156

BRADFORD: A DAY SCENE.

Glazed sheets of water stud the busy view,
Like infant lakes, of dark and deathly hue;
And factory towers start up in grim array,
And, beacon-like, bid Commerce turn their way;
While clatter and loud roar of whirling wheels
Now drown all human sounds by deafening peals.

Along the hilly ways, in dull disguise,

Long lines of cottages and villas rise.

Bright trails of white cleave through the sombre air

As shrieking engines fiercely, madly tear

Along their iron tracks. The town is girt

With winding lanes, thick crusted o'er with dirt,—

With smoke-attirèd fields, and stunted trees,
Where ancient sparrows perch in silent ease,—

Where dusky rooks, beneath the chequered sky,
Dispense their hollow croakings as they fly.

* Bradford has long been noted for its narrow and dirty streets, in proof of which may be given the following extract from a speech delivered by the author before the Bradford Corporation, on the question of "Street Improvements" :]—

I HAVE no hesitation in saying, that hundreds, if not thousands, of lives have been sacrificed in this and other towns in consequence of the narrowness of the streets, and the want of sufficient room in their business thoroughfares. There is nothing of greater importance to an enterprising, busy, manufacturing town, than wide and commodious streets; especially so when that town is destined to be one of the wealthiest, one of the most populous, and, in a commercial point of view, one of the most productive of any to be found in the British empire. Bradford has a few good, and what I may venture to call spacious inlets and outlets, leading to and from the various places around it; but a stranger coming amongst us, particularly one who has heard so much concerning our trade and commerce-our warehouses, unrivalled in magnitude and magnificence-our ever-increasing mills, and the amazing amount of goods that are daily sent forth to every part of the kingdom, and almost to. every part of the civilised world, I say, a stranger coming amongst us under such circumstances, would be astonished beyond measure at the narrowness of the streets, and the sudden and dangerous turnings, even in the very heart of the town; whilst in vain would he look for one single thoroughfare worthy the name of a street in all the metropolis of the worsted manufactures.

I have very carefully and very diligently looked over the report which has been presented to the Council by the Street

Improvement Committee; I have looked at it not only with an eye to the present, but also with an eye to the future--with an eye to what Bradford will be when our children shall have taken our places, and these unruly tongues of ours shall be for ever silent in the dust. And if Bradford is to be improved-if there is to be a thorough communication through the very heart and centre of the town, from one side of it to the other-I cannot see how any one of these proposed alterations can be dispensed with, without rendering the others, to a very great extent, of no avail. I have paid particular attention to the intended alterations in Market Street, and I cannot see how any man who takes a full and unbiassed view of the whole matter, can come to the conclusion that 14 yards will be a sufficient width for the main arterial inlet and outlet of one of the busiest manufacturing towns to which our beloved Queen ever signed a Charter of Incorporation. Cast your imaginative eye on Bradford, as it may be, when 30 or 40 more fleeting years shall have passed away, and what will you see (provided it should continue to extend its borders in the same manner that it has done for the last 20 years)? You will then, no doubt, see the two Hortons, Bowling, Manningham, Shipley, and other surrounding places, one undivided town or city, studded in every direction with mills and warehouses, and the mansions of its merchants and manufacturers. Then, will you be so reckless, so indifferent to its welfare, as to say that 14 yards in width will be sufficient for the principal street of such a place? will you thus for ever throw a barrier in the way of the free transit of the increasing traffic of the town, and do an irreparable injury and injustice not only to the present, but to ages yet to come? And who is prepared to say that the future historian of Bradford will not record the deed of the Town Council of this day, a deed which is to decide whether the new Exchange and the Post Office, if reared in Market Street, are to be an honour and an

ornament to the town, by having open and spacious frontages; or whether they are to be crammed into a corner, to stand as a lasting monument of the indiscretion and unsound judgment of the present Town Council? As an instance of such indiscretion, look for one moment at our costly St. George's Hall, for ever thrown into the shade, as if unfit for the scrutinising eye of the public; and on every occasion of a festival of any note, are not waggon loads of timber required for barricading the streets, and vast numbers of the police force necessary to sentinel them, in order to the prevention of broken limbs or accidental death.

I am fully aware that these very important and most essential alterations and improvements cannot be achieved without considerable outlay and expenditure on the part of the Corporation; but how insignificant (considering the wealth of the town) in comparison to the great public advantage to be derived therefrom! I must express a hope that those gentlemen who have amassed such immense fortunes amongst us-those gentlemen who have added mill to mill, warehouse to warehouse, and who, at the same time, have exchanged the humble cottage for a mansion, and whose goods are continually blocking up our streets-ought to come nobly and spontaneously forward with their hundreds, if not their thousands, to assist the Corporation in carrying out these great and indispensable improvements, which, when accomplished, will be an honour to the town, and redound not only to the praise of the Corporation, but to every individual who shall have assisted in carrying out so desirable an object.

[It is only right to add that since the speech on "Street Improvements" was delivered, many desirable and important improvements have been made, and are still in progress, in the streets of Bradford; and judging, so far, from the activity displayed by the

Council in carrying out those improvements, there is every reason to believe the town will yet be able to boast of a few thoroughfares of sufficient width to accommodate its rapidly increasing traffic, and that it will yet outlive the bad name it has hitherto (not unjustly) received on account of its ill-planned, narrow, and dirty streets.]

NOTE 2.

"Remorselessly cast off the very men."

If there is one act more dishonourable to a master than another, it is the act of summarily discharging his workmen without any previous warning. I do not say that every one has the ability, be he ever so willing, to continue his men at their accustomed work when he has not sufficient employment for them. Yet I emphatically maintain that it is dishonourable in the extreme for those who have been heaping up gold as if it were almost as plentiful as the dust of the earth, to discard their employês at a moment's notice, as soon as the shadow of a passing cloud makes its appearance in the commercial horizon.

NOTE 3.

"Go see those vast stupendous Falls!"

"AND now we come to Niagara, and what shall we say about that? Richard Cobden used to say, there were two sublimities in Nature one of rest, the other of motion; one was the Alps, the other Niagara. I have seen them both, and must say that, remarkably grand as they both are, it seems to me Niagara is the sublimer of the two, and is what I take to be the grandest natural sight in the world. I shall never forget the first morning when I