LEEDS, in the west riding of Yorkshire, the metropolis of the woollen manufacture, is the fifth town in England in point of population and commercial activity, being only exceeded in these respects by London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. The population of the parish and borough, which are co-extensive, amounted, by the census of 1831, to 123,393. The progressive rapidity with which this flourishing place has increased within the present century, is shewn by the decennial enumerations of the inhabitants, which are as follows:—In 1801, the population of the borough was 53,162; in 1811, it was 62,534; in 1821, it was 83,796; and in 1831, it was 123,393. The [7:13:161]borough and parish of Leeds are, however, very extensive, measuring, in their longest diameter, not less than seven miles, and in circumference thirty; covering 21,450 acres; and comprising, besides the town and township, ten out-townships, several of which are populous villages, nearly all engaged in the manufacture of woollen cloth. The population of the township of Leeds, that is, of the town, in 1831, was 71,602; and of the out-townships as follows :—Hunslet, 12,074; Holbeck, 11,210; Bramley, 7039; Wortley, 5944; Armley, 5159; Headingley-with-Burley, 3849; Beeston, 2128; Chapel Allerton, 1934; Farnley, 1591; Potternewton, 863. The first two of these out-townships, Hunslet and Holbeck, may strictly be called suburbs of the town, and therefore the population of the town may be considered as 94,886.

Leeds is situated nearly in the centre of the West Riding, in the wapentake of Skyrack, and in the pleasant and well-cultivated valley of the Aire. The surrounding country possesses much cheerful beauty, of which one indication is furnished by the fact, that the Abbey of Kirkstall, one of the grandest monastic structures in the kingdom, and of which the remains are highly picturesque, was built in the same valley, within three miles of the town. The soil is moderately fertile, and the country is not deficient in wood. For manufacturing and commercial purposes, the situation of Leeds is highly advantageous. Placed within a short distance of the great line of road from the metropolis to Scotland, betwixt the two ports of Liverpool and Hull, both exceedingly favourable for foreign trade, and on a navigable river emptying itself into the Humber, its facilities for internal and foreign traffic can scarcely be surpassed. But in its vicinity to large and productive coal-fields and iron-mines, it possesses still higher requisites for manufacturing prosperity. Coal, water, and iron, arc the three grand sources of success in manufactures, because they afford all that is needed for the making and working of machinery. This combination of advantages exists in an eminent degree in Leeds, and in the woollen district of Yorkshire. The productive coal-pits of Middleton are within three miles of the town, and the coals are brought to Leeds by a private railway belonging to the proprietor of the pits, Mr Brandling.

Though regarded as the capital town of this great manufacturing district, Leeds is not in its centre, but on its border. Eastward an<l northward of Leeds, the country is wholly agri cultural; westward and to the south-west, in all the valleys and on all the hills betwixt that town and the long and high range that separates Yorkshire from Lancashire, the populous towns and villages resound with the steam-engine and the shuttle, and are daily, save on the Sabbath, canopied by their self-created clouds of smoke. In this district are carried on, a woollen manufacture of great extent and of some antiquity; a worsted stuff manufacture, a modern and vigorous graft on the former; fancy manufactures, of which the raw materials are wool, cotton, and silk; the spinning of flax; and the weaving of linen. The manufactures of Leeds itself are principally that of woollen cloth, the spinning of flax to a great extent, and of worsted to a smaller extent, and one branch of the worsted stuff manufacture; but its merchants also buy extensively the woollen and stuff goods made in the neighbouring towns and villages, and get them finished and dyed; so that Leeds is a general mart for all these fabrics. The operatives in all the branches of manufacture and trade, except the stuff " caver s, earn good wages, and thus have the means of great comfort.

The cloth markets of Leeds, held every Tuesday and Saturday, are attended by several hundreds of clothiers from t e surrounding villages to a distance of about ten miles. ( ost of these clothiers arc small freeholders, possessing apital enough to keep a few looms at work in their own houses or an adjoining workshop, and often labouring themselves, and employing their families, in weaving. They purchase their own wool, get it dyed at Leeds or elsewhere, and scribbled and slubbed at the mills which perform those processes for hire; they then spin it by means of the jenny, and weave the cloth, which they bring in an undressed state to the Leeds cloth-halls, where it is bought by the merchants, and is afterwards dressed and finished in the mills of that town. From twelve to twenty years since, this system of domestic manufacture seemed in danger of extinction, from the successful rivalry of the factory system. The large manufacturers having, a few years before that time, succeeded, by gig-mills and dressing machinery, in taking the finishing department out of the hands of the croppers, thought they could, with equal advantage, carry on the spinning and weaving in their large establishments, and thus perform every part of the manufacture within the same building, from the sorting of the wool to the turning out of the superfine cloth ready for the draper or tailor. This change was not occasioned by the application of steam-power to the moving of the looms, for the power-loom was then only used in one or two woollen mills; but was recommended chiefly by the advantage of having the cloth made under the eye of the merchant-manufacturer, who expect ed thus to be able to adapt his fabrics more exactly to the wants of his customers, to command a better cloth, and to obtain for himself the profit of spinning the yarn and making the cloth, as well as of the early and the finishing processes. With this view, extensive weaving shops were attached to most of the mills; and mule-jennies driven by power were substituted for the jennies of the domestic manufacturers. The calculations of the mill-owners were, however, disappointed. The spinning department succeeded, but not so the weaving. They found it necessary, even in the ordinary state of things, to pay higher wages for weaving in the towns than were paid in the country; and the trades’ unions formed amongst the weavers in these large establishments, forced up wages still higher, so as to make it more expensive to the great manufacturers to make the cloth than to buy it of the domestic clothier. In consequence of this, and of the extreme annoyance given by the trades’ unions to the masters, many of the leading houses either wholly or partially abandoned the weaving; and the village clothiers, who had been threatened with ruin, regained their trade, and are now enjoying much prosperity. If, however, the power-loom should continue to gain ground as it has done within the last two or three years, and it should appear that woollen cloth can be manufactured better or cheaper by that machine than by the hand-loom, another change must take place, and the town of Leeds will then probably take away much of the weaving from the villages.

The Leeds cloth-halls, of which there are two, one for the sale of coloured cloths, and one for white cloths only, form an interesting spectacle on the market days. They arc very large plain structures, not divided into rooms, but forming covered galleries or streets of great length, simply fitted up with low stands or benches along each side of the street, on which the clothiers place their cloth; and leaving an aisle of about two yards in width down the centre, along which the merchants walk, to examine the pieces exposed for sale, and make their bargains. The cloth-halls are under the management of trustees chosen by the clothiers, one or two from each considerable village, and each clothier purchases one or more stands. The market opens, at a certain fixed hour, on the mornings of Tuesday and Saturday, and is kept open only about an hour and a half, during which period all the business of buying and selling is transacted. Punctuality and despatch are of course requisite. At the appointed hour of commencement, the clothiers are ranged behind their stands, [7:13:162]and the merchants enter the hall. When the latter find such pieces of cloth as they require, the price is inquired, and, if a bargain should be struck, a slight memorandum of price and quantity is made on the spot; the cloth is left, and the clothier afterwards takes it to the merchant’s warehouse, to be measured and more carefully examined. In this way goods of the value of many thousand pounds are sold each market-day within a very short time. The hour of closing the market is rigidly enforced, by a fine of five shillings being levied on any merchant remaining in the hall five minutes after the ringing of a bell. The remainder of the day is generally spent by the clothier in delivering his goods, in attending their measurement and examination, in receiving payment, in buying of the woolstapler a fresh stock of the raw material, and in making his arrangements with the dyer and the mill-owner for dyeing and scribbling the wool. The coloured cloth-hall was built in the year 1758; it forms a great quadrangle, inclosing an area of the same shape. The longer sides of the quadrangle are 128 yards in length, and the shorter sixty-six yards, and it contains 1800 stands. The white cloth-hall was built in 1775; it is nearly of the same extent as the other hall, and contains 1210 stands. The market in the white cloth-hall commences after that in the coloured-cloth-hall is over, so as to allow the merchants an opportunity of attending both. Before the erection of these halls, the clothmarket was held in the long street called Briggate, and on the bridge.

The woollen-cloths of Leeds and Yorkshire are confessedly inferior to those of the West of England. About twenty years since, a great improvement in the manufacture and finishing of cloth was made by Mr William Hirst, of Leeds, whose manufacture was at least equal to that of the West of England; and he was able to command a high price for his goods. His success and that of others shew that as good cloth may be made in Yorkshire as in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. But the Yorkshire manufacturers having been habituated to make an inferior article, and to sell it at a lower price, they do not readily abandon their old habits. In cloths of the lower qualities they are unrivalled, and these constitute the great bulk of their production. The example of a few manufacturers of capital, intelligence, and spirit, and adding to the qualities, which are already possessed by many of the Yorkshire manufacturers, a determination to use the best materials, and to turn out the best fabrics, would probably regain for that county a reputation for superfine cloths. The largest woollen mills in Leeds are those of the wealthy firm of Benjamin Gott and Sons.

The spinning of flax by machinery was commenced in Leeds, or the neighbourhood, nearly fifty years since, by Mr John Marshall, who, though not the first, was one of the first to apply the principle of Sir Richard Arkwright’s water-frame, invented in the cotton-manufacture, to the spinning of linen yarn. After a doubtfifl struggle with the difficulties that presented themselves, Mr Marshall’s talent, boldness, and perseverance at length triumphed, and he established a trade which has raised him from very moderate circumstances to the possession of immense wealth, and has made him a great benefactor to his native town. That gentleman represented the county of York in Parliament from 1826 to 1830, and his second son has represented the borough of Leeds in one Parliament. The flax-mills of Messrs Marshall and Sons, in the township of Holbeck, are very extensive, employing 1300 work-people. Several other flax-mills have also been established in Leeds, most of them by gentlemen who were originally in the employment of Messrs Marshall. The business has succeeded to a great extent, and now employs about six thousand hands, with excellent profit to the capitalists, and good wages to the workmen.

The spinning of worsted yarn, and the weaving of worsted stuffs by power-looms, are successfully carried on by a few houses in Leeds, and these branches seem likely to be extended, though they belong more peculiarly to Bradford. There is also in Leeds a branch of the worsted-stuff manufacture, consisting of the weaving of camlets and low stuffs, employing about a thousand looms, the weavers being for the most part Irish. The mercantile department of the stuff-trade is largely prosecuted; and the merchants buy their goods, in the grey or unfinished state, at the Bradford market, and have them dyed and finished at Leeds. There is an establishment in this town for the spinning of waste silk.

Where several manufactures are carried on to a great extent, there must of course be many machine-makers; and this, accordingly, is a flourishing business in Leeds. Steam-engines, of excellent quality, are made by the firm of Fenton, Murray, and Jackson. The woollen and stuff dyers also form a rather numerous class in this industrious community; and the trades of the wool-stapler, the dry-salter, and the oil-merchant, employ considerable capitals.

The following statements are from the returns of Mr Baker, the superintendent of factories, at the close of the year 1835 :—
[table]

It should be observed, that the above numbers by no means shew the proportional importance of the woollen and flax trades in Leeds. Flax being only spun, and no linens woven, in Leeds, all the processes are performed in the mills, and all the hands employed are shewn in the above returns. But not so in the woollen manufacture. Most of the weavers work in their own houses, or small work-shops; some branches of the finishing are not performed in the mills; and the establishments of the dyers, woolstaplers, &c. are also separate.

By the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Leeds has a water communication with the Western Sea; and by the river Aire, and the canals formed in connection with it by the Aire and Caldcr Navigation Company, vessels of considerable burden come up from the Humber to Leeds. The water communication with the ports of Hull, Goole, and London, and with other parts of the United Kingdom and the north of Europe, is therefore good. Still further to facilitate the transport of goods and passengers, a railway of twenty-one miles in length has been formed from Leeds to Selby, a town on the river Ouse, to which steam-packets come daily from Hull. This railway was opened in September 1834; it is well constructed, and is paying a fair interest to the proprietors. It will, however, be more useful and prosperous when the projected railway from Hull to Selby shall be made. A bill for this undertaking is now (1836) before Parliament, and when the work shall be completed, the journey from Leeds to Hull will be performed in less than three hours, which will at once be advantageous to the commerce of Hull, and to the manufactures of Yorkshire and Lancashire. A railway is also projected between Manchester and Leeds; and when this shall be made, as well as that from Hull to Selby, a railway communication will be completed across the island, from Liverpool to Hull, through the heart of the greatest cotton and woollen manufactures in the world. The prosperity of those districts must necessarily be increased by the extraordinary facilities that will thus be given to foreign and inland traffic. The [7:13:163]capitalists of Leeds being alive to the importance of this new mode of conveyance, a railway has been planned from Leeds to Derby, called the North Midland Railway, and the bill is now (1836) before Parliament. By this line, in connexion with the London and Birmingham Railway, now in course of formation, and either the Midland Counties or the Derby and Birmingham Railway, both projected, a direct communication will be opened from Leeds to the metropolis, and to the centre and west of England, as well as to Wakefield, Barnsley, Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester. It is also more than probable that a railway will shortly be constructed from Leeds northwards to Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. This town will then enjoy every advantage that can be given by the most rapid communication with all parts of Great Britain.

Leeds is an ancient town, but has been the scene of no historical events. It was probably a Roman station. The ancient name, Loidis, is Saxon, being derived either from Loid, a people, or from the proper name of one of its Saxon possessors. In the time of William the Conqueror it appears to have had a very small population. The following is the record of Domesday Book: “In Ledes, ten carucates of land and six oxgangs to be taxed. Land to six ploughs. Seven thanes held it in the time of King Edward for seven manors. Twenty-seven villanes, and four sokemen, and four bordars, have now there fourteen ploughs. There is a priest and a church, and a mill of four shillings and ten acres of meadow. It has been valued at six pounds, now seven pounds.” After the Conquest, Leeds belonged to Ilbert de Lacy, by whom it seems to have been granted to the Paganels; and in the reign of John, by which time the town had risen into some consequence, Maurice Paganel granted a charter to the burgesses. A castle of considerable strength, called “famous” by the historian Thoresby, existed here in the reign of Stephen, by whom it was besieged in 1139 on his march to Scotland; and Richard II. was confined in it in 1399, before being committed to Pontefract Castle, the scene of his murder. Every trace of the castle has long since disappeared, and the site of the park attached to it is only known from the names of the streets which have been built upon it. A survey taken in the reign of Edward III. shews that the woollen-trade already existed here, as “fulling-mills” are mentioned; so that Leeds must have been one of the oldest seats of the woollen manufacture in England. Its trade seems, however, to have languished, for Leland thus speaks of it in the reign of Henry VIII. “Ledes, two miles lower down than Christal Abbay, on Aire river, is a praty market toune, subsisting chiefly by clothing, having one paroche chirch, reasonably well builded, and as large as Bradeford, but not so quik as it.” At that day, also, Wakefield was larger than Leeds; but the latter place subsequently increased far beyond all the neighbouring towns. Charles I. gave a charter to the borough, under which Sir John Savile, of Howley-hall, from whom several noble families are descended, was the first honorary alderman. The arms of the town bear testimony to this connexion with the Saviles, as two crowned owls, or hullarts, the arms of that family, were added to the golden fleece, the appropriate ensign of this seat of the woollen manufacture. Another charter was given to Leeds by Charles II. in 1661, under which a corporation was formed, consisting of a mayor, twelve aldermen, and twenty-four assistants. This charter, though taken away by James II., was restored by William and Mary, and continued in existence till the general reform of the municipal corporations of England by the act of 5th and 6th William IV, c. 76, which has given to Leeds, instead of a close and self-elected body for the government of the borough, a representative body consisting of sixteen aldermen and forty-eight councillors. The charter of Charles II. had, for its principal object, the making of municipal laws and regulations to protect the staple manufacture from “abuses, defects, and deceits in the making, selling, and dyeing of woollen cloths.” The trade, however, was allowed a happy degree of liberty; no restrictions were placed on settling in the town, or carrying on any business; the corporation, having no property, and little political influence, (seeing that the borough did not return members to Parliament,) remained free from the abuses which stained many other corporations, and simply presided over the police, doing otherwise neither good nor harm. During the Commonwealth, Leeds returned one representative, Captain Adam Baynes, of Knostrop; but on the Restoration that privilege was taken away, and this borough was one of those great and flourishing places, the non-representation of which formed so irresistible an argument for the reform of the House of Commons. By the reform act, Leeds received two representatives. One of its first members was the eloquent Thomas Babington Macaulay, since appointed a member of the supreme council in India; and the other Mr John Marshall jun. It is now represented by Sir John Beckett, formerly Judge-Advocate under Tory administrations, and by Mr Edward Baines, the proprietor, and for many years the editor, of the Leeds Mercury, the most extensively circulated, and perhaps the most influential of the English provincial newspapers, now conducted by his son, who is also the author of a History of the Cotton Manufacture.

Leeds has a parish church of great antiquity, but not very remarkable either for its architecture or its monuments. The town has, besides, seven churches (not reckoning those in the out-town ships), and numerous chapels belonging to the Methodists, Independents, Baptists, and Unitarians. The Dissenters are a very large body in Leeds; intelligent, active, and influential. There are perhaps few towns of equal size where the moral and religious feeling is stronger, or where there is greater sobriety of temper amongst the inhabitants. The latter characteristic is indicated by the absence of any undue degree of speculation in trade, by popular riots or commotions being almost unknown, and by the temperate and judicious, though decided and influential, part which this town has taken in promoting the cause of civil and religious liberty, and of reform in the national institutions.

Leeds is irregularly built, having no police regulations to enforce any thing like uniformity in building. It has few attractions for the stranger. Yet some of its structures arc handsome, and there is a spirit of improvement, which is likely ultimately to remove many of the present defects, and to ornament the town. The Court-house, of the date of 1815, is a handsome stone edifice; and the Commercial Buildings are still more elegant. The town has several commodious markets, an excellent suite of public baths, a good music-hall, and a miserable theatre. Its waterworks are shamefully defective, but new works are contemplated. The town is well lighted by two gas companies. Cavalry barracks were erected a few years since at one of the outskirts. The savings bank is well supported. The charities of Leeds are considerable; several of them, including the free grammar-school, the hospital or almshouses, &c. were either founded or endowed by a munificent public benefactor, Mr John Harrison, who lived in the early part of the seventeenth century, and who also built and endowed St John’s Church. Of modern date, are a spacious and well-managed infirmary, a house of recovery for fever patients, a dispensary, a guardian asylum, a lying-in charity, a benevolent or strangers’ friend society, Lancasterian and National schools, an infant school, &c. The literary and scientific institutions of the town are very respectable. The Philosophical and Literary Society, founded in 1820, has a good museum, and its building is elegant, though plain. A literary institution, a mechanics’ institution, and [7:13:164]subscription libraries also exist in the town. A medical school has lately been established, and is supported with talent and success by the physicians and surgeons, so that it has attained some reputation, and its lectures are admitted by the College of Surgeons and the Apothecaries’ Company as qualifying the pupils for entering on the profession. The present number of pupils is from forty to fifty. A very elegant and beautiful cemetery, covering nine acres of ground, was constructed in the year 1835, in an elevated situation near the town; and this burial-place, so desirable an appendage to a large town, is likely to be generally used by the inhabitants.

The history of Leeds has been written by two antiquarians,—Ralph Thoresby, F. R. S., a learned and pious native of the town, who published his Ωucatus Leodiensis in 1714, and the Rev. Thomas Dunham Whitaker, LL.D., F. S. A., who re-published Thoresby’s work, and added another volume, under the title of Loidis and Elmete, in 1816. The latter work deserves high praise for its ability and antiquarian learning, but it is miserably defective in its notice of the manufactures and trade of the place, and treats them with the most prejudiced contempt. Leeds was the native place of Dr David Hartley, the pupil of Sir Isaac Newton, and author of “Observations on Man he was the son of a clergyman at Armley. General Guest, the commander of the King’s troops at Edinburgh in 1745, was the son of a Leeds cloth-dresser. Mr John Smeaton, the celebrated engineer, and the architect of Eddystone light-house, was born at Austhorp, in this parish, where his family still reside. Benjamin Wilson, the eminent painter, who flourished about the middle of the last century, was a native of Leeds. The Rev. Joseph Priestley, LL. D., the distinguished philosopher, was born at Bristol, within eight miles of Leeds, and officiated for several years as the minister of the Unitarian Chapel in this town; and during his residence here, a select literary society was formed, of which the Doctor and the late William Hey, F. R. S., an eminent surgeon and a Christian philanthropist, were the most active members: they met for the purpose of philosophical enquiry and experiment. The Leeds Subscription Library originated in the suggestion of Dr Priestley. Leeds gives a ducal title to the family of Osborne, which sprung from this town. Edward Osborne, in the reign of Henry VIII., went from Leeds to be apprenticed to Sir William Hewet, Lord Mayor of London; and having plunged into the Thames to save the life of his master’s only daughter, who had fallen into the river from their house on London Bridge, he was appropriately rewarded for his gallantry with the lady’s hand. He himself became Lord Mayor of London; and his descendant, Sir Thomas Osborne, Bart., became the celebrated Earl of Danby and Duke of Leeds, and was president of the council in 1689. Leeds is distant 190 miles from London, and 24 from York.