390 
tion to the subject, in pointing out the 
mistakes of his predecessors, and in 
endeavouring to demonstrate the prac- 
ticability of the undertaking. Possi- 
bly I might have thrown out some 
ideas that he might reduce to practice; 
but, if I did, they were so trifling as to 
have escaped my recollection. I fur- 
nished him, I remember, with the 
means of propelling his sub-marine 
vessel, a rough model of which I had 
made, and which I afterwards gave 
as a play-thing to Lord John Russel, 
then a child, who used to amnse him- 
self by winding it up, (for it went by 
clock-work,) and setting it afloat on 
the ponds in the gardens at Woburn. 
Soon after my first acquaintance 
with Mr. Fulton, I took out a patent 
for some important improvements in 
the 4 MEN In conseguence of 
the facilities which it promised to 
afford to steam-navigation, it was Mr. 
Fulton’s intention to have applied it to 
his steam-boats. It may be necessary 
to explain why my engine was set 
aside, and the preference given to Mr. 
Watt’s engine. One of my first en- 
gines Was made for a company at 
Wisbeach for grinding corn: it was a 
six-horse power. The late Mr. Ren- 
nie, who executed their mill-work, 
told them that, if they meant to do 
business to any extent, they should 
have an engine of six times the 
power, and that he knew of a second- 
hand one that would answer their pur- 
‘pose. Upon this, without further 
ecremony, my engine was offered to 
be returned upon the hands of the 
manufacturer, as not being equal to 
the power contracted for. A law-suit 
was the consequence. The affair, 
however, was referred to arbitration. 
The arbiter was Mr. Const; the coun- 
sel for the manufacturer was the pre- 
sent Lord Chief Justice of the King’s 
Bench; and the counsel for the ad- 
verse party was Mr. (now Judge) 
Holroyd. The first witness on the 
part of the defendants was Mr. Rennie, 
who deposed that he had examined 
the engino, and seen it work, and that 
it had not more than the power of two 
horses. As the manufacturer had 
only plain honest workmen to bring 
against this Colossean witness, the 
cause was given up. 
-On mentioning this affair (which I 
could not but consider as a most 
knavish conspiracy,) to the Duke of 
Bedtord, his grace most kindly offered 
Account of the Caledonian Canal. 
[Dec. I, 
to have the. engine applied to his 
grinding and threshing mill at Wo- 
burn, which required the full power of 
six horses. What will be the reader’s 
astonishment when he is told, that for 
fifteen years it maintained the reputa- 
tion of being one of the best engines 
of its size in the kingdom. So much 
for Mr. Rennie and his evidence. 
Ihave reason to believe, notwith- 
standing, that Mr. Fulton would have 
adhered to his engagement with me, 
as, indeed, he told me himself, had he 
not been over-ruled by his monied 
partners, Messrs. Joel Barlow and 
Levingston, to whom no blame can 
attach for withdrawing their confi- 
dence from that which had been stig- 
matised as useless by Rennie and his 
connexions. 
Nov.10. Epmunp CARTWRIGHT. 
P.S. There can be no impropriety in 
giving you a short extract from a letter I 
lately received from a very scientific and 
worthy friend of mine. It will show how 
far back my thoughts dwelt on the possi- 
bility of producing loco-motion by steam, 
whether on land or water; and how soli- 
citous I was to promulgate my ideas on 
these subjects, that they might be taken 
up by those who, by their talents and 
finances, were enabled to carry them into 
effect. My correspondent, in allusion 
to Mr. Griffiths’s most ingenious steam- 
carriage, observes, ‘“‘ What a start has 
taken place in the use of steam-machines. 
You anticipated, and I may say bespoke, 
all that has been done by land and by 
water twenty-five yearsago. Iremember 
well telling the late President of the Royal 
Society of your plans of steam-carriages 
for ladies to the Opera. Banks, in his 
playful way, remarked, &c.” 
—a— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT of the CALEDONIAN CANAL. 
[ith a large Plan.) 
FTER a labour of nineteen years, 
and an expenditure of a million, 
on this great public undertaking, it 
has been completed and_ opened. 
Considered as amere work of magni- 
tude, it has not, perhaps, its equal in 
the world ; and its importance in open- 
ing a communication between the 
eastern and western seas, thereby 
avoiding the dangerous navigation of 
the Pentland Firth or the English 
Channel, will be highly prized by the 
mercantile and other classes. 
At ten o’clock on Wednesday morn- 
ing, Gectober 30, the Lochness steam- 
yacht, accompanied by two smacks, 
departed 
