stick on one side and is holding by a table on the other) a curve from the forehead to the knees, similar to the letter C, his legs twisted in all manner of ways by standing at the frames, and you will have a tolerable picture of our friend J—— R——, of Cromford.
Here is a person just entering upon manhood, who was evidently intended by nature for a stout, able bodied man, crippled in the prime of life, and all his earthly prospects gone. Such a cripple as this man, I have seldom met with. Yet it was pleasing to see with what patience and resignation he bore his lot. He had learned to read and write a little, and his brother was teaching him to make first shoes for children.
This man has been paying taxes to the government of England from his birth, or his parents for him; but there is no law by means of which he can gain any compensation for the injuries he has sustained.
In returning to my lodgings, I passed by his master's Castle; and my imagination was busy at work in picturing the multitudes of human bones and sinews that had been sacrificed in building it. I almost fancied I could see them intermixed with the stones and mortar.
I left Matlock Baths, and in the noise and bustle of every day life, the case of J. R. had been well nigh forgot, till in the spring of 1843, it was again brought to my recollection, by seeing in the newspapers an account of the death of his former master, Richard Arkwright, Esq., of Wilersley Castle, near Cromford, Derbyshire.
This gentleman succeeded to all the possessions and numerous spinning factories of Sir Richard, his father, in 1792, then estimated at the value, capital stock included, of about two million five hundred thousand dollars. By his extensive spinneries in Cromford, Bakewell, and Manchester, he is said to have derived a clear income of 500,000 dollars annually. The extensive works at Man-
