PANORAMA OF MANCHESTER. 537 



veiled over nearly in the same time. Thus, in point of fact,, and for 

 all purposes of social and commercial communication, they are equally 

 one town with the extreme points of London. A proof of the readi- 

 ness and easiness of the journey is found in the fact, that upwards of 

 1,300 people pass backwards and forwards every day. 



Manchester boasts to be one of our very oldest towns ; and yet it 

 is singularly deficient in remains of antiquity. Long before the in- 

 vasion of the Romans, it was a native fort ; and when England was 

 conquered by " Imperial Rome," a cohort was stationed on the same 

 site, and it became a regular camp. It never, however, attained any 

 particular celebrity as a town, though noted for its manufactures 

 known under the names of " Manchester cottons," which were in 

 fact woollens as early the 14th century. 



We must not look upon the present population of Manchester as 

 limited to the number of men, women, and children contained within 

 its crowded streets. It is the grand focus of mechanical contrivance, 

 and mechanical adaptation, and every machine stands in the place of 

 a human labourer. In this point of view, the town with its immense 

 and magnificent factories and work-shops, becomes a scene of wonder 

 and of speculation. The facilities indeed given by machinery to 

 production are utterly amazing. According to a report made in 

 1833, the number of " hands" engaged in the cotton mills in Man- 

 chester was above 30,000, and these, aided by machinery, represent 

 the labour of five millions and a half of human beings. This result, 

 which places the productive power of our country so far beyond its 

 actual population, forms an important subject of political considera- 

 tion. It is a subject which is becoming daily of more weight as ma- 

 chinery has not only outstripped hand-labour, but threatens in a 

 great measure actually to destroy it. 



Manchester has therefore a vast population partly human and 

 partly mechanical, and we must suppose that there must be heads to 

 contrive, and purses to support both the one and the other. Accord- 

 ingly the town has many wealthy people in it people who have 

 grown rich, but who have not yet learnt the right use of riches. 

 Here indeed 



" Et genus et formam, regina pecunia dedit," 



and the banker's book is the only pedigree. We are far from quar- 

 relling with this condition of things nay, we rather consider it as 

 providential. It has been said by high authority in such matters, 

 that great men are born for great epochs we, on the contrary, assert 

 that particular epochs and trains of events call into action minds 

 framed for their direction, the capabilities of which would otherwise 

 have lain dormant. Thus the present inhabitants of Manchester are 

 great men in their way that is, they are men fitted to superintend 

 mules and jennies, and to get rich a very high praise, quite equal 

 to the fame of a Cicero or a Wellington. 



The Panorama of Manchester shews that it has not only wealthy 

 people in it, but that it has likewise persons of taste persons im- 

 bued with a love of the fine arts, and who, with laudable amor pa- 

 trice, are wishful to make their towns striking and grand as well as 



