Excerpt from The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain, Vol. 1: Systematically Investigated, and Illustrated by 150 Original Figures, Engraved on Wood and Steel; With an Introductory View of Its Comparative State in Foreign Countries, Drawn Chiefly From Personal Survey IN presenting this long-promised treatise on the most important and intricate branch of manufactures to the public, I gratefully acknowledge their liberal reception of its precursor volume, and the kind manner in which influential journals of opposite political creeds were pleased to speak of its merits. It was obvious, how ever, that an inquiry into the factory system of Great Britain must necessarily touch too many delicate topics for an honest expositor to avoid giving offence to certain interests and prepossessions. The contrast which I had delineated, from ocular inspection, between the comfortable activity of our manufacturing Operatives, and the listless penury Of our agricultural labourers, as Well as the hopes I had expressed, since so happily justified, of the improvement among the latter to be looked for from a better administration of the Poor Laws, could be little palatable to that portion of the periodical press, which had vituperated the proprietors of cotton mills, and denounced that legis lative Act. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.