period of his exclusive rights, two or three other persons took out patents for power-looms, without being able to make them answer. But about the year 1801, in which his patent expired, he had the pleasure of finding that his invention was coming into use to a very considerable extent; and the mortification of seeing others reap the fruit of his unrequited ingenuity. The increased demand during the war for English cotton goods, with the necessity for working up at home the cotton yarn which had hitherto been exported to the Continent, had given an impulse to the manufacture favourable to the introduction of machinery; and at the same time the power-loom was rendered much more economical by a very ingenious method, invented by Mr. Radcliffe of Stockport, about 1804, of dressing or sizing the warp before it was placed in the loom. A cotton manufacturer of Stockport, named Horrocks, took out a patent for another power-loom in 1803. He failed; but his loom, with various modifications, is that which has now come into general use.

The following estimate, taken from 'Baines's History of the Cotton Manufacture,' of the number of power-looms in Britain at various periods, though literal exactness in such a matter is unattainable, affords probably a tolerably correct measure of the rapid multiplication of these engines.

At the present time, we are told by the same authority, the machine-makers of Lancashire are making power-looms with the greatest rapidity, and they cannot be made sufficiently fast to meet the demands

It

of the manufacturers. This quick increase, notwithstanding the considerable expense of outfit, which by employing hand-weavers the manufacturer avoids entirely, may safely be taken as a test of the advantages and national importance of the power-loom. The following estimate is given of its productiveness as compared with hand-loom labour. A very good hand-weaver, twenty-five or thirty years of age, will weave two pieces of cloth per week, of a certain description, each twenty-four yards long. In 1833, a steam-loom weaver, from fifteen to twenty years of age, assisted by a girl about twelve years of age, attending to four looms, can weave eighteen similar pieces in a week; some can weave twenty pieces. appears from the fuller statement given by Mr. Baines, that the comparative productiveness of steamlooms has rapidly increased up to the last-mentioned period, and therefore it may be conjectured not yet to have reached its maximum; and it is also stated, that in those descriptions of plain goods for which they have hitherto been chiefly used, " cloth made by these looms, when seen by those manufacturers who employ hand-weavers, at once excites admiration, and a consciousness that their own weavers cannot equal it." The set-off against these advantages is the interest on capital employed, and the expense of supplying power. It is not asserted by the more intelligent, either among masters or workmen, that the powerloom has been more than a secondary and minor cause of the lamentable depression and misery now existing among the hand-weavers; a depression which it is to be feared will never be removed but by the gradual relinquishment of that laborious and ill-paid trade.

The hardships of Dr. Cartwright's case, his merits, and the extent to which the country was then profitof wby his discoveries, had become, by 1807, so mani

fest to those who were best acquainted with the cotton trade, that a considerable number of the most respectable and influential gentlemen of Manchester presented a memorial to government, praying that some remuneration for his useful inventions might be taken into consideration. He petitioned the legislature himself to the same effect; and in 1809 obtained from parliament a grant of £10,000 for "the good service he had rendered the public by his invention of weaving." The compensation thus awarded, though falling far short of the sums he had expended in perfecting his inventions, as well as in defending his patent rights, contributed essentially to place him in comparatively easy circumstances; and being advanced in life, he was thankful to be enabled to pass the remainder of his days in tranquil retirement. The activity of his mind however was unabated. Engaged to the last in scientific pursuits, with an occasional revival of the poetic spirit of his youth, he closed his active, useful, and benevolent life at Hastings, October 30, 1823, in the eighty-first year of his age.

Like many inventors, Dr. Cartwright was negligent of his pecuniary interests: he possessed another quality less common to that class of persons, entire freedom from jealousy, and great liberality in communicating his ideas and assistance to others engaged in pursuits similar to his own. And we may fairly conjecture that the temper of mind in which such conduct originated, promoted his happiness much more than any increase of his fortune, procured by a less frank and generous spirit, could have done. It is also stated, that whether from absorption in the pursuits of the moment, or carelessness of their value, he was remarkably apt to forget his own productions, even when offered to his notice. Among other instances of this disposition, it is related, that on examining the

model of one of his own machines, he expressed great admiration, and said that he should have been proud to have been the inventor of it; nor could he readily be convinced that the merit was indeed his own.

In this sketch of Dr. Cartwright's life a limited notice only has been taken of his productions. He is chiefly known as the inventor of the power-loom; but the public are also reaping the advantage of several minor improvements in the arts of life, which emanated from his active and observing mind. It is sufficient here to state that he obtained ten patents, either for original inventions, or improvements upon his earlier mechanical attempts: and in addition to the kindred arts of weaving, spinning, wool-combing, and rope-making, he had successfully applied his talents to a variety of subjects unconnected with those manufactures.

An account of his life, containing a more detailed description of his various inventions, as well as a relation of the struggles and difficulties which he encountered, is now, we are informed, in preparation for the press.

EDWARD, the third son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, was born May 17, 1749, in the vicarage-house of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, of which parish his father, a man of independent fortune, and of a family long established and esteemed in that neighbourhood, was incumbent. At the death of that parent in 1754, the care of Edward Jenner's education devolved upon his eldest brother, Stephen, who succeeded to the living of Berkeley, and faithfully and affectionately discharged the duties of a father towards him.

He began at a very early age to give tokens of that fondness and aptitude for the study of natural history, which first directed the choice of his profession; and afterwards led him by steps which may be easily traced, to the discovery of a method of securing the constitution against the small-pox by a remedy so