[290] Boulton to Matthews, 22nd December, 1788.

[291] Boulton acted with his usual open-handed generosity in his partnership arrangements with Watt. Although the original bargain between them provided that Boulton was to take two-thirds, and Watt one-third profits, Boulton providing the requisite capital and being at the risk and expense of all experiments, he subsequently, at Watt’s request, agreed to the profits being equally divided between them.

[292] As early as August, 1768, we find Dr. Small in one of his letters describing Edgeworth to Watt as “a gentleman of fortune, young, mechanical, and indefatigable, who has taken a resolution to move land and water carriages by steam, and has made considerable progress in the short space of time that he has devoted to the study.”

[293] Dr. Darwin to Boulton, April 5, 1778. When the Doctor removed to Derby in 1782, he wrote,—“I am here cut off from the milk of science, which flows in such redundant streams from your learned Lunatics, and which, I can assure you, is a very great regret to me.” In another letter he said,—“I hope philosophy and fire-engines continue to go on well. You heard we sent your Society an air-balloon, which was calculated to have fallen in your garden at Soho; but the wicked wind carried it to Sir Edward Littleton’s. Pray give my compliments to your learned Society.” In another letter he wrote,—“I hope Behemoth has strength in his loins. Belial and Ashtaroth are two other devils of consequence, and good names for engines of Fire.” When he heard of the Albion Mill being burnt down, the Doctor wrote,—“The conflagration of the Albion Mill grieved me sincerely, both as it was a grand and successful effort of human art, and also because I fear you were a considerable sufferer by it. I well remember poor old Mr. Seward comparing the Immortality of the Soul (in a devout sermon) to a fire-engine. He might now have made it a type of the mortality of this world, and the conflagration of all things.”

[294] In a letter from Priestley to Boulton, dated London, 6th November, 1775, he wrote,—“I shall not quarrel with you on account of our different sentiments in politics. When I tell you what is fact, that the Americans have constructed a cannon on a new principle, by which they can hit a mark at a distance of a mile, you will say their ingenuity has come in aid of their cowardice! I would tell you the principle of it, but that I am afraid it would set your superior ingenuity to improve upon it for the use of their enemies.” From Boulton’s memoranda-books we find that the subject of improved artillery had occupied his attention some ten years before.

[295] Mrs. Schimmelpenninck, who had no sympathy for Dr. Priestley’s religious views, nevertheless bears eloquent testimony to the beauty of his character. She speaks of him as “a man of admirable simplicity, gentleness, and kindness of heart, united with great acuteness of intellect. I can never forget,” she says, “the impression produced on me by the serene expression of his countenance. He, indeed, seemed ever present with God by recollection, and with man by cheerfulness.... A sharp and acute intellectual perception, often a pointed, perhaps a playful expression, was combined in him with a most loving heart.... Dr. Priestley always spent part of every day in devotional exercises and contemplation; and unless the railroad has spoilt it, there yet remains at Dawlish a deep and beautiful cavern, since known by the name of “Dr. Priestley’s cavern,” where he was wont to pass an hour every day in solitary retirement.”—‘Life of Mary Ann Schimmelpenninck.’

[296] Boulton to Watt, 3rd July, 1781. Dr. Black denominated carbonic acid gas “fixed air” because of his having first discovered it in chalk, marble, &c., wherein it was fixed until the furnace or other means extracted it from its fixture.

[297] Boulton to Henderson, 6th September, 1781.

[298] Wedgwood to Boulton, Etruria, 10th March, 1781.

[299] Boulton to Wedgwood, 30th March, 1781.

[300] Watt to Boulton, 26th October, 1782.

[301] A common word in the north,—meaning literally putting sense into one.

[302] He discovered, in the course of his inquiries at different periods, no fewer than nine new gases,—oxygen, nitrogen (a discovery also claimed by Cavendish and Rutherford), nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, sulphurous acid, muriatic acid (chlorine), volatile ammonia, fluo-silicic acid, and carbonic oxide,—“a tribute to science,” as is truly observed by Dr. Henry, “greatly exceeding in richness and extent that of any contemporary.”

[303] We find among the Boulton MSS., a letter from Priestley, dated Calne, 28th September, 1776, introducing Warltire to Boulton as follows:—“As I know you will take pleasure in everything in which the advancement of science is concerned, I take the liberty to recommend to you Mr. Warltire, who has been some time in this part of the country, and who is going to read lectures on the subject of Air at Birmingham. I think him an excellent philosopher, as well as a modest and agreeable man. He is perfectly acquainted with his subject, and has prepared a set of experiments which have given the greatest satisfaction wherever he has been. He has been so obliging as to spend some time with me, and has given me much assistance in my late experiments, of which he can give you some account.”

[304] Wilson’s ‘Life of Cavendish,’ p. 60. In this work, the claims of Cavendish are strongly advocated. The case in favour of Watt is alike strongly and ably stated by Mr. Muirhead in his ‘Correspondence of the late James Watt on his Discovery of the Theory of the Composition of Water.’

[305] Watt to Boulton, 10th December, 1782.

[306] De Luc, Watt’s “ami zélé,” as he described himself, confirms the fact of Cavendish having, in 1782, communicated to Priestley the nature of his experiments as well as his theory of the composition of water, in the following passage:—“Vers la fin de l’année 1782, j’allai à Birmingham, où le Dr. Priestley s’étoit établi depuis quelques années. Il me communiqua alors que M. Cavendish, d’après une rémarque de M. Warltire, qui avoit toujours trouvé de l’eau dans les vases où il avoit brúlé un mélange de l’air inflammable et d’air atmosphérique, s’étoit appliqué à découvrir la source de cette eau, et qu’il avoit trouvé qu’un mélange d’air inflammable et d’air déphlogistique en proportion convenable, étant allumé par l’étincelle électrique, se convertissoit tout entier en eau.—Je fus frappé au plus haut degré de cette découverte.”—‘Idées sur la Météorologie,’ tome 2, 1787, pp. 206–7.

[307] Watt to Black, 21st April, 1783.

[308] That Watt felt keenly on the subject, is obvious from his letter to Mr. Fry of Bristol (15th May, 1784), wherein he says,—“I have had the honour, like other great men, to have had my ideas pirated. Soon after I wrote my first paper on the subject, Dr. Blagden explained my theory to M. Lavoisier at Paris; and soon after that, M. Lavoisier invented it himself, and read a paper on the subject to the Royal Academy of Sciences. Since that, Mr. Cavendish has read a paper to the Royal Society on the same idea, without making the least mention of me. The one is a French financier; and the other a member of the illustrious house of Cavendish, worth above 100,000l., and does not spend 1000l. a year. Rich men may do mean actions. May you and I always persevere in our integrity, and despise such doings.”

[309] Watt to Boulton, 20th September, 1785.

[310] Watt to Boulton, 30th December, 1787. Boulton MSS.

[311] Mr. W. P. Smith, of the Patent Museum, raised this question at a meeting of the Photographic Society held on the 3rd November, 1863. Certain photographic pictures on metal plates were found in Mr. Boulton’s library at Soho, which, it was supposed, had not been opened for about fifty years: and it was accordingly inferred that these photographs had been the work of Mr. Boulton, or some member of the Lunar Society, about the year 1791. One of them was supposed to be a view of Soho House “before the alterations, which were made previous to 1791.” But the evidence is very defective, as has been clearly shown by M. P. W. Boulton, Esq., the grandson of Mr. Boulton, in his ‘Remarks concerning certain Photographs supposed to be of early Date’ (Bradbury and Evans, 1864). Instead of having been closed for fifty years, the room in which the pictures were found, was in constant use, and the books were freely accessible. It is also very doubtful whether the house represented in one of the pictures is old Soho House; the strong probability being that it is not, but a house still standing at Winson Green. The explanation given by Mr. M. P. W. Boulton seems to be the true one—that the room in question having been used by a Miss Wilkinson, an experimenter in photography after its invention by Niepce, these photographs were merely the results of her first amateur experiments in the art. The late Mr. Murdock, son of William Murdock of Soho, who lived in the immediate neighbourhood, was also a very good photographist, and was accustomed to meet Miss Wilkinson to make experiments in the new art.

There can be no doubt that the Wedgwoods of Etruria, more particularly Josiah’s son Thomas, as well as Humphry Davy, were early engaged in experimenting on the action of light upon nitrate of silver, but they wholly failed in fixing the pictures. A letter, dated “January, 1799,” is quoted in the ‘Photographic Journal’ for Jan. 15, 1864, as from James Watt to Josiah Wedgwood (which must be an error, as Josiah died in 1795), in which the following words occur:—“I thank you for your instructions respecting the silver pictures, about which, when at home, I will make some experiments.” If such experiments were really made, we have been unable to find any record of them.

[312] ‘Voyage en Angleterre, en Ecosse, et aux Iles Hébrides.’ Par B. Faujas-Saint-Fond. 2 vols. Paris, 1797.

[313] Horner’s ‘Memoirs and Correspondence,’ ii. 2.

[314] The word “Brummagem” doubtless originated in the numerous issues of counterfeit money from the Birmingham mints.

[315] The punishment for this crime was sometimes of a very brutal character. In March, 1789, a woman, convicted of coining in London, was first strangled by the stool being taken from under her, and then fixed to a stake and burnt before the debtor’s door at Newgate!

[316] “I lately received a letter from a Jew about making for him a large quantity of base money, but I should be sorry ever to become so base as to execute such orders. On the contrary I have taken some measures to put a stop to the execution of them by others, and if Mr. Butcher hath any plan of that sort he would do well to guard against me; as I certainly shall endeavour all in my power to prevent the counterfeiting of British or other money—that being the principle on which I am acting.”—Boulton to Matthews, December, 1787.

[317] Boulton to Woodman, 13th November, 1789.

[318] Watt says Droz “did not know so much on the subject as Boulton himself did,” and being found incompetent, a pretender, and disposed to be quarrelsome and litigious, he was shortly after dismissed with liberal payment.

[319] In a letter written by James Lawson to Matthew Robinson Boulton shortly after his father’s death, he observed,—“God only knows the anxiety and unremitting perseverance of your father to accomplish the end; and we all aided and assisted to the best of our powers, without ever considering by whose contrivance anything was brought to bear. Indeed the bringing of everything to bear was by your father’s perseverance, and by his hints and personal attendance; for often he attended and persevered in the experiments till we were all tired.”—Lawson to M. R. Boulton, January 10, 1810. Boulton MSS.

[320] We find numerous letters from Boulton to Joseph Harrison relative to the execution of the presses, and the manner in which the various details of the work were to be carried out. On the 16th of January, 1788, he wrote,—“Push forward with the utmost expedition six of the cutting-out presses and one of the coining presses. I have engaged to have six of each kind at work by this day four months.... I shall be obliged to work after the rate of 1500 tons a year. I fear I must have eight presses [eight were eventually erected] in which case I must lengthen the building next the Gate road. Pray push forward, and be silent.” Various details as to the working of the presses and the execution of the coin were given in succeeding letters.

[321] To Lord Hawkesbury he wrote (14th April, 1789),—“In the course of my journeys I observe that I receive upon an average two-thirds counterfeit halfpence for change at toll-gates, &c.; and I believe the evil is daily increasing, as the spurious money is carried into circulation by the lowest class of manufacturers, who pay with it the principal part of the wages of the poor people they employ. They purchase from the subterraneous coiners 36 shillings’-worth of copper (in nominal value) for 20 shillings, so that the profit derived from the cheating is very large. The trade is carried on to so great an extent that at a public meeting at Stockport in Cheshire, in January last, the magistrates and inhabitants came to a resolution to take no other halfpence in future than those of the Anglesey Company [also an illegal coinage, though of full weight and value of copper], and this resolution they have published in their newspapers.”

[322] Boulton to the Lords of the Privy Council for Trade, 16th December, 1787.

[323] In 1787, and again in 1789, we find the merchants, traders, and others in Southwark urgently memorialising the Lords of the Treasury on the subject. The Memorial addressed to them in the latter year was signed by 800 of the principal inhabitants of the Borough, and presented to Mr. Pitt by a deputation, headed by Mr. Barclay, of Thrale’s Brewery. It set forth that the counterfeits of copper coin had become a very serious burden and loss, more especially to poor manufacturers, labourers, and others, many of whom were compelled to take counterfeit copper coin in payment of their commodities and wages; and concluded by stating that, having seen specimens of a new copper coinage made by Mr. Boulton of Birmingham (under order of the Lords of the Privy Council) the Memorialists take leave to represent, that such a coinage, from its greater weight and superior execution, would in their opinion afford to themselves and the public at large a certain remedy for the present grievance, and they therefore strongly recommended its adoption.

[324] The coins were: in 1790, a five-sous piece, “Pacte Fédératif;” in 1792, a four sous “Hercule;” and a two sous “Liberté.” Boulton’s reputation as a coiner abroad, brought upon him while at Paris, a host of foreign schemers, one of whom pretended that he had discovered an infallible method of converting copper into gold! The schemer and his wife followed Boulton to Soho, accompanied by a letter of introduction from his friend Baumgarten. After taking measure of the schemer, Boulton replied to Baumgarten as follows:—

[325] The following were the principal provincial halfpenny tokens executed at Soho:—1789, Cronebane and Dundee; 1791, Anglesey, Cornwall, Glasgow, Hornchurch, Southampton; 1793, Leeds, London, Penryn, John Wilkinson’s; 1794, Inverness, Lancaster; 1795, Bishops Stortford; 1800, Enniscorthy.

[326] The following medals were also struck by Mr. Boulton at Soho:—Prince and Princess of Wales on their marriage; Marquis Cornwallis on the peace with Tippoo; Earl Howe on his victory of the First of June; Hudson’s Bay Company; Slave Trade abolished; Chareville Forest; General Suwarrow on his successes in Italy; the Empress Catherine of Russia; in commemoration of British Victories; Union with Ireland; on the peace of 1802; Battle of Trafalgar; Manchester and Salford Volunteers; Frogmore Medal; Prince Regent of Portugal; and the Emperor Alexander of Russia. The execution of the Trafalgar Medal furnishes a remarkable illustration of Boulton’s princely munificence. It was struck on the occasion of Lord Nelson’s last victory, and presented by him, with the sanction of government, to every officer and man engaged in the action. He gave an additional value to the present by confining the medal to this purpose only.

[327] Boulton to Wilson, 26th February, 1792. Boulton MSS.

[328] There was a great deal of graphic vigour in Watt’s correspondence about engines. Thus, in the case of an engine supplied to F. Scott and Co. to drive a hammer, it appears that instead of applying it to the hammer only, they applied it also to blow the bellows. The consequence was, that it worked both badly. They had also increased the weight of the hammer. Watt wrote,—“It was easy to foresee all this; and the only adequate remedy is to have another engine to blow the bellows. It is impossible that a regular blast can be had while the engine works the hammer and bellows, without a regulating belly as big as a church.... They have been for having a pocket bible in large print. If they mean to carry on their work regular, they must have a blowing engine; otherwise they will lose the price of one in a few months.”

[329] Watt to Boulton, 27th June, 1790.

[330] Boulton to his son, 19th December, 1787.

[331] Boulton to Matthews, 25th August, 1788. In a letter dated the preceding day, he wrote—“I have been exceedingly harassed last week, have many letters before me unanswered. I cannot sleep at nights, and the room I write in is so hot by the fire-engine chimney as to relax me, and my head is distracted by the noise of the engine, by the making and riveting of boilers, and by a constant knocking at my door by somebody or other; but I believe and suspect that the separation of my son from me contributes more to the oppression of my spirits than anything else.”

[332] “I have sent my son to Mr. Wilkinson’s ironworks at Bersham, in Wales, where he is to study practical book-keeping, geometry, and algebra, at his leisure hours; and three hours in the day he works in a carpenter’s shop. I intend he should stay there a year; what I shall do with him next I know not, but I intend to fit him for some employment not so precarious as my own.”—Watt to Mrs. Campbell, 30th May, 1784.

[333] Watt, jun., to Boulton, 4th December, 1789.

[334] Mr. Boulton having been absent at Bath, some time elapsed before young Watt’s letter reached him. Receiving no reply, the youth became apprehensive that his letter had fallen into his father’s hands, and wrote a second letter expressing his fears. Thus Boulton replied to both letters at the same time, informing his correspondent for his satisfaction that they had reached him “unopened.” He proceeded—

[335] Watt, junr. to Boulton, 26th March, 1789.

[336] ‘Life of Mary Ann Schimmelpenninck,’ 3rd ed., 1859, pp. 125–6.

[337] Ibid., p. 181.

[338] “The address of the Société des Amis de la Constitution de Bourdeaux” to the Revolutionary Society in London, dated the 21st May, 1791, contains the following passage:—“Le jour consacré à porter le deuil de M. Price [the Rev. Dr. Price recently dead,—an ardent admirer of the French Revolution in its early stages], nous avons entendu la lecture du Discours de M. l’Evêque d’Autun sur la Liberté des Cultes: on nous a fait ensuite le rapport des ouvrages de MM. Priestley et Payne qui ont vengé M. Price des ouvrages de M. Burke; et c’est ainsi que nous avons fait son oraison funèbre. Peut-être, Messieurs, apprendrez vous avec quelque intérêt, que nous avons inscrit dans la liste de nos Membres les noms de MM. Payne et Priestley; c’est l’hommage de notre estime, et l’estime d’hommes libres a toujours son prix.”

[339] The representation given above of Dr. Priestley’s house is taken from a rare book, entitled ‘Views of the Ruins of the principal Houses destroyed during the Riots at Birmingham, 1791.’ London, 1792.

[340] “At midnight,” says Hutton, “I could see from my house the flames of Bordesley Hall rise with dreadful aspect. I learned that after I quitted Birmingham the mob attacked my house there three times. My son bought them off repeatedly; but in the fourth, which began about nine at night, they laboured till eight the next morning, when they had so completely ravaged my dwelling that I write this narrative in a house without furniture, without roof, door, chimneypiece, window, or window-frame.”—‘The Life of William Hutton,’ written by himself. London, 1816.

[341] “Though our principles, which are well known, as friends to the established government and enemies of republican principles, should have been our protection from a mob whose watchword was Church and King, yet our safety was principally owing to most of the Dissenters living south of the town; for after the first moments they did not seem over nice in their discrimination of religion and principles. I, among others, was pointed out as a Presbyterian, though I never was in a meeting-house in Birmingham, and Mr. Boulton is well known as a Churchman. We had everything most portable packed up, fearing the worst. However, all is well with us.”—Watt to De Luc, 19th July, 1791.

[342] The ‘Discours’ delivered by the MM. Cooper and Watt (1792) may be seen at the British Museum.

[343] ‘Life of Southey,’ vi. 209.

[344] Watt to Boulton, 16th May, 1794. Boulton MSS.

[345] The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended on the 23rd May, 1794.

[346] Watt to Boulton, 19th May, 1794. Boulton MSS.

[347] Watt to Boulton, 23rd May, 1794. Young Watt continued to sympathise with his political friends; as we find him, some months later, writing Matthew R. Boulton from London as follows:—“The citizens here are all in very high spirits since the late trials; and I had the honour of dining with two of the acquitted felons on Sunday last.” Watt, junr., having remained for some time in London on business connected with the prosecution of Bull and others for infringement of his father’s patent, Boulton, junr., kept up an active correspondence with him on the affairs of the firm. In one letter (19th February, 1795), after discussing various matters of detail relating to the letter-copying machine and engine business, Boulton entreats his friend to send him down a supply of hair-powder. “I have to intrust to your care,” he says, “the execution of an important commission on the part of the ladies and myself. The report of a scarcity of hair-powder has caused great consternation amongst the beaux and belles here, and we beg of you to preserve for us 1 cwt. of that necessary article.” To which Watt, jun. replied,—“Your new order is in train, so that I hope (whatever the poor may suffer by the destruction of so scarce an article of nourishment) your aristocratical vanity will be gratified, with only the additional sacrifice of one guinea per annum to your immaculate friend Mr. Pitt, for the purpose of carrying on this ‘just and necessary war!’ Under the existing circumstances, I am doubtful whether I shall not sacrifice my aristocratical appendage [queues being then the appendages of gentlemen], as it goes much against my inclination to throw away my money at this moment of personal poverty, or to contribute any sum, however small, to the support of measures which I reprobate in toto. On the other hand, however, I do say that, of all the taxes which have ever been imposed within my memory, this is the most politic and the least likely to be burdensome to the poor.”—Boulton MSS.

[348] Watt to Boulton, 20th March, 1796.

[349] “We have WON THE CAUSE hollow,” Watt wrote from London. “All the Judges have given their opinions carefully in our favour, and have passed judgment. Some of them made better arguments in our favour than our own counsel, for Rous’s speech was too long and too divergent. I most sincerely give you joy.”—Watt to Boulton, 25th January, 1799.

[350] The model was carefully preserved and exhibited with pride by his son, in whose house at Handsworth we saw it in 1857.

[351] Watt said to Robert Hart, “When Mr. Murdock introduced the slide valve, I was very much against it, as I did not think it so good as the poppet valve, but I gave in from its simplicity.”—Hart, ‘Reminiscences,’ &c.

[352] These several inventions were embodied by him in a patent taken out in 1799.

[353] Burning springs, though by no means common in Europe, were not unknown. They were kept burning by natural and spontaneous supplies of carburetted hydrogen gas issuing from fissures in the earth overlying beds of asphalte or coal. The inflammable character of fire-damp and the explosions which it occasioned in coal mines were also familiar to most persons living in the coal-mining districts. In 1658 Mr. Thomas Shirley first communicated to the Royal Society the result of some experiments which he had made on the inflammable gas issuing from a well near Wigan in Lancashire. Some time before 1691 the Rev. Dr. Clayton, Dean of Kildare, made some experiments on what he called the spirit of coal: he distilled some coal in a retort, and, confining the gas produced thereby in a bladder, he amused his friends by burning it as it issued from a pin-hole. In 1721 Dr. Stephen Hales found it was practicable to produce elastic inflammable air from coal and other substances, and that nearly one-third of Newcastle coal was drawn off in vapour, gas, &c., by the action of heat. In 1733 Sir James Lowther communicated to the Royal Society a paper on the subject of the fire-damp issuing from the shaft of a coal mine near Whitehaven, which had been accidentally set fire to and continued to burn for two years. Dr. Watson, Bishop of Landaff, and Dr. Priestley of Birmingham, examined the properties of coal-gas, and made experiments on its inflammable qualities, but pursued the subject no further. Lord Dundonald also had been accustomed, for the amusement of his friends, to set fire to the gas disengaged by the burning of coal in the process of coke-making. The same phenomena must have been observed on a large scale wherever coke was made. Each chamber in which coal was distilled was in point of fact a gas retort. Oil and gas were the products of the distillation; but strange to say, although the oil was collected and used, no heed was taken of the gas. Nor was it until Mr. Murdock’s attention was called to the subject that lighting by gas was proved to be practicable.

[354] ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ 1808, pp. 124–132.

[355] Many years later (in 1818), when Murdock was at Manchester for the purpose of starting one of Boulton and Watt’s engines, he was invited, with Mr. William Fairbairn, to dine at Medlock Bank, then at some distance from the lighted part of the town. “It was a dark winter’s night,” writes Mr. Fairbairn, our informant, “and how to reach the house over such bad roads was a question not easily solved. Mr. Murdock, however, fruitful in resources, went to the Gas Works, (then established in Manchester), where he filled a bladder which he had with him, and placing it under his arm like a bagpipe, he discharged through the stem of an old tobacco-pipe a stream of gas which enabled us to walk in safety to Medlock Bank.”

[356] Watt here alluded to the new machinery and plant erected at Soho under Murdock’s directions, at a cost of about 5000l. for the purpose of manufacturing gas apparatus.

[357] The invention of lighting by gas has by some writers been erroneously attributed to Winsor. It will be observed, from the statement in the text, that coal-gas had been in regular use long before the appearance of his scheme, which was one of the most crude and inflated ever brought before the public. “The Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,” proposed amongst other things to aid and assist Government with funds in times of emergency, to increase the Sinking-fund for reducing the National Debt, to reward meritorious discoverers, &c. &c. Some idea of the character of the project may be formed from Mr. [Lord] Brougham’s speech in opening the case against the Bill:—“‘The neat annual profits,’ says Mr. Winsor, ‘agreeable to the official experiments’ (that is, the experiments of Mr. Accum....) ‘amount to 229,353,627l.’ ... now Mr. Winsor says, that he will allow there may be an error here, for the sake of arguing with those who still have their doubts; and he will admit that the sum should be taken at only one half, or 114,845,294l.; and then giving up, to meet all possible objections, nine-tenths of that sum, still there will remain, to be paid to the subscribers of this Company, a yearly profit of 570l. for every 5l. of deposit! So that upon paying 5l. every subscriber is to receive 570l. a year for ever, and this to the last farthing; it may increase but less it can never be; the clear profit is always to be above 10,000l. per cent. upon the capital! This is pretty well, sir, one would think. There is here estimate and statement enough to captivate the public; but this is not all; for Mr. Winsor has taken out a patent (of which, indeed, he has, according to his custom, enrolled no specification, but, on the contrary, has enrolled a surrender) for the invention of several things, and, among others, one for rendering this gas respirable. It is not enough that this gas (which everybody knows to be not respirable, but as poisonous to the lungs as fixed air) should be capable of giving light; but he thinks it also necessary to prove that it may easily be rendered respirable; in short, that there is no way in which it may not be used, and nothing which may not be made of it.... In another pamphlet.... Mr. Winsor endeavours to prove that this gas is the vital principle; that in which life itself consists. If I had taken the trouble to go through his publications, which I certainly have not done, it is hard to say what I might not have discovered; but I should think the difficulty would rather be, to find one quality which the gas is not stated to possess.”