The town of Manchester, including Salford, contains 270,960 inhabitants, and is distant from London 186 miles, and from Liverpool thirty-one by the railroad.

The origin of this town, which is remarkable for the extent of its trade, and the importance of its manufactures, may be traced to remote antiquity. In the time of the Druids, it was distinguished as one of the principal stations of their priests, and celebrated for the privilege of sanctuary attached to its altar, which, in the British language, was called Meyne, signifying a stone. Prior to the Christian era, it was one of the principal seats of the Brigantes, who had a castle or stronghold, called Mancenion, or the place of tents, near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell, the site of which, still called the “Castle Field,” was selected as a station by the Romans, on their conquest of this part of Britain under Agricola, about the year 79, and called by them Mancunium, whence the Saxon Manceastre, and our Manchester. The Romans occupied this station during nearly four centuries, and formed roads, branching off to their surrounding settlements. Various antiquities have been from time to time discovered in the neighbourhood. After the departure of the Romans, a party of Saxons took the fort from the Britons, to whom the garrison afterwards surrendered. In 620, it was captured by Edwin, King of Northumbria. In 627, the inhabitants were converted to Christianity, by Paulinus, a missionary from Gregory I. Manchester having been taken by the Danes, was wrested from their possession, about 920, by Edward the Elder, who rebuilt and fortified the town and castle. For some time it continued prosperous, but suffered greatly in the wars between the Danes and Northumbrians. The early history of all ancient towns, chiefly “pertains to feats of broils and battles;” castles founded, demolished, and rebuilt, to be destroyed again; baronial feuds and fierce invasions; with the faint and fruitless struggles of right against might, make up the dark and bloody record.

After the twelfth century, a calmer period arrived; and, though occasionally troubled by the pest of war, the fortunes of the now wealthy town of Manchester, have been progressively increasing. From the year 1352, we may date the commencement of its manufacturing celebrity, when a kind of woollen cloth, made from the fleece, in an unprepared state, called “Manchester cotton,” was introduced; and some Flemish artisans, invited into England, by Edward III., settled in the town, and brought the woollen manufacture to a considerable degree of perfection. At the time of the Reformation, an ecclesiastical commission was established at Manchester, and exercised great intolerance, imprisoning and executing numbers of popish recusants; another of the black and by-gone deeds of our past “dark ages.” During the Parliamentary war, the head-quarters of the Parliamentarian army, in Lancashire, were fixed at Manchester, which was fortified and defended too well for the Royalist forces to be successful in any of their repeated attacks. In 1652, the walls were thrown down, the fortifications demolished, and the gates carried away and sold. The good town of Manchester had grown great and wealthy; but we much doubt if it had become particularly grave or wise, since we know that extravagant rejoicings, accompanied by every splendour of pomp and ceremony, took place at the restoration of the not-too-excellent King Charles II., in whose honour, and to the glorification of the thirsty woollen-weavers, the public conduits flowed with streams of wine, instead of water; a celebration worthy of the “merry monarch.”

In 1745, Prince Charles Edward entered Manchester with his army, and took up his abode in the house of Mr. Dickenson, in Market-street, when he levied money, raised men and horses for his service, and after marching about the country, made a rapid retreat into Scotland, before the army of the Duke of Cumberland. The officers of the Manchester regiment, were tried for high treason, and executed on Kennington Common, two of the heads being placed on Temple Bar, and two on the Exchange, Manchester. With this inhuman and disgraceful event, the record of the “fortunes of war,” connected with this place, ends,—we will trust for ever.

The various manufactures carried on in Manchester, would occupy a descriptive work of no small extent, in themselves; and the account which so small a volume as the present can find space for, must be brief indeed. The staple trade is the cotton manufacture, which, in all its branches, is carried on to an almost incredible extent. From the time of Edward III., when the “Manchester cottons” were first introduced, this branch of trade has been increasing in importance. About the year 1740, cotton was manufactured by the spindle and distaff in the cottages of the workmen, chiefly into fustians, thicksets, dimities, and jeans, to which other kinds of goods were shortly added. About the year 1760, these goods, hitherto made only for home consumption, formed a market on the continent of Europe and America, and in consequence of the increased demand, recourse was had to the aid of machinery. The spinning jennies, invented by Messrs. Kay and Highs, have been introduced, and greatly improved by Mr. Hargreaves, whose success, exciting the apprehensions of the hand-workmen, caused the destruction of his machinery, and his retreat to Nottingham, where he died in indigence. Sir Richard Arkwright, the late Sir Robert Peel, and others, have improved and invented other machines, which, aided by the power of the steam-engine, have prodigiously increased the quantity and variety of the goods manufactured in this town.

In the spinning department alone, there are in the town and vicinity 114 factories, worked by 118 steam-engines, the aggregate power of which is equal to that of 3,981 horses; by this machinery, 2,182,350 spindles, and 6,926 power-looms are set in motion. The power-looms, a recent invention, originating with the Rev. Mr. Cartwright, of Holland House, Kent, were not proved finally successful till 1806. The factories, in several of which the whole process of the manufacture, from the introduction of the raw material, to the completion of the fabric, is carried on, are immense ranges of building, from six to eight stories in height, some employing 2,000 persons each, and the whole affording employment to upwards of 30,000 persons. The principal articles at present manufactured are velvets, fustians, jeans, ticking, checks, ginghams, nankeens, diaper, quilting, calico, muslins, muslinets, cambric handkerchiefs, small wares, silks, and, in fact, every variety of cotton and silk goods. There are also extensive bleaching grounds, works for printing and dyeing, and all other departments of the manufacture. Extensive forges, foundries, &c., for the machinery used, laboratories for chemical productions used in the trade, and mills for the manufacture of all descriptions of paper; engraving, as connected with the printing of cotton and muslin goods, is carried on to a great extent; and there are hat manufactories, and saw mills on a very large scale. It is needless to inform the reader, that an inspection of some of these immense hives of labour and invention, will well repay the trouble of a visit. It is a proud feeling to an Englishman to know, that the productions of the thousand busy hands and whirling wheels around him, are destined to increase the comfort, refinement, or splendour of nations, spread far and wide over the globe: and it is a joyful thing to compare present greatness and secure freedom, with the long past years when a little bristling fortress and a tented field, scenes of barbaric bloodshed and grovelling slavery, occupied the spot of earth now devoted to usefulness, industry, and knowledge.

Manchester is situated on the banks of the river Irwell; (which here receives the tributary streams of the Irk and the Medlock;) on the N.W. bank lies the newly erected borough of Salford, connected by means of five bridges with Manchester, of which it forms an integral part. In various parts of the town there are altogether nearly sixty bridges. The town is well paved, and lighted with gas; and the inhabitants are supplied with water by the Manchester and Salford Water Company. The environs, in many parts, particularly in Broughton, Ardwick-green, and Gibraltar, are pleasant, and present many ranges of handsome residences, tasteful villas, and cottages. In the older parts of the town are several ancient houses, interspersed with modern dwellings, and, except where recent improvements have been made, the streets are inconveniently narrow; the accommodation of trade being more studied here than elegance and symmetry of appearance.

The public buildings and institutions of Manchester are well worthy of its wealth and importance. The Exchange and Commercial Buildings, facing the Market-place, form a spacious handsome edifice, built of Runcorn stone: containing the News-room, Exchange, Library, Post-office, Chamber of Commerce, a spacious Dining-room, and other apartments. The members of the Literary and Philosophical Society have a suitable building for their meetings, and have published many volumes of Transactions in the English, French, and German languages, which are much circulated on the continent. The Royal Institution, embracing a variety of objects connected with literature, science, and the fine arts, has a fine building in the Grecian style, from a design by Mr. Barry, forming a splendid addition to the architectural ornaments of the town. The centre comprises the Hall and Lecture Theatre, lighted by a lantern from the ceiling, which may be darkened instantaneously at the will of the lecturer. One of the wings is appropriated as the Academy of the Fine Arts, with Exhibition-rooms, and the other as a Museum of Natural History. The whole cost of this elegant pile was estimated at £50,000. The Town Hall is a noble edifice, from a design by Mr. F. Goodwin, after the model of the Temple of Erectheus, at Athens, with a beautiful tower and dome in the centre, resembling the Tower of Andronicus, called “The Temple of Winds:” it contains various apartments for transacting the public business of the town, and one splendid room, 132 feet long, decorated with great elegance. The Town Hall at Salford is a handsome and commodious stone edifice by the same architect. The Society for promoting the study of natural history, has a valuable and extensive Museum also; and the town possesses flourishing Mechanics’ Institutions, Philological Society, Agricultural Society, Botanic Garden, several Libraries, two Theatres, Assembly-rooms, Concert-rooms, Annual Races, and Triennial Musical Festivals. There are twenty-six churches and chapels belonging to the Establishment, and more than fifty places of worship for the various denominations of Dissenters. The windows of St. John’s Church, in Byrom-street, contain some very ancient and beautiful stained glass, brought from a convent in Rouen; also, pictures in the vestry, and a fine piece of sculpture, by Flaxman. The Free Grammar School, founded in the 7th of Henry VIII., has a revenue of £4,000, and the number of scholars is from 150 to 200. The Blue Coat, St. Paul’s, Lancasterian, National, and Infants’ Schools, are all highly useful, and well-supported establishments; and the various Sunday Schools instruct as many as 30,000 children. The Hospitals and other Charitable Institutions are equally extensive in their sphere of usefulness, and together with the establishments before mentioned, worthy of the wealth, intelligence, and liberality of this great and important town.

Among the distinguished natives of Manchester, or persons who have been otherwise connected with it, may be enumerated, William Crabtree, an astronomical writer, and inventor of the micrometer, born at Broughton and killed at the battle of Marston Moor in 1644; John Byrom, a poet, and author of a system of shorthand; John Ferriar, M.D., author of Illustrations of Sterne, &c.; Thomas Barritt, the antiquary and heraldist; Thomas Faulkner, an enterprising traveller, who published the earliest account of Patagonia, and died in 1774; the Rev. John Whittaker, the Manchester historian; and others of less renown. Manchester gives the title of duke and earl to the family of Montague. The market days are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; fairs on Easter Monday and Tuesday, and October 1 and 2. Salford fairs begin on Whit Monday, for twenty-one days; and on November 17, for the same time.

The information required by the traveller respecting inns, places of public resort, &c., will be found in the Appendix, under the head of Manchester.

END OF THE ROUTE.