; but, before they were done, the perspiration was dripping from all the four. They sat down to rest and wipe their warm faces, and found the time was an hour past midnight.

There was not space for them all to work in the small back room at laying the slabs. The father and the two elder sons laid them at the proper height for working upon with printing blocks, as described by Harry Garland. In that room they remain at this day as then laid down. In that room the visiter still sees those slabs of stone upon which the Peels made their first essays in printing calicoes -upon which they took the first step towards that wonderful fortune of wealth and fame which then lay before them unknown.

Though the hour was late, young Robert Peel was too full of ideas about designs for the blocks he intended to carve for printing, to go to sleep. He went out to the moor in the moonlight, to gather a handful of bilberry leaves, or other foliage, which might be copied. (The first thing printed at Peel Fold was a parsley leaf.) Going to the moor, the youth had to pass near the house of James Hargreaves. He saw a light in the window. Seeing a shadow moving, he halted for a moment, and that moment revealed enough to detain him half an hour. He was surprised, not alone to see the weaver up at that hour, but to see his singular, his inexplicable employment. To comprehend what that was, let us return to Garland's departure from Peel Fold, as told before.

When Harry had crossed the waste, he met James Hargreaves, carrying two pails of water for domestic use, and asked him to go down the hill, and drink a 'gill of ale' at

the Horse. James considered a minute, set down his pails, twisted his body, rolled one shoulder forward, the other back, chipped the stones of the road with his iron-shod clogs, and confessed that he had no objection to a gill of ale at the Horse, were it not that he had Jenny's gruel to make. But, again, there was Nan Pilkington who would make the gruel. Also, there was Charlotte Marsden at the Horse, who was always at her wheel, and Alice, her sister, who also was a spinner when not waiting on the customers; perhaps they might have weft ready which nobody had bespoke. The balance of reasons for and against going to the Horse was thus found to be in favour of going. So, taking in the water, and directing Nan Pilkington's attention to Jenny's gruel, he called on Joe Pilkington, the singing weaver, and both went.

They joined the chapmen from Blackburn, and were soon in a merry mood. Joe Pilkington was ready with a song at any time. Perhaps they would have sat later than the usually sober hours of James Hargreaves, had not an incident occurred which disconcerted Garland, and suggested to Hargreaves to go home. Harry had seated himself beside Charlotte Marsden, where she was spinning at the farther end of the spacious kitchen. In this apartment the company were assembled. Some who knew the lofty spirit of the beautiful Charlotte, offered to wager with Garland that he could not kiss her. The forward youth attempted the rash act without hesitation; upon which she called him an impudent moth, and, rising indignantly, overturned her spinning-wheel. It fell backward. The spindle, which before had been horizontal, the point towards the maiden's left hand, stood upright. The wheel, which had been upright, and turned by her right hand (its band turning the spindle), was now horizontal. It continued to revolve in that position, and to turn the spindle. In a moment, a thought-an inspiration of thought-fixed the eyes of Hargreaves upon it. Garland pursued the indignant Charlo te out of the apartment. The company followed, urging him to the renewal of his rudeness, which, the more he tried to succeed in, the more he seemed to be baffed and humiliated. In their absence, James Hargreaves turned the wheel with his right hand, it still lying as it fell, and, drawing the roving of cotton with his left, saw that the spindle made as good a thread standing vertically as it had done horizontally. 'Then why,' his inspiration of thought suggested, should not many spindles, all standing upright, all moved by a band crossing them from the wheel, like this single spindle, each with a bobbin on it, and a roving of cotton attached, and something like the finger and thumb, which now take hold of the one roving, to lay hold of them all, and draw them backward from the spindles into attenuated threads? Why should not many spindles be moved, and threads be spun, by the same wheel and band which now spin only one?'

·

Hearing the company return, some saying the young chapman had succeeded in snatching a kiss from Charlotte, others denying it; he, almost breathless, asserting the fact, and Charlotte restoring her hair to order, her lovely face flushed between anger at his impudence, and vexation that she had once unguardedly spoken in the hearing of some persons present-what she sincerely believed that he was the most handsome youth that had ever been seen in the Pack Horse Inn: hearing the company return, James Hargreaves lifted the wheel to its feet, placed the roving in its right place, and said, Sit thee down, Charlotte; let him see thee spin; who can tell what may come of this!' Then, after a pause and a reflection, that he should retain his new ideas as secrets of his own at present, he continued, Thou may be his wife, more unlikely things have happened; it will be a fine thing to be lady of all that owd Billy Garland may leave some day.'

Wife, indeed!' interjected the vexed maiden, 'the moth! Wife, indeed! who would be wife to it?' 'Weel,' said James, be that as it may; but I mun go whoam; my wife thinks whoam the best place for me, and I think so mysen.

Remarks were made as to why he was going so soon. But Harry Garland had lost spirit after the conflict, and felt the scorn of the maiden more keenly than any reproof which had ever fallen upon his impudence before. He was not in a humour to solicit James Hargreaves to remain; so they parted.

James had reached home two or three hours before young Robert Peel observed the light in his window. On the lad approaching the window, the weaver was standing motionless. Suddenly he dropped upon his knees, and rolled on the stone floor at full length. He lay with his face towards the floor, and made lines and circles with the end of a burned stick. He rose, and went to the fire to burn his stick. He took hold of his bristly hair with one hand, and rubbed his forehead and nose with the other and the blackened stick. Then he sat upon a chair, and placed his head between his hands, his elbows on his knees, and gazed intently on the floor. Then he sprang to his feet, and replied to some feeble question of his wife (who had not risen since the day she gave birth to a little stranger) by a loud assurance that he had it; and, taking her in his sturdy arms, in the blankets, the baby in her arms, he lifted her out, and held her over the black drawings on the floor. These he explained, and she joined a small, hopeful, happy laugh with his high-toned assurance, that she should never again toil at the spinning-wheel-that he would never again 'play,' and have his loom standing for want of weft. She asked some questions, which he answered, after seating her in the arm-chair, by laying her spinning-wheel on its back, the horizontal spindle standing vertically, while he made the wheel revolve, and drew a roving of cotton from the spindle into an attenuated thread. Then he took her in his arms, and returned her and the baby to bed, and kissed her affectionately, and once more took the baby out, and made it cry with his hard beard. Our fortune is made when that is made,' he said, speaking of his drawings on the floor.

What will you call it?' asked his wife.

Call it? What an we call it after thysen, Jenny! They called thee Spinning Jenny' afore I had thee, because thou beat every lass in Stanehill Moor at the wheel. What if we call it Spinning Jenny?"

It was all a mystery to Robert Peel. He went home with his bilberry leaves, and went to bed, wondering if Hargreaves were out of his mind, or if he, too, were inventing something, or about to make experiments in some new process of working.

SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTION OF BEET SUGAR
IN IRELAND.

[From the 'Bankers' Magazine' for July, 1852.] THE increasing importance of the beet sugar industry throughout continental Europe, is only equalled by the success which accompanies its prosecution. Struggling, in the earlier period of its introduction, through the difficulties inseparable from so novel an enterprise, which was in future to rival the then tourishing colonial interests, and fostered by unprecedented government enactments, it has progressively attained so high and prosperous a position, as at length to threaten the exclusion of tropical produce from the various countries where the manufacture is so extensively and successfully developed. This result, which was never anticipated by the respective legislatures, has led to measures for the protection of their finances against this powerful and still increasing interest, by facilitating the introduction of tropical sugar, and placing corresponding fiscal restrictions upon that of native growth. In France, the manufacture, during the year 1850, upon which duty was paid, amounted to sixty-five millions of kilogrammes, and for the last two years the home produce has been completely master of the market; and, despite of the recent law, which places a protective duty upon foreign and native sugars of five francs to a hundred kilogrammes, beyond that paid by colonial sugar, the progress of science has so facilitated the production of that of indigenous

growth, that a large addition will this year be made to the already numerous beet sugar refiners.

In Belgium and central Europe generally, as well as both the north and south of Russia, the breadth of land under culture of the root and the production of beet sugar is annually augmenting to so great an extent, as to lead to the inference that native sugar will, at no remote period, entirely displace the produce of tropical countries. Under these circumstances, it affords matter for astonishment that this industry, perfected by experience resulting from the scientific research of nearly half a century, should never have been permitted to lend its aid in the development of some of the numerous resources of Ireland. Powerful conflicting interests and restrictive fiscal enactments, as well as the absence of practical experience in the manufacture, it is to be presumed, were the chiet causes adverse to its success in the few instances where its introduction was attempted in these islands; but the manufacture of sugar from beet-root is now no longer a mystery: restrictive duties are abolished, and other antagonistic interests are not in a position to restrain the progress of enterprise.

That Ireland is eminently adapted to the culture or roots, from the very cause which renders the production of its cereal crops uncertain, is a fact placed beyond all doubt; and the produce of those of the beet tribe, from lands under ordinary cultivation, is not surpassed, if even equalled, by those of continental countries.

In the growth of roots, the development of leaves is the great end to be attained; and this result is abundantly found in the humid climate of Ireland. A deep soil, rich in decomposed vegetable matter, liberally supplies the grand constituent of saccharum, viz., carbon; and although, at the first glance, the partial absence of heat and sunlight might be considered inimical to the perfecting of the saccharine principle, it must be remembered that the growth of roots, and the elaboration of their juices, must of necessity take place under circumstances beyond those influences, and not, as in the tropical cane, where the sugaryielding juice is formed above ground, and consequently requires both tropical heat and light to aid its maturity.

The soil and climate of Ireland have been proved beyond doubt, by long practical experience, and recently by the ingenious researches of Professor Sullivan, to offer inducements highly favourable for the introduction of the beet sugar industry, and an enterprise which has been formed under the title of the Irish Beet Sugar Company,' will be the means of demonstrating a fact of so much importance to the interests of the country.

With respect to the amount of sugar yielded by Irish roots, Mr Sullivan asserts, that if the specific gravity of the expressed juice of any bulbous roots grown in Ireland be taken with an ordinary distiller's saccharometer, it will be found that the quantity of sugar thus indicated is nearly in every case higher than the corresponding results given in French and German books treating on the subject of beet sugar; and, in confirmation of this statement, he gives the results of his analysis of specimens, taken at random, under the disadvantage of lateness of season and other unfavourable circumstances, but which, however, are sufficient for demonstrating the fact:

SUGAR BEET, WHITE GILESIAN.
French, as given by l'ayen
Inish, from Cork

...

10.00 per cent. 13.24

12 60 10 97

Belgium Thus showing that sugar beets grown in Ireland are equal, if not superior, to those of the Continent. From what has been already stated, any difficulty in obtaining the material of efficient quality is obviated: land, inviting the culture, abounds on all sides; labour, at as low rates as on the Continent, demanding employment; and peat, the excellent fact of the country so well adapted to steam purposes, dispersed on all sides, can be procured at a cost which of itself would form a material difference in the amount of profit upon the manufacture, when compared with the prices paid in Belgium and France for coal.