PARISH OF PRESTBURY.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE NUMBER OF PERSONS EMPLOYED IN SILK AND COTTON MILLS IN THE [under 12. under 13.Junder 14.Junder 15.15 & under 18. Jabove 18.1 Total.

Silk

826 910 339 426 284

200

235 332

431

717

852 1371 2967 3956 6923

9663

Government, had been perfected:— Trimmer before the official document, in preparation for not quite complete, were obligingly furnished by Mr. at Macclesfield, Congleton, Sandbach, and Leek, though The following tables of the silk and cotton hands employed

With a view to preserve the document complete in its official shape, the number of power looms employed in silk has been given in the chapter on the cotton trade.

The following is a table, furnished to the Silk Committee in 1832, by Mr. Doxat, of the amounts of wages and duties paid at successive periods. The average labour of manufacture is in silk goods equal to about 80, and in mixed 150, per cent. :—

The author of the foregoing tables also drew out another, in which is exhibited the comparative progress of the two great manufactures-silk and cotton. Accustomed to regard with amazement the gigantic expansion of the latter, the Reader will be disposed to consider the growth of the former as still more wonderful. It appears that taking the average of three years, 1815-16-17, and the three succeeding years of 1818-19-20, the increase in the cotton trade is 22 per cent. and in the silk 31 per cent.; the increase of 1821-22-23 over the same period was, in cotton 48 and in

silk 70 per cent.; and in the years 1824-5, the cotton trade increased 83-the silk 156 per cent. The tables have however since been turned, as the statement itself sliews:

ABSTRACT COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE RELATIVE PROGRESSES OF THE SILK AND COTTON TRADES DURING FIFTEEN YEARS, 1816-20, 1821-23, 1824-25, AND 1826-30:-

Decrease in progress

of quantities....

.....

62 ct.

Medium of

3,888,000=58 cnt. incr.

cnt. decr. [inversion. 88 cnt. decr.

1826-30.... 2,710,000=17 ct. incr. 1826-30 ...2,705,000=30

Decrease, Silk in
Duties, Wages, &c...

CHAPTER V.

Before the invention of the fly-shuttle in 1738 by John Kay, of Bury, and of the drop-box in 1760 by his son, the English weaver possessed no superiority over-perhaps in skill he was scarcely equal to, the industrious weaver of India, who erected his temporary machine beneath the rich foliage of his native plains, with the open fields for his chamber and the sky as its roof. It has been seen that at an advanced period of the last century, yarn was an exceedingly rare commodity-that it was chiefly produced in the intervals of agricultural pursuits-that the weaver wasted days in traversing the country to procure the necessary material, and that the supply from abroad— chiefly from Ireland and Germany, (which was linen and not cotton yarn) was not so abundant as to cover the deficiency of our own production. At this, as at a more recent period, the weaver was a man "well to do in the world" he worked moderate hours, earned good wages, and by consequence partook the fat of the land. There are those still living who remember this as the most favored class of operatives. Owing, however, to one or more combined causes, as to which the world differs, an afflicting change has come over that still numerous body.

It is at present almost impossible to state, with accuracy, the earnings of hand-loom weavers. So much depends upon the quality of work upon which they are employed— the kind of material they have to work up-the locality in which they reside the season of the year-the character of the employer, (it being the constant aim of a few petti

fogging manufacturers to screw a farthing out of the weaver, whilst the honourable master pursues the very opposite course)-that correct results can scarcely be arrived at. Even the evidence before Parliamentary Committees, which ought to be worthy of entire reliance, is subject to this objection, that whilst one witness seeks to depict the condition of the weaver as worse than it is, another falls into the opposite error, and between the two extremes truth is lost.

It has been estimated that there are from three to four thousand hand-loom weavers in Manchester. Taking this (which will probably be found the extreme) number as correct, it forms a very small proportion of the cotton and silk weavers in the employment of Manchester houses. The latter class reside for the most part in the out-districts, -at Gorton, Newton Heath, Harpurhey, Middleton, Stand, Radcliffe, Pendlebury, Worsley, Eccles, &c. &c., and at more remote distances, such as West Leigh. The manufacture of cotton by the hand has latterly been very much circumscribed. Nearly the whole of our calicoes, coarse jacconets, twilled cloths, and fustians, are now woven by power; and pollicats, ronals, ginghams, fine jacconets, cambrics and muslins, with their variations, are all that remain of our domestic cotton manufacture. The three last descriptions are chiefly produced at Bolton and Stockport. At Ashton and the neighbourhood considerable quantities of excellent ginghams are still woven by hand, though steam-power has made an immense stride in the production of every cotton fabric to which it has been hitherto applied. At Oldham, Royton, and Crompton, fustian, which was the first staple manufacture of cotton, is now, with few exceptions, woven by power: loom-shops have been deserted, looms sold or broken-up, and whole families have gone to the mills for employ. Some dozen or two, perhaps, of families still remain, ragged, starved