THE COTTON TRADE. 363 



in the cotton manufactures of this country to contemplate with unconcern 

 the insecurity on which this vast manufacture rests. This is not a local 

 question — it has become a great national question — and must be forced 

 upon the attention of statesmen of all parties. To me it appears the im- 

 portance of the subject cam scarcely be over-rated." 



With such motives to action, so forcibly expressed by one who had the 

 ear of those^most interested five years ago, it is not likely that our manu- 

 facturers are so unprepared as the Americans imagine, — with the necessity 

 of dealing promptly with this great question, so prominently brought home 

 to them by the present disturbances in the United States, and the blockade 

 of the cotton ports of the Southern Confederacy,— with so wide a field for 

 action before them, — we may be sure that the commercial enterprise of 

 Britain will not sleep. 



It will not be long ere the absurdity of that rooted idea of the Southern 

 planter — we may almost add, of the Northern merchant — that " cotton is 

 king," will be fully demonstrated ; and they will then awake to the con- 

 viction that they are but as the flies on the rim of the wheel, and must 

 struggle for dear life to find customers for their bales in the over-stocked 

 markets of the world. The quarrel which was arrogantly assumed to be 

 the precursor of the downfall of the commercial supremacy of Great 

 Britain, bids fair to be the immediate cause of largely increasing and 

 cheapening the world's supply of the raw material, and of giving a greater 

 impulse to the productive powers of the British looms than anything that 

 has happened since the inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Watt. 



As with many other branches of manufacture, that of cotton was driven 

 into England by the tyranny of continental rulers. It first took root in 

 Manchester about the beginning of the seventeenth century, where it was 

 encouraged by the municipal authorities granting to the political and 

 religious refugees (who brought the art with them) valuable privileges for a 

 nominal consideration, such as the privilege of cutting timber for their 

 looms in the extensive forests owned 'by the Warden and Fellows of Man- 

 chester College. The industrious immigrant was also encouraged by pri- 

 vileges from the Crown. " The Provident Elizabeth," says lAbbe de 

 Smet, " did not confine her views to the relief of her religious partisans, 

 but sought to transfer into her kingdom those prosperous trades of the 

 low countries which adjoining states had looked upon with invidious 

 eyes." 



At this time the operative weaver had usually his residence in the 

 country, where, in his garden plot, he eked out his earnings by the culti- 

 vation of his small holding. This was a necessity. The uncertainty of 

 procuring a regular supply of material for his loom rendering his legitimate 

 work exceedingly precarious. 



The fly shuttle was invented by Kaye of Bury in 1750, and, in 1760, 

 James Hargreaves had perfected important improvements in the carding 

 processes. In 1762, the father of the late Sir Robert Peel erected one of 

 his improved machines at Blackburn, which did not materially differ from 



