Manchester

This station was for nearly four centuries occupied by the Romans, and amply provided with every thing requisite for the accommodation and subsistence of the garrison established in it, having also a water-mill on the Medlock, at some distance below the town, the site of which still retains the name of Knott mill. The station included a quadrangular area, five hundred feet in length and four hundred in width, the interior not exactly level, but rising from the centre towards the sides, on which a rampart of earth sloping inwards was raised from the ground surrounding the enclosure, which is consequently lower than the site of the castrum; on the summit of this rampart a wall was originally built, which extended round the enclosure, on one side of which was the castle, or fort; but very little of the foundation of the wall is at present discernible, the few remaining portions being under ground, and the greater part of the site covered with modern buildings. From this station, as from a common centre, Roman roads branched off to those of Cambodunum, Eboracum, Condate, Rigodunum, Veratinum, and Rerigonium. In the vicinity of the aboriginal settlement, which has obtained the name of Aldport, Roman urns and other vessels, stones inscribed to centurions of the cohort, votive altars, coins, fibulae, and lachrymatories, have been found at various times; and without the vallum, foundations of Roman buildings, and other vestiges of antiquity, have been frequently discovered. The Roman road to Cambodunum, commenced at the east gate of the castrum, and pursuing a northeastern direction, passed over Newton heath into the county of York; the road leading to Eboracum branched off from the former at a distance of less than two miles from Mancunium, and passing by the townships of Chadderton and Royton, continued in a north-eastern direction through Littleborough, and over Blackstone Edge, to the city of York j the road to Condate passed from the east gate of the castrum, through the village of Stretford, to the ford of Mersey, and thence to Kinderton 5 the road to Rigodunum branched off from the road to Condate about a mile from its commencement, and taking a south-westerly direction, crossed the river Irwell at Old Trafford, terminating at Blackrode; the road to Feratinum diverged from that to Rigodunum, and after passing by Eccles, continued through Barton to Warrington; and the road to the station Rerigonium commenced at the north-west gate of Mancunium, and passing Quay-street, ran nearly parallel with Deans-gate, and after crossing the river Irk passed over Kersall moor to Ribchester; there were also several smaller vicinal ways, of which some slight vestiges may be traced. After the departure of the Romans, the fort of Maneimium was taken from the Britons, about the year 488, by a party of the Saxons, who had forcibly established themselves in this part of the kingdom: they placed a garrison in it, which, however, surrendered to the British, who retained possession whilst Arthur Pendragon was prosecuting his victories over that people. In 620, it was captured by Edwin, King of Northumbria, who annexed it to his dominions; and soon afterwards a colony of Angles settled here. In 627, the inhabitants were converted to Christianity, by the preaching of Paulinus, a missionary employed by Gregory I., and a Christian church was built, and dedicated to St. Michael. Manchester having been taken by the Danes, was, about 920, wrested from their possession by Edward the Elder, who repaired and fortified the castle, and rebuilt the town, which had been almost destroyed in the assaults of the invaders, placing in it a strong garrison of his own soldiers, on account of its being a frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. It was raised to the distinction of & burgh, with extensive privileges, and for some time continued highly prosperous; but being exposed to repeated attacks, and having suffered so much injury in the wars between the Northumbrians and the Danes, notwithstanding its enlargement by Edward, it appears, at the time of the Conquest, to have been in every respect inferior to Salford, a Saxon settlement on the opposite bank of the Irwell, which, being a royal demesne, had risen into importance, and imparted name to the hundred; in the Norman survey we find that Manchester contained two churches, but it is not otherwise mentioned as a place of any note. Soon after the Conquest, it came into the possession of Albert de Gresley, whose descendant, Robert, the fourth lord of Manchester, obtained for it, in the reign of Henry III., the grant of an annual fair on the eve and festival of St. Matthew. In the reign of Edward I., the barons, in order to raise a greater number of men to serve in the army destined for the invasion of Scotland, conferred several privileges on their vassals; and Thomas de Gresley, sixth baron of Manchester, upon that occasion, granted to the inhabitants those rights and immunities which have been emphatically called the " Magna Charta of Manchester," This charter, which was granted on the 14th of May, in the year 1301, among other privileges, confers the right of choosing a borough-reeve; of disposing of their lands of inheritance according to their pleasure, reserving only to the heir, in such cases, the prior right of purchase; the power of arresting for debt within the borough the persons of knights, priests, or clerks, and various other privileges. The baron of Manchester was thrice summoned to parliament by writ in the reign of thia monarch, by whom he was made Knight of the Bath, and was one of the barons who, in the reiga of Edward II., conspired against Piers Gavestone. About seventy years before this, Salford was made a free borough, by charter from Ranulph de Blundeville, Earl of Chester.

In 1352, the manufacture of " Manchester cottons," a kind of woollen cloth made from the fleece in an unprepared state, was introduced, and obtained a high degree of celebrity j and in the course of this reign, numerous Flemish artisans, who had been invited into England by Edward III., settled in the town, where, finding every requisite advantage, they brought the woollen manufacture to a considerable degree of perfection, and laid the foundation of its staple trade; which, though interrupted by the war between the houses of York and Lancaster, and subsequently, in the reign of Edward VI., by a dreadful malady, called the sweating sickness,, had, in the reign of Elizabeth, become of such importance, that one of the queen's aulnagers (officers appointed to examine, and affix the seal to, manufactured cloth) was stationed here, in 1565. During the progress of the Reformation., an. ecclesiastical commission for the diocese of Chester -was established at Manchester, and numbers of popish recusants, from various parts of Lancashire, were imprisoned in the New Fleet, which appears to have been erected about that time, and probably for that purpose. The commissioners were Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon; Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York; the Earl of Derby; and Dr. Chadderton, Bishop of Chester, who then resided in the episcopal palace at Manchester, but, in con- sequence of frequent disputes between his servants and the inhabitants removed to Chester. The commissioners, though principally engaged in promoting the reformed religion, and in the detection and punishment, of popish recusants, published, during their sittings at Manchester, a declaration against pipers and minstrels attending bear and bull baitings, against the " superstitious ringing of bells, wakes, festivals, and other amusements;" to counteract the influence of which prohibition, James I. published his celebrated Book of Sports. Among the persons confined in the New Fleet, under the authority of this commission, were, Sir John Southworth; James Layborne, an eminent layman, who was executed at Lancaster in 1583, his head having been sent to Manchester, and placed, with those of others, on the steeple of the collegiate church; James Bell, and John Finch, who were executed in 1584; John Townley, Esq.; and the lady of Bartholomew Hesketh, Esq. Having been originally a place of sanctuary, it was one of the eight places to which this privilege was confirmed, by a statute in the 32nd of Henry VIII., which, in the following year, was transferred to Chester. During the threatened invasion by Philip of Spain, Manchester supplied one hundred and forty-four men armed with bills and pikes, thirty-eight archers, and thirty-eight arquebusiers, to assist in repelling the " Invincible Armada,"

At the commencement of the parliamentary war, Sir Cecil Trafford, with a view to strengthen the king's cause, supplied the inhabitants of Manchester and the neighbouring towns with arms and ammunition j but the county, anxiously desirous of peace, sent a petition to the king, then at York, requesting him to propose terms of reconciliation with the parliament, the presentation of which was entrusted to a deputation, consisting of the warden'of Manchester, and other freeholders of the county, among whom was John Bradshaw, supposed to be the same individual that, six years after, pronounced sentence of death upon the king, as president of the High Court of Justice. All hopes of reconciliation having vanished, Manchester became the scene of much obstinate contention. The commissioners of array visited it, to demand ammunition for the use of the king; but the town having been previously secured for the parliament, by Ralph Asheton, one of the representatives of the county, the inhabitants refused-to surrender; and Lord Strange, with a considerable force, attempting to enter it, they took up arms, and being joined by numbers from the adjacent country, a skirmish took place, in which several men on both sides were killed: this event, which was regarded by the House of Commons .as the commencement of the war, was, by the Speaker, announced as " terrible news from the north." The inhabitants, apprehending a more serious attack, fortified the town; and the king, having set up his standard at Nottingham, sent Lord Strange, with four thousand infantry, seven pieces of cannon, and some cavalry, to reduce it. After an obstinate conflict for several days, during which it was defended by Captain Bradshaw, aided by Lieut. Col. Rosworm, an able German engineer, Lord Strange, being summoned, on the death of the Earl of Derby, to join the king, whose head-quarters were then at Shrewsbury, withdrew his forces, and raised the siege. To guard against future assaults, .the fortifications which had been hastily thrown up, were completed and enlarged, and instructions were given, by the parliament to the committee for the defence of the kingdom, to levy a body of dragoons to serve in Manchester, and the neighbourhood, and to indemnify the inhabitants for the loss they had sustained in resisting the commissioners of array; and, to supply them with money to defray the expense of future services, a loan was raised, the interest of which was paid by parliament, and, as an immediate resource, the pay of the officers of the garrison was ordered to be levied on the estates of the royalists. Manchester now became the head-quarters of the parliamentary army stationed in Lancashire, and, in 1643, Sir Thomas Fairfax entered the town, whence he despatched expeditions against Preston and Lancaster, both which surrendered to the parliament. It was again summoned by the Earl of Newcastle, at the head of ten or twelve thousand men, but being unsuccessful, the earl took the route to Hull, in pursuit of Fairfax: it does not appear to have sustained any further attack. During the Protectorate of Cromwell, Manchester, in obedience to the Protector's writ to the high sheriff of Lancaster, made two successive returns of a member to serve in parliament, in common with other towns, which have not since exercised the elective franchise. In 1652, the walls were thrown down, the fortifications demolished, and the gates carried away and sold, a measure which appears to have originated in its growing commercial importance, and its increase in wealth and population. The restoration of Charles II., however, was celebrated in the town with the most splendid pomp and ceremony $ the utmost festivity and rejoicings took place, and the public conduits were made to flow with wine in copious streams. In 1715, a tumultuous assembly, headed by one Syddall, a barber, demolished the Independent chapel, in Acres Fields, at that time the only dissenting place of worship in the town, and proceeded to commit other depredations; but the insurrection was quelled, and Syddall, with several of his accomplices, were committed to Lancaster gaol: Syddall, on his liberation from prison, joined the rebels in Preston, and, being again taken prisoner, was sent to this town and executed.

In 1745, Prince Charles Edward, the young Pretend'er, who the year before had visited Manchester, where he was hospitably entertained for several weeks at Ancoat's Hall, the mansion of Sir Edward Moseley, Bart., entered the county of Lancaster, at the head of an army of six thousand men, and advanced to this town, with a view to recruit his forces, and to raise supplies of men, arms, and money. On the 28th of November, the advanced guard,'consisting of about one hundred cayalry, entered the town, and demanded quarters for ten thousand men, and on the following day the main body arrived; in the afternoon the young Pretender took up his quarters in the house of Mr. Dickenson, in Market- street, from that circumstance called the palace, and issued a proclamation, requiring all persons who had any duties to pay, or any of the public money in their hands, to pay the same to his secretary at the palace. The borough-reeve was compelled to publish the manifestoes of the rebels; and on the following day, the whole of the Pretender's army, with its train of artillery, consisting of sixteen pieces of cannon, and tha baggage, assembled in the town and neighbourhood: the sum of £3000 was levied in money, from two to three hundred men were raised for the service, and placed under the command of Francis Townley, Esq., of Townley Hall, in the county of Lancaster, and many horses were put under requisition for mounting the cavalry and drawing the baggage. On the 1st of December, the rebel army quitted Manchester, marching southward in two columns; and having united at Macclesfield, advanced to Derby, which they reached on the 4th; but to avoid the danger of being enclosed by the armies of Marshal Wade and the Duke of Cumberland, retreated northward to Manchester, where they arrived on the 8th, and continuing their retreat to the north, reached Carlisle on the 10th, closely pursued by the Duke of Cumberland; leaving a garrison of four hundred men in that town, consisting of the Manchester regiment and some Scottish troops, the rebels effected their retreat to the Scottish frontier, which they reached on the 20th of December. On the subsequent surrender of the garrison of Carlisle to the Dxike of Cumberland, the officers of the Manchester regiment were sent prisoners to London, where, being tried for high treason, and found guilty, they were executed on Kennington Common. After the execution, the heads of Col. Townley and Capt. Fletcher were placed on Temple Bar, and those of Capt. Deacon and Adjutant Syddall, son of the barber, were sent down to Manchester and placed on the exchange. In 1759, an act of parliament was passed for discharging the inhabitants from their obligation to grind corn and other grain at the school mill on the river Irk, a custom which had prevailed from a remote period, and had frequently excited a strong spirit of popular discontent. By this act the inhabitants were released from every obligation, except that of grinding malt, which is still retained; and though the sum paid to the feoffees of the mill is very moderate, yet the compulsory clause of grinding malt has induced almost all the public brewers to establish themselves in townships which, though adjoining to', and within the immediate vicinity of, the town, are not subject to that obligation. Christian, King of Denmark, on his tour through England, in 1768, took up his abode in this town, and lodged, with his suite, at the Bull Inn; during his stay he visited the recently-formed excavations for the Duke of Bridgewater's canal. In 1773, the Russian Princess, Czartoriski, arrived here from Birmingham, to inspect the aqueducts and excavations at Worsley, and during her stay visited the principal factories. In 1805, the Archdukes John and Lewis of Austria, accompanied by a retinue of scientific men, spent some time here in visiting the various factories, and inspecting the several processes of the manufactures; and, in 1817, the Grand Duke Nicholas, now Emperor of Russia, honoured the town with a visit for the same purpose. Manchester, in common with other large manufacturing towns, has, during the fluctuations of trade, and the varying state of its manufactures, experienced a proportionate number of popular commotions; and occasional disturbances, arising from the depression of commerce, and the consequent low wages of the operative manufacturer, have been, in some instances, attended with serious results. The improvement in the various branches of its trade and manufactures has, however, been uniformly progressive, and justly entitles it to be considered one of the most extensive and prosperous commercial and manufacturing towns in the kingdom.

Its staple trade is the cotton manufacture, which, in all its various branches, is carried on to an extent almost incredible. The town had obtained considerable eminence for its manufacture of what were called Manchester cottons, which was introduced by the Flemings, in the reign of Edward III.; and in that of Charles I. the linen and cotton trade had made some progress. In the " Treasure of Traffic," published by Lewis Roberts, in 1641, Manchester is said to have purchased linen yarn from Ireland, and cotton wool from London, the goods woven from which were sent to those places for s'ale. About the year 1740, the manufacturers residing here employed agents in different parts of the country to procure a supply of raw cotton, which was manufactured, by the spindle and distaff, in the cottages of the workmen, chiefly into fustians, thicksets, dimities, and jeans, to which were added cotton thicksets, goods figured in the loom, and subsequently cotton velvets, velveteens, and strong fancy cords. About the year 1760, these goods, which had till then been made only for home consumption, found a market on the continents of Europe and America; and as the quantity of weft produced in the whole county of Lancashire, by about fifty thousand spindles worked by hand, was insufficient to keep the weavers in Manchester constantly employed, and consequently to afford a supply adequate to the increasing demand, recourse was had to the. aid of machinery, and Mr. John Kay invented the instrument called the puking peg, by the assistance of which the weaver was not only enabled to produce twice the quantity of work, but also to weave cloths of any width. The facility thus given to the weaving department caused a corresponding increase in the demand for yarn, and Mr. Thomas Highs, in conjunction with Mr. Kay, invented the spinning jenny, the powers of which were greatly increased by the improvements of Mr. Hargreaves, whose success exciting the apprehensions of the hand-workmen, caused the destruction of his machinery, and his retreat to Nottingham, where he died in indigence. Mr. Highs continued to make the spinning jennies for sale, and also invented the -water-frame, or throstle, for spinning twist by means of rollers: these machines were subsequently improved under Sir Richard Arkwright, whose exclusive patent right was annulled by a decision of the court of King's Bench, in 1785, and the privilege of using such machinery was thrown open to the public. The late Sir Robert Peel, Bart., assisted by Mr. Hargreaves, first brought the cylindrical carding-engines into use, and made many improvements in the application of machinery to the cotton manufacture, by the adoption of which, aided by the powers of the steamengine, the quantity of goods of every description manufactured in this town has been prodigiously increased. Every process of that manufacture is carried on to a very considerable extent, but the branch of it for which Manchester is most distinguished is the spinning, in which department alone there are in the town and vicinity one hundred and fourteen factories, worked by one hundred and eighteen steam-engines, the aggregate power of which is equal to that of three thousand nine hundred and eighty-one horses; by this machiMAN nery, about two million one hundred and eighty-two thousand three hundred and fifty spindles, and six thousand nine hundred and twenty-six power-looms, are set in motion. The power-loom is a recent invention, originating with the Rev. Mr. Cartwright, of Holland House, in the county of Kent, who, after repeated attempts, ultimately succeeded in establishing a factory upon that principle at Doncaster, and was indemnified by parliament for the losses he had sustained in the course of his experiments. Mr. Grimshaw, of Manchester, adopting Mr. Cartwright's plan, established a factory in which were five hundred power-looms, but the building having been destroyed by fire, the design was for a time abandoned. The difficulties which had impeded the general adoption of this invention were finally removed by the aid of Mr. Johnson's machine for dressing the warps, and, in 1806, the use of the power-loom was again introduced, with complete success. The factories, in several of which the whole process of the manufacture, from the introduction of the raw material to its completion, is carried on, are immense ranges of building, from six to eight stories in height; some employing from eighteen hundred to two thousand persons each, and the whole furnishing employment to upwards of thirty thousand persons. The making of muslin was first attempted about the year 1780, at which time the machine called the mule was introduced into the spinning factories, and to such a degree of perfection has this branch of manufacture been brought, that the muslins of Manchester are little inferior to those of India. The silk manufacture has, within the last few years, been revived, under very favourable circumstances, and is rapidly improving} the num- ,ber of mills already established is considerable, and the silks manufactured are not inferior in the beauty of their texture to those of Spitalfields, or of France. The principal articles at present manufactured are, velvets, fustians, jeans, ticking, checks, ginghams, nankeens, diaper, quilting, calico, muslins, muslinets, cambric handkerchiefs, small wares, silks, and, in fact, every variety of cotton and silk goods. There are also extensive bleaching-grounds, and works for printing and dyeing, and for every other department of the manufactures; and, in addition to what may be considered the staple manufactures of the town, are munerous others dependent on them, such as that of machinery of all kinds, for which there are extensive forges, foundries, &c., employing about ninety steam-engines, of the aggregate power of one thousand seven hun- dred horses. There are also several laboratories for the making of oil of vitriol, and other chemical productions used in the different processes of the trade, for bleaching, dyeing, &c.; in the vicinity are several mills for the manufacture of paper of all descriptions, from the coarsest kind, for packages, to the finest kinds of writing and printing paper, all which have been brought to a high degree of perfection, and are manufactured on a very large scale. There are extensive manufactories for hats, which have nourished for many years; also various other branches of manufacture, which have all improved with the increasing trade of the town, and afford employment to a very great portion of the inhabitants. Engraving, as connected with the printing of calico, muslin, and cotton goods, is extensively carried on; and there are saw-mills on a very extended scale. For the purchase of the various productions of the town, of which large quantities are exported, foreign merchants have either established agents, or one of their partners, resident here, to conduct their commercial transactions, and to purchase not only Manchester goods, but also the produce of all the adjoining manufacturing districts, which are accumulated here as in a central dep6t. A chamber of commerce was established in 1820, by which the trading interests of its members, and those of Manchester generally, have been greatly promoted: twenty-five directors are annually chosen at a general meeting of the subscribers, held in February, to whom the management of its affairs is entrusted. The exchange and commercial buildings were erected from a design by Mr. Harrison, in 1806, at an expense of £20,000, advanced on shares of £50 each, by four hundred proprietary members, who subsequently added £30 each to the original shares, for the purchase of the site: it is a spacious, handsome, and well-arranged edifice of Runcorn stone, in the Grecian style of architecture; the north front, which faces the market-place, is semicircular, and ornamented with lofty fluted columns of the Doric order; the news-room, which occupies the basement story of this part of the building, is elegantly provided with every accommodation, and lighted by a semicircular dome and handsome windows of plate glass: at the distance of fifteen feet from the walls is a circular range of pillars of the Ionic order, supporting the ceiling; and over the central fire-place is a full-length portrait of Thomas Stanley, Esq., for many years member for the county, finely painted by the late Sir Thomas Lawrence; there are two thousand subscribers belonging to this establishment. Above the news-room, and resting on the pillars which support the ceiling, is a circular range of building, fifteen feet in breadth, and two stories high (originally forming part of the extensive establishment of Mr. W. Ford, bookseller), of which the lower contains the Exchange library,'belonging to a proprietary of four hundred members, and comprising more than fifteen thousand volumes; the proprietary ticket is £10. 10., and the annual subscription £1. The gallery is lighted by a range of windows immediately above those in the circular part of the newsroom, but of smaller dimensions, and is well arranged for the reception of the books; the upper story is divided into apartments for various uses. In the south part of the building is the post-office, adapted in every respect to the commercial importance of the town; and the chamber of commerce occupies another part of the building. A handsome geometrical staircase leads from the hall to the upper part of the Exchange buildings, in which is an elegant dining-room, ninety-two feet long, and twenty-nine feet wide, with a rich mantelpiece of Abyssinian marble at each end, and an orchestra on the north side; this room, which was opened in celebration of the anniversary of the birthday of George III., in 1809, is well adapted for public entertainments; there are several ante-rooms, and a variety of offices, connected with the general purposes of the institution. The vast trade and commercial importance of this town have been in a great degree promoted by its proximity to the port of Liverpool, whence its manufactures are exported to every quarter of the globe and with which it has a facility of communication by means of the Mersey, and Irwell navigation, constructed in 1?20, under an act of parliament amended in 1794, when the proprietors were incorporated; and the celebrated Bridge-water canal, of which a description is given in the article on LANCASHIRE; both of them communicating with the river Mersey at Runcorn. The Manchester, Bolton, and Bury canal, constructed by act of parliament in 1791, crossing the Irwell at Clifton, and again at Little Lever, passes for fifteen miles through a district abounding with coal and mineral produce, and unites with the Leeds and Liverpool canal near Blackburn, by a branch formed in 1793. The Ashton under Line canal, constructed in 1792, is carried, by a lofty archway, in an oblique direction over Store-street*; and by another aqueduct, of equal strength and beauty of design, it crosses the river Medlock, branching off to Stockport, and at Fairfield, by another branch, communicates with Oldham. The Rochdale canal, constructed in 1794, forms a communication from the Duke of Bridgewater's canal at Manchester to the Calder navigation at Sowerby bridge, beyond which is a cut from Salter-Hebble to Halifax. By means of the Grand Trunk canal, a line of communication has been established with London, Bristol, and other principal towns. In 1826, an act was obtained for the construction of an iron rail-road between Manchester and Liverpool, adapted to the use of carriages drawn by locomotive engines impelled by steam, for the conveyance of merchandise and passengers. This stupendous undertaking was completed in 1830, at an expense of upwards of £ 800,000, subscribed in shares of £100 each, by a company of proprietors: the line of road is carried, by a series of arches, commencing at the Company's warehouses, in the Liverpool road, across the roofs of the houses in Water-street, and orer the river Irwell, by a handsome stone bridge of two arches, each sixty-five feet in span, and thirty feet high from the surface of the water to the central summit. After passing over a level tract of ground beyond the river, for nearly four miles and a half, it is, by means of inclined planes, viaducts, and other contrivances, continued through grounds of various elevation, rising, at its greatest altitude, to a height of one hundred and twenty-three feet above, and falling, at its greatest depression, to a depth of one hundred and twenty-four feet and a half below, the general level. The whole line from Manchester to Liverpool is thirty-one miles in length; which distance, though it may be travelled in little more than an hour, is generally performed in about two hours: on its course not less than sixty-three bridges have been erected, and two tunnels made. This important work was opened to the public with a grand procession, on which occasion the late Mr. Huskisson, member for Liverpool, having alighted from one of the carriages, which had halted for a few minutes, in endeavouring to regain his seat fell in the line of one of the locomotive engines, which was travelling with a velocity of thirty miles an hour, and was so severely injured, that he died in the course of the evening; for a more minutely detailed account of this noble undertaking, see the article on LANCASHIRE. A joint-stock company, for the conveyance of goods by water, called the New Quay Company, was originally established in 1822, with a capital of £30,000; the shareholders are chiefly merchants and traders, and the company has a considerable number of vessels plying between Manchester and Liverpool. In addition to the various and numerous branches of inland navigation, by which a facility of conveyance by water is obtained to every part of the kingdom, the trade of the town employs more than two hundred conveyances by land, for the more prompt distribution of its merchandise and manufactures, and upwards of one hundred coaches daily, for the accommodation of passengers. The town is situated on the banks of the river Irwell, which here receives the tributary streams of the Irk and the Medlock, and on the north-west bank of which is situated the township, or district, of Salford; connected, by means of five bridges, with Manchester, of which it forms an integral part. Of these bridges," the most ancient, which had existed from time immemorial, was rebuilt in the reign of Edward III.: the Strangeways iron bridge was erected in 1817, and a sixth bridge, in connexion with the Manchester and Liverpool railway, has been built over the same river. Over the Medlock are nine bridges, in various parts of the town, of which that leading from Oxford-street crosses the river in an oblique direction. There are also seven bridges over the river Irk, of which six are very low, and subject to be flooded at high water; the seventh is a very lofty structure of three arches, and a great ornament to the town, connecting a new line of road, from the extremity of Miller-street, with what was anciently Strangeways park, and forming an entrance into the town, which avoids the steep ascent of the Red Bank, and the dangerous turn iii the old road from Scotland-bridge. Exclusively of these, there are several smaller bridges over the Shooter's brook, and not less than thirty over the numerous branches of the canals which intersect the town. The town is well paved, and lighted with gas, under the direction of two hundred and forty commissioners, appointed by an act of parliament passed in the 9th of George IV., for cleansing, paving, lighting, watching, and regulating it, and forming a body corporate, with .a common seal: the gas-works are superintended by thirty directors chosen from among the commissioners. The inhabitants are supplied with water by the Manchester and Salford Water Company, established by act of parliament in 1809, which is conveyed by pipes from their reservoirs at Beswick and at Gorton, that at the latter place, covering more than fifty acres of ground, having been excavated in 1825. Salford was formerly included in the same jurisdiction with Manchester, with respect to its police, the same act of parliament being applicable to both; but by an act passed in the pth of George IV., they were separated, and Salford is now governed by a distinct code of regulations, under an act passed in the llth of George IV., and in the same session the local act for Manchester was amended. The environs, in many parts, particularly in Broughton, abound with scenery pleasingly diversified; and in the neighbourhood are some handsome ranges of building,and numerous elegant villas: among these are Ardwick Green, in the centre of which is a fine sheet of water, surrounded with respectable residences; Salford Crescent, occupying an elevated site, and commanding a beautiful view of the windings of the Irwell, with the fertile vallies on the opposite bank, and sheltered byrising hills. On the bank of the same river are several successive tiers of houses, which rise above eacji other from the margin of the river; and on the Ir is Gibraltar, an irregular cluster of rural and picturesque cottages. The older part, of the town contains several ancient houses (which, however, are fast disappearing), interspersed with modern dwellings; and the streets, with the exception of such as have been improved under various acts of parliament, are inconveniently narrow: the more modern parts contain many spacious streets, in which are numerous handsome and respectable houses; but the general plan appears to have been more adapted to the accommodation of its extended trade than to the display of elegance and symmetry in its general appearance. Cotton-mills, factories, and warehouses of immense extent, have been erected in those parts of the town previously occupied by the most pleasant dwelling-houses, and every other part of it is crowded with numerous cottages of families employed in the various works.

The Literary and Philosophical Society, established in 1781, consists of ordinary, honorary, and corresponding members, who pay £2. 2*. on their admission, and an annual subscription of £1. Is.; they hold meetings every alternate Friday, from October till the end of April, in a hall containing suitable apartments; gold and silver medals are awarded for the best dissertations on particular subjects; the society has published seven volumes of transactions, in the English, French, and German languages, which are much circulated on the continent. The Philological Society, consisting of thirty resident, and fifty corresponding, members, was instituted in 1803; and an Agricultural Society, consisting of members residing within thirty miles of the town, was established in 1767, and is one of the earliest institutions of that kind in England: its object is to bestow annual premiums for useful discoveries in cultivation, for superior specimens of produce both in cattle and in crops, and for the encouragement of cottagers who, by their labour, have maintained their families without parochial assistance, and of farming servants who have continued for the greatest length of time, and with the best characters, in one situation j all subscribing members and their tenants, in the counties of Lancaster and Chester, may claim the premiums. The new circulating library, in St. Anne's street, containing four thousand volumes, was established in 1792. A part of Cheetham's hospital is also appropriated as a library, to which, under certain regulations, the public enjoy free admission. Mr. Cheetham bequeathed £1000, to be vested in land, directing the produce to be applied in the purchase of books; and £100 to provide a place for their reception: this fund, by the management of the trustees, has considerably accumulated, and the library at present contains more than sixteen thousand volumes, some valuable manuscripts, a collection of prints, and several natural and artificial curiosities. The Portico, an elegant edifice of the Ionic order, was erected by subscription, in 1806, at an expense of £7000; the building, which is of Runcorn stone, contains a library, a committee-room, a news-room lighted by a dome, a reading-room, and other offices. This institution, which belongs to a proprietary of four hundred members, holding shares originally of the value of £13. 13., afterwards in- creased to £21, and paying an annual subscription of £.2. 10. per annum, is under the regulation of a committee. The library, which forms a gallery round the walls of the news-room, is sixty-five feet long, and forty-two feet wide; and the committee-room and reading-room are each thirty feet long, and sixteen feet wide. A library, established in Spear-street, in 1K02, is at present held in Fountain-street, and contains a very good collection of theological and other works. The law library was instituted by the members of that pro - fession, in 1820: the proprietary ticket is £5. 5., and the annual subscription £1. 11. 6. There is also a library in St. Anne's-street. The society for promoting the study of natural history was projected in 1821, and rapidly attained its present state of maturity and importance; there are at present more than three hundred proprietary members; the terms of admission are £10, and the annual subscription £2. 2. Its concerns are under the direction of a president and council of ten proprietary members, annually chosen, four vice-presidents, a treasurer, four curators, and two secretaries; the buildings comprise a museum, in which, in addition to a valuable collection of insects, made by the late J. L. Phillips, Esq., is an extensive exhibition of the rarest specimens of the animal kingdom, consisting of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, and of shells, minerals, fossils, and other natural curiosities, scientifically arranged, in a suite of apartments well adapted to their preservation; attached to the museum are, a library of works on' natural history, a council-room, a curatory, and apartments for the librarian and keeper of the museum.

The Royal Institution, embracing a variety of objects connected with the pursuits of literature and science, and the cultivation of the fine arts, originated with a few public-spirited individuals (either artists or persons connected with the arts), in 1823, and was soon honoured with the public, and finally with royal, patronage; this institution is under the direction of a president, twelve vice-presidents, and a committee, chosen from a body of nearly seven hundred hereditary and life governors, of whom the former are contributors of forty, and the latter of twenty-five, guineas each. The building, which has been erected from a design by Mr. Barry, of London, and is of a durable and richly-coloured .stone, from the vicinity of Colne, forms a splendid addition to the architectural ornaments of the town; it is in the Grecian style of architecture. The principal elevation, towards Mosley-strcet, has a noble portico of nix lofty columns of the Ionic order, supporting a rich entablature and pediment in the centre, on each side of which are columns and pilasters connecting itwith the wings; above the doors and windows are panels for has reliefs symbolical of the design of the institution; the attic story of the hall, rising to a considerable elevation above the wings, is to be surmounted by a finely-sculptured figure of Minerva. The area round the building is enclosed with a handsome iron palisade on a lofty plinth of masonry, with pedestals at the angles of the steps leading to the portico and side entrances, on which arc to be placed groups of figures and statues. The centre comprises the hall and the theatre, and one of the wings is appropriated as an academy of the fine arts, with exhibition rooms, and the other as a museum of natural history. The hall, which is wholly lighted from the attic story, is forty feet square, and sixty feet high; it contains a grand staircase of stone, consisting of central and lateral flights, with pedestals for sculptures, leading to a gallery on three sides of the hall, supported on Doric pillars, and to the theatre which is of a semicircular form. On the gallery are entrances on each side, leading through corridors flanked with columns, into the exhibition rooms in each wing of the building; the ceiling of the hall is richly panelled in deeply-recessed compartments, and beneath the attic windows is a rich cornice with a frieze for bas reliefs; ancient sculptures and casts from the antique will be ranged in the hall and corridors. The theatre, which will hold six hundred persons, has a gallery supported on columns of bronze, and the walls are decorated with engaged columns, and with isolated columns in the angles: the ceiling is richly panelled, and the theatre is lighted by a lantern, which, by machinery, may be darkened instantaneously, at the -will of the lecturer. There are three exhibition rooms in each wing, which may be thrown into one; they are twenty-three feet in height, and lighted from the ceiling; the principal room in each wing is forty-eight feet long, and thirty feet wide, and the others are thirty feet square. There are also various rooms for the use of the officers and others connected with the institution, to which access is obtained from the hall and from other parts of the building. The whole cost of this elegant pile, when complete, will be about £ 50,000, and the building will comprehend an ample and complete arrangement for the various purposes contemplated in its erection.

A Floral and Horticultural Society was instituted in 1823, and a Botanical and Horticultural Institution in 1828; the garden for the latter, about two miles from the Exchange, on the new Stretford road, comprising about sixteen acres of ground, contains a great variety of green-house, herbaceous, Alpine, American, rock, and medicinal plants, and is under the care of a curator, who resides on the spot. The entrance, on one side of which is the curator's house, and on the other the council-room, botanical library, and porter's lodge, is a handsome structure, in the Grecian style and Ionic order, the erection of which cost about £2000. A mechanics' institution was established in 1824, and is supported by subscription; the building was erected in 1827, at an expense of £7000, and contains a library, in which are two thousand volumes, and a theatre, in which lectures are delivered on those branches of science which are of practical application in the exercise of their trades. The theatre royal was erected in 1806, at an expense of £ 15,000, advanced on shares by a proprietary of forty: it is a plain, but commodious, edifice, of which the interior is well arranged and handsomely decorated. The amphitheatre, or, as it is called, the minor theatre, was built in 1753, for a principal theatre, but being found too small, was rebuilt by act of parliament in 1775; and having been burnt down in 1789, was again rebuilt and opened for its present use in 1790. The gentlemen's private subscription concerts were established in 1777, when a room, adapted to the accommodation o, eight hundred auditors, was built in Fountain-street which being afterwards found too small, a new concertroom was erected, in 1829, for the reception of one thousand two hundred subscribers, in Lower Mosleystreet, at an expense of £7000: the entrance is through a handsome lofty portico of six columns of the Corinthian order, supporting a rich entablature and pediment; the concert-room is one hundred and seven feet long and forty-nine wide; there are eight public concerts in the season, at which vocal and instrumental performers of eminent talents are engaged: the private concerts, to which the subscribers and their families are admitted, take place every fortnight. The assemblyrooms in Mosley-street were erected in 1792; they form a capacious suite of rooms elegantly fitted up, and superbly decorated; the ball-room is eighty-seven feet long, and forty-four feet wide; the walls and ceiling are beautifully painted in compartments, and lighted with brilliant chandeliers and lustres of cut-glass; the tearoom is fifty-four feet long, and fifty-one feet broad, similarly decorated, and over the mantel-piece is. a full-length portrait of Lord Strange; a billiard-room:of equal dimensions, and a card-room of smaller size, are also included in the buildings, which were raised by shares of £ 100 each. The first of a series of triennial musical festivals was attempted here, with complete suecess, in 1828, for the encouragement of which the sum of £20,000 was immediately advanced, on shares of £ 100 each, as a guarantee for the indemnity of the ma nagers. The late Sir Robert Peel, Bart., on accepting the office of patron, presented the stewards with a con-, tribution of £ 500. Oratorios were performed in the collegiate church, and miscellaneous concerts and dress balls were given in the theatre and assembly-rooms: the produce of the performances, which combined the first-rate musical talents in the country, and were brilliantly and numerously attended, exceeded £15,000; and, after paying all expenses, a surplus of more than £5000 was distributed among the various charitable institutions. The races, which were established in 1730, commence on the Wednesday in Whitsun-week, and continue to the end of the week; the course, which is enclosed by railing, and carefully guarded against accidents, is on Kersal moor, and is about a mile in circuit; a grand stand and numerous booths have been erected on various parts of it, for the accommodation of the spectators, the number of whom is seldom less than two hundred thousand. A riding school and gymnasium have been established, for which a building was erected, in 1829, near the concert- rooms, at the lower end of Mosley-street. The barracks for the cavalry, in the township of Hulme, are a uniform and handsome range of building, affording accommodation for a squadron of horse, and comprehending an area sufficient for the performance of their evolutions. The barracks for infantry, situated in the Regent's road, Salford, are very extensive, and form a compact range of building calculated for the reception of one thousand men, affording, within the enclosure, ample ground for exercise and every requisite accommodation. The market days are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday j the first is principally for the sale of merchandise, of which great quantities are brought in carts and wagons from the different factories. The markets are plentifully supplied with corn and provisions of all kinds. The corn market is held in a building in Hang ing-ditch, which was opened as a corn .exchange in 1820. The hay market is held in Bridgewater-street; the cattle market in the new Smithfield, at Shude-hill; the markets for butchers' meat are held in Brown- street Bridge-street, and the London road, at the back of which is the leather hall, and in other parts ot the town. The fish market, which is abundantly supplied with salmon from the river Kibble; with herrings, soles, and flounders, from the north-west coast; and with cod, haddocks, lobsters, and crabs, from the east coast; is held in a suitable building erected on the site of what was formerly called the Old Shambles (which was the only market-place in the town for butchers' meat), at the expense of Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., near Smithy Door, in 1828; the meal, flour, and cheese market is held in a building on Shude-hill; the fruit, or apple, market is held in Fennel-street, and the upper end of Long Millgate; the vegetable market is held in St. Mary's gate, and in the upper end of Smithy Door, the middle and lower end of which is the market for butter, poultry, and eggs. Salford, which had been previously supplied from Manchester, has also a separate market, for which accommodation has been provided under the town hall, of which the first stone was laid by Lord Bexley, in 1825. The fairs are Easter Monday and Tuesday, for toys; and October 1st and 2nd, for horses, cattle, and pigs; the latter, for greater convenience, has been removed to Camp field, near St. Matthew's church; but the steward of the manor, attended by the borough-reeve and constables, asserts the right of the lord of the manor to hold it in St. Anne's square, where, until within the last few years, it was constantly held; there are some other fairs, but of minor importance. At Salford, a fair, commencing on Whit-Monday, is much frequented by the Yorkshire clothiers, blanket-manufacturers, button-makers, and japanners; the cloth hall, which is a spacious and con- " venient building, is occupied by numerous tenants during this fair, which lasts for twenty-one days; and there is another fair, commencing November 17th, and continuing for the same space of time; the first day of each is for the sail of cattle.

The town is within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates, who hold a petty session for the division every Thursday; the municipal regulations are conducted by a borough-reeve and two principal constables, chosen annually from among the most respectable of the inhabitants, by a jury impannelled by the stewards of the manor, at the latter of the courts leet, which are held every year after Easter and Michaelmas. The constables appoint a deputy to act for them, who has a salary of £600 per annum, and is assisted by four beadles and two hundred special constables. A court of requests for the parish is held over the butchers market in Brown-street, under an act passed in the 48th of George III., every alternate Wednesday, for the recovery of debts under £5. The lord of the manor of Manchester holds a court baron every third Wednesday; and a court for the hundred of Salford is held every third Thursday, for the recovery of debts under 40a.; the sheriff's county court is also held here monthly, by adjournment from Preston, for the trial of pleas, and the recovery of debts not exceeding £10, in actions in which the parties reside in the hundred of Salford. The quarter sessions are held at Salford by adjournment, at which the business for the whole of the hundred of Salford is transacted, under the superintendence of a chairman, who has a salary of £ 800 per annum, paid by the hundred; the number of prisoners tried at these sessions is generally about two hundred. A barrister, with a salary of £1000 per annum, paid out of the police rates of Manchester and Salford, sits daily as a magistrate, under the provisions of an act of parliament, for the despatch of business, in which he is assisted by some of the county magistrates resident in the neighbourhood. The town hall is a noble and elegant edifice, erected under the superintendence and from a design of Mr. Francis Goodwin, in the Grecian style of architecture, at an expense of £40,000, after the model of the Temple of Erectheus, at Athens, with a beautiful tower and dome in the centre, resembling the tower of Andronicus, called the "Temple of the Winds;" the principal entrance is by a magnificent colonnade with a rich entablature, in front of which are some sculptured representations of the town of Manchester, and emblems of trade and commerce; in the wings are niches containing statues of Solon and Alfred; in the medallions of the attic are busts in alto relievo of Pythagoras, Lycurgus, Hale, and Locke. The building contains various departments for transacting the public business of the town; on the principal floor is a splendid public room, one hundred and thirty-two feet long, forty-three feet eight inches wide, and fifty-one feet and a half in height to the centre of the principal dome the interior of this noble room is divided into three parts by two ranges of eight elegant Ionic pillars, so disposed that each part may form a separate room; the central part is lighted by a magnificent dome, supported on sixteen dwarf columns of Scagliola marble, corresponding with the exterior design of the tower; and the other parts are finished in a very chaste style of classic beauty. The light is elegantly introduced into the extreme sections of the great room by concealed skylights, and through stained glass in the panels of the ceiling and dome, decorated to correspond with those that are not pierced for that purpose. Three staircases lead to this splendid room, with the interior of which the principal staircase will be made to harmonize. The town hall at Salford is a handsome stone edifice, with a noble portico in the Grecian Doric style, after that of the Temple of Theseus, supporting a triangular pediment; it affords in the lower part an area for the use of the market, and contains in the upper an elegant suite of assembly-rooms. The large room, which extends the whole length of the building, is elegantly fitted up, and decorated with pilasters supporting a richly -ornamented frieze and cornice; the ceiling is chastely embellished, and the room is appropriated to the use of the Salford courts, which are held here, being also occasionally used *lor public balls and concerts; the approach is by two handsome stone staircases. The principal entrance to the market-place is from the centre of the town ball, through a Doric colonnade; there are separate markets, for meat, vegetables, fish, and poultry, chiefly covemJ over and well ventilated; this building was erected under the superintendence of Mesnrs. Lane and Goodwin, at an expense of £ 10,000.

The Chorlton-row town hall, dispensary, and constables dwelling-house, are connected in one building, the front of which is handsome and imposing. In the central part is a boldly-projecting portico of four Doric columns supporting a pediment, of which the frieze is ornamented with wreaths; the wings are decorated with anta:, rising from a rustic basement. The portico leads to the public offices on the ground-floor, including a committee- room, principal clerk's office, assembling-room for the poor, and the pay-office; over these is a spacious room for public meetings, -well fitted up, and approached by a wide staircase and lobbies. On the basement floor are the watchmen's assembling-room, the lamplighters' room, oil-cellar, and three lock-up rooms, and in the attic are ample store-rooms. One of the wings is appropriated as a residence for the constable, and the other as a dispensary, which was established and is supported by subscription; this building was erected under the superintendence of Mr. Richard Lane, at an expense of £4500. The New Bailey, or house of correction for the hundred of Salford, adjoining which is the governor's residence, was erected in 1790, upon the radiating principle, and comprises twenty-four wards, the same number of day-rooms and airing-yards, one hundred and fifty workshops, for the classification and employment of the prisoners, and a tread-mill, with eight wheels, for such as are condemned to hard labour: the outer walls include an area of twenty-seven thousand square yards; over the entrance, which is a large rusticated stone building, is a sessionsroom, in which the weekly and quarter sessions are held j adjoining it are the grand jury rooms and withdrawing- rooms for the magistrates and barristers, and in the lower story are the turnkey's lodge, and rooms for the confinement of prisoners prior to examination. The discipline observed in this prison, which is capable of receiving nine hundred and twenty-six prisoners, and in which there are generally five hundred, is admirably calculated to reclaim the guilty, and to afford them, on their release, the means of future subsistence by honest, industry; those who have learned any trade are regularly employed in the exercise of it, and receive a considerable portion of their earnings; and such as have not, prior to their committal, are taught, during their confinement, some trade by which they may honestly maintain themselves after their discharge. Manchester comprises only one parish, which is in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester. The old collegiate church, which, till after the Reformation, afforded accommodation for all the inhabitants of Manchester and Salford, was founded and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, by Thomas, Lord de la Warre, in the 9th of Henry V., who endowed it for a warden and eight fellows; this establishment, the revenue of which was £2<26. 12. 5., was dissolved in the reign of Edward VI., and re-established in that of Elizabeth, under the designation of the Warden and Fellows of Christ's College, Manchester. The dilapidation of the church, and the misappropriation of the collegiate funds, under the wardenship of Richard Murray, induced the inhabitants to petition the throne for a revival of the former charter, in 1635, and Charles I. granted them a new charter of foundation, with rules for the government of the college, drawn up by Archbishop Laud. Under this charter, the management is vested in a warden, to be appointed by the crown, who must at least be a bachelor in divinity, or of canon and civil laws; and in four fellows, who must be masters of arts, or bachelors of laws; they are a body corporate, with a common seal, under the designation of the "Warden and Fellows of Christ's College, Manchester." The same charter provides for the appointment of a sub-warden, treasurer, collector, registrar, a master of the choir, organist, four singing men (either clerks or laymen), and four boys skilled in music, to be chosen by the warden and fellows; and ordains that there shall be continually in the college, two chaplains, or vicars of the degree of bachelors of arts, and two clerks to administer the sacraments, visit the sick, and perforrri other religious offices. During the usurpation of Cromwell, the Independents established their own form of worship in the college, in 1649; and, in the same year, the chapter-house and the college chest were broken open, and the foundation deeds seized by the soldiers, and sent, with other papers, to London, where they were subsequently destroyed in the great fire of 1666, The college was soon afterwards dissolved by an act of parliament for the sale of dean and chapter lands, and, during the interregnum, the last warden officiated as parochial minister, for an annual stipend. After the Restoration, the institution was revived, subject to the statutes of Charles I., and the warden reinstated in his office. The church is a spacious and elaborately ornamented structure, in the later style of English architecture, with a handsome square embattled tower, strengthened with buttresses, and crowned with pinnacles; the roof of the nave, which rises to a considerable height above the aisles, is concealed by a rich pierced parapet and decorated with pinnacles; the windows are spacious, and filled with elegant tracery and the exterior, which is relieved by the projection of some beautiful chapels, has a splendid and truly magnificent appearance. The view of the interior is strikingly impressive; the lofty nave is lighted by a noble range of clerestory windows of fine proportion and beautiful design, and the choir is splendidly enriched with tabernacle- work of elaborate and delicate execution; the roof is finely groined and ornamented with grotesque figures of angels playing on musical instruments, shields, and other devices, richly carved; considerable portions of the original stained glass are still preserved in several of the windows; and the altar is decorated with a piece of tapestry representing the offerings of the early Christians, and the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira. In different parts of the church, and in several chapels, are many ancient and interesting monuments.

Trinity church, at Salford, was founded and endowed by Humphrey Booth, Esq., in 1635, but having fallen into decay, it was rebuilt in 1752; it is a neat edifice in the Grecian style of architecture, and of the Doric order, with a steeple, and contains some handsome monuments and mural tablets: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Sir Robert Gore Booth, Bart. St. Anns, church, on the south side of St. Ann's square, founded in 1709, under the auspices of Lady Ann Bland, is a spacious structure in the Grecian style of architecture, and of the Corinthian order, with a tower formerly surmounted by a spire, which has been taken down; the interior, affording accommodation for one thousand one hundred and seventy-five persons, is a fine specimen of handsome and appropriate decoration: the living is a rectory not in charge, in the patronage of the Bishop of Cheater. Si. Mary's, between Deans - gate and the river. Irwell, erected by the Warden and Fellows of the College, by act of parliament in 1756, is a handsome edifice of the Doric order, with a lofty tower and spire, one hundred and eighty-six feet in height; the interior, which contains nine hundred and ninety-seven sittings, though dark, from the massive proportions of the pillars supporting the galleries, is very elegant: the altar-piece is embellished with a well-executed painting of the Ascension, after Raphael, by Williams j and the window is enriched with stained glass, beneath which are the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul: the living is a rectory not in charge,' in the patronage of the Warden and Fellows of the College; St. Paul's, a neat edifice of brick, was erected in 1765, and contains one thousand one hundred and forty-seven sittings; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. John's, in Byrom-street, was built by Edward Byrom, Esq., under the authority of an act of parliament, in 1769: it is a handsome structure, in the later style of English architecture, with a tower; the interior, which affords accommodation for one thousand and ninety persons, is remarkably neat, and handsomely ornamented: the chancel windows are embellished with stained glass j in one of the south windows is a beautiful representation of Christ entering into Bethlehem, in ancient stained glass, brought from a convent in Rouen; and in the corresponding window, on the opposite side, is also some ancient stained glass, brought from the continent: the vestry-room is richly ornamented with painted glass, and contains several fine paintings, among which are those of Paul before Felix, the Last Supper, the Holy Family, the Descent from the Cross (a copy of the original in St. Peter's church), a perspective view of the church, and other subjects; there are some handsome monuments and tablets in the church, and a piece of sculpture, by Flaxman, erected by the congregation, as a tribute of respect for their pastor, the Rev. J. Clowes; the church is entirely vaulted underneath, and is the property of the heirs of the founder: the living is a rectory not in charge, in the patronage of the Heirs of Edward Byrom, Esq., with reversion, after the lapse of two presentations from the period of its consecration, to the Warden and Fellows. St. James', erected by the Rev. Cornelius Bayley, D.D., in 1787, is a spacious and handsome brick edifice, with a small stone spire, and contains one thousand three hundred and ninety sittings; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Dr. Bayley, with reversion, after sixty years from the date of consecration, to the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. Michael's, a large edifice, of brick, with a foundation for a steeple not yet built, and containing nine hundred sittings, was founded by the late Rev. Humphrey Owen, in 1789; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Heirs of the founder, with reversion, after sixty years, to the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. Mark's was founded by the late Rev. E. Ethelston, and finished by his son, in 1794; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Heirs of the founder, with reversion, after sixty years, to the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. Peter s was erected by subscription among the inhabitants, and consecrated in 1794; ,it is a "handsome edifice of Runcorn stone, in the Grecian style of architecture, with a stately tower and a noble portico of the Doric order: the interior, which contains five hundred and fifty sittings, is remarkable for the elegance and chasteness of its decoration; the altar-piece is embellished with a fine painting of the Descent from the Cross, by Annibal Caracci: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Trustees for building the church, with reversion, after sixty years, to the Warden and Fellows. St. Stephen's, Salford, a neat building of brick ornamented with stone, with a handsome tower, was founded, in 1794, by the Rev. N. M. Cheek, to whose memory a neat mural tablet has been erected; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Heirs of the founder, with reversion, after sixty years, to the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. George's, a large building of brick, with a tower of the same material, was opened for divine service in 1798, and consecrated in 1818, when it was purchased by subscription: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Bishop of Chester. All Saints', in the centre of Grosvenor-square, a large and elegant structure in the Grecian style of architecture, was built,at the sole charge of the Rev. Charles Burton, L.L.B., at an expense of £14,000, and consecrated in 1820; the interior is elegantly ornamented; in the window over the altar is a fine painting of the Passion of Our Saviour in the Garden of Gethsemane; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Founder, with reversion to the Warden and Fellows. St. Matthew's, in Castle field, was erected, in 1825, by grant from the parliamentary commissioners, at an expense of" £11,917; it is an elegant structure, in the later style of English architecture, with a tower and spire, and contains one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight sittings, of which nine hundred and seventyeight are free; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. Philip's, in Salford, a handsome edifice in the Grecian style of architecture, with a tower and semicircular portico of the Ionic order, and containing one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight sittings, of which one thousand three hundred are free, was erected, in 1825, by grant from the parliamentary commissioners, at an expense of £13,423. 5.; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. George's, Hulme, an elegant edifice in the later style of English architecture, with a tower, and containing two thousand and two sittings, of which one thousand two hundred are free, was built in 1828, at an expense of £14,416. 19. 5., by grant from the parliamentary commissioners: the interior is elegantly arranged, and has a grand and imposing effect: the roof is elaborately groined, and enriched with bosses and flowers; the columns separating the nave from the aisles are surmounted by a handsome range of clerestory arches; the altar is highly decorated, and the east end is lighted by three beautiful windows enriched with elegant tracery; the tower is one hundred and thirty-five feet high. The commissioners have also granted a sum of £ 9900 for the erection of a church, to be dedicated to St. Andrew, in Travis-street, and to contain two thousand sittings, of which seven hundred are to be free, which is at present in progress. An episcopal chapel at Ardwick, dedicated to Si. Thomas, was consecrated in 1741, and enlarged in 1777; it is a neat building of brick; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Warden and Fellows of the College. St. Clement's, in Lever-street, erected in 1793; and St. Luke's chapel, in Bedford-street, built in 1804, are open for the performance of divine service, according to the liturgy of the Church of England, but have not been consecrated. There are five places of worship for Baptists; three for a society calling themselves Bible Christians; one for the Society of Friends; nine for Independents; one for Welch Independents; one for Independent Methodists; two for Methodists of the New Connexion; one for Primitive, one for Tent, eleven for Wesleyan, and two for Welch, Methodists; one for Presbyterians; two for Swedenborgians; and two for Unitarians; there are also three Roman Catholic chapels, and a synagogue. Of the dissenting places of worship, several are conspicuous for architectural beauty; among which maybe noticed the Roman Catholic chapel of St. Augustine, an elegant structure in the later style of English architecture, built in 1820, from a design by Mr. Palmer, at an expense of £ 10,000: under the chapel are school-rooms for one thousand two hundred children. The meeting-house for the Society of Friends is a spacious structure, equally conspicuous for the chaste simplicity of its character and the beauty of its Ionic portico, of which the design was taken from that of the Temple of Ceres on the Ilyssus; the interior is divided, near the centre, into two distinct houses by a sliding partition, of which the upper part is by machineryraised above the ceiling, and the lower depressed beneath the floor, when it may be convenient: it was erected under the direction of Mr. Lane, at an expense of £ 12,000. The Wesleyan meeting-house in Oxford road has a handsome portico of the Doric order; and that in Irwell-street, Salford, has a handsome Ionic portico and pediment. A general cemetery, for the interment of persons of all religious denominations, according to their several rites, comprising four acres, surrounded with a wall, was opened in 1821; the entrance is from Rusholme road, through a handsome iron gate, on the left of which is a chapel for the performance of the funeral service, and on the right a dwelling-house 6 similar design for the resident registrar.

The free grammar school was founded, in the 7th of Henry VIII., by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it with certain houses, tenements, and corn-mills, in the town of Manchester, and with lands at Ancoats adjoining, producing a revenue exceeding £4000. The establishment consists of a head-master, whose salary, including £30 allowed for a drawingmaster, is £446 per annum; a second master, with a salary of £218; an assistant to the head-master, with a salary of £ 160; an assistant to the second master, with a salary of £125; and a master of the lower school, with a salary of £120 per annum: the head and second masters, who are appointed by the President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, have each a stall in the collegiate church. The number of scholars is in general from one hundred and fifty to two hundred, who receive gratuitously a classical education, but pay for other instruction. There are twelve exhibitions, of £40 per annum each, to either of the Universities, belonging to this school, which also, in turn with the schools of Hereford and Marlborough, has an interest in sixteen scholarships in Brasenose College, Oxford, and in the same number in St. John's College, Cambridge, founded by Sarah, Duchess of Somerset, in 1679, and varying in value from £ 18 to £26 each per annum; there are in the nomination of the Warden of the Collegiate Church, and the Rectors of Prcstwich and Bury as trustees of Hulme's estates, fifteen fellowships, va- rying from £60 to £ 120 each, in Brasenose College for bachelors of arts, who may remain there four years after taking that degree, founded by William Hulme, Esq; of Kearsley, in this county, which are frequently con- ferred upon scholars from Manchester. The schoolhouse is a plain but spacious building, erected in 1777, on the site of the original edifice, having an owl, the crest of the founder, sculptured on a large stone medallion over the entrance; and containing an upper school-room, ninety-six feet long, and thirty feet wide, at one end of which are the arms of the founder em- blazoned; and a lower school-room, of smaller dimen- sions; the property of the school is vested in twelve trustees, and its management is superintended by the Warden of the College.

The Blue-coat hospital, part of which is appropriated to the use of the Cheetham library, was founded, in 1653, by means of a bequest from Humphrey Cheetham, Esq., of Clayton hall, near Manchester, who left £7000 to trustees, to purchase estates for its endowment; and a sum of money to purchase a house for the reception of forty scholars, of whom, fourteen were to be natives of Manchester, six of Salford, three of Droylsden, two of Crumpsail, ten of Bolton, and five of Turton, which number has, in the same proportion, from the augmentation of the funds, been increased to eighty: the boys, who are nominated by the churchwardens of the several townships, and elected by the trustees, are clothed, maintained, educated, and apprenticed. The buildings of the college founded by Lord de la Warre were, after its dissolution, purchased by the trustees from the Earl of Derby, to whom it had been presented by the Crown, and appropriated to the use of the hospital. The premises occupy the site of the baronial mansion of the Gresleys, on the bank of the river Irk, near its confluence with the Irwell, and comprise an extensive range of building, exhibiting, through all its subsequent repairs, strong features of its collegiate architecture; the lower apartments are assigned to the use of the Blue-coat hospital, and the upper story contains the library and apartments of the governor and librarian; the library extends through a long gallery divided into compartments; adjoining it is a large reading-room, ornamented with antique carvings, and portraits of the founder; of Dr. Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's; Dr. William Whitaker, sueccssively Master of Trinity, Queen's, and St. John's Colleges, Cambridge; Robert Bolton, a learned divine; and John Bradford, a native of Manchester, who having received the rudiments of his education in the grammar school, was afterwards Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and was burned as a heretic in the reign of Mary. The ladies' jubilee school, for maintaining, educating, and qualifying as household servants female orphans, was established in 1809, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the accession of George III.: the schoolhouse is a neat and commodious building on the borders of Strangeways park; there are thirty children in the school, which is supported by subscription, and is under the direction of a committee of ladies. Miss Hall, one of the original and most zealous promoters of this institution, bequeathed, at her death in 1828, £44,000, to be equally divided among four charities in the town, viz., this school, the infirmary, the lying-in hos- pital, and the fever ward. In 1723, Mrs. Ann Hinde bequeathed land and messuages, now producing nearly £9,00 per annum, for the education and clothing of twenty-eight children of Manchester, and twenty-nine of the township of Stretford. St. Paul's charity school, with a dwelling-house for the master, was erected in 1777, for the clothing and instruction of poor children, and is partly supported by subscription; it has also a permanent income of £34. 5. per annum: this school was suspended in 1823, and the endowment allowed to accumulate. The National schools in Manchester and at Salford were both founded in 1812, and.are supported by subscription: in each there are at present three hundred boys and the same number of girls. The Lancasterian school was founded in 1809, and the present building, in Marshall-street, was erected in 1813, at an expense of £5000: the school-room is one hundred and fifty feet long, and sixty-six wide, and will contain more than one thousand children; there are at present six hundred and ninety boys, and two hundred and ninety girls in the school, which is supported by subscription. There are Sunday schools connected with the established church and the various dissenting, congregations, in which not less than from twenty, to thirty thousand children are instructed: there are also several infant schools, which are numerously attended. The infirmary was established, in 1752, by Joseph Bancroft, Esq., in conjunction with Charles White, Esq., M. D.; and, in 1755, a building for the purpose was erected by subscription: it has been supported with a liberality commensurate with its importance in a large manufacturing town, and, since it was first opened for the reception of patients, has afforded medical relief to more than half a .million of the labouring class1: the buildings, which have been progressively enlarged, and to which other establishments have been attached, contain one hundred and eighty beds for the accommodation of in-patients, with apartments for the officers and attendants, and a surgery, library of medical books, committee-rooms, and other offices; also a complete set of baths, for the exclusive use of the patients. The grounds are tastefully laid out in gravel walks, lawns, and parterres, and form a public promenade, to which the fine pool in front ,of the buildings adds considerable beauty. A com- plete set of hot, cold, vapour, and medicated baths has been fitted up here, with every accommodation for the public use, the profits arising from which are appropriated to the support of the institution. A lunatic hospital and asylum was founded in 1765, -and the building was opened for the reception of patients in the spring of the following year. The dispensary was established in 1792, and an edifice for its use erected by public subscription adjoining the infirmary: it is of brick, and is ample and commodious, adapted more to use than to .the display of architectural beauty; in the centre of the front is a clock, the dial of which is illuminated at night. In 1830, his Majesty, on the solicitation of the chairman and committee, graciously became the patron of this institution, which is now styled " The Manchester Royal Infirmary, Dispensary, Lunatic Hospital, and Asylum; " the buildings for these several uses being already contiguous, it is intended, in the ensuing spring, to give them a uniformity of design, by facing the front and the north side with stone. The plan comprehends a principal and a side front, of which the elevation is strikingly elegant and imposing: the principal front has in the centre a lofty and boldly-projecting portico of four fluted Ionic columns, thirty-eight feet high, supporting a pediment, of which the frieze and cornice are carried round the building, the angles of which are ornamented with antas of appropriate character; the side front is of similar design, differing only in the slighter projection of the portico, which has but two columns in the centre, with engaged antae at the angles. The whole building is three stories high above the basement, and the lower story is channelled in horizontal lines. The fever hospital, in Aytoun-street, is a plain and substantial structure of brick, erected by subscription, at an expense of £5000, in 1805; it is under the superintendence of a Board of Health, contains twenty-one wards for the reception of one hundred patients, and is furnished with all requisite offices and every convenience for promoting the restoration of health, and preventing the spread of contagious disorders. The lying-in hospital, in Stanley-street, Salford, was instituted in 1790, for the assistance of poor married women, and for the cure of diseases incident to females, and to children under two years of age: it is supported by subscription, and its benefits are extended by the Ladies' Auxiliary Society for visiting the patients, and furnishing supplies of linen and other necessaries. The school for the deaf and dumb, at present held in this building, was established in 1825, for children of both sexes, and consists of three classes of pupils, viz., parlour boarders; general boarders, who pay each £26 per annum to the funds of the institution; and the children of the indigent poor, who are gratuitously maintained and instructed. The governors intend to erect a suitable building for the purposes of this school, as soon as their funds will enable them: it was commenced under the care of Mr. Vaughan with fourteen scholars, and there are now upwards of fifty receiving instruction; no child is admitted under nine years of age, nor above fourteen. An institution, in Faulkner-street, for curing diseases of the eye, was established by subscription in 1815, and, though its annual income does not exceed £200, affords relief to one thousand five hundred patients generally during the year. The Lock hospital, in Bond-street, established in 1819, for the recovery of persons suffering from disease, has, since its institution, administered relief to many thousands, of whom a very large pro- portion have been received as in-patients; and the female penitentiary, in Rusholme road, instituted in 1822, as a temporary asylum for such as have devi- ated from the path of virtue, and may be desirous to qualify themselves for reputable situations; both these institutions are supported by subscription. There are .various provident societies, among which is that of the commercial clerks, established in 1802; each member pays an admission fee according to his age,, and an annual subscription; from these funds, aided by honorary contributions, support is derived in sickness and old age, and a provision made for widows and chili dren: the number of members amounts to nearly a thousand. The Manchester Society for the encouragement and im.prq.vemen.t of female servants, was gsta-. Wished in 1816; at the rooms of the society in Chapel walk, a free register office is opened for supplying members of the institution with servants, and also for gratuitously supplying female servants with situations, and for the distribution of annual premiums to servants, proportioned to the length of their continuance in the same family, and the propriety of their conduct. There are also numerous societies, adapted to the state of the manufacturing population; savings banks; associations for clothing the poor, among which the most considerable are, the Manchester and Salford Church Clothing Society, and the Salford Dorcas Society, both instituted in 1822, for the distribution of clothes among the needy and destitute. The Strangers Friend Society was instituted in 1791, under the auspices of the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke; it is under the direction of a committee, and is open to all objects of distress, without any regard to their religious tenets. The Samaritan Society, a similar institution, was established in 1824; and various other institutions for the relief and assistance of human misery are liberally supported. There are funds at the disposal of the borough-reeve, amounting to more than £4000 per annum, arising from charitable bequests, for distribution in bread, clothes, money, and other necessaries, among the aged, infirm, and indigent poor. Among the distinguished natives of Manchester, or persons who have been otherwise connected with it, may be enumerated, William Crabtree, an astronomical writer, and the inventor of the micrometer, born at Broughton, within the parish, and killed at the battle of Marston Moor, in 1644; John Byrom, an ingenious poet, and the author of a popular system of short hand, born at Kersal Moor, near the town, in 1691; John Ferriar, M.D., author of Illustrations of Sterne, &c., and other popular works; Thomas Barritt, a distinguished antiquary and heraldist, whose large and valuable heraldic collections in manuscript have been placed in the library of Cheetham's hospital; Thomas Faulkner, an enterprising traveller, who published the earliest authentic account of Patagonia, and died in 1774; the Rev. JohnWhitaker, the Manchester historian; Thomas Percival, M. D., an eminent physician and popular writer; Charles White, M.D., F.R.S., a distinguished surgeon and anatomist,- and Joseph Farington, R. A., a landscape painter of considerable celebrity. Manchester gives the titles of duke and earl to the family of Montagu.

This station was for nearly four centuries occupied by the Romans, and amply provided with every thing requisite for the accommodation and subsistence of the garrison established in it, having also a water-mill on the Medlock, at some distance below the town, the site of which still retains the name of Knott mill. The station included a quadrangular area, five hundred feet in length and four hundred in width, the interior not exactly level, but rising from the centre towards the sides, on which a rampart of earth sloping inwards was raised from the ground surrounding the enclosure, which is consequently lower than the site of the castrum; on the summit of this rampart a wall was originally built, which extended round the enclosure, on one side of which was the castle, or fort; but very little of the foundation of the wall is at present discernible, the few remaining portions being under ground, and the greater part of the site covered with modern buildings. From this station, as from a common centre, Roman roads branched off to those of Cambodunum, Eboracum, Condate, Rigodunum, Veratinum, and Rerigonium. In the vicinity of the aboriginal settlement, which has obtained the name of Aldport, Roman urns and other vessels, stones inscribed to centurions of the cohort, votive altars, coins, fibulae, and lachrymatories, have been found at various times; and without the vallum, foundations of Roman buildings, and other vestiges of antiquity, have been frequently discovered. The Roman road to Cambodunum, commenced at the east gate of the castrum, and pursuing a northeastern direction, passed over Newton heath into the county of York; the road leading to Eboracum branched off from the former at a distance of less than two miles from Mancunium, and passing by the townships of Chadderton and Royton, continued in a north-eastern direction through Littleborough, and over Blackstone Edge, to the city of York j the road to Condate passed from the east gate of the castrum, through the village of Stretford, to the ford of Mersey, and thence to Kinderton 5 the road to Rigodunum branched off from the road to Condate about a mile from its commencement, and taking a south-westerly direction, crossed the river Irwell at Old Trafford, terminating at Blackrode; the road to Feratinum diverged from that to Rigodunum, and after passing by Eccles, continued through Barton to Warrington; and the road to the station Rerigonium commenced at the north-west gate of Mancunium, and passing Quay-street, ran nearly parallel with Deans-gate, and after crossing the river Irk passed over Kersall moor to Ribchester; there were also several smaller vicinal ways, of which some slight vestiges may be traced. After the departure of the Romans, the fort of Maneimium was taken from the Britons, about the year 488, by a party of the Saxons, who had forcibly established themselves in this part of the kingdom: they placed a garrison in it, which, however, surrendered to the British, who retained possession whilst Arthur Pendragon was prosecuting his victories over that people. In 620, it was captured by Edwin, King of Northumbria, who annexed it to his dominions; and soon afterwards a colony of Angles settled here. In 627, the inhabitants were converted to Christianity, by the preaching of Paulinus, a missionary employed by Gregory I., and a Christian church was built, and dedicated to St. Michael. Manchester having been taken by the Danes, was, about 920, wrested from their possession by Edward the Elder, who repaired and fortified the castle, and rebuilt the town, which had been almost destroyed in the assaults of the invaders, placing in it a strong garrison of his own soldiers, on account of its being a frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. It was raised to the distinction of & burgh, with extensive privileges, and for some time continued highly prosperous; but being exposed to repeated attacks, and having suffered so much injury in the wars between the Northumbrians and the Danes, notwithstanding its enlargement by Edward, it appears, at the time of the Conquest, to have been in every respect inferior to Salford, a Saxon settlement on the opposite bank of the Irwell, which, being a royal demesne, had risen into importance, and imparted name to the hundred; in the Norman survey we find that Manchester contained two churches, but it is not otherwise mentioned as a place of any note. Soon after the Conquest, it came into the possession of Albert de Gresley, whose descendant, Robert, the fourth lord of Manchester, obtained for it, in the reign of Henry III., the grant of an annual fair on the eve and festival of St. Matthew. In the reign of Edward I., the barons, in order to raise a greater number of men to serve in the army destined for the invasion of Scotland, conferred several privileges on their vassals; and Thomas de Gresley, sixth baron of Manchester, upon that occasion, granted to the inhabitants those rights and immunities which have been emphatically called the " Magna Charta of Manchester," This charter, which was granted on the 14th of May, in the year 1301, among other privileges, confers the right of choosing a borough-reeve; of disposing of their lands of inheritance according to their pleasure, reserving only to the heir, in such cases, the prior right of purchase; the power of arresting for debt within the borough the persons of knights, priests, or clerks, and various other privileges. The baron of Manchester was thrice summoned to parliament by writ in the reign of thia monarch, by whom he was made Knight of the Bath, and was one of the barons who, in the reiga of Edward II., conspired against Piers Gavestone. About seventy years before this, Salford was made a free borough, by charter from Ranulph de Blundeville, Earl of Chester.

The townhall, stone, corner of King-street and Cross-street; first stone laid in 1822; erected from the designs of William Godwin; completed in 1825; copied from Temple of Erectheus; dome in great hall from the octagonal tower of Andronicus, known as Athenian Temple of the Winds; in the niches on each side of the portico are figures of Solon and Alfred the Great, and in the attic story above it are medallions of Hale, Locke, and Solon; the great hall, approached by a broad staircase, is 131 feet long and 38 feet wide, its walls, and the dome which forms the centre of the building, being covered with allegorical frescoes; in this building is situated the offices of the Chamber of Commerce, which consists of twenty-four directors, and is one of the chief mercantile institutions of the town. Post-office, situated in Brown-street, Market-street, since enlargement of the Exchange; an unpretending building, the upper part of which is used as the borough court room. Corn exchange, Hanging Ditch, a more pretentious edifice, with a front of six Ionic fluted columns; opened in 1837, and cost £4,000; holds 2,500; is supported by cast-iron pillars; chief hall contains an area of 600 yards. Branch Bank of England, Pall Mall and King-street; Doric, from designs by Cockerell; opened in March, 1847.

The Athenæum, erected in 1837, from the designs of Sir Charles, then Mr. Barry, at a cost of £18,000; projected "to afford persons of the middle classes a suitable place of meeting in which they might be informed of all advances in science and art;" contains a library of 20,000 volumes, news-room, class-rooms, lecture hall, &c., and about 1,500 members. The Manchester and Salford assize courts, in Ducie-street, Strangeways; erected from designs and under the superintendence of Mr. Waterhouse, then a local architect; the finest architectural edifice in Manchester; contains two greater courts for civil and crown business, with smaller courts for chancery proceedings; a fine library, filled with some law publications for the use of the barristers attending the courts; grand jury room, dining hall, large central hall, with a great number of ante rooms and subterranean rooms for the despatch of business connected with the assizes: the design is Gothic, and although the civil court is rather too large for the convenience of the persons chiefly interested, and for acoustic purposes, the general arrangement and construction of the building reflect great credit on the architect. The Free Trade Hall, near the Theatre Royal, in Peter-street, with massive stone front; conspicuous as containing one of the largest meeting halls of the United' Kingdom; opened 8th October, 1856; cost upwards of 140,000; erected, by a Joint- stock company in £10 shares, from designs of Mr. Edward Walters, a local architect, in pursuance of a resolution passed 19th July, 1853; it contains a chief hall, 134 feet long, 78 feet wide, and 52 feet high, capable of holding nearly 5,000 persons; an assembly room, 75 feet by 37½ feet, and 28 feet in height, accommodating 600 persons, and several other rooms of smaller dimensions; the facade in Peter-street is 75 feet in height, and has a total length of 159 feet.

Manchester contains about 50 Episcopal churches, 29 Wesleyan Methodist, 17 Methodist Associate, 10 Roman Catholic, 25 Independent, 10 Baptist, 5 Scotch Presbyterian, 6 Unitarian, 1 Catholic Apostolic, Greek, German, Welsh, and Calvinistic chapels, together with a variety of meeting-houses for the Friends and the various Methodist denominations. Of the churches the principal are the Cathedral, or old Collegiate Church, which is situated in Victoria-street, midway between the Victoria railway station and the Royal Exchange. It was erected by Thomas de la Warr, under a license from Henry V., in the ninth year of his reign, 1422, the first stone being laid in July of that year. The living had been originally, and early in the 13th century, a rectory. Otto de Grandison, in 1299, was appointed rector, by presentation of the king. Its value in the 14th century was established by a survey to be the same as at a former estimate made by inquisition in 1252, and as being 200 marks. Its endowment consisted of eight burgage tenements in Manchester and in the villages of Newton and Kirkmoneshulme, with parks, woods, and pastures; a manor, which contained within the precinct two acres of land, and a place of pasture without the gate, between the waters of the Irk and Irwell; also the wood of Alport, which might be- enclosed, and made a park at the will of the town; a manor-house, with woods and moors of turbary so many and so large that they were not measured, but esteemed, according to the custom; together with a mill upon the water of the Irk; a mill for dyers; and a common bakehouse, at which it was compulsory, by the custom of the manor, for the burgesses to bake. At the Conquest the manor of Manchester was assigned, with a large tract of land extending between the Ribble and Mersey, to Roger of Poitiers, by the Norman William; but Hugh of Poitiers having afterwards forfeited his rights by treason, the same lands were reassigned to another follower, the Baron Albert de Gredley, from whom it descended to Thomas de la Warr. This Thomas de la Warr, as will be found by a reference in Camden printed elsewhere, was lord of the manor, patronage and parson of the parish, and also parliamentary representative. In order that the spiritual duties might be properly performed, he applied to the king for a license to found a college, to be endowed with the lands of the rectory of Manchester, which license hamming been accorded, the existing edifice was commenced as a collegiate church, attached to the college, in virtue of the new endowment under the royal license. The foundation consisted of a warden keeper, eight fellow chaplains, four clerks, and six choristers. By a deed of gift and feoffment, the lands of the rectory were then assigned to Thomas Bishop of Durham, chancellor of England, and other trustees, Thomas de la Warr, the patronage presenting to the bishop of the diocese John Huntington to be master or keeper. The college was dissolved Elizabeth Edward VI., but was restored by Queen Elizabeth to train the youth of Lancashire and extend Protestantism, and in the church were uttered some of the most violent philippics of that reign against Popery. This fine old historical church remained a collegiate church till 1847, when the see of Manchester was created, and it became the cathedral of the diocese; it consists of a nave, tower, aisles, with clerestory, choir, side aisles, chapels, vestry, &c.; its style is perpendicular Gothic, and offers some features of superior excellence of its order, but the softness of the stone has led to frequent repair and the replacement of nearly the whole of the original structure by more modern work. The work of restoration has been carried on without the necessity of closing the edifice, principally by the subscriptions of parishioners, who have raised more than £8,000 for that purpose, besides nearly £5,000 towards restoring the tower, the foundation-stone of which was laid on the 4th of August, 1864. St. Ann's church, Grecian, stands in the centre of the town, and forms the southern. side of St. Ann's- square; consecrated July, 1712, the foundation-stone having been laid in May, 1709; sittings for 1,175 persons; had originally a cupola, taken (town in 1777, and a spire erected in its place. St., Mary's, near St. Ann's, in St. Mary's- street, consecrated in September, 1756, the foundation-atone having been laid July, 1753; and St. John's, at the bottom of St. John-street, leading out of Deansgate; it was founded by Edward Byrnn, Esq., April 28, 1768, and was consecrated in 1769; it contains a stained-glass window by Pickett, of York, and a marble monument by Flaxman at the back of the rector's pew, erected in commemoration of the Rev. John Clowes attaining the fiftieth year of his ministry; it also possesses a modern monument in Caen stone, of an elaborate Gothic design, to the memory of Mr. William Marsden. St. Mary's, Hulme, in Moss-lane, at its junction with Boston-street; erected in fulfilment of the last will and testament of the late Wilbraham Egerton, Esq., of Tatton parish, Cheshire, by whom it was also endowed; the spire is 224 feet high, and is surmounted by a vane of 18 feet; in all, 252 feet; the style is the early geometrical decorated, from designs by Mr. Crowther. Among other churches noticeable on account of their architectural merits, or decorations, are- Trinity Church, Salford, the oldest in the borough, with a tower of perpendicular Gothic, and fitted with dark oak pews. St. Matthew's, a large building, erected after designs by Barry, and which has a spire of 132 feet in height. St. Simon's, Salford, early English, with a spire 150 feet, a carved oak pulpit, and three well-executed coloured windows. St. Luke's, Cheetham Hill-road, perpendicular Gothic; a fine building, with a tower terminating in an elegant crocketted spire 170 feet. All Saints, Grosvenor-square, which has a fine tower, surmounted by a dome with a ball and cross, and is a very capacious building, standing on an admirable site at the point of intersection of the Stretford and Oxford roads. St. George's, Hulme, perpendicular, built by Godwin, consecrated 9th December, 1826; is handsomely fitted up, and has a tower with clock and fine bell; contains organ by Reun, and three stained- glass windows by Warrington, of London. The principal Roman Catholic chapels are, St. John the Evangelist's, a very fine crueiform structure, decorated English, situate in Chapel- street, Salford; it consists of aisles and nave, transept, choir and aisles, and is surmounted by an elegant crocketted spire, said to be the loftiest in Lancashire; opened on the 9th August, 1848, by the late Cardinal Wiseman; contains windows by Hardman, of Birmingham, and three large pictures, copied from well-known originals at Malines. St. Augustine's, Granby-row, brick, with stone front; early Gothic; opened in 1820; window by Wailes, of Newcastle. St. Marie's, Mulberry- street, Norman. St. Patrick's, in Livesey-street. St. Anne's, Junction-street, Ancoats. St. Chad's, Cheetham Hill road, near Ducie-bridge. St. Wilfred's, Bedford-street, Hulme. St. Joseph's, Guilden-street. St. Aloysius's, Ogden-street. Cavendish Street Independent Chapel has a handsome interior, a fine stained-glass window, and a tower terminating in a spire 171 feet high; its style is early English, and it was erected from the designs of Mr. Walters. The interior is handsomely fitted, and contains a gallery all round, and the building is computed to hold more than 1,500 persons. The Greek church in the Waterloo-road, Strangeways, is a small but elegant looking edifice, copied from an Athenian model.

The chief of the educational institutions and schools, in point of antiquity, is the Chatham Library and College, which is also called the Chatham Hospital, which was founded by Humphrey Chatham, the fourth son of Henry Chatham, of Crumpsal, who was baptised at the Collegiate Church of Manchester, July 10, 1580, and who died in the year 1663. Humphrey Chatham, though of good family was a commercial factor or buyer, engaged in the fustian trade, but purchasing largely for the London market, and resided as a bachelor chiefly at Clayton Hall, near Manchester; by his will, bearing date the 10th December, 1651, he bequeathed £700 for the purchase of a fee simple estate, the profits of which were to be applied to the education and maintenance of forty poor boys; he had established the school during his lifetime, but had then restricted it to twenty-two scholars, fourteen from Manchester, six from Salford, and two from Droylsden. In his will six townships are allowed to nominate boys, and the number of recipients of his bounty was increased to forty; they are to be the children of poor but honest parents, not illegitimate, nor diseased, lame, or blind, when chosen; they are to be clothed, fed, and instructed, from the age of about six to fourteen, when they are to be bound out, at the expense of the institution, to some honest and useful trade. There was, in addition, a bequest of £1,000 for the purchase of books, and £100 for a building, as the foundation of a public library, for the augmentation and support of which there was a residuary devise of personalty, after the payment of legacies; such residue amounting to more than £2,000. The building stands on the most ancient historic site, adjoining the cathedral, and is approached by a gateway, surmounted by the arms and motto of the founder, and a courtyard, walled in, of some extent. Donations have been added from time to time to the original bequests, the flrst being in 1694, by the Rev. John Prestwich, Fellow of All Saints, Oxford; and the library now contains upwards of 20,000 volumes, and educates 100 boys, viz: 35 of Manchester, 16 of Salford, Droyldsden 8, Crumpsal 6, Bolton 25, Turton 12. The hospital is under the direction of twenty- five feoffees and a resident governor; the boys wear a distinctive dress, something like that of the Christ's Hospital boys in London; the library is absolutely free to all persons, resident or stranger. The Lancashire Independent College is a fine building, in the township of Withington, and is approachable either by the Chorlton-road, or the Stretford New-road; it is devoted to the education of Congregationalists or Independents, and is on the basis of the Church colleges of Oxford and, Cambridge; the principal, is the Rev. Robert Vaughan, D.D., who is assisted by professors, the whole being under the control of twenty trustees. Owen's College is situated in Quaystreet, in a house formerly occupied by the late Richard Cobden; it is a college in connection with the University of London, and was endowed by Mr. Owen, whose name it bears, with a bequest of £100,000, in order that Dissenters might be taught as at Oxford and Cambridge; the principals and professors are empowered, by royal warrant of 1851, to grant certificates to candidates for degrees to be granted by the University of London. The Free Grammar School, founded by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, in 1520, has an income of more than £4,000 per annum, and possesses several exhibitions to Oxford and Cambridge; the education provided is of a superior kind, but scarcely equals that which might be anticipated from so large a revenue. The Manchester Commercial Schools were erected in 1846 under the auspices of the Manchester Church Education Society, the foundation stone having been laid in June of the same year; the building has a good exterior, and will accommodate 200 boys; attached to the institution is the Manchester Evening College, for the instruction of persons engaged during the day. The Ladies' Public School was founded in 1806 for the purpose of educating the female children of the poor; it is situated on a plot of ground in Old Strangeways, and was erected to commemorate the completion of the fiftieth year of the reign of George III.; in 1832, it was enriched by a bequest of £10,000 from Mrs. Frances Hall; it educates forty girls. The Wesleyan Theological Institute was opened in 1842, and is situated at Didsbury, about 5 miles from Manchester, for the education of young men intended for the Wesleyan ministry; it is a large edifice, standing on about ten acres of ground. The Catholic Collegiate Institution is situated in Grosvenor- square, Chorlton.

There are in Manchester numerous literary and scientific institutions. The Manchester Royal Institution, Mosley-street, devoted to, scientific, literary, and artistic purposes, contains a lecture room capable of holding nearly 1,000 persons, and a hall adorned by casts of antique statuary, including copies of the Elgin marbles, presented by George IV.; the entrance-hall is graced by a very noble portrait-statue of Dry Dalton, by Chantrey, considered, justly, one of the finest productions of his studio, representing the chemist and philosopher seated in an attitude of graceful dignity; annual exhibitions of pictures are usually held in this building, and this portion of the edifice also contains one or two very fine paintings by Etty, the gift of D. Grant, Esq.; connected with the artistic department, there is a school for instruction in drawing, &c.; the building, designed by Barry, was originated at a meeting held at the Exchange in 1823, erected at a cost of £30,000, and opened in 1830. The Athenæum, also from designs by Barry, was erected in 1837, and cost £18,000, containing a library of 16,000 volumes, a lecture hall accommodating 1,000 persons, gymnastic club, chess club, essay and discussion society. Manchester School of Art, for promotion of art culture and instruction, also in Mosley-street; adjoining Royal Institution, opened in February, 1838, and supported by government aid, fees, and subscriptions; a Mechanics' Institute, first stone laid June 21, 1855, opened September 9, 1856, and cost £14,000, containing a library of 20,000 volumes, with lecture theatre, class rooms, organ, &c.; subscriptions, males, 5s., females, 3s. per quarter; Manchester Free Library, Byrnn-street, Camp-field, opened September 2, 1862; Salford Athenæum, Great George-street, Salford, opened November 14,1853; Pendleton Mechanics' Institute; Ancoats Lyceum; Miles Platting Mechanics' Institute, Argyle-street, top of Oldham-road; Crumpsall Mechanics' Institute; Chorlton=on-Medlock Mechanics' Institute and Temperance Hall. The chief of the hospitals and benevolent institutions are-the Manchester Royal Infirmary and Dispensary, one of the finest and most conspicuous buildings in Manchester, situated at junction of Mosley and Market- streets, in Piccadilly; the building occupies three sides of a quadrangle, the centre of each being ornamented by fine Ionic portico pediments, supported by fluted pillars originally founded in 1752 at a house in Garden-street, Shudehill, by Joseph Bancroft and Charles White, surgeons; in 1764, the present building was commenced on land purchased of Sir Oswald Mosley, and was opened in 1755; in 1766 a Lunatic Asylum was added to the foundation, and in 1792 a Dispensary was annexed; it was enlarged by a W. wing in 1851, and the Piccadilly front was completed in 1853, and a dome built to serve as a clock tower, which now possesses a clock with four illuminated dials; the height from the ground to the top of the cupola is 105 feet; the infirmary is fronted by three bronze statues of Dr. Dalton, Wellington, and Peel, which occupy a site of a dirty pool of water, once stagnant there'; the Lunatic Asylum was removed from the Royal Infirmary in 1854, to Stockport Etchells. St. Mary's Hospital and Dispensary, the oldest charitable medical institution in Manchester, formerly in Quay- street, opened in the present building October 10, 1866, has a good library of obstetric works and a museum-architect, G. Pennington; Lock Hospital, 311, Deansgate; House of Recovery and Board of Health; Manchester Eye Infirmary; Salford and Pendleton Royal Hospital and Infirmary; Chorlton Dispensary; Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary; Manchester Homoeopathic Institution, Bloom-street; Manchester and Salford Homoeopathic Dispensary, Dale-street, Lever-street; Chorlton-upon-Medlock Dispensary, Penitentiary; Greenheys District Provident Asylum; Blind Asylum, Stretford New-road, Deaf and Dumb School, same edifice; public baths and washhouses, Muller-street, founded in 1845, partly by subscription, partly on the profitable returns of a ball held for the purpose in the exchange-they are now self-supporting, and a great boon to the community, but are inferior to the corporation baths in Liverpool in appointment and style.

The courts of quarter sessions and of petty sessions for the city of Manchester were formerly held in court rooms over the post-office, in Brown- street, but are now held at the assize courts, in Ducie-street. There are six to eight borough sessions held during the year, the recorder being T. West, Esq. A stipendiary magistrate, T. Fowler, Esq., assisted by other magistrates in the city commission of the police, sits every morning at ten o'clock, Sundays excepted. The courts of quarter and petty sessions for the borough of Salford are held in a court-room behind the Salford town hall; the quarter and petty sessions for the hundred of Salford are held at the New Bailey prison, in Salford. The Manchester district courts of bankruptcy are held in the Manchester Athenæum. A chancery court of the county palatine is held at the assize courts in May and December-this court having concurrent Jurisdiction with the High Court of Chancery. The Manchester county court is held in the county court-house at Nicholas Croft, High-street, Manchester. The Salford county court (town hall, Salford, and Manchester court of record) sits six times each year, for the trial of civil actions, one sitting in each alternate month. The court has authority to try personal actions within the city, where the debt or damage does not exceed £30. The Salford hundred court of record holds seven sittings yearly. The court has jurisdiction to the extent of £50 sterling, but may try debts involving larger sums by consent. Its district includes the parishes of Bolton, Bury, Dean, Radcliffe, Wigan, Flixtow, Manchester, Prestwick-cum-Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Middleton, and Rochdale. A court-leet for the hundred of Salford is held twice a-year in the townhall, Salford.

There are two barracks, for cavalry and infantry respectively, in Barrack-street, Hulme, near St. George's Church, and in Regent-road, Salford. The Manchester borough gaol is situated on the Hyde-road, and is a conspicuous and large building; it was commenced in June, 1847, and completed in December, 1849, and received prisoners the following March; it was enlarged in 1856; it is conducted on the separate system, and consists of wings radiating from a centre; a hospital, chapel, and schoolrooms are annexed, with workshops and sheds; it occupies about seven acres, is surrounded by a boundary wall, and will hold 700 or 800 prisoners. The New Bailey prison is situated in Salford, on the right bank of the Irwell, near Albert Bridge. The foundation stone was laid in 1787 by Howard, the philanthropist, on unoccupied ground; but the place is now in the centre of a crowded and highly populous district. It has a reputation for being well managed, and for its healthy situation; it is surrounded by a hip wall sur mounted by an iron chevaux-de-frise, will hold 583 male and 214 female prisoners. Manchester old workhouse is on the right of the Bury New-road, Strangeways, behind the Victoria Station, and is a large plain building, built in 1792, holding about 1,000 inmates. Salford workhouse is in the Eccles New-road, occupies about 7 acres, cost about £18,000, accommodates 820 inmates, and was built in 1852. There is also a workhouse at Withington, for the parish of Chorlton-on-Medlock, completed in 1855, which will hold 1,676 poor. Manchester New Workhouse was commenced in 1855 and completed in 1857, on the Bongs estate, at Crumpsall, near Manchester, at a cost of upwards of £50,000. The space enclosed measures about 600 feet by 410, and will accommodate nearly 2,000 persons. The Night Asylum is in Henry-street, Oldham-road.

The bridges across the Irwell are the Victoria, opened on the 20th June, 1839, an elliptical arch of 100 feet span, with a rise of 22 feet, and a roadway of 45 feet, occupies the site of Salford Bridge, of three Gothic arches, which was built in 1366; the Albert, or New Bailey Bridge, opened for general traffic 26th September, 1844, has one stone arch; Blackfriars, at St. Mary's Gate, near the Exchange, has three arches, and was opened August, 1820, formerly exacted a toll, but was made free in March, 1848; Strangeways Bridge, of a single iron arch, was built in 1817, a toll bridge; Hunts Bank Bridge, erected in 1864, close to Victoria Station and Cathedral, has one iron arch; Broughton Suspension-bridge unites Pendleton with Broughton, opened in 1826 -toll bridge; Hunts Bank Bridge, over the Irk, erected in 1826; Broughton Bridge unites Salford with Lower Broughton, is of stone, and in three arches; Regent-road Bridge connects the township of Hulme with the borough of Salford, and is about 1 mile from the Exchange, opened in 1808, with toll-toll abolished 21st December, 1848; Springfield-lane Bridge connects Salford with Broughton and Bury New-road, constructed 1850.

Manchester has several cemeteries:-the Harpurhey Cemetery, on the Rochdale-road, about 2 miles from the Exchange, contains about 11 acres, flrst opened in 1837, enlarged in 1847. Ardwick Cemetery is situated in Hyde-road, Ardwick, contains about 8 acres of cultivated land; Dr. Dalton is buried here; in all it covers about 12 acres, but is in a populous neighbourhood, and is rather a graveyard than a cemetery. Rusholme-road Cemetery lies between Oxford-road and Downing- street, has about 5 acres, was originally laid out amid fields and is now amid crowded streets. New Barnes Cemetery, near Weaste- lane railway station, belongs to the borough of Salford; Joseph Brotherton, one of the first members of parliament for Salford, is buried here. Manchester has now three theatres, and several parks and public pleasure-gardens, as well as a botanic and horticultural gardens, and the usual music-halls and singing- saloons which are common in the larger English towns. The Botanical and Horticultural Gardens, opened June, 1831, are extensive, covering 16 acres, and admirably laid out, and are adequate to the resources and wealth of the town. The principal parks are-Peel Park, a memorial park situated 1 mile W. of the Exchange, designed to commemorate the triumph of free trade, and which contains a statue of Sir Robert Peel, by Noble, and also of the Queen and the late Prince Albert, the latter in his robes as a Knight of the Garter, a museum of natural history, adorned with casts from the antique, and a gymnasium for the working classes; the Queen's Park is about 2 miles N.N.E. of the Exchange, is laid out similarly to Peel Park, but possesses superior advantages of site, and some very fine trees, together with a picturesque sheet of water; Philipp's Park, a place of recreation for the working classes, is situated in a very populous neighbourhood, about 2 miles E. of the Exchange, and near the residences of the class for whose benefit it was projected. These three parks were established in 1845, and cost about £33,000, £3,000 of this sum being contributed by Government. The Bellevue Zoological Gardens are, a provineial Cremorne Gardens on a very rough scale, but are greatly attended by the populace from Manchester and the surrounding towns. They are situated in the Hyde-road, Ardwick, about 3 miles from the Exchange, and are accessible by omnibus and railroad. There are generally fête days, with fireworks, music, and dancing, on Saturdays and Mondays-the place containing a large hall for the latter amusement, and a shilling entrance money being charged. The Pomona Gardens, Cornbrook, a similar place of amusement, but containing grounds laid out with more taste and pretence, are accessible by water, road, or rail; there is a gymnasium, maze, bridge, and boats, but the place is less frequented than Bellevue. The Concert Hall, in Lower Mosley-street, is a place of entertainment in the hands of a proprietary limited to 600 persons. It was established and opened in 1830, for the promotion of the art of music, and a certain number of concerts are given annually, at which the wealthier classes attend; the concert- room is capable of seating about 1,200 persons. Of the kind used by the general public are the Philharmonic Hall, Fountain-street; the Victoria Music hall, Greengate, Salford; Hardy's Concert Hall, Deansgate; Trafford Arms, Victoria Bridge; the Old Boar's Head, Lower King-street; the Polytechnic; the Divan, Oxford- road. Manchester contains three theatres-the Royal, Queen's, and Prince of Wales. The Royal is situated in Peter-street, and was opened in September, 1845; it is a brick building with an architectural front in the modern Italian style; the height of the building is about 70 feet; the interior is in the Italian style; the house was designed to hold 2,247 persons, but, when very crowded, has accommodated more than 3,000 spectators. The Queen's Theatre is a minor theatre standing at the junction of York-street and Spring Gardens, was fitted up in 1815 for melodramatic performances, and in 1839 was occupied as a place of equestrian entertainment by Ducrow. The Prince of Wales is a new and modern theatre, erected in 1864 by a limited company for the purpose of introducing comedies, burlesques, and lighter pieces of amusement, to temper the arbitrary dictatorship in theatricals of the lessee of the Theatre Royal; it is situated at the corner of Mosley-street and Peter street.

Two fairs are held annually in Manchester, and two in Salford-those of Manchester in the Camp Field during Easter week and the first days of October; that held at Easter is known as the Knott Mill Fair, and is much frequented; the other is called Acres Fair, from having been formerly held in Acres Field, now called St. Ann's-square': the Salford fairs are held in Chapel- street; in Whitsun-week and on the 17th, 18th, and 19th November, this last being popularly known as Dirt Fair. Manchester boasts several learned societies-the literary and philosophic, established in 1781, has numbered several distinguished persons among its members; the council-room is adorned by portraits of Newton, Davy, and Dalton, and a marble bust of Dr. W. Henry, by Chantrey; this society periodically publishes its transactions. It has also numismatic, photographic, legal, medical, statistical, natural history, and geological societies, several of which publish their proceedings. There is a law library in Norfolk-street, established in 1820, containing about 4,000 volumes, and chiefly supported by attorneys and solicitors; a public library in Newall's buildings, containing nearly 20,000 volumes, the property of a proprietary of subscribers, the value of the shares nominally £4 4s.; New Subscription Library, in Cross-street; Mudie's, also in Cross-street; the Portico, occupying a substantial and architectural building in Mosley- street, of the Ionic order, originally established in 1796, by 300 members, contains 14,000 volumes and admirable news-rooms, the reading-room being 66 feet by 42; the Free Library, Camp, Field, one of the first, or the first, public libraries set on foot under Ewart's Act of 1850, established in 1851 by public subscription, amounting to £12,742, is free, and supported by a local rate of one halfpenny on the poor-rate assessment. The clubs are-the Union, established April, 1825, occupying a large building in Mosley-street, near the Royal Institution, subscription 7 gs., entrance-money 40 gs., limited to 400 members, contains the usual club-house appointments on a handsome scale, in emulation of London clubs; the Albion, King-street, similar to the preceding on a more modest scale, established in 1837, subscription 5 guineas; Mosley-street Club, subscription 3 to 5 guineas. Besides these there are the Bridge- water, the Albert, and a railway club. In addition to these institutions and buildings Manchester possesses several societies, auxiliary and otherwise, of a religious or benevolent kind-a Distressed Foreigners' Society; a Church Institute; a Young Men's Christian Association; a model lodging-house, in London-road; ragged and industrial schools in Sharp-street, Rochdale-road, in Broughton-road, Salford, and in St. John's Parade, Byron-street; a Salford humane society; a glee and madrigal society; a society for the protection of trade; a commercial association; a Royal School of Medicine and Surgery; a temperance society; a Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge-local branch; a teetotal society, called the United Kingdom Alliance; Bible, Tract, Pastoral Aid, Church and Domestic Mission Societies, a madrigal society, museum of natural history; and several public statues-viz: to Peel, Welling ton, Watt, Dalton, the Queen, and Prince Albert; but none of them, save that to Dalton, have any pretension to be considered works of art, or are in any wise entitled to critical notice.

The railway stations are at Hunt's Bank, Bank Top, London-road, New Bailey, and Oxford road. The history of Manchester may be literally said, to adopt a phrase of Lord Macaulay, to be lost in the twilight of fable. The Rev. J. Whittaker, one of its most erudite and zealous historians, has attempted to claim for it an existence long anterior to the Roman occupation of the island, but the data on which his opinions are avowedly based are so purely conjectural as to give little more than the value of hypothesis to his remote history. A passage in Tacitus (Tacitus, Agri. Vit., 21), however, established an invasion of Lancashire by Agricola in the summer of 79, after wintering at Chester (Deva), and it appears probable that a military station was, during this expedition, established at the confluence of the Irk and Irwell, which was called Mancenion, or Mancunium, and which is in different copies of the Itinerary of Antoninus referred to as Manaurium, or Manutium, all of which names undoubtedly bore reference to the same spot, and to a military station then in existence of more or less importance. Camden has referred, in his Britannia, to some conjectural or probable origin of the name, which may be noted, and which were suggested by his visit to Manchester in 1607:- "In a neighbouring park, called Alparc, I saw the foundation of an old square fort which they called Mancastle, where the river Medlock joins the Irwell. I will not say that this was the ancient Mancunium-the compass of it is little-but rather that it was some Roman station." In a subsequent passage Camden has ventured, with what Hollingworth denominates "a light and frothy conceit," on a derivation that the town is called Manchester, because the inhabitants behaved bravely against the Danes; they would have "the city called Manchester, that is, as they explain it, a city of men, and of this notion they are strangely fond, as seeming to contribute much to their honour. But I would rather," he continues, "derive it from the British word main, which signifies a stone, for it stands upon a stony hill, and beneath the town, at Colyhurst, there are noble and famous stone quarries." But whatever the origin of the name, or position of the settlement or station prior to its Roman occupation, it appears manifest that it became of entirely inconsiderable importance in subsequent history, and, like Chester, was either in part or wholly devastated by the Danes. On the testimony of Ingulfus of Croyland, Alfred, about the year 890, first divided England into counties, appointing certain custodes, or keepers, to suppress outrages in every county; and "the also divided the said counties into centuries or hundreds; and certain courts were by him, or some other after him, appointed to be kept in some town or place within the hundred, which some time was a place of good note, as Salford, near Manchester, now is, though I cannot find any ancient name of it, or other monument of its antiquity. Manchester certainly did not give name to the hundred; whether because as it was then a city, as the story of those times call it, and no cities I know of do give names to the hundreds, having probably government within themselves; or because it was so sore defaced and almost ruined; or because the town of Salford was-then immediately in the king's hands, as also it hath continued till very lately, I leave to the judgment of the reader." In this condition of ruin it may be inferred it remained, from an incidental passage in Roger of Hovenden, that about the year 920, Edward, king first of the West Saxons, and afterwards of the Mercian, sent into the kingdom of the Northumbers an army of the Mercian, that they should fortify the city of Manchester, and place valiant soldiers in it. From this period it became a frontier town between the Mercian, who inhabited Cheshire, Derbyshire, &c., and the Northumbers, who inhabited Yorkshire, &c., and in their wars and mutual incursions was sometimes possessed by the Mercian, sometimes by the Northumbers. It was anciently a borough. Now, with the Saxons a borough was the same as a city, though afterwards those principal towns which were the seats of bishops did engross the name of cities, and the rest were called boroughs. William the Conqueror, after the Conquest, assigned to Roger of Poitiers all that land or province lying between the Ribble and Mersey described under Yorkshire and Cheshire, and not as Lancashire, in Domesday Book. But it soon after passed from his hands into those of Albert de Gredley, who was in the train of the Conqueror. In Domesday Book there is mention of a church called St. Marie's in Manchester, and a church called St. Michael's, which had unam Carucam quietam ab omni consuetudine praeter Geldam. Albertus de Gredly gave to the church of Manchester four bovates or oxgangs of lands in Frank Almoigne of his own demesne. Manchester seems to have possessed a rectory early in the 13th century. In 1299 Otto de Grandison was made rector by the presentation of the king. The manor lands joined to the rectory of Manchester, saving that a place called Bleu Orchard or Wall Greens, was between them. The manor- house stood in or near the place where the college now stands, and was called Barons Court, or Barons Yard, and the place was called Barons Hall, as a neighbouring bank was called Hunts Hall, now Hunts Bank; and the parsonage-house was near to a field called the Parsonage, in or near the street called Deansgate. As has been already mentioned, Manchester passed from the hands of Hugh of Poitiers into those of Albert de Gredley, from whom it descended to Thomas de la Warr, the last heir male of the De la Warrs, and through his sister, Joan, to West, Lord de la Warr, about 1390. This Thomas de la Warr, who has been already referred to, was the founder of the college, to which was annexed the collegiate church, which is now the cathedral. The 32nd Henry VIII. (1540) Confirmed Manchester as a place of privilege, having been anciently a sanctuary. But in 33rd Henry VIII. the privilege, being found prejudicial, was annulled. Leland passed through the country in the reign of Henry VIII., and he mentions Mancestre as "the fairest, best budded, quickest, and most populous town of Lancashire." He proceeds-" It has but one parish church, but that collegiate, and almost throughout double aisled, with very hard squared stone.

There are several stone bridges in the town, but the best, of three arches, is over the Irwell, dividing Manchester from Salford, which is a large suburb to Manchester. On this bridge is a pretty little chapel. The next is the bridge over the Irk, on which the very fair budded college stands. On this river are divers fair mills that serve the town. In the town are two market-places." In the year 1519 Hugh Oldham (a native of Oldham), Bishop of Exeter, by will endowed a free grammar school in Manchester with lands, and a long lease of the water, flour, and dyeing mills in the neighbourhood; and in 1524 conveyance was made, under the trusts of the will, to trustees, for the purposes of carrying out this intention. It was free, and no male infant of any age was to be refused. The choice of the head- master and usher were vested in the president of Corpus Christi, Oxford; in default, in the warden of Manchester College. The College of Manchester was abolished by Aet of Parliament of the 1st of Edward PI., and the land and revenues were given by the king to the Earl of Derby- Queen Mary, however, refounded the College, and restored some of the lands. Up to this period there are few evidences beyond the fact of dyers having settled on the river's bank, of Manchester having attained, or occupying any manufacturing position; but it is recorded rather as a tradition than as a fact, that in 1520 there were three famous clothiers living in the north country, viz: Cuthbert of Kendal, Hodgekins of Halifax, and Martin Brian, or Byrom of Manchester. Each of these kept a great number of servants at work-spinners, carders, weavers, pillers, dyers, shearmen, &c. In 1552, the 5th and 6th of Edward VI., gives us, however, a large insight into the condition of the staple trade of the town at that time. This statute regulated the width and weight of Manchester, Lancashire, and Cheshire cottons, and, ordains "that all the cottons called Manchester, Lancashire, and Cheshire cottons, shall be in length twenty-two yards, and contain in breadth three quarters of a yard on the water, and shall weigh thirty pounds in the piece at least." From the rest of this statute, as well as from other circumstances, it- may be inferred that Manchester cottons at this time were made of wool. In 1567 another Act was passed to amend the preceding statute. In 1565 the plague visited Manchester. In 1567, the 8th of Queen Elizabeth, an aulnager was appointed to measure the cottons and fustian of Manchester, on account of the frauds practised in these towns. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth gave a new foundation to the College, and incorporated it as Christ's College, Manchester. In the preamble of the Act, the number of parishioners is alleged to be 10,000. The foundation is to consist of a warden, a bachelor of divinity, four fellows, who are, like the warden, to be priests and bachelors of art, two chaplains, a vicar, four singing men, and four children; the warden to be appointed by the crown, the fellows and others to be elected by the wardens and fellows. In 1595, John Dee, the celebrated astrologer, was appointed warden of the College. In 1605 the pestilence again visited the town. Camden travelled through Lancashire in 1607, and his description of Manchester, as it then existed, assumes great value. (Camden's Britannia; Nichols, vol. i. Ed. 1789.) "At the confluence of the Irwell and Irk, on the left bank, which is of reddish stone, scarce three miles from the Mersey, stands that ancient town called by Antoninus, according to the various readings, Mancunium and Manucium, and by us at present, with some traces of the old name, Manchester. This surpasses the neighbouring towns in elegance and populousness, and contains a woollen manufacture, market, church, and college, founded by Lord la Warr (summoned to parliament by the name of Magister Thomas de la Warr), who took orders, and was the last male heir of his family, 1 Henry V. He was descended from the Gredleys, who are said to have been the ancient lords of this town. In the last age it was much more famous for its manufacture of stuffs called Manchester Cottons, and the privilege of sanctuary, which the parliament of Henry VIII. transferred to Chester. Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden, 1772, adds, "But the growth of this place, in this and the last age, having been so considerable, and what has set it above its neighbours in all respects, it may deservedly claim a particular account to be given of its present state, for, though it is neither a corporation, nor sends burgesses to parliament, yet, perhaps, as an inland town, it has the best trade of any in these northern parts. The fustian manufacture, called Manchester Cottons, still continues there, and is of late very much improved by some modern inventions of dying and printing, and this, with the great variety of other manufactures known by the name of Manchester Wares, renders not only the town itself, but also the parish about it, rich, populous, and industrious. "From a poem in" Hackluyt's Voyages,", published in 1430, it appears that, at that early period, cotton was imported into England by the Genoese; and, between 1511 and 1534, "divers tall ships are mentioned by Hackluyt, of London and Bristol, which had an unusual trade to Sicily, Candia, and Chios, and sometimes to Cyprus and Tripoli, and Baruth in Syria. They exported thither sundry sorts of woollen cloths, calf skins, &c., and imported from thence silks, camlets, rhubarb, malmsey, muscadel, and other wines, oils, cotton wool, Turkey carpets, galls, and Indian spices." (Baines's History of Lancaster, vol. ii. p. 404.)

The first mention made of Manchester in connection with the cotton manufacture was in Lewis Roberts's "Treasure of Traffic," published in 1641, as a seat of linen and also of cotton manufacture:- "The town of Manchester, in Lancashire, must be also herein remembered, and, worthily for their encouragement, commended, who buy the yarn of the Irish in great quantity, and, weaving it, return the same again into Ireland to sell. Neither doth their industry rest here, for they buy cotton-wool, in London, that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home work the same, and perfect it, into fustian, vermillines, dimities, and other rich stuffs, and then return it to London, where the same is vended and sold, and not seldom sent into foreign parts, who have means, at far easier terms, to provide themselves of the said first materials" (p. 32). From this it will be seen that Manchester had already become famous for its manufacture; and, doubtless, the employment of cotton had been induced by the use of linen, linen yarn being used as the warp in the making of fustian, and of nearly all other cottons in this country down to the year 1773. In 1650, a description of the towns of Manchester and Salford contains the following information:- "The trade is not inferior to that of many cities in the kingdom, chiefly consisting of woollen friezes, fustian, Backcloths, mingled stuffs, caps, inkles, tapes, points, &c., whereby not only the better sort of men are employed, but also the very children, by their own labour, can maintain themselves. There are, besides, all kinds of foreign merchandise brought and returned by the merchants of the town, amounting to the sum of many thousands of pounds weekly." (Aikin's History of Manchester, p. 154.) And at or about this time, Manchester consisted of ten streets, and Salford of three, the old bridge referred to by Camden, now represented by Victoria Bridge, being the only communication between the two towns. In 1651 the Chetham Library was established, and fourteen years after the Hospital was endowed, Manchester being described by a contemporary as being "one mile in length, with good streets and buildings, and the people more industrious than in any other part of the north of England." Towards the close of this century the general exports of the country rose considerably, and there can be little doubt from their character that Manchester mainly contributed to the progressive rise, and benefited by the increase. The beginning ef the 18th century witnessed a still further development, the peace existing from 1740 for about twenty years enabling the trade of the entire Lancashire district to make great strides. In 1722, the first post-office was established in Manchester, and letters were despatched thence to London three times a week, the time required for transit being seven or eight days. Five years after, the author of "A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain," published in 1727, referring to Manchester, remarks, "Within a very few years past, here, as at Liverpool, and also at Frome in Somersetshire, the town is extended in a surprising manner, being almost double to what it was a few years ago, so that now, taking in all its suburbs, it now (1727) contains at least 50,000 people. The grand manufacture, which has so much raised this town, is that of cotton in all its varieties, which, like all other manufactures, is very much increased within these thirty or forty years." A paragraph in the Daily Advertiser of September, 1739, copied into the Gentleman's Magazine, supports this view of the rapid rise of the town and the development of its manufacturing resources, thus:- "The manufacture of cotton, mixed and plain, is arrived at so great a perfection within these twenty years, that we not only make enough for our own consumption, but supply our colonies and many of the nations of Europe. The benefits arising from this branch are such as to enable the manufacturers of Manchester alone to lay out above £30,000 a year, for, many years past, in additional buildings; and it is computed that 2,000 new houses have been built in that industrious town within these twenty years. This rise, however, must not be assumed to have been caused by any great increase in the cotton trade, but chiefly by the woollens and fustian, and general manufactures for which the place was noted. The entire value of all the cotton goods manufactured in 1760, according to the estimate of Dr. Percival, who might have been considered an authority on the subject, was not more than £200,000 a year, and, in 1705, the quantity of cotton-wool imported little exceeded 1,000,000 lbs. annually, and seventy years after was less than five times that amount; while, at the former period, the value of the woollen goods exported equallcd two-fifths of the entire export trade of the kingdom, or about £3,000,000 per annum. In 1758, the Duke of Bridgewater, by the aid of Brindley, the celebrated engineer, commenced the famous Bridgewater Canal, which runs near Manchester, and which was destined to create a complete revolution in the mode of transit of goods; and in 1777 the first post coach was established, marking a further era in the progress of the rising town. The invention of the spinning mule in 1779 by Samuel Crompton effected a complete revolution in the manufacturing resources of Manchester, and gave to its staple trade an impetus which has never ceased. A contrast of the quantities of cotton imported and exported at the close of the last century, and in 1800, before the outbreak of the American war, would serve as an able index to the progressive advance of the manufacturing interest. At the period first suggested the supplies from all sources did not exceed 2,000,000 lbs.: in 1860 the return of cotton imported were:

        United States        1,115,890,608 
        Brazil                  17,286,864
        Mediterranean           44,036,608
        British possessions 
             in India          204,141,168
        British West Indies
         and British Guiana      1,050,784 
        Other countries          8,532,720 
                 Total . . . 1,390,938,752
 

Beyond the cotton manufacture in all its various branches, Manchester-has of late years turned its attention to the manufacture of arms and hardware, chiefly through the indefatigable exertions and genius of Mr. Whitworth, and now boasts a small arm factory and a Manufactory of general machinery, carried out under his auspices, each of the very largest magnitude. For this and nearly all other manufactures its site is of the most eligible kind. It stands close to one of the largest and most valuable coal fields in Britain, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the largest seaport and most convenient point of access with America in the British dominions. It is, moreover, by means of rivers and navigable canals, abundantly supplied with water power and the mean of internal communication of the most economic kind. It is united with various adjacent towns in which branches of its staple manufacture have been carried on, by a perfect net-work of canals, of which Manchester may be (Named the centre. The railway communication, in consequence of the enormous traffic, has, been greatly developed, and is as perfect as any in the kingdom. In addition to cotton and arms the manufacture of silk and woollen goods is carried on in the town and its immediate neighbourhood, as may be seen from the annexed returns, but as might be presumed, the cotton manufacture, with all its tributary branches of industry, bleaching, dyeing, printing, &c., is the chief industry. From the factory returns for the year ending 1862, it appears that the total number of factories in the kingdom was as follows: Of cotton alone,

                                   Steam   Water
      Year  Factories  Spindles    Power   power   Persons
      1856    5,117   33,503,580  137,711  23,724  682,497
      1862    6,378   36,450,028  375,294  29,399  775,534
                         Of cotton alone
      1856    2,046   28,019,217     -       -     341,170
      1862    2,715   30,387,467     -       -     407,598
           Of these Lancashire and Cheshire contained
   Lancashire:  
      1856   1,480        -          -       -     259,043
      1862   1,979    21,530,532     -       -     315,627
   Cheshire:
      1856     -          -          -       - 
      1862     212     3,373,113   35,658  1,224    40,860
 

or of the cotton trade alone 45.7 per cent; of the gross number of factories 83.3 per cent.; of the spindles and the mechanical horse power, 72.6; and of number of person 58.2 percent.

 SILK TRADE.
 Factories. Persons. 1862, Cheshire 175 13,604 1862, Lancashire 48   8,391
 18,56 1862 . .  M,71    
  1   .   .  
 

It is difficult to determine the precise number of milky spindles, and persons employed in Manchester alone from the factory returns, but the annexed quotation from the returns of 1863 will suffice to show the position Manchester bears to the general manufactures of the kingdom as the centre of the cotton manufacture. "Lancashire employs 77.4 per cent. of the total number of persons employed in the cotton trade in England and Wales. In the counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, and York, the total increase of mills since 1839 is 59.6 per cent., and of persons employed 91.2 per cent. In addition to this the speed of the spindles has increased upon throstles 500 and upon mules 1,000 revolutions a minute, i.e., the speed of the throstle spindle, which in 1839 was 4,500 times a minute, is now 5,000, and of the mule spindle, that which was 5,000 is now 6,000 times a minute, amounting in the former case to a tenth, and in the latter to a sixth additional increase to that of the mills themselves."-The railways are-the branch of the London and North-Western, which has its terminus at Victoria station, and which runs between Liverpool and Manchester by way of Newton and Warrington, and which was the first opened in this country for general traffic purposes; the Lancashire and Yorkshire, with a terminus in the same station, and which communicates with Liverpool circuitously by Blackburn and Ormskirk, and which has branches to Oldham, Southport, Halifax, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield, and Rochdale. At Bank Top, Market Street, near the infirmary, is the terminus of the main London and North-Western line, communicating with London, Birmingham, Crewe, and the chief arterial lines of the United Kingdom, of which, this last-named place is the centre; also the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, leading E., and forming the more direct route to Sheffield, Hull, and Great Grimsby. These are the principal stations; the others are situated in New Bailey-street,' Salford, the terminus of the lines communicating with Bury, Blackburn, &c., and the South Junction and Altringham, in Oxford Road, Hulme, the line which reaches Liverpool by way of Chester, and which communicates more directly with North and South Wales, and the towns passed by the Great Western and its tributary lines. The canals are those of the Duke of Bridgewater, which flows into the Mersey at Runcorn; the Ashton-under-Lyne, Stockport, and Macclesfield, which all join each other and have a common basin at the back of Piccadilly; the Rochdale and Halifax, communicating with the Bridgewater; and the Bolton and Bury, with a terminus in alford. The borough of Manchester was incorporated by royal charter in 1838, and the government of the town is vested in the town council, which includes the mayor, aldermen, and councillors, elected under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Acts. Since the incorporation of the borough, a separate commission of the peace and court of quarter sessions has been obtained by grant from the crown, and an efficient constabulary force established for the borough, under the control of the watch committee. The municipal borough is divided into 15 wards, over each of which an alderman presides, the rest of the local governing body being 48 councillors and the recorder. The town is supplied with water by the cor- poration, which has established large water-works in the neighbourhood of Moltram, in Longdendale, 10 miles E. of Manchester. These were completed at a cost estimated to exceed half a million sterling, and are on a strictly colossal scale. There are minor reservoirs at Woodhead, Torside, Rhodes Wood, Armfield, Hollingworth, and Godley, their total capacity being 567,859,797 cubic feet, The Moltram Tunnel is 2,772 yards in length, or more than 1 mile, is 6 feet wide, and as many high, The fire-engine establishment is exceedingly effective, and comprises some fifteen engines, with all necessary implements.

The gas companies are also under the management of the corporation, the profits realised from the manufacture and sale of gas being devoted to the improvement of the streets, and in public expenditure for the advantage of the city. They were established originally in 1817, but the streets were not lit with gas till 1824. The population, according to the census return of 1861, of the city of Manchester, is 357,979, and of the borough of Salford, 102,449. The further returns give the following analysis of this total:

 oo  br  a a P, "a
 8 9,564 3,880 c Salford , 137,351 44,723 58,528 21,286 2,167 1,119 71,868
 6,367 27,637 2,445 
 

The town on the whole is moderately healthy, but
the mortality in certain districts is very heavy among children. In the Manchester registration district proper, including the so-called townships, with its sub-districts of Ancoats, St. George's, Market-street, London-road, the population being, in 1841, 192,219, the number of births were 7,145, and of deaths 5,831; in 1851, population 228,435, births 9,118, deaths 7,020; in 1860, population 243,625, births 9,085, deaths 6,807. The total births in Manchester in 1862 were 4,635, against 3,828 deaths; in 1863, 4,555 births, 4,096 deaths. In Salford the births in 1862 were 2,196, against 1,337 deaths; in 1863 the births were 2,136, the deaths 1,451. But these returns would need to be slightly amended, the census and registrars' districts being slightly different. The annual average rate of mortality, from all causes, to 1,000 persons living, 1851-60, in Manchester, would be 31, and in Salford 26, showing, with the exception of Liverpool (33), the largest death-rate in the country, and more than that of Bolton (27), Wigan (27), and Oldham (25), the towns which surround it-the diseases operating most maliflcally being scarlatina and diseases of the respiratory organs; consumption, diarrhoea, and measles standing next IN order. Against this the birth-rate for the entire counties of Lancaster and Chester was slightly above that of the average of the kingdom; and it is probable that the privations caused by what lias been termed the "cotton famine" enhanced the mortality. The tables for the intermediate years show a considerable oscillation in the death rate, caused by deflections of temperature and those other causes which especially operate to the diminution of life in large towns. Manchester retains many of the characteristics of a manufacturing town which has risen from a very humble beginning, in the squalid and narrow character of the streets, and the comparative narrowness of some of the principal thoroughfares. Till within the past few years a large proportion, nearly 10 per cent., of the population lived in cellars and in places absolutely unfit for human occupation: the returns for 1849 showing something like 5,000 cellars used as habitations, and a population of 20,399 resident in these wretched and unwholesome abodes. Till the commencement of the year 1860 and the outbreak of the American war, the city of Manchester showed a progressive, rapid, and continuous increase in its prosperity. The check to the supply of cotton, how ever, threw a large number of the labouring population out of employment, and necessitated an appeal to other sources of supply for the growth of the staple. But in spite of the depressing influences referred to, and the evils of non-employment and pauperism following in their train, the returns of mortality and sickness prove that the sanitary condition of the neighbourhood was not seriously impaired by the privations inflicted. A development of further supplies of cotton from other countries during the last three years, together with the happy conclusion of the American war, have again restored Manchester to something like its old prosperity; while the introduction of Indian, Surat, Egyptian, and Brazilian cottons has to some extent rendered the country independent of its former sources of supply. The report of the factory inspectors, to the date of April, 1863, speaks of a minute but sensible improvement; and the weekly returns of May, 1863, show how far the foreign varieties of cotton were superseding the exclusive supply hitherto derived from the United States:-

 American cotton. Brazilian. Egyptian. Indian. In 1860 41,000 2,150
 1,280 3,330 May 29, 1863 1,160 2,930 3,520 21,160 
 

Which shows that
while America yielded less than 5 per cent. of its old supply, nearly seven times as much Indian cotton was consumed as before the American war. In consequence of the employment of children, as well also on account of the ignorance of parents and the impossibility of their supervision, the state of education is low in Manchester."