A. D. 1785. 79 



the preparing machine, in anfwer to whicli Mr. Arkwright argued that 

 a pirate, who fiole the invention from another, would have appeared at 

 once with his machinery in a perfeft ftate ; whereas it was well known, 

 that he was many years employed in experiments, before he brought it 

 to the degree of perfedion it had now attained. After long litigation 

 the caufe was determined in the court of common pleas (18'" February 

 1785) in favour of Mr. Arkwright, and in the court of King's bench 

 (27'" June 1785) againft him. And, as his firft patent expired about 

 the fame time, the bufinefs became open to all. 



It is proper to obferve, that at leaft four fpinning mills were already 

 ereded in Ireland ; and two were eftablifhed near Rouen in France un- 

 der the able diredion of Mr. Holker, an EngliQi manufadurer, who, 

 with his partners, was patronized and affifted by the government. It 

 was not long before Arkwright's machinery was even tranfported acrofs 

 the Atlantic, and a fpinning mill ereded in Philadelphia. 



Mr. Arkwright continued the bufinefs after he was deprived of the 

 monopoly, and, probably, with fome advantages over his competitors, 

 derived from his experience and eftablifhed plan of conduding the bufi- 

 nefs. If he made a great fortune, he certainly deferved it : for the ad- 

 vantages he conferred upon the nation were infinitely greater than thofe 

 he acquired for himfelf, and far more folid and durable than a hun- 

 dred conquefts. Inftead of depriving the working poor of employrnent 

 by his great abridgement of labour, that very abridgement has created 

 a vaft deal of employment for more hands than were formerly employ- 

 ed : and it was computed, that half a million of people were this year 

 employed in the cotton manufadures of Lancafhire, Chefhire, Derby, 

 Nottingham, and Leicefter. That computation was perhaps exagger- 

 ated * : but the numbers muft have been very great, as we find by the 

 Report of the committee of the houfe of commons this fame year on 

 the bufinefs of the commercial intercourfe with Ireland, that 6,800 were 

 employed by Mr. Peele, feveral thoufands by Mr. Smith, and numbers 

 proportionally great by other manufadurers of cotton. How many 

 more, may we fuppofe, are now fupported by the cotton manufadare in 

 its vaftly extended ftate ? For that extenfion Great Britain is indebted 

 to the ingenuity and perfevering patience of an originally-obfcure indi- 

 vidual. And it is but juftice to the memory of Sir Richard Arkwright f 

 to fay, that he was unqueftionably one of the greateft friends to the ma- 

 nufaduring and commercial interefts of this country, and to the intereft 

 of the cotton planters in ahnoft all parts of the world, that ever exifted ; 



* In the year 1787, when the cotton manufac- -f He was knighted in the year 1786, and died 

 ture was greatly extended, the number employed at his feat in Derby-lhire in i7i;2. 

 in it in the whole kingdom was eftimated only at 

 350,000. 



