A Plan of Manchester, 1794. By William Green. (Falknor and
Sons, Manchester.)—William Green, a native of Manchester, began his plan in 1'787 and finished it seven years later. It seems to have been most conscientiously done. Even then the town was growing, and Green laboriously introduced as ho went on all the changes that he observed. It is melancholy to learn that this honesty was but ill-repaid. A French charlatan, Laurent by name, who was backed up by persons who ought to have known better, anticipated the publication of Green's map by one that was really little more than a sham, and Green lost a large part of the sales which he had had good reason to expect. Six hundred copies had been subscribed for at .132 28., not a very profuse remuneration for so much labour when the cost of production has been deducted. As a matter of fact, not more than four hundred were sold, and the work could hardly have brought in more than out-of-pocket expenditure. Green was, it would seem, possessed of independent means, for he retired from the profession of a surveyor, and spent the last twenty years of his life at Ambleside. The map has been reproduced by photo-lithography. It is on the scale of 29 in. to the mile, and therefore gives the features of the land, as they were, with great distinctness. What difference has been made by the hundred and eight years that have passed since the completion of this survey may be realised in a most interesting way.
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