ft* Lord Napier's different Contrivances 



decided by the sword, pike, or baj^onet, which, no doubt/ 

 produce as great animosity and carnage now as weapons of 

 the same kind did formerly. At any rate, it is probable that 

 there is not a philosopher or a christian now in this king- 

 dom, who would object to any improvement in the art of 

 dispatching an invading Joe. Certain it is that our enemies, 

 even in the highest paroxysm of their rage for philanthropy 

 and fraternization, did not scruple to adopt the improve- 

 ment of great guns, by the late ingenious and learned pro- 

 fessor Anderson, of Glasgow, to which they owed many of 

 their victories. 



Whether Mr. Gillespie's new-invented batteries, by 

 means of which he engages to protect the whole British 

 coast with no more than twenty thousand men, may prove 

 as valuable a defensive expedient as Mr. Anderson's has 

 been a terrible oflenoive one, 1 pretend not to say. I have, 

 however, just seen a letter from Lieutenant General Hugh 

 Debbicg, colonel of the Royal Invalid Engineers, containing 

 his opinion of it : '* Though I cannot," says that profes- 

 sional gentleman, " altogether subscribe to the very exten- 

 sive application which Mr. Gillespie setims to think his ma- 

 chine may be put to, yet I am most firmly of opinion it may 

 be found of superior utility on many particular spots, and 

 on a great variety of occasions, and, as such, that it ought 

 to be adopted by His Majesty's servants. Ihave no manner 

 of hesitation in declaring my most ardent wishes that, for the 

 good of the King's service, such measures may be taken as 

 may prove e-fcctual in preventing him, with his model, 

 from going out of this country, to seek the well-earned re- 

 compense for an invention of such transcendant merit." 



If Lord Napier, it may be asked, made such discoveries, 

 liow came they to be neglected and forgotten ? The answer 

 has been anticipated : Napier himself neglected them, and 

 wished them to be forgotten. But it may be asked in return. 

 How came the inventions of the marquis of Worcester, one 

 hundred of which were publicly otfered to the Parliament, 

 and some of them tried and approved by many of its mem- 

 bers, suffered, after all, to be lost to the nation and to man- 

 kind ? Several of those inventions were, no doubt, more 

 surious than useful; but their value in the aggregate, may^ 

 in some measure, be estimated by considering how many me- 

 tallic veins, otherwise inaccessible, the steam engine (the 68th. 

 of the marquis's century) has converted into sources of em- 

 plovmcnt and wealth ; and how nmch has been saved in thti- 

 labour and m.-^intcnance of horses, since the ingenious- Mr^ 

 Watti of Glasgow, applied that engine a^ a moving power to» 



mactu-^ 



