CHAPTER V.

Before the invention of the fly-shuttle in 1738 by John Kay, of Bury, and of the drop-box in 1760 by his son, the English weaver possessed no superiority over-perhaps in skill he was scarcely equal to, the industrious weaver of India, who erected his temporary machine beneath the rich foliage of his native plains, with the open fields for his chamber and the sky as its roof. It has been seen that at an advanced period of the last century, yarn was an exceedingly rare commodity—that it was chiefly produced in the intervals of agricultural pursuits-that the weaver wasted days in traversing the country to procure the necessary material, and that the supply from abroadchiefly from Ireland and Germany, (which was linen and not cotton yarn) was not so abundant as to cover the deficiency of our own production. At this, as at a more recent period, the weaver was a man "well to do in the world;" he worked moderate hours, earned good wages, and by consequence partook the fat of the land. There are those still living who remember this as the most favored class of operatives. Owing, however, to one or more combined causes, as to which the world differs, an afflicting change has come over that still numerous body.

It is at present almost impossible to state, with accuracy, the earnings of hand-loom weavers. So much depends upon the quality of work upon which they are employedthe kind of material they have to work up-the locality in which they reside-the season of the year-the character of the employer, (it being the constant aim of a few petti

fogging manufacturers to screw a farthing out of the weaver, whilst the honourable master pursues the very opposite course)—that correct results can scarcely be arrived at. Even the evidence before Parliamentary Committees, which ought to be worthy of entire reliance, is subject to this objection, that whilst one witness seeks to depict the condition of the weaver as worse than it is, another falls into the opposite error, and between the two extremes truth is lost.

It has been estimated that there are from three to four thousand hand-loom weavers in Manchester. Taking this (which will probably be found the extreme) number as correct, it forms a very small proportion of the cotton and silk weavers in the employment of Manchester houses. The latter class reside for the most part in the out-districts, --at Gorton, Newton Heath, Harpurhey, Middleton, Stand, Radcliffe, Pendlebury, Worsley, Eccles, &c. &c., and at more remote distances, such as West Leigh. The manufacture of cotton by the hand has latterly been very much circumscribed. Nearly the whole of our calicoes, coarse jacconets, twilled cloths, and fustians, are now woven by power; and pollicats, romals, ginghams, fine jacconets, cambrics and muslins, with their variations, are all that remain of our domestic cotton manufacture. The three last descriptions are chiefly produced at Bolton and Stockport. At Ashton and the neighbourhood considerable quantities of excellent ginghams are still woven by hand, though steam-power has made an immense stride in the production of every cotton fabric to which it has been hitherto applied. At Oldham, Royton, and Crompton, fustian, which was the first staple manufacture of cotton, is now, with few exceptions, woven by power: loom-shops have been deserted, looms sold or broken-up, and whole families have gone to the mills for employ. Some dozen or two, perhaps, of families still remain, ragged, starved

and gaunt, at the fustian-loom; whilst numbers have changed to stripes, tickings, and a reed of coarse silk, shot with worsted. At and in the neighbourhood of Rochdale the flannel manufacture competes with the cotton; a score or two reeds of silk were a few years since introduced, but they have disappeared, and have been succeeded by a manufacture of coarse cotton shawls for printing. Bury presents greater variety of employment with greater activity; the mills, the foundries, the bleach and dye works employ nearly the whole of the labouring population, and the hand-loom cotton weaver is now only found in some of the neighbouring townships, in one of which (Walmersley) a superior gingham is manufactured by the jacquard. At Radcliffe, Pilkington, Unsworth, Pilsworth, Prestwich, and the Heatons, handkerchiefs, checks, and ginghams prevail, woven by hand: some excellent goods of each description are made, the colours fast, and the weavers experienced in their business. At Blackley, coarse cottons are found; at Moston, silks; at Newton, Failsworth and Hollinwood, silks and a few cottons; at Alkrington and Tonge, silks and some cottons, chiefly table cloths; and at Middleton, scarcely anything except silk is manufactured. The earnings of weavers vary exceedingly. The weaver of Marseilles toilet covers, a Manchester manufacture, will earn from 7s. 6d. to 10s. a-week nett, and the weavers of fancy waistcoatings, &c. (at Huddersfield) can earn 15s. weekly, whilst the weavers at Bolton-from seven to eight thousand in number—are said to average only 4s. 1d. weekly, for 60 cambrics, which constitute a staple article in that town. Wages fell there twenty-one and a half per cent. between 1827 and 1834; the general rate and average decline are given in the following table presented to a recent Parliamentary Committee:

Relative proportion of flour, oatmeal, potatos and butchers' meat.

Since 1815 wages have fallen sixty per cent., whilst the necessaries of life have fallen only 30 per cent.

The weekly expenses of a weaver earning so little as 4s. 1d. are thus calculated:

Fortunately, in the class thus gradually falling in the scale of social comfort, there is a rapid transition to other employments. In Stockport, for example, there were, in 1818, 5020 hand-loom weavers-there are now only 300 or 400. Fustians alone, which formerly employed 6000 to 8000 hands at least, do not employ above 200 in the county. Within ten years hand-loom weaving has been reduced one-third, and the general scarcity of labour throughout the Country is a sufficient evidence that the weavers have all been absorbed in other branches of

industry. It is calculated that there are not in England above 200,000 workers by hand-loom, of whom 30,000 are receiving an extremely low rate of wages, whilst the main body are in a considerably better condition. They work, perhaps, fourteen hours of the day, (including meal-times) and very many of them seem to prefer their independent mode of life, with this remuneration, to the confinement of a factory, which may afford better wages.

Silk weaving, which was introduced in the town and the wide circumjacent district of Manchester fifteen or twenty years ago, came providentially to break the fall of the handloom weaver. The starving producers of cotton goods abandoned that impoverished and glutted market for labour, and had recourse to silk weaving, which varies chiefly in requiring greater skill and care in the workman. One great improvement in the machinery of silk has been effected, the history of which, as told by Dr. Bowring, is most remarkable. "I was extremely desirous (says he) having seen the beauty of the machine and the simplicity of its operation, of some conversation with its inventor, and, accompanied by a number of gentlemen, I went to visit Jacquard, and was very much gratified on hearing from him a history of its invention, which is now generally recognized as one of extreme importance and value. He told me he was originally a straw-hat manufacturer; his attention had never been turned to mechanical topics till the peace of Amiens opened the communication of France with England. At that time an extract from an English newspaper fell into his hands, in which it was stated that a society here offered a premium to any man who should weave a net by machinery. He told me that his thoughts were thus turned upon this subject, which, by the way, if there had been any interruption to intercourse, would never have taken place: he did produce a net, which he threw aside for some time, and afterwards gave it to a friend as a