January 26, 1827. The mule did not become common till 1782, but when it was fully introduced, this circumstance, combined with the dissolution of Arkwright's first patent in 1783, concurred to give the most extraordinary impetus to the cotton manufacture. "Nothing like it has been known in any other great branch of industry. Capital and labour rushed to this manufacture in a torrent, attracted by the unequalled profits which it yielded. Numerous mills were erected and filled with water frames, and jennies and mules were made and set to work with almost incredible rapidity; The increase of weavers kept pace with the increase of spinners, and all classes of workmen in this trade received extravagantly high wages, such as were necessary to draw from other trades the amount of labour for which the cotton manufacture offered profitable employment, but such as it was impossible to maintain for any lengthened period. Numbers of shoemakers, joiners, and hatters, attracted by high wages, entered into the cotton spinning business, and in the course of their working the mule jenny, if there was any little thing out of gear, each workman endeavoured to fill up the deficiency with some expedient suggested by his former trade, all which had a good effect in improving the machine." But with all these exertions there was still very much to learn, and the factory system cannot be said to have been fully developed till the introduction of the steam engine and the power loom several years afterwards. By industry, skill, and economy, many of the operatives first became proprietors of a single mule, and, persevering in habits so intimately connected with success, they, step by step, became in a few years in numerous instances the most extensive spinners and manufacturers in the trade. In other cases, members of the ancient yeomanry families of the country embarked in the spinning business, and before very long great quantities of yarn were produced by the inmates of old farm houses, in which previously the most sluggish inertness had prevailed. "The improvements now constantly taking place in the machines proved a

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