and soon after, in his own name and on his own account, as a merchant. By industry, perseverance, good ability, and integrity, he acquired an ample property, and retired from the active management of his business in 1807. He was many years a ruling elder of one of the Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia; was a munificent contributor to useful charities, to all educational and other institutions designed for the religious and moral improvement of the population amidst which he dwelt; and, at the ripe old age of eighty-two, died on the 14th of August, 1847. "His long life," said the Philadelphia Bulletin, on the day of his death," has been a continued exercise of benevolence; and the sanctity of a bright religious faith ennobled his motives, while it gave a wise direction to his actions."

Mr. Henry, the nephew of this distinguished merchant, was tutored in his virtues and his mercantile knowledge, and came to England from Philadelphia, while still a very young man, and settled in Manchester, in the year 1804. His first place of business was in Palace-street. On finding his business increase, he removed to premises in Spear-street. There he took his younger brother Samuel into partnership, and the firm became " A. and S. Henry." Subsequently another partner was admitted, and the firm became "A. and S. Henry & Co." which it still continues to be. In 1833, the large premises in Portland-street were built, and the business was removed there.

The houses in Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, Leicester, Nottingham, Glasgow, and Belfast, are each distinct from the other, and from the parent establishment in Manchester. Each has partners not connected with the others, Mr. Henry being the connecting and sole head over all.

On the 13th of January, 1840, the free trade banquet was celebrated in the Pavilion, in Peter-street, by the Anti-Corn-law League. This gentleman, who omitted no opportunity of promoting the cause of commercial emancipation by his kindly countenance and munificent contributions, was, with Mr. Johnson, one of his partners, present on that occasion. His brother, Mr. Samuel Henry, and the other partner, Mr. Wylde, were abroad. That night, festive in Manchester, was one of awful calamity elsewhere. The American steamboat Lexington, sailing from New York to Providence, took fire. A number of passengers were on board; one of them was Mr. Samuel Henry, who, with the whole steamboat's company, perished, except two or three individuals.

แ

Among those who perished," said Hunt's (N. Y.) Merchant's Magazine of February, 1840, "there was no one more generally beloved and respected than Samuel Henry, Esq., of Manchester, England. . . . In his business intercourse with his fellow-men, rigid, uncompromising integrity marked his character. No one knew better the true requirements of a merchant, or the generosity becoming a man; and throughout his life he ever maintained the strictest consistency of high mercantile principles, and the most generous liberality. During the commercial distress, which affected every class in the country for the past three years, Mr. Henry was here, yielding relief and assistance to those whom misfortune bad crushed; and there are many, in this city and elsewhere, who will bear testimony of his open confidence and generous forbearance, when they were most needed and appreciated. Indeed, in all his business transactions, there was a free, honest spirit; a manly, straightforward course of conduct, which won the esteem and confidence of all with whom he came in contact."

This was true of the junior partner, and is emphatically true of the surviving brother, the head of the house. Such a donation as £500 for the public parks: liberal subscriptions for educational purposes; for the relief of the distressed, without regard to sect, party, or nation; forbearance towards those who suffer in times of commercial depression; foresight to preserve his own business from its calamities, these are but the ordinary characteristics of Alexander Henry, of Manchester.

Let us glance at the outside of the house, and then go into the interior.

There it stands. That door, on the east side in York-street, leads into the apartments of the home trade; that in the southern side in Portland-street, leads to the foreign trade. In the centre of the southern front is the spacious archway, through which the lurrys or wagons are backed into the centre of the establish

ment, to deliver or receive their loads. Let us observe-one, two, three, four, five lofty floors, besides the basement. Fourteen windows to each floor on the Portland-street front, and nine on the York-street side. The same would be seen on the other side, probably, were we to go round and reckon them. It is large; though the industrial wonder here is displayed, not in the magnitude of the buildings, but in the vastness of the operations concentrated in a space comparatively so limited.

Let us enter; and we shall see economy of personal locomotion, of manual power, of supervision and direction in its most perfect form. We have not travelled so far among the wonders of Manchester to see-yet here we shall see (also in perfection, and forcibly persuasive to the senses and the understanding,) that as mechanical appliances have been made to assist the men of the establishment in conveying goods from room to room, in measuring, in making up, and in packing them, the quality and marketable appearance of the goods have improved; and that as manual labor has been economized, the number of persons employed, the capital expended in wages and salaries, and the operations of the house, have been in a far greater proportion augmented and extended. By the aid of machinery in buying and selling,-for A. and S. Henry and Co. do not manufacture, they only buy and sell,-the salaries paid by them to their clerks and assistants amount to £17,000 per annum. Manufacturers who employ large numbers of workers pay greater sums in wages; but these salaries are paid by this firm in their various establishments in Britain, to persons employed entirely in the mercantile handling of manufactures. By the simplification of their arrangements they have, in addition to a large inland trade, extended their exportation of British manufactures to the value of £1,500,000 sterling, though they export nothing on speculation, but confine themselves to orders received from abroad.

To glance first at the basement floor; here is a steam engine which sends motion and strength to whatever part of the establishment it is required. There are seven hydraulic presses compressing the packages into small space, the power of each press equal to a hundred tons; to work the water pumps of each of the presses four men would be required-this engine does it. One thousand pieces of shirting, weighing three tons, have just come from the bleacher; they are to go to one of the upper floors; to be carried by manual labor up stairs, would require four men half a day. Instead of which they are put on that table-like board, the teagle, which we shall soon see, and at the will of a man, who by touching a piece of machinery borrows from this steam engine some of its power for half a minute, the thousand pieces are lifted, the teagle obediently stopping at any floor which the attendant desires to stop at.

Some of that shirting is to be conveyed to a room on another floor, to be packed with other goods in a bale, to make up some miscellaneous order. The quantity required is placed in a wheeled truck; this is run along the floor; the pieces are placed in a "whinsey," which is the same as the "teagle," with the addition of sparred sides, to hold a variety of packages; the mechanism is touched; strength is borrowed from the steam engine, which ceases not to move; the "whinsey" descends unattended; stops at the floor where its burden is required, rings a bell on that floor to call attention to it; is delivered of its burden; descends to the bottom of the house, or reascends to the top to remain, if not immediately wanted; or if wanted, proceeds at once to the floor where a new load awaits it.

One of the partners has been out. He proceeds at once to the first floor, by the great staircase, where his name, and the names of the other partners, and the buyers and clerks who have to go frequently out and are frequently inquired for, are exposed on a board; against each name are three ivory-headed slides. He had moved two of them to the right when he went out, exposing to view in the groove in which they slide, the word out. He now moves them to the left, exposing the word in. Had he been away from Manchester, all three would have been moved to the right to signify out of town. Having thus indicated to whomsoever may call, without their having to trouble clerks with inquiries, and without the clerks having to run over this epitome of a world to see if he be in, he now, having to go to the top of the house, steps into a "whinsey," touches the magic handle or strap,

and though far apart from the steam engine, borrows a fractional part of its power for a few seconds, and is landed on the top floor.

On another floor the "teagle," heavier worker than the light "whinsey," may have brought up by another channel some ponderous bales, as sent in by the manufacturers. They must be opened, examined, measured, and re-folded, to be sent to the bleacher, or the printer, or the dyer. The end of one of the pieces of cloth, after examination, is put into a folding machine which stands motionless. The mechanism is touched; the steam engine, forty yards distant, lends its motion instantly, and in one minute of time ninety yards of cloth are folded by the machine, and the number of yards told upon an index, the hand of which points to the figure 90. Two of them together take each a piece, and fold more neatly and exactly than human hands could fold it, and each tell 90 in a minute; or any other number of yards which the pieces may measure; never committing an error in reckoning, as the memories of the men would occasionally do, who stand by to put in the pieces and remove them, and to put the motion of the steam engine on, or to throw it off.

Other machines which measure but do not fold, being only two rollers not connected with steam power, are used. The end of a piece 91 yards long is placed between the rollers; a man takes hold of it, draws it to him, so fast that it comes through in half a minute, the rollers whirling at great velocity, and indicating the instant that the piece is through, the number 91, or any other number of yards, should the piece be longer or shorter. To measure 91 yards in the old way with a yard wand, would require a man from seven to ten minutes; while, liable to a mistake in reckoning, he might have to lose time and go over it again, or allow an error to pass into the account as a fact. We may be amazed at the length of the counters on the side of the house devoted to the home trade, upon which, as in the velvet department or the cord and fustian department, the cloths of every quality may be inspected by beginning at one end and proceeding to the other: we inquire of some of the young men who attend there how long those counters are. One of them, to oblige us, stretches a piece of twine from end to end, draws it through the double rollers, and in a few moments says, “Thirty-five yards." We ask if this be the entire length of the interior; he says no; the pattern-making, book-binding, and card-printing rooms are taken from the length at one end.

There are two teagles and two whinseys moved by steam power, and one teagle which may be worked by manual strength, in the event of an accident happening to the steam engine. Each of them occupies a square well, or vertical channel, open from the basement to the top; but on each floor a sliding table may be placed across on which to rest the load, so that in taking it in, the men shall be in no danger of falling down.

Thus, then, we comprehend the chief uses of the engine which we see on the basement. Its steam is also used to boil water on the floor above for the tea of a hundred men, who, twelve or twenty at a time, retire to a room set apart for them to take their tea. When required to remain late at night to make up pressing orders, other refreshments are provided. From the steam engine also the whole establishment is heated by hot water in winter.

Let us proceed through the interior (many of these interesting details we must at present omit.) We are in the muslin room. How elegant the embossed papers are in which the muslins are enfolded! The embossing is done in another department. How elegant the cards on each of the packages in gold and ultramarine, with engravings of English landscapes, cathedrals, castles, and abbeys upon them! Artists on the establishment, and printers, are continually employed in producing these; some millions of them being required annually! Proceed into the muslin pattern room. Is it a library we see? No; those large volumes on the shelves with their gold-lettered backs, and their fancy bindings, contain patterns of muslins. Here is one open to us. It contains three or four hundred pages; on each page is fixed ten or twelve patterns of muslin; on each pattern is a small piece of blue paper like a sixpence, the number of the pattern printed on the paper. This book contains 3,500 patterns. A buyer of muslin coming to the house would be asked to step into the whinsey on the first floor; would be lifted

to this floor in a few seconds; would walk hither; take the books from the shelves; select the books containing the fabrics which he is likely to require; walk back to the whinsey; be taken to the first floor; shown into one of a long suite of small rooms, comfortably carpeted, with desk to write at, and drawers for him to put his private papers in, the keys of which he retains until he finishes his business with the house; which to finish as speedily as possible, he shuts himself up for half a day or a day with those books of patterns; writes the numbers which he has selected; hands the selected numbers to the clerks; and forthwith his orders are executed.

We pass into the pattern rooms of the Nottingham and Leicester branches of this firm. Here are duplicates of all the patterns in laces, gloves, hosiery, and fancy small wares which could be seen if the buyer went to Nottingham and Leicester. To save his time, he makes his selection here; writes the index number of the articles selected, and the order is executed.

So also with the Glasgow goods-with all manner of Birmingham and Sheffield wares; samples are kept here, and may be selected without travelling to Glasgow, Birmingham, or Sheffield.

We take a glance of the print pattern room. The books on the shelves are more numerous and larger here than elsewhere. The gilded letters go on thus, "Spring 1820,” “ Fall 1820 ;” “ Spring 1821,” “ Fall 1821 ;" and so on, two books to each year, up to 1847. By opening them the prints of those years may be seen

at once.

The making-up room in the foreign department may be next visited. The printed calicoes or muslins are examined by being hung on sharp pegs a yard apart. They are also lapped on those pegs; are carried to long counters when lapped; the laps counted there to ascertain the number by one man; passed on to another to be evenly laid; to another to have a pattern placed within one of the laps; to another who affixes a card with a number on the piece, and a card with the same number on the pattern. The pieces are then separated from their patterns, to meet again in New York, or Cincinnati, or St. Louis, or Mexico, China, Calcutta, or even at Cabul, in Afghanistan. The pieces are put into the hydraulic press; are subjected to intense pressure, are put into those boxes which we see men lining with oil-cloth, strong brown paper within the oil-cloth, and finer paper within the brown; and are fastened down and shipped off. The patterns with the numbers are taken to the rooms set aside for book-binding and pattern-making; In a book with gilded coverings like an album or scrap-book, with ornamented borders to each leaf, a pattern of each of fifty or a hundred differently printed pieces which are in a box-the box numbered the same as this book-are pasted neatly, one on each leaf. One of these books is sent in the same ship with the box. The merchant at New York who has ordered the prints, may sell them by his traveller at Pittsburgh; the buyers there at another town westward, and so on they may pass to Santa Fe or California itself, without the box once being opened; the endorsement of " A. and S. Henry and Co., Manchester," being a sufficient guaranty that it contains what the book represents. Duplicates of these are kept at home. In a shelved room, the words "New York,' Boston," Calcutta,' "Havana," and other seaports, are painted; beneath these are a number of pigeon-holes; on one of the holes may be the marks A. X. Y., or any other combination of letters. A merchant writes to them thus-" Send another box of A. X. Y." Upon receipt of his letter, they refer to the pigeon-hole so marked, and find the patterns with the number on them corresponding to the number on the box which had been marked A. X. Y.

99 66

Art. VI. JAMES WILLIAM GILBART, F. R. S.,

THE GENERAL MANAGER OF THE LONDON AND WESTMINSTER BANK, THE FIRST JOINT STOCK BANK ESTABLISHED IN LONDON.

(WITH A PORTRAIT.)

HIS EARLY HISTORY-PROVINCIAL BANK OF IRELAND-WATERFORD LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION LONDON AND WESTMINSTER BANK-MR. GILBART'S EVIDENCE BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON BANKS OF ISSUE-PRESENT AND LETTER TO HIM FROM THE JOINT STOCK BANKS-HIS PUBLISHED WORKS-HIS PRIVATE CHARACTER.

THE merchant is a citizen of the world. He lives in constant and friendly intercourse with the men of every nation. His property, borne over sea and land to the remotest countries, is subject to their various laws and at the mercy of their public integrity. His interests are closely connected with the social and political prosperity of the civilized people of the globe. Peace, free intercourse, and good faith between nations, encourage his enterprise and secure it an abundant reward. International hostility, whether manifested in unequal laws, or in open war, defeats his widely extended plans, and brings his prudent and honest efforts to a disastrous result. The influence of the mercantile class, therefore, is always felt on the side of peace; and thus commerce, having its origin in the necessities, and its motive in the selfishness, of men, becomes, in its large development, a bond of friendship and union between nations, widely separated by differences of manners, of language, of institutions, and of character.

Striving, as we do, to represent the commercial class of the community, we are often led by considerations such as these, to look beyond our national boundaries for subjects of inquiry, of discussion, and of description. Apart from the fact that our Magazine has the good fortune to be read, to a considerable extent, in Europe, we feel that we shall frequently supply a want of our readers at home, by giving some account of the commercial institutions and commercial men of other countries. And, in this article, we propose to add to our biographical sketches that of a citizen of Eng land, whose enterprise, sagacity, and intelligence, have raised him to an eminent position among the business men of our mother country, and whose name is doubtless familiar to most of those on this side the water, whose occupations are similar to his own.

For

JAMES WILLIAM GILBART, the Manager of the London and Westminster Bank, is a practical banker of great skill and success, and a lucid and able writer upon subjects connected with his ordinary pursuits. thirty-five years he has been constantly engaged in banking; and, at the present time, he is, by his writings and his station, a prominent representative of the Joint Stock Banking Companies of England. The materials of the following sketch of his life and of the institution, which has been under his management for the past fourteen years, are chiefly obtained from two articles in the Bankers' Magazine, and from several of his pub. lished works, which are before us.

The subject of our sketch was born on the 21st of November, 1794. At the age of nineteen he commenced his business career as a junior clerk at a London banker's. He remained at the house at which he was thus first engaged until June, 1827, discharging his duties with great fidel.