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process is succeeded by another called stretching, or roaving, upon a machine very similar to the mule, and which is the last of the preparatory processes. The mule upon which these roavings are spun is a curious machine, and like the Jenny when first invented, carried from 80 to 100 spindles; these have been successively increased, until the prevailing size now is 300 spindles. Power having also been found applicable to give motion to these machines, two of them are managed by one man, and three or four children, whose employment it is to lay the thread, when made, upon the spindles, and to piece up those that may break. By this arrangement, and the successful application of mechanics to this branch of business, what would, thirty years since, have required six hundred women or girls to have performed, can now be done by one man and four children!

Of the Lancashire spinners it may not be improper to mention here, that more than 400 hanks, weighing two pounds, have been drawn from four pounds of raw East India cotton, each hank measuring 840 yards, and reaching upwards of 180 miles, or nearly as far as from London to Manchester. The following calculation will shew the value of this business to the country at large, and how necessary it is to give it their encouragement and support. The number of printers is calculated at about* 7000; and each of these employ in their works three persons, making the whole 21,000. Each printer will employ nine weavers to make the cloth he prints: now, supposing the printer to print three pieces per day, and the weaver to weave two pieces per week, the number will be 63,000. These 63,000 weavers will employ 25,000 per- · sons in making the yarns ready for the loom. According to this calculation it appears that there are 109,000 persons dependent on these 7000 printers, so that every printer set to work will employ nearly sixteen persons in all the different branches of the cotton business, notwithstanding the great improvements in machinery

* This calculation from the number of persons who signed the petition to parliament.

chinery of every description which has taken place. The present duty on printed calicoes is about six shillings and three-pence per piece, taking an average of the cloths, so that, supposing one printer to print three pieces per day, the revenue arising from that one printer will be 2921. 10s. per annum, and supposing the 7000 printers to be employed, will produce 2,047,500l. per annum *.

The vast increase in the trade of this town has occasioned the erection of many new structures. Among these the MANCHESTERCOMMERCIAL-BUILDING is most entitled to notice. The foundation of this was laid the 20th July, 1806, and since that period the structure has been rapidly advancing. It is to be built entirely of Runcorn-stone, and is from the designs, &c. of Mr. Harrison, of Chester. The principal object of its erection is to furnish a place of public resort for the merchants and manufacturers of the place and neighbourhood, on the plan of Lloyd's Coffee-House, in London, and every article of political and commercial intelligence is to be procured for their perusal. The fund for defraying the expenditure (which is estimated at no less than 20,0001.) has been raised by the sale of shares of 501. each.

According to the population report, printed in 1801, the town of Manchester + is divided into twenty-eight districts, which, with the united township of Salford, contained 12,826 houses, and 84,020 inhabitants, 44,590 of whom were employed in trades and manufactures.

Though the town of Manchester is not distinguished for its literary, or other eminent natives, yet the names of Byrom and Falkner may be properly ranked with what Fuller calls the worthies of the place.

JOHN

* For some other details relating to the cotton manufacture, machinery, &c. see Vol. II. of this work.

+ To such persons as are desirous of more copious information relating to this town, I can confidently recommend the "Manchester Guide," published iu 1804, as a judicious topographical manual.

JOHN BYROM, A. M. and F. R. S. a native of Kersall, near Manchester, was the youngest son of Mr. Edward Byrom, of this town. After receiving a grammatical education in the country, he was sent to Merchant Taylor's school, in London, where he distinguished himself by his classical acquirements; and in 1708, in his seventeenth year, he was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1714 he was elected a fellow of his College, soon after which he wrote his first paper in the Spectator, and afterwards his admired pastoral of Colin to Phœbe. He then practised short hand, with some success, at Manchester; and on coming to London, soon acquired, by successful exertions, a comfortable competency. The celebrated Earl of Chesterfield was his pupil. In 1723 he was admitted into the Royal Society; and in No. 488 of the Philosophical Transactions, is his paper on the Elements of Short Hand. He published Miscellaneous Poems, in 2 vols. 8vo.; but those on Enthusiasm and the Immortality of the Soul, are considered as excelling in merit. He died in September, 1763, having supported, through life, a character of integrity and virtue.

THOMAS FALKNER, the son of an eminent apothecary of Manchester, was originally brought up to his father's profession. At the age of twenty he removed to London, for the sake of learning the practice of the hospitals, but soon afterwards engaged as surgeon in a vessel which was bound to the coast of Africa. His health having been severely impaired during the voyage, when the ship arrived at Buenos Ayres, he went on shore to recover it. He there received so many acts of kindness from the Jesuits, as induced him to become a member of their college; whence he was soon sent out as a missionary to visit the extreme parts of the South-American continent, where he remained six years. On his return, he was appointed physician to the college, and continued until the suppression of the order in 1767, when their property was confiscated, and he and his colleagues were sent prisoners to Cadiz. He there lingered some months in a dungeon, but at length procured his release, through the English ambassador,

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