M. Aragd's Memoir of James Watt. 315 



de TAcademie des Sciences," which is entitled " Pour I'Annee 1781/' 

 but which was not printed till the year 1784. The paper was read on the 

 11th of November 1783. 



" About the same time," S;c. — (p. 272.) See Blagden's paper in Crell's 

 Journal, vol. i. 1786, p. 59. It is, on many accounts, a very remarkable 

 one. 



" Des jaloux." — (p. 274.) The words in the original letter are these: 

 " Je vous conseillerai presque, attendu votre position, de tirer de vos de- 

 couvertes des consequences pratiques pour votre fortune. II vous faut 

 eviter de vous faire des jaloux." 



Priestley's Letter of 2^th April 1783.— (p. 276.) Mr Watt, in his re- 

 ply to the above letter, uses these forcible expressions : " I deny that 

 your experiment ruins my hypothesis. It is not founded on so brittle a 

 basis as an earthen retort, nor on its converting water into air. I founded 

 it on the other facts, and was obliged to stretch it a good deal before it 

 would fit this experiment. * * * I maintain my hypothesis until it 

 shall be shewn that the water formed after the explosion of the pure and 

 inflammable air has some other origin." 



" Of which it appeared that the profits must be very great." — (p. 276.) 

 This, no doubt, is the point of view in which it would strike abstract men 

 of science, such as Berthollet and Arago. But in this manufacturing 

 country, we well know that the novelty and ingenuity of a process are 

 not of themselves sufiicient to ensure a beneficial result ; and, indeed, in 

 the case of the very process in question, it happened that the first manu- 

 facturers who attempted to carry it into effect on a large scale, were 

 ruined by it. 



" Of this marriage there were born four children, two sons and two daugh- 

 ters." — (p. 278.) Two of these died in infancy ; a daughter married Mr 

 Miller of Glasgow, and has left issue. The present Mr James Watt is 

 the gentleman mentioned by M. Arago in various parts of this Eloge. 



" The noble features of the old man." — (p. 284.) The thoughtful cast of 

 his features was so remarkable, as to draw from his friend Mr Richard 

 Sharp, of conversational fame, the playful observation, " I never look at 

 Mr Watt's countenance without fancying I behold the personification of 

 abstract thought." 



" The meeting which agreed to the erection of the Statue in Westminster 

 Abbey." — (p. 292.) This meeting was held at Freemasons' Hall, on the 18th 

 June 1824. Besides those quoted by M. Arago, the speeches delivered on 

 the same occasion by Lord Brougham, Lord Hatherton (then Mr Littleton), 

 Sir Robert Peel, the Earl of Aberdeen, Mr Frankland Lewis, Mr Wedge- 

 wood, and Mr Wilberforce, are not less distinguished for the testimony 

 which they bear to the merits of Mr Watt, than for their own dignified 

 and touching eloquence. And it is at once most interesting and most 

 gratifying to find among the list of eminent persons by whom this great 

 national tribute was so ably supported, the name of the present Mr 

 Boolton, long the associate and intimate friend of Mr Watt. 



