History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain: With a Notice of Its Early History in the East, and in All the Quarters of the Globe - Paperbackby Edward Baines (Author) The journalist and politician Edward Baines (1800 90) succeeded his father as editor of the Leeds Mercury and as MP for Leeds. From a dissenting family, he was a social reformer but passionately believed that the state should not interfere in matters such as working hours and education. In this 1835 work, he sees the cotton industry as an exemplar of the unity of 'the manufactory, the laboratory, and the study of the natural