value of property, in the districts in which they prevail. Lands held merely from year to year, at the option of either party, are said to be held at will, and form a large proportion of the lands of the country. The size of estates varies exceedingly; but despite the great number of very large estates, it is still true that landed property in England is very much divided; by far the largest portion of the kingdom being portioned out into estates under 1,000l. a year. Dr. Becke, in 1801, estimated the number of proprietors in England and Wales at 200,000; and if the total gross rental of the kingdom be estimated at 40,000,000., it will give 2001. as the average annual value of each estate. But as a great number of estates are much above this average, it follows that the majority must be proportionally below it.

Agriculture. According to the census of 1831, the number of families chiefly employed in agriculture, was 834,543; the number of agricultural occupiers of land employing labourers, amounted to 161,188; the occupiers not employing labourers, to 114,799; and agricultural labourers, to 799,875.

Arthur Young, in 1770, estimated the capital employed in agriculture at 44. per acre: at present it may, perhaps, be taken at about 67.; which, on 31,000,000 acres, will give 186,000,000Z. The rental of the land in England and Wales may be estimated at about 1-4th part of the value of the total produce. It amounted, in 1815, to 34,330,4627. (antè, p. 456.); and it appears from the subjoined returns, that the present rental exceeds 40,000,0004. a year; the fall that has taken place in the interval in prices having been everywhere partially, and in most parts more than fully countervailed by the spread of improvement, and the opening of new and better markets for all sorts of products. An Account of the Total Annual Value of Lands, Houses, and other Real Property, in every County of England and in Wales, assessed to the Property Tax, during the Year ended the 5th of April, 1843.

Under the property tax act the profits of the farmers are supposed to amount to half the rent; and though this rate be frequently most unjust in its application to individuals, it may not, at an average, be very wide of the mark; and supposing this to be the case, the aggregate profits of the farmers would exceed 20,000,000l. a year. Farmers holding lands let under 3001. a year, are exempted from the tax. Farms in England are of a medium size, their average being probably about 150 or 160 acres. Wheat, barley, and oats, but especially the first, which may be emphatically said to be the bread-corn of England, are the principal crops. The best wheat, as well as the greatest quantity, is raised in Kent, Essex,

Suffolk, Rutland, Herts, Berks, Hants, and Hereford. From 2 to 3 Winch. bushels per acre are required for seed, and the average produce in the above cos. may vary from 28 to 40 bush. per acre. Barley is grown principally in the eastern and some of the midland cos., and chiefly for malting; oats are principally in demand for horses; and the extraordinary increase of the latter has occasioned a proportional increase in the culture of oats. They are grown more especially in the N. and N. E. cos.; in the midland cos. their culture is less extensive, but it is prevalent throughout most parts of Wales. Rye is scarcely at all raised for bread, except in Durham and Northumberland; where, however, it is usually mixed with wheat, and forms what is called maslin, a bread corn in considerable use in the N. Peas and beans are important crops, and in some parts are pretty largely raised. That important vegetable, the potato, has become pretty general throughout the kingdom, but is most extensively raised in Lancashire and Cheshire, where it also comes to the greatest perfection. The introduction and general extension of the turnip husbandry has effected a revolution in the agriculture of England, second only to that which the inventions of Arkwright have effected in manufactures. They have now all but superseded fallows on the lighter lands. But the giving a valuable crop to the farmer, where there was none, without in any degree diminishing the facilities for clearing the land, is but a part of the advantages resulting from the turnip culture: for, while it enables the farmer to keep and fatten a much larger stock, it also enables him to accumulate a vastly greater supply of manure-of that invigorating power which adds to the productiveness of the best lands, and without which the middling and inferior would hardly repay the husbandman's toil. It is not easy to estimate the prodigious additions that have been, in this way, made to the productive capacities of the soil; and the recent application of bone manure to the turnip husbandry has already extended, and, no doubt, will continue to extend, its advantages still further. Rape is grown for its oil, or as food for sheep, in all parts except the cos. N. of Yorkshire; and cabbages and carrots are chiefly produced in the E. Flax and hemp are at present but little raised, being found less profitable crops than most of the foregoing. Hops are for the most part confined to Kent, to the vicinity of Farnham in Surrey, and to Herefordshire: their crop is the most uncertain of any, varying in the same localities, in different years, from 1 to 20 cwt. an acre. The total annual produce may be estimated at about 30,000,000 lbs. The apple orchards of Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, and a few other neighbouring cos. are important, on account of the cider they furnish. Perry is made chiefly in Worcestersh. Kent is famous for its cherries and filberts.

The best farmed counties are on the E. coast; and Northumberland, Lincoln, and Norfolk, may bear a comparison with Berwickshire or E. Lothian. Such, however, is not the case in very many districts; and we believe it may be safely affirmed that the available produoe of the kingdom might be doubled, were it generally cultivated on the principle, and according to the practice, followed in the best farmed districts. Winter wheat sowing usually takes place from Sept. to Nov.: drilling is more in use for barley than wheat, which is mostly sown broadcast. The grain harvest is commonly at its height in Aug. and Sept. Potatoes are taken up and stored for winter use in Oct. and Nov., which are also the chief cider months.

The farm implements in common use in England are decidedly superior to those of most other countries; though a good deal remains to be done in the way of their improvement. Perhaps few classes of people maintain their prejudices with such obstinacy as agriculturists, and especially agricultural labourers; and to this must be mainly attributed the continued use of the oldfashioned clumsy ploughs which are to be seen in some districts; and, what is far less excusable, the employment of 3, 4, 5, 6, and sometimes even 7 horses, to do what might be as well or better done by 2! The use of horses in farm labour is universal, except in Sussex, and some of the W. counties; and machines for thrashing, &c. have become common.

Britain has been celebrated from the æra of Cæsar for the extent and excellence of her pastures, and the abundance of her cattle. A full half or more of the arable land of England is applied to grazing husbandry. The best grazing lands are in the vale of Aylesbury, the Fens, Romney Marsh in Kent, and some of the midland and W. counties. Hay is made from natural grasses, and from clover, rye-grass, and in the S. counties sainfoin and lucern; the natural sward yielding from 1 to 14 tons an acre, and the artificial crops from 1 to 3 tons. The hay-harvest throughout the country takes place pretty generally in June and July.

There are several breeds of horses, the aggregate stock of which, at the present time, probably reaches 1,500,000 head, worth, perhaps, about 13,000,000/. ster

were abolished at the Revolution, and a bounty was then also given on its export.

Jing. Of this number it may be estimated that 2-3ds are employed in agricultural labour. The old English road horse is now nearly extinct: the large drayhorse, so admirably adapted for draught, which is believed to have been originally imported from the Low Countries, is bred in considerable numbers in some of the midland counties. Yorkshire is celebrated for its carriage horses, especially the Cleveland bays; and the farm breed of Suffolk is also excellent. The English race-horse, derived from the Arab, Persian, and Barb, is superior to every other breed in speed, and inferior to none in bottom and beauty. Mules and asses are very little used in England; the former are almost unknown, and the latter belong chiefly to the poor.

The stock of cattle may be estimated at little short of 4,000,000, about a fourth part of which are annually slaughtered. They are divided into long-horned, shorthorned, and polled: the first division comprising the Lancashire; the second, the Holderness, Northumberland, Durham, N. Devon, Hereford, and Sussex; and the last, the Suffolk duns, &c. Butter and cheese are most important products: Epping Forest, in Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Dorset are the districts most celebrated for the former: and Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Wilts, and other W. counties, and Leicestershire, for the latter. The rich and fine cheese, called Stilton, is made wholly in Leicestershire. Milk is an important marketable article in the vicinity of large towns, and the cows kept for the supply of this article to the metropolis have been estimated to amount to 12,000, yielding milk to the value of 700,000Z. sterling a year. Sheep, the total number of which in England and Wales may be about 26,000,000, are divided into long-woolled and shortwoolled; the former, including the Romney Marsh, Teeswater, Lincoln, and New Leicester breeds: and the latter (which far excel the former in the quality of the mutton), the South-Down, Dorset, Wilts, Hereford, &c. breeds. The Merino breed, introduced from Spain towards the end of the last century, has been chiefly useful in crossing and improving the fleece of other breeds. In some parts of England sheep are kept on fallows, for the benefit of their manure. Great numbers are fed on the open chalk downs of the S. counties. The total annual produce of wool in England is estimated at about 470,000 packs of 240 lbs. each. Hogs are fattened on most farms, and are also kept with advantage by millers, dairymen, brewers, distillers, &c., whose refuse they consume. The Hants, Berks, Gloucestersh., and Herefordsh. are the best of the large breeds, and that of Suffolk is distinguished among the smaller ones. Yorksh. and Westmoreland are famous for their hams; Hants, Wilts, and Berks for their bacon. Poultry are reared on most farms, and by the majority of agricultural cottagers. Large flocks of geese are kept in the Lincoln fens, and plucked once a year for their quills, and 4 or 5 times for their feathers. Fowls are largely reared at Oakingham in Berks, and Dorking in Surrey has acquired a name for a fine and large five-clawed variety. Ducks are plentiful in Bucks., and pigeons in almost every co. Since the foundation of our W. India colonies, and the importation of sugars, the demand for honey has declined; this, however, has not affected wax, so that bees still keep their ground as appendages to almost every farm, and to many cottage gardens. Goats are not reared except in the few mountainous parts of England, and deer are now mere articles of luxury, kept in the parks of noblemen and gentlemen. There are still some extensive rabbitwarrens in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, but they have greatly decreased.

About 122,620 acres of land are occupied by the royal forests, 62,620 of which are inclosed for the growth of timber. As already observed, England is very well wooded, especially the S. and W. cos. Oak, the most valuable species, grows in the greatest perfection in the weald of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. The oak-bark harvest takes place in May. For an estimate of the quantity and value of the agricultural produce, live stock, &c. of England, see ante, 453, &c.

Agriculture received its first great impulse in England during the reign of Henry VII. from the policy of that monarch; and together with all kinds of commercial enterprise throughout Europe, it derived a stimulus from the great discoveries of the period. But the breeding of sheep was the branch of rural industry the first to extend, and throughout this and the succeeding reigns for a lengthened period wool was extensively exported. The first English treatise on agriculture was written in the reign of Henry VIII., and the hop, as well as several of the common garden vegetables, are introductions of the same period. Sir W. Raleigh has the credit of introducing the potato, which, in the early part of last century, appears to have been a tolerably frequent crop in Lancashire, from which its culture extended to other parts of the kingdom. Turnips seem to have been first cultivated on a large scale in Norfolk, also, in the early part of the same century. Pope speaks of " All Townsend's turnips." The old duties and restrictions on the exportation of corn

This, no doubt, gave a stimulus to agriculture, which has been still farther promoted by the restrictions that have been imposed on importation from abroad. But we incline to think that the influence of this encouragement has been much overrated: and there can, we apprehend, be no question that agriculture in England is mainly indebted for its progress and the high state of improvement to which it has attained to the operation of the poor laws in preventing the splitting of farms and the building of cottages, and, above all, to the extraordinary increase of manufactures and commerce since 1760. This occasioned a corresponding increase of the town pop., accompanied, at the same time, by a great increase of luxury and refinement, which led not only to a proportionally increased demand for the products of the soil, but especially for those of an improved species. Hence the great comparative increase in the culture of wheat, and the extraordinary increase that has taken place in the demand for butcher's meat. During the latter years of the war, prices were comparatively high in England, and large quantities of foreign corn were imported; but on the renewal of the intercourse with the Continent in 1814, prices gave way; and such has been the progress of improvement, that, despite the wonderful increase of popufation, the prices of agricultural products in England since 1830 have been but little above the level of the Continent (see DANTZIC); while importation has sometimes ceased for years together. And considering what has been already accomplished, and the vast field that remains for improvement in England, and still more in Ireland, it is really not too much to expect that our prices should, at no distant period, be once more reduced to the level of the Continent; and that we should again, as formerly, be an occasionally exporting country. Fisheries. These are not commensurate, either in extent or importance, with the extent of coast; and have never been a principal source of national wealth. The herring fishery is the principal; but until the middle of last century most of the fish taken on the E. coast (its chief seat) were captured by Dutch smacks. Yarmouth bay is the principal resort of the herring, and about 100 smacks, of from 40 to 50 tons each, belong to the town of Yarmouth, where the fish, smoked for sale, have obtained some celebrity under the name of "Yarmouth bloaters." At Sunderland, Whitby, Scarborough, Harwich, &c., there are also extensive herring fisheries. The cod fishery, including that of haddock, whiting, ling, hake, &c., ranks next in importance. The pilchard fishery is exclusively confined to the coasts of Devon and Cornwall. A portion of the fish caught are used fresh or salted in those counties; and the rest, to the amount of about 17.000 hhds. a year, are salted and exported chiefly for the Italian markets. The pilchard fishery, by means of scans, employs about 1,500 hands, and that by drift nets employs from 900 to 1,000 men, and 230 boats, exclusive of the women assisting on shore in curing the fish. (Com, Dict., art. PILCHARDS.) Mackerel are very abundant, and extensively consumed during the season; sprats, which arrive in immense shoals on the E. and S. E. coasts, are taken in great numbers for manure. Oysters, which meet with so rapid and extensive a sale in the markets of the metropolis and other large towns, are found on many parts of the coast; and are largely bred near Milton on the Kentish shore of the estuary of the Thames, and in the tideways of the creeks on its Essex shore. Some very fine oyster-beds also exist at Emsworth, in Hampshire; others of a larger kind come from Poole, Jersey, &c.

Mining Industry.- Coal stands at the head of the mineral products of England; and we are probably more indebted to our inexhaustible supplies of this valuable mineral than to any thing else, for the extraordinary progress we have made in manufacturing industry. (See antè, p. 450.) The coal-mines are all in the N. and W. Parts of the kingdom; and these, consequently, are the great seats of our manufactures.

The following is an estimate of the total produce of coal in Great Britain in 1845:

amounted to 2,663,604 tons, of which 2,628,520 were brought coastwise, and. the residue by internal navigation. It is difficult to discriminate between the consumption of England and Scotland; but we are not inclined to estimate the consumption of the latter at above 6 millions of tons. Supposing the above quantity of coal to cost the consumer 10s. a ton at an average, it will cost in all 17,000,0007. !

Of this quantity, the Tyne and Wear districts in Northumberland supply about 7,000,000 tons, or above 1-5th part of the whole. These districts employ about 23,000 miners &c.; and multiplying this sum by 5, and adding thereto 15,000 for the number of seafaring men employed in its transport, we have a total of 130,000 individuals directly deriving their support from their manual labour in the coal trade.

Iron ranks next in importance to coal. It was known to exist at a very early period; and the Romans, and perhaps, also, the Britons, had iron-works in the Forest of Dean, and elsewhere in the kingdom. Iron ore is very generally diffused; at present, however, all the great iron-works are situated in the coal districts, an abundant supply of coal being indispensable to the extensive production of iron. But in the infancy of the iron trade, when timber was the only fuel employed in smelting the ores, Kent and Sussex being the best wooded counties, were also those in which most iron was made. In 1740, the total quantity of pig iron made in England and Wales did not exceed the trifling quantity of about 17,000 tons, and we were then, and for a considerable time afterwards, mainly dependent on foreign supplies. But about this period coal began to be successfully substituted for timber in the preparation of iron, and its production was, in consequence, materially augmented. In 1750, the quantity produced did not, however, amount to 20,000 tons: but in 1788 it had increased to 68,000 tons, and in 1796, to 125,000 tons. The progress of the trade has since been rapid beyond all precedent. In 1806, a project (a most insane one certainly) was entertained for laying a tax on pig iron; and it was then ascertained that the production amounted to about 250,000 tons a year. In 1820 the produce had increased to about 400,000 tons; and in 1830, it was carefully estimated at about 641,000 tons! But owing to the great demand for iron for railways, and other public works, the increase of the business during the last 10 years has been still more considerable; and we are well assured that, at this moment (1845), the produce of iron in England and Wales is not under 1,200,000 tons a year! We subjoin an account of the pig iron produced in England and Wales in each of the principal seats of the business in 1840:

It is estimated that from 210,000 to 250,000 individuals are directly dependent for subsistence on the iron trade. The production of tin is confined to Cornwall and Devonshire: these are also the great copper cos. ; but copper is likewise produced, though in smaller quantities, in N. Wales, and some other parts. The total annual produce of tin may be taken at 4,500 tons, worth from 651. to 80%. a ton; and that of copper at 13,000 tons, worth 907. or 1007. per ton. (See CORNWALL.)

Lead mines have been wrought in England from a very remote epoch. At present the most productive are in the N. cos.: their total produce is estimated at about 50,000 tons, of which from 10,000 to 15,000 tons are exported. It is believed that about 25,000 tons of the lead raised in England and Wales yields, at an average, 8 oz. a ton of silver. In consequence of improvements in the processes, it is found to be profitable to extract this silver; and about 30,000l. worth of silver is now obtained in this way. Zinc is found in Derbyshire, &c., manganese in Somersetshire, and plumbago or black lead of a very superior kind at Borrowdale, in Cumberland. Salt, one of the most important of the British minerals, is procured in immense quantities from both fossil beds and brine springs, in Cheshire and Worcestershire. Previously to the discovery of the fossil beds, during the 16th century, and subsequently, a good deal of salt continued to be made by the evaporation of seawater in salt pans, at Lymington, near Portsmouth, and at other places; but the works at these places are now all but abandoned, while the article in question has become greatly improved in quality; and instead of being imported, as formerly, is very largely exported. The consumption of Great Britain only, exclusive of Ireland, amounts to about 180,000 tons, and the foreign exports to about 300,000 tons a year! mostly sent to the U. States, British N. America, the Low Countries, Russia, Denmark, &c. Before 1823, an oppressive tax of 15s. a bushel, or about 30 times the original cost price of the article, was imposed on salt; but in that year this enormous tax was totally repealed. Alum, fullers' earth, chalk, and lime are amongst the remaining useful minerals; clay for bricks, tiles, earthenware, &c. is also a product of considerable importance. Freestone is very abundantly diffused; but most of our buildings being constructed of brick, its use is limited, except for pavements, &c. Bath or Portland stone is that which has hitherto been mostly used for building. There are granite quarries at Dartmoor, Haytor, &c.

It may be worth while to mention, as evincing the extraordinary progress of the iron trade, that it could hardly be said to exist in S. Wales previously to 1760. So much, indeed, was this the case, that in 1755, the land and minerals for several miles round Merthyr Tydvil-then an inconsiderable village, but now the seat of the greatest iron works in the kingdom-were let for 99 years for a rent of 2001. a year!

Supposing its average price to be 57. 10s. a ton, the pig iron annually produced in England and Wales will be worth 6,000,000l.; and adding to this 2,600,000l. for the labour required to convert the pig iron into bar iron, that is, into bars, bolts, rods, &c., the total value of the iron produced in England and Wales will amount to 8,600,000. a year. Besides supplying the prodigious demand for iron for the hardware manufactures, and other channels of consumption at home, we now export about 255,000 tons, the value of which, in 1839, exceeded 2,700,000Z. We still, however, continue to import about 20,000 tons a year of foreign iron, principally Swedish, for conversion into steel, for which it is better fitted than British iron.

Manufactures. Of these the most ancient is that of woollen, the chief seats of which are the W. Riding of Yorkshire, and the cos. of Gloucester, Wilts, Devon, Lancaster, and Somerset. The first impulse towards the improvement of the woollen manufacture was given in the 14th century, by Edward III., who inEngland. But the manufacture laboured, down almost to our own day, under a number of vexatious and oppressive restrictions; and it did not begin to make any very rapid progress, or to participate in the wonderful improvements made in the cotton trade, till the introduction of the gig-machine, &c., in 1802, and the repeal of the prohibitory acts of Edward VI. and Mary, in 1807. Leeds, Wakefield, Huddersfield, and Saddleworth, are the great centres of the broad cloth manufacture; Halifax is noted for its flannels and baizes, and Bradford for worsted spinning. Narrow cloths are made at and near Huddersfield; and blankets, flushings, &c., between that town and Leeds. At Dewsbury and Batley there are large establishments, called shoddy mills, in which old woollen rags are torn to pieces, respun, and remanufactured, sometimes with and sometimes without an admixture of new wool, into various descriptions of coarse cloth. (See DEWSBURY.) Rochdale in Lancashire is also a great seat of the woollen manufacture.

Gloucestershire has numerous fine broad cloth factories; but Bradford in Wilts is the principal centre of the superfine cloth trade. At an average of the 10 years ending with 1837, there were annually produced in Gloucestershire 1,784,928 yards of every description of cloth. (Hand-loom Report, v. 365.) The cloths of Somerset are of inferior quality. Serges, or long ells, are made in almost every town and village in the co. of Devon, and also to a considerable extent at Wellington, in the co. of Somerset. Carpets are principally made at Axminster, Kidderminster, Ashton, Wilton, &c. Salisbury is noted for its flannels, and Witney in Oxfordshire for its blankets; though most of what are called Witney blankets are in reality made in Wales. Norwich was long the principal seat of the worsted manufacture; but the command of coal, and the greater facilities for carrying on the business enjoyed in Bradford, and other places in the West Riding of Yorkshire, have given them à decided superiority. The manufacture of woollen and worsted stockings is principally carried on in Leicestershire; about 12,000 stocking-frames being supposed to be at work in that county. Coarse woollens, druggets,

&c. are made in Cumberland, baizes, &c. in Essex and Suffolk, and a few articles are made in North Hants and Surrey; but the woollen manufactures of the S. cos. are comparatively unimportant. The total value of the exports of woollen goods in 1844 amounted to 8,204,8367., of which the exports to the U. States made 2,444,789. The woollen factories of England and Wales employed, in 1838, 30,115 males, and 18,387 females. Cotton Manufacture. We have already noticed the rise and progress of this great department of British industry. (See antè, p. 455.) Vast as this manufacture now is, it may be said to have almost entirely grown up since the accession of Geo. 111. in 1760. The first grand stimulus was given to it in 1767, by the invention of the

spinning jenny; and the subsequent and almost miraculous inventions of Arkwright, Watt, Cartwright, Crompton, and others, have carried it to the extraordinary state of improvement to which it has now arrived. Cotton goods of great beauty and excellent quality have been so much reduced in price, as to be within the command of all but the merest beggars. Hence the astonishing increase in the demand for them; the produce of the British manufacture being now widely diffused over the remotest countries of America and Asia. The following table, drawn up by Messrs. Holt and Co. of Liverpool, exhibits a comprehensive view of the more important particulars connected with the progress of manufacture from 1816 down to 1844, both inclusive:

The above table is applicable to Great Britain; but it appears from Burn's Glance, a tabular statement of high authority, annually compiled at Manchester, that the whole quantity of yarn spun in Great Britain, in 1839, amounted to 342,826,571 lbs., of which only 30,039,071 lbs. were spun in Scotland. The manufacture in Ireland is confined to the neighbourhood of Belfast, and is quite inconsiderable. Lancashire is the grand seat of the English cotton manufacture; and next to it, but at a great distance, are Cheshire, Derbyshire, and York

shire.

Various estimates have been given of the value of this great manufacture, and of the number of persons employed in and dependent on it. Perhaps we shall not be far wrong if we estimate the total value of the various descriptions of cotton fabrics and yarn now annually produced at 35,000,000.; and the total number of persons of both sexes, and all ages, employed in all departments of the business, at about 500,000. If we be right in this latter estimate, it will follow that from 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 individuals may be regarded as depending for support on this great manufacture. (See Statistics of British Empire, i. 656, &c., 2d ed.)

Estimating the entire annual value of the cotton fabrics of Great Britain at 35,000,000l., the value of those annually produced in Scotland may, perhaps, be estimated at nearly 5,000,000Z.; for, as a large proportion of the fabrics made in Scotland are of a comparatively fine description, their value exceeds what might be inferred from the amount of yarn produced in Scotland as compared with that produced in England.

The value of the cotton goods annually exported amounts to about two-thirds of the value of those annually produced. Thus, in 1844, the declared value of the exports of cotton fabrics amounted to 18,816,7647.; and that of the yarn to 6,988,5847.; making together the sum of 25,805,348. Germany and Holland, the United States, India, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, the W. Indies, &c., are the principal markets.

The linen manufacture is seated chiefly in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham, and Dorset. In 1838 the linen factories employed about 16,500 hands, about 3-5ths of whom were employed in the former co. The silk manufactures are more important. The metropolitan district of Spitalfields, Manchester, and Macclesfield, are the chief | places in which broad silks and handkerchiefs are made;

Coventry is celebrated for its riband factories. Crapes are made mostly in the E. cos.; but this branch of mapufacture is declining. A great revolution was effected in the silk manufacture in 1825. Previously to that epoch the legislative enactments with respect to it were the most contradictory and impolitic that can well be imagined. The importation of foreign silks was prohibited under the severest penalties; but the advantage that this prohibition was believed, though most erroneously, to confer on the manufacturer, would, under any circumstances, have been more than neutralised by the imposition of oppressive duties on the raw material. This vicious system was productive of a twofold mischief; for, by teaching the manufacturers to depend on customhouse regulations for protection against foreign competition, it made them indifferent about new discoveries and inventions, while, owing to the exorbitant duties on the raw material, and the want of improvement, the price of silks was maintained at such a price as to restrict the demand for them within comparatively narrow limits. In 1825, however, a new and more reasonable order of things was introduced. The duties on the raw material were greatly lowered; at the same time that foreign silk goods were allowed to be imported on payment of a duty of 30 per cent. ad valorem. This new system was vehemently opposed at its outset, and it was confidently predicted that it would occasion the ruin of the manufacture; but the result has shown the soundness of the principles on which it was bottomed. The manufacturers were now, for the first time, compelled to call all the resources of science and ingenuity to their aid; and the result has been that the manufacture has been more improved during the last dozen years than it had been in the whole previous century: and that it has continued progressively to increase.

The total quantity of raw silk imported for home consumption in 1838 was 3,595,816 lbs. The total number of individuals directly engaged in the manufacture has been estimated at upwards of 207,000, but we incline to think that this is very decidedly beyond the mark. The value of the silks annually produced may, perhaps, be estimated at from 10,000.000/. to 12,000,000.

We subjoin a table, compiled with great care and no little labour, from the bulky volume (Part. Paper No. 41. Sess. 1839.), embodying the Reports of the Factory Inspectors, containing an