310 Additional Notes to 



be associated with those of the artisan, this would be patriotism 

 and humanity, this would be to understand and supply the real 

 wants of the working classes. But, on the other hand, to persist 

 that the vast labour, which machinery can effect in a moment 

 and cheaply, shall be performed, at a great price, by the toil of 

 man's hand and the sweat of his brow — to assimilate the 

 workman to the brute — daily to require from him exertions 

 which ruin his health, and which science can obtain to the 

 extent of a hundi-edfold, by means of wind, and water, and steam, 

 this would be to recede from the grand object we have in view. 

 It would be to abandon the poor to nakedness ; to reserve a 

 thousand enjoyments exclusively for the rich which are now 

 common to all. It would be, in short, to return again to the 

 ages of ignorance, barbarity, and wretchedness. 



Additional Notes to M. Aragd's Memoir of James TFatt.* 



" James Watt, the father of the celebrated engineer," (p. 223.) Wc find 

 in the minutes of the Town-Council of Greenock, under date of 3d June 

 1774^, that Mr Watt then gave in his resignation of the office of a manager 

 and councillor, upon which, the meeting of the magistrates and council 

 returned him thanks for the many good services he had done to the com- 

 munity. 



" He combined three kinds of occupation," (p. 223.) He was also agent 

 to the late Lord Cathcart in the management of his property at Greenock, 

 who, upon Mr Watt's death, bore honourable testimony to his memory 

 in a letter to his son. 



" Was then trying to solve a problem of geometry," (p. 224.) Upon this 

 occasion Mr Watt's friend put various questions to the boy, and was asto- 

 nished and gratified with the mixture of intelligence, quickness, and sim- 

 plicity displayed in his answers. 



" A small electrical machine," (p. 224.) This must have been about the 

 years 1750-53. It -"vill be recollected that the Leyden Phial was invented 

 in the years 1745-46. See Priestley's Hist, of Electricity, p. 80, ed. 1769. 



" The Machine of Marly," (p. 227.) This machine was erected at the 

 village of that name on the Seine, to raise water for the town and water- 

 works of Versailles. This was efl^ected by means of fifteen large water- 

 wheels, and a series of pumps, pipes, cranks, and rods, remarkable for 



• We are indebted to Mr Muirhead, Advocate, Edinburgh, a relative of Mr 

 Watt, for the " Additional Notes." — Editor. 



