OF SAMUEL CROMPTON. 353 



Such then is the brief history of the Mule, 

 a machine of incalculable importance in the 

 commercial relations of this country, and the 

 present improved state of which a concurrence 

 of unlooked for circumstances has contributed 

 to produce. The extent to which the spinning 

 of cotton has been carried by this means, I 

 endeavoured on a fonner occasion to estimate. 

 Since that period, there has been a still farther 

 increase in the investment of capital, the num- 

 ber of persons employed, and the quantity of 

 yarn produced. The continued substitution of 

 machinery for human labour is however a subject 

 of deep interest, and it is my intention at some 

 future period, to throw together for the con- 

 sideration of the society, a like sketch of the 

 other machines, antecedent to the one now 

 described. 



2 Y 



