892 



WATSON WATT. 



hop of Canterbury a letter containing a project for 

 equalizing the value of church benefices. In 1785, 

 he published a valuable collection of Theological 

 Tracts, selected from various authors, with addi- 

 tions, in 6 vols., 8vo. The following year, he re- 

 ceived a large addition to his income by the bequest 

 of a valuable estate from Mr Luther of Ongar, in 

 Essex, who had been one of his pupils at Cambridge. 

 During the illness of the king, in 1788, bishop 

 >n, in a speech in the house of lords, strongly 

 defended the right of the prince of Wales to the re- 

 gency, in opposition to the doctrine maintained by 

 Mr Pitt. In 1796, the bishop appeared a second 

 time as the defender of revealed religion, in his 

 Apology for the Bible, designed as an answer to 

 Paine's Age of Reason. In 1798, he published an 

 Address to the People of Great Britain, on the 

 danger which threatened that country, from the 

 influence of those principles which had occasioned 

 the revolution in France. Gilbert Wakefield, hav- 

 ing published a reply to this address, was prosecuted 

 for sedition, and sentenced to imprisonment ; but 

 in the proceedings against him, bishop Watson took 

 no part whatsoever. He always continued to be 

 the advocate for liberality, both in politics and re- 

 ligion : but his fears from the ascendency of French 

 principles were strongly expressed in a publication 

 under the title of the Substance of a Speech in- 

 tended to have been spoken in the House of Lords, 

 November 22, 1803. The latter part of his life 

 was chiefly spent in retirement at Calgarth park, 

 situated near the lakes of his native county, where 

 he amused himself with making extensive planta- 

 tions of timber-trees. He died at that place, July 

 4, 1816. Besides the works already mentioned, he 

 published several papers in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions; Sermons, and Theological Essays; and 

 after his death, his autobiographical memoirs were 

 edited by his son. 



WATSON, ROBERT, LL.D., a native of St 

 Andrew's, in Scotland, studied at the university 

 there, and afterwards at Glasgow and Edinburgh, 

 adopted the ecclesiastical profession, and became a 

 preacher. After having delivered lectures on rhe- 

 toric and the principles of composition, at Edin- 

 burgh, he obtained the professorship of logic at St 

 Andrew's, to which was added, by royal patent, 

 that of rhetoric and the belles lettres. On the 

 death of the principal, doctor Watson succeeded 

 him, but died in 1780. He published the History 

 of Philip II. of Spain, (2 vols., 1777), and under- 

 took the History of Philip III., which, being left 

 imperfect at his death, was completed and publish- 

 ed by doctor William Thomson (1783.) 



WATT, JAMES, the celebrated improver of the 

 steam engine, was born at Greenock, in 1736. 

 His father was a respectable merchant and magis- 

 trate of that town, and James received a good edu- 

 cation in its public schools. He had a delicate 

 constitution, and very soon displayed the same love 

 of retirement and study which was visible in all 

 his after life. Even before he left school, he felt 

 a strong liking for the mechanic arts, and appears 

 to have selected a profession for himself. At the 

 age of eighteen, he repaired to London, and there 

 received instruction for about a year from an emi- 

 nent mathematical instrument maker. At that 

 time ill health compelled him to return to Green- 

 ock ; and he afterwards pursued his studies and his 

 occupations without more instruction. . His pro- 

 gress was, nevertheless, extremely rapid, and he 

 soon acquired so much skill and reputation, that 



in the year 1757, and in the twenty-first year of 

 his age, he was appointed mathematical instrument 

 maker to the University of Glasgow. He had 

 apartments given him in the College, where he 

 remained till 1763, when be removed into the 

 town, previous to his marriage, which took place 

 in the following year. 



From this time, till 1774, he acted as a civil engin- 

 eer made several surveys for canals and harbours, 

 and some of his plans were afterwards carried into 

 execution. It was during these ten years, that he 

 thought of, and completed most of his improvements 

 of the steam engine ; but it was not till the year 

 1774, that he united himself with Mr Boulton, a 

 great manufacturer at Birmingham, in order to 

 carry his improvements into execution. In conse- 

 quence of this, he removed to Soho, near Birming- 

 ham, where he continued to reside till his death, 

 which took place in his eighty-fourth year, at his 

 seat of Heathfield, on August 25th, 1819. 



Mr Watt was twice married ; first, in 1764, to 

 his maternal cousin, Miss Miller, who died in 1773, 

 leaving a daughter and a son ; and, secondly, after 

 removing to Birmingham, to Miss MacGregor of 

 Glasgow, by whom he had two children, who both 

 died in their infancy. He had also the misfortune 

 to see his daughter, by Miss Miller, go before him 

 to the grave, though not till she had given him two 

 grand children. His son was long associated with 

 him in his business and his studies, and engaged in 

 partnership with the son of Mr Boulton, at the 

 head of that establishment at Soho, near Birming- 

 ham, which their fathers formed, and which is at 

 present known to all Europe. 



Mr Watt was a fellow of the Royal Societies 

 I both of London and Edinburgh, and one of the 

 few natives of this country who have been elected 

 members of the National Institute of France. 



The improvements which Mr Watt made on the 

 steam engine were so great as to give it almost a 

 new form. " It was by his inventions," says Lord 

 i Jeffrey, " that its action was so regulated as to 

 ; make it capable of being applied to the finest and 

 j most delicate manufactures, and its power so in- 

 creased as to set weight and solidity at defiance 

 that it has become a thing stupendous alike for its 

 force and its flexibility for the prodigious power 

 it can exert, and for the ease, precision, and dex- 

 terity with which this power can be varied, distri- 

 buted, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that 

 can pick up a pin, or rend an oak, is nothing to it. 

 It can engrave a seal and crush masses of obdurate 

 j metal like wax draw out, without breaking, a thread 

 as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bub- 

 ble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge 

 anchors, cut steel into ribbons, and impel loaded 

 I vessels against the fury of the waves." " Our 

 improved steam engine, continues the same writer, 

 ; fought the battles of Europe, and now enables us to 

 pay the interest of our debt, and to maintain the 

 arduous struggle in which we are still engaged with 

 the skill and capital of countries less oppressed 

 with taxation. But these are poor and narrow 

 views of its importance. It has increased indefi- 

 nitely the mass of human comforts and enjoyments 

 has armed the feeble hand of man with a power 

 to which no limits can be assigned, and completed 

 I the dominion of mind over the most refractory 

 ' qualities of matter. The blessing is not only uni- 

 1 versal but unbounded ; and the fabled inventors of 

 the plough and the loom, who were deified by the 

 erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, con- 



