Cottage Economy Part 7

222. Having shown what sort of plat could be produced from English gra.s.s-straw, I next communicated to the Society an account of the method which I pursued in the cutting and bleaching of the gra.s.s. The letter in which I did this I shall here insert a copy of, before I proceed further.

In the original the paragraphs were _numbered_ from _one_ to _seventeen_: they are here marked by _letters_, in order to avoid confusion, the paragraphs of the work itself being marked by _numbers_.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.

KENSINGTON, April 14, 1823.

A.--SIR,--Agreeably to your request, I now communicate to you a statement of those particulars which you wished to possess, relative to the specimens of straw and of plat which I have at different times sent to you for the inspection of the Society.

B.--That my statement may not come too abruptly upon those members of the Society who have not had an opportunity of witnessing the progress of this interesting inquiry, I will take a short review of the circ.u.mstances which led to the making of my experiments.

C.--In the month of June, 1821, a gentleman, a member of the Society, informed me, by letter, that a Miss WOODHOUSE, a farmer's daughter, of Weathersfield, in Connecticut, had transmitted to the Society a straw-bonnet of very fine materials and manufacture; that this bonnet (according to her account) was made from the straw of a sort of gra.s.s called _poa pratensis_; that it seemed to be unknown whether the same gra.s.s would grow in England; that it was desirable to ascertain whether this gra.s.s would grow in England; that, at all events, it was desirable to get from America some of the seed of this gra.s.s; and that, for this purpose, my informant, knowing that I had a son in America; addressed himself to me, it being his opinion that, if materials similar to those used by Miss WOODHOUSE could by any means be _grown in England_, the benefit to the nation must be considerable.

D.--In consequence of this application, I wrote to my son James, (then at New York,) directing him to do what he was able in order to cause success to the undertaking. On the receipt of my letter, in July, he went from New York to Weathersfield, (about a hundred and twenty miles;) saw Miss WOODHOUSE; made the necessary inquiries; obtained a specimen of the gra.s.s, and also of the plat, which other persons at Weathersfield, as well as Miss WOODHOUSE, were in the habit of making; and having acquired the necessary information as to cutting the gra.s.s and bleaching the straw, he transmitted to me an account of the matter; which account, together with his specimens of gra.s.s and plat, I received in the month of September.

E.--I was now, when I came to see the specimen of gra.s.s, convinced that Miss WOODHOUSE'S materials could be _grown in England_; a conviction which, if it had not been complete at once, would have been made complete immediately afterwards by the sight of a bunch of bonnet-straw _imported from Leghorn_, which straw was shown to me by the importer, and which I found to be that of two or three sorts of our common gra.s.s, and of oats, wheat, and rye.

F.--That the gra.s.s, or plants, could be _grown in England_ was, therefore, now certain, and indeed that they were, in point of commonness, next to the earth itself. But before the gra.s.s could, with propriety, be called materials for bonnet-making, there was the _bleaching_ to be performed; and it was by no means certain that this could be accomplished by means of an _English sun_, the difference between which and that of Italy or Connecticut was well known to be very great.

G.--My experiments have, I presume, completely removed this doubt. I think that the straw produced by me to the Society, and also some of the pieces of plat, are of a colour which no straw or plat can surpa.s.s. All that remains, therefore, is for me to give an account of the manner in which I cut and bleached the gra.s.s which I have submitted to the Society in the state of straw.

H.--First, as to the _season_ of the year, all the straw, except that of one sort of couch-gra.s.s, and the long coppice-gra.s.s, which two were got in Suss.e.x, were got from gra.s.s cut in Hertfordshire on the 21st of June. A gra.s.s head-land, in a wheat-field, had been mowed during the forepart of the day, and in the afternoon I went and took a handful here and a handful there out of the swaths. When I had collected as much as I could well carry, I took it to my friend's house, and proceeded to prepare it for bleaching, according to the information sent me from America by my son; that is to say, I put my gra.s.s into a shallow tub, put boiling water upon it until it was covered by the water, let it remain in that state for ten minutes, then took it out, and laid it very thinly on a closely-mowed lawn in a garden. But I should observe, that, before I put the gra.s.s into the tub, I tied it up in small bundles, or sheaves, each bundle being about six inches through at the b.u.t.t-end. This was necessary, in order to be able to take the gra.s.s, at the end of ten minutes, out of the water, without throwing it into a confused mixture as to tops and tails. Being tied up in little bundles, I could easily, with a p.r.o.ng, take it out of the hot water. The bundles were put into a large wicker basket, carried to the lawn in the garden, and there taken out, one by one, and laid in swaths as before-mentioned.

I.--It was laid _very thinly_; almost might I say, that no stalk of gra.s.s covered another. The swaths were _turned_ once a day. The bleaching was completed at the end of _seven days_ from time of scalding and laying out. June is a fine month. The gra.s.s was, as it happened, cut on the _longest day in the year_; and the weather was remarkably fine and clear.

But the gra.s.s which I afterwards cut in Suss.e.x, was cut in the first week in August; and as to the weather my journal speaks thus:--

August, 1822.

2d.--Thunder and rain.--_Began cutting gra.s.s._ 3d.--Beautiful day.

4th.--Fine day.

5th.--Cloudy day--_Began scalding gra.s.s, and laying it out._ 6th.--Cloudy greater part of the day.

7th.--Same weather.

8th.--Cloudy and rather misty.--_Finished cutting gra.s.s._ 9th.--Dry but cloudy.

10th.--Very close and hot.--_Packed up part of the gra.s.s._ 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th.--Same weather.

15th.--Hot and clear.--_Finished packing the gra.s.s._

K.--The gra.s.s cut in Suss.e.x was as _well bleached_ as that cut in Hertfordshire; so that it is evident that we never can have a summer that will not afford sun sufficient for this business.

L.--The part of the straw used for platting; that part of the stalk which is _above the upper joint_; that part which is between the _upper joint_ and the seed-branches. This part is taken out, and the rest of the straw thrown away. But the _whole plant must be cut and bleached_; because, if you were to take off, _when green_, the part above described, that part would wither up next to nothing. This part must die in company with the whole plants, and be separated from the other parts after the bleaching has been performed.

M.--The time of cutting must vary with the seasons, the situation, and the sort of gra.s.s. The gra.s.s which I got in Hertfordshire, than which nothing can, I think, be more beautiful, was, when cut, generally in _bloom_; just in bloom. The _wheat_ was in full bloom; so that a good time for getting gra.s.s may be considered to be that when the _wheat is in bloom_. When I cut the gra.s.s in Suss.e.x, the _wheat was ripe_, for reaping had begun; but that gra.s.s is of a very backward sort, and, besides, grew in the _shade_ amongst coppice-wood and under trees, which stood pretty thick.

N.--As to the sorts of gra.s.s, I have to observe generally, that in proportion as the colour of the gra.s.s is _deep_; that is to say, getting further from the _yellow_, and nearer to the _blue_, it is of a deep and _dead yellow_ when it becomes straw. Those kinds of gra.s.s are best which are, in point of colour, nearest to that of wheat, which is a fresh pale green. Another thing is, the quality of the straw as to _pliancy_ and _toughness_. Experience must be our guide here. I had not time to make a large collection of sorts; but those which I have sent to you contain three sorts which are proved to be good. In my letter of the 3d instant I sent you _sixteen_ pieces of plat and _eight_ bunches of straw, having the seed heads on, in order to show the sorts of gra.s.s. The sixteenth piece of plat was American. The first piece was from _wheat_ cut and bleached by me; the rest from _gra.s.s_ cut and bleached by me. I will here, for fear of mistake, give a list of the names of the several sorts of gra.s.s, the straw of which was sent with my letter of the 3d instant, referring to the numbers, as placed on the plat and on the bunches of straw.

PIECES BUNCHES SORTS OF PLAT. OF STRAW. OF GRa.s.s.

No 1.-- No. 1. --Wheat.

2.} { Melica Caerulea; or, Purple Melica 3.} 2 and 3 { Gra.s.s.

4.} { Agrostis Stolonifera; or, Fiorin Gra.s.s; 12.} 4 and 12 { that is to say, one sort of Couch-gra.s.s.

5.} 10.} 5 and 10 Lolium Perenne; or Ray-gra.s.s.

6.} { Avena Flavescens; or, Yellow Oat 11.} 6 and 11 { gra.s.s.

7.} { Cynosurus Cristatus; or Crested 15.} 7 and 15 { Dog's-tail gra.s.s.

8.} { Anthoxanthum Odoratum; or, Sweet 13.} 8 and 13 { scented Vernal gra.s.s.

9.} { Agrostis Canina; or, Brown Bent 14.} 9 and 14 { gra.s.s.

O.--These names are those given at the Botanical Garden _at Kew_. But the same English names are not in the country given to these sorts of gra.s.s.

The _Fiorin gra.s.s_, the _Yellow Oat-gra.s.s_, and the _Brown-Bent_, are all called _couch-gra.s.s_; except that the latter is, in Suss.e.x, called _Red Robin_. It is the native gra.s.s of the _plains_ of Long Island; and they call it _Red Top_. The _Ray-gra.s.s_ is the common field gra.s.s, which is, all over the kingdom, sown with clover. The farmers, in a great part of the kingdom, call it _Bent_, or _Bennett_, gra.s.s; and sometimes it is galled _Darnel-gra.s.s_. The _Crested Dog's-tail_ goes, in Suss.e.x, by the name of _Hendonbent_; for what reason I know not. The _sweet-scented Vernal-gra.s.s_ I have never, amongst the farmers, heard any name for. Miss WOODHOUSE'S gra.s.s appears, from the _plants_ that I saw in the Adelphi, to be one of the sorts of Couch-gra.s.s. Indeed, I am sure that it is a Couch-gra.s.s, if the plants I there saw came from her seed. My son, who went into Connecticut, who saw the gra.s.s growing, and who sent me home a specimen of it, is now in England: he was with me when I cut the gra.s.s in Suss.e.x; and he says that Miss WOODHOUSE'S was a Couch-gra.s.s. However, it is impossible to look at the specimens of straw and of plat which I have sent you, without being convinced that there is no want of the raw material in England. I was, after my first hearing of the subject, very soon convinced that the gra.s.s grew in England; but I had great doubts as to the capacity of our _sun_. Those doubts my own experiments have completely removed; but then I was not aware of the great effect of the _scalding_, of which, by the way, Miss WOODHOUSE had said nothing, and the knowledge of which we owe entirely to my son James' journey into Connecticut.

P.--Having thus given you an account of the time and manner of cutting the gra.s.s, of the mode of cutting and bleaching; having given you the best account I am able, as to the sorts of gra.s.s to be employed in this business; and having, in my former communications, given you specimens of the plat wrought from the several sorts of straw, I might here close my letter; but as it may be useful to speak of _the expense_ of cutting and bleaching, I shall trouble you with a few words relating to it. If there were a field of _Ray-gra.s.s_, or of _Crested Dog's-tail_, or any other good sort, and nothing else growing with it, the expense of _cutting_ would be very little indeed, seeing that the _scythe_ or _reap-hook_ would do the business at a great rate. Doubtless there _will be_ such fields; but even if the gra.s.s have to be cut by the handful, my opinion is, that the expense of cutting and bleaching would not exceed _fourpence_ for straw enough to make a large bonnet. I should be willing to contract to supply straw, at this rate, for half a million of bonnets. The _scalding_ must const.i.tute a considerable part of the expense; because there must be _fresh water_ for every parcel of gra.s.s that you put in the tub. When water has scalded one parcel of cold gra.s.s, it will not scald another parcel. Besides, the scalding draws out the _sweet matter_ of the gra.s.s, and makes the water the colour of that horrible stuff called London porter. It would be very good, by-the-by, to give to pigs. Many people give _hay-tea_ to pigs and calves; and this is _gra.s.s-tea_. To scald a large quant.i.ty, therefore would require means not usually at hand, and the scalding is an essential part of the business. Perhaps, in a large and convenient farm-house, with a good brewing copper, good fuel and water handy, four or five women might scald a wagon load in a day; and a wagon would, I think, carry straw enough (in the rough) to furnish the means of making a thousand bonnets. However, the scalding _might_ take place _in the field itself_, by means of a portable boiler, especially if water were at hand; and perhaps it would be better to carry the water to the field than to carry the gra.s.s to the farm-house, for there must be _ground to lay it out upon the moment it has been scalded_, and no ground can be so proper as the newly-mowed ground where the gra.s.s has stood. The _s.p.a.ce_, too, must be _large_, for any considerable quant.i.ty of gra.s.s. As to all these things, however, the best and cheapest methods will soon be discovered when people set about the work with a view to profit.

Q.--The Society will want nothing from me, nor from any-body else, to convince it of the importance of this matter; but I cannot, in concluding these communications to you, Sir, refrain from making an observation or two on the consequences likely to arise out of these inquiries. The manufacture is alone of considerable magnitude. Not less than about _five millions_ of persons in this kingdom have a dress which consists partly of manufactured straw; and a large part, and all the most expensive part, of the articles thus used, now come from abroad. In cases where you can get from abroad any article at _less expense than you can get it at home_, the wisdom of fabricating that article at home may be doubted. But, in this case, you get the raw material by labour performed at home, and the cost of that labour is not nearly so great as would be the cost of the mere carriage of the straw from a foreign country to this. If our own people had all plenty of employment, and that too more profitable to them and to the country than the turning of a part of our own gra.s.s into articles of dress, then it would be advisable still to import Leghorn bonnets; but the facts being the reverse, it is clear, that whatever money, or money's worth things, be sent out of the country, in exchange for Leghorn bonnets, is, while we have the raw material here for next to nothing, just so much thrown away. The Italians, it may be said, take some of our manufactures in exchange; and let us suppose, for the purpose of ill.u.s.tration, that they take cloth from Yorkshire. Stop the exchange between Leghorn and Yorkshire, and, does Yorkshire _lose part of its custom_? No: for though those who make the bonnets out of English gra.s.s, prevent the Leghorners from buying Yorkshire cloth, they, with the money which they now get, instead of its being got by the Leghorners, buy the Yorkshire cloth themselves; and they wear this cloth too, instead of its being worn by the people of Italy; ay, Sir, and many, now in rags, will be well clad, if the laudable object of the Society be effected. Besides this, however, why should we not _export_ the articles of this manufacture? To America we certainly should; and I should not be at all surprised if we were to export them to Leghorn itself.

R.--Notwithstanding all this, however, if the manufacture were of a description to require, in order to give it success, the _collecting of the manufacturers together in great numbers_, I should, however great the wealth that it might promise, never have done any thing to promote its establishment. The contrary is happily the case: here all is not only performed _by hand_, but by hand _singly_, without any combination of hands. Here there is no power of machinery or of chemistry wanted. All is performed out in the open fields, or sitting in the cottage. There wants no coal mines and no rivers to a.s.sist; no water-powers nor powers of fire.

No part of the kingdom is unfit for the business. Every-where there are gra.s.s, water, sun, and women and children's fingers; and these are all that are wanted. But, the great thing of all is this; that, to obtain the materials for the making of this article of dress, at once so gay, so useful, and in some cases so expensive, there requires not _a penny of capital_. Many of the labourers now make their own straw hats to wear in summer. Poor rotten things, made out of straw of ripened grain. With what satisfaction will they learn that straw, twenty times as durable, to say nothing of the beauty, is to be got from every hedge? In short when the people are well and clearly informed of the facts, which I have through you, Sir, had the honour to lay before the Society, it is next to impossible that the manufacture should not become general throughout the country. In every labourer's house a pot of water can be boiled. What labourer's wife cannot, in the summer months, find time to cut and bleach gra.s.s enough to give her and her children work for a part of the winter?

There is no necessity for all to be _platters_. Some may cut and bleach only. Others may prepare the straw, as mentioned in paragraph L. of this letter. And doubtless, as the farmers in Hertfordshire now sell their straw to the platters, gra.s.s collectors and bleachers and preparers would do the same. So that there is scarcely any country labourer's family that might not derive some advantage from this discovery; and, while I am convinced that this consideration has been by no means over-looked by the Society, it has been, I a.s.sure you, the great consideration of all with,

Sir, your most obedient and most humble Servant, WM. COBBETT.

223. In the last edition, this closing part of the work, relative to the straw plat, was not presented to the public as a thing which admitted of no alteration; but, on the contrary, it was presented to the public with the following concluding remark: "In conclusion I have to observe, that I by no means send forth this essay as containing opinions and instructions that are to undergo no alteration. I am, indeed, endeavouring to teach others; but I am myself only a learner. Experience will, doubtless, make me much more perfect in a knowledge of the several parts of the subject; and the fruit of this experience I shall be careful to communicate to the public." I now proceed to make good this promise. Experience has proved that very beautiful and very fine plat can be made of the straw of divers kinds of _gra.s.s_. But the most ample experience has also proved to us that it is to the straw of _wheat_, that we are to look for a manufacture to supplant the Leghorn. This was mentioned as a strong suspicion in my former edition of this work. And I urged my readers to sow wheat for the purpose. The fact is now proved beyond all contradiction, that the straw of wheat or rye, but particularly of wheat, is the straw for this purpose.

_Finer_ plat may be made from the straw of gra.s.s than can possibly be made from the straw of wheat or rye: but the gra.s.s plat is, all of it, more or less _brittle_; and none of it has the beautiful and uniform colour of the straw of wheat. Since the last edition of this work, I have received packets of the straw _from Tuscany_, all of _wheat_; and, indeed, I am _convinced_ that no other straw is any-thing like so well calculated for the purpose. Wheat straw bleaches better than any other. It has that fine, pale, golden colour which no other straw has; it is much more simple, more pliant than any other straw; and, in short, this is the material. I did not urge in vain. A good quant.i.ty of wheat was sowed for this purpose. A great deal of it has been well harvested; and I have the pleasure to know that several hundreds of persons are now employed in the platting of straw. One more year; one more crop of wheat; and another Leghorn bonnet will never be imported in England. Some great errors have been committed in the sowing of the wheat, and in the cutting of it. I shall now, therefore, availing myself of the experience which I have gained, offer to the public some observations on the _sort of wheat_ to be sowed for this purpose; on the _season_ for sowing; on the _land_ to be used for the purpose; on the _quant.i.ty of seed_, and the _manner_ of sowing: on the _season_ for cutting; on the manner of _cutting_, _bleaching_, and _housing_; on the _platting_; on the _knitting_, and on the _pressing_.

224. The SORT OF WHEAT. The Leghorn plat is all made of the straw of the spring wheat. This spring wheat is so called by us, because it is sowed in the spring, at the same time that barley is sowed. The botanical name of it is TRITIc.u.m aeSTIVUM. It is a small-grained bearded wheat. It has very fine straw; but experience has convinced me, that the little brown-grained winter wheat is just as good for the purpose. In short, any wheat will do.

I have now in my possession specimens of plat made of both winter and spring wheat, and I see no difference at all. I am decidedly of opinion that the winter wheat is as good as the spring wheat for the purpose. I have plat, and I have straw both now before me, and the above is the result of my experience.

225. THE LAND PROPER FOR THE GROWING OF WHEAT. The object is to have the straw as small as we can get it. The land must not, therefore, be too rich; yet it ought not to be _very poor_. If it be, you get the straw of no length. I saw an acre this year, as beautiful as possible, sowed upon a light loam, which bore last year a fine crop of potatoes. The land ought to be perfectly clean, at any rate; so that, when the crop is taken off, the wheat straw may not be mixed with weeds and gra.s.s.

226. SEASON FOR SOWING. This will be more conveniently stated in paragraph 228.

227. QUANt.i.tY OF SEED AND MANNER OF SOWING. When first this subject was started in 1821, I said, in the Register, that I would engage to grow as fine straw in England as the Italians could grow. I recommended then, as a first guess, _fifteen_ bushels of wheat to the acre. Since that, reflection told me that that was not quite enough. I therefore recommended _twenty_ bushels to the acre. Upon the beautiful acre which I have mentioned above, eighteen bushels, I am told, were sowed; fine and beautiful as it was, I think it would have been better if it had had twenty bushels; twenty bushels, therefore, is what I recommend. You must sow broad cast, of course, and you must take great pains to cover the seed well. It must be a good even-handed seedsman, and there must be very nice covering.

228. SEASON FOR CUTTING. Now, mind, it is fit to cut in just about one week _after the bloom has dropped_. If you examine the ear at that time, you will find the grain just beginning to be formed, and that is precisely the time to cut the wheat: The straw has then got its full substance in it. But I must now point out a very material thing. It is by no means desirable to have _all_ your wheat _fit to cut at the same time_. It is a great misfortune, indeed, so to have it. If fit to cut altogether, it ought to be cut all at the same time; for supposing you to have an acre, it will require a fortnight or three weeks to cut it and bleach it, unless you have a very great number of hands, and very great vessels to prepare water in. Therefore, if I were to have an acre of wheat for this, purpose, and were to sow all spring wheat, I would sow a twelfth part of the acre every week from the first week in March to the last week in May. If I relied partly upon winter wheat, I would sow some every month, from the latter end of September to March. If I employed the two sorts of wheat, or indeed if I employed only the spring wheat, the TRITIc.u.m aeSTIVUM, I should have some wheat fit to cut in June, and some not fit to cut till September. I should be sure to have a fair chance as to the weather. And, in short, it would be next to impossible for me to fail of securing a considerable part of my crop. I beg the reader's particular attention to the contents of this paragraph.

229. MANNER OF CUTTING THE WHEAT. It is cut by a little reap-hook, close to the ground as possible. It is then tied in little sheaves, with two pieces of string, one near the b.u.t.t, and the other about half-way up. This little bundle or sheaf ought to be six inches through at the b.u.t.t, and no more. It ought not to be tied too tightly, lest the scalding should not be perfect.

230. MANNER OF BLEACHING. The little sheaves mentioned in the last paragraph are carried to a brewing mash, vat, or other tub. You must not put them into the tub in too large a quant.i.ty, lest the water get chilled before it get to the bottom. Pour on scalding water till you cover the whole of the little sheaves, and let the water be a foot above the top sheaves. When the sheaves have remained thus a full quarter of an hour, take them out with a p.r.o.ng, lay them in a clothes-basket, or upon a hurdle, and carry them to the ground where the bleaching is to be finished. This should be, if possible, a piece of gra.s.s land, where the gra.s.s is very short. Take the sheaves, and lay some of them along in a row; untie them, and lay the straw along in that row as thin as it can possibly be laid. If it were possible, no one straw ought to have another lying upon it, or across it. If the sun be clear, it will require to lie twenty-four hours thus, then to be turned, and lie twenty-four hours on the other side. If the sun be not very clear, it must lie longer. But the numerous sowings which I have mentioned will afford you so many chances, so many opportunities of having fine weather, that the risk about weather would necessarily be very small. If wet weather should come, and if your straw remain out in it any length of time, it will be spoiled; but, according to the mode of sowing above pointed out, you really could stand very little chance of losing straw by bad weather. If you had some straw out bleaching, and the weather were to appear suddenly to be about to change, the quant.i.ty that you would have out would not be large enough to prevent you from putting it under cover, and keeping it there till the weather changed.

231. HOUSING THE STRAW. When your straw is nicely bleached, gather it up, and with the same string that you used to tie it when green, tie it up again into little sheaves. Put it by in some room where there is no _damp_, and where mice and rats are not suffered to inhabit. Here it is always ready for use, and it will keep, I dare say, four or five years very well.

232. THE PLATTING. This is now so well understood that nothing need be said about the manner of doing the work. But much might be said about the measures to be pursued by land-owners, by parish officers, by farmers, and more especially by gentlemen and ladies of sense, public spirit, and benevolence of disposition. The thing will be done; the manufacture will spread itself all over this kingdom; but the exertions of those whom I have here pointed out might hasten the period of its being brought to perfection. And I beg such gentlemen and ladies to reflect on the vast importance of such manufacture, which it is impossible to cause to produce any-thing but good. One of the great misfortunes of England at this day is, that the land has had _taken away from it those employments for its women and children which were so necessary to the well-being of the agricultural labourer_. The spinning, the carding, the reeling, the knitting; these have been all taken away from the land, and given to the Lords of the Loom, the haughty lords of bands of abject slaves. But let the landholder mark how the change has operated to produce his ruin. He must have the labouring MAN and the labouring BOY; but, alas! he cannot have these, without having the man's wife, and the boy's mother, and little sisters and brothers. Even Nature herself says, that he shall have the wife and little children, or that he shall not have the man and the boy. But the Lords of the Loom, the crabbed-voiced, hard-favoured, hard-hearted, puffed-up, insolent, savage and b.l.o.o.d.y wretches of the North have, a.s.sisted by a blind and greedy Government, taken all the employment away from the agricultural women and children. This manufacture of Straw will form one little article of employment for these persons. It sets at defiance all the hatching and scheming of all the tyrannical wretches who cause the poor little creatures to die in their factories, heated to eighty-four degrees. There will need no inventions of WATT; none of your horse powers, nor water powers; no murdering of one set of wretches in the coal mines, to bring up the means of murdering another set of wretches in the factories, by the heat produced from those coals; none of these are wanted to carry on this manufactory. It wants no _combination_ laws; none of the inventions of the hard-hearted wretches of the North.

233. THE KNITTING. Upon this subject, I have only to congratulate my readers that there are great numbers of English women who can now knit, plat together, better than those famous Jewesses of whom we were told.