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the Indian appellations, which distinguish the various fabrics andqualities, generally retained.
The cottrti manufacture having been introduced into Lanca-shire and Scotland nearly at the same time, the progress of im-provement in each country, might have generated a greater com-petition than actually took place, had not a circumstance, partlyaccidental, and partly to be accounted for from previously ac-quired habits, led the two countries to adopt different fabrics, asthe objects of their skill and industry.
The English weavers, formerly accustomed to imitate the dens-er fabrics of the Continent of Europe , attached themselves pecu-liarly to the manufacture of similar articles, merely substitutingcotton as the raw material. Hence, to calicoes, succeeded jeans,fustians, thicksets, corduroys, cambrics, shirtings, &c. And theironly imitations of the Indian manufacture, besides calicoes, wereconfined to pullicates, ginghams, nankeens, cossaes, and heavyjaconets.
But, previously to the introduction of the cotton manufacturein any shape, most of the lighter fabrics of France and Italy hadbeen imitated and extensively manufactured in the west of Scot-land ; * (French yarn for that purpose being imported, as thatspun here was found improper, chiefly from the inferiority of theflax.) Clear lawns, of considerable beauty and fineness, weremade at Glasgow ; and all the fanciful species of nets, and otherlight goods, at Paisley , first from linen, and afterwards fromsilk. Hence the Scottish weavers, accustomed to handle fineand delicate yarns, were led to imitate, in cotton, the lightestof the Indian fabrics, and the lightest texture of jaconets. Mull-mulls, and Buke, or Book muslins, were soon executed veryperfectly; to which have been added, common spots, brocades*lappets of all sorts, imitation shawls, plain and linoe gauzes;spidered, seeded, and numerous species of drawloom and otherwork, of the most fanciful, delicate, and ornamental kinds; manyof which, and the curious mechanism whereby they are execut-ed, are exclusively Scottish invention. Besides these, immensequantities have been manufactured of cambrics, cossaes, shirt-ings, sheetings, tweels, stripes, checks, pullicates of Madras,French and common patterns, plain, tweeled, and diced—withginghams, shawls, and other goods. Indeed, the general usesto which cotton fabrics of every description are applicable, andthe accommodating and pliant nature of the substance itself,have operated much in favour of improvements, as well in theweaving as in the other branches of that manufacture. Of theseimprovements, we ought to have mentioned what was amongstthe first and greatest, namely, the Fly-shuttle. Before its intro-duction, the weaver pitched his shuttle from one hand to the o-
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