JAMES MUSPRATT 91 



Works were extended as soon as they 

 were erected, and new works rapidly sprang 

 up. Widnes, on account of its position, and 

 Flint likewise, were comparatively free from 

 the incessant legal troubles to which the St. 

 Helens manufacturers were constantly ex- 

 posed. The works at Widnes increased so 

 rapidly, the amount of uncondensed vapour 

 was so large, and the volume of smoke so 

 dense, that notwithstanding the long stretch 

 of river over which the vapours were carried 

 by the westerly winds, which are the winds 

 during which the principal damage is done, 

 the plantations, and even the farm lands on 

 the Runcorn side toward Norton Priory, 

 received very great injury. Sir Richard 

 Brooke moved in the matter, and in the 

 other manufacturing districts found many 

 who deeply sympathised with him in his 

 complaints. A royal commission was 

 appointed, and the Alkali Act of 1863 was 

 the result. But James Muspratt had left the 

 business to his sons some six years before 

 the passing of the Alkali Act he was weary 

 of the incessant warfare and worries to which 

 for five and twenty years he had been 

 subjected, and he retired to enjoy the delights 

 of travel and the pleasures of a social life, 



