It is the object of the present work to show the means and the steps by which this surprising commercial revolution has been effected; and to that I now proceed,— concluding the notice of the Indian manufacture with a passage from the writings of an enlightened foreigner, who has shown the extent of the triumph gained over that manufacture, by English skill, in the following just and eloquent terms :—

"Watt improves the steam-engine, and this single improvement "causes the industry of England to make an immense stride. "This machine represents, at the present time, the power of three "hundred thousand horses, or of two millions of men, strong and "well fitted for labour, who should work day and night without "interruption, and without repose, to augment the riches of a

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country not two-thirds the extent of France. A hair-dresser "invents, or at least brings into action, a machine for spinning "cotton; this alone gives to British industry an immense superi"ority. Fifty years only after this great discovery, more than one "million of the inhabitants of England are employed in those ope"rations, which depend, directly or indirectly, on the action of "this machine. Lastly, England exports cotton, spun and woven "by an admirable system of machinery, to the value of four hun"dred millions of francs yearly. The Indies, so long superior to "Europe-the Indies, which inundated the west with her products, "and exhausted the riches of Europe-the Indies are conquered in "their turn. The British navigator travels in quest of the cotton "of India,―brings it from a distance of four thousand leagues,— "commits it to an operation of the machine of Arkwright, and of "those that are attached to it,-carries back their products to "the East, making them again to travel four thousand leagues ;"and, in spite of the loss of time, in spite of the enormous ex"pense incurred by this voyage of eight thousand leagues, the "cotton manufactured by the machinery of England becomes less "costly than the cotton of India spun and woven by the hand near "the field that produced it, and sold at the nearest market. So "great is the power of the progress of machinery."

• Address of M. Charles Dupin to the Mechanics of Paris.

CHAPTER VII.

THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN ENGLAND.

England among the latest of all countries to receive the Cotton Manufacture.— The natural advantages of England, and especially of Lancashire, for manufactures, unequalled any other country; water-power, coal, iron; communication with the sea; inland navigation; railways: commercial position of the country. -Political and moral advantages of England.—Adventitious advantages.-The woollen and linen manufactures prepared the way for the cotton manufacture in Lancashire.-Notice of the woollen manufacture.-The ancient "Manchester' cottons" a woollen fabric.-"Cottons" and "fustians" made of wool, in imitation of the foreign goods bearing those names.-Early importation of cotton-wool into England; then used chiefly for candlewicks; imported from Genoa, Sicily, the Levant, and Flanders.-Mercantile commission to Turkey.-The cotton manufacture probably introduced at the close of the sixteenth century, by Protestant refugees from Flanders.-First mention of the English cotton manufacture, by Lewes Roberts, in 1641.-Humphrey Chetham a dealer in fustians before this time.-Fustians manufactured chiefly at Bolton and the neighbourhood, and bought by the Manchester merchants.—Species of cotton goods made at Manchester.-Modes of doing business.-Calico printing commenced in England.-Rapid increase of the town and trade of Manchester at the beginning of the eighteenth century.—Testimony of Stukely and De Foe.-Extensive consumption of linen yarn as warps for cotton goods.-Extent of the manufacture in 1740 and 1760.-Official returns of the imports of cotton wool, and exports of British cotton goods, from 1697 to 1764.-Contrast between that period and 1833-Comparison of the cotton and woollen exports in 1700 and 1833.

ENGLAND was among the latest of all countries to receive the cotton manufacture. This species of industry was known in each of the other quarters of the globe earlier than in Europe; and in Spain, Italy, the Low Countries, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, and Turkey, before it was introduced into England. That a country which started almost last in the race should have so far

outstripped every competitor may appear surprising, but admits of satisfactory explanation; and it will be desirable here to glance at the principal causes which have given the English a pre-eminence in manufactures over all other nations.

The natural and physical advantages of England for manufacturing industry are probably superior to those of every other country on the globe. The district where those advantages are found in the most favourable combination, is the southern part of Lancashire, and the south-western part of Yorkshire, the former of which has become the principal seat of the manufacture of cotton. In the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire, and in Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire, in Scotland, all of which districts are likewise seats of this branch of industry, advantages of a similar nature are found, though not in such close concentration as in Lancashire.

Three things may be regarded as of primary importance for the successful prosecution of manufactures, namely, water-power, fuel, and iron. Wherever theso exist in combination, and where they are abundant and cheap, machinery may be manufactured and put in motion at small cost; and most of the processes of making and finishing cloth, whether chemical or mechanical, depending, as they do, mainly on the two great agents of water and heat, may likewise be performed with advantage.

The tract lying between the Ribble and the Mersey is surrounded on the east and north by high ranges of hills, and has also hills of some magnitude in the hundreds of Blackburn and Salford; owing to which cause the district is intersected by a great number of streams,

which descend rapidly from their sources towards the level tract in the west. In the early part of their course, these streams and streamlets furnish water-power adequate to turn many hundred mills: they afford the element of water, indispensable for scouring, bleaching, printing, dyeing, and other processes of manufacture: and when collected in their larger channels, or employed to feed canals, they supply a superior inland navigation, so important for the transit of raw materials and merchandise.

Not less important for manufactures than the copious supply of good water, is the great abundance of coal found in the very same district. Beds of this invaluable mineral lie beneath almost the whole surface of Blackburn and Salford hundreds, and run into West Derby to within a few miles of Liverpool; and being near the surface, so as to yield their treasures easily, they are incomparably more fertile sources of wealth than mines of silver and gold. It is superfluous to remark that this mineral fuel animates the thousand arms of the steam-engine, and furnishes the most powerful agent in all chemical and mechanical operations.

Of the equally indispensable metal, iron, the southern part of Lancashire is nearly destitute; but being at no

• On the river Irwell, from the first mill near Bacup, to Prestolee, near Bolton, there is about 900 feet of fall available for mills, 800 of which is occupied. On this river and its branches it is computed that there are no less than three hundred mills. A project is in course of execution to increase the water-power of the district, already so great and so much concentrated, and to equalize the force of the stream, by forming eighteen reservoirs on the hills, to be filled in times of flood, and to yield their supplies in the drought of summer. These reservoirs, according to the plan, would cover 270 acres of ground, and contain 241,300,000 cubic feet of water, which would give a power equal to 6,600 horses. The cost is estimated at £59,000. One reservoir has been completed, another is in course of formation, and it is probable that the whole design will be carried into effect.

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great distance from the iron districts of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Furness, and Wales, with all of which it has ready communication by inland or coasting navigation, it is as abundantly and almost as cheaply supplied with this material, as if the iron was got within its own boundaries.

In mentioning the advantages which Lancashire possesses as a seat of manufactures, we must not omit its ready communication with the sea by means of its well-situated port, Liverpool, through the medium of which it receives, from Ireland, a large proportion of the food that supports its population, and whose commerce brings from distant shores the raw materials of its manufactures, and again distributes them, converted into useful and elegant clothing, amongst all the nations of the earth. Through the same means a plentiful supply of timber is obtained, so needful for building purposes.

To the above natural advantages, we must add, the acquired advantage of a canal communication, which ramifies itself through all the populous parts of this county, and connects it with the inland counties, the seats of other flourishing manufactures, and the sources whence iron, lime, salt, stone, and other articles in which Lancashire is deficient, are obtained. By this means Lancashire, being already possessed of the primary requisites for manufactures, is enabled, at a very small expense, to command things of secondary importance, and to appropriate to its use the natural advantages of the whole kingdom. The canals, having been accomplished by individual enterprise, not by national funds, were constructed to supply a want already existing they were not, therefore, original sources of the manufactures, but have extended together with