walk from any of the stations is very disheartening; tall warehouses,
dingy brick houses, a ceaseless roar of carts and waggons in the main
streets, and a population of which all the better dressed march at double
quick time, with care-brent brows, and if pausing, only to exchange gruff
monosyllables and short words.

At one o'clock the factory hands are dismissed, and the masters proceed to
dinner on horseback and in all sorts of vehicles at a thundering pace. The
working-class population will be found less unhealthy and better looking than
would be expected. The costume of the women, a cap and a short sleeved
jacket fitting the waist, called a Lancashire bedgown, is decidedly
picturesque. For a quarter of an hour some streets are almost impassable,
and the movement gives the idea of a population deserting a city. An hour's
silence follows, after which the tide flows again: the footpaths are filled
with the "hands;" and the "heads," with very red faces, furiously drive their
hundred guinea nags back to business. Now this is one of the sights of
Manchester.

Again, Tuesday is the business day at the Exchange, in St. Ann's Square. The
room is one of the finest in the kingdom; the faces and the scene generally
afford much curious matter for the study of the artist and physiognomist.
Compare it with the groups of well dressed dawdlers at Leamington,
Cheltenham, Bath, with the very different style of acute intellect displayed
at a meeting of the Institute of Civil Engineers, or with the merchants of
Liverpool, part of whom also attend Manchester.

The personal appearance of the Manchester manufacturers and their customers,
as seen on 'Change, fully justifies the old saw, "Liverpool gentlemen,
Manchester men, Rochdale fellows (fellies), and Wigan chaps."

In Liverpool all are equal,--merchant deals with merchant; in Manchester the
millowner is an autocrat, restrained by customs of the trade and occasional
strikes, and he carries his rough ways into private life.

But facts show that, with all its plate and varnish, Liverpool is as inferior
to Manchester in an intellectual, as it is superior in an external point of
view.

In politics Manchester leads, and Liverpool and Lancashire unwillingly
follow,--in the education of the operative and middle classes,--in literary,
scientific, and musical associations,--in sanitary measures,--in the formation
of public parks and pleasure grounds, Manchester displays an incontestab