A 



YEAR'S RESIDENCE, 



INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNAL. 



Philadelphia, iOth Sept. 1818. 



453. It seems necessary, by way of Introduction to 

 the following Journal, to say some little matter respect- 

 ing the author of it, and also respecting his motives for 

 wishing it to be published. 



454. As to the first, I am an Englishman by birth 

 and parentage ; and am of the county of Lancaster. I 

 was bred and brought up at farming work, and became 

 an apprentice to the business of Bleacher, at the age 

 of 14 years. My own industry made me a master- 

 bleacher, in which state 1 lived many years at Great 

 Lever, near Bolton, where I employed about 140 men, 

 women, and children, and had generally about 40 ap- 

 prentices. By this business, pursued with incessant 

 application, i had acquired, several years ago, pro- 

 perty to an amount sufficient to satisfy any man of 

 moderate desires. 



455. But, along with my money my children had 

 come and had gone on increasing to the number of nijie. 

 New duties now arose, and demanded my best atten- 

 tion. It was not sufficient that I was likely to have a 

 decent fortune for each child. I was bound to provide, 

 if possible, against my children being stripped of what 

 I had earned for them. I, therefore, looked seriously 

 at the situation of England ; and, I saw, that the in- 

 comes of my children were all pawned (as my friend 

 Cobbett truly calls it) to pay the Debts of the Borough, 



