257 



of bitter disappointment. Where a question has once been disposed 

 of, succeeding Governments rarely reopen it ; still I thought I should 

 not be doing my duty if I did not take some opportunity of bring- 

 ing the facts once more before Government. Circumstances had 

 changed, mechanical engineering had made much progress, the tools 

 required and trained workmen were to be found in the workshops 

 of the leading mechanists, the founder's art was so advanced that 

 casting had been substituted for cutting in making the change 

 wheels even of screw-cutting engines, and therefore it was very 

 probable that persons would be found willing to undertake to com- 

 plete the Difference Engine for a specific sum. 



That finished, the question would then have arisen, how far it 

 was advisable to endeavour, by the same means, to turn to account 

 the great labour which had been expended under the guidance of 

 inventive powers the most original, controlled by mathematics of a 

 very high order ; and which had been wholly devoted for so many 

 years to the great task of carrying the powers of calculating machi- 

 nery to its utmost limits. Before I took any step, I wrote to several 

 very eminent men of science, inquiring whether in their opinion any 

 great scientific object would be gained, if Mr. Babbage's views, as 

 explained in Menabrea's little essay, were completely realized. The 

 answers I received were strongly in the affirmative. As it was 

 necessary the subject should be laid before Government in a form 

 as practical as possible, I wrote to one of our most eminent 

 mechanical engineers to inquire whether I should be safe in stating 

 to Government that the expense of the Calculating Engine had 

 been more than repaid in the improvements in mechanism directly 

 referable to it : he replied, unquestionably. Fortified by these 

 opinions I submitted this proposition to Government : that they 

 should call upon the President of the Society of Civil Engineers to 

 report whether it would be practicable to make a contract for the 

 completion of Mr. Babbage's Difference Engine, and if so, for what 

 sum. This was in 1852, during the short administration of Lord 

 Derby, and it led to no result. The time was unfortunate, a great 

 political contest was impending, and before there was a lull in 

 politics, so that the voice of Science could be heard, Lord Derby's 

 government was at an end. 



