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penalties. The trade with France was considered by the Parlia- 
ment then assembled as detrimental to this kingdom. 
It was not, however, until towards the close of the last century, 
when the inventions in spinning machinery by Hargreaves, Ark- 
wright, Kendrew, and Porthouse, were coupled with the improve- 
ments in the steam engine by Watt and Bolton, that the three 
great industries in this country—woollen, cotton, and linen— 
suddenly began to develop, and although the linen industry is 
by far the smallest of the three, yet it is now so extensive as to 
be estimated at about forty millions of annual value. 
In 1787, John Kendrew, spectacle maker, and Thomas Port- 
house, clockmaker, of Darlington, invented machinery for flax 
spinning, and for some time after it was carried on at Darlington, 
in a small building called the Low Mill. The difficulties the 
inventors had to encounter, and the smallness of their means, were 
such that they never succeeded to any great extent in flax spinning. 
Great improvements were soon effected on the original machines 
in Leeds, and that town speedily became the head quarters of flax 
spinning in England. The Marshalls, of Leeds, now entered upon 
their prosperous career in the new trade, and by ability and 
perseverance, soon became the largest flax spinners in the world. 
Fifty thousand acres of land would be required to grow the flax 
they import annually. To this family Leeds is indebted for much 
of its present prosperity. The great flax mill erected by the 
Marshalls is one of the most striking buildings in Leeds. It covers 
more than two acres of ground; and it is supposed that 80,000 
persons might stand inthe spinning room. The whole process, 
after the heckling of the flax, is performed in it. The flax goes in 
in bundles and the linen out in bales. 
If I am rightly informed, there occurred in the early days of 
the Marshalls’ spinning, one of those interruptions to their trade 
by the bad conduct of the workmen, especially the flax dressers, 
which produced important results. The masters were so annoyed 
_ and hindered by the strikes, and by the men neglecting their work 
when work was much wanted, that they turned their attention to 
the invention of machines for dressing flax. When the flax dressers 
