NO. 9.
APPENDIX.
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at Cambridge, and who was at Bilton six weeks before his death.
ful talents to redouble their efforts in order to produce works that may be useful to their country, and worthy, in their turn, of immortality.On Friday the 18th of June, 1824, a public meeting was held, at which the Earl of Liverpool presided, supported by such men as Brougham, Mackintosh and Wilberforce, for the purpose of entering into a subscription to defray the expenses of the erection of a monument to the memory of the Father of the Steam Engine. The first words uttered by the Prime Minister of the British Empire, surrounded by the most distinguished personages of the Government and the country, either by their learning or their eloquence, were to announce that the meeting was called for the purpose of offering a public tribute of gratitude and respect to the memory of the best and most extraordinary man to whom the country had ever given birth. We confess [says the author of the work quoted] that such an eulogium is rather exaggerated, especially in a country that has produced a Newton; for we can speak from personal experience that, in society, James Watt was a most repellent character, and appeared to treat every man with contempt and indifference who could not converse on pistons, cylinders and boilers.[subnote 1] In other respects, the speech of Lord Liverpool was such as might have been expected from so great and enlightened a mind; and he concluded his speech by observing, that his Majesty George IV. had charged him to inform the meeting, that he was deeply sensible of the services that had been rendered to Great Britain by him, "to whose memory we are about as I informed you at first, to offer the tribute of our respect and
- ↑ Such a statement, from personal knowledge, argues a surprising contrast between James Watt and John Harrison: for the latter was not deficient in good manners, and showed not contempt for those who could neither talk on chronometry, nor music.
