﻿MANCHKSTEB. 



MANCHESTEB. 



690 



barometer at Manchester is 29'85. The mercury is higher in the 

 summer months than in the winter. The general annual mean of 

 temperature is 49°. The mean annual fall of rain is 36"140 inches; 

 ■while at Lancaster it is 39-714. The first six months of the year must 

 be considered as dry months, and the last six months as wet months. 

 April is the driest month in the year, and October is the wettest, or 

 that in which the most rain falls, in a long-continued series of years, 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Manchester. 



The drainage and sewerage of the town have been greatly improved 

 under local acts. A few years back the corporation obtained an Act 

 of Parliament by which it was empowered to purchase the old water- 

 works, and to construct new works on the river Ethcrow, near 

 Woodhead, at a distance of from 14 to 18 miles from Manchester, 

 and thus insure a sufficient supply of good water. The streets are 

 well paved, and there is an ample supply of gas of a superior quality. 

 The gas as well as water supply is under the direction of the 

 corporation. 



Manchester has reaped an ample reward from that system of canal 

 navigation to which it gave such impulse in its earlier stages. The 

 achievements of Brlndley were prompted by the desire which the 

 Duke of Bridgewater had of sending his coal from Worsley to Man- 

 chester at a small expense ; and the city now possesses the means of 

 watercommunication with almost every part of the country. In 

 railway enterprise Manchester has held a prominent station. It 

 furnished its full share of the capital employed in the formation of 

 the Manohester and Liverpool railway ; and is now the centre of a 

 B}'stem of railways which radiate from it by numerous lines, connect- 

 ing it with all the commercial towns of the kingdom. Along most of 

 these lines the electric telegraph is in full operation. 



Manchester was a Roman station, the Mancuniura of the Itinerary 

 of Antoninus. Under the Saxons Mancestre became the abode of a 

 Thane. In the Domesday Book it is mentioned as possessing a church, 

 that of St Michael's. In the year 1301 Thomas de Qrelley granted 

 the Oreat Charter of Manchester. From the Orelleys the barony 

 descended to the family of De la Warre, and John, the first of the 

 line, was called to Parliament in the 9th year of Edward II. The 

 manorial rights have been recently purchased by the corporation of 

 Manchester. 



In the civil wars Manchester ranged itaelf on the side of the Parlia- 

 ment, and sustained a siege conducted by Lord Strange. On the 

 cessation of the conteat, Presbyterianism replaced Episcopacy; 

 Heyrick, the warden of the collegiate church, being himself instru- 

 mental in bringing about the change. The Rebellion of 1745 had 

 many friends and supporters in Manchester. The desire for political 

 reform arose at a very early period in Manche-iter, and imme- 

 diately after the peace in 1815, it began to manifest itself in a very 

 decided manner. By the Reform Act Manchester obtained the 

 elective franchise. The great ' free-trade ' movement received its 

 mightiest impetus in Manchester by the formation of the ' Anti-Com- 

 Iaw League ' ; and the party which gives special attention to the 

 interests of manufacture, as it had its origin in the town, has been 

 generally recognised as the ' Manchester school.' In 1848 Manchester 

 was made the seat of a bishopric. In 1852 it was constituted a city. 



In the time of Henry VIII. and Edward VL the town was dis- 

 tinguished for its manufactures. The more rapid expansion of 

 traile began in the 17th century; and one who is known as a bene- 

 factor to the town, Humphrey Chethom, was among its most eminent 

 tradesmen. The enormities of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, 

 and subsequently the revocation of the edict of Nantes, brought many 

 enterprising and skilful foreigners into the district. At first the 

 woollen was the only branch of trade, but since the middle of the last 

 century the cotton has nearly superseded the woollen manufacture. 

 The series of brilliant inventions and discoveries applied, improved, 

 or originated in the district of Manchester, comprising the steam- 

 engine, the spinning-jenny, the mule-jenny, the fly-frame, the tube- 

 frame, the mule, &c., have proved most effective instruments in 

 developing the industrial power of the inhabitants. The early 

 inventions which gave energy to the cotton manufacture were com- 

 pleted about 1788. The importation of raw cotton into this country 

 in 1701 amounted to 1,985,868 lbs. ; in 1761 to 2,976,610 lbs. In 

 1780 it had increased to upwards of 6,700,000 lbs. ; in 1800 it 

 reacbed 60,000,000 lbs. Since then it has gone on increasing with 

 marvellous rapidity. 



'There are above 200 cotton factories within the limits of Manchester 

 pwisb. Some of them are only spinning factories ; others are both 

 spinning and weaving ; and many of them are on a scale of extraor- 

 dinary magnitude. Bleach-works, dye-works, and print-works, all 

 connected with the cotton manufacture, exist on a very large scale in 

 and near Manchester: a\ao chemical works, engine factories, and 

 numerous other extensive establishments, as well as a very great 

 number of small factories and workshops, which depend more or less 

 on the staple manufacture of the town. 



The processes of throwing and weaving silk were extensively carried 

 on at Maccli'sfiel.l several ypnrs before they reached Manchester. Tho 

 ■ilk-mill of Mr. Veraon Royle, erected iu 1819-20, was the first brought 

 into operation in Manchester. Since then the trade has rapidly 

 incre ased ; and there aro now several very Urge mills, employing a 

 grwt number of hoods. Printing is another branch of tho silk 



0100. StT. VOL. IU. 



bueines!?, chiefly, if not exclusively, carried on at Manchester. Dyeing 

 of silk is also extensively pursued. 



Locomotive engines for railways, as well as the engines and machinery 

 for cotton factories, are extensively made. There aro besides manu- 

 factories of woollens, small wares, hats, umbrellas, &c. There are 

 numerous banking and other mercantile establishments. A chamber 

 of commerce has been established. Property iu the town has enor- 

 mously increased in value ; the application of capital has been on the 

 grandest scale, and the habits of the manufacturers have undergone 

 an entire change. 



As to the intellectual and moral condition of the working classes, 

 there is doubtless much to deplore. The prevalence of the factory 

 system has broken up the old domestic mimufacture, and thereby 

 destroyed former domestic habits ; it has also called from every dis- 

 trict of the kingdom, and especially from Ireland, masses of people 

 heterogeneous in their character, yet all more or less ignorant and 

 uncultivated. Most of them have been much bettered in their circum- 

 stances without having found an equal increase of morally improving 

 influences. Children by the amount of their wages have become 

 independent of their parents : girls have been sent into the mill 

 before they have learnt the rudiments of domestic duty, and mothers, 

 whose presence in their own houses is indispensable, continue at 

 work for ten hours in the day amid a moss of people, young and old, 

 from whom they can derive little improvement. It is a painful 

 consequence of so many married women working at the mills that 

 a fearfully large number of infants are left barely cared for during 

 the day : to meet, and in some degree to remedy, this evil, ' day 

 nurseries' have been established, and have been found exceedingly 

 useful. Tho Saturday holiday is a considerable boon to the industrial 

 population of Manchester. Every Saturday at one o'clock factories 

 and warehouses, as well as banks and other large commercial establish- 

 ments and many shops, are closed, nod tho remainder of the day is 

 given as a holiday to those employed in them. 



Manchester has not been hitherto distinguished for architectural 

 beauty; its chief streets are occupied with warehouses and shops. 

 Recently however a great improvement has taken place in the build- 

 ing of warehouses and places of business ; so ranch so indeed that 

 the warehouses of Manchester promise to become a marked archi- 

 tectural feature of the town. They are spacious, constructed mostly 

 of brick, with stone quoins and dressings, but many are wholly stoue, 

 and they are almost invariably in the Italian style. Under the sanction 

 of Acts of Parliament much has been done for the improvement of 

 the town, both in convenience and appearance. Market-street, the 

 chief street, is wide and handsome. The Manchester Improvement 

 Committee have applied the profits of the gas-works, which are very 

 large, to the improvement of the town. Several new streets have 

 been opened by them through dense masses of buildings. Great 

 attention has also been given to the level of the roads in the approaches 

 to the town. 



The ecclesiastical edifices in Manchester are numerous. The 

 cathedral is a spacious (collegiate) church of the perpendicular style, 

 of very good proportions ; it consists of a nave with two aisles, 

 transepts, several mortuary chapels, aud an elaborate western tower. 

 This building serves as the cathedral of the see of Manchester. 

 Among the recent churahes one of the finest is that of the Holy 

 Trinity in Stretford-road. St. Luke's churob, Cheetham-hill, St. James's 

 at Birch, Trinity church, Rusholme, and St. Matthew's church, are 

 deserving of notice. Among dissenting places of worship, may be 

 mentioned the handsome cruciform Congregational church in Stretford- 

 road, the Scotch church, corner of Devonshire-street, the elegant 

 Unitarian chapel in Brook-street, built by Sir C. Barry, and tho hand- 

 some Roman Catholic church of St. Chads. Next to the cathedral 

 the finest building in Manchester or Salford is the Roman Catholic 

 cathedral in Salford. There ore 42 places of worship belonging to 

 the Establishment, and 110 in connection with the Dissenters in 

 Manchester and Salford ; of these the Weelcyan Methodists have 27, 

 the Association Methodists 14, the Primitive and New Connexion 

 Methodists 9, the Independents 17, the Baptists 9, Presbyterians 7, 

 the Unitarians 4, the Roman Catholics 7, aud tho Quaker.-!, Sweden- 

 borgians, and Qreek Church one each. The Jews have two synagogues. 

 There are three cemeteries in Manchester ; one in ilusholme-road, one 

 at Ardwiek, and the third at Harpurhey. 



The Manchester Free Orammar school was founded by Hugh 

 Oldham, bishop of Exeter, in 1515. It is free to boys of whatever 

 county or shire, from 5 years old to 20. Tho income is variable, but 

 averages 5000i. It has several exhibitions to Oxford and Combridge. 

 The school is under the care of nine masters, and in 1853 had 400 

 scholars. Chetham's Hospital, or the College, was founded by charter 

 in 1665, for 31 boys of Manchester and Salford, and other places in the 

 vicinity ; Humphrey Chcthani, the benefactor, leaving the interest of 

 7000^. for their maintenance and instruction from 6 to 14 years of 

 age, at which period they were to be put out to some trade. The 

 number of scholars is now about 80. The school is conducted in a 

 convenient old building, which also contains the college library, a fine 

 collection of not less than 25,000 volumes, which have ber-n accumu- 

 lated out of the benefactions of the same H. Cheethnm : among the 

 books are many rare and most valuable works. The library is open 

 to the use of the public; books are not allowed to be taken out, but 



2 Y 



