New-York tribune., 1883-06-04
INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND.
BY ROBERT p PORTER, MEMBER OF THE LATE
TARIFF COMMISSION.
HISTORY OF THE LEICESTER HOSIERY
TRADE.

heaviest sheep, the largest horses, anu lo iohs0S'
staple of wool in England. The castle, aOoey'
gates and some other ancient structures, still re-
main in the memory Of Leicester people and in the
guido book, though III fact they have nearly
crumbled away, and the busy population OF
to-day devote most of their energy to the
manufacture of hosiery and shoes Leicester
celebrities have been numerous, not says one
writer, to say numberless, from Lady Jane
Grey to Little Miss Linwood who worked her ehigies
in worsted- work that looked maryellousy like wnat
it really was, and made the good old danes OF her
time half-worship that Queen of the Needle. The
heroes are said to date from the days of the Kingdom
of Merca and Leicester is not sterile of such pro-
ductions vet. Near Leicester is Bosworth Field and
the road from BOsworth to the battlefield skirts
Bosworth parish, and IS very beautiful Perhaps
the fact that this battle closed the Wars of the Roses
may account for the attractions and destinations
that Bosworth has over the other battles OF the
Roses Volumes have been written about it and 1t
is familiar to every American tourist.
The present city of Leicester strikes stranger as
highly respectable town, not so large so busy
as Nottingham but In some respects not unlike
Derby. 1t is clean. we'll paved, and has several
rather fine public buildings and substantial busi-
blocks and the residence portion OF the city
some handsome villas It is the sort of place to
locate charitable institutions in, and buildings hav-
ing haf-hosptal appearance loom up In different
parts of the town. While it has not the busy ap-
pearance of some factory towns, it certainly has not
the amount of filth, the poverty the dark alleys,
the array Of gin shops and the amount fdrunken-
ness. Some of the streets remind one Of ancient
gray-walled York, but nothing antiquated as
Stone Gate. Leicester is the centre Of the hosiery
trade and if any one cares to look at nap he will
find 1t is also the centre of England ITSELF though
the Leicester people do not seem so proud of the
fact as their Worcester cousins across the Atlantic,
who constantly speak of Worcester tho centre OF
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The present
population of Leicester is about 125OOO, and the
increase during the last decade has been about
2S 600.
The most trustworthy authority gives the
honor of founding the hosiery trade to the
Rev. William Lee, of Calverton, In Nottinghamshire,
who iourisbed about the time OF Queen Elizabeth,
Hand knitting with wood or steel needles had only
been introduced about thirty years, and prior to
that time ancestors hose had been cut out by
the scissors from cloth of wool OF silk and sewed up
to the size and shape Of the leg. According to the
| story Lee was less anxious to furnish the world
with better stockings than he was to obtain the
| affection OF q young lady who whenever he
| called, seemed absorbed in her
| knitting than In the words OF her lover
| His aim was to make and-knitting gainless en-
| ployment. He succeeded. and the first stocking
frame produced hose at least times as fast as
the most adroit fingers could knit them. The ma
| chine was exhibited to Queen Elizabeth, but she
was mortified TO find IL produced nothing but coarse
woollsn stockings; had they been silk she said. she
would have forwarded the invention. but coarse
wooIlen-oh. mol and the good Queen elevated
her royal blue nose and strobe ma
iestically from Lees garrett. Then Lee went
TO work, and at last made the Queen
| a pair of silk hose, which she accepted, hut did
nothing for the ingenious maker. After Elizabeths
death Lee felt quito sure of the patronage of the
| Highland King. for James had borrowed pair OF
| silk stockings at Edinburgh of the Earl of Mar.
| that he might not appear at the English Court as
scrub before Strangers But Lee learned
| not 10 put his trust Kings and Princes. and hay
ing received anInvitaion, he packed mp his machine
| and won't to France. whore he carried on his
industry. as ono writer says with
great applause" But with the assassina-
tion of Henry ". his prospects were
| once more blighted and being suspected on account
of his Professionalism. he fell into poverty and
| deeper gloom. and sunk broken hearted into the
| grave In the year 1910 Fortunately his brother
] James understood the business and he brought the
| machine back and started tho London Hosiery
| Manufacture and from that time frames began to
| multiply in Nottingham, Leicester and Derby until
| there are now In Great Britain large
number of hosiery factories employing many
| thousands of hands besides those employed in the
rural districts on the hand machines, and the
thousands of women and children employed in the
country places surrounding Nottingham and Leices-
ter and In the cities members, seamers. wInders
| cutters fnishers and makers-up. Some authorities
give the total number. asfar back 1866. as 150
600. But think this is all guess-work. for Bevans
Statistical Atlas published last year, puts the fac
| tory hands down rs numbering 10000, and those
engaged as workers at hosiery In England at about
| 1000 With existing data l can give nothing
| definite to the numerical importance of this in
| dustry at the present time.
The history of tho trade to which Leicester owes
| Its prosperity is of the most melancholy chap
ters in the Industrial History of England. aud al
though Parliamentary interference has ameliorated
tho sunerings of the workers by the abolition of
| frame rents" the outlook of the trade, to-day
owing to various causes. to use the language OF a
representative working hosier, is gloomy indeed"
for the work-people One of the leading causes of
| the depression among the framework knitters Is
| the disproportion existing between the supply
of their labor and the demand for IL. The knitter
| Of the future" said Mr. Rowley president of the
Board Arbitration and Cancellation of the Hosiery
Trade, "wll be the man who can manage and
| watch Intricate machinery, as In a cotton or
woolen factory, and not the man de1trous as
| framework knitteT."
Before the trade began to crystalline into the fac
tory system the trade Of framework knitting was
accessible to the unemployed laborers of all other
classes, from the facility with which knowledge OF
| branches This also admitted tho competition of
women and children, all tending to reduce wages,
and now that power machinery, factories and town
operatives are extent taking the place of the
hand frame the cottage and the rural workers. there
are large numbers thrown out, of work who must
obtain employment at something else, emlgrate or
90 TO that bourne which is the birthright of every
| Engishman--tbe workhouse.
The heaviest grievance under which the Leicester
| stocSinG-weaver suffered for half q century or
more was the outrageous system of "frame-rentso
| which was finally abolished IN 1873 by much
Il IL. l..A.- u