pages 112-113
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112                Illustrations of Lancashire

received important stimulus by the Irwell being made navigable to its point of confluence with the Mersey, and by the erectiion of the

Manchester                  113

original Manchester Exchange. In 1757 Warrington, the first town in Lancashire to publish a newspaper, was imitated in the famous old Manchester Mercury. Then came the grand inventions above described, upon which quickly arose the modern cotton manufacture. In 1771 a Bank and Insurance Office were found necessary, and in less than a year afterwards the renowned "]ones Loyds" had its beginning. Social and intellectual movements were accelerated by the now fast developing Manchester trade. Liverpool had founded a Subscription Library in 1758: Manchester followed suit in 1765. In 1781 a Literary and Philosophical Society was set on foot, and in 1792 Assembly Rooms were built.
New streets were now laid out, - today, so vast has been the subsequent growth, embedded in the heart of the town, - the names often taken from those of the metropolis, as Cannon Street, Pall ,Mall, Cheapside, and Spring Gardens , and at a little later period Bond Street and Piccadilly. Factories sprang up in not a few of the principal thoroughfares: perhaps it would be more correct to say that the building of factories often led to the formation of new streets. The kind of variety they conferred on the frontages is declared to the present day in Oxford Road. similar