( -is ) 



Abstract of a Paper read to the Society of Arts, by Sir John 

 Fobison, entitled, " A Narrative of Experiments and Sug- 

 gestions by the late Mr James Taylor, for the Application of 

 Steam to Navigation f" with Introductory Hemarks by Sir 

 John Graham Dalyell, Presidenf of the Society. Commu- 

 municated by the Society of Arts for Scotland.* 



There has been too much cause of complaint, that the true 

 benefactors of mankind being denied their merited reward 

 during life, it is reserved for posterity, by acts of tardy justice, 

 to honour their memory. 



No example is more notorious than in the subject of the 

 following paragraph. 



Of all modern inventions, that aifording the highest prac- 

 tical utility, is navigation by the power of steam ; — one which 

 seems to bid defiance to the impediments of time and distance, 

 — which, in conquering the elements, conspires to human 

 safety. 



Yet not only was the author of this notable contrivance 

 suffered to languish in obscurity, — to die unnoticed and un - 

 known ; but his widow and daughter have been hitherto over- 

 passed in any adequate remuneration. 



But we aj'e no strangers to national rewards for useful pro- 

 jects. They have been conferred of late, for improving the 

 mode of inoculation in one department, and for improving 

 the highways of the kingdom in another. Or the widows and 

 children of those who have fallen in the public service, are 

 recompensed with honours and with bounties, descending even 

 to the second and third generation. Ought not the nearest 

 and only relatives of the author of so important a discovery, 

 now justly reclaimed by Scotland, to enjoy some due propor- 

 tion of public favour 1 



* For very full details regarding the connection of the late Mr Miller of 

 Dalswinton and Mr Taylor -with the early history of steam-navigation, we 

 refer our readers to tlie Memoirs of Patrick Miller, Esq., printed in the 

 Edinburgh PliilosophicalJounial, vol. xiii. p. 81, and the Edinburgh New 

 Philosopliic'il Journal, vol. ill. p. 1!7.— Kimoi!. 



