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...think that Lord Bacon limited the power of parliament, great as he believed it, to those things which do not imply a physical impossibility. Modern ministers, however, have shown that a parliament is able, at least in appearance, to effect even such impossibilities. Sir Robert Walpole was wont to boast that he had “trained his fellows,” as he called his venal majority...

...think of ways in which mechanisation could speed up linen production. The brittleness of the flax fibre meant that a new machine had to be invented - the cotton machines simply couldn't be converted. In 1825, James Kay of Preston invented a method of "wet spinning" which passed the flax through warm water and enabled a much finer yarn to be spun. By the late 1820s several...