cotton goods in this kingdom down to the year 1773, the name of linen-weaver was generally applied, for a considerable time, to the weavers of fustians, and other descriptions of cotton goods. It may be said, therefore, that the linen manufacture prepared the way for the cotton manufacture, and long continued its auxiliary. The art of cotton spinning, and its application, in conjunction with linen-yarn, to the manufacture of cotton goods, seems to have been introduced into England by the great numbers of Protestant artisans and workmen, who took refuge in this country, on the capture and ruin of Antwerp by the Duke of Parma, in 1585, and also from other cities of the Spanish Netherlands. At that period, foreigners settling in England with the view of commencing a new art, were exempt from several restrictions and burdens attaching to foreigners who came to set up business in trades then existing. Many of the refugees established themselves in Manchester, where they met with considerable encouragement. Gradually, the spinning and weaving of what may be called, for the purpose of distinction, cotton-linen, extended itself through the towns and villages of the surrounding country. Oldham was one of these villages, and although insignificant as compared with its present rank, it was slowly acquiring a degree of provincial importance, owing to the prosperity of its few woollen mills, and a small number of woollen, linen, and cotton weaving concerns. It is extraordinary that England received from Flanders her principal manufactures. The great revival of the woollen trade was owing to the emigration of Flemish weavers in the reign of Edward the Third; in like manner the linen manufacture was also brought from the continent, coeval with, if not earlier than the woollen. In the same way we have seen that the cotton manufacture was derived fom the Netherlands; and it is owing to the revocation of the edict of Nantz, in 1685, producing another persecution of the Protestants, that we owe the introduction of calico printing, and

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