8. The Bridgewater Canal.—A people may become better off not merely from the increase of food, but from the increase of trade. English trade had grown very much before the reign of George III., but there were still difficulties in its way. Those who lived at a distance from the sea might be able to make articles which might be sold for a good price in foreign countries, but if they were at all heavy the expense of carrying them to the sea-ports to put them in vessels was so great that it would cost more to send them to the coast than would be repaid by even a good price. They would have to be carried on the backs of horses, or in carriers' carts. Unless some one invented a way of carrying heavy goods cheaply, many men would be without employment, who might have earned good wages by their work. The man who helped these men to work was James Brindley, a millwright. It happened that the Duke of Bridgewater had some land at Worsley, about six miles from Manchester. On that land there was a coal mine, and the inhabitants of Manchester were very much in want of coal, which was very dear. Yet high as the price was, the expense of carrying the heavy coal in carts was so great that it was not worth while to send it from Worsley to Manchester. The Duke consulted Brindley, and Brindley planned a canal which should go through tunnels under the hills and cross rivers on high bridges. As is usually the case when anything new is proposed, many people laughed at it. One famous engineer was taken to the place where the canal was to be carried across a valley. When he was shown the place, far above

his head, where the water was to flow, he said that he had often heard of castles in the air, but he had never before been shown where one was to be built. Brindley persevered, and at last the canal was finished. The Manchester people got their coals cheap, and the Duke got the money for which he was now able to sell them. By-and-by his example was followed. Canals were made from one part of England to the other, and heavy goods were carried easily and cheaply along them in barges.

9. Improvements in Spinning Machines.-Another improvement was the introduction of machinery for spinning cotton into thread. Soon after the beginning of the reign of George III. Hargreaves invented a machine which was called the spinning-jenny. It was more dangerous then to invent machinery than it is now. Workmen thought that if a machine could do more work than several men, several men would be thrown out of work. They forgot that the machine would produce the article so cheaply that a great many more people than before would be able to afford to buy it, and that therefore so much more would be wanted that more men would be employed with the machines than had been employed without them. Hargreaves' neighbours attacked his house, broke his machine, and forced him to fly for his life. A little later, further improvements in spinning were made by Arkwright. He, too, had trouble enough. A mob broke into his mill and burnt it down. But he was determined to succeed at all risks, and at last he was allowed to live in peace. A further improvement was made by

Crompton, who invented what is known as the mule. He was a poor weaver; when his machine was finished, he heard that mobs were gathering to break all machines. He pulled his to pieces and hid it away. When quiet was restored be began to spin. The yarn which he sold was better than any that had been known before. Manufacturers came round him to find out how he did it. The manufacturers were as bad as the workmen had been. They peeped in through the windows to see what his secret was. Poor Crompton had not money enough to pay for obtaining a patent, which would have prevented any one from copying his mule. He therefore told his secret, on the promise that the manufacturers would make a subscription to reward him for his improvement. The whole of the money subscribed by them was less than 681. The manufacturers gained thousands of pounds by the poor man's invention, which they had thus taken from him.

10. The Steam-Engine. -The invention of macl inery for spinning was accompanied by many other inventions in different manufactures. The most important of all was the invention of the steamengine. For some time an attempt had been made. to use steam-engines to turn wheels and for other purposes. But they consumed so much fuel in heating the steam that they cost too much to be of use. James Watt, of Glasgow, with patient study discovered a way of getting over the difficulty. Watt's engines, after a little time, came into general use, and manufacturers found that they could not do without them. The invention of the steam-engine

brought about one great change which Watt had not thought of. Down to this time the North of England had been the poorest part of the country. It was more covered with wild heaths and moors than the South. The population was small, and the people were usually found on a different side from those of the South. The new ideas which came into men's minds were always to be found first in the South before they reached the North. In the reign of Henry VI. the North fought against the Yorkists. In the reign of Henry VIII. it fought to stop the dissolution of the monasteries, and in the reign of Elizabeth it fought against Protestantism. In the reign of George I. it fought for the Pretender. All this is changed now. Steam-engines were put up and factories built where coal was cheap, and coal is cheaper in the North because it is dug out of the ground there. These factories drew to them a large population to work in them, or to provide whatever was needed by those who worked in them. This work demanded men who were quick-witted, and the consequence is that the people in the North are far more numerous than they used to be, and that they are very intelligent and thoughtful. Some one has said that what Lancashire thinks to-day England will think to-morrow; and though this may not always be the case, it is quite certain that no one would have thought of saying so two or three hundred years ago.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS.

(1789-1802.)

1. Beginning of the French Revolution.-In 1789, a few days after the king had returned thanks at St. Paul's for his recovery, the French Revolution began. For a great many years the French had been governed almost as badly as was possible. Not only had the people to pay very heavy taxes, but the taxes were not fairly laid on. Poor people had to pay whilst rich people were let off. The rich people were favoured in all sorts of ways. Besides the taxes paid to the king, the peasants in the country had a great deal to pay to the nobles and gentlemen who lived in their country houses, and who very seldom did any good to those amongst whom they lived, in the way in which English country gentlemen often did. The king of France, Lewis XVI., was a well-meaning man, but he was not wise enough to know how to set things straight. He was so much in debt, and spent so much more than he received, that he was now obliged to call together an assembly elected by different classes of his subjects, which called itself the National Assembly soon after it had met. It was not long before the National Assembly began to do things that the king did not like, and the king then wanted to force it to do what he thought right. When this was known there