Steam Navigation, 309 



sible to convince any of them that steamboats could be 

 made to run with safety and profit in the EngHsh waters. 

 The general reply was, " We don't doubt the success of 

 steamboats in the large American rivers and inlets from 

 the sea, but they will never answer in our (comparatively) 

 small rivers and crowded harbours." 



* Many of my personal friends urged me strongly not 

 to waste my time and money on so hopeless a task as that 

 of introducing steam navigation into England. Even the 

 great and scientific engineer, John Rennie (father of the 

 present eminent Sir John Rennie), urged me, with pa- 

 rental kindness, to drop all thoughts of bringing these 

 boats into use — and this after having Fulton's plans before 

 him, and fully admitting their success in America. Thus 

 we see how difficult it is to make even great men move in 

 any path before the destined time. Our late distinguished 

 townsman, Peter Ewart, Vice-President of this Society, 

 dissuaded me, as a personal friend, from trying to introduce 

 steamboats into England, saying that " he knew of the 

 trials made here without success, as also of those in America 

 which were successful ; but it did not appear likely that they 

 could ever come into general use in the waters of England." 

 This opinion of Mr. Ewart was expressed in the spring of 

 1 8 14, just a year before the " Margery " was passed through 

 the canal from the Clyde to the Forth, to make her first 

 voyage in the English waters, as before stated. Mr. 

 Ewart was fully informed of the nature and the results 

 of the trials of the small boat constructed by John Bell, 

 and run a short time, in the autumn of 1813 and the 

 spring of 18 14, on the Clyde and Forth before she was 

 finally discontinued as a failure, which experiment had 

 no tendency to convince him, any more than other 



