In addition to the rich mines, and the vegetable productions, the
English are celebrated for their superior manufactures, which fame
they are enabled to enjoy by means of the most ingenious machinery,
rail roads, and canals, by which they can easily and rapidly send
their goods, and travel from one part of the country to another.
Cottons, woollens, linens, silks, iron, jewellery, leather, glass,
earthenware, paper, and hats, are manufactured in great quantities.

I dare say you would be much amused by a visit to Manchester, in
Lancashire, where the art of spinning cotton is carried to a high
perfection. There are more than a hundred and forty cotton factories
in that city, where men, women, and children, are continually at work,
minding the machines, which are about twenty thousand in number. When
you first go into one of these factories, you hear a terrible noise of
whirling and whizzing, and see an immense number of wheels flying
round and round.

Halifax and Leeds, in Yorkshire, are the chief places for woollen
cloth, the manufacture of which employs the greater part of the
inhabitants. A weekly market is held in Halifax for the sale of
woollens, in a spacious building called the Piece Hall; but in Leeds,
the markets are held two days in the week, in the two Cloth Halls.

Staffordshire is famous for earthenware; the reason of this is, that
there is such an enormous quantity of yellow clay suitable for that
manufacture, found there. Indeed, there are several towns and villages
formed into a district called "The Potteries;" and in consequence of
the innumerable furnaces, which are always blazing, the place looks at
night as if was on fire. Gloves, lace, and stockings, are mostly made