Although French’s explanation of the comparative failure of the subscription is incorrect, his comment on the ill fortune which dogged Crompton’s footsteps may be agreed with. At the same time, it is exceedingly doubtful whether the amount of the subscription would have reached the £5000 which he obtained by Parliamentary grant in 1812. If anything like that amount had been raised, one fears that the application to Parliament nine years later might not have been so well supported, and a perusal of the letters may also suggest the fear that, even if such had been the case, it might have fallen upon deaf ears so far as Parliament was concerned.
Shortly after Crompton received the proceeds of the subscription, he used a portion to extend his business of spinning and weaving, renting the top floor of a factory, where he employed three men, one woman and six children.[454] One sore complaint that he had to make was the difficulty he experienced in keeping his workpeople, owing to inducements to leave him offered by those who expected to learn something from them. In later years he actually attributed his lack of success in the spinning business to this fact, and stated that on account of it he was obliged for years to give up spinning.[455] French goes so far as to say that one of Crompton’s sons was unable to resist inducements of this character and in consequence left his father’s service.[456] There is nothing intrinsically improbable in the statement, for one thing of which there does appear to be ample evidence is that whatever troubles Crompton had to contend with from outsiders during his career, he did not receive much support from his own kindred in bearing them. In view of Crompton’s character, it is not an unreasonable assumption that the somewhat persistent efforts to obtain recompense adequate to his services were due more to them than to himself.
In 1807, he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, with the object of interesting him in his case, and suggested that it might be brought before the King and his ministers.[457] Owing probably to the letter having been wrongly addressed, it reached the Society of Arts, and was considered by the committee, when the secretary was instructed to send a reply, but for some reason no reply reached Crompton, which led him to believe that he had been slighted. It appears that, in some way, this fact must have become known, and the matter was reconsidered in March, 1811, when an answer was sent, which drew from Crompton a tart rejoinder, in reply to which he was informed that the Society of Arts was unable to do anything, as it did not possess funds to give large rewards, although, actually, Crompton had not applied to the Society for a reward. The whole incident was unfortunate, and undoubtedly did much further to embitter him, convinced as he already was that the world was against him.[458]
At this time Crompton, although by no means wealthy, according to his standard of living, was in fairly easy circumstances, and “had even lent a few hundred pounds,” but French suggests that he was anxious about the future position of his family.[459] However this may have been, it is clear that, shortly after the incident with the Society of Arts had terminated, a move was made which, in the next year, resulted in the application to Parliament for financial recognition of his services as inventor. Of the negotiations in London immediately preceding the grant eventually made to him a clear account is given in the following letters.
With a view to the application, he collected information of the extent to which the mule was used and of its effects upon the cotton industry in England, Scotland and Ireland, and on the basis of this information a petition was prepared for presentation to Parliament.[460] To ensure its being influentially signed, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lee again exerted themselves whole-heartedly, and several references to the matter appear in the correspondence of M‘Connel & Kennedy with their agent and customers in Scotland in the last days of 1811 and the first days of 1812.
When the 1803 subscription was launched the conditions were favourable, but the same cannot be said of this time. From the recommencement of the war in the spring of 1803, trade, at the best, had run an unsteady course. During the intervening period the Napoleonic decrees and the British Orders in Council had come into operation, and had created friction between this country and the United States, which, constantly growing more intense, led to retaliatory measures on the other side of the Atlantic, and in 1812 to war with England. Only in 1809 and in the early part of 1810 was there an active trade during the period, and this burst of activity followed upon a terrible period of distress in 1808, when, with the district in a state of insurrection, a petition signed by 50,000 persons was presented from Manchester, and another from Bolton signed by 30,000, praying that peace negotiations might be opened.
The succeeding trade boom is partly to be explained by a frenzy of speculative shipments to South America, and when it came to an end it was followed by a hurricane of bankruptcies which swept over England and Scotland, reached Ireland, and caused anxious concern in the United States. The situation, bad though it was in 1808, was even worse in the latter part of 1810 and in 1811 and during the greater part of 1812. In 1811, the Luddite risings began in the hosiery districts of Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester, and early in 1812 extended to Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire. In April of the latter year Manchester was in a state of rebellion. In one riot an attack was made upon the Exchange; in another, a few days later, upon the Shudehill market; and, on both occasions, it was considered necessary to call out the military to deal with the rioters. In the Shudehill riot, however, force was supplemented by the fixing of a maximum price for potatoes, which had to be sold in small quantities.[461]
It was in such circumstances, not to mention the drain of a war which had continued almost uninterruptedly for nearly twenty years, that Crompton’s petition was prepared and presented, and a grant of £5000 made to him. In view of the sums granted to others who had conferred benefits on the nation by their ingenuity, this amount was certainly paltry, but perhaps it should be placed to the credit of those concerned that his appeal received the attention it did.
The parliamentary proceedings extended from 5th March to 25th June. French states that Crompton proceeded to London in February, but, as his letters show, he was already there in the previous month.[462] It was not until 5th March that the matter came before the House of Commons, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by command of the Prince Regent, acquainted the House that His Royal Highness, having been informed of the contents of Crompton’s petition, recommended it to the consideration of the House.
On this occasion no debate took place, nor evidently on any other until 24th June, when the grant was moved. On the first occasion the petition was referred to a Committee with power to send for persons, papers and records.[463] The next occasion was on 18th March, when the Committee was instructed to submit to the House minutes of evidence concerning the case, and any observations upon it. A striking comment upon the conditions of the time is that on the very same page of the Journals on which this record appears,[464] there is also a petition from Bolton—Crompton’s home—pointing out that the people in that neighbourhood were “so nearly to actual starvation that they think it would be highly imprudent any longer to delay communicating their situation to the House”; that the manufacturers had been reduced to the necessity of working for one-fourth of what they obtained before the commencement of the war with France; and that the necessaries of life had nearly doubled in price. Convinced that the war was the immediate cause of their distress, they asked for parliamentary reform on the ground that “if the house consisted of representatives of the people only, it would not for any doubtful prospect of benefit to our allies consent to expose the people of this country to the certain misery, ruin, and starvation which the continuance of the war must bring upon them.”