180 COTTON MANUFACTURE 



No stern composure sits upon thy brow, 



That seems the ruthless hand of death to dare, 

 No i as^ion's conflict mars thy features now. 



Ah ! ravag'd once by wild and d;irk despair. 

 Death with gentle hand hath stricken thee. 



A few days afterwards turning over some old newspapers, I read 

 an account of her father's execution. 



H.S. 



THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT CONDITION 



OF THE 



BRITISH COTTON MANUFACTURES. 



THERE is, perhaps, no phenomenon in the history of commerce and 

 human industry so curious and extraordinary as the rapid growth of 

 the art of spinning and weaving cotton by machinery. Up to the 

 year 1770, the average importation of cotton wool, for fifty years, 

 was under two millions of pounds weight; but in the following ten 

 years it rose to six millions, in the next ten years to thirty-one mil- 

 lions and a half ; and in 1800 no less than fifty-six millions of 

 pounds were imported : that is, in the first ten years, from 1 770, it 

 more than trebled itself; in the next ten years it was multiplied more 

 than fifteen -fold ; and in the year 1800 the imports, as compared 

 with those of 1770, were as twenty-eight to one : and since that time, 

 up to the present year, the increase of imports has been steady and 

 rapid beyond precedent in the history of all other manufactures. 

 The imports in 1810, 1820, 1830, were respectively 132,000,000, 

 147,500,000, and 260,000,000 (round numbers) ; and in the last 

 year (that is, up to May, 1836), the imports, according to Dr. Ure, 

 were 330,000,000 Ibs. In the year 1760, the whole value of the 

 cotton manufactured in England was stated at 600,000, and about 

 40,000 persons were supported by it. At present, the annual value of 

 the cotton manufacture is 34,000,000 ; it furnishes subsistence for 

 1,500,000 persons, and the 150,000 persons employed in the 

 spinning department are now able to do a labour in a given time for 

 which the whole population of Europe would before have been in- 

 sufficient. The price of cotton goods has diminished in the same 

 manner; for the yarn which in 1790 sold for 30s. per pound can 

 now be had for 2s. Sd. ; calico may be bought at 2|rA per yard, good 

 prints for 4d., and muslin prints for Is. per yard ; whereas, forty 

 years ago, articles so well manufactured could not be had at any 

 price ; and cloths of very inferior texture were sold at prices which 

 could not now be obtained for the most delicate muslins that are sent 

 to market. These statements, astonishing as they may seem, are the 

 results of sober investigations, made by men whose station and charac- 

 ter, as well as their means for ascertaining the truth, give them every 

 claim to attention and credit. It is our present intention to enquire 

 into the causes and relate the history of the extraordinary progress 

 which we have thus briefly, but, we hope, emphatically marked in 

 this branch of our native industry. 



