INDEX.

HISTORY OF PROGRESS

IN GREAT BRITAIN.

PROGRESS OF MANUFACTURES.

CHAPTER I.

PERIOD OF MANUAL LABOUR.

HE ARCHEOLOGISTS Who have endeavoured to trace the history of the inhabitants of Britain in times antecedent to Cæsar's invasion, have divided it into three epochs, distinguished by progressive advances in the manufacturing arts, called the stone period, the bronze period, and the iron period. In the first, the implements used by the Britons as weapons in war, or as knives, hatchets, and hammers, were fashioned out of flints or other hard stones; in the second period, they had learned the art of manufacturing bronze, made by a mix

ture of copper and tin; and in the third, the more difficult art of

B

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THE STONE, THE BRONZE, AND THE IRON PERIOD.

working in iron had been acquired. In tracing the progress of manufactures from those early times to the present day, two different and more important divisions of the subject present themselves; not depending on the nature of the raw material of manufactures, but on the character of the agency by which the work is accomplished. The PERIOD OF MANUAL LABOUR and the PERIOD OF MACHINERY are distinctly marked epochs in the progress of manufactures and civilization.

Though the latter period cannot be dated farther back than one hundred and fifty years, and its full development by the aid of steampower is comparatively but the work of yesterday, the great impulse which the combined agency of machinery and steam-power has given to manufacturing industry of all kinds, renders the progress during that brief period of much more importance than the slow and imperfect advances of the preceding eighteen centuries.

It is a remarkable fact, that the country which now surpasses all other countries in the world in the extent, the variety, and we may add, with but few exceptions, in the excellence of its manufactures, was among the latest of those nations of Europe in which manufacturing industry was developed. Whilst among the civilized states of the south, manufactures of various kinds had long before attained a high degree of perfection, and even among the neighbouring Gauls many of the useful arts had been cultivated, but few signs of advancing civilization were apparent among the majority of the inhabitants of Britain. This is the more extraordinary, since, in the south-western portions of the island at least, they had long been brought in contact with civilized life, by trafficking with the Phoenicians for the mineral produce of the country; the tin of Britain, of which the natives made no use, having constituted for many ages an important material in extending the refinements of civilization over a large portion of the globe.

At the time of the first Roman invasion, it is probable that the three states of manufacturing progress indicated by the stone, the bronze, and the iron periods, were co-existent in different parts of the country. In the south-eastern and in the south-western portions of the island, where intercourse with the continent of Europe and with the Phoenicians had introduced some knowledge of the art of working in metals, the manufacture of bronze, and partially of iron, might have been acquired; while in the central districts, and in the north,

STONE IMPLEMENTS OF THE BRITONS.

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the ruder implements of stone continued in use. The war-chariot of the Britons exhibited considerable advance in the application of

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STONE HAMMER-HEADS, AXES, ETC.

mechanical agents and of horse-power for the purposes of war. The metal scythes fixed on the sides of the chariot are presumed to have been made of iron, for the rusted relics of one of those engines of war, found in a British tumulus, indicated the presence of that metal, whilst the trappings for the horses were made of bronze, and were in good preservation.

Four kinds of chariots are mentioned as having been in use among the Britons; one a carriage ridden in by the chiefs, another used as a cart, and two war-chariots, for single warriors, or for two or more.

There are abundant remains of the flint arrow and spear-heads and of the flint knives used by the Britons. In manufacturing these rude implements, the nodules of flint were broken into flat pieces with sharp edges, and were fashioned by hammering into arrow-heads and into knives.†

* Page 44, vol. i.

The demand for these relics of the ancient Britons has induced an extensive fraudulent manufacture of flint knives and arrow-heads, which so skilfully imitate the originals, that it is difficult even for an experienced antiquary to distinguish the difference. A curious discovery of what are pronounced to be undoubtedly genuine flint-knives, has recently been made in the bone caves of Devonshire. In one of these caves, which was opened last year, near Teignmouth, these knives were found imbedded in the stalagmite floor, mingled with the fossil bones of elephants lions, rhinosceri, and of other species of animals that are now extinct. The geologists and the antiquarians have been considerably staggered by this discovery, for the co-existence of the ancient Britons with those animals, which are supposed to have become extinct long before the creation of man, seems impossible. A previous discovery of the bones of human beings, mingled with those of similar species of animals, in some caves in France, was accounted for by the supposition