MR. J. C. DYER ON STEAM NAVIGATION. 293 



spring of 1814^ jast 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 

 18 1 3 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 English engineers, of the practical utility of 

 steam navigation in English waters. In that year (18 14) 

 I lent Mr. Ewart Fulton's specifications and drawings, 

 which were sent by him to Boulton and Watt, and re- 

 turned to me about six months after. I have reason to 

 believe that that eminent house was led thereby to make 

 further and more exact inquiries concerning the progress 

 of steam navigation in America ; for they, as well as several 

 other engineers, commenced building steam-boats in 18 15 

 and 18 16, since which time the progress of steam naviga- 

 tion has been marvellous for the perfection and the exten- 

 sion of British-built steamers both for inland navigation 

 and, finally, for traversing alike the narrow seas and " the 

 broad oceans that belt the globe.'' 



The engineering talent, the mechanical skill, and the 

 active enterprise that abounded in England had created 

 a self-reliance which seemed to forbid the direction of 

 either into other channels than those marked out at home. 

 Her most gifted men were satisfied with the progress of 

 knowledge within the realm. National intercourse was 

 then both irregular and sluggish ; so that peoples were to 

 each other real strangers, and much given to mutual jea- 

 lousies. These recollections serve to explain the fact that 

 eight years had passed away from the time when the 

 waters of the Hudson were first agitated by the paddles 

 of the ' Claremont,' and when over 5000 tons had been 



