and Scotland, the moving power of which was water, amounted to 143. At the same period the number of mule jennies or machines of ninety spindles each, was estimated at 550, and the number of hand jennies of eighty spindles each at 20,070. The number of cotton mills in Lancashire in the same year, of which the moving power was water, was 41. The number of cotton mills in the parish or borough of Oldham alone in 1846 was 119. The aggregate of hands employed in the cotton manufacture in 1787 was about 162,000. In 1782, or the year before the expiry of Arkwright's first patent, the amount of cotton imported was 11,828,039 lbs; from 1771 to 1775 the average import had been 4,764,589 lbs.; but in 1785, or two years afterthe expiry of the patent, the import rose to 18,400,384 lbs.; in 1790 the import of cotton amounted to 31,447,605 lbs.; and in 1800, 56,010,732 lbs. In 1846 the entire number of operatives employed in the cotton mills of Great Britain and Ireland was 316,327.

The extreme prosperity of the cotton trade from the expiry of Arkwright's patent, 1783 to 1788, was too intense to be lasting; there had been an immense migration of labourers from the agricultural districts to the manufacturing, to supply the great demand for workers in the new business, and, in addition to this, a large number of workmen from other employments had become mill operatives. As soon, therefore, as the supply of labour exceeded the demand, wages underwent a reduction, and this state of affairs was made much worse by the vast importations of cottons of East India manufacture, which were then competing with the home made fabrics. The expiry, however, of Sir Richard Arkwright's second patent in 1789, combined with other improvements in machinery, produced a material revival in trade, and the manufacture extended more rapidly than before.

Prior to 1791, Mr. John Kershaw erected a small

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