222 Of iticreasmg Wealth, as it Bk. iii. 



In the same work it appears that the register 

 for the collegiate church of Manchester, from 

 Christmas, 1793, to Christmas 1794, shewed a 

 decrease of 168 marriages, 538 christenings, and 

 250 burials. In the parish of Rochdale, in the 

 neighbourhood, a still more melancholy reduction 

 in proportion to the number of people took place. 

 In 1792 the births were 746, the burials 646, and 

 the marriages 339. In 1794 the births were 373, 

 the burials 671, and the marriages 199. The 

 cause of this sudden check to population was the 

 failure of demand and of commercial credit which 

 occurred at the commencement of the war, and 

 such a check could not have taken place in so 

 sudden a manner without the most severe distress, 

 occasioned by the sudden reduction of wages. 



In addition to the fluctuations arising from the 

 changes from peace to war and from war to peace, 

 it is well known how subject particular manufac- 

 tures are to fail from the caprices of taste. The 

 weavers of Spitalfields were plunged into the 

 most severe distress by the fashion of muslins in- 

 stead of silks ; and great numbers of workmen in 

 Sheffield and Birmingham were for a time thrown 

 out of employment owing to the adoption of shoe 

 strings and covered buttons, instead of buckles 

 and metal buttons. Our manufactures, taken in 

 the mass, have increased with prodigious rapidity, 

 but in particular places they have failed ; and the 

 parishes where this has happened are invariably 

 loaded with a crowd of poor in the most distressed 

 and miserable condition. 



