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tect their own manufactures. How surprising a revolution has since taken place! The Indians have not lost their former skill; but a power has arisen in England, which has robbed them of their ancient ascendancy, turned back the tide of commerce, and made it run more rapidly against the Orientals, than it ever ran against the inhabitants of Europe. I have now to trace the history of this remarkable revolution.

England was among the latest of all countries to receive the cotton manufacture. That a nation which started last in the race, should have so far outstripped every competitor, may appear surprising, but admits of satisfactory explanation. Three things may be regarded as of primary importance, for the successful prosecution of manufactures,-water-power, fuel, and iron. In one or other of these, various parts of England abound, and in some places they are nearly concentrated. This is the case with the southern part of Lancashire, and the south-western part of Yorkshire, the former of which has become the principal seat of the cotton manufacture. In the hundreds of Blackburn and Salford, lies a tract of hills, from which issue numerous streams. In the early part of their course these streams, descending rapidly from their sources towards the level tract on the west, form water-power adequate to turn many hundred mills, while they supply the essential element, for scouring, bleaching, printing, dyeing, and other processes of manufacture; and, when collected in their larger channels, or employed to feed canals, they afford a superior inland navigation, so important for the transit of raw materials and merchandize. These very same hills, and the adjoining more level district, contain an almost inexhaustible supply of coal, that equally essential material, which animates the thousand arms of the steam-engine, and furnishes the most powerful agent in all chemical and mechanical operations. Of the other requisite, that of iron, Lancashire, indeed, is nearly destitute, but the neighbouring districts of Staffordshire, Warwickshire,

Yorkshire, Furness, and Wales, with all which it has ready communication, abundantly compensate for this deficiency. Add to all this the neighbourhood of the sea, by means of its well-situated port of Liverpool, whose commerce at once supplies its crowded inhabitants with food, and brings from distant shores the raw materials of its manufactures, while it again distributes them, converted into useful and elegant clothing, among all the nations of the earth. These advantages pointed out this district nearly in the centre of Britain, as the peculiar seat of manufacturing enterprise; nor must I omit to mention another convenience possessed by this locality, in the levelness of the surface, prevalent over a great extent, which affords such facilities for the canals, wherewith it is already intersected, and the more recent and more important invention of railways for locomotive machinery, which seems destined to supersede them.

These facilities, joined with a temperate climate, a hardy and intelligent race of men, a convenient insular position, and, above all, a government founded deep in the principles of freedom, and possessed of power to protect property, and wisdom to direct the energies, and call forth the resources of the people, form, altogether, a combination which renders the extraordinary commercial and manufacturing prosperity of Britain, but the natural result of the circumstances in which it has pleased an indulgent Providence to place her.

At what time cotton was first introduced into this country, as an article of manufacture, is uncertain. The woollen and silk manufactures, especially the former, which existed at a very early date, had preceded it, and had prepared machinery which only required to be transferred to this new material. It is remarkable, that the term "cottons," had for centuries been applied to a particular kind of woollen fabric, before the produce of the cotton plant was manufactured in this country. The name had been transferred from imported cotton goods,

which were imitated by the English weavers; and "Manchester cottons" had become famous long before the raw material was known in Britain.

The first mention of true cotton manufacture is so late as the year 1641, when it is spoken of as already established in Manchester; but it had probably been gradually growing in private, and it is conjectured that the art was originally brought from the Low Countries in 1585, by the Flemish refugees, who fled from the persecutions of the Duke of Parma and the Spanish government.

At the commencement of the manufacture, the capital employed in it was small, and the progress was slow, but its extent was constantly increasing. In 1727, De Foe speaks of Manchester, as having almost doubled its population, and as containing, inclusive of all its suburbs, nearly 50,000 inhabitants; and he adds, "The grand manufacture which has so much raised this town, is that of cotton in all its varieties, which, like all other manufactures, is very much increased within the last thirty or forty years."

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In 1766, Postlethwayt, the author of the "Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce," estimated the annual value of cottons, made at Manchester, Bolton, and the neighbourhood, at £600,000. The same author publishes an official return, by which it appears, that in 1749, somewhat upwards of a million and a half pounds of cotton wool were imported into Britain, and that three hundred and thirty thousand pounds were exported after being manufactured, while the remainder (one million three hundred and twenty-seven thousand pounds) were retained for home consumption. Compare this with the present imports and exports, as given officially, as follows:

Cotton wool, imported in 1833, 303,726,199 lbs.

British cotton manufactures, exported in 1833 (real or declared value), £18,486,400.

VOL. IV.

* De Foe's Tour, vol. iii. p. 219.

This amazing prosperity has been mainly owing to our improved machinery, to which I shall presently advert; but it is also owing partly to an increased predilection for cotton goods, and increased habits of luxury in dress. In the year 1701, when the exportation of cotton goods did not exceed £23,000,-which appears to have been above the average for the next forty years,the exportation of woollen goods amounted to two millions, forming above a fourth of the whole export trade of the kingdom. So great has been the change in the relative proportion of these manufactures, that whilst the woollen manufactures have increased only to six millions and a half, the cotton exports have reached, as has been seen, to the amazing value of eighteen millions and a half. The woollen manufacture has, indeed, continued to extend, but its rate of increase bears no proportion to that of the cotton manufacture.

If to the value of the exported goods, we add that of those consumed at home, we shall acquire a still juster view of this manufacture, and our admiration will be increased. Mr Huskisson stated in the House of Commons in 1824, that the real value of cotton goods consumed at home within the preceding year, amounted to £32,000,000 sterling. Of these thirty-two millions worth of goods, not more than six millions were invested in the raw material; and the remaining twenty-six millions went to the profits of the capitalist, and the income of the persons employed in the manufacture, after making various deductions for machinery, and for the amount of capital. Mr Baines justly observes, that the rapid increase of the cotton manufacture mocks all that the most romantic imagination could have previously conceived possible, under any circumstances.

SEVENTH WEEK-SATURDAY.

CLOTHING.-THE COTTON MANUFACTURE-ITS BRITISH HISTORY CONTINUED-IMPROVEMENT OF MACHINERY.

THE cotton manufacture, though continually increasing in this country, seemed destined soon to receive a check from a cause, which no means then in existence could counteract. None but strong goods, such as fustians and dimities, were made in England so late as the middle of last century, and for these the demand must always have been limited. Yet the demand exceeded the supply, and the modes of manufacture were such as greatly to impede the increase of the production. The weaver was continually pressing upon the spinner. The processes of spinning and weaving were generally performed in the same cottage, but the weaver's own family could not supply him with a sufficient quantity of weft, and he had with much pains to collect it from neighbouring spinsters. Thus his time was wasted, and he was often subjected to high demands for an article, on which, as the demand exceeded the supply, the seller could put his own price. A high and sustained price of yarn would indeed have attracted new hands to the employment, but such high price would itself have tended to keep down the rising manufacture, by making the goods too costly, in comparison with other articles of clothing.

This difficulty was likely to be further aggravated by the invention of the flying shuttle, one of the first British improvements in the process of weaving. This simple contrivance was a great saving of time and exertion to the weaver, and enabled one man to weave the widest cloth, which had before required the united exertions of two persons.

The art of spinning, as practised at the time I am now speaking of, was a very slow process. The only machine

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