of the scenes in which they work. In Cornwall, it has been ascertained that sixty-one per cent. of the miners die from complaints of the chest, to only thirty-one per cent. of the rest of the population; and old age, with incapacitating infirmity, overtakes them at a period when other men still enjoy the plenitude of their strength. Danger meets the miner and collier the moment the mouth of the pit is reached. A flaw in the iron, the snapping of a link, the breaking of a cord, may send the bucket, with its human freight, headlong to the bottom of the shaft. In the four years ending with 1854, there were 1,009 lives sacrificed by explosions of fire-damp. But in the same period, in the coal districts, there were nearly four times the number of deaths, or 3,972, on which inquests were held; and the number of accidents is greater in which, while life is spared, permanent injury to the person ensues. Inquests are held annually on forty-six colliers out of every 10,000; but the proportion annually maimed is upwards of 700. Removed as is the miners' workshop from the light of day and public observation, while rarely visited by the master, legislation has properly interfered to take under special superintendence those dark labyrinths from which the materials of national wealth and greatness are derived, with a view to lessen danger and promote social improvement. But much more is to be hoped with reference to both these objects, from the Christian training of the tenants themselves, than from any other means, for it is notorious that ignorance and recklessness have brought on many a terrible catastrophe, while the temperance, cleanliness, and prudence, enjoined and inspired by the laws and spirit of the gospel of Christ, are eminently defensive with

reference to those incidents of physical position which tend more gradually to cut short the span of mortal existence. Happily, thousands of our subterranean labourers know this to be the case, and are living witnesses of the truth, that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."*

* 1 Timothy iv. 8.

195

CHAPTER VII.

MANUFACTURES-TEXTILE FABRICS.

Causes of Manufacturing Prosperity-Locality of Manufactures-COTTONFirst Notice of it in England-Early Manchester Manufacturers-Age of Mechanical Invention-James Hargreaves-Sir Richard ArkwrightSamuel Crompton-Results of Spinning by Machinery-Power LoomDr. Cartwright-Extension of the Manufacture-Cotton FactoriesProcesses-Bleach Works-Print Works-The Cotton Plant-WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES-Flemish Clothiers-Production of Woollen Cloth-Master-clothier, Factory, and Domestic Systems-Worsted Goods-SILKAdventures of Lombe-Derby Silk Mill-Raw Silk-Factory Processes-Silkworm in England-LINEN-Flax Spinning-Great Mill at LeedsHOSIERY-The Stocking-frame-Octogenarian Stockinger-Pillow LACEMachine Lace-Statistics of Textile Fabrics-Factory System.

THE extraordinary development of manufactures in the kingdom, with the high character of the products in the markets of the world, is the joint result of various circumstances of a moral, political, and physical nature. The steady practical energy of the people, with the mechanical genius of individuals, enters into the solution of the problem, for such qualities are essential to industrial triumphs. But stress cannot be laid upon them without ignorant pride, for nations whom we have outstripped have the same recommendation, but have not been in equal possession of other facilities. A far more patent cause of eminence is to be found in the security of property under a government which respects its rights, and in

a position which renders the invasion of an enemy a very improbable incident. It is certain that where the accumulations of labour are exposed to jeopardy either from domestic oppression, the cupidity of rulers, or foreign war, men will not exert their bodily and mental powers except for an immediate profit. Hence, while effort has often been largely paralysed through great part of the continent from a sense of insecurity respecting the result, owing to the din of arms, it has had free development at home; for even in time of war its ravages have not been known within our borders, though camp-fires have blazed abroad from Lisbon to Moscow, from Berlin to Naples. At various periods also, to escape the tyranny of their own governments, foreigners have flocked to our shores, many of them skilled artisans, founding new departments of industry, or giving us the benefit of their experience and knowledge in existing handicrafts. But all these causes of advance are subordinate to an abundant supply of raw material to be fabricated, and vast stores of fuel to give a motive power to machinery, with an insular position. Iron and coal, the great implements of manufactures, are close at hand in natural magazines which centuries will not exhaust, while the surrounding ocean serves as a convenient highway along which to receive products from distant nations, returning them our own, at the same time that it forms a better defence against the aggression of neighbours than fleets and armies. These are means of prosperity wholly independent of man's intelligence and devising; and a grave responsibility devolves upon us as a nation to use the wealth, power, and influence we have acquired by them, not selfishly or with arrogance, but in the spirit of dependent creatures,

favoured by the high dispensations of Providence, of whom an account will one day be required.

The establishment of particular manufactures in definite localities, has been determined by natural advantages and circumstances of position; but sometimes political events and individual energy have operated in planting them; and not unfrequently their settlement in certain districts seems to have been purely accidental. At an early period the production of fine woollen cloths grew up in the southwestern counties, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, the country of the raw material, where the sheep are bred producing the softer and shorter stapled fleeces; abounding also with streams of pure water for scouring and bleaching purposes. In more recent times, the same manufacture has gained rapid extension in the West Riding of Yorkshire, owing in the first instance to its peculiar facilities for waterpower, and afterwards for steam, from the cheapness of fuel. In and around Leicester, woollen and worsted stocking-making has been remarkably developed, a part of the kingdom where the long-woolled breed of sheep has been reared with the greatest success. The manufacture of linen arose at Dundee, and other places on the east coast of Scotland, owing to commercial intercourse with the opposite shores of Europe, where flax is largely grown, while that of cotton took root on the opposite side of the island, in Lancashire and Lanarkshire, proximate to harbours convenient for importing the raw material from the producing countries, and near to coal-mines. Bombazines and other mixed stuffs were introduced to Norwich by refugees driven from the Netherlands by the cruelties of the Duke of Alva; and silk-weaving