George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[55] to attenuate them by gently drawing them

chap. III.} 1763.

out; to twist and extend the threads as they are formed; and to wind them regularly on pins of wood as fast as they are spun. At that time the inconsiderable cotton manufactures of Great Britain, transported from place to place on pack-horses, did not form one two-hundredth part of the present production, and were politically of no importance. Not yet had art done more than begin the construction of channels for still-water navigation. Not yet had Wedgwood fully succeeded in changing, annually, tens of thousands of tons of clay and flint into brilliantly glazed and durable ware, capable of sustaining heat, cheap in price, and beautiful and convenient in form. Not yet had the mechanics of England, after using up its forests, learned familiarly to smelt iron with pit coal, or perfected the steam-engines that were to do the heavy work in mining coal and to drive machinery in workshops.

Let the great artificers of England, who work in iron or clay, adopt science as their patron; let the cotton-spinners, deriving their raw material from abroad, perfect their manufacture by inventive plebeian genius, and so prosper as to gather around their mills a crowded population; and there will then exist a powerful, and opulent, and numerous class, emancipated from aristocratic influence, thriving independently outside of the old society of England.

But, in 1763, the great manufactures of the realm were those of wool and the various preparations from sheepskins and hides, far exceeding in value all others of all kinds put together; and for these the land-owner furnished all the raw material; so that his prosperity was bound up in that of the manufacturer. The manufacture