3. Soda.- Manufactured from salt, formerly from sea-weed; kelp then eleven pounds, now only eleven shillings, per ton; improved method discovered by the French. Called also Natron; obtained from lakes in Egypt; taken by divers from the bottom of Lake Maracaybo (South America). Hungary, Spain, La Plata, and the Canaries supply it.

4. Potash. Ashes of burnt wood washed ; potash melts; ashes strained off; potash found at the bottom of the water. Exported by Russia, Canada, and the northern parts of the United States.

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IV. Manufacture-Process and Results.

The manufacture not confined to any particular districts-spread throughout the kingdom; generally made in conjunction with candles, in almost all large towns. The tallow and oil boiled in water in which the soda has been previously dissolved; frequently stirred; alkali and grease gradually combine-produce soap. Poured into boxes; when firm, the boxes are removed; soap cut into "" slices and "bars" by meams of wires. This process is common to all soaps. Sold under many different names- e.g., white or curd-made of the best materials (best tallow); yellow-greater quantity of palm-oil; mottled. alkali and water poured over it while cooling-causes the dark veins; fancy soaps-very varied-chiefly for the toilet, as honey, glycerine, &c.-generally made up by perfumers. Castile soap, imported from Spain and Marseilles.

V. Uses.

Useful for cleansing our clothes, houses, and persons: dwell on the duty of cleanliness, and its effect upon health. Extensively employed in manufactures.

LESSON XLVII.

THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND HISTORY OF THE WOOLLEN
MANUFACTURE IN ENGLAND.

I. Origin of the Manufacture.

DRAW from the children the necessity of clothing for animals, natural or artificial; the latter required by man; why? The quality and quantity determined by the climate and state of civilisation; procured from either the vegetable or animal world; among savages of the slightest and rudest kind. generally the skins of beasts, the shepherd taking his sheep's skins, the hunter those of his prey easily adapted for a covering. Adam and Eve had "coats of skins” (Gen. iii. 21), and saints wandered in "sheep-skins and goat-skins" (Heb. xi. 37); some Europeans (Russians, Lapps, Pyrenean shepherds, &c.) yet dress in them. The hard, dry skins, unpleasant; the natural felting of wool would suggest improvements; felt produced by beating and pressure; spinning and weaving discovered very early (vide Job, xxxi. 19, 20); coarse cloth made; shearing the living substituted for flaying the dead animal more economical - the clothing produced more comfortable, agreeable, and healthful.

II. Introduction and History of the Art in England.

Trace out the condition of the manufacture under each line of sovereigns :

a. Under the Romans and Saxons.-Notice the dress of the ancient Britons-chiefly undressed skins, "a mantle which descended to the knee, made of the hide of a brindled cow with the hair

worn outwards;" woollen manufacture introduced by the Romans with other arts; woollen garments little used till long after the Conquest. Spinning known and practised by the Saxons; the occupation of queens, princesses, and noble ladies-e. J., Osburga and her daughters; hence derivation of spinster "the legal name for an unmarried female.

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b. Time of the Normans (11th and 12th centuries). English less clever than their continental neighbours. Flemings brought over (whence?) by the Conqueror, and settled at Carlisle; removed to Wales by Henry I. They laid the foundation of the general manufacture. "Cloth Fair," near Smithfield, established by Henry II. Why likely to become a settled manufacture in this country?

c. Under the Plantagenets (14th century).-Raw wool then the staple of England; exported to Italy, Holland, and Belgium. The queen's jewels, valued at 2500l., redeemed with wool. Notice also the woolsack of the House of Lords. Edward III. (through his queen Philippa, daughter of the Count of Hainault) invited many more Flemings (among them were John Kempe and Thos. Blanket) into England; scattered them throughout the country; forbade the export of wool, and the import of foreign cloth.

d. Under the Tudors (16th century).—The trade depressed, but slightly revived by the invention of the spinning-wheel in the reign of Henry VIII.; called also the "wool-wheel ;" great improvement upon the distaff and spindle, which it superseded. In the time of Elizabeth an extensive immigration of Flemish refugees (persecution of the Duke of Alva and Philip of Spain) introduced superior ma

chinery; possessed greater skill; better and cheaper fabrics produced.

e. House of Orange (17th century).— Manufacture firmly established under William III.; dyeing and dressing first done in England.

f. House of Brunswick (18th century).—Shaken by the first cotton trade (1780); retarded awhile, afterwards improved and extended; machinery (spinning-jenny, power-loom, &c.) and steam power substituted for the hand-loom and manual labour cost lowered; greater demand.

III. Present Condition.

Lead the children to see its vast importance by considering (1) the localities where carried on, (2) the people engaged, and (3) the results produced.

the

1. Trade located chiefly in two districtsWest Riding of Yorkshire and the West of England (Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somersetshire). Both physically adapted; how? near seaports (raw material easily obtained), water, coal, and iron plentiful.

2. Numerous large, populous towns supported by it; in the former district, Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Wakefield, Keighley, and many villages produce (generally) coarse cloth; in the latter, Stroud, Great Bradford, Frome, Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham, Westbury, "West of England cloth "—of finer texture-why? finer wools grown in southern counties.

Contrast the former domestic manufacture with the present factory system of labour; when it was spread over the whole country, the wives and children of the farmers prepared the yarn, which was woven into "homespun" cloth by itinerant weavers,-when

"The dame was wont

To set her wheel before the cottage front,
And o'er her spectacles would often peer
To view our gambols and our boyish geer;
Still as she look'd the wheel kept turning round
With its beloved monotony of sound."

Gives employment to four hundred thousand people-four times the number engaged in the manufacture thirty years ago. Annual value of goods, twenty-two millions sterling. Some of the Yorkshire manufacturers use four hundred tons of olive oil annually in the preparation of their cloths and yarns.

3. Results very varied: -raw wool imported from all quarters; English woollen goods (cloths, flannels, blankets, merinos, stuffs, tweeds, damasks, &c.) exported over the whole world, especially to Germany, Russia, and the United States; e. g., in the late war (1856) France expended more than a million sterling in English rugs, cloths, and blankets, for her army.

IV. Lessons.

never

Draw from the children or lead them to seea. That kindness and generosity are wasted; the shelter and protection afforded the persecuted and suffering refugees of the sixteenth century repaid by the benefits we derive from their skill.

b. The importance of discoveries in manufactures in contributing to our domestic comfort; "broad-cloth" formerly worn only by the rich-the cheapest, eight or ten shillings per yard; poor men were clothed in "second-hand " garments; now, good woollen cloth is within the reach of all at five shillings a yard--the cheapest about two shillings, the dearest, ten.