the population.  He looked about for a site suitable for a manufacturing establishment, and at length fixed upon a large piece of ground in the beautiful valley of the Aire.  An extension of the Leeds and Bradford Railway was in front, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal behind it, so that there was every convenience for bringing up the raw materials, and of sending away the manufactured goods.  On that spot Saltaire was erected—­a noble monument of private enterprise, liberality, and wisdom.

It is not necessary to describe Saltaire.  The buildings connected with the new works cover six and a half acres.  The principal room is five hundred and fifty feet long.  The weaving shed covers two acres.  The combing shed occupies one acre.  Everything is large, roomy, and substantial.  The cost of constructing the factory, and the dwellings for the workpeople, amounted to more than a hundred and forty thousand pounds.

On the opening day, Mr. Salt dined three thousand five hundred persons in the combing shed.  At the dinner, he said:  “I cannot look around me, and see this vast assemblage of friends and workpeople, without being moved.  I feel greatly honoured by the presence of the nobleman at my side.  I am especially delighted at the presence of my workpeople....  I hope to draw around me a population that will enjoy the beauties of this neighbourhood,—­a population of well-paid, contented, happy operatives.  I have given instructions to my architects that nothing is to be spared to render the dwellings of the operatives a pattern to the country; and if my life is spared by Divine Providence, I hope to see satisfaction, contentment, and happiness around me.”

This promise has been amply fulfilled.  Mr. Salt has been influenced throughout by his sense of duty and responsibility.  When he was applied to by the French Government for information as to his factory, he replied:  “What has been attempted at Saltaire arose from my own private feeling and judgment, without the most remote idea that it would be made the subject of public interest and inquiry.”  With respect to the factory itself, little need be said.  The object of its construction is to save time in the process of production.  Not a minute is lost in pushing the material from one department to another.  Every horse-power of steam is made to do its utmost, every moment of time is economized, and the productive capabilities of the factory are thus greatly increased.

We prefer to speak of the immense improvement which Mr. Salt, or rather Sir Titus Salt, has effected in the physical and moral condition of his workpeople.  The plan of the works shows that Saltaire has been provided with a church, a Wesleyan chapel, and a Literary and Philosophical Institution.  Large schools have been provided for boys, girls, and infants, with abundance of play-ground.  For young men as well as old, there is a cricket-ground, bowling-green, and croquet-lawn, surrounded by pleasure-grounds.  There is also a large dining-hall, baths and washhouses, a dispensary, and almshouses for pensioners.