54:6 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
the device was completely successful, but also to exhibit the ex- 
traordinary talent of the inventor in such a light as to convince 
scientific men that in his hands the astounding problem of con- 
structing the second was capable of solution. A paltry economy 
of the Treasury prevented the completion of the first engine, and 
made it obvious to Babbage that there was no hope of assistance 
from G-overnment to construct the second. Yet it has been allowed 
by the best authorities that the money spent on the finished por- 
tion of the difference-engine was far more than repaid to the 
country by the extraordinary improvement in tools of every kind, 
which was required for the new engine, and was at once supplied 
by the fertile, inventive brain of Babbage as the work proceeded. 
“ No one can read the obviously true story of this miserable 
affair, as it appears in the strange autobiography of Babbage — his 
‘ Passages from the Life of a Philosopher’ — without a blush for 
the short-sightedness of British rulers. Had Babbage been a 
Frenchman or Russian, had he even belonged to the then poor 
kingdom of Prussia, do we not all feel assured that these grand 
conceptions of his would long ere now have been realised as power- 
ful agents in the working world, instead of lying dormant, in mould- 
ering, worm-eaten plans and sections. 
“ Strange the contrast between the careers of these early friends ! 
They began, indeed, by a grand joint success, for which alone their 
memory will always be justly cherished. But while the one, 
encouraged, yet never unduly elated, by success, steadily at work, 
though not of late years brilliantly, ended a long and happy life, 
every day of which had added its share to his scientific services; 
the other, enraged by the petty persecutions of men unable to 
understand scientific merit, or even its mere pecuniary value, 
spending lavishly from his private fortune to be enabled to leave 
to some possibly enlightened posterity a complete record of the 
working details for the construction of his splendid inventions, 
was never understood by his countrymen. 
“ But so it has ever been in this country. Herschel’s father was 
a German ; so of course we could appreciate him. Babbage was an 
Englishman; the only person who took the trouble to understand 
his invention was a foreigner, the skilful mathematician Menabrea, 
ex-minister of Victor Emmanuel.” 
