303

CHAPTER IX.

MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES-THE LABOURING CLASSES.

Wicker-work-Straw-plait- Hats - Soap-Importance of the productGreat extent of the Manufacture-Candles-Progress of Domestic Illumination-Lucifer Matches-Dreadful Disease among the WorkmenBricks-Better construction of Dwellings-Brewing and DistillationChemicals-Cordage-Applications of Caoutchouc and Gutta PerchaChildren's Toys-Export of Produce-Physical and Social ChangesManufacturing and Mining Towns-Increase of Population.

Ar the time of the Roman invasion, the rude inhabitants of these islands were acquainted with a few simple arts, in one of which they were so proficient, that their products commanded the admiration of the proud conquerors. Thus they interlaced twigs, reeds, rushes, and the blades of rank grass; constructed small boats of the fabricated material; made them water-tight by coverings of skins, and carrying the light craft across the shoulder to the rivers, they embarked in these canoes, paddling with one hand, and fishing with the other, even as the dwellers on the Wye in Wales follow the calling to this day. Britishmade baskets were also thought so valuable as to be exported to Rome, where they realized high prices; and thus at present, some uncivilized tribes excel the Europeans in interweaving the vegetable stems and

fibres that are suitable for the process. Articles of this description of varying size, for household, trade, and travelling convenience, are now made in large quantities in all towns, particularly Wolverhampton, and many villages. The principle of construction is the same, though the quality and appearance are better, owing to the use of an improved raw material, and a superior style of ornament. The facility of teaching and acquiring the art, renders it a favourite employment for the blind in the asylums established for their reception. One application of the material long ago ceased, while the name survived; for, in the days of the old stage coaches, the hind part of the vehicle was constantly called the basket, though made of stout wood, because it was originally a somewhat rickety habitation of wicker-work. Pony carriages, more or less constructed of it, are still not uncommon, and its connexion with travelling is maintained by the receptacles for luggage which railway porters wheel to and fro at the stations. The substance generally used is the pliant but tough and durable osier, one of the willow family, which grows spontaneously in fenny places, and is also cultivated with profit. It shoots up rapidly, and is employed whole for coarse work, or split into strips for the finer. There are many osier-beds in the Thames, which are usually cut about once in three years, and are very remunerative to the proprietors; but cuttings from abroad are imported. The bine of the hop, after the flowers and leaves have been removed,-previously considered useless,has been recently employed for basket-work.

In those parts of England which are specially favourable to the production of wheat-straw-the counties of Bedford, Buckingham, and Herts, with parts of

Essex and Suffolk-straw plait is extensively made by the rural population, as a material for hats and bonnets, chiefly worked up at Dunstable and Luton. So extremely simple is the art of plaiting, and so natural the application of the substance, that the manufacture might be supposed to be one of the oldest in the kingdom. But it was not practised to any considerable extent till the commencement of the present century, when the importation of straw-hats from Leghorn almost entirely ceased, owing to the long continental war. This stimulated domestic production, and brought comfort to the cottages of agricultural labourers, by whose wives and children the plaiting is principally performed. Since the renewal of importation, plait of British straw and other native grasses has been chiefly confined to inferior articles for the humble classes. But it is found possible in some degree to rival the foreign fabric by using Italian straw, and adopting Italian modes of treating it. At present, it is calculated, that from sixty to seventy thousand persons are engaged in the production of this article, and that the yearly return cannot be less than from £800,000 to £900,000. No product is more deserving of encouragement than that of strawplait. It is a domestic and healthy employment, requires no machinery, and can be performed in fine weather out of doors. The younger members of families are competent for the work, who are often in the rural districts at a loss for occupation; and it may be laid aside to be resumed at leisure without damage.

The manufacture of hats of a more substantial and expensive fabric is one of the oldest of the staple industries of the kingdom, and at an early period

They have

considerable quantities were exported. been the subject of many legislative enactments; and down to the close of the last century, they were chargeable with a stamp duty. Often has the style changed, with the material employed. Beaver hats, very differently fashioned to those now worn, and of foreign workmanship, were introduced in the reign of queen Elizabeth, but were confined, with some other descriptions, to nobles and courtiers. "Some," remarks Philip Stubbs, a writer of that age, are of silk, some of velvet, some of taffety, some of sarsenet, some of wool; and, which is more curious, some of a certain kind of fine hair: These they call bever hats, of twenty, thirty, or forty shillings price, fetched from beyond the seas, from whence a great sort of other vanities do come besides." The production of hats of various materials is now immense, in the metropolis, the towns, and other parts of the country, the annual value of which is supposed to amount to upwards of three millions sterling.

Much more important is the manufacture of soap, on account of its magnitude, the amount of capital embarked in it, and the social uses of the product. No mention is made of the article by writers prior to the Christian era, for the word rendered "soap," in our version of the Old Testament, rather means a vegetable alkali. In Homer's description of the princess Nausicaë going out to the river to bathe in the stream, and wash her clothes, softening-oil for anointing the skin, and other articles used on the occasion, are carefully enumerated; but soap forms no part of the inventory. It is first described, though somewhat obscurely, by Pliny, but was very scantily employed till modern times. In the

middle ages, the rich were content to conceal, by a profusion of costly essences and perfumes, that want of cleanliness in their clothes and persons, which would now be deemed an insupportable misery and disgrace by most persons even of humble station. Liebig, in his Familiar Letters on Chemistry, has justly remarked, that the civilization of a nation may not inaccurately be estimated by the quantity of the soap it uses. The consumption of the article does not subserve sensual gratification, nor depend upon fashion, but upon the feeling of the beauty, comfort, and welfare, attendant upon cleanliness, which, according to an old adage, is "next akin to godliness." Most wisely, therefore, has the excise-duty upon its production been abandoned, thereby placing an agent and sign of civilization within reach of numbers, who were formerly restricted in employing it by a price enhanced by the tax.

In no country in the world is the manufacture of soap carried on to so large an extent as in our own, in which, exclusive of Ireland, there are about three hundred and thirty factories. The annual production is upwards of two hundred million pounds weight, of which a considerable quantity is both exported and used by manufacturers. Deducting the amount used in these two ways, the quantity consumed in the year 1850, in the domestic life of Great Britain, was equivalent to 8 lbs. 1 oz. for each member of the population. Besides the soap-makers, there are about seventy "re-melters," who take the article in its ordinary form, re-melt and clarify it, add perfume, and prepare the tablets of toilet-soap sold in the shops of the druggists and others. The extraordinary development which distinguishes this branch of trade, though the