Manchester

a manufacturing city of England. It is situated in the extreme southeastern corner of Lancashire, thirty miles east of Liverpool. It was originally a Roman camp. It became noted early in the fourteenth century for its woolens. It is still the greatest weaving center in England. With its suburbs, it produces more cotton cloth annually than any other city in the world. Six hundred power looms are not an unusual number for a single factory. In connection with the cotton mills there are bleaching works, establishments for printing calico, and dye works on an enormous scale. Cambric, calico, muslin, gingham, ticking, jeans, corduroy, silk, and mixed goods are manufactured. There are over 60,000 employes in the cotton mills alone. There are also manufactures of machinery, chemicals, paper, hardware, and electrical appliances. Large coal fields in the immediate vicinity supply an abundance of fuel. Until recently Liverpool was the seaport of Manchester. In 1894 the Manchester ship canal, connecting the city with the Mersey River, was constructed. Ocean steamers of the larger size now unload provisions and bales of cotton at wharves in the center of the city. The manufactured goods of the city are now shipped at its own wharves. The first railway ever constructed for the carrying of passengers was built from Manchester to Liverpool in 1825. A complete network of canals and railways now connects Manchester with all parts of Great Britain.

The rapid growth of Manchester and consequently the large body of citizens who were practically deprived of representation in Parliament, made that city a center of the Chartist agitation. Under the leadership of Cobden and Bright, Manchester made its influence felt on the side of free trade.

During the Civil War in America, the supply of raw cotton was cut off. The Manchester mills were idle. The weavers were without employment and much suffering ensued. It was before an audience composed largely of these weavers that Henry Ward Beecher made his noted defense of the cause of the North.

The city is celebrated for municipal improvements. The public library is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, free library in Europe. A large public hospital resulted from a movement started by Jenny Lind, who donated the proceeds of two concerts toward the project. The meeting hall of the Royal Exchange is one of the largest rooms in England. The finest public building is the Town Hall, completed in 1877. It is considered one of the most creditable municipal buildings in Europe. It has a tower 260 feet high. It contains a remarkable peal of twenty-one bells. Each bell bears a line from section 105 of Tennyson's In Memoriam, beginning, "Ring out, wild bells." The building cost upward of $5,000,000. Water is brought into the city from a reservoir situated in the hills twenty miles distant. The city owns its own lighting plant and system of street railways.

In the matter of municipal ownership, it is one of the most progressive cities in the world. Its educational facilities are excellent. Owen College has an endowment of $2,000,000. A number of other institutions have been consolidated with it to form Victoria University. Preparatory schools and public schools are maintained on a liberal scale. The population of the city in 1900 was 543,872. With its suburbs the city has a population of not far from 700,000 inhabitants.