292 M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of Janies Watt. 



President of aboard of inquiry. Being even then deeply pre- 

 occupied with the obligation under which I lay, to deliver, on 

 my return, a judgment concerning the celebrated mechanist ; 

 and already somewhat anxious at the thought of the solemnity 

 of that assembly to which I now address myself, I had prepared 

 this inquiry, " What is your opinion of the influence which 

 Watt exercised upon the wealth, the power, and the prosperity 

 of England ?" I do not exaggerate when I say that I have ad- 

 dressed this question to more than a hundred people, belonging 

 to all classes of society, and to all shades of political opinion, 

 from the most restless radical to the most determined conser- 

 vative ; and the response has always been the same. Each 

 placed the services of our associate above all comparison ; and 

 almost every one quoted the speeches, made at the meeting 

 which agreed to the erection of the statue in Westminster Ab- 

 bey, as the faithful and unanimous expression of the sentiments 

 of the British nation. What, then, was the tone of these 

 speeches ? 



■ Lord Liverpool, the first minister of the crown, designated 

 Watt as one of the most extraordinary men to whom England had 

 given birth, and one of the greatest benefactors of the human 

 race. He declared that his improvements had increased to an 

 incalculable degree the resources of his country, and even 

 those of the whole world. Then looking at the question 

 in a political point of view, " 1 have lived," said he. '• in times, 

 when the success of a campaign, or even of a wai', has de- 

 pended upon the possibility of dispatching our squadrons from 

 port, and when contrary winds prevailed for v.'hole months, 

 and completely disappointed the anxious wishes of Govern- 

 ment. Thanks to the steam-engine, such vexatious difficulties 

 are now for ever at an end." 



" Again," exclaimed Sir Humphry Da,vj, " cast your eye 

 upon the metropolis of this mighty empire, upon our towns 

 and villages, our arsenals and manufactories, — examine the sub- 

 terranean excavations and the works that are executed on the 

 surface of the earth, — contemplate our rivers, our canals, and 

 the ocean which surrounds our shore, every where will you 

 find tokens of the enduring beneficial labours of this great 

 man." " The genius," added the illustrious President of the, 



