repeal of duties on timber; and so we might run
through a long list of commercial changes, past, present, and to come.

Macclesfield has shared largely in these influences. Having acquired its
commercial importance as one of the glasshouses in which, at great expense,
we raised an artificial silk trade, when it lay at a distance of at least
three hours from Manchester for all heavy goods, and at least three days from
London; it has now communication with London in five hours, and with the port
of Liverpool, through Manchester, in two hours if needful. Thus it enjoys
the best possible means of obtaining the raw material and sending off the
manufactured article.

In the time of Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III., it was contrary to
the laws of the palace for any servant to wear a silk gown; but extended
commerce and improved machinery have rendered it almost a matter of course
for the respectable cook of a respectable lawyer or surgeon, to afford
herself a black silk gown without extravagance or impertinence,--which is so
much the better for the weavers and sailors.

We shall not attempt to describe the silk manufacture, which is on the same
principles as all other textiles, except that less work can be done by
machinery. But it is one of the most pleasant and picturesque of all our
manufacturing operations. The long light rooms in which the weaving is
conducted are scrupulously clean and of a pleasant temperature,--no dust, no
motes are flying about. The girls in short sleeves, in the course of their
work are, as it were, obliged to assume a series of graceful attitudes. The
delicacy of their work, and the upward position in which they hold them,
render their hands white and delicate, and the atmosphere has something of
the same effect on their complexion. Many of the greatest beauties of
Belgravia might envy the white hands and taper fingers to be found in a silk
mill.

Unfortunately this trade, which in factory work is healthy and well paid, is,
more than any other, subject to the vicissitudes of fashion. The plain
qualities suffer from such changes less than the rich brocades and fancy
patterns.

It must be remarked that, although the repeal of protective duties to
eighteen per cent. produced a temporary depressing effect on the trade of
Macclesfield, the general silk trade has largely increased ever since 1826,
and has spread over a number of counties where it was before unknown, and has
become an i