When Boulton’s eight presses were in full work, the quantity of copper coin they turned out was very large. They could work off with ease twelve hundred tons of coin annually. The quantity of copper thus consumed was so great that a difficulty began to be experienced in keeping up the supply. Instead of being glutted with the metal, as Boulton had been before the Mint was started, he had now considerable difficulty in obtaining sufficient for his purposes. He seems to have been, in some measure, the victim of a combination to keep him out of a supply; for when the holders of copper found out that his contract with the East India Company required him to deliver the coin within a given time, and that he must have the metal, they raised the prices upon him, and copper went up about 6l. a ton. On this, the Birmingham white metal button-makers lowered the wages of their workmen, alleging as the cause the rise in the price of copper, “for which they must thank Mr. Boulton.” The usual strikes followed, with meetings of trades delegates and street commotions. Though Boulton had confidence in the Birmingham workmen generally, among whom he had the reputation of being a good master, he feared that, in their excited state, malice might stir them to mischief; and he apprehended an attack upon his manufactory. For this he accordingly made due preparation, placing a strong armed guard of his own workmen upon Soho, having the fullest confidence in their fidelity. Writing to his friend Wilson in Cornwall, he said,—

The danger, however, shortly passed, and the threatened attack was not made.

It was not until the year 1797 that Boulton was employed to execute a copper coinage for Britain. Ten years before, encouraged by the Lords of the Treasury, he had fitted up the Mint machinery at a heavy cost, in anticipation of this very order; and now, after executing coinages for many foreign governments, the order came at last. The new coins consisted of twopenny, penny, halfpenny, and farthing pieces. Altogether, about 4200 tons of these coins were issued from the Soho Mint between 1797 and 1806. So sensible were the authorities at the Royal Mint of the advantages of Mr. Boulton’s improvements in coining machinery, that they employed him to erect the new Mint on Tower Hill, one of the most complete establishments of the kind until then in existence. The plans of the new Mint, as regarded the distribution of the buildings connected with the mechanical department, were arranged by him; and the coining machinery and steam-engines were executed at Soho under his immediate direction, though he was at the time labouring under the infirmities of age as well as suffering under the pressure of a painful disease. He had also the honour of supplying Royal Mints for the Russian, Spanish, and Danish governments; and at a later period for Mexico, Calcutta, and Bombay. “In short,” said Mr. Watt, in the MS. memoir from which we have already quoted, “had Mr. Boulton done nothing more in the world than he has accomplished in improving the coinage, his name would deserve to be immortalised; and if it be considered that this was done in the midst of various other important avocations, and at enormous expense,—for which, at the time, he could have had no certainty of an adequate return,—we shall be at a loss whether most to admire his ingenuity, his perseverance, or his munificence. He has conducted the whole more like a sovereign than a private manufacturer; and the love of fame has always been to him a greater stimulus than the love of gain. Yet it is to be hoped that, even in the latter point of view, the enterprise answered its purpose.”

CHAPTER XX.
Prosperity of Soho—Young Boulton and Watt—The Riots—William Murdock.

The steam-engine had now become firmly established as a working power. Beginning as a water pumper for miners, it had gradually been applied to drive corn and cotton mills, to roll and hammer iron, to coin money, to work machinery, and to perform the various labour in which the power of men and horses, of wind and water, had before been employed. The numerous orders for new engines which came in at Soho kept the works increasingly busy. Many skilled workmen had by this time been trained into expertness and dexterity; and, being kept to their special departments of work,—fathers training their sons to work with them at the same benches,—a degree of accuracy and finish was reached which contributed to establish and maintain the prestige of the manufactory. The prosperity of the firm was also materially promoted by the able assistants who had been trained at Soho, and were in due time promoted to superintend special departments of the business. Among these were Murdock, Walker, Southern, Ewart, and Lawson, who enjoyed the fullest confidence of their chiefs, and repaid it with unswerving loyalty.

When the concern had become thoroughly organised under these able heads of departments, Boulton and Watt began to breathe more freely. Their financial difficulties had now disappeared, and instead of laying out capital, they had begun to accumulate it. They had laboured hard for their reward and richly earned it; and after their long up-hill struggle, they well deserved rest and peace at last. They now began to take occasional journeys of recreation, with which they varied their journeys of business. Thus, in the autumn of 1789, we find Boulton making a tour in Derbyshire, during which he was overtaken at Buxton by a letter from the Lords of the Privy Council on coining business, giving him “marching orders for London;” but a party having been formed to visit the Peak Cavern, he decided “to obey the Ladies rather than the Lords.” Three days later, however, we find him in London, “writing in a full chattering coffee-house at Charing Cross,” and desiring his friend Mr. Barrow to pay his respects to the ladies whom he had so hurriedly left. While in London, he received a letter inviting him to pay a visit to Holland and stand godfather to his friend Mr. Hoofletter’s son; to which he replied, that he would be glad to stand godfather to the boy and have the name of Boulton associated with an honest race, but was sorry that he could not assist at the christening or at the dinner. “But pray act for me,” he added; “do everything that’s proper (as is the custom in the country); give the nurse five guineas from me, and I will repay you. My best respects to Mrs. Hoofletter, and my blessing on the young Christian.”

Watt’s troubles and anxieties also were in course of gradual abatement. Though still suffering from headaches, asthma, and low spirits, he seems on the whole to have become more satisfied with his lot. Prosperity agreed with him as it does with most people. It is a condition easy to bear, and Watt took to it kindly. As years passed over his head, he became placid, contented, and even cheerful. His health improved, and he enjoyed life in his old age as he had never done in his youth. He ceased longing for the rest of the grave, and gave over “cursing his inventions.” On the other hand, he took pleasure in looking back over the long and difficult road he had traversed, and in recounting the various steps by which he had perfected his great inventions. Nor did he cease to invent; for he went on inventing new things to the close of his life; but he followed the pursuit as a recreation and delight, and not as a business and a drudgery.

Watt too, like his partner, began to make tours of pleasure, for the purpose at the same time of gathering health and seeing the beauties of nature. In August, 1789, he wrote Boulton from Cheltenham, that he had been making a delightful journey through the Western Counties, by way of Worcester, Malvern, Hereford, and Chepstow, and that he felt in better health and spirits than he had been for a very long time. Occasional letters reached him from Birmingham about orders received for engines, nothing being done without first consulting him. That the concern was thriving, may be inferred from the comparative indifference with which he now regarded such orders. An engine having been ordered by a doubtful person, Watt wrote—“I look upon such orders as of little value. They are so precarious in their duration, and in this case there is risk of bad payment or swindling. Whatever care we take, he is like a shaved pig with a soaped tail.” On a demand being made upon him for abatement of dues, he wrote—“We have never made concessions to anybody but they have been attended with loss to us and half a dozen more; and it would appear that, if our patent lasted long enough, the power of a horse would grow to that of an elephant.”[328]

In the course of the following summer, Watt visited the pleasantest spots in the neighbourhood of London, and amongst other places took Windsor in his way, where he had the honour of an interview with the King. He had already met his Majesty at Whitbread’s brewery in the early part of 1787, for the purpose of explaining to him the action of the new rotary engine; and the King had expressed the desire to see him again when in the neighbourhood of Windsor. The following is Watt’s brief account of the visit:—

As Boulton and Watt advanced in years they looked forward with pleasure to the prospect of their two eldest sons—Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt, junior—joining them in the business they had established, and relieving them of the greater part of their anxieties and labours in connexion with it. Both were young men of intelligence and character, carefully educated, good linguists, and well versed in practical science. We find many references to the education of the two young men in the letters of Boulton; few or none in those of Watt. The former alike attracted young people and was attracted by them, entering heartily into their pursuits; the latter was too much absorbed by study, by inventions, and by business, to spare time for the purpose. Besides, he was, like his countrymen generally, reserved and undemonstrative in all matters relating to the feelings and affections.

Both boys were trained and educated so as to follow in their fathers’ steps. Every pain was taken to give them the best culture, and to imbue them with the soundest principles. The two boys usually spent their holidays together at Soho; and, growing up together, they learnt to think, and feel, and work together.

At the same time Boulton’s own son was making good progress under the Rev. Mr. Stretch, to whom Boulton wrote,—

The Baron’s offer was not, however, accepted; but desirous that his son should acquire proficiency in French, Boulton took him over to Paris, towards the end of 1786, and placed him under a competent master. Many kindly letters passed between father and son during the latter’s stay at Paris. The young man spent rather more money than his father thought could do him good. He therefore asked him to keep an account of his personal expenses, which “must balance exactly,” and implored him above all things to “keep out of bad company.”

The father’s anxieties abated with time; the son applied himself assiduously to French and German, and gave promise of becoming a man of ability and character. Writing to his friend Matthews, Boulton said—“Matt is a tolerable good chemist.... He hath behaved very well, and I shall be glad when the time arrives for him to assist me in the business.” In the summer of 1788, young Boulton paid his father a holiday visit at Soho, returning again to Paris to finish his studies. Writing of his departure, to Matthews in London, the father said—“I hope that my son is set off for Dover: my heart overflows with blessings and love to him.”[331]

The education of young Watt was equally well cared for. After leaving school at Birmingham, his father sent him for a year to Mr. Wilkinson’s ironworks at Bersham, to learn carpentry in the pattern shop.[332] He then returned to his father’s, from whence he was sent to school at Geneva, where he remained for three years perfecting himself in the modern languages. On his return to England in 1788, we find Boulton writing to Mr. Barrow of Manchester, asking him to obtain a position for young Watt in some respectable counting-house, with a view to his acquiring a thorough commercial training. He was eventually placed in the house of Messrs. Taylor and Maxwell, where he remained for about two years, improving himself in his knowledge of business affairs. His father’s reputation and standing, as well as his own education and accomplishments, served to introduce the young gentleman to many friends in Manchester; and, although far from extravagant in his habits, he shortly found that the annual sum allowed him by his father was insufficient to pay for his board, clothing, and lodging, and at the same time enable him to keep clear of debt. Knowing Boulton’s always open hand and heart, and his sympathy for young people, the embarrassed youth at once applied to him for help. Why he did not apply to his father will be best understood from his own letter:—

He concluded by expressing his sense of Mr. Boulton’s many friendly acts towards him, and confessing that there was no other person on whom he could so confidently rely for help in his emergency. The reply of Boulton was all that he could desire. With sound fatherly advice,[334] such as he would have given to his own son under similar circumstances, he sent him a draft for 50l., the amount required by young Watt to clear him of his debts.

Among the friendships which he formed at Manchester, was one of an intimate character with Mr. Cooper, a gentleman engaged in an extensive business, fond of books, and a good practical chemist. We find young Watt requesting Boulton to recommend to Mr. Cooper “a person to keep his library in order and to make experiments for him, he not having time enough to attend to the details of them himself.”[335] Cooper was besides a keen politician, and took an active interest in the discussion of the important questions then agitating the public mind. Watt was inflamed by the enthusiasm of his friend, and with the ardour of youth entered warmly into his views as to the regeneration of man and the reconstruction of society.

Mrs. Schimmelpenninck has, in her autobiography, given a vivid picture of the interest excited in the circle of friends amongst whom she moved, by the thrilling events then occurring in France, and which extended even to the comparatively passionless philosophers of the Lunar Society. At one of the meetings held at her father’s house in the summer of 1788 “Mr. Boulton,” she says, “presented to the company his son, just returned from a long sojourn at Paris. I well remember my astonishment at his full dress in the highest adornment of Parisian fashion; but I noticed, as a remarkable thing, that the company (which consisted of some of the first men in Europe) all with one accord gathered round him, and asked innumerable questions, the drift of which I did not fully understand. It was wonderful to me to see Dr. Priestley, Dr. Withering, Mr. Watt, Mr. Boulton himself, and Mr. Keir, manifest the most intense interest, each according to his prevailing characteristics, as they almost hung upon his words; and it was impossible to mistake the indications of deep anxiety, hope, fear, curiosity, ardent zeal, or thoughtful gravity, which alternately marked their countenances, as well as those of my own parents. My ears caught the words ‘Marie Antoinette,’ ‘The Cardinal de Rohan,’ ‘diamond necklace,’ ‘famine,’ ‘discontent among the people,’ ‘sullen silence instead of shouts of “Vive le Roi!”’ All present seemed to give a fearful attention. Why, I did not then well know, and, in a day or two, these things were almost forgotten by me; but the rest of the party heard, no doubt, in this young man’s narrative, the distant, though as yet faint rising of the storm which, a year later, was to burst upon France and, in its course, to desolate Europe.”[336] A few short months passed, and the reign of brotherhood began. “One evening, towards the end of July,” continues Mrs. Schimmelpenninck, “we saw at a distance a vehicle (usually employed to carry servants to town or church) returning at more than its usual speed. After some minutes the door of the drawing-room opened, and in burst Harry Priestley, a youth of sixteen or seventeen, waving his hat, and crying out, ‘Hurrah! Liberty, Reason, brotherly love for ever! Down with kingcraft and priestcraft. The majesty of the people for ever! France is free, the Bastille is taken!’”[337] “I have seen,” she adds, “the reception of the victory of Waterloo and of the carrying of the Reform Bill; but I never saw joy comparable in its intensity and universality to that occasioned by the early promise of the French Revolution.”

The impressionable mind of Dr. Priestley was moved in an extraordinary degree by the pregnant events which followed each other in quick succession at Paris; and he entered with zeal into the advocacy of the doctrines of liberty, equality, and fraternity, so vehemently promulgated by the French “friends of man.” His chemical pursuits were for a time forgotten, and he wrote and preached like one possessed, of human brotherhood, and of the downfall of tyranny and priestcraft. He hailed with delight the successive acts of the National Assembly abolishing monarchy, nobility, church, corporations, and other long established institutions. He had already been long and hotly engaged in polemical discussions with the local clergy on disputed points of faith; and now he addressed a larger audience in a work which he published in answer to Mr. Burke’s famous attack on the ‘French Revolution.’ Burke, in consequence, attacked him in the House of Commons; while the French Revolutionists on the other hand hailed him as a brother, and admitted him to the rights of French citizenship.[338]

These proceedings concentrated on Dr. Priestley an amount of local exasperation that shortly after burst forth in open outrage. On the 14th of July, 1791, a public dinner was held at the principal hotel to celebrate the second anniversary of the French Revolution. About eighty gentlemen were present, but Priestley was not of the number. A mob collected outside, and after shouting “Church and King,” they proceeded to demolish the inn windows. The magistrates shut their eyes to the riotous proceedings, if they did not actually connive at them. A cry was raised, “To the New Meeting-house,” the chapel in which Priestley ministered; and thither the mob surged. The door was at once burst open, and the place set on fire. They next gutted the old Meeting-house, and made a bonfire of the pews and bibles in the burying-ground. It was growing dusk, but the fury of the mob had not abated. They made at once for Dr. Priestley’s house at Fairhill, about a mile and a half distant. The Doctor and his family had escaped about half an hour before their arrival; and the house was at their mercy. They broke in at once, emptied the cellars, smashed the furniture, tore up the books in the library, destroyed the philosophical and chemical apparatus in the laboratory, and ended by setting fire to the house. The roads for miles round were afterwards found strewed with shreds of the valuable manuscripts in which were recorded the results of twenty years labour and study,—a loss which Priestley continued bitterly to lament until the close of his life.

Thus an utter wreck was made of the philosopher’s dwelling at Fairhill. The damage done was estimated at upwards of 4000l., of which the victim recovered little more than one-half from the county. The next day, and the next, and the next, the mob continued to run riot, burning and destroying. On the second day, about noon, they marched to Easyhill and attacked and demolished the mansion of Mr. Ryland, one of the most munificent benefactors of the town. Bordesley Hall, the mansion of Mr. Taylor, the banker, was next sacked and fired. The shop of the estimable William Hutton, the well-known bookseller and author, was next broken open and stripped of everything that could be carried away; and from his shop in the town they proceeded to his dwelling-house at Bennett’s Hill in the country, and burnt it to the ground.[340] On the third day, six other houses were sacked and destroyed; three of them were blazing at the same time. On the fourth day, which was a Sunday, the rioters dispersed in bands over the neighbourhood, levying contributions in money and drink; one body of them burning on their way the Dissenting chapel-house and minister’s dwelling-house at Kingswood, seven miles off. Other Dissenters, of various persuasions, farmers, shopkeepers, and others, had their houses broken into and robbed in open day. It was not until the Sunday evening that three troops of the Fifteenth Light Dragoons entered Birmingham amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants, who welcomed them as deliverers. At the instant of their arrival, the mob had broken into Dr. Withering’s house at Edgbaston Hall, and were rioting in his wine-cellars, but when they heard that “the soldiers” had come at last, they slunk away in various directions.

The members of the Lunar Society, or “the Lunatics,” as they were popularly called, were especially marked for attack during the riots. A common cry among the mob was “No philosophers—Church and King for ever!” and some persons, to escape their fury, even painted “No philosophers” on the fronts of their houses! There could be no doubt as to the meaning of this handwriting on the wall. Priestley’s house had been sacked, and Withering’s plundered. Boulton and Watt were not without apprehensions that an attack would be made upon them, as the head and front of the “Philosophers” of Birmingham. They accordingly prepared for the worst; called their workmen together, pointed out to them the criminality of the rioters’ proceedings, and placed arms in their hands on their promising to do their utmost to defend the premises if attacked. In the mean time everything portable was packed up and ready to be removed at a moment’s notice. Thus four days of terror passed, but the mob came not; Watt attributing the safety of Soho to the fact that most of the Dissenters lived in another direction.[341]

Many of the rioters were subsequently apprehended, and several of them were hanged; but the damage inflicted on those whose houses had been sacked was irreparable, and could not be compensated. As for Dr. Priestley, he shook the dust of Birmingham from his feet, and fled to London; from thence emigrating to America, where he died in 1804.

While such was the blind fury of the populace of Birmingham, the principles of the French Revolution found adherents in all parts of England. Clubs were formed in London and the principal provincial towns, and a brisk correspondence was carried on between them and the Revolutionary leaders of France. Among those invested with the rights of French citizenship were Dr. Priestley, Mr. Wilberforce, Thomas Tooke, and Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Mackintosh. Thomas Paine and Dr. Priestley were chosen members of the National Convention; and though the former took his seat for Calais, the latter declined, on the ground of his inability to speak the language sufficiently. Among those carried away by the political epidemic of the time, were young James Watt and his friend Mr. Cooper of Manchester. In 1792 they were deputed, by the “Constitutional Society” of that town, to proceed to Paris and present an address of congratulation to the Jacobin Club, then known as the “Société des Amis de la Constitution.”[342] While at Paris, young Watt seems to have taken an active part in the fiery agitation of the time. He was on intimate terms with the Jacobin leaders. Southey says that he was even the means of preventing a duel between Danton and Robespierre, to the former of whom he acted as second.[343] Robespierre afterwards took occasion to denounce both Cooper and Watt as secret emissaries of Pitt, on which young Watt sprang into the tribune, pushing Robespierre aside, and defended himself in a strain of vehement eloquence, which completely carried the assembly with him. From that moment, however, he felt his life to be unsafe, and he fled from Paris without a passport, never resting until he had passed the frontier and found refuge in Italy.

The public part he had taken in French Revolutionary politics could not fail to direct attention to him on this side of the channel. His appearance at a public procession, in which he carried the British colours, to celebrate the delivery of some soldiers released from the galleys, was vehemently denounced by Mr. Burke in the House of Commons. The notoriety which he had thus achieved, gave his father great anxiety; and after young James’s return to England in 1794, he was under considerable apprehensions for his safety. Several members of the London political Societies had been apprehended and lodged in the Tower, and Watt feared lest his son might in some way be compromised by his correspondence with those societies. Boulton, then in London, informed him of the severe measures of the Government, and of the intended suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act; to which Watt replied,—

A few days later, his apprehensions of danger to his son not being removed, he wrote Boulton again as follows:—

Four days later, Watt’s alarm was not abated by the appearance in Birmingham of king’s messengers making seizures of persons concerned in seditious correspondence. “They have taken up,” he wrote, “one Pare, who kept a reforming club at his house, and one or two others. The soldiers were ordered under arms to prevent tumult. I hear also that Wilkinson has been threatened with a mob at Bradley, and has prepared to defend himself with cannon, pikes, &c., but that matters are now quiet there. In respect to James, you must advise him, I cannot; but I think he would be better at home, following his business, than elsewhere.”[347] James eventually returned to Birmingham, where we find him from this time forward taking an increasingly active part in the affairs of the concern. He took entire charge of the manufacture of the letter-copying machines, now become a considerable branch of the business; and he shortly after entered the engine firm as a partner, in conjunction with Mr. Boulton’s eldest son, Matthew Robinson.

The infusion of young blood had the effect of imparting new vigour to all the branches of manufacture at Soho, and at the same time of relieving the senior partners from a considerable amount of labour and anxiety. The business was now in a very thriving state; there was abundance of orders for engines coming in; and the principal difficulty of the firm was in finding skilled workmen enough to execute them. Thus we find Watt junior writing to Boulton junior in January, 1795,—“We must have additional men, rather too many than too few, until we have got the start of our orders, for without that we shall always feel ourselves embarrassed and clogged. I shall therefore desire Rennie to renew his applications at Lancaster, which appear as yet to have been unsuccessful.”

The junior members of the firm were also useful in protecting the engine patent right, the infringement of which had become general all over the country. This was a disagreeable part of their business; but, if not attended to, the patent must be given up as worthless. The steam-engine was now regarded as an indispensable power in manufacturing operations. It had become employed in all important branches of industry; and it was, of course, the interest of the manufacturers to avoid the payment of dues wherever they could. An instance of this evasion was detected at the Bowling Ironworks near Bradford, and notice was given of proceedings against the Company for recovery of dues. On this the Bowling Company offered to treat, and young Watt went down to Leeds for the purpose of meeting the representatives of the Bowling Company on the subject. On the 24th February, 1796, he wrote his friend Matthew Robinson Boulton as follows:—

Another engine constructed after Watt’s patent was discovered working at a mill at Carke, in Cartmel, Lancashire. Mr. Stockdale, son of the proprietor, tells the following story of its detection. He states that the first engine employed at the works was one on Newcomen’s construction, which was used to pump water into the reservoir which supplied the water-power by which the mill was driven. It was then determined to apply the steam-power direct to the machinery, and a new engine was ordered from Manchester, without communicating with the patentees. The mill was in full work when a stranger called, representing that he belonged to the concern of Boulton and Watt, and requesting to inspect the engine. The request was complied with, and Mr. Stockdale afterwards invited him to stay to dinner; but it was the dearest dinner he ever gave, as only a few weeks later a claim for 1800l. was made by Boulton and Watt for dues upon the engine, which was, however, eventually compromised by the payment of 400l.

The most unscrupulous pirates, however, were the Cornishmen who, emboldened by the long quiescence of Boulton and Watt, and knowing that the patent had only five or six more years to run, believed that they might set the patentees at open defiance, which they proceeded to do. Notwithstanding the agreements entered into and ratified on both sides, they refused point blank to pay further dues; and Boulton and Watt were thus at last driven to have recourse to the powers of the law. Had they remained passive, it might have been construed into a tacit admission that the patent right had from the first been indefensible, and that the sums which they had up to that time levied for the use of their engine had been wrongfully paid to them. But neither had ceased to have perfect faith in the validity of their patent, and both determined, even at this late stage, to defend it. “The rascals,” wrote Watt to Boulton, “seem to have been going on as if the patent were their own.... We have tried every lenient means with them in vain; and since the fear of God has no effect upon them, we must try what the fear of the devil can do.”[348] Legal proceedings were begun accordingly. The two actions on which the issues were tried were those of Boulton and Watt v. Bull, and Boulton and Watt v. Hornblower and Maberley; and they were fought on both sides with great determination. The proceedings extended over several years, being carried from court to court; but the result was decisive in both cases in favour of Boulton and Watt. It was not until January, 1799, that the final decision of the judges was given;[349] almost on the very eve of expiry of the patent, which had not then a full year to run. It was not, however, with a view to the future that these costly, anxious, and protracted legal proceedings had been carried on, but mainly for the recovery of dues under existing agreements, and for dues on engines erected in various quarters in infringement of the patent. Most of the Cornish adventurers had paid nothing for years. Thus Poldice had paid nothing since October, 1793, and was in arrear 2330l. Wheal Gons had paid nothing since May, 1793, and was in arrear 4290l. The Wheal Treasure adventurers, and many others, had set Boulton and Watt at open defiance, and paid nothing at all.

On the issue of the proceedings against Bull, Boulton and Watt called upon the Mining Companies to “cash up,” and arrears were shortly collected, though with considerable difficulty, to the amount of about 30,000l. Young Boulton went into Cornwall for the purpose of arranging the settlements, and managed the business with great ability. “I am now to congratulate you,” Watt wrote to his partner from Glasgow, whither he had gone on a visit, “on the success of Mr. R. Boulton’s very able transactions in Cornwall; and I hope that at last we may be freed from the anxiety of the issue of law which has so long attended us, and enjoy in peace the fruits of our labours. When you write to Mr. B. I beg you will present my best wishes and best respects to him, expressing my warmest approbation of his exertions.” On another occasion, while the cause was in progress before the courts of law, Watt wrote,—“In the whole affair, nothing was so grateful to me as the zeal of our friends and the activity of our young men, which was unremitting.”

The senior members of the firm had for some time been gradually withdrawing from the active management of the concern. We find Watt writing to Dr. Black in 1798,—“In regard to the engine business, I now take little part in it, but it goes on successfully.” Four years later he wrote,—“Our engine trade thrives; the profits per cent. are, however, very, very moderate; it is by the great capital and expensive establishment of engineers, &c., that we keep it up; without our tools and men very little could be done, as we have many competitors, some of whom are men of abilities.” But the business was now safe in the hands of the young and active partners, who continued to carry it on for many years, with even greater success than their fathers had done. They reaped the harvest of which the others had sown the seed. The patent right expired in 1800; but the business of the firm, nevertheless, became larger and more remunerative than it had ever been before. The superior plant which they had accumulated, their large and increasing capital, the skilled workmen whom they had trained, and the first-class character of the work which they turned out, gave the establishment of Boulton and Watt a prestige which they long continued to maintain.