536 



LiUrary and Mhcsllantous Inielligsnce. [J"'y U 



of s(eani-CMp;incs, but merely as their 

 improver, mui as a sucr.esst'ul Iraclesman, 

 who had discreclly secured liis improve- 

 ments by letters patent. Nor have we 

 wiiliheld from Mr. Watt tlic tribute due 

 to a man of g^encrai science, and one 

 possessed of all the iionselit)ld virtues. 

 Tlie steam-engine was invented nearly 

 a century before JMr. Watt was born; 

 and, at the lime of his improvements, 

 was in use as far as our manufactories 

 then recpiired. Like other things, its 

 adoption was progressive, and its sub- 

 scfjni'iit general introdnclion would 

 probably have taken place if Mr. Watt 

 bad never existed. We felt some sur- 

 prise, therefore, at seeing a meeting an- 

 nounced for the purpose of erecting a 

 j)nblic moiHiment to Mr. Watt, by sub- 

 scription; and still more on observing 

 the union of political parties among the 

 speakers, while the subscription itself 

 was headed by a royal bounty of 600/. 

 To remark on the subject may appear 

 invidious, but we have a duty to per- 

 form ; and it strikes us, as it must others, 

 that there is a want of <li.scriniination in 

 conferring this act of distinction, which 

 tends to lessen its value in other cases. 

 Public patronage had rewarded Mr. 

 Wiitl's industry, and the enterprise of 

 his partners, with princely fortunes; ami 

 Mr. Watt's best monument was the 

 |)raises which have been awarded to him 

 tinough the press, and the general dis- 

 play of the iieantifid and elfcclive ma- 

 chinery which has issued Iroin his 

 manufactory. In conclusion, we ob- 

 serve emphatically that we object no- 

 thing to Mr. Watt, but merely to a 

 monument by public subscription. 



The printing-presses of the metropolis 

 were never in greater activity than 

 duritig the past wintrr. It was appre- 

 hended that the appliculion of machinery 

 to the working of printing-presses, and 

 the vast increase of production by such 

 means, would have thrown many men 

 out of employment; but the contrary 

 has been the result. Books have become 

 cheaper, and the number of purchasers 

 and readers have, in consi-qnenee, so far 

 increased, that, during a considerable 

 part of the season, master printers found 

 it difficult to execute their engagements 

 for want of hands. Even the two- 

 penny and three-penny weekly publica- 

 tions, — which, on various subjects, are 

 encouraged to the number of fifty or 

 sixty, — have tended to produce this in- 

 crease of employment; while the wood- 

 cuts, with which they aru embellished. 



have put into requisition every engraver 

 in that line. In truth, Sunday and 

 Lancasterian schools have rendered our 

 population at once inquisitive and lite- 

 rary, and have produced, or are pro- 

 ducing, a great moral and intellectual 

 reformation, which cannot fail to exhibit 

 the hap|)iest clfeets in the next age. 



In a former Number, we noticed witli 

 lively satisfaction the increasing im- 

 portance of the Society for the Protec- 

 tion of Religious Liberty. It lately 

 held its thirteenth anniversary meeting, 

 at which that enli^hlened nobleman. 

 Lord Holland, presided. Mr. Wilks 

 delivered an address, distinguished alike 

 for its eloquence and its enumeration of 

 facts, proving the narrow spirit of into- 

 lerance and persecution which, even at 

 this day, disgraces many parts of the 

 country. Wo lament our inability to 

 give it place, but subjoin with great 

 pleasure the resolutions passed at the 

 meeting : — 



That this Society, composed of mem.? 

 bers of the Esiablislied Cliiirch, as well 

 as hundreds of congregations of Protes- 

 tant Dissenters, again express their un- 

 abated lievotedness to the cause of reli- 

 gious freedom in England, and tliroiigliout 

 the world; and afjain declare, that they 

 esteem the right publicly to worship God 

 according to the conscience to be a right 

 which the sincere and wise uever can con-. 

 cede; and which it is unjust, impolitic, 

 and impious, to infringe. 



That every new demonstration of the 

 importance and utility of" The Protestant 

 Society for the Protection of Religions 

 Liberty," occasions regret and gratitude ; 

 and that, while this meeting annually cele- 

 brates the success of the committee, in 

 exposing or resisting wrongs, they deplore 

 the intoleiant spirit whence those wrongs 

 originate, by which such iniabating efforts 

 are required. That they now lament the 

 continuance of attempts to assess places 

 of religious worship to the poor; to extort 

 turnpike tolls that have been repealed ; tQ 

 disturb, by otfensive riots, reli-iious wor- 

 ship protected by the law; to withhold the 

 rites of interment from the dead ; to en- 

 force assessed taxes that are not payable ; 

 and to deprive the couscientious poor of 

 all relief. 



That this meeting regard the Test and 

 Corporation Acts as laws which no neces- 

 sity could originally justify, and for which 

 no practical necessity now exifts, and ^a 

 measures producing disgust and grief to 

 pious churchmen, and degrading to mil- 

 lions of Britons, equal to any of their 

 cotmtrymen in cultivated talent, in publie 

 virtue, in patriotic zeal, and philanthropic 

 usefulness, and therefore earnestly desire 



tiieir 



