County of Lancaster. Calico. Fustians Smallwares. Woollen Silk.

In addition to these, Mr. Trimmer and Mr. Bates return the following from their respective superintendencies:

Of which about 485 are in the parish of Manchester.

The following document, published under the authority of the Statistical Society in Manchester, may form an useful addition to the preceding:

RESULTS OF AN INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE WORKING CLASSES OF MANCHESTER, IN 1834;

By an Agent employed by the Manchester Statistical Society to visit the dwellings and ascertain the condition of the population in Police District No. 2, and in the first subdivision of District No. 1.

The population of this portion of the town is (according to the census of 1831) 42,135 or 8932 families. It is a district inhabited more than any other in the town by the working classes, and by those of the poorest description. It was on that account determined to commence the investigation in this quarter. The Agent having been refused admittance into some houses, and the occupiers of others being absent and their dwellings closed, his report only extends to 4102 families, but which number comprises all the labouring population within this district into whose houses he obtained access. The report on the condition of the dwellings must be considered merely as the general impression of the Agent, an intelligent Irishman, who was himself a hand-loom weaver, and

who, in this classification, has been principally guided by the appearance of cleanliness or otherwise in the dwellings. All the other tables are stated from the answers given by the parties themselves.

CHAPTER IV.

The extraordinary qualities of the silk worm are said to have been discovered nearly three thousand years before the Christian era, by an Empress of China. From the celestial Empire the precious secret was conveyed in process of time into Persia; the proud city of Tyre and the island of Cos, in the Archipelago, were the next recipients of the manufacture; and in the ordinary course of traffic it found its way to Greece and Rome. In the earlier days of the republic, however, such apparel was prohibited by the censors in the eternal city, as too effeminate a species of clothing for her warlike children, although the fabric then in use was only of mixed cotton and silk, the pure manufacture being almost too expensive even for the imperial shoulders. Upon its subsequent introduction at Constantinople, the Emperor Justinian fixed the price of it at £4 15s. 9d. the pound avoirdupois: his subjects continued in profound ignorance of the mode of obtaining the raw article or of manufacturing it into clothing, until the secret was conveyed to Justinian by some missionaries, who were sent back to China, and A.D. 552 contrived to smuggle some silk worms from the sacred empire. For the time the introduction of the manufacture at Constantinople had the effect of greatly augmenting its price, and although it spread to the Peloponnesus, and thence over to Greece, it was still regarded as so costly a commodity, that in 790 Charlemagne is recorded to have sent two silk vests as a regal gift to Offa, King of the Mercians. For some centuries a knowledge of the manufacture was very slowly diffused, until Roger, King of Sicily, having

invaded the Greek empire, carried back with him, and settled in the city of Palermo, a number of silk weavers. Here it quickly attained to considerable excellence; in the thirteenth century it employed many thousand Italians, and it was a traffic in which the nobles were not ashamed to engage. From Italy it passed to Spain, thence to France, and eventually to this Country. In France it received a favorable impulse from the Italian wars of Francis the First, that Monarch having conveyed to his own realms some weavers of Milan, who were the principal means of establishing the superiority of the city of Lyons. An extensive traffic was carried on between this Country and France at an early period, but the price of silk goods must then have been enormously high, Queen Elizabeth having worn silk stockings as a great and almost exclusive luxury, which her father, Henry the Eighth, could rarely enjoy. The introduction of the stocking-frame in England, and its general, though very slow, application, established for our manufacturers a decided superiority in this production, until its inventor, the Rev. W. Lea, being neglected at home, accepted an invitation from Henry the Fourth, of France, and settled at Rouen. After the death of his patron, Lea did not escape the common lot of inventorshe was neglected and died in penury at Paris. Henry the Fourth may be almost considered as the father of the French manufacture, to encourage which, he held out the lure of patents of nobility. He attempted, but with no permanent success, to carry the rearing of silk worms into the northern provinces; and the celebrated minister, Colbert, distinguished himself at a later period by his efforts, which ultimetely were successful, to extend the culture of the mulberry tree.

James the First, incited by the proceedings in France, issued a circular letter, in which he urged their cultivation, believing from partial experiments that the silk worm might

flourish in England: the suggestion was acted upon with some vigour, but unsuccessfully. The attempt was afterwards renewed in 1718, by a Joint Stock Company, who selected Chelsea Park as the site of their operations; two thousand mulberry trees were planted, and for a time glowing hopes were held out, but eventually the experiment ailed. It may be mentioned that so recently as the year 1825, a Company styling itself" The British, Irish, and Colonial Silk Company" once more made experiments on English and Irish soil. A royal charter was obtained, no less than four hundred thousand white mulberry trees were planted on an estate in the county of Cork, in Ireland, and seventy or eighty thousand on lands in England. They flourished for the time, but were abandoned by the Company, who fixed an establishment in the island of Malta. There are exhibited in the National Repository, as great curiosities, some stockings manufactured from native silk. In addition to his attempts at home, James the First strove to substitute the culture of silk instead of tobacco in the American colony of Virginia, but the attempt failed, as did also subsequent experiments in Georgia and Carolina. There is, however, some reason to hope that in the southern States of America a judicious effort might prosper, and in Pensylvania so much success has attended a recent trial as to attract the favorable notice of Congress.

Various experiments have been made to obtain a substitute for the silk worm. In France an adventurous gentleman formed an establishment of spiders, but it was found that when fifty or a hundred of these insects were placed in cells together, the larger swallowed the smaller ones, until only one or two remained! An insect called the Pinna has also been discovered, which elaborates very delicate material used for stockings; but the extreme heat of the fabric would prevent its coming into very general use, even if it were less rare. Italy and France, India and China,