commending them to his friends in the trade, and
amongst others to Mr. John Kennedy, of the firm of MacConnel and
Kennedy, then the largest spinners in the kingdom.

The Cotton Trade had by this time sprung into great importance, and was
increasing with extraordinary rapidity. Population and wealth were
pouring into South Lancashire, and industry and enterprise were
everywhere on foot. The foundations were being laid of a system of
manufacturing in iron, machinery, and textile fabrics of nearly all
kinds, the like of which has perhaps never been surpassed in any
country. It was a race of industry, in which the prizes were won by
the swift, the strong, and the skilled. For the most part, the early
Lancashire manufacturers started very nearly equal in point of worldly
circumstances, men originally of the smallest means often coming to the
front--work men, weavers, mechanics, pedlers, farmers, or labourers--in
course of time rearing immense manufacturing concerns by sheer force of
industry, energy, and personal ability. The description given by one
of the largest employers in Lancashire, of the capital with which he
started, might apply to many of them: "When I married," said he, "my
wife had a spinning-wheel, and I had a loom--that was the beginning of
our fortune." As an illustration of the rapid rise of Manchester men
from small beginnings, the following outline of John Kennedy's career,
intimately connected as he was with the subject of our memoir--may not
be without interest in this place.

John Kennedy was one of five young men of nearly the same age, who came
from the same neighbourhood in Scotland, and eventually settled in
Manchester as cottons-pinners about the end of last century. The
others were his brother James, his partner James MacConnel, and the
brothers Murray, above referred to--Mr. Fairbairn's first extensive
employers. John Kennedy's parents were respectable peasants, possessed
of a little bit of ground at Knocknalling, in the stewartry of
Kirkcudbright, on which they contrived to live, and that was all. John
was one of a family of five sons and two daughters, and the father
dying early, the responsibility and the toil of bringing up these
children devolved upon the mother. She was a strict disciplinarian,
and early impressed upon the minds of her boys that they had their own
way to make in the world. One of the first things she made them think
about was, the learning of some useful trade f