ESTIMATION OF WATT’S MERITS. 461 
said: “The genius exerted by Watt in his admirable 
inventions, has contributed more to show the practical 
utility of science, to enlarge the power of man over the 
material world, to multiply and to spread the conven- 
iences of life, than the efforts of any other man of mod- 
ern times.” Finally, Davy does not hesitate to place 
Watt above Archimedes! 
Then Huskisson, Minister of the Board of Trade, 
divesting himself for a moment of the character (qualité) 
of an Englishman (?), proclaims, that compared in their 
bearings on the happiness of the whole human species, 
Watt’s inventions would still appear to him to deserve 
the highest admiration. He explains in what manner 
the economy of labour, the indefinite multiplication and 
cheapness of industrial products, contribute to excite and 
to spread knowledge. He said: “The steam-engine 
is not only, in the hands of man, the most powerful 
instrument they use to alter the face of the physical 
world ; it acts also as a moral and irresistible lever for 
pushing on the great cause of civilization.” 
From this point of view, Watt appeared to him ina 
distinguished rank among the benefactors of humanity. 
As an Englishman he does not hesitate to say that with- 
out Watt’s creations the British nation could not have 
stood the immense expenses of its recent war with 
France. 
The same idea may be observed in the discourse of 
another member of Parliament, in that of Sir James 
Mackintosh: see whether he expresses himself in less 
positive terms. “It was the inventions of Watt that 
enabled England to sustain the severest, the most dan- 
gerous conflicts that she was ever engaged in.” Every- 
thing considered, Mackintosh declares, without hesitation, 
