the discovery of gas began to be utilized, he hit on several ingenious contrivances for facilitating its manufacture. Before long he was a wealthy man, and one of the most respected and public-spirited citizens of Newcastle. It is to his untiring exertions and foresight that Newcastle in a great measure owes its mercantile prosperity. He found the Tyne a shallow stream, up which vessels of the smallest draught could with difficulty sail. He left it so deepened that it is now one of the most navigable of rivers. The merit of this great achievement was publicly recognized by Mr. Gladstone, who, in consequence, had him dubbed knight,—a distinction, however, to which he was indifferent. From the beginning to the end of his career he was a Radical reformer.
The Cowens are a somewhat numerous family, and have been settled in and around Blaydon Burn for about three centuries. They came originally from Lindisfarne, or Holy Isle, of which the stock had been denizens from a remote antiquity. The Cowens were among the first genuine English co-operators on record,—co-operators in production as well as in distribution. They were for generations members of a singular society, instituted about the middle of the seventeenth century by an enterprising manufacturer, Crowley—the "Sir John Anvil" of Addison's "Spectator,"—whose members worshipped in common, fed in common, and shared equally in the common profits of their industry. This society was not disrupted till 1814, in the lifetime of Mr. Cowen's grandfather. Since then, it may be worth remarking, co-operation has again, under Mr. Cowen's fostering care, taken a firm hold on Blaydon-on-Tyne. Though Blaydon is a mere village, Mr. Holyoake, in his "History of Co-operation," declares
