Lancashire Part 3

Little can be said in praise of the Manchester climate, and that little, it must be confessed, however reluctantly, is only negative.

The physicians are not more prosperous than elsewhere, and the work of the Registrar-general is no heavier. On the other hand, the peach and the apricot cannot ripen, and there is an almost total absence of the Christmas evergreens one is accustomed to see in the southern counties--the ilex to wit, the bay, the arbutus, and the laurustinus.

In the flouris.h.i.+ng of these consists the true test of geniality of climate; rhododendrons and gay flower-gardens, both of which Manchester possesses in plenty, certify nothing. Not that the climate is positively cold, though as a rule damp and rainy. Snow is often seen in the Midlands when in Manchester there is none. The special feature, again negative, is deficiency of bright, warm, encouraging suns.h.i.+ne. Brilliant days come at times, and sultry ones; but often for weeks together, even in summer, so misty is the atmosphere that where the sun should be in view, except for an hour or two, there is only a luminous patch.

The history of Manchester dates, the authorities tell us, from the time of the "ancient Britons." There is no need to go so far back. The genuine beginnings of our English cities and large towns coincide with the establishment of the Roman power. They may have been preceded in many instances by entrenched and perhaps rudely ramparted cl.u.s.ters of huts, but it is only upon civilisation that a "town" arises. Laying claim, quite legitimately, to be one of the eight primitive Lancas.h.i.+re towns founded by Agricola, A.D. 79, its veritable age, to be exact, is 1812 years, or nearly the same as that of Warrington, where the invaders, who came from Chester, found the river fordable, as declared in the existing name of the Ches.h.i.+re suburb, and where they fixed their original Lancas.h.i.+re stronghold. What is thought to have happened in Manchester during their stay may be read in Whitaker. The only traces remaining of their ancient presence are some fragments of the "road" which led northwards over the present Kersal Moor, and which are commemorated in the names of certain houses at Higher Broughton.

The fact in the local history which connects the living present with the past is that the De Traffords of Trafford Hall possess lands held by their ancestor in the time of Canute. How it came to pa.s.s that the family was not displaced by some Norman baron, an ingenious novelist may be able perhaps to tell. Private policy, secret betrothals, doubtless lay in the heart of as many adjustments of the eleventh century as behind many enigmas of the nineteenth. The Traffords reside close to "Throstlenest," a name occurring frequently in Lancas.h.i.+re, where the spirit of poetry has always been vigorous, and never more marked than in appellations having reference to the simple beauty of unmolested nature. At Moston there is also Throstle-glen, one of the haunts, half a century ago, of Samuel Bamford. At the time spoken of the county was divided into "t.i.the-s.h.i.+res." The "Hundred of Salford"

was called "Salford-s.h.i.+re," and in this last was included Manchester; so that whatever dignity may accrue therefrom belongs properly to the town across the river, which was the first, moreover, to be const.i.tuted a free borough, receiving its charter in the time of Henry III., who died in 1272, whereas the original Manchester charter was not granted till 1301. To all practical intents and purposes, the two places now const.i.tute a social and commercial unity. Similar occupations are pursued in both, and the intercourse is as constant as that of the people who dwell on the opposite sides of the Thames.

The really important date in the history of Manchester is that of the arrival of the Flemish weavers in the reign of Edward III. Though referable in the first instance, as above mentioned, to the action of the king and the far-seeing Philippa, their coming to Manchester seems to have been specially promoted by the feudal ruler of the time--De la Warre, heir of the De Grelleys, and predecessor of De Lacy--men all of great distinction in old Manchester records. Leading his retainers to the field of battle, De la Warre literally, when all was over, turned the spear into the pruning-hook, bringing home with him some of these industrious people, and with their help converting soldiers into useful artisans. A wooden church had been erected at a very early period upon the sandstone cliff by the river, where the outlook was pleasant over the meadows and the arriving Irk. By 1422, so much had the town increased, it sufficed no longer, and then was built the n.o.ble and beautiful "old church," the "cathedral" of to-day, the body of which is thus now nearly 470 years old.[19]

[19] The original tower remained till 1864, when, being considered insecure, it was taken down, and the existing _facsimile_ erected in its place.

Up till 1656 the windows of this fine church, in conformity with the first principles of all high-cla.s.s Plantagenet and Tudor ecclesiastical architecture, were coloured and pictorial; the design being that they should represent to the congregation a.s.sembled inside some grand or touching Scripture incident, making palpable to the eye what the ear might be slow to apprehend. In the year mentioned they were broken to pieces by the Republicans, one of the reasons, perhaps, why the statue of Cromwell--the gloomy figure in the street close by--has been so placed as for the ill-used building to be behind it.

While the church was in its full beauty the town was visited by Leland, who on his way through Ches.h.i.+re pa.s.sed Rostherne Mere, evidently, from his language, as lovely then as it is to-day:

"States fall, arts fade, but Nature doth not die!"

"Manchestre," he tells us, was at that period (temp. Henry VIII.) "the fairest, best-builded, quikkest, and most populous Tounne of Lancastres.h.i.+re" (v. 78). Whatever the precise comparative meaning of "fairest and best-builded," there can be no doubt that in Leland's time, and for a long subsequent period, Manchester was rich in houses of the Elizabethan type, including many occupied by families of note.

The greater number of these would be "magpie," or wood and plaster fronted, in black and white, the patterns, though simple, often very ingenious, as indicated in relics which have only lately disappeared, and in the old country halls of the same period still perfect, which we shall come to by and by. The style of the inferior kind is shown in an old tavern, the "Seven Stars," in Withy-grove.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL]

At the commencement of the Civil Wars Manchester was important enough to be a scene of heavy contest. The sympathies of the town, as a whole, were with the Parliament; not in antagonism to royalty, but because of the suspicion that Charles secretly befriended Popery. It was the same belief which estranged Bolton--a place never in heart disloyal, so long as the ruler does his own part in faithfulness and honour. Standing in the Cathedral graveyard, it is hard to imagine that the original of the bridge now called the "Victoria" was once the scene of a deadly struggle, troops filling the graveyard itself.

Here, however, it was that the severest a.s.sault was made by the Royalists, unsuccessfully, as were all the other attacks, though Manchester never possessed a castle, nor even regularly constructed fortifications.

The town was then "a mile in length," and the streets were "open and clean." Words change their meaning with lapse of time, and the visitor who in 1650 thus describes them may have been given a little to overpraise; but if Manchester deserved such epithets, alas for the condition of the streets elsewhere! As the town increased in size, the complexion may also very possibly have deteriorated. The fact remains, that after the lapse of another 150 years, say in 1800, it was inexpressibly mean and common, continuing so in a very considerable degree up to a period quite recent. People who know Manchester only as it looks to-day can form no conception of the beggarly appearance of most of the central part no further back than during the reign of George IV. Several years after he came to the throne, where Market Street now is, there was only a miserable one-horse lane, with a footpath of less than twenty-four inches. Narrow "entries" led to adjacent "courts." Railed steps led down to cellars, which were used for front parlours. The shops were dark and lowbrowed; of ornament there was not a sc.r.a.p. Mosley Street, King Street, and one or two others comparatively modern, presented, no doubt a very decided contrast. Still it was without the slightest injustice that so late as in or about 1845 Mr. Cobden described Manchester as the shabbiest city in Europe for its wealth. That the town needed some improvement is indicated rather suggestively by the fact, that between 1832 and 1861 the authorities paved, drained, and flagged the footways of no fewer than 1578 streets, measuring upwards of sixty miles in length. Many of them, certainly, were new, but the great ma.s.s of the gracious work was retrospective. These matters are worth recalling, since it is only by comparison with the past that modern Manchester can be appreciated.

Shortly after the Restoration there was a considerable influx, as into Liverpool, from the surrounding country; and by 1710 again had the population so much increased that a second church became necessary, and St. Anne's was erected, cornfields giving place to the "Square."

St. Anne's being the "new" church, the existing one was thenceforwards distinguished as the "old."[20] Commerce shortly afterwards received important stimulus by the Irwell being made navigable to its point of confluence with the Mersey, and by the erection of the original Manchester Exchange. In 1757 Warrington, the first town in Lancas.h.i.+re to publish a newspaper, was imitated in the famous old _Manchester Mercury_. Then came the grand inventions above described, upon which quickly arose the modern cotton manufacture. In 1771 a Bank and Insurance Office were found necessary, and in less than a year afterwards the renowned "Jones Loyds" had its beginning. Social and intellectual movements were accelerated by the now fast developing Manchester trade. Liverpool had founded a Subscription Library in 1758: Manchester followed suit in 1765. In 1781 a Literary and Philosophical Society was set on foot, and in 1792 a.s.sembly Rooms were built.

[20] St. Anne's was so named in compliment to the queen then on the throne. "St. Ann's," like "Market-_street_ Lane," came of carelessness or something worse. The thoroughfare so called was properly Market-_stead_ Lane--_i.e._ the lane leading to the Market-place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. ANNE'S SQUARE, MANCHESTER]

New streets were now laid out,--to-day, so vast has been the subsequent growth, embedded in the heart of the town,--the names often taken from those of the metropolis, as Cannon Street, Pall Mall, Cheapside, and Spring Gardens, and at a little later period Bond Street and Piccadilly. Factories sprang up in not a few of the princ.i.p.al thoroughfares: perhaps it would be more correct to say that the building of factories often led to the formation of new streets.

The kind of variety they conferred on the frontages is declared to the present day in Oxford Road. Similar buildings, though not so large, existed till very lately where now not a vestige of them remains. The "Manchester and Salford Bank" occupies the site of a once important silk-mill. Gathering round them the inferior cla.s.s of the population,--the cla.s.s unable to move into more select neighbourhoods when the town is relished no longer,--it is easy to understand how, in most parts of Manchester that are fifty years old, splendour and poverty are never far asunder. In London, Bath, Leicester, it is possible to escape from the sight of rags and squalor: in Manchester they are within a bow-shot of everything upon which the town most prides itself. The circ.u.mstance referred to may be accounted for perhaps in part by the extreme density of the population, which exceeds that of all other English manufacturing towns, and is surpa.s.sed only in Liverpool.[21] Manchester, it may be added, has no "court-end." When the rich took flight they dispersed themselves in all directions. They might well depart. The reputation of Manchester in respect of "s.m.u.ts," that, like the rain in Sh.e.l.ley, are "falling for ever," is only too well deserved; and, despite of legal enactments, it is to be feared is inalienable.

[21] The population per statute acre of the towns referred to, and of one or two others, which may be usefully put in contrast, is as follows:

Liverpool 106 Manchester 85 Plymouth 54 London 49 Bristol 49 Birmingham 48 Salford 38 Oldham 26 Nottingham 18 Sheffield 16 Leeds 15 Norwich 12

Architecturally, modern Manchester takes quite a foremost place among the cities by reason of its two great achievements in Gothic--the a.s.size Courts and the new Town-hall. Cla.s.sical models were followed up till about 1860, as in the original Town-hall (1822-25)--now the City Free Library; the Royal Inst.i.tution, the Concert Hall (1825-30), and the Corn Exchange--one of the happiest efforts of a man of real ability, the late Mr. Lane. The new Exchange also presents a fine example of the Corinthian portico. After Mr. Lane, the town was fortunate in possessing Mr. Walters, since it was he who introduced artistic details into warehouse fronts, previously to his time bald and vacant as the face of a cotton-mill. Very interesting examples of the _primitive_ Manchester warehouse style are extant in Peel Street and thereabouts. Manchester is now employed in rebuilding itself, to a considerable extent, under the inspiration received originally from Mr. Walters, and here and there very chastely. Would that his impress could have been seen upon the whole of the newly-contrived. We should then have been spared the not uncommon spectacle of the grotesque, to say nothing of the grimaces of the last few years. It is not to be overlooked that the whole of the improvement in Manchester street architecture has been effected since 1840. Four-fifths of all the meritorious public buildings, the modern banks also, and nearly all the ecclesiastical architecture that deserves the name, may be referred to the same period. The a.s.size Courts and the new Town-hall are both from designs by Mr. Waterhouse completed. The former were in 1866, but not used till July 1868, three months after which time the first stone was laid of the superb pile in Albert Square. The gilt ball at the apex of the tower, 286 feet high, was fixed 4th January 1876. The dimensions may be imagined from the number of separate apartments (314), mostly s.p.a.cious, and approached, as far as possible, by corridors, which are as well proportioned as elaborate in finish.

The cost up to 15th September 1877, when much remained to be done, including nearly the whole of the internal decoration, was 751,532.

In designing the coloured windows, Mr. Waterhouse is said to have had the a.s.sistance of a lady. Without pressing for the secret, it is undeniable that the tints are blended with a sense of delicate harmony purely feminine. Some people prefer the a.s.size Courts--a glorious building, peculiarly distinguished for its calmness. Structures of such character cannot possibly correspond. Perhaps it may be allowed to say that the a.s.size Courts seem to present in greater perfection the unity of feeling indispensable to all great works of art, however varied and fanciful the details. Due regard being paid to the intrinsic fitness of things and their moral significance, which in Art, when aspiring to the perfect, should always be a prime consideration, it may be inquired, after all, whether Gothic is the legitimate style for munic.i.p.al offices. We cannot here discuss the point. Liverpool would have to be heard upon the other side. Better, in any case, to have a Gothic town hall than to see churches and chapels copy the temples devoted a couple of thousand years ago to the deities of pagan Greece and Rome. It is not pleasant on a Sunday forenoon to be reminded of Venus, Apollo, and Diana. The new Owens College buildings, Oxford Road, are early fourteenth century Gothic, and when complete will present one of the finest groups of the kind in England. The architect (Mr. Waterhouse), it has been well said, has here, as elsewhere, "not fettered himself with ancient traditions, but endeavoured to make his learning a basis rather than a limit of thought." A great treat awaits the stranger also in the Catholic "Church of the Holy Name," a few steps beyond the Owens College. For a pa.s.ser-by to help noting the beautiful western front and the maze of lofty b.u.t.tresses and pinnacles is impossible. Ornament has been expended with a lavish but not indiscriminate profusion, the general effect being one of perfect symmetry--a character possessed equally by the interior. The style is geometric Gothic of the thirteenth century, to the capacities of which, all will acknowledge, Mr. Hanson has done full justice. The very gracefully designed Tudor buildings at Old Trafford, well known as the Asylums for the Blind and the Deaf and Dumb, were erected in 1838.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOWN HALL, MANCHESTER]

Manchester is much less of a manufacturing town at present, in proportion to its extent and the entire breadth of its business life, than when the cotton trade was young. Now, as described in the preceding chapter, the towns and villages outside are all devoted to spinning and weaving. While Liverpool is one great wharf, the middle of Manchester is one great warehouse--a reservoir for the production of the whole district. The trade falls under two princ.i.p.al heads--the Home and the Export. In either case, the produce of the looms, wherever situate, is bought just as it flows from them--rough, or, technically, "in the grey." It is then put into the hands of bleachers, dyers, or printers, according to requirement, and afterwards handed to auxiliaries called "makers-up." Very interesting is it to observe, in going through a great warehouse, not only how huge is the quant.i.ty waiting transfer, but how differently the various fabrics have to be folded and ornamented so as to meet the taste of the nations and foreign countries they are intended for. Some prefer the absolutely plain; others like little pictures; some want bright colours, and embellishment with gold and silver. The uniformity of the general business of Manchester allowed of agreement, in November 1843, to shut all doors upon Sat.u.r.days at one o'clock. The warehouse half-holiday movement soon became universal, and now, by four or five p.m. on Sat.u.r.days large portions of the middle of the town are as quiet as upon Sundays.

The composition of the Manchester community is extremely miscellaneous. A steady influx of newcomers from all parts of Great Britain--Scotland very particularly--has been in progress for eighty or ninety years, and seems likely to continue. Not very long ago the suburb called Greenheys was regarded as a German colony. Many Levantine Greeks have also settled in Manchester, and of Jews the estimated number is ten thousand. Notwithstanding the influence which these newcomers have almost necessarily, though undesignedly, brought to bear upon the general spirit of the town, the original Lancas.h.i.+re character is still prominent, though greatly modified, both for the better and the worse. Primitive Lancas.h.i.+re is now confined perhaps to Rossendale, where, after all, it would be felt that Manchester is the better place to live in. The people were distinguished of old by industry and intense frugality, the women in particular being noted for their thrift. They were enterprising, vigilant, shrewd, and possessed of marvellous apt.i.tude for business; they had judgment, and the capacity for minute and sleepless care which is quite as needful as courage to success in life, and which to many a man has been better capital to start with than a well-filled purse. Hence the countless instances in South Lancas.h.i.+re of men who, additionally fortunate in being born at the favourable moment, though at first earning wages of perhaps fifteen s.h.i.+llings a-week as porters or mill-hands, rose by degrees to opulence, and in many cases laid the foundation of families now in the front rank of local importance. Considering the general history, it is easy to understand why carriage-heraldry, except of the worthless purchaseable kind, is scanty; and not difficult either to account for the pervading local shyness as to pedigrees and genealogies. Curiously in contrast, one of the very rare instances of an unt.i.tled family having supporters to the heraldic s.h.i.+eld is found in Ashton-under-Lyne, Mr. Coulthart the banker being ent.i.tled to them by virtue of descent from one of the ancient Scottish kings. To a Lancas.h.i.+re magnate of the old school it was sufficient that he was _himself_. The disposition is still locally vigorous, and truly many of the living prove that to be so is a man's recommendation. None of the excellent attributes possessed by, for instance, the original Peels and Ainsworths, have disappeared, though it cannot be denied that in other cases there has been inheritance of the selfish habits, contracted ideas, and coa.r.s.ely-moulded character, so often met with in men who have risen from the ranks. Given to saying and doing the things natural to them, no people were ever more devoid than the genuine Lancas.h.i.+re men, as they are still, of frigid affectations, or less given to a.s.sumption of qualities they did not possess. If sometimes startled by their impetuosities, we can generally trust to their candour and whole-heartedness, especially when disposed to be friendly, the more so since they are little inclined to pay compliments, and not at all to flatter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER]

That men of small beginnings, and who have had little or no education, are apt, on becoming rich, to be irritable, jealous, and overbearing, is true perhaps everywhere; in Lancas.h.i.+re it has been observed with satisfaction that the exceptions are more numerous than the rule.

Whatever the stint and privations in the morning of life, these, it has been again observed, have seldom led to miserly habits when old.

Most of the modern Lancas.h.i.+re wealthy (or their fathers, at all events, before them) began with a trifle. Hence the legitimate pride they take in their commercial belongings--a genuine Lancas.h.i.+re man would rather you praised his mill or warehouse than his mansion. So far from becoming miserly, no one in the world deteriorates less. Most Lancas.h.i.+re capitalists are well aware that it is no credit to a man of wealth to be in arrears with the public, and when money is wanted for some n.o.ble purpose are quick in response. This, however, represents them but imperfectly. Of a thousand it might be said with as much truth as of the late Sir Benjamin Heywood, the eminent Manchester banker, "He dared to trust G.o.d with his charities, and without a witness, and _risk the consequences_." So much for the Lancas.h.i.+re heart; though on many of its excellent attributes, wanting s.p.a.ce, we have not touched. The prime characteristic of the _head_ seems to consist, not in the preponderance of any particular faculty, but in the good working order of the faculties in general; so that the whole can be brought to bear at once upon whatever is taken in hand.[22]

[22] For delineations of local and personal character in full we look to the novelists. After supreme _Scarsdale_, and the well-known tales by Mrs. Gaskell and Mrs. Banks, may be mentioned, as instructive in regard to Lancas.h.i.+re ways and manners, _Coultour's Factory_, by Miss Emily Rodwell, and the first portion of Mr. Hirst's _Hiram Greg_. Lord Beaconsfield's admirable portrait of Millbank, the Lancas.h.i.+re manufacturer, given in _Coningsby_ in 1844, had for its original the late Mr.

Edmund Ashworth of Turton, whose mills had been visited by the author, then Mr. Disraeli, the previous year.

The Lancas.h.i.+re man has plenty of faults and weaknesses. His energy is by no means of that admirable kind which is distinguished by never degenerating into restlessness; neither in disputes is he p.r.o.ne to courtly forbearance. Sincerity, whether in friend or foe, he admires nevertheless; whence the exceptional toleration in Lancas.h.i.+re of all sorts of individual opinions. Possessed of good, old-fas.h.i.+oned common-sense, when educated and reflective he is seldom astray in his estimate of the essentially worthy and true; so that, however novel occasionally his action, we may be pretty sure that underneath it there is some definite principle of equity. Manchester put forth the original programme of the "free and open church" system; and from one of the suburbs came the first cry for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.

Lancas.h.i.+re, if nothing else, is frank, cordial, sagacious, and given to the sterling humanities of life. These always revolve upon Freedom, whence, yet again in ill.u.s.tration of the Lancas.h.i.+re heart, the establishment of the Society (original in idea, if not unique) for the Preservation of Ancient Footpaths.[23] The large infusion of the German element has been immensely beneficial, not only in relation to commerce, but to the general culture of the town. It is owing in no slight degree to the presence of educated Germans that the Manchester "s.h.i.+ppers," in their better portion, now resemble the corresponding cla.s.s in Liverpool. The change for the better, since the time when Coleridge met with his odd reception, is quite as marked, no doubt, among the leaders of the Home commerce, in whose ranks are plenty of peers of the Liverpool "gentlemen." Records of the past are never without their interest. During the siege, the command of the defence was in the hands of Colonel Rosworm, a celebrated German engineer, who, when all was over, considered himself ill-used, and published a pamphlet complaining of the town's injustice, enumerating the opportunities he had had of betraying it to the Royalists, and of dividing the inhabitants against themselves. "But then," he adds, "I should have been a Manchester man, for never let an unthankful one, or a promise-breaker, bear another name!" On the t.i.tlepage of "The Pole Booke for Manchester, 22d May 1690," an old list of the inhabitants, printed by the Chetham Society, the aforetime owner has written, "Generation of vipers!"

[23] Founded in 1826. See the interesting particulars in Mr.

Prentice's _Historical Sketches and Personal Recollections_, pp.

289-295. 1851.

Manchester is now, like Liverpool, if not a school of refinement, one of the princ.i.p.al seats of English culture. It possesses not fewer than ten or twelve fine libraries, including the branches of the City Free Library, established under Mr. Ewart's Act, which last are available on Sundays, and are freely used by the cla.s.s of people the opening was designed to benefit. The staff of a.s.sistants at the City Library and its branches consists very largely of young women. There is another first-cla.s.s Free Library in Salford, with, in the same building, a Free Gallery of Paintings, and a well-arranged and thoroughly useful museum. The "Athenaeum" provides its members with 60,000 newspapers per annum, and, in addition, 9500 weekly, and 500 monthly and quarterly magazines. Societies devoted to science, literature, and the fine arts exist, as in Liverpool, in plenty. The exhibitions of paintings at the Royal Inst.i.tution have always been attractive, and never more so than during the last few years, when on Sunday afternoons they have been thrown open to the public _gratis_. The "School of Design,"

founded in October 1838, now called the "School of Art," recently provided itself with a proper home in Grosvenor Square. There is also a society expressly of "Women Painters," the works of many of whom have earned honourable places. In addition to its learned societies, Manchester stands alone, perhaps, among English cities in having quite seven or eight set on foot purely with a view to rational enjoyment in the fields, the observation of Nature in its most pleasing and suggestive forms, and the obtaining accurate knowledge of its details--the birds, the trees, and the wild-flowers. The oldest of these is the "Field-Naturalists and Archaeologists," founded in 1860.

The members of the youngest go by the name of the "Gra.s.shoppers."

Flower-shows, again, are a great feature in Manchester: some held in the Townhall, others in the Botanical Gardens. In August 1881 the greatest and richest Horticultural Exhibition of which there is record was held at Old Trafford, in the gardens, lasting five days, and with award in prizes of upwards of 2000. Laid out within a few yards of the ground occupied in 1857 by the celebrated Fine Art Treasures Exhibition, the only one of the kind ever attempted in England, it was no less brilliant to the visitor than creditable to the promoters. No single spot of earth has ever been devoted to ill.u.s.trations so exquisite of the most beautiful forms of living nature, and of the artistic talent of man than were then brought together.

Music is cultivated in Manchester with a zest quite proportionate to its value. The original "Gentlemen's Concert Club" was founded as far back as the year of alarm 1745. The local love of glees and madrigals preserves the best traditions of the Saxon "glee-men." On 10th March 1881 the veteran Charles Halle, who quite recently had been earning new and glorious laurels at Prague, Vienna, and Pesth, led the _five hundredth_ of his great concerts in the Free-trade Hall. "Our town,"

remarked the _Guardian_ in its next day's report of the proceedings, "is at present the city of music _par excellence_ in England.... The outside world knows three things of Manchester--that it is a city of cotton, a city of economic ideas, and a city of music. Since then the old character has been more than well sustained. Cobden was perhaps the first who made all the world see that Manchester had a turn for the things of the mind as well as for the production of calico and the ama.s.sing of money. Similarly, Mr. Halle has made it evident to all the world that there is in Manchester a public which can appreciate the best music conveyed in the best way." It is but fair to the sister city to add that the first musical festival in the north of England was held in Liverpool in 1784, and that the erection of St. George's Hall had its germ in the local musical tastes and desire for their full expression.

A good deal might be said in regard to the religious and ecclesiastical history of Manchester, a curious fact in connection with which is, that between 1798 and 1820, though the population had augmented by 80,000, nothing was done on their behalf by the Episcopate. The Wesleyan body dates from 7th May 1747, when its founder preached at Salford Cross--a little apartment in a house on the banks of the Irwell, where there were hand-looms, being insufficient to accommodate the congregation a.s.sembled to hear him.

The literary history of Manchester is also well worthy of extended treatment; and, above all, that of the local thought and private spirit, the underlying current which has rendered the last sixty or seventy years a period of steady and exemplary advance. To some it may seem a mere coincidence, a part only of the general progress of the country; but advance, whether local or national, implies impetus received; and a.s.suredly far more than simple coincidence is involved in the great reality that the growth of the town in all goodly respects, subsequently to the uprise of the cotton trade, has been exactly contemporaneous with the life and influence of the newspaper just quoted--the _Manchester Guardian_--the first number of which was published 5th May 1821.

V

MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS

Lancas.h.i.+re is not only the princ.i.p.al seat of the English cotton manufacture. Over and above the processes which are auxiliary to it and complete it, many are carried on of a nature altogether independent, and upon a scale so vast as again to give this busy county the preeminence. The mind is arrested not more by the variety than by the magnitude of Lancas.h.i.+re work. Contemplating the inexpressible activity, all directed to a common end, one cannot but recall the famous description of the building of Carthage, with the simile which makes it vivid for all ages. Like all other manifold work, it presents also its amusing phases. In Manchester there are professional "knockers-up"--men whose business it is to tap at up-stair windows with a long wand, when the time comes to arouse the sleeper from his pillow.

The industrial occupations specially identified with the cotton trade are bleaching, dyeing, and calico-printing. Bleaching, the plainest and simplest, was effected originally by exposure of the cloth to the open air and solar light. Spread over the meadows and pastures, as long as summer lasted, the country, wherever a "whiter" or "whitster"

pursued his calling, was more wintry-looking in July than often at Christmas. The process itself was tedious, requiring incessant attention, as well as being liable to serious hindrance, and involving much loss to the merchant through the usually long delay. Above all, it conduced to the moral damage of the community, since the bleaching crofts were of necessity accessible, and furnished to the ill-disposed an incentive to the crime which figures so lamentably in their history. That changes and events, both good and evil, are p.r.o.ne to come in cl.u.s.ters is a very ancient matter of observation. At the precise moment when the ingenious machinery produced by Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton, was developing its powers, a complete revolution took place in regard to bleaching. Scheele discovered that vegetable colours gave way to chlorine. Berthollet and Dr. Henry (the latter residing in Manchester) extended and perfected the application.

By 1774 the bleaching process had been shortened one-half; the meadows and pastures were released; the summer suns.h.i.+ne fell once more upon verdure,

"Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramina campis";

and by about 1790 the art became what we have it to-day, one purely for indoors. The new method was first practised successfully in the neighbourhood of Bolton, which place has preserved its original reputation, though long since rivalled in every part of the cotton-manufacturing district, and often in more distant spots, a copious supply of clean water being indispensable, and outweighing in its value the advantages of proximity to town. Many successive steps have to be taken before perfect whiteness can be secured, these demanding the utmost care and the strictest order of procedure.

Finally, unless destined for the dye-house or the print-works, the cloth is stiffened with starch made from wheaten flour, the consumption of which article is very large also in the factories, where it is employed to give tenacity to the yarn, reacting beneficially upon the agricultural interest; then, in order to give it the beautiful smoothness and gloss which remind one of the petals of the snowdrop, it is pressed between huge rollers which play against one another under the influence of powerful engines. On emerging from them it is said to have been "cylindered," or, corruptly, "calendered." Bleaching, it will appear from this, is a process which but slightly taxes human strength. Very interesting is it to note how, in the presence of chemistry and steam, the old word "manufacture" has in modern times changed its meaning. To-day the office of human fingers is less to "make" than to guide the forces of nature, all the harder work being delegated to inanimate wood and iron. The time ordinarily allowed for bleaching is one or two days, though, if needful, the entire process can be accelerated. The cost is about a halfpenny per yard.

Dyeing is carried on in Lancas.h.i.+re quite as extensively as bleaching.

Here, again, the exactest chemical knowledge is wanted. The managers are usually men well versed in science. A visit to an important dye-works always awakens the liveliest sentiments of admiration, and were it not for the relentless fouling of the streams which receive the refuse, few scenes of industry would live longer in pleasant memory. For although dye-works exist in towns and their suburbs, they are more frequently established out in the country, where there are babbling brooks and "shallow falls," with a view to obtaining a plentiful and steady supply of clean water. Factories also are sometimes found amid the fields, occupying quite isolated positions, the object being similar--the command of some definite local advantage. When at the foot of a hill it is interesting to observe that the chimney is placed half-way up the slope, a preliminary underground pa.s.sage inducing a more powerful draught.