PROLONGATION OF THE PATENT. 397 
friends applied to Parliament for a prolongation of privi- 
lege; since Watt’s Patent, dated 1769, had only a few 
more years to run. The bill gave rise to the most 
animated discussion. The celebrated mechanic wrote as 
follows to his aged father: “This business could not be 
carried on without great expense and anxiety. With- 
out the aid of some warm-hearted friends, we should not 
have succeeded, for several of the most powerful people 
in the House of Commons were opposed to us.” It 
seemed to me interesting to search out to what class of 
society these Parliamentary persons belonged, to whom 
Watt alluded, and who refused to the man of genius a 
small portion of the riches that he was about to create. 
Judge of my surprise, when I found the celebrated 
Burke at their head! Is it possible then that men may 
devote themselves to deep studies, possess knowledge 
and probity, exercise to an eminent degree oratorical 
powers that move the feelings, and influence political 
assemblies, yet sometimes be deficient in plain common 
sense? Now, however, owing to the wise and important 
modifications introduced by Lord Brougham in the laws 
relative to patents, inventors will no longer have to 
undergo the annoyances with which Watt was teased. 
As soon as Parliament had granted a prolongation of 
twenty-five years to Watt’s patent, he and Boulton 
together began the establishments at Soho, which have 
The economy and correctness of this great work rendered counter- 
feiting almost impossible. The numerous executions with which the 
towns of London and Birmingham had been annually afflicted till 
then, entirely ceased. It was on this occasion that Dr. Darwin ex- 
claimed in his Botanical Garden, “If at Rome a civic crown was 
awarded to those who had saved the life of a single fellow-citizen, did 
not Boulton deserve to be covered with crowns of oak by us?” 
Mr. Boulton died in 1809, at the age of eighty-one years. 
