5. A Description of Middlemen in the Woollen Industry [J. Smith, The Memoirs of Wool, Vol. II, pp. 310-313, 1747], 1739.

Perhaps, sir, you may ask how it is possible that these men, who style themselves but factors or agents, could find means to lord it as tyrants over their employers? Why thus: they have managed it so, that the merchant dare not sell his wool to the clothier, nor the clothier presume to buy it of the merchant. On this grand point their whole power is founded. To make this clear, sir, you are to understand, that in the year 1695, the clothiers finding themselves in much the same circumstances they are at present, by their credit given to the drapers on one hand, and their being obliged to purchase wool of the factors, on the other, applied in a body to parliament for relief, and an act was accordingly past for restoring to them Blackwel-Hall for a market, limiting the credit to be given for their goods, to six months; obliging the factor to demand notes of hand of the draper, payable in that term, for the use of the clothier, on penalty of forfeiting double the value of the debt; and in case the draper refused to give such notes, so demanded, fining him 20s.

For a little while, this act had its desired effect; these notes were immediately returned to the clothier, who carried them to market for wool, etc., and by that means, made them answer in trade almost as well as cash itself. The factors thus stripped of the most valuable part of their business, immediately concerted such measures as rendered the whole act ineffectual, and put it in their power to tyrannize over the clothiers as much as ever. This was done, by tampering with those of the trade, whose circumstances were most precarious, who induced by the promise of a speedy sale for their goods, prior to those of any other maker, were easily prevailed upon to forego the advantage of the notes granted them by Parliament. This fatal precedent being once set, the factors instantly exacted a like compliance from all the rest; and if any refused not one piece of their cloth was sold. By which means, being obliged to keep their workmen employed in the interval, their whole stock, though ever so large, was exhausted; and the more stock they had, the more it became their interest to truckle to their old oppressors, and again take off their wool on what terms they pleased.

This important point carried, like true politicians, they resolved to pursue their blow, and add some new acquisitions to what they possessed before. Accordingly, they again allowed the drapers such unreasonable credit, that it was impossible for the most substantial clothier to carry on the trade, while the returns were so slow and precarious. On an universal complaint therefore of this grievance, they graciously condescended to insure the debt to be paid, twelve months after it was contracted; but in return of so great a favour, insisted on two and a half per cent. as a reward; and if any was rash or stubborn enough to disrelish or oppose this new imposition, he had the mortification to wait six months longer for his money, that is to say, a year and a half in all; which, together with the three months the cloth is in making, and three that (one piece with another) it continues in the hall, before it is sold off, make two years in the whole. Now let any one judge how large a stock is absolutely necessary to carry on a trade, under all these disadvantages, particularly when 'tis recollected, that the clothier is obliged to pay his workmen ready money all this while, whether his goods are vended or no; and that the modest factor always insists on his being paid for his wool, with the first money he receives for the cloth.

Neither is even this all. But if the clothier, hard drove by so vast and so continued a charge, should be compelled, as too many are, to draw upon the factor for money before 'tis due, according to their calculation, one misfortune makes way for another; and he must pay an extravagant premium for the advance, probably, of his own money. Nor are you to wonder, sir, that these worthy gentlemen are so solicitous to monopolise the whole market of Spanish wool; since, on a medium, they get four pounds on every pack. Now a considerable clothier may be supposed to work up 80 packs a year; which is in a manner a rent charge of 320l. to the factor annually; for it is more than probable that this very wool is purchased with the clothiers' cash; and while the factor grows rich without any risk, and with very little trouble the clothier is doubly excised, both for what he receives, and what is not only withheld, but employed so manifestly to his prejudice.

'Tis farther to be observed, that as by far the greatest part of a clothiers' stock must of necessity be lodged in the factors hands, if he (the clothier) happens to break, or die insolvent (as in spite of a whole life of toil and industry, many of them do) the factor immediately seizes on the whole; it being (says he) a pledge for money advanced, wool sold, etc., so that the rest of the creditors seldom receive a farthing, while he, to whom the poor man's calamity is principally owing, runs away with all.

Besides these capital grievances, there are several others, which though inferior in degree, are, when added together, no small increase of the load; such as the factors lumping the charges for warehouse-room in the hall, porterage, pressing, packing, etc., every article of which ought to be particular; as likewise sending out cloths to the drapers at the expense of the clothier, not for sale; but one would be almost tempted to think, to supply the shops with the paper and packthread they are secured with; since they are returned stripp'd of both, tumbled from end to end, exposed to all weather and accidents, and in such a condition as renders it absolutely necessary to have them cleaned, pressed, and packed anew. And all this, after they have been out of the hall six or eight weeks; though the above quoted act of Parliament provides that every cloth shall be reputed sold, after it hath been detained eight days.

One would think, sir, I had already mentioned grievances enough, not only to justify the clothier, but to excite the concern of the whole people in their favour, and the aid of the legislature in their redress. But there is yet another behind, which ought not to be omitted. It is this. These worthy factors, not content with all these various methods of oppression, to crown the whole, often set up people to act as master clothiers, on their stock, during any little glut of business; and as it is easy to imagine, give all the cloth so made, the preference of the market, though perhaps in all respects, least deserving of it. Hence, those that trade on their own bottoms, and employ the poor in good and bad times alike, are liable to all the disadvantages of the one, with little or no share in the benefits of the other. And hence, more people are admitted into trade, than the trade can possibly maintain; which opens a new door to the tumults and riots so lately felt.

6. Report on the Condition of Children in Lancashire Cotton Factories [Report of Committee on State of Children in Manufactories, 1816 (III), pp. 139-140], 1796.

It has already been stated that the objects of the present institution are to prevent the generation of diseases; to obviate the spreading of them by contagion; and to shorten the duration of those which exist, by affording the necessary aids and comforts to the sick. In the prosecution of this interesting undertaking, the Board have had their attention particularly directed to the large cotton factories established in the town and neighbourhood of Manchester; and they feel it a duty incumbent on them to lay before the public the result of their inquiries:—

1. It appears that the children and others who work in the large factories, are peculiarly disposed to be affected by the contagion of fever, and that when such infection is received, it is rapidly propagated, not only amongst those who are crowded together in the same apartments, but in the families and neighbourhoods to which they belong.

2. The large factories are generally injurious to the constitution of those employed in them, even where no particular diseases prevail, from the close confinement which is enjoined, from the debilitating effects of hot or impure air, and from the want of the active exercises which nature points out as essential in childhood and youth, to invigorate the system, and to fit our species for the employments and for the duties of manhood.

3. The untimely labour of the night, and the protracted labour of the day, with respect to children, not only tends to diminish future expectations as to the general sum of life and industry, by impairing the strength and destroying the vital stamina of the rising generation, but it too often gives encouragement to idleness, extravagance and profligacy in the parents, who, contrary to the order of nature, subsist by the oppression of their offspring.

4. It appears that the children employed in factories are generally debarred from all opportunities of education, and from moral or religious instruction.

5. From the excellent regulations which subsist in several cotton factories, it appears that many of these evils may, in a considerable degree, be obviated; we are therefore warranted by experience, and are assured we shall have the support of the liberal proprietors of these factories, in proposing an application for Parliamentary aid (if other methods appear not likely to effect the purpose), to establish a general system of laws for the wise, humane, and equal government of all such works.

7. The Newcastle Coal Vend

Is there any regulation or limit as to price they[317] may give to the coal-owners?

In August, September, and October, 1771, I found great irregularities in the Coal Trade, particularly with respect to the measure. I communicated my sentiments to two of the most respectable agents of the owners ...; upon which it was agreed that a meeting should be had of the coal owners belonging to Sunderland, to be convened by me, and the coal owners at Newcastle, to be convened by a Mr. Gibson and Mr. Morrison, which was done; and we had three or four meetings, and I was appointed Secretary.... Since that time, according to the best enquiries I have been able to make, the coal owners have had frequent meetings for the purpose of stipulating the vends[318]; that is, that five of the collieries of the best coals, viz., Walls End, Walker, Wellington, Hebburn, and Heyton, are permitted to vend the greatest proportion, and at the best price; after that there is a second class, which sells one shilling per chaldron lower, being coals of an inferior quality, and also less in proportion as to quantity; there is likewise a third class, at a shilling less than the second, and who are allowed to sell a still less proportion as to quantity.

By what means do you understand those vends have been limited? By the meetings of the coal owners frequently for the purpose of ascertaining the vends.

Was there any positive agreement for that purpose? That cannot be well known, being contrary to Act of Parliament.

(b) 1830.[319]

The proprietors of the best coals are called upon to name the price at which they intend to sell their coals for the succeeding twelve months; according to this price, the remaining proprietors fix their prices; this being accomplished, each colliery is requested to send in a statement of the different sorts of coals they raise, and the powers of the colliery; that is, the quantity that each particular colliery could raise at full work; and upon these statements the committee, assuming an imaginary basis, fix the relative proportions, as to quantity, between all the collieries, which proportions are observed, whatever quantity the markets may demand. The committee then meet once a month, and according to the probable demand of the ensuing month, they issue so much per 1000 to the different collieries; that is, if they give me an imaginary basis of 30,000 and my neighbour 20,000, according to the quality of our coal and our power of raising them in the monthly quantity; if they issue 100 to 1000, I raise and sell 3,000 during the month, and my neighbour 2,000; but in fixing the relative quantities, if we take 800,000 chaldrons as the probable demand of the different markets for the year; if the markets should require more, an increased quantity would be given out monthly, so as to raise the annual quantity to meet that demand, were it double the original quantity.

Evidence of Robert William Brandling.[320]

What means have been resorted to in the north of England, with a view to keep the price of coal at such a rate as should compensate the owners of these collieries in which the expense of raising is the greatest?

We have entered into a regulation at different times, which regulation is in existence now, and which has for its object to secure us a fair uniform remunerating price, and enables us to sell our coals at the port of shipment under our immediate inspection, instead of being driven by a fighting trade, to become the carrier of our coals, and to sell them by third persons in the markets to which they are consigned; thereby trusting our interests to those over whom we have no direct control whatever.

So that practically the real quantity to be sold is fixed with reference to each colliery each month?

Yes. The basis originally fixed, is the proportion taken between all the collieries?

It is merely an imaginary quantity to fix the relative proportions.

Has the scale of prices now in operation been varied materially from that which was adopted when the regulation of the vend was last on?

I have already stated in my evidence that ours is a competition price, that we endeavour to get the best price we can, which is a little below what the consumer can get the same article for elsewhere. In the regulation in 1828 we found we had fixed our prices too high; the consequence was, it created an immediate influx of coals from Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire, and more especially from Stockton; so that when the coal-owners met together, to enter into another arrangement last year, we were obliged to fix our prices a little lower.

8. The Old Apprenticeship System in the Woollen Industry [Report of Committee on the Woollen Industry, 1806 (III), p. 5], 1806.

Evidence of Mr. James Ellis,[321] 18 April, 1806.

Do you instruct this apprentice in the different branches of the trade?

As far as he has been capable I have done.

Will you enumerate the different branches of the trade which you yourself learnt, and in which you instruct your apprentice?

I learnt to be a spinner before I went apprentice; my apprentice was only eleven years old when I took him; when I went apprentice I was a strong boy, and I was put to weaving first; I never was employed in bobbin winding myself while I was apprentice; I had learned part of the business with my father-in-law before I went; I knew how to wind bobbins and to warp; after that I learned to weave; we had two apprentices, and after I had been there a little while we used to spin and weave our webs; while one was spinning the other was weaving.

Did you also learn to buy your own wool?

Yes; I had the prospect of being a master when I came out of my time, and therefore my master took care I should learn that.

Does that branch require great skill?

Yes, it does; I found myself very deficient when I was loose.

Different sorts of wool are applicable to different dyes and different manufactures?

Yes; I was frequently obliged to resort to my master for information as to the dyeing and buying wool.

Does it not require great skill to dye according to pattern, even when you have bought wool?

Yes.

Were you also instructed in that?

Yes; I kept an account all the time I was apprentice of the principal part of the colours we dyed, and practised the dyeing: I always assisted in dyeing; I was not kept constantly to weaving and spinning; my master fitted me rather for a master than a journeyman.

And you instruct your apprentice in the same line?

Yes; we think it a scandal when an apprentice is loose if he is not fit for his business; we take pride in their being fit for their business, and we teach them all they will take.

9. A Petition of Cotton Weavers [House of Commons Journals, 47 Geo. III, 1807, Feb. 26], 1807.

A petition of the several Journeymen Cotton Weavers resident in the counties of Lancaster, Chester, York, and Derby, was presented and read; setting forth, That the petitioners suffer great hardships by the reduction of their wages, and that whenever the demand for goods becomes slack, many master manufacturers adopt the expedient of reducing wages, thereby compelling the petitioners, in order to obtain a livelihood, to manufacture greater quantities of goods at a time when they are absolutely not wanted, and that great quantities of goods so manufactured are sacrificed in the market at low prices, to the manifest injury of the fair dealer, and the great oppression of the petitioners, who are reduced one half of the wages they are justly entitled to, and in many cases, are not able to earn more than nine shillings per week: And therefore praying, That leave may be given to bring in a bill to regulate, from time to time, the wages of the petitioners.

10.—Depression of Wages and Its Causes in the Cotton Industry [Report of Committee on Orders in Council, 1812 (III),pp. 218 and 267-272], 1812.

Can you tell what interrupted that trade?—We had no further trade when the Continent was shut up.

To what is the want of trade owing?—The want of market for our goods.

To what is the want of market owing?—It is impossible for me to say, but I believe if we had an opening in America, we should have sufficient market for our goods; when we lost the Continental trade we had America to depend upon, now we have lost America we have no regular markets to depend upon.

11.—Evidence of the Condition of Children in Factories [Report of Committee on Children in Manufactories, 1816 (III), pp. 89 and 132-133], 1816.

They were mentioned to you as a rare instance?—They were mentioned to me in the midst of a very numerous assembly of very respectable people; I inquired of them whether they knew, as they were surrounded with, I believe, two or three thousand children at the time, what was the age at which children were generally admitted into cotton mills; their answer was, Some at five, many at six, and a greater number at seven. I have also received very important information from a very respectable individual at Manchester, relative to the age at which children are employed, the hours they are kept to work, and a variety of other particulars from very authentic sources.

Name those sources?—Mr. Nathaniel Gould and Mr. George Gould.

Does the information you propose to give come from the manufactory to which it relates?—No manufacturer would give information against himself.

State what you know relative to the number of hours which children and others are employed in their attendance on mills and manufactories?—About a fortnight ago I was in Leeds; and in conversation with Mr. Gott, whose name is well-known to many gentlemen in this room, he stated to me that it was a common practice, when the woollen trade was going on well, to work sixteen hours in the day: I was also informed by Mr. Marshall, who is another principal, and considered a highly respectable manufacturer in Leeds, that it was a common practice to work at flax-mills there sixteen hours a day whenever the trade went well: I was also informed by Mr. Gott, that when the Bill, generally known by the name of Sir Robert Peel's Bill, was brought in last session of Parliament, the night-work at Leeds was put an end to. In Stockport, on Sunday fortnight, I saw a number of small children going to the church; they appeared to me to be going from a Sunday school; the master was with them; I stopped the master, and asked him what he knew of the circumstances of the manufacturers in Stockport; he said he knew a great deal, because he himself had formerly, for many years, been a spinner in those mills; his name is Robert Mayor, of the National School in Stockport; he stated that he was willing to make oath that mills in Stockport, within the last twelve months, had been worked from three and four o'clock in the morning until nine at night, that he himself has frequently worked those hours.

Sir Robert Peel, Bart.

The house in which I have a concern gave employment at one time to near one thousand children of this description. Having other pursuits, it was not often in my power to visit the factories, but whenever such visits were made, I was struck with the uniform appearance of bad health, and, in many cases, stinted growth of the children; the hours of labour were regulated by the interest of the overseer, whose remuneration depending on the quantity of the work done, he was often induced to make the poor children work excessive hours, and to stop their complaints by trifling bribes. Finding our own factories under such management, and learning that the like practices prevailed in other parts of the kingdom where similar machinery was in use, the children being much over-worked, and often little or no regard paid to cleanliness and ventilation in the buildings; having the assistance of Dr. Percival and other eminent medical gentlemen of Manchester, together with some distinguished characters both in and out of Parliament, I brought in a Bill in the Forty-second year of the King, for the regulation of factories containing such parish apprentices. The hours of work allowed by that Bill being fewer in number than those formerly practised, a visible improvement in the health and general appearance of the children soon became evident, and since the complete operation of the Act contagious disorders have rarely occurred.

Diffident of my own abilities to originate legislative measures, I should have contented myself with the one alluded to, had I not perceived, that, owing to the present use of steam power in factories, the Forty-second of the King is likely to become a dead letter. Large buildings are now erected, not only as formerly on the banks of streams, but in the midst of populous towns, and instead of parish apprentices being sought after, the children of the surrounding poor are preferred, whose masters being free from the operation of the former Act of Parliament are subjected to no limitation of time in the prosecution of their business, though children are frequently admitted there to work thirteen to fourteen hours per day, at the tender age of seven years, and even in some cases still younger. I need not ask the Committee to give an opinion of the consequence of such a baneful practice upon the health and well-being of these little creatures, particularly after having heard the sentiments of those eminent medical men who have been examined before us; but I most anxiously press upon the Committee, that unless some parliamentary interference takes place, the benefits of the Apprentice Bill will soon be entirely lost, the practice of employing parish apprentices will cease, their places will be wholly supplied by other children, between whom and their masters no permanent contract is likely to exist, and for whose good treatment there will not be the slightest security. Such indiscriminate and unlimited employment of the poor, consisting of a great proportion of the inhabitants of trading districts, will be attended with effects to the rising generation so serious and alarming, that I cannot contemplate them without dismay, and thus that great effort of British ingenuity, whereby the machinery of our manufactures has been brought to such perfection, instead of being a blessing to the nation, will be converted into the bitterest curse.

Gentlemen, if parish apprentices were formerly deemed worthy of the care of Parliament, I trust you will not withhold from the unprotected children of the present day an equal measure of mercy, as they have no masters who are obliged to support them in sickness or during unfavourable periods of trade.

12.—Change in the Cotton Industry and the Introduction of Power-Loom Weaving [William Radcliffe, The Origin of Power-Loom Weaving, 1828, pp. 9-10, etc.], c. 1785-1807.

The principal estates being gone from the family, my father resorted to the common but never-failing resource for subsistence at that period, viz., the loom for men, and the cards and hand-wheel for women and boys. He married a spinster (in my etymology of the word) and my mother taught me (while too young to weave) to earn my bread by carding and spinning cotton, winding linen or cotton weft for my father and elder brothers at the loom, until I became of sufficient age and strength for my father to put me into a loom. After the practical experience of a few years, any young man who was industrious and careful, might then, from his earnings as a weaver, lay by sufficient to set him up as a manufacturer, and though but few of the great body of weavers had the courage to embark in the attempt, I was one of the few. Availing myself of the improvements that came out while I was in my teens, by the time I was married (at the age of 24, in 1785), with my little savings, and a practical knowledge of every process from the cotton-bag to the piece of cloth, such as carding by hand or by the engine, spinning by the hand-wheel or jenny, winding, warping, sizing, looming the web, and weaving either by hand or fly-shuttle, I was ready to commence business for myself; and by the year 1789, I was well established, and employed many hands both in spinning and weaving, as a master manufacturer.

From 1789 to 1794, my chief business was the sale of muslin warps, sized and ready for the loom (being the first who sold cotton twist in that state, chiefly to Mr. Oldknow, the father of the muslin trade in our country). Some warps I sent to Glasgow and Paisley. I also manufactured a few muslins myself, and had a warehouse in Manchester for my general business.

At Midsummer, 1801, on taking[322] stock very accurately we[323] found we had upwards of £11,000 in our concern; I had also a landed estate in Mellor, in which was comprehended Podmore, where my father was born, with a rent roll, and good tenants of upwards of £350 per annum, charged with about £1,800 on mortgage. Mr. Ross's father was a merchant and magistrate in Montrose, and rich, and, my partner being an only son, could at any time lend us a few thousands, which he afterwards did to the amount of £6,000, including the £2,500 paid down on the formation of our partnership. With this real capital—an unlimited credit (£5,000 with our bankers amongst the rest), an excellent trade, and every prospect of its continuing so for a time, we came to the conclusion of purchasing the premises in the Hillgate, from Mr. Oldknow and Mr. Arkwright, then standing empty, which I never should have thought of for a moment, but from what had passed at the Castle Inn, for the sole purpose of filling them with looms, etc., on some new plan, and just so much spinning machinery as would supply the looms with weft. But beyond the common warping, sizing, weaving, etc., all was a chaos before me; yet so confident was I, that with such assistance as I could call in, we should succeed, that before I began I laid a trifling wager with my partner, that in two years from the time I commenced, I produced 500 pieces of 7-8ths and 9-8ths printing cambrics, all wove in the building in one week by some new process, which I won easily. And as the price for weaving alone when we began was 17s. per piece, and had never been below 16s. at any time, we thought we were justified in what we were doing, even if little improvement could be found. And if the goods made abroad from the annually increasing export of twist, and their prohibitions of our goods in consequence, had not gradually reduced this price of weaving from 17s. (with a profit of 10 to 20 per cent. to the master), to 4s. to the weaver (and no profit to the master!), we should have been handsomely rewarded by our trade. But to return from this digression, we concluded our contract about Michaelmas with Messrs. Oldknow and Arkwright, for the premises above mentioned; and I brought my family to Stockport in the latter end of December, 1801. I must here observe that we had at that time a large concern in Mellor, that with its various branches for putting out work, employing upwards of 1000 weavers, widely spread over the borders of three counties, in a vast variety of plain and fancy goods, all of which had been raised (like a gathering snowball) from a single spindle, or single loom by myself, and was then upon such a system as apparently might go on without my personal attention.

I shut myself up (as it were) in the mill on the 2nd January, 1802,[324] and with joiners, turners, filers, etc., etc., set to work; my first step was some looms in the common way in every respect, which I knew would produce the cloth so much wanted, and in some degree cover our weekly expenses.

Before the end of the month I began to divide the labour of the weavers, employing one room to dress the whole web, in a small frame for the purpose, ready for the looms in another room, so that the young weaver had nothing to learn but to weave; and we found this a great improvement, for besides the advantage of learning a young weaver in a few days, we found that by weaving the web as it were back again, the weft was driven up by the reed the way the brushes had laid the fibres down with the paste, so that we could make good cloth in the upper rooms with the dressed yarn quite dry, which could not be done in the old way of dressing, when the weft was drove up against the points of the fibres, which shewed us the reason why all weavers are obliged to work in damp cellars, and must weave up their dressing, about a yard long, before the yarn becomes dry, or it spoils.

This accomplished, I told my men I must have some motion attached to either traddles or the lathe, by machinery, that would take up the cloth as it was wove, so that the shed might always be of the same dimensions, and of course the blow of the lathe always moving the same distance, would make the cloth more even than could possibly be done in the old way, except by very skilful and careful weavers.

This motion to the loom being at length accomplished to our satisfaction, I set Johnson to plan for the warping and dressing, suggesting several ideas myself. His uncommon genius led him to propose many things to me, but I pointed out objections to them all, and set him to work again. His mind was so teased with difficulties, that he began to relieve it by drinking for several days together (to which he was too much addicted) but for this I never upbraided him, or deducted his wages for the time, knowing that we were approaching our object; at length we brought out the present plan, only that the undressed yarn was all on one side, and the brush to be applied was first by hand, then by a cylinder, and lastly the crank motion.

The partnership being thus dissolved,[325] I proceeded in my business with a double prospect of success; first, by the real business I was doing weekly, of 6 to 700 pieces per week, of printing cambrics, mostly woven in the factory, and the other part in weaving-families in the neighbourhood, on the small looms I had furnished to them, delivering them dressed warps on the beam, and pin-cops for the weft. This system had now become practicable, and was so greatly approved of by the weavers, that, had I weathered the calm, which soon after came upon my credit, I might, in a short time, have had all my looms in the dwellings of the operative weavers on the plan I had been driving at from the first, and from the superior advantage of machine dressing. The evenness produced by this mode of preparation, and the working in my loom, not only rendered these goods of ready sale, but gave me a weekly profit of 90l. to 100l., which, along with the second branch of income that formed my double prospect, viz., the premiums of licenses under patent rights beginning to pour in from the first houses in the trade, to the amount of 1,500l., in the eight months from the first of July, 1806, to March, 1807, when my vessel became quite becalmed.

In the year 1770,[326] the land in our township was occupied by between fifty to sixty farmers; rents, to the best of my recollection, did not exceed 10s. per statute acre, and out of these fifty or sixty farmers, there were only six or seven who raised their rents directly from the produce of their farms; all the rest got their rent partly in some branch of trade, such as spinning and weaving woollen, linen, or cotton. The cottagers were employed entirely in this manner, except for a few weeks in the harvest. Being one of those cottagers, and intimately acquainted with all the rest, as well as every farmer, I am the better able to relate particularly how the change from the old system of hand-labour to the new one of machinery operated in raising the price of land in the subdivision I am speaking of. Cottage rents at that time, with convenient loomshop and a small garden attached, were from one and a half to two guineas per annum. The father of a family would earn from eight shillings to half a guinea at his loom, and his sons, if he had one, two, or three alongside of him, six or eight shillings each per week; but the great sheet anchor of all cottages and small farms was the labour attached to the hand-wheel, and when it is considered that it required six to eight hands to prepare and spin yarn, of any of the three materials I have mentioned, sufficient for the consumption of one weaver,—this shews clearly the inexhaustible source there was for labour for every person from the age of seven to eighty years (who retained their sight and could move their hands) to earn their bread, say one to three shillings per week, without going to the parish.

From the year 1770 to 1788[327] a complete change had gradually been effected in the spinning of yarns. That of wool had disappeared altogether, and that of linen was also nearly gone; cotton, cotton, cotton, was become the almost universal material for employment. The hand-wheels, with the exception of one establishment, were all thrown into lumber-rooms, the yarn was all spun on common jennies, the carding for all numbers, up to 40 hanks in the pound, was done on carding engines; but the finer numbers of 60 to 80 were still carded by hand, it being a general opinion at that time that machine-carding would never answer for fine numbers. In weaving no great alteration had taken place during these eighteen years, save the introduction of the fly-shuttle, a change in the woollen looms to fustians and calico, and the linen nearly gone, except the few fabrics in which there was a mixture of cotton. To the best of my recollection there was no increase of looms during this period,—but rather a decrease.

I shall confine myself to the families in my own neighbourhood.[328] These families, up to the time I have been speaking of, whether as cottagers or small farmers, had supported themselves by the different occupations I have mentioned in spinning and manufacturing, as their progenitors from the earliest institutions of society had done before them. But the mule-twist now coming into vogue, for the warp, as well as weft, added to the water-twist and common jenny yarns, with an increasing demand for every fabric the loom could produce, put all hands in request of every age and description. The fabrics made from wool or linen vanished, while the old loomshops being insufficient, every lumber-room, even old barns, cart-houses, and outbuildings of any description were repaired, windows broke through the old blank walls, and all fitted up for loomshops. This source of making room being at length exhausted, new weavers' cottages with loomshops rose up in every direction; all immediately filled, and when in full work the weekly circulation of money, as the price of labour only, rose to five times the amount ever before experienced in this subdivision, every family bringing home weekly 40, 60, 80, 100, or even 120 shillings per week!!!