Note 455 — Chapter VI · CONCERNING THE AFFAIRS OF SAMUEL CROMPTON

“And though I pushed on, intending to have a good share in the spinning line, yet I found there was an evil which I had not foreseen, and of much greater magnitude than giving up the machine, viz., that I must be always teaching green hands, employ none, or quit the country; it being believed that if I taught them, they knew their business well. So that for years I had no choice left but to give up spinning, or quit my native land.... But to this day, though it is more than thirty years since my first machine was shown to the public, I am hunted and watched with as much never-ceasing care as if I was the most notorious villain that ever disgraced the human form; and do affirm, that if I were to go to a smithy to get a common nail made, if opportunity offered to the bystanders, they would examine it most minutely to see if it was anything but a nail” (Letter quoted by Brown, The Basis of Mr. Samuel Crompton’s Claims, p. 30).