Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-05-14 00:00:00

OF THE

WORKING CLASSES.

ADDRESSED TO THE WORKIN,G,q4.SSES
THEMSELVES ,

THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS-bOCIAL AND POLITICAL

PART .FIFTH

CHAPTER §ECOND.
PROSPERITY OF THE WOOLLEN AND LINEN MANUFAC-

TURES DURING THE REIGN OF JAMES.-SUPE-

RIORITY OF THE HINDOSTAN,IXUSLINS TO OURS.-

HISTORY OF THE INTRODUCTION OF THE SILK

WORM TO EUROPE. SUPERSTITION OF THE

PERIOD.--POPULITION OF THE KINGDOM IN

DIFFERENT LOCALITIES,

Under James the different manufacturers continued
to prosper,
,and especially that of woollen cloth. But
there was one great obstacle still contending against
it. The statute passed in the reign of Edward the
Sixth for preventing the use of machinery
was still in force—a statute that was not
repealed; indeed, until a very recent period. For,
in Sothersetshire and 'Wiltshire, so late as 1802,
and in Yorkshire more 'recently, 'serious disturbances
took place 'on account of machinery being introduced
to raise the nap on cloth, wherein the shearmen
.contended that they were contrary intended to the
statute of Edward the -Sixth. Injurious statutes
were likewise still in existence prescribing the kind of
dyes to be used (1); even the colours of the cloth
sold by retail were settled by Act of Parliament.
But in spite of all these obstacles, the manufacture
throve apace by its inherent strength, the basis
of which was our unequalled native wools.
So that, in the reign of Charles the Second,
it fOrmed the chief branch of manufacturing industry
in the .country. The same' may be said of the
manufacture of worsted goods (so called from
Worsted, now an inconsiderable village in Norfolk,
where their manufacture first began in the reign of
Edward II.) ; it throve also, notwithstanding that it
had to struggle against the same obstructions as its
kindred branch of art.

The prosperity of the linen manufacture is of more
recent date. Up to the revolution of 1688, the fine
linens were mostly obtained from Germany, .and
those of a coarser kind were only made in England
by industrious houSewifes for family • consumption.
'Celebrated as the English are for their cotton
manufactnres, both twist, calico, and printed goods ;
yet, in the production of a certain class of goods
very delicate muslins —not all our resources, natural
and cultivated, bring our products up to the level of
the materials fabricated in Hindostan from time
immemorial. Of the celebrated Dacca muslins, it
has been,said that they are so thin and transparent,
that if laid flat upon the ground during the night,
so as to be gemmed with dew, it is impossible next
morning to distinguish the muslin fabric from the
adjacent dewy grass blades. This may be an
exaggeration ; nevertheless the circumstance admits
of uo doubt that, the cotton twist produced by the
native workmen of Hindostan, aided by machinery
of the simplest kind, is superior to anything of the
sort ever turned out of England. The reason has
been thus explained : —The machinery of spinning
jennies necessitates the formation of a Aery hard
twist whereas the hand-spun cotton threads of'lndia
• not being so rigid, the fibre of the cotton remains
more transparent, It may be here remarked that
our word calico is a corruption of Calieut, a town in
Hindostan, formerly celebrated for its cotton fabrics.
The art of cotton printing, which now constitutes.
such an important part of British industry, is at
present wholly exercised on white British calicos.
The art of cotton printing, however, in Britain,
preceded that of calico weaving. For many years
we imported large quantities of Indian calico for the
express purpose of being bleached and printed.
In the silk trade a great impulse was given to this
branch of industry by a proclamation of James,
concerning the planting of mulberry trees. . Ten
thousand of these plants were sent into each county
for sale at Merely nominal prices ; and. it is conse-
quently supposed that most of the mulberry trees
now or till lately existing in England, including
Shakspere's famous mulberry tree in his garden at
Stratford, were planted in consequence of this pro-
clamation.
The introduction of this most elegant and most
luxurious of all our textile materials into Europe is
somewhat interesting, and I may be pardoned for
digressing here to relate it :--
The silkworm is a native of China that peculiar
land, as it may be called, where time and discoveries
seem to have stood still—so impressed is everything
• there with the aspect of unchangeableness. In a
region where the silk Worm occurs and .thrives, no

great Suggestive ingenuity was ..necessary to turn
the beautiful fibre to account.. The Chinese appear
to have done so from the highest periods of antiquity
known to their chronicles, and the silken tissues thus
manufactured being carried westward, occasionally
arrived at classic Greece and Rome, to astonish, by
their beauty, all who gazed upon them—to be, in
faet the envy of princes and the puzzle of
philosophers. Amongst some fictions enter-
tained by the latter relative to silk, it was
believed to grow on trees—a notion which may
have originated from the circumstance that cocoons
of the silkworm depend from the branches of
mulberry trees, as if they really grew there. The
estimation in which silk was held at Rome will
be inferred from the fact, that in the second century
the Emperor Marcus Antonius actually took the
trouble to send an exploratory expedition to China
for the purpose of procuring it. But either they
did not reach that part of China in which the silk-
worm flourished, or the Chinese managed to conceal
the thing in mystery, for certain it is that the
source and nature of silk remained as unexplained

as over.
The imperialists of Byzantium were destined to
be more fortunate than their predecessors of the
west in their endeavours to introduce the silkworm
into Europe. This occurred during the reign of
Justinian, and in the following way : - Towards the
beginning of this reign the supply of oriental woven
silk had become so scarce that there seemed a
probability of its going out of use altogether.
Under these circumstances Justinian enacted various
sumptuary laws to regulate its distribution. Still

(1.) I may here observe that no really beautiful dye stuff
was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, nor to the
moderns either, until after the discovery of America, whence
we obtain not only the greater number of our dye woods,
but the beatiful cochineal insect, so much superior to the
kermes insect found in southern Europe (the latter pro-
ducing a sort of dull red colour), and whicehlefeoprtmfeorrlypetoopo
its place, that the latter went out of use almost entirely as
soon as cochineal could be produced. in adequate quantity.'
Nor was wool usually dyed in early times,
of great rank. The Tynan purple, concerning,' which people
much has been said and written, was restricted entirely to
special service.

the supply grew less and less. More than ever
was it of importance to discover the nature of its
source—whether animal or vegetableand, if pos-
Bible, to introduce it into Europe. Meantime
-
wClriistiainnaitkyingnndperregtrhese. auspices.
of Justinian,
Monasteries were
established in Persia, and the truths of the
Christian gospel were preached in regions
Theseeven
Persianso
monks, a s
remote
whCehinhaad
penetrated e t r
Hathinddosatsana.
missionary enterprise to China, were fortunate
enough to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese,
and to glean some particulars concern' mg the precesi
of winding off the silk from the cocoons, and
otherwise preparing it. Notwithstanding the- confi-
dence, however, which had sprung up between them
and the Chinese, the missionaries appear to have
been not a little watched. At all events, they did
not accomplish what they would have been willing
enough to accomplish ; they did not carry with them
into Europe either silkworms or silkworm eggs.
They, however, nn Sooner arrived at Byzantium, than
they related to Justinian, the partiefiliti',i with which
they had become acquainted in referenCe to the
silkworm. The Emperor listened attentively, and
urged them to proceed once more to China —not this
time on a Christian mission, hut for the express
purpOse of bringing either the silkworm or its eggs
to Europe. They set out on the expedition, and in
due course arrived in the country. As to the
fulfilment of their mission, the task was not easy.
To procure 'silkworms, and feed them during the
long overland route, was impossible, seeing that
their only food was the leaves of mulberries. The
only chance of success was to smuggle away some of
the eggs, which' was also difficult because of the
vigilance of the Chinese. Nevertheless, the astute
missionaries triumphed in the end. Having pro-
cured some of the silk Worm eggs, the latter were
deposited in the hollow of a 'walking cane, and in
this way passed into Byzantium. The eggs came to
maturity in proper time, worms were hatched, and
the climate of certain parts of the Eastern empire,
more especially some of the provinces of Greece,
proving congenial,' the silkworm flourished apace.
Justinian now monopolised the production of silk, on
which he realised an enormous profit. For more
than six hundred years, the Eastern empire supplied
silk to all Europe, and a great part of the west of
Asia. Finally, however, Duke Roger, of Sicily,
having invaded the. Eastern Empire, carried back
with him into Italy both silkworms and silk-weavers.
The mystery which formerly attached to silk, was
now at an end, and articles of apparel made of this
beautiful material were slowly diffused over the
west.

Silk, let me add, is peculiarly the material of
luxury ; whilst linen, cotton, and wool, are fibres
out of which the textile fabrics of cleanliness are
made. Silk cannot be washed ;at least, it is so
much worse for the operation, that the latter is
seldom attempted. For this reason silk is not, and
never can be, used by any race of people charac-
terised by their. cleanliness, otherwise than for state
purposes. The.ChineSe use silken tissues for table
napkins, sheets,' chemises, and bed coverings. The
repulsive odours associated with these applications of
silken fabrics are too obvious to be enlarged upon.

Amongst many useful laws passed 'during the
reign of James, respecting social rights and privi-
leges, there were others that cannot be so charac-
terised. One to which I may refer was in the law
suggested by royal superstition, making it felony
" to consult, feed, or covenant with any evil spirit.'"
The period I am. speaking of, it must be remembered,
was one of terrible superstition. Such omens, for
instance, as the croaking of a raven, the falling of a
portrait, the crossing of a hare in one's path, the
spilling of salt, or the unexpected crowing of a
cock, had the power to disturb the most swaggering
cavalier. (2.) Divination, therefore, formed a
thriving trade, and almost every street in the
metropolis had its cunning man or woman, who
divined for the wise by astrological 'calculations,
and for the ignorant by the -oracle of the sieve and
the shears.- Thus, when the civil wars broke out in
the next reigir, we learn that cavaliers and
roundheads 'thronged to astrologers to learn
the events of the succeeding week: Another
favourite superstition then was the exorcising
of devils. 'This pipee of jugglery was a favourite
practice of the popish clergy, and was one of the 'ways
they took to recover their esteem with the multitude.
But even Puritans did not escape, for they became
exorcists in return ; and as nervous diseases were
common enough, they sometimes crouched round the
bed of some crazy hypochondriac who was supposed
to be possessed by a devil whom they stunned with
prayers and adjurations. It is certainly to be
regretted that these fanatics did not seek to heighten
such absurdities as 'these, by giving their ejeeted
deVils more pOetical names than those we find
bestowed on them,—such as, " Lusty Dick and Hob,"
" Parr and Flihherdigibet," " Wilkin and Smolkin,"
"Lusty. Jolly Jerkin," and "Pudding of Thane." It
would have been fortunate for humanity,. however,
if the credulity of the period had gone no farther
than this, but the belief in witches becaMe the
master .spirit of the age. And hence it was-that
James, who even wrote against them with great
violence himself, caused the statute quoted from to
be framed. The method, too, of detecting them was
strikingly characteristic of the age. Thus if any old
woman happened to vent herself in imprecations
against her persecutors, and if they afterwards
happened to sustain any calamity in goods and
person, this was sufficient proof that the woman was
a witch. Or if she talked to herself, and mumbled
under the dotage of old age, she was - holding
converse, as a matter of course, with invisible
spirits, and was held to be an undoubted wi!ch.
Witch-finders, in consequence, rose up, who pro-
fessed to detect any of those who were possessed of
evil spirits. One miscreant of this description who
had caused no fewer than sixty of these unfortunate-
creatures to be longed, in the. county of Suffolk
alone, suffered poetical justice at last by being found
guilty by his own ordeal, and subjected to-the same
doom as his victims. While these legal massacres
were going on in England, the destruction of
witches went on . with still greater severity in
Scotland.olly
which Norhi
zeals did thehad deathhindl eod f
. Between
Ja es ki
three e
f
and four thousand persons are said to have been
athaetyheearyel
year
r 4 01 a 7 111 d 1 tah c
Britishs or a io
juryn .
Evel'itedleynat Hereford ignorant enough to
ce executed tsebode r befeco teuwi
be persuaded that a woman could converse with the
devil in the sll, de of a cat !
Some idea of the state or the kingdom in differed
localities; in respect of wealth and population at- this
time, is furnished to us in Camden's Britannia.
Plymouth is therein described as having grown up
in the last age from a small fishing village ' • the
adjoining town of Davenport, now containing about
50,000 inhabitants, established, if at all, only as
suburb of Plymouth, which itself is stated not to be
very large -indeed, it had only one church.
Brighton, now having between 40,000 add
m
085
fOi
r, Omßo
iOrai iggnhhhata_mhb
,ei
ennastltsle, isead d mßneesi
nl ayi
Is
ate
aiinitti:oonni
se
ndndbey h
st
chtrei
be
eel
dioaa
me
as
already swarming with inhabitants, and " echoing
population was yet not
whatitsit now is. Sheffield is
described as remarkable amongi
a with
twentieth
ennoti
iseet of
paanrstilosf, " bu t
40,000 inhabitants, is hereabouts for blacksmiths,
in these parts. Plenty of
was then an obscure iron being dug
other.. little towns
Bradford a town now with
by Camden
resort,. Bur
with half as man y, is not named at all. Sunderland
buildings, village,merely naanmd e
isd.
not
ot Huddersfield,entionea
Bury
Raoseahndoatlheerasnao mwaaryk et towninferior ofto no
;and it
Manchester as surpassing all the towns hereabouts in
populousness, and woollen manufacture.
Liverpool is merely mentioned under the name of
Litherpole, as the most convenient and usual plane
for setting sail into Ireland.

[These articles being Copyright, the Author reserves to 1,!:,t".1./
the privilege of further publication or translatiou.l

(2) Knight's Pictorial History of England. Attica I:rty's
History of England.

TO AN ENOINIMAII,

" TIERRE' A GOOD TIME COMING FOR OCEAN
STEAM TRANSIT."

TO TAE EDITOR OF,TIIE NORTHERA TIMES,

Sir, —Reading in your impression of this day's
41te, a communication, with " Engineer" aypended
theretcr, on the above-headed subject, I will thank
you to extend your usual courtesy by favouring me
with the space this will occupy.
"-Engineer" states that he expected -to have had
some comments upon his communication, bearing,
date 28th- September, 1858, on " Ocean Steam-
ships," Ahich either embraced a gross absurdity
or a p-actical, fact. _

It is a for the advancement of science, that
thanginee.t.":- if he be:a man above the average of
t clash.. of mechanics, should be. afraid of
letting the public know who he is, especially
when hearwrites upon a.. subject that.. so deeply
interests ,he commercial interests, so far as despatch
by increasing the speed is concerned, thereby expe-
diting mails, passeners, specie, &c., and the ship-
owning iiaterest by a " saving in fuel equal to forty
per cent. " Engineer" asks the question, " May I
enquire w2at is, or what will Liverpool do in the
matter o%;-speed, &c., in Ocean Steamers ? " This is
readily answered. If it be true what " Engineer!'
states, that he can save "in fuel equal to forty per
• anhiniake the steam-ship attain " twenty miles
* hour,:aoae will do that body an essential service.
Butt, eti the other hand, if his ' practical knowledge
is at their ;servicei" and his improvements clash with
their property, the question is easily solved, and the
result must, be a " bad.time coming" for the Ocean
Steam-ships that are-not up to the improvements of
the. age:, g,ad the requirements Qf the times,
quilt .concur with "Engineer," "that we are

Ipm the eve of

such changes in its

mercial yalue," as will . cause a revolution in
Ocean steaming, as is-not _generally contemplated,
but as to ratifying Engineer's motto, "that there is a
good times coming :for ocean steam transit," with the
present craft afloat, I must distinctly differ. When
"Engineter states " twenty miles an hour," I pre-
sume he t-speaking of nautical knots. If this be so,
there is rick ship afloat yet, nor building, that will
ever-log that. milage.• To drive a steam=ship at such
high velocities as "Engineer" is talking about, would
require what ;the naval mechanical architects of
Great Britain have not yet taken into the thinking
qualifications of their mental capacities. It is within
the last three years; a steamer in the North Atlantic
Ocean,. of;- about 300 feet long,. was, in a sea-way,
put out of straight line,- from stem to stern-poSt,
about three feet.* There are some steamers building,
about 33thifeet long, on the ordinary " tin-pot" prin-
ciple, thabi are, so. the "contract states, to do twenty
knots per-hour, and if we live to see 1860 ended, it is
more than- !probable that "Engineer," their owners,
dicsignersp&c., will see the soundness of my remarks
verified. °AS for " Engineer" making allusion to
builders at the Tyne and Humber turning out craft
to run across the North Atlantic Ocean, at " twenty
miles per hour nautical, such clap-trap is only on
a par with the- clever man who could do everything
iar Itome,und nothing out of it. "Twenty miles per
hour" (nautical). across-the Atlantic, On the ordinary
"tin-pot principle" would cause the craft to make
more water -between the- plates and churn
more frotjf in her, joints than would be agreeable
to the passengers and crew. Have we not every-
day proofior the soundness of these not " practical,"
but " business" remarks ? In " Lloyds' List" there
is searcelpa 'publication issued that does not 'give
the last dying account and foundering of . some
parish-but and owned tin-pot" steamer or sailing
ship. I do -not wish .to• be misunderstood, when
I state it impossible for the ordinary "tin-pot" prin-
ciple to stand its work at' " twenty miles" an hour.
That it isOat within the reach of the ingenuity of.
man and naval mechanical science to produce a craft
that will loth stand driving at a high velocity— •
proof to twisting in a sea way, and totally staunch'
for her ivork ; hut it is: within the range of
chemistr3.Ao distil fresh water from salt, thereby
doing away with saline inerustacia, and making it
safe, withsproper boiler, to work. expansively at such
essnre. •as will produce ample steam to
seep up twenty miles an. hour. But, another ques-
tion has to do with steam-ship speed, viz., •ntininnt.m
resistance, maximum buoyancy ;•, ostensibly, that the
faster a steamer is driven • into a. sea way, sbe•shall
rise instead of, as is the fault with most if not all,
bury herself in head or cross-head seas. Then is the
time thatr " cheap" which, turn out " dear" steam-
ships proxe the accuracy of my common observing
daily experience. JOHN CLARE) Jun.,
20, Exchange Buildings,. . .•
Liverpool,,,,l3th. May,. 1859; , .

;TUE DOCK OMNIBUSES

TO THE EDITOR OF. THE NORTHERN TIMES

The management, ni rather mismanage-
nent, of ,I.the Dock ,Omnibuses really calls fbr
O:As the Omnibuses form the most impor-
tant line of conveyance in _Liverpool, they ought to
commeneeliunning from five a.m. to ten pan. At
present ydu cannot get from North to South before
the niiddliFlof the forenoon, Which you will allow is
not only aireat waste: of time, but. a great loss to
tradesmen,'• and others looking: a fter'busiiiess. The
time has also arrived when they ought to run from
Battery-street, the -mnirt.entrance to the Huskisson
and Canada: docks. The slowness of the Omnibuses
is greatly cOmplained of ; and; to Obviate:this,:there
ought to Aal, 'narked stopping places, or boards
placed oracthe -walls; denoting,- the time of arrival
and departure at each station, which, I think, .would
save a great deal of tiouble and annoyance to parties
who travel by. them daily.—Your's,' &0., It. A.

exposure