Can you describe the principle of Mr. Arkwright’s Machine, and the effect it is calculated to produce?--The thread of Mr. Arkwright’s Machine is made through rollers only, and twisted up to the rollers, which compels a hard thread and fit only for warps. Wherein does Mr. Crompton’s Machine differ?--Mr. Crompton’s Machine consists of rollers, in which the thread is drawn; but after the rollers have done delivering the thread, he can accommodate it either to warp or woof. What proportion of the present trade do you suppose the invention of Mr. Crompton has given rise to?--Full one half; I think two-thirds. To what branch of the piece-goods manufactured, particularly?--To the fine fabrics, cambricks and muslins, particularly the Scotch manufactory. How do you make out its value, as applied to the Scotch manufacture, beyond the other parts of the cotton trade?--By being of so very fine a fabric, such fine yarns being wanted for that manufacture beyond what would be wanted for the heavy cloth we manufacture in Lancashire. I do not know how the Scotch manufacture would ever have been carried on without the yarn Mr. Crompton’s Machine produces, particularly book muslins. You impute that branch of trade to the merit of Mr. Crompton’s invention?--In a great measure; I think the Scotch trade is in a great measure beholden to Mr. Crompton’s invention. Would not Mr. Arkwright’s Machine have supplied that trade?--In a very limited and a very inferior way indeed, and only for the coarser fabrics; the quality of the yarn that composes a great part of the Scotch manufacture could not have been produced without Mr. Crompton’s invention. Have you any certain knowledge that what is now called the Mule is the same in principle as the Hall of the Wood Machine, and that it was the sole invention of Mr. Crompton? It was generally admitted so to be at the time, and a subscription was entered into to reward him for it. The principle is the same, certainly. How many people does this Machine now employ?--I believe, by calculation, about 70,000, and it is supposed about 150,000 weavers. Do you conceive Mr. Crompton to have received an adequate recompense from the public for this invention?--No, I think it falls far short indeed. You have said, that the Mule spins a finer kind of yarn than the other machinery, and enables the manufacturer to make a finer species of goods than could have been otherwise made?--Yes. Is there a greater number of Weavers employed in consequence of that, than would otherwise have been employed?--A very considerable number. MR. JOSEPH RIDGEWAY, _of the House of Thomas Ridgeway & Son, near Bolton; called in, and Examined_. Have the cotton cloths bleached by you, and spun by Mules, been increasing in quality during the last twenty years?--Very much. What proportion do they constitute of the whole quantity sent to you to be bleached?--At least four fifths. _Jovis, 19º die Martij, 1812._