whole energy. They sent their envoys out to the remotest parts of the earth in quest of races and peoples desirous of being re-clad, devoting their attention chiefly, however, to the North American continent, in the various cities whereof they quickly established an extensive and profitable connection. Messrs. A. & S. Henry were the leaders, so to speak, in the English trade with America, and for many years they were the chief exporters of manufactured goods to that country. Their house came to be known as the American house; though in later years many other American houses have sprung up in Manchester and Bradford. The Henrys did not confine their operations to dealing simply in Manchester cottons, but gradually laid themselves out for the supplying of all descriptions of fabrics-cottons, woollens, worsteds, silks, and what not-and opened branch warehouses in all the principal commercial centres of this country. At Leeds they placed themselves in the midst of the heavy woollen district; at Huddersfield obtained full command of the fancy cloth trade; at Bradford gained ready access to the makers of worsted goods; at Belfast were put in direct communication with the manufacturers of Irish linen; and at Glasgow were able to obtain a firm footing amongst the various producers of Scottish textiles. At each of these places managing partners were established, with separate and distinct interests, but all responsible to, and in direct connection with, the parent house at Manchester, which retained, and still retains, the supreme control over all the concerns. With these numerous fields to draw upon, and with an ever-increasing connection abroad, no wonder that the firm prosper

ed. The amount of personal supervision given to the business affairs of the house at this time by Messrs. Alexander and Samuel Henry was something marvellous; early and late they were to be seen at their posts, and there was not a single detail of the trade to which they did not pay attention. Frequent voyages had to be made between this country and America by one or other of the brothers, and long and dreary must the voyages have seemed to them, eager and ardent as they were. In those days the average time of passage was thirty days, but occasionally, by stress of weather or other circumstance, the vessels were retarded, and one time Mr. Alexander Henry was seventy days in going over. Mr. Alexander Henry crossed the Atlantic upwards of thirty times, but never made the voyage after the introduction of steamers.

In 1836 Mr. Henry built the present large warehouse in Portland-street, Manchester, in order to keep pace with the firm's increasing operations. By this time they were doing a greater trade with America than any other house, and their business with foreign countries generally was much augmented. So matters continued, without any particular incident occurring, down to the year 1840, when, by a terrible disaster which took place in America, the house had a gloom cast over it that was not easily dispelled. On the night of the 13th of January 1840, Mr. Samuel Henry was a passenger on board the American palace-steamer Lexington, sailing from New York to Providence. The ship took fire, and all the passengers and crew, with the exception of some two or three individuals, lost their lives. Amongst those who perished,' said Hunt's (N.Y.)

Merchant's Magazine of February 1840, there was no one more generally beloved and respected than Samuel Henry, Esq., of Manchester, England. In his business intercourse with his fellow-men, rigid uncompromising integrity marked his character. No one knew better the true requirements of a merchant, or the generosity becoming a man; and throughout his life he ever maintained the strictest consistency of high mercantile principles and the most generous liberality. During the commercial distress which affected every class in the country for the past three years, Mr. Henry was here, yielding relief and assistance to those whom misfortune had crushed; and there are many, in this city and elsewhere, who will bear testimony of his open confidence and generous forbearance, when they were most needed and appreciated. Indeed, in all his business transactions there was a free honest spirit, a manly straightforward course of conduct, which won the esteem and confidence of all with whom he came in contact.'

When the news reached England, it was remembered that on the same night that Mr. Samuel Henry met his death so lamentably in America, his elder brother, Mr. Alexander Henry, was one of the guests at a Free-trade banquet given in Manchester. Both brothers had been stanch advocates of the principles championed by Cobden and Bright, and were prominent members of the AntiCorn-Law League. In 1846, Mr. Alexander Henry was returned to Parliament, unopposed, jointly with the late Mr. William Brown, for South Lancashire, for which constituency he continued to sit during Lord John Russell's Parliament, taking an active interest in all measures having for their

VOL. XXXVII. NO. CCXXVII.

object the promotion of commerce and the advancement of education. He steadfastly adhered to the principles of reform, which he had had the courage to avow at a time when they were unpopular, and lived to see and take part in the passing into law of many of his favourite schemes. He was one of Cobden's most attached friends, and a great admirer of Kossuth. On the two occasions when Kossuth formally visited Manchester he was received by Mr. Henry as his personal guest. On the first visit, the Hungarian patriot was welcomed with acclamation by the people of Cottonopolis; on the second visit he found the tide of popular favour turned against him, in consequence of the part he was supposed to have taken in connection with certain political intrigues; but his friend, Mr. Henry, stood manfully by him, and received him with as much warmth as ever. Mr. Henry was no mere 'fair-weather friend;' when once he had made up his mind that a man was worthy of his trust and confidence, and satisfied himself that his motives were such as honour and justice would approve, he was not the one to desert him in the hour of trial and distress. Although he attended assiduously to his parliamentary duties, Mr. Henry never relaxed his interest in the great business which he had been mainly instrumental in creating; he was still frequently to be seen at the Manchester warehouse busying himself with all that was going on, and assisting his partners with the best advice and experience. He continued to exercise a controlling influence over the affairs of the firm until his death in 1862, when the sorrow which fell upon the house of A. & S. Henry & Co. was shared in by the people of

GG

Manchester generally, Mr. Henry having greatly endeared himself to his fellow-citizens by his many munificent acts.

The personnel of the firm now underwent considerable change. Mr. John Snowdon Henry, who had for some time been actively employed in the business, and Mr. Mitchell Henry, the two sons of Mr. Alexander Henry, became principal partners, and they, in conjunction with those other members of the firm who had been taken into partnership by Mr. Henry, continued to carry on the business with undiminished success. Mr. J. Snowdon Henry was elected M.P. for South-East Lancashire in November 1868, in the Conservative interest, and represented that constituency down to 1874. He engaged with much earnestness in many public movements, and was at one time Major of the 40th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers. In 1869 he retired from business altogether.

He has

a country seat at East Dene, Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight, and a town residence in Piccadilly. His connection with the firm of A. & S. Henry & Co. lasted through a number of very prosperous years, and when he retired it was as the possessor of a handsome fortune.

Mr. Mitchell Henry now holds the leading position in the firm; but, strange to say, he has never taken any actual part in the transaction of the business affairs of this gigantic commercial undertaking. Born in 1826, educated privately and at University College, he early in life devoted himself to the study of medicine, and at one time held an eminent position in that profession. He attended the St. Bartholomew's Hospital School of Medicine, and was made a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1847.

In 1854 he became, by examination, a Fellow of the same college, and for some years was assistantsurgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He acted as surgeon and lecturer on medical jurisprudence for a considerable period at the Middlesex Hospital, and was in practice in London as a consulting surgeon. When his father died, however, and he found himself placed in an inde pendent position, he gave himself up, in a great measure, to public life, and took leave of the medical profession altogether. Although not engaging himself directly in the business of his firm, he possesses a thorough knowledge of all the affairs of the partnership, keeping himself daily posted in the firm's transactions, and to a considerable extent directing its operations. As early as 1856 he tried to get into Parliament, unsuccessfully contesting Woodstock; and in 1868 he placed himself in the hands of his party at Manchester, and again met with defeat. All this while he was taking a prominent part in the various political movements which came before the country, and in many instances his advocacy proved of good service to a good cause. At length, in 1871, his opportunity for entering Parliament came, and he was elected for County Galway, along with Major Nolan, and has ever since sat for that constituency.

The part that he has played in parliamentary life is well known. While warmly espousing the cause of Home Rule, he has contrived to place himself on a more independent and more intelligible footing than the majority of Home Rulers, and there is no doubt he has been one of the strong elements of the party. The manner in which he has set himself to solve the Irish grievance

entitles him to be considered a practical philanthropist, and a true friend of the Irish people. In 1862 he acquired the sporting rights over a large tract of country in Connemara, and, becoming attached to the place, eventually bought an estate there, upon which he has built a residence where he resides for the greater part of every year, and where he has the opportunity of carrying out those agricultural experiments which have always had so great an attraction for him. The result of his experience thus far has been to convince him that the true mode of treating the Irish difficulty is to regard it less as a political than as a social matter; and, in Parliament and out of it, he has frequently expressed the opinion that no changes in the laws, whether as respects the land or otherwise, will prove effectual for the removal of Irish discontent until the condition of the population is improved by making the country in which they live more habitable for man. By his own experience he has shown what can be done by judicious outlay; and he contends that if some portion of the better class of the waste lands were acquired by the State, it would be possible to settle upon them, in comfortable circumstances, numbers of small tenants who at present live in a chronic state of destitution. The practical suggestion he makes is that, after suitable tracts of country have been acquired by the Government for this purpose, works of reclamation should be constituted, to be carried on by Irish labourers, who would be paid weekly wages, and would be housed in temporary dwellings, and that when, in the course of about two years, these tracts have been made sufficiently fertile to support families, they should be

divided into farms of thirty acres, which should be let to the labourers who have worked upon them, at rents calculated upon the basis of a percentage on the original outlay in the purchase of the estate and of the amount paid in wages, together with a small fund to pay off the whole sum in the course of a term of years, when the holder would become the proprietor of the fee simple of a wellordered farm, and thus become as deeply interested in upholding the rights of property, and securing the observance of the laws, as the larger proprietor could be.

and

Mr. Mitchell Henry's efforts in regard to the reclamation of waste lands have already attracted much attention, and are destined to attract still more. A special correspondent of the Times, writing from Ireland in January last, described Mr. Henry's experiments as of the greatest importance to all those who had at heart the development of Ireland's agricultural capabilities. Tourists passing Kylemore Castle,' he says, 'in view of some of the most marvellous rock scenery in the United Kingdom, where the Twelve Pins present their precipices of black and gray, whole faces of snow-white quartz, with intensely bright green slopes between, may have scarcely noticed the operations of drain-cutting and transporting of hard material, which are likely, as an example, to exert a commanding influence over the future of, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of acres of now wasted bog.' The cost of these reclamations has averaged 137. an Irish acre hitherto, and in some instances the crop of turnips grown in the first year has gone far towards recouping the outlay. The gold medal of the Royal Agricultural Society was recently

awarded to Mr. Mitchell Henry for drainage in the West of Ireland, and, one way and another, this member of one of the leading commercial firms in the country has succeeded in making himself a decided authority on momentous agricultural matters. The appointment of an Agricultural Commission to consider, amongst other things, the question of the reclamation of waste lands in Ireland, and the selection of Mr. Mitchell Henry as a member of that Commission, will probably hasten the solution of the Irish land problem considerably. In these and other matters connected with the amelioration of the condition of the Irish people Mr. Mitchell Henry has shown untiring zeal; and if his English friends feel regret that he should have identified himself so intimately with Irish questions as to cut himself adrift in some degree from more general political projects, his Irish friends, on the other hand, have the satisfaction of feeling that he is still better employed, and men of all shades of opinion will give him credit for honesty, and earnestly striving to come at the best and readiest means of assisting the inhabitants of Ireland.

The other members of the Manchester firm of A. & S. Henry & Co. since 1847 have been Mr. George Wildes, Mr. W. R. Johnson, Mr. W. F. Scholfield, Mr. Thomas Barton, Mr. N. Carter, Mr. H. Hitchcock, Mr. John Mitchell, Mr. James Dawson, Mr. Thomas A. Corry, Mr. John Laycock, and Mr. John Moseley Williams. The five last-named gentlemen constitute the present Manchester partnership.

Mr. John Mitchell has been connected with the firm since 1844. Until 1868 he was concerned in the management of the

Leeds and Bradford branches, and resided principally at Bradford, in which town he acquired considerable influence as a public man. He was for a long period a member of the Bradford Town Council, of which body he was created alderman. Like Mr. Alexander Henry, he was a pronounced Free-trader and one of Kossuth's most intimate friends and admirers. When Kossuth visited Bradford, Mr. John Mitchell entertained him, and he always warmly advocated the Hungarian's cause. During the time that the French Commercial Treaty was being negotiated, Mr. John Mitchell rendered much useful assistance to Mr. Cobdenassistance which the great Freetrader gratefully acknowledged. On commercial matters Mr. John Mitchell was always regarded as a high authority, and both in Yorkshire and in Lancashire he has done much good work for the advancement of the interests of trade. In politics Mr. John Mitchell has always been what is called an advanced Liberal. When the present Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. Forster, was first brought forward as a parliamentary candidate for Bradford, Mr. John Mitchell was his chairman, and he seconded Mr. Forster at the hustings. Previous to that he had acted as chairman for the well-known political veteran, General Perronet Thompson. After removing to Manchester in 1868, Mr. John Mitchell was made a member of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, of which important public body he is now a director.

The remaining Manchester partners have all been with the firm many years, some of them having risen from the humble position of warehouse-boy to that of master. Mr. Alexander Henry always