depression took place in commercial affairs in 1793, in consequence principally of the absorption of capital in government loans, required to defray the costs of the war. The success of the cotton manufacture materially assisted in lessening the extent of suffering which would otherwise have been the result. Extensive distress, however, prevailed throughout the country from January, 1794, to the latter end of 1795. Such was the state of the poor in Oldham that on a single day, the 12th of March, 17 94, there were 160 applications to the over- seers of the poor for parochial relief. The enlistment of young men for soldiers, always a prosperous business in periods of commercial depression, was extremely prevalent, and on the 7th of April, 1794, the overseers found themselves obliged to relieve 70 soldiers' wives in one day. A regiment of soldiers, raised in the east of Lancashire and the west of Yorkshire at the beginning of the last war, took the name of the "Haver Cake Lads," now the 33d Foot, assuming as their badge an oat cake, which was placed for the purpose of attraction on the point of the recruiting scrgcant's sword.

The factory system concentrating the operatives together in larger masses than hitherto, their minds were greatly improved by constant mutual communication. Conversation wandered over a variety of topic not before essayed ; the questions of peace and war interested them in an important degree, inasmuch as the results might be productive of a rise or fall in wages, and this brought them into the vast field of politics, and led to discussions on the character of the government and the actions of its members. The populace, regarded en masse, were then strongly attached to the policy of the governing party, and consequently greatly in favour of the war. A number of individuals, however, resident in various parts of the manufacturing districts, entertained opinions of an opposite character, and not only condemned the war as decidedly unjust and unnecessary, but also contended, with considerable ability, for a

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