MANCHESTER 



was founded by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, in 

 1515. Its original endowment was 29 per annum, 

 but the possession of certain mills on the Irk a 

 tributary of the Irwell soon gave the school a 

 substantial revenue. In 1825 the report of the 

 Charity Commissioners showed that the total 

 income of the Grammar-school Trust had reached 

 a sum exceeding 4000 per annum. In 1868 the 

 original plan of the founder was altered, and 

 the new scheme, as sanctioned by the Court of 

 Chancery, is the admission of 100 boys at twelve 

 guineas a year each, the remainder l>eing on 

 the foundation, and the school is enlarged to 

 accommodate 350 boys. In Brasenose College, 

 Oxford, there are four scholarships l>elonging to 

 this school, and eighteen others of which it has 

 e\ery third turn. In St John's College, Cam- 

 bridge, it has, in turn with two other schools, a 

 ri^'lit to twenty-two scholarships. There is also 

 a hospital school, founded in 1651 by Humphrey 

 Chetham, ' for maintaining, educating, bringing 

 up, and apprenticing forty healthy and poor 

 boys.' By 1845 the revenue had increased suffi- 

 ciently to justify the feotfers in increasing the 

 niimlier of boys to 100. In ls."il \V;LS opened Owens 

 College (q.v.). It is due to the lil>erality of John 

 Owens, who died in 1846, leaving by will 100,000 

 to l>e expended in founding an educational institu- 

 tion of the highest class. In 1870 a further sum of 

 90,000 was expended on new buildings, &c. In 

 1880 a roval charter was granted for the founding 

 <>f Victoria University, of which Owens is one of 

 the colleges, ami by an additional charter the uni- 

 versity was entitled to confer degrees in surgery 

 and medicine. As an educational institution it has 

 already earned a very high character, and has grown 

 steadily in usefulness and resources. The university 

 contains an excellent library anil nni-i-iim of natural 

 history. The Technical Scliool, with which in 1883 

 was incorporated the Mechanics' Institute, and 

 in 1890 the Manchester \Vhitworth Institute, has 

 proved very completely how a school can be organ- 

 ised to give thorough technical training in the 

 principles and processes of great and complicated 

 industries. The course of studies is generally con- 

 lined to subjects of commercial and mechanical 

 interest theoretical and practical engineering, de- 

 -iL'iiing, spinning and weaving, printing, dyeing, 

 and bleaching, metallurgy and chemistry. It has 

 al-o several good lecture-rooms. Every facility is 

 afforded the scholars for acquiring thorough know- 

 ledge, theoretical and practical, of the various 

 handicrafts, ami the expert use of tools. The 

 guarantors of the Manchester Exhibition (1887) 

 have contributed their surplus of 42, (XX), and the 

 city council has adopted the Technical Instruction 

 Act, and has from 1890 allotted the school the sum 

 of 2000 per annum. In 1889-90 there were 50 

 board schools and 130 elementary schools, with an 

 attendance of 72,167 scholars. There are evening 

 classes in connection with the lioard and technical 

 schools at a moderate rate. As regards the educa- 

 lion of the poorer children, the persevering en- 

 deavours of the wealthy and benevolent in this 

 direction have been very noteworthy. 



The great revolution in the industrial life of 

 England ln-gan here alnmt the middle of the 18th 

 century the substitution of the factory system, 

 where large numbers of men work together, for the 

 older method of each working in their homes. 

 (possibilities were also opened up by a series of 

 remarkable inventions which increased production 

 of manufactured goods at a far cheai>er and incon- 

 ceivably more rapid rate, combined with the new 

 application of mechanical power to the service of 

 man in Watt's steam-engine. Manchester has been 

 the pioneer in opening up new means of internal 

 communication, ami t<> meet the rapid increase of 



trade and commerce many efforts were made in early 

 times to substitute some better means for the pack- 

 horse mode of carriage and conveyance. In 1720 the 

 Irwell was made navigable. In 1756 the Bridge- 

 water Canal was constructed, which put Man- 

 chester in communication with the coalfields of 

 Lancashire and the salt-mines of Cheshire, and 

 made an outlet to the sea. Later it became a high- 

 way for passengers as well as goods. In 1830 Man- 

 chester had the first perfect railway in full operation. 

 It has been proved that conveyance by water is only 

 one-tenth of the cost of the same distance by land, 

 and, in order to avoid transhipment of goods, and 

 to -render Manchester an inland seaport, the 

 gigantic engineering work of making a ship-canal 

 at a cost of abou t 1 5,000,000 sterling was carried out 

 in 1887-93 (see CANAL, Vol. II. p. 700). A perfect 

 network of railways and canals radiates from Man- 

 chester as a centre in all directions. In conse- 

 quence of all these gradual changes Manchester is 

 losing its character as merely a manufacturing 

 town. A change is gradually developing in the 

 locale of the various large industries, and the city 

 may be regarded now as the general market for the 

 whole trade. The principal cotton-mills and other 

 industries are being removed to the suburbs north 

 and east of the city, and in and around Manchester 

 and Sal ford two-thirds of the entire cotton-manu- 

 factures of the United Kingdom are located. There 



are about 700 different industries in the district. 

 Manchester was the first place to secure the privi- 

 lege of inland bonding for articles charged with 



: customs duties, ami now produces a large and 



: increasing revenue from that source. 



The sanitary condition of Manchester is not a 



< satisfactory one, and in consequence the death-rate, 



I averaging 35 per 1000, is abnormally high ; but it 

 must be remembered that the corporation had 

 long arrears of neglect and indifference to make up, 

 while a rapid increase of population was going 

 on. Down to 1838 Manchester and Salford were 



fovemed by a l>orough-reevr and constables, and 

 rom their'abolition only could the real work of 

 improvement begin. As instances of the im- 

 mense works accomplished by the corporations 

 may lie mentioned the gas and water supplies, 

 municipal buildings, widening and draining of the 

 streets, removal of unhealthy courts and dwellings. 

 The sewage main drains made since 1838 are 95 

 miles in length, cross drains and eyes 148 miles. 

 whilst the area of streets paved equals a million 

 square yards. The smoke nuisance is perhaps 

 more difficult to remove now than when tfie 

 factories were within the city. The disease and 

 death dealing river, the Irwell, (lowing through a 

 dense population, has yet to be dealt with. Besides 

 the pollution from public works of all kinds it is 

 the receptacle of the sewage from more than one 

 million of a population distributed over the water- 

 shed of the Irwell, comprising an area of 300 sq. m. 

 Great efforts are constantly being made to remedy 

 this unfortunate state of matters. 



Manchester is undoubtedly an ancient city. It 

 is mentioned as a Roman station (Mancunium; 

 in A.S. Manigceaster ), and s|)ken of at the time 

 of the Norman Conquest in connection with 

 Salford and Kochdale, but the uncertainty of all 

 trustworthy information, especially as regards its 

 origin, renders any account of its early history a 

 matter of doubtful value. We cannot determine 

 when Manchester became a manufacturing district, 

 but it is probable that the introduction of Flemish 

 artificers in the reign of Edward III. is the real 

 starting-point. In the 13th century there was a 

 fulling-mill, and dyeing yarns or cloth was practised. 

 The 14th and 15th centuries are mentioned as periods 

 of great progress. Camden, who visited Manchester 

 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, describes it as 



