imagined interests of the calico-weavers and dealers in linen thread, were opposed to the introduction of cotton thread for purposes which had been previously effected by flaxen yarn; for the calicoes then made consisted of foreign or Irish linen yarn for the warp, and such short cotton threads for the weft as could be spun by the common distaff, or the spindle. This opposition assumed a very formidable appearance, particularly in Lancashire, and threatened to give a serious check to the progress of that success which Mr. Strutt and his partners with so much reason had anticipated. But Mr. Strutt was not discouraged by seeing the market thus attempted to be closed against him he knew that there existed the extensive market of the public beyond that of the weavers, and he resolved, that if the weavers would not allow him access to the former by the road of which they held possession, he would make a road of his own. With this determination, in concert with his partners, he opened the calico manufactory at Derby, in the year 1773. The weavers of Lancashire, and other places, saw the rise of this establishment with vexation. They combined against the long cotton yarn spun by Mr. Arkwright and his partners; and they now resolved, that those gentlemen should not, as weavers, make use of their own manufacture as spinners.

By a law, for the protection of the linen manufactures, the calicoes composed of cotton interwoven with linen yarn, were subjected to a duty of three-pence the square yard; and it was now contended by the leaders of the combination, that the new calicoes, composed of cotton entirely, were liable to a double duty, or the payment of sixpence per yard. Under the influence of these persons, this interpretation of the act was enforced by the officers of the excise; and the sale of calicoes made of cotton wholly, was considered to be prohibited by the provisions of the same act, when such calicoes were printed. An attack of this nature compelled Mr. Strutt and his partners to make an appeal to the legislature, and a bill was brought into parliament to exempt calicoes made wholly of cotton from these rigorous enactments. The opposition to this equitable measure was great, particularly as erroneous notions were prevalent, at that period, relative to the employment of a foreign article in our manufactures, which, it was asserted, would be injurious to the cultivation of our wool and flax; and these opinions were backed by the narrow and mistaken interests of existing traders and manufacturers. The expense attendant upon an application to parliament, thus strenuously opposed, was great, and might have had serious consequences on the yet infant establishment; but the new manufacture had already given testimony of its public utility-and public utility, when clearly manifested, is a species of public strength, which private interests, however combined, can never overwhelm. In 1774, the parliament began to be convinced, that the recent invention had placed the cotton manufacture beyond the restraints of statutory regulations; and, in the preamble of an act which acceded to the wishes of Mr. Strutt and his partners, it was acknowledged to be " a lawful and laudable manu

facture.

But the immediate and partial interests of capitalists, and the operatives in their employ, were not confined to measures of opposition, which, though illiberal, were legal. Recourse was had by the latter to violence, and by the former to artful malevolence. The humble artizans, whose wives and children assisted in the precarious subsistence of the family by spinning, on the distaff or common spindle, the cotton thread for the weft, had previously been irritated against the inventions of Hargreaves, an ingenious carpenter at Blackburn, in Lancashire, by which the cotton yarn for the weft could

be prepared in less than half the time in which it could be spun by mere manual labour. The same mechanic had also given existence to the spinning-jenny, by means of which the same yarn could be made with incalculable facility. This man fell a martyr to his intellectual energy. He was driven from his home: manufacturers, who adopted his inventions, became the victims of an infuriated mob; and he was compelled, after the destruction of his house and his works, to seek refuge at Nottingham; where he vainly endeavoured, for a time, to obtain countenance for his beneficial inventions, and where, after being driven from misery to further misery, he terminated his wretched but valuable existence in the workhouse. Similar violence arose against Mr. Arkwright and his partner, Mr. Strutt. The class of operatives, totally unconscious of the employment which these intelligent men were opening for them and their progeny,* were inflamed with the most malignant spirit, and a large factory, which had been erected by Mr. Arkwright and his partners at Birkacre, near Chorley, in Lancashire, was destroyed by an enraged and ignorant mob, in the very face of the civil authorities.

But the enemies of the new manufacture relied chiefly upon attacks, which were encouraged to be made upon the patent of Mr. Arkwright, taken out by him immediately before his partnership with Messrs. Strutt and Need. In 1772, an action at law was brought, supported by loose allegations, and carried on at the joint expense of a combination, to set aside this patent; but a verdict was given in favour of Mr. Arkwright. In 1775, that gentleman took out a second patent for subsequent inventions, by which the carding of the cotton was greatly facilitated. The combination, discouraged by their recent failure, and unable to discover even the shadow of a pretence for their legal attacks upon this new source of prosperity to the new manufacture, remained inactive until 1781. It was then pretended, that the specification in the patent did not contain a distinct description of the machinery. This was the ground of a fresh action, and a verdict was given against the patent. A blow so unexpected was severely felt by the partners; and it seems to have been the opinion of these gentlemen, that upon the protection of parliament alone could they rely for the just remuneration of their talents, industry, and enterprize. Certainly, the manufacture had then been more than ten years in operation, and had sufficiently manifested its national importance. The importation of cotton wool had risen, during that period, from one million of pounds weight to nearly eight millions; and the exportation of cotton goods was exhibiting more than a proportional increase. Such an accession to the national wealth, arising from the new manufacture alone, was, undoubtedly, a just object of legislative attention. On the other hand, there was a reluctance in these gentlemen to call upon the interference of parliament, which is apt to irritate the mind of the public, and to create a general sentiment against those who appeal to its protection: besides, so strong had the estimation of their fabrics become, both at home and abroad, that, even had the patents been then dissolved, their works must still have kept the head they had gained beyond all competition. Instead, therefore, of appealing to parliament, for which a petition had been actually prepared, they sought and obtained a new trial; which came on in February, 1781, before Lord Loughborough, when the verdict against the patent was reversed.

* In 1767, there were not thirty thousand persons employed in the cotton manufacture: now, in consequence of the inventions which the workmen endeavoured to destroy, there are at least a million.

Foiled in their attempt to throw the patent open, and thus to clear their way to a participation in the extending trade of the new manufacture, the combination had recourse to a new expedient. For the first time, a prior inventor was named; and, in the June of the same year, at a trial before a special jury, at which Mr. Justice Buller presided, a person named Highs, or Hayes, a reed-maker, of Bolton, was brought forward; who swore that, in 1768, he communicated an invention of spinning by rollers, to a watchmaker, named Kay; and Kay, in his evidence, also swore that he had shewn this model to Mr. Arkwright. On testimony of this sort, which, if founded on fact, had most unaccountably and improbably lain dormant for sixteen years, a verdict was given against the patent, which, since that period, has ceased to exist. But, notwithstanding this decision, the claim of Sir Richard Arkwright to the originality of the invention, with which his own fame, and so large a portion of the prosperity of the nation, are connected, continues to be considered as indisputable; nor were the advantages, which he and his partners had obtained, materially diminished. The principle of correct organization, which seems to be the latent spring that governs the intellect of the inventor and arranger of machinery on an extensive scale, is perceptible in all his transactions; and the whole establishment, with all the regulations of his trade, is modified with the same attention to the bearing of their particular effects upon the movement of the whole. Hence, in the course of sixteen years, the whole manufacture had become so dependent upon the master minds in which it originated, that, though now subjected to legal infringement, it remained morally and practically in the hands of its first possessors.

We have carried through the history of Arkwright's patent to its dissolution, although, in 1775, Mr. Jedidiah Strutt had begun the foundation of cotton works at Belper and at Milford, which lie from six to eight miles north of Derby, where he still carried on his improved manufacture of stockings on a very extensive scale, in partnership with Mr. Need. The works at Belper and Milford have since been enlarged and improved to an astonishing degree of magnitude and perfection; and Belper, then an inconsiderable village, has attained the rank of a populous town, where several hundred families subsist by employment in these great and beneficial establishments. A systematic attention to the comfort and health of the operatives of both sexes and of various ages, is there constantly maintained, and so modified and so rationally enforced, that, without trespassing upon individual independence, it secures a large proportion of social benefit to the whole body. Education is fostered-knowledge is diffused-and, perhaps, in no town throughout England are the principles of constitutional liberty more extensively understood, or advocated and acted upon with more good sense and discretion. The population drawn together by a wellregulated manufactory must necessarily participate in that spirit of organization to which it owes its origin; and the town of Belper, beautifully situate on the banks of the Derwent, upon the first rise, beyond Derby, of the mountainous ridge of lime-stone rocks, and thus possessing advantages natural as well as moral, affords one of the happiest illustrations of the proposition of Mr. M'Cullock, that "the health, morals, and intelligence of the population of the nation have all gained by the present manufacturing system."

J

Mr. Strutt, anxious that these works should be conducted on principles as durable as their utility, resided sometimes at Belper and sometimes at Milford, during several years; promoting by his own undeviating regularity, a system of management, which seemed to him indispensable in

the trading concerns of works which were rapidly blending the prosperity of his family with the welfare of the nation. Subsequently he resided at Derby, and died in the year 1797, at the age of seventy-one. His character is easily drawn from the outline of his history. A cool, clear energy of intellect supplied him with the means of devising his mechanical improvements and inventions, and he carried this mental energy into the conduct of his establishments, as they increased in magnitude.

His tenacity of purpose in all his transactions resulted from his conviction that his determinations were founded upon moral, as his mechanical plans were upon natural truths: in fact, there can be no moral fortitude, where this conviction is wanting. His perception was, with respect to the general views of society, as strong as they were in those matters that belonged to his immediate pursuits: his opinions on religion and public affairs were liberal; always tending towards what he thought conducive to the service or happiness of mankind; and he saw the national advantages arising from the new manufacture, with gratification not inferior to that with which he felt it was to be the source of a princely income to his family.-A wholelength portrait (from which our present engraving is taken,) of Jedidiah Strutt, Esq. was painted by Wright, of Derby, and is now in possession of his grandson, Edward Strutt, Esq. member of parliament for Derby.

On his decease, he was succeeded in his extensive concerns by his sons, William, Joseph, and George Benson Strutt, Esqrs. These gentlemen relinquished the manufacture of stockings in Derby, about the year 1805.

In the year 1830, William Strutt, Esq. father of the present member for Derby, died, highly esteemed for that spirit of improvement, to which his native town is indebted for numerous conveniences and embellishments. He united the cool inventive powers of his father, to an extent of scientific acquirements seldom surpassed. He was a member of the Royal Society, and, in junction with Dr. Darwin, and other eminent men then resident in Derby, he was a founder of the Derby Philosophical Society. He was fond of rendering science useful. His elegant mansion at St. Helens abounded with proofs of the practicability and advantage of applying our knowledge of the mechanical and philosophical powers to the purposes of domestic life. The Derbyshire Infirmary, the most complete hospital in the kingdom, displays his admirable skill in adapting scientific principles to the various services of comfort and convenience, so requisite in an establishment of that nature; which is not only a lasting monument of his talents, but of the philanthropic spirit with which he devoted his time and attention to such benevolent objects.

In a memoir of this nature, it is not expected that we should make mention of the surviving persons of Mr. Strutt's family, but as Edward Strutt, Esq., M. P. is before the public as a member of the legislature, we may be permitted to say, that he has been three times chosen as the representative of his native town: twice before the passing of the Reform Bill, without opposition; and, by a triumphant majority, at the last general election, when a feeble attempt was made by the conservative party to bring in Sir Charles Colville. By birth and by education, Mr. Strutt is the friend and advocate of the people. He has made their rights and interests his principal study; and the truths which observation and reading have implanted in his mind are urged and acted upon by him with the extent of intelligence, and firmness of purpose, so remarkably characteristic of his family.

2D. SERIES, NO. 34.-VOL III.

3 L

178.-VOL. XV.

THE Hercules of Euripides, though certainly not the most dignified representation of that hero extant, is distinguished by a spirit, in design and execution, which causes him to stand forth in what artists call a bold relief from the usual quiet grouping of characters, in which the last great tragedian of Athens appears so much to have delighted. To those acquainted with the outlines "Jove's great son" contained in the Trachiniæ of Sophocles, the portrait of the same personage in the Alcestis presents a very fair instance of the extent to which two masters of their art may differ in their several modes of treating the same subject; nor does the hero, as delineated in the latter drama, seem a less novel acquaintance to the reader, who, following the dim light of tradition into a remote period of mythic history, has been previously accustomed to view him in the light of a mighty conqueror, leading a hardy population from the reedy wastes of Chaldæa, to revel in the magnificence of Tyre and Egypt; planting every height with his standards, and filling every region with his renown, from Caucasus to Mount Atlas; and then as speedily fading "like a bright exhalation in the evening," leaving his power to be swallowed by the reaction of a general force for a moment only prostrated before him, and his name to form the groundwork of a thousand fables, varied ad infinitum according to the extravagant imaginations of oral annalists. Instead of a successful victor and enthroned monarch, we find a solitary and daring adventurer, differing but slightly in character or pursuits from one of the Paladins of Ariosto, or any

"Knight of Logres or of Lyones Lancelot or Pelleas or Pellenore"

66

with this single exception, indeed, that if the essentials of a true knight were really, "ferir hault et parler bas," he appears at times to be lamentably deficient in the latter quality. There is, however, the same reckless spirit which courts danger as a bride, the same frank and unsuspicious openness, and the same eagerness to pursue tyrants and oppressors to the farthest limits of the earth, as might have distinguished the most celebrated of that galaxy of worthies, who surrounded the round table at Tintagel, or who left a spotless shield and a redoubted lance in the somewhat more substantial pass of Roncesvalles. With so many requisites to constitute a model of chivalric excellence, it is rather singular, that the same ingenious spirit, which in the middle ages transmuted Theseus into a feudal baron, with hounds stretched beside his hearth, and hawks perched upon the rafters of his hall; which changed the gracefully armed Athenian horseman into a grim northern warrior, with barbed steed and mail of proof, and set up lists for combat a l'outrance," under the very shades of Academus, and within hearing of the flow of the Ilissus, should never have ventured upon a similar transformation at the expense of the Tyrinthian prince. The formidable club might easily have been rendered a resistless and enchanted blade, while Omphale might have figured either as a "belle Yssonde" of changeless fidelity, or a leman gay of the Duessa family, according to the imagination of the author. It may excite also some surprise, that no Grecian Cervantes ever pointed the shafts of his ridicule against the hair-brained Quixotism which distinguishes the undertakings of this errant adventurer of former days. That such was not the case, we are certainly not entitled decisively to pronounce, as many pieces of playful humour upon the subject may have existed in the lost writings of the satiric dramatists and middle comedians; but, assuming the absence of that which does not appear by contemporary testimony to have existed, the fact may be with no great difficulty accounted for, by remembering that it is only when the manners of a people at large are influenced by the creations of tradition and romance, that the satirist prepares his quiver against such unsubstantial shadows. Now, that the qualities of the Hercules and Theseus of antiquity-qualities which, at a subsequent period, when represented under other names, gave a tincture to the manners of the greater part of Europe-were never patronised to any great degree by the several