210 .' REPORT— 1861. 



This rapid increase could only be accounted for on the supposition that the occu- 

 pations of the people in the manufactuiing districts are more congenial, and afford 

 better remuneration, than agricultiu'al pursuits, 



Mr. Chadwick then referred to a paper read at the last meeting of the British 

 Association in Manchester, in 1842, by Mr. Henry Ashworth of Bolton, showing that 

 the total value of property in Lancashu-e, in 1692, was £95,242 ; and in 1841, 

 £6,192,067, being an increase of 6300 per cent, in a century and a half, — the pro- 

 portions of the increase being, in the three agi'icultural portions of the country, 

 3500 per cent. ; and in the thi-ee manufacturing hundi-eds (Blackburn, Salford, and 

 West Derby), 7000 per cent. The total assessable annual value of property in the 

 county was (as shown by a parliamentaiy return), in 1860, £10,458,243, being an 

 increase of £4,266,176 in twenty years, or 69-35 per cent. The total assessable 

 annual value of propeiiy in England and Wales was, in 1860, £103,462,535, — that 

 of Lancashire being therefore equal to 10-14 per cent, thereof. 



Referring to the question of representation, it was shown that prior to 1832, 

 Manchester, Salford, and many other of the gi-eat towns of Lancashire were um-e- 

 presented in Parliament, but that the Reform Bill gave them 26 members (now 

 mcreased to 27). England and Wales returned 500 members, being one member 

 for £206,925 annual value of property, and 40,123 of population ; whilst Lancashire, 

 with its 27 members, had only one member for £387,-342 value and 91,281 popula- 

 tion. Thus, although Lancashire constitutes 12-29 per cent, of the population, and 

 10-14 per cent, of the annual value of property in England and Wales, the number 

 of its parliamentary representatives is only 5-4 per cent, of the niunber returned for 

 England and the Principality. 



The great staple trade of the district was next considered. The tables imder this 

 head showed cotton imported into the United Kingdom from 1842 to 1845 inclusive 

 (four years) :— From the United States, 2,064,128,400 lb. ; all other countries, 

 608,476,800 lb. : total imports, 2,672,605,200 lb. (estimated at 400 lb. per bale). In 

 1846 to 1848 (three yeai-s) : United States, 1,366,796,1721b.; other coimtiies, 

 288,787,8781b. ; total, 1,655,584,0501b. "^Tiilst in the three years ending 1860, 

 the figures were as follows : — United States, 2,910,835,648 lb. ; all other coimti-ies, 

 740,4.34,352 lb. ; total, 3,651,270,000 lb. The imports were, in 1846, 467,856,274 lb. ; 

 and in 1860, 1,390,938,752 lb., being an increase in fom-teen years of 197 per cent. 

 Of cotton imported in 1846, the United States supplied 86 per cent., and all other 

 countries 14 per cent. ; in 1860, the United States, 80|^, and other countries 19J per 

 cent. Next followed a statement of cotton consumed, and manufactured goods pro- 

 duced in Great Britain, in 1830, 1840, 1850, and 1860; which showed, 247,600,000 lb. 

 of raw cotton consumed in 1830, against 1,083,600,000 lb. in 1860; the manufactured 

 goods produced being 182,954,658 lb. in 18.30, as against 886, 256,345 lb. in 1860. Total 

 mamifactured goods, in 1830, 914,773,563 yards ; in 1860, 4,431,281,728 yards, or 

 2,517,774 miles— a quantity which would -rn-ap 100 times round the globe'! Total 

 •Value of cotton goods pi-oduced, upwards of £77,000,000, a sum exceeding the total 

 revenue of the United Kingdom. The difference between the value of cotton manu- 

 factured and yams exported, and the total cotton imports, leaves 16J millions as the 

 value of labom-, &c., left in the counti-y fi-om exports of cotton manufacture alone — 

 exceeding our total exports of woollen goods and yams, and more than double our 

 exports of silk and linen manvifactures. As a companion to the foregoing state- 

 ment, Mr. Chadwick also gave the impoi-ts of cotton, wool, silk, hemp, and flax, in 

 various years, from 1790 to the present time, annexing a table showing the num- 

 ber of factories existing in the United Kingdom in 1856, with other particidars 

 therewith connected. Nimiber of textile factories, 5117; spindles, 33,503,580; 

 power looms, 370,195 ; total persons employed, 682,497. The motive power em- 

 ployed in 1856 appears to have been: — steam= 137,711 horses; water, 2.3,724; 

 total horse-power, 161,435 (no later connected returns had been issued). Number 

 of spindles at work in cotton factories in 1860, 33,862,500, turning off 32 lb. of yarn 

 per spindle per anniuu. Deducting the exports in yam, 27,695,511 spindles, or 

 369,273 looms, remain. Total estimated value of spindles and looms emploved in 

 the manufactm-e of cotton in Great Britain in 1860, £41,247,960. Spindles, 84,656 

 horse-power; looms, 24,685. Total, 109,341 ; consuming 639,586 tons of coals in 

 , the year. Increase in spindles and looms in the four years, 20 per cent. Calcu- 



