2 1 o Four-i7t-Hand in Britain. 



are the Charioteers, after all, in their happiest dream, 

 but aristocratic gypsies ? That is the reason we are so 

 enraptured with the life. 



But in Preston there is no scope for idealism. It is 

 a city where cotton is king. No town can be much less 

 attractive ; but, mark you, a few steps toward the river 

 and you overlook one of the prettiest parks in the world. 

 The Ribble runs at the foot of the sloping hill upon 

 which the city stands, and its banks have been converted 

 into the pleasure-ground I speak of, in which the toilers 

 sport in thousands and gaze upon the sweet fields of 

 living green beyond far into the country. It is not so 

 bad when the entire district is not given over to manu- 

 factures, as in Birmingham and Manchester. There is 

 the cloud, but there is the silver lining also. 



If ever the people of England and America are 

 estranged in some future day, which God forbid, I could 

 wish that every American were duly informed of the 

 conduct of the people of Lancashire during the rebellion, 

 and, indeed, of England, Ireland, and Scotland as well, 

 but more particularly of such as were directly dependent 

 upon the supply of cotton for work, as was the case here. 

 The troops of Pennsylvania did not more truly fight the 

 battle of the Union at Gettysburg, than did the thou- 

 sands of men and women here under the lead of Bright 

 and Cobden, Potter, Forster, Storey, and others, who 

 held the enemies of Republicanism in check. The sacri- 

 fices they bore could never have been borne except for 



