first to employ what is improperly called infant labour on a large scale. The progress of mechanical improvement, so far from displacing labour in Lancashire, as has been so often ignorantly asserted, produced the very contrary effect; the demand for hands very rapidly went beyond the supply, and the firm of Yates and Peel had to seek for operatives in distant districts. There are those now alive who remember to have seen waggons and vans bringing able-bodied paupers and deserted children to Bury, from the workhouses of London, and the employment afforded to these poor people soon raised them to a condition of comparative comfort. Mr. Peel was strictly attentive to the health and the morals of those he employed, and without being a harsh taskmaster, he insisted on a system of punctuality and regularity which approached the discipline of military drill. His example gave efficacy to his authority; he was the true model of a man of business, never absent from his post when any work was to be done, and ever on the watch to catch the first glimpse of any new improvement. The establishment at Bury soon grew into a good-sized colony, as workshops, warehouses, and dwellings rose around in rapid succession. Spinning-mills were founded by the same firm in this and other localities, so that their business embraced every branch of the cottontrade. After ten years of silent industry and uninterrupted success, he married his partner's eldest daughter, July 8th, 1783, for whom, while yet a mere child, the traditions of Bury aver that he had formed a strong attachment. In 1779, the invention of the spinning-jenny by Hargraves excited one of those desperate efforts to put down the improvement of machinery, which too often find a place in the history of manufacturing industry. Hargraves was obliged to fly from the county which has since been enriched by his inventions, and after a long series of painful struggles, died in the workhouse at Nottingham. A mob rose, and scoured the country round Bolton and Blackburn, demolishing the jennies, and with them all the carding-engines, waterframes, and every machine turned by water or horses. Little did they anticipate the approaching advent of the steamengine, which was to extend machinery farther than either. Not merely the working classes, but even the middle and upper classes, entertained a great and senseless dread of machinery; not perceiving the tendency of those inventions which improve and cheapen manufactures to cause such an increase of demand for products as far exceeded the facilities of supply, and consequently to give employment to more hands. While the ignorant operatives imagined that mechanical inventions would cut away the source of their earnings, those who ought to have known better were alarmed lest the poor-rates should be burdened by the necessity of supporting workmen thrown idle. They therefore connived at and actually joined in the opposition to machinery, and did all in their power to screen the rioters from punishment. One magistrate alone had the courage to stem the flood of general madness; D. Rasbotham, Esq., of Bolton, published a sensible address to the weavers and spinners, in which he endeavoured to convince them that it was their interest to encourage inventions for abridging labour. The first Peel was among the sufferers; his machinery at Altham was thrown into the river, and he was himself exposed to much personal danger. He retired in disgust to Burton-upon-Trent, where he built a large mill, and transferred thither the capital, enterprise, and employment, which had been expelled from Blackburn. It must be added, that the people of Blackburn suffered severely for their delusions; spinners and other capitalists quitted their neighbourhood to settle in the vicinity of Manchester, the growing prosperity of their town received a severe |