with Need and Strutt came to an end, and the mill at Cromford passed into his own hands. He connected himself with other manufactories, and soon obtained such a control of the trade that prices were fixed by him, and controlled all the other cotton-spinners. "The most marked traits in the character of Arkwright," says Mr. Baines, " were his wonderful ardor, energy, and perseverance. He commonly labored in his multifarious concerns from five in the morning till nine at night; and when considerably more than fifty years of age, feeling that the defects of his education placed him under great difficulty and inconvenience in conducting his correspondence and in the general management of his business, he encroached upon his sleep in order to gain an hour each day to learn English grammar, and another hour to improve his writing and orthography. He was a severe economist of time, and, that he might not waste a moment, he generally travcled with four horses, and at a very rapid speed. His concerns in Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Scotland were so extensive and numerous as to show at once his astonishing power of transacting business, and his all-grasping spirit. In many of these he had partners, but he generally managed in such a way that, whoever lost, he himself was a gainer. So unbounded was his confidence in the success of his machinery, and in the national wealth to be produced by it, that he would make light of discussions on taxation, and say that he would pay the national debt. His speculative schemes were vast and daring; he contemplated entering into the most extensive mercantile transactions, and buying up all the cotton in the world, in order to make an enormous profit by the monopoly."

A man of such strength of character requires but little protection. When once he has found the path to fortune, he is sure to pursue it to the temple of the goddess. He was able to face all opposition, and to reap a rich reward for his ingenuity, in spite of the illiberality of the laws which refused him protection. In 1786 he was appointed high sheriff of Derbyshire, and for delivering an address to the king, suggested by the escape of that individual from assassination, received the trumpery honor of knighthood, and became Sir Richard Arkwright. He did not long enjoy the distinction which had thus fallen on him by chance. For many years he had suffered from that terrible malady, asthma. The sedentary life which this demands, aggravated by incessant application

to business, brought on a complication of disorders, of which he died on the 3d of August, 1792, in the sixtieth year of his age. The fortune he left behind is said to have amounted to the sum of half a million sterling. Whatever may have been the objections raised to his inventions during his lifetime, it is now universally conceded that Arkwright succeeded in establishing the cotton manufactures in England, and in benefiting millions of human beings by giving them the means of honest employment. He also secured to his country its most important branch of commerce by giving it machinery whereby it could excel other countries in production, excellence, and cheapness. "No man," justly observes Mr. M'Culloch, "ever better deserved his good fortune, or has a stronger claim on the respect and gratitude of posterity. His inventions have opened a new and boundless field of employment; and while they have conferred infinitely more benefit on his native country than she could have derived from the absolute dominion of Mexico and Peru, they have been universally productive of wealth and enjoyments."

HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

Ir is seldom that the life of a poet affords so unalloyed a pleasure as that furnished by the subject of this sketch. The pleasure is in the total absence of vice which it presents, and not in the career of the individual, for that was brief and unhappy. A more chaste and admirable man never lived.

Henry Kirke White was the son of a butcher, and was born at Nottingham, England, on the 21st of March, 1785. From his earliest days he displayed the susceptibilities of a poetic temperament, and was passionately fond of reading. "I could fancy," said his eldest sister, "I see him in his little chair, with a large book upon his knee, and my mother calling 'Henry, my love, come to dinner,' which was repeated so often without being regarded that she was obliged to change the tone of her voice before she could rouse him." At the age of six he was placed under the care of the Rev. John Blanchard, who kept the best school in Nottingham, where he learned writing, arithmetic, and French, and he continued there for several years. He was, even in those early days, a remarkable child. It is said that, when about seven,

he was accustomed to go secretly into his father's kitchen, and teach the servant to read and write; and, to encourage her, he composed a tale of a Swiss emigrant, which he gave her. In his eleventh year he wrote a separate theme for each of the twelve or fourteen boys in his class, and the excellence of the various pieces obtained his master's applause.

Notwithstanding these indications of intellectual superiority, Henry's father insisted that he should be brought up to the butchering business. Even while he was at school, one day in every week, and his leisure hours on the others, were employed in carrying meat to his father's customers. Fortunately, his mother was not enamored of her husband's business, and, seeing the natural inclinations of her son, determined that they should not be utterly thwarted by a life which could not fail to be repulsive to his instincts. The alternative which she selected was scarcely better than the evil. Young Henry was placed at a stocking-loom, with the view of bringing him up to the hosiery business. His parents were still too poor to think of giving him a profession. It may be easily imagined that this new business failed to interest his imagination or satisfy his taste. He could not bear the idea, he says, of spending some years of his life in shining and folding up stockings. He poured his complaints into the willing ear of his mother; he wanted, he said, something to occupy his brain, and he should be wretched if he continued longer at this trade, or, indeed, in any thing except one of the learned professions. In an "Address to Contemplation," which he wrote at this time, he describes his feelings:

66

Why along

The dusky track of commerce should I toil,
When, with an easy competence content,

I can alone be happy where, with thee,

I may enjoy the loveliness of Nature,
And loose the wings of fancy? Thus alone
Can I partake the happiness of earth;
And to be happy here is man's chief end,

For to be happy he must needs be good."

He continued his remonstrances so earnestly, and importuned so incessantly, that his parents at length obtained his release from the hosier's loom, and placed him in the office of Messrs. Coldham & Enfield, town clerk and attorneys of Nottingham, some time in

SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT.

THREE quarters of a century ago, a man was splendidly dressed if he displayed a linen shirt, and a woman felt proud of her neat ankles if she could show them in spotless cotton hose. Woolen habiliments were the order of the day. The nimble fingers of the domestic circle fabricated all that was needful for the adornment of the person. In the long winter nights, the humming of the spinning-wheel was heard in every cottage home, and tales of love were whispered to its music, and mighty meshes were thrown around gallant hearts. In those days, the possession of a townbought skirt or coat was evidence of wealth, and the happy owner became the object of public curiosity. Critical damsels examined the weft and the woof with exact eyes, and failed not, on the first opportunity, to imitate their excellence. England was celebrated then as now for her manufactures. Her woolen goods were sent to all parts of the world, and were marvels of neatness and durability. In 1764, the total value of exported English cotton goods was little beyond two hundred thousand pounds, while that of woolen was more than ten times the amount. In the