THE next branch of the manufactures of England that we shall notice, is that of cotton. This exhibits a more surprizing instance of rapid and extensive pro gress, than can perhaps be shown in any country, with regard to any species of manufacture. There is no evidence that any article was made of cotton in this country prior to the middle of the 17th century. In the year 1641, cotton was imported from Cyprus and Smyrna, and made into fustians at Bolton, in Lancashire. As this species of goods passed under the name of Augs burgh and Milan fustians, it is not improbable that the mode of manufacturing them was introduced from Ger many or Italy. About 20 years afterwards, cotton was imported from our North American colonies; and, as a law was passed in the year 1660, prohibiting it from be ing landed anywhere but in the English dominions, it is probable that its value and utility, as an article of manu facture, were beginning to be understood and experien ced. The cotton trade, however, must have been for several years afterwards conducted on a very narrow scale ; since, on an average of five years, ending 1705, the total quantity of cotton-wool imported into England was only 1,170,881 pounds. In the year 1765, the cot ton-trade couid scarcely be said to be known here ; and a considerable quantity of the cotton-wool which we procured from our colonies, we exported to Holland. Two years afterwards, however, an invention took place, which, though it is rude and imperfect, compared with the machinery at present used in the manufacture of cot ton, was of the greatest importance in establishing and extending the trade : we allude to the invention of jenny. Some years previous to this, however, the pre paration of the cotton for spinning had been facilitated by the invention of a rude carding machine. The jen nies, or spinning machines, were first used by the country people in Lancashire, on a very confined scale, few of them having more than 12 spindles. The awk ward posture required to spin on them, was discourag ing to grown up people, who saw, with surprizc, chil dren flout nine to 12 years of age, manage them with dexterity. The consequences of this invention were beneficial, not only to the master manufacturers, but also to the labouring classes of the community ; for the younger branches of their families, who previously had been without regular and full employment, now gained considerable wages, while the weavers, by employing their own children at the spinning machines, were no longer at the mercy of the spinners. But, notwithstand ing the manifest utility of this invention, and the benefits it produced to the weavers, some risings of the people took place, and the jennies were demolished by the uninformed populace. By degrees, their fears and jea lousy of this invention diminished ; and a general ac quiescence in their use, to a certain number of spindles, was brought about, by the prudent and sensible conduct and admonition of some respectable people in Lanca shire. The labouring classes were not long in reaping such general and undoubted benefits from them, that the spindles were soon multiplied to three or four times the original number ; and the demand for twist for warps increasing in proportion 'as the quantity of weft sup plied by the spinning jennies became more abundant, new machines were invented, for the purpose of manu facturing twist, and a new impetus was given to the cot ton trade.
These machines were the invention of Sir Richard Arkwright : by means of them, thousands of spindles are put in motion by a water-wheel, and managed most ly by children, without confusion, and with less waste of cotton than by the former methods. Soon after the invention of Sir Richard Arkwright's machines, the people of Lancashire were incited against them, and some of them were demolished before protection could be obtained : this arose from their producing such ex cellent twist for warps, that they soon outrivalled the warps made on the larger jennies, which had yielded good profit to the owners.. But experience soon con
vinced the people, of what, indeed, a little reflection might have taught. them, that if more warps were made, there would be a greater demand for weft from their jennies, and a better price for it. Upon these machines, twist could ba made of any fineness proper for warps, but it was not so proper for weft. On the introduc tion of fine calicoes and muslins, which took place in the year 1781, another machine was invented, called a mule, being a mixed machine between the jennies and the machines for twisting, and adapted to spin weft as fine as could be desired.
As this invention, by creating the necessity and ad vantage of large cotton manufactories, and b•destroy ing what may be called the domestic system of the cot ton trade (at least so far as respects the spinning of cotton), has altered not only the state of the trade, but, in our opinion, the moral character andhabits of the manufacturing labourers engaged in it, it may not be unimportant or uninteresting, to take a retrospective view of what were their condition and habits previous to this invention.
• From the time that the original system in the fustian branch, of buying pieces in the grey from the weaver, was changed, by delivering them out work, the custom of giving them out weft in the cops, which obtained for a while, grew into disuse, as there was no detect ing the knavery of spinners till a piece came to be wo ven ; so that the practice was altered, and wool given with warps, the weaver answering for the spinning. The weavers, in a scarcity of spinning, have sometimes been paid less for the welt than they gave the spinner, but thirst not complain, much less abate the spinner, lest their looms should be unemployed: but when spin ning jennies were introduced, and children could work upon them, the case was reversed. At this period of the cotton manufacture, the cottage of the weaver pre sented an interesting and amiable picture : while lie was engaged at his loom, his children were employed in spin ning the weft; the feelings and habits of domestic life were entire; and that link of affection between a father and his children, which secures each very frequently from vice and misery, and which is closely and inti mately connected with the best interests of society, was sound and unbroken. Lower wages were obtained than are now got under the factory system, but as method, regularity, economy, and sobriety, prevailed, what they earned procured them more of the necessaries and comforts of life, than they can now obtain with their increased wages. At that period, Lancashire, which has always displayed, in a conspicuous and peculiar manner, the wealth and the vices of the cotton trade, was not disgraced and degraded by those instances and scenes of vice and misery which now spread over its surface. The relationships of parents and children were not then merely a name ; home was not then de serted for the ale-house, or for places of still greater debauchery and vice; health was not then so lavishly sacrificed to the cupidity of the master manufacturer, or so much despised and neglected by the manufactu ring labourer, in the pursuit and indulgence of his passions. In short, the manufacturing classes were then respectable, comfortable, healthy, and virtuous, be cause they spent the greatest part of their time in their own families, and not in crowded manufactories, amidst the contagion of ignorance, vice, and misery. But we forget that our subject and inquiries are statistical, not moral ; and that our object is to give some historical notices of the state of the cotton trade, as a source of national and individual wealth, at different periods.