INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



confidence in the success of his machinery, and in the 

 national wealth to be produced by it, that he would 

 make light of discussions on taxation, and say that he 

 would pay the national debt ! His speculative schemes 

 were vast and daring; he contemplated entering into 

 the most extensive mercantile transactions, and buy- 

 ing up all the cotton in the world, in order to make an 

 enormous profit by the monopoly; and from the ex- 

 travagance of some of these designs, his judicious 

 friends were of opinion that, if he had lived to put 

 them in practice, he might have overset the whole 

 fabric of his prosperity." 



THE INVENTION OF THE MULE 



While the final decision of the courts against Ark- 

 wright seems unjust, it cannot be denied that this 

 decision was enormously beneficial to commerce and 

 humanity; for it enabled Samuel Crompton to bring 

 forward his invention of the "mule," a spinning- 

 machine vastly superior in many respects to either that 

 of Hargreaves or of Arkwright. Without the inven- 

 tions of these two men the mule would probably not 

 have been conceived; but it is likewise true that until 

 Arkwright's patents were set aside this useful invention 

 could not have been placed upon the market without 

 infringement. 



Samuel Crompton, the inventor, was born near 

 Bolton in Lancashire, in 1753. He was carefully 

 raised as a boy; but his family being in poor circum- 

 stances he was obliged to support himself and earn 



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