I hear on all hands that there is hardly any town in Lancashire suffering so much as Preston.

The reason why the stroke has fallen so heavily here, lies in the nature of the trade.
In the first place, Preston is almost purely a cotton town.

There are two or three flax mills, and two or three ironworks, of no great extent; but, upon the whole, there is hardly any variety of employment there to lighten the disaster which has befallen its one absorbing occupation.

There is comparatively little weaving in Preston; it is a town mostly engaged in spinning.

The cotton used there is nearly all what is called "Middling American," the very kind which is now most scarce and dear.