Do you understand that ?" "We used to learn all about it at college.

I don't see what it has to do with us, since you are not in the cotton trade." "You learned as much as it was thought safe to teach you, no doubt; but not quite all, I should think.

When my father started for himself, there were many men in Manchester who were willing to labor in this way, but they had no factory to work in, no machinery to work with, and no raw cotton to work on, simply because all this indispensable plant, and the materials for producing a fresh supply of it, had been appropriated by earlier comers.

So they found themselves with gaping stomachs, shivering limbs, and hungry wives and children, in a place called their own country, in which, nevertheless, every scrap of ground and possible source of subsistence was tightly locked up in the hands of others and guarded by armed soldiers and policemen.

In this helpless condition, the poor devils were ready to beg for access to a factory and to raw cotton on any conditions compatible with life.