ROUBAIX a manufacturing town of France, the second in population in the department of Nord, lies to the north-east of Lille on the Ghent Railway and on the canal connecting the lower Deule with Scheldt by the Marq and Espierre. Several tramway lines traverse the town and connect it with various manufacturing centres in the neighbourhood. The population of Roubaix, which in 1881 was 79,700 (the commune 91,757), is almost entirely manufacturing, and the trading firms of the town gave employment besides to an equally large number of hands in the vicinity. The weaving establishments number 300 (250 for woollen or woollen and cotton goods), the leading products being fancy and figured stuffs for waistcoats, trousers, overcoats, and dresses, velvet, barége, Orleans, furniture coverings, and the like. The yearly production is estimated at <£6,000,000, but the annual turnover exceeds <£8,000,000, if all the industries of the place are taken into account. These include 70 wool-spinning mills, 12 cotton mills, silk-works, wool-combing establishments, carpet manufactories, dye-houses, soap-works, machine-works, and foundries. Roubaix possesses several interesting churches, a library and art museum, a most interesting museum of local industries, communal schools of art and music, an industrial school for weaving, founded in 1857, a chamber of commerce dating from 1871, a chamber of arts and manufactures, a board of prud’hommes, and an agricultural and horticultural society....