l66 on the cotton manufactures. -^"g- 8, 



and exported. By meuas of those various inven- 

 tions and encouragements, the progrefs of the cotton 

 manufacture has been rapid beyond belief. It is 

 now become a general wear both for men and wo- 

 men. It is substituted in the room of East India 

 cotton ; of German, Irilb, and Scotch linen ; and also 

 in place of much of the thin woollen and worsted 

 goods of England. It is fouijd a more agreeable and 

 a cheaper wear, than any of the above mentioned^ 

 Hitherto little of it has been used for Ihirts, Iheeting, 

 or tabling. But those who have tried it in all those 

 ways give it the preference, especially in the two first- 

 It is found to last longer, and to be warmer and 

 cheaper ; so that there is hardly a doubt of its sup- 

 planting, in a fhort time, all the different manufac- 

 tures above mentioned. This opinion coincides with 

 Mr Arkwright's delivered four or five years ago. It 

 not only consur)es the cotton of our own West In- 

 dia islands, but large quantities are imported fron* 

 France, Holland, and Spain ; which last, and that of 

 Demerary, and Surinam, is the finest cotton brought 

 to Europe. 



I know but two means by which the linea manu- 

 facturers can escape being ruined by the rapid pro- 

 grefs of the cotton maautacture. Oae is the inven- 

 tion of a means of spinning linen yarn by midlines ;. 

 Mr Arkwright is said to have discovered the art o£ 

 doing so. But he is too old and too rich to prose- 

 cute an uncertain ai.d laborious discovery. The 

 other is for the linen manufacturers to betake them- 

 selves to the manufacturing ot cotton. From the fa- 

 cility with which the Manchester people have learut 



