a town of England, in the W. Riding of Yorkshire, the metropolis of the woollen manufacture, and, in point of population, only exceeded by London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. Leeds is situated nearly in the centre of the W. Riding, in the wapentake of Skyrack, and in the pleasant and well cultivated valley of the River Aire. The surrounding country possesses much cheerful beauty; and the view from Woodhouse Moor, one of the most elevated parts of the borough, is not exceeded in any part of the Riding. For manufacturing and commercial purposes, the situation of Leeds is highly advantageous, especially since the introduction of railways. It is now the terminus of the two great lines from London—the Midland and the Great Northern—and is, besides, the terminus of the North-Eastern, and the Manchester and Leeds Railways; whilst it stands in close connection with the E. Riding, through the York and North Midland, and the Leeds and Selby Railways. It has also connection with Cheshire, through the London and North-Western Railway; and with Scotland, through the North-Eastern, via Darlington and Newcastle; and via Lancaster, with the western route to Carlisle and Glasgow. It has also canal transit to Liverpool by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and to Hull by the Aire and Calder navigation; these means of transit, combined with the railways, giving Leeds the highest facility for the transmission to the principal seaports of England of its various manufactures, and for receiving at the lowest rate of charge the various kinds of raw material used in those manufactures. Leeds is the centre of a great bed of iron and coal mines. All the advantages for the successful working of machinery are, therefore, within its reach, and hence it has become the seat of several important manufactures, especially woollen, flax, and iron and machine-making.

Though regarded as the capital of the great manufacturing district of the W. Riding, Leeds is not in its centre, but on its border. Eastward and northward the country is wholly agricultural. Westward and to the S.W., in all the valleys, and on all the hills betwixt Leeds and the long and high range that separates Yorkshire from Lancashire, the populous villages resound with the shuttle and the steam-engine. In this district is carried on a woollen manufacture of great extent and of considerable antiquity; a worsted manufacture of extraordinary vigour (a graft on the woollen manufacture); and latterly the iron manufacture, and machine and steam-engine manufacture, besides a manufacture of flax, which has sprung up within the present century, and now constitutes one of the staple trades of Leeds.

Cloth is the staple trade of the town, although the manufacture itself is not the leading one within the borough, being carried on, to a large extent, in townships out of the parish and borough of Leeds. In the town, however, the trade centres, and there the cloth is finally prepared for consumption, by what is technically termed finishing or dressing,—a department so distinct in Leeds from that of the manufacturer, that the persons respectively engaged in them know very little of the art practised by each other. In this respect the Yorkshire cloth trade differs essentially from that of the W. of England; the practice in the latter being for the manufacturer to conduct the two operations of making and finishing the cloth within the same premises, and so to control and direct the entire process, from the sorting of the wool to the delivery of the finished cloth. Several firms in the borough of Leeds, conduct their business on the W. of England model; but, as the rule, the order of the trade is as follows:—The great bulk of the cloths sold in Leeds are produced either in the out-towships of the borough, or in the villages lying W. of Leeds, and principally in Pudsey, Farley, Rawdon, Yeadon, Horsforth, and Guiseley, which are all in other parishes, within an extreme radius of 10 miles from Leeds. The cloths so manufactured are sold in the unfinished or balt state to the merchants of Leeds, by whom they are put out to the cloth-dressers or finishers, whose special craft it is to raise the pile or nap on the face of the cloth, and to complete it for the purposes of the tailor and the final consumer.

A very large proportion of the business betwixt the manufacturer and the merchants is conducted in the cloth halls, which are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 to 11 o'clock. Of these halls there are two—the Coloured Cloth Hall, erected in 1758, and the White Cloth Hall, erected in 1775. Both are built in the form of a square, with double streets, each street having a double range of stands for placing the cloths, behind which the manufacturers take their place, and invite the merchants to purchase. The whole length occupied by these stands is very considerable; and in the two hours during which the halls are open on the market-days, the amount of business transacted is exceedingly large. Within the last 20 or 30 years, however, a great change has taken place in the method of transacting business betwixt the manufacturer and the merchant. The latter orders goods of specific weights, colours, and qualities of the former, and these are delivered direct to him, without being exhibited in the halls. It is, in fact, very probable that more cloths are now made and delivered direct to order, than pass through the halls. The large manufacturers of the surrounding villages very rarely take stands in the halls, their principal business being a direct one with the merchant. At one period it seemed probable that the business of the cloth trade would assume the West of England type. Mr William Hirst, a very skilful manufacturer, introduced goods of superior texture and quality, and by his success induced many capitalists to erect mills on a large scale, in which all the processes of the manufacture and finishing were conducted. The change was, however, only temporary. Many of these mills are now occupied for finishing only, and some have been devoted to other branches of the local manufactures. This economy of the cloth trade seems likely to continue some time yet. If the spinning and weaving of woollen goods by power should become practicable to the extent now practised in the manufacture of worsted and cotton goods, there would, of course, be a great alteration in the entire economy of the trade. But there are peculiarities in the formation of the woollen thread which have baffled, hitherto, the ingenuity of the mechanist to meet by mechanical appliances only. Hence, the old hand-jenny, and the hand-loom continue in extensive, and, indeed, preponderating use, in the woollen trade, though they have been almost superseded in the other textile manufactures.

The spinning of flax by machinery was commenced in the township of Holbeck (in the borough of Leeds), more than eighty years since, by Mr John Marshall, who was one of the first to apply the principle of Sir Richard Arkwright's water-frame, invented in the cotton manufacture, to the spinning of linen yarn.

The works of Messrs Marshall and Company are very extensive, and one portion of them is an object of attraction to all strangers visiting the town. It is a vast room, 400 feet by 220, filled with machinery, all of which is turned by shafting, which requires two coupled engines of 350 horse power to impel it. The building is lighted by glass cupolas, which admit of ventilation, and in summer are shielded by linen blinds. The whole building is held together by a double series of iron ties, uniting the iron pillars which sustain the many-arched roof. The external form is Egyptian; perhaps the only instance of the adaptation of the style and hieroglyphic symbols of Egypt to the purposes of manufacture presented in any part of Europe.

The spinning of worsted yarn and the weaving of worsted goods were, twenty or thirty years ago, carried on to a considerable extent in Leeds, but have now nearly died out; Bradford, Bingley, and Keighley, with the villages immediately adjoining, having attracted almost the entire trade. The mercantile department of the trade, technically called the stuff trade, long remained more extensive in Leeds than in Bradford, even after the latter town had all but monopolized the manufacture. Within the last ten years, however, nearly all the stuff merchants transferred their establishments to Bradford, though still continuing to reside in Leeds. The stuff trade of Bradford, notwithstanding, is still largely connected with Leeds, the wool-staplers and dyers of the latter having extensive dealings with the manufacturers and merchants of the former town. It is, indeed, probable that more persons are now thus employed in Leeds in this indirect connection with the stuff manufacture, than were ever employed directly in the spinning and weaving of worsted stuffs.

Amongst the smaller branches of the textile manufactures carried on in Leeds, must be enumerated those of silk and carpeting, neither of them unimportant, though falling far short of the flax and woollen trades.

The establishments for the casting of metals, the manufacture of steam-engines, and of machinery of every kind, are on a large scale; and it has, besides, establishments for the manufacture of mechanical tools, which won considerable premiums at the last Paris Exhibition. It is by no means improbable, that the various branches of the forging and casting of iron, and the manipulation of that most important metal into machines and engines for the manufacture of the various fabrics which minister to modern luxury, may before long constitute a more important branch of the local industry than the old and staple manufacture of woollens.

In addition to these principal branches of manufacture, Leeds produces largely in nails, tobacco, snuff, pottery, and glass.

The number of persons employed in mills within the borough of Leeds in 1835, as given by Mr Baker, sub-inspector of factories, was—woollen, 9312; flax, 5926; worsted, 1420. By the census of 1851, those employed in woollen and worsted manufactures amounted to 13,231 males, and 5112 females—total, 18,343; in flax manufactures, 2464 males, and 6722 females—total, 9186; machine-makers and workers in metals, 5734. The total number of persons engaged in some employment was 88,465, out of an entire population of 172,170. Of 88,468, the number of males under twenty years of age, 12,626 were employed; of 45,246 males above twenty, there were 41,836; of 38,987 females under twenty, 9682; and of 49,569 females over twenty, 19,321. These numbers show a very active condition of the industry of the borough. They show, also, that the proportion of males under twenty, and of females, who follow some occupation, is not so great in a large manufacturing borough like Leeds as is commonly believed; especially when it is considered how very large a proportion of the females who are returned as following some occupation are domestic servants. Out of the 19,321 females above twenty engaged in some occupation, 12,959 are either domestic servants, or follow some trade or employment in their own dwellings; leaving only 6362, or about 22 per cent. of the females of the operative class above twenty years of age, who follow out-door employments, chiefly in the mills. The mechanical and other appliances of industry in the town of Leeds are on a large scale, as evidenced by the number of chimneys that crowd the view, belonging to mills, foundries, dye-houses, and machine and steam-engine establishments. Steam-power is universally employed where practicable; and the whole effective steam agency employed in Leeds is probably not less than 12,000 or 15,000 horse-power.

The census of religious worship of 1851 supplies the following particulars:

| Religious Denomination | Places of Worship | Total Sittings | Appropriated | |------------------------|------------------|---------------|-------------| | Church of England | 35 | 25,436 | 10,193 | | Independents | 11 | 8,905 | 6,255 | | Baptists | 19 | 5,781 | 3,981 | | Society of Friends | 1 | 1,100 | | | Unitarians | 3 | 1,240 | 550 | | Wesleyan Methodists | 25 | 20,475 | 12,871 | | Methodist, New Connection | 7 | 2,717 | 2,075 | | Primitive Methodists | 13 | 3,980 | 2,923 | | Wesleyan Association | 10 | 4,354 | 2,916 | | Doc. Reformers | 4 | 200 | | | New Church | 1 | 850 | 700 | | Brethren | 2 | 250 | 100 | | Isolated Congregations | 5 | 230 | | | Roman Catholics | 2 | 1,220 | 820 | | Jews | 2 | 140 | 50 | | Latter-Day Saints | 1 | 240 | | | **Total** | **137** | **76,488** | **42,804** |

The supply of sittings is, in relation to the population, 46 per cent. The extension of religious appliances during the last fifty years has more than kept pace with the progress of the population. The extent of Sabbath-school instruction in Leeds is as follows:

| Religious Denomination | Schools | Scholars | |------------------------|---------|----------| | Church of England | 46 | 9,292 | | Independents | 14 | 2,894 | | Baptists | 11 | 1,881 | | Wesleyan Methodists | 31 | 6,387 | | Primitive Methodists | 10 | 1,388 | | Wesleyan Methodist Association | 11 | 2,226 | | Other denominations | 24 | 4,093 | | **Total** | **147** | **28,761** |

The appliances for general education taken from Mr Mann's able report to the Census Commissioners are as follows:

| Type of School | Schools | Scholars | |-------------------------|---------|----------| | Public Day Schools | | | | Workhouse and military schools | 3 | 485 | | Collegiate and grammar schools | 2 | 242 | | Other endowed schools | 7 | 635 | | Denominational Schools | | | | Church of England | 35 | 6,892 | | Other denominations | 28 | 4,922 | | Private day schools | 295 | 8,558 | | **Total** | **371** | **21,834** |

The preceding figures, in reference to day and Sunday-schools, show that the proportion of day scholars to population is one in 7-8, and of Sunday scholars one in 6.

The educational means of a higher order, and for literary and scientific purposes, in Leeds, are extensive. The Old Library, founded in 1758, at the recommendation of the celebrated Dr Priestley, contains a very valuable selection of books. The New Subscription Library is on a smaller scale, but is, nevertheless, a very useful institution. Besides these, there are several small libraries, chiefly connected with the several religious bodies in the town. In connection with the Leeds Literary and Philosophical Society, established in 1820, occasional lectures are given both by members of the society and by public lecturers. The building contains a laboratory, lecture-room, and a museum, with many fine specimens in natural history, geology, and antiquities. The Leeds Mechanics' Institute, established in 1825, was originally limited to the purposes of a library, and supplying evening instruction in arithmetic, mathematics, and mechanical and chemical science. The institute was largely indebted to the liberality of the late Benjamin Gott, Esq., and John Marshall, Esq., for a valuable donation of books on literary and scientific subjects. In 1842 it was united with the Literary Society (founded 1834), under the title of the Leeds Mechanics' Institution and Literary Society. By means of an exhibition in 1839, and again in 1842, the Mechanics' Institute had become possessed of a handsome building, originally built as a music saloon. The principal room (the upper one) serves all the purposes of a lecture, reading, and news-room and library. By the union of the societies, an excellent collection of books has been formed, and the number of newspapers and periodicals provided is very large. There are day and evening classes in connection with the society, and the curriculum of the education given is of a high order. The School of Art, originally established by the government, is also an adjunct of the society, and is well frequented. The number of members of the literary department solely, was in 1856, 1776; and of boys and others in the day and evening schools, 258. The income of 1855 was L1,700, allowing a very frequent supply of lectures, &c. The institution is in a very flourishing condition. Besides this one central and principal mechanics' institute, there are many subsidiary ones in the out-townships, and in various parts of the township of Leeds. Within the last two years also, a Young Men's Christian Institute, much on the model of the Literary Institution, has been founded, and already numbers 500 subscribers.

Of the charities of Leeds, the older are chiefly the dwellings for aged widows, now tastefully rebuilt, and the "Pious Use Property." The annual income of the several endowed charities is about L5,000.

The Infirmary, established in 1767, and finally completed in 1792, stands near the Coloured Cloth Hall. It is a large but plain building of red brick, forming three sides of a quadrangle, and with a large open space laid out in walks and flower-beds, to which the late Richard Fountayne Wilson, Esq., added a munificent grant of 4000 yards, thus leaving a clear and open space down to the Wellington Road. The House of Recovery was opened in 1804, but, being in an unfavourable locality, a new building was erected in 1840, near the present Industrial School, in a very salubrious neighbourhood, and, from the style of the architecture, constituting it an ornament to the town. Besides these are the Benevolent or Stranger's Friend Society, the Dispensary, the Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Church Visiting Society, and the Leeds Guardian Society.

The town and borough of Leeds was incorporated by the municipal patent, 24 Charles I., but this charter was cancelled ipso facto, or surrendered. A new charter was granted, 13th Charles II., under the style of mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the borough of Leeds. The corporation consisted of a mayor, twelve aldermen, twenty-four assistants, and a staff of thirteen officials. The Municipal Act of 1834 gave Leeds a corporation of sixteen aldermen and forty-eight councillors, which has effected great improvements in the management of local matters. In addition to the powers granted to it by the Municipal Reform Act, the town council has acquired, through successive improvement acts, extensive control over the construction of dwelling-houses, the height of rooms, and the width of streets. It has large power to enforce the consumption of smoke, and to determine the height of furnace and engine chimneys, and for the abatement or removal of nuisances of every kind. The corporate expenses for 1856 amounted to upwards of L25,000.

The management of the highways in the township of Leeds is in the hands of a board of highway surveyors, having under their charge twenty-two miles of paved streets, and ten miles of roads, and who expended, in 1855-56, £6809. The administration of the poor law in the township of Leeds is in the hands of a board of guardians. In the out-townships, the overseers levy, collect, and administer the rate. The expenditure, in 1855-56, for the township of Leeds, was £26,693, 5s. 3d., a very small amount, considering the population, and considerably less than in many former years; the amount paid in 1843 being £31,982 7s. 2d., and, in 1848, £40,784, 16s. 3d. The aggregate annual charge of public rates, estimating the poor and highway rates of the out-townships at £10,000, does not fall far short of £95,000 to £100,000 per annum. The rates are, in fact, between 6s. and 7s. in the pound on the assessed rental of the borough—the assessed rental being taken at 4½s. of the actual rental. The supply of water for the township of Leeds is under the management of the town council, who, in virtue of a power reserved to it when the Leeds Water Works Company was incorporated in 1837, have assumed the property of that company. The capital thus assumed, and which is all raised on mortgage given by the town council on the property, is £270,031, 14s. 9d.; which will be further increased by the works at Arthington, on the River Wharfe, ten miles from Leeds, from which an additional supply of 2,500,000 gallons per day can be obtained. The water is to be pumped from the river by steam power into reservoirs at Arthington, and from thence forced by steam power also, through iron pipes of large diameter, to the reservoir situated at Eccup, a small village 6 miles N. from Leeds. This extension is estimated to cost £14,000. The supply of water from the existing works being 1,600,000 gallons; the total supply after Arthington Works come into operation will be 4,100,000 gallons per diem. Leeds is supplied with gas by two companies, having an aggregate capital of £224,487. The value of the gas annually supplied is upwards of £50,000; or, including the gas manufactured by mill-owners for the use of their mills, about £55,000.

Of the places of recreation in Leeds, the principal is the Music Hall, built in 1792. It is a plain structure, and is used far oftener for public meetings than for musical performances. The New Town Hall, provided with an organ and orchestra, it is expected, will almost entirely supersede the Music Hall, which has no organ, and is besides much too small. The Assembly Rooms, over the north end of the White Cloth Hall, were opened about 1780, and are not much used. There are two theatres, and a casino. The Royal Gardens, situate at Headingley, 2 miles from Leeds, in a delightful locality, were originally laid out for botanical and zoological purposes, but are now converted into a place of public amusement. The place of largest public resort is Woodhouse Moor, a bare common N.W. of Leeds, and about a mile from the centre of the town. It is an elevated spot, and commands an exceedingly fine view S. and W. In the summer evenings it is generally thronged with cricket-players, norr and spell players, and others in quest of healthful amusement.

The external appearance of Leeds has been greatly improved within the last twenty or thirty years. At the commencement of the century it had only one plain stone bridge over the Aire, now it has six new ones within the borough, two of which are of stone and four of iron, and by no means inelegant structures. The railway approaches and termini have greatly altered the appearance of the place. The latter, though on a large scale, have not yet (1857) assumed the form finally contemplated. The streets of Leeds, under the operation of the Improvement Act, have undergone large alterations, and, since the new sewer was constructed, at a cost of £150,000, are laid down with a pavement of great strength, and with causeways of the amplest dimensions. Within the present century an unsightly pile of buildings, including the old Moot Hall, or Court House, has been removed from the northern end of the principal street, Briggate; as also has the old Market Cross; and although the shops and houses are many of them of a remote date and very paltry, the whole view of the street is imposing. Under the Act of Improvement obtained 1856, the town council are empowered to open up a new and spacious street from the front of the New Town Hall to Wellington Street. The greatest change hitherto produced in the town has arisen from the erection of public markets, the rebuilding of churches and chapels, and other public edifices, and its rapid extension of houses west and north, in which quarters the houses have been built in a style far surpassing that of the older portions of the town. Leeds has four market-places—the Leather or South Market; the Central Market, which is, in fact, a great cluster of shops; the Covered Market, in the Vicar's Croft (just completing), for vegetables, &c., at a cost of £14,000; and an extensive cattle and sheep market, on a very extensive scale, in the North Town End. The parish church is a very ornamental structure; some of the other churches are also in an excellent style of architecture. There is also a jail, erected at a cost of £43,000.

The Town Hall is a parallelogram of 250 feet by 200, and 65 in height, of Corinthian architecture. The Great Hall is the largest room in England, except that of St George's Hall, Liverpool. It is 161 feet long, 71 feet wide, and 78 feet high, and is calculated to hold 8000 persons. The orchestra is placed at the north end. The town council have voted £5000 for an organ, and £8500 for the purpose of erecting a tower or dome over the vestibule. When the new street is opened from this point to Wellington Street, the view in ascending from the latter will be very striking. A large bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington is already placed in the front area, and will be flanked by a statue of Sir Robert Peel, in the same material, which now stands at the south angle of the present court-house. A statue of the late Edward Baines, Esq., formerly M.P. for Leeds, will also be placed in some suitable part of the building, or in the area. These statues were erected by public subscription, at an aggregate cost of upwards of £4200.

The history of Leeds has been written by two antiquarians—Ralph Thoresby, F.R.S., a learned and pious native of the town, who published his Ductatus Leodiensis in 1714, and the Rev. Thomas Dunham Whitaker, LL.D., F.S.A., who republished Thoresby's work and added another volume, under the title of Loidis and Elmete, in 1816. The latter work deserves high praise for its ability and antiquarian learning; but it is miserably deficient in its notice of the trades and manufactures of the place, and treats them with the most prejudiced contempt. More recently the civil, ecclesiastical, literary, commercial, and miscellaneous history of Leeds, and the surrounding towns and villages, has been written by the late Rev. Edward Parsons, of Halifax, in 2 volumes—a work which brings down, very completely, the history of Leeds to the year 1834. A more recent work by James Wardell, Esq., deputy town-clerk of the town of Leeds, brings down the municipal history of the borough to the year 1846. Both these works are of great value to the historian and antiquarian; but it is no disparagement to the authors to say, that the changes produced by the repeal of the Corn Laws, the adoption of railway transit, and other social and municipal changes in the laws, have rendered necessary a new history of Leeds. It is difficult to realize the contrast betwixt the Leeds of 1832, the time of the passing of the Reform Bill, and Leeds as it now is; and it is quite possible that ten years hence the historian of Leeds may smile at the modest tone in which Leeds, commercially and nationally, is now spoken of. Leeds has been distinguished for the last sixty years by the energetic action of the public generally, on all political questions, including the slavery question, Reform Bill, Catholic Emancipation, repeal of the Corn Laws, repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and the repeal of the East India monopoly. The newspapers published in Leeds are, the Leeds Mercury, an influential journal published three times per week; the Leeds Times, more radical in its tone than the Mercury; and the Leeds Intelligencer, which is Conservative.

The borough and parish, which are co-extensive, measure in their longest diameter upwards of 7 miles, with a circumference of 30, cover 21,470 acres, and comprise, besides the township of Leeds (properly so called) ten out-townships, nearly all engaged in the staple manufactures of woollen cloth, flax, or iron. Chapel Allerton, Potternewton, and Headingley are, however, mere suburbs of Leeds, a very large proportion of the inhabitants of those townships being persons whose places of business are in the town of Leeds. The population of the township of Leeds, and of these ten out-townships, in 1851, was as follows:—Leeds township, 104,490; Armley, 6190; Beeston, 1973; Bramley, 8949; Chapel-Allerton, 2842; Farnley, 1722; Headingley, 6105; Holbeck, 14,162; Hunstel, 19,466; Potternewton, 1385; Wortley, 7896—total, 172,170.

The value of real property in the borough of Leeds assessed in 1843, consisting of lands, houses, tithes, quarries, mines, and ironworks, was L342,937, 9s. 10d.; or, including the out-townships, L544,272, 1s. 1d. The present value is probably about L626,000.

The census of 1851 showed that there were 36,165 inhabited houses in the borough of Leeds, 1646 uninhabited, and 259 building. Since the passing of the Reform Act, Leeds returns two members to parliament.