Introduction

I T is probable that the manufacture of clothing from vegetable fibre is almost as old as the existence of man, varied in different countries by the indigenous productions of each locality, and the varying necessity and ingenuity of the inhabitants. The most ancient mummies of Egypt are found wrapped in linen, and the earliest records of India show the existence of the cotton manufac-- ture there as nearly as possible in the condition which subsists in the interior of that country at the present time, and which was universal until the recent establishment of cotton mills in Bombay. The distaff is still used for spinning, and the looms are still of the rudest construction, and yet some of the woven fabrics vie with the finest productions of Lancashire or Lanarkshire-showing that in this, as in many other arts, our progress has not been in delicacy of mani-- pulation, but simply in the quantity of goods produced within a given time, by the substitution of machinery for hand labour. Cotton goods were exported from India in the second century of

the Christian era, and the muslins of Bengal were even then famous for their beautiful texture, and Surat produced at that time some such goods as the coloured chintzes which are now made in Lancashire, and used for bed furniture, or for chair and sofa covers. But the trade of Lancashire is the growth of not more than a single century, during which time it has risen to such a position as to enable the poorer portion of the population of the world to clothe themselves almost wholly in garments made from the filmy wings of the cotton seed. If these delicate fibres were not gathered by man, they would serve the same purpose to the cotton seed which the filaments attached to the seed of the dandelion perform for it-they would waft it through the air, or float it upon the water, until wind or waves found it a new home, so that, if deposited in proper soil, it might reproduce its kind. The genius of man econo-- mises the productions of nature, and, whilst appropriating to his own use the wings of the cotton seed, he performs by deputy the office of those wings for such a proportion of the seed as is necessary for his own future enjoyment. He carries it with certainty to earth already prepared for it, and is thus enabled to otherwise utilize the large proportion of seed which, apart from his superintendence, would fall " by the way side, or amongst thorns, or on stony ground," and produce no fruit.