The parks of Manchester arc thirty-nine in number, covering an arca of 1103 acres. The chief are Heaton Park, 692 acres; Boggart llole Chnigh. 76 acres; Peel Park, and IN hitwo•th Park. The city maintains an art gallery, and subsidizes a local college of music. Like Glas gow, it has a large precipitation and filtration plant for the utilization of its sewage (for de scription of plant, see GLASGOW ) , and for the prevention of pollution of its river. The fertiliz ers thus obtained bring a good price. The gar bage is burned up in the furnaces, and the non combustible part is used to fill in outlying low ground belonging to the city, which is thus con verting it into good building land, Which sells at an advanced price. Between the years 1SSO and 1890 Manchester opened eight large bathing establishments at a cost of nearly $100,000 each. The corporation owns fifteen markets, in addi tion to slaughter houses, yielding a combined income of over $:300,000 per year. After de ducting all expenses. the city still retains over $50,000 as clear profit. Manchester has gone into municipal house building for working people. lt lets several hundred dwellings in tenements, as well as private cottages to workmen's fami lies, the rents being $2.50 per room per month, and about $5 per month for a four-room cot tage. The death-rate in 'Manchester is quite high, it being, according to the latest available statistics, 25.65 per 1000 of population, or much higher than in London or Glasgow. As an in dustrial centre, it is one of the oldest, as well as one of the most important, in England. The chief industry is cotton spinning, weaving, and manufacturing, including calico printing. bleaching, and dyeing; there are also considerable manufactures of silk and mixed goods, of small wares, of machinery and tools, of paper and chemicals. Manchester is a depot for all kinds of textile fabrics, and has a very large export trade. It is the seat of an American consul.
The population of Manchester increased rapid ly during the nineteenth century. Starting with a population of 75,000 in 1801, it grew to 126,000 in 1821, 303.000 in 1851, 505.400 in 1S91, and
544,000 in 1901. In the adjoining borough of Salford the population in 1901 was 220,950, mak ing a total for the two places of over 764.000. Within a radius of twenty miles from the Man chester town hall there is a cluster of towns with a total population of about 3,000,000, forming virtually one industrial community.
Boman remains have been found in great mum bens at Manchester. but the history of the place can be traced only to Anglo-Saxon times. the name, Mameester or Mameceaster, appearing in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 923. The town suffered much from the Danes, but prospered nevertheless. In the thirteenth century fulling mills were at work there. In 1301 Manchester became a free borough with a considerable de gree of self-government. It thrived especially after the fourteenth century, and about 1650 was a busy town, with nearly 6000 inhabitants. During the Civil War it was held successfully for the Parliament. but in the eighteenth een tury it became strongly Jacobite and participated in the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Manchester was prominent in the liberal and reform agitation, and was the scene, in 1819, of the so-called 'Peter loo Massacre' (q.v.). After 1832 it was the head quarters of the t•ee-trade movement, and gave its name to the famous Manchester School of Economy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Baines. History of Lancashire Bibliography. Baines. History of Lancashire (London, 1870) ; Bannerman & Sons. Mercantile Manchester, Past and Present (Manchester, 1800) ; Whitaker, History of Manchester (Lon don, 1773) ; Wheeler, (London, 1836) ; Procter, Memoria/s of Bygone Manchester with Glimpses of the Environs (Manchester, 1879); Darbyshire, Hooke of 01de Manchester and Salford (Manchester, 1887) ; Saintsbury, Manchester, a Concise History (London, 1887); Oakley, "Manchester: Its Development," in Journal of Royal Institute of British Architects, series 3, vol. vii. (London, 1900) ; Perkins, Man •hester: Its Cathedral and Nee (London. 1901).