turned to so good account in the new. Studiously concealing his previous experience of its success, the honour of the invention was a bait too tempting to be refused: he eagerly grasped at it, and showed his gratitude for Symington's liberality, by depriving him of the merit of the discovery. We cannot then acknowledge, upon such evidence, Fulton's claim to the title given him by Judge Story, and by every class in America-"illustrious inventor of the steam boat." Whilst public feeling and gratitude towards Fulton have been so warmly displayed in America, I have found no notice of Symington's exertions and claims, but of the slightest and coldest description. It does not seem consistent with the genius and feelings of the English, to pronounce public panegyrics in memory of the great men who have deserved well of their country. The exceptions are rare. The absence of all sentiment of this nature may be considered characteristic of the nation, since we trace this interesting and solemn custom in the history of almost every country, from the eloquent funeral orations of the Greeks and Romans, to the fervent recapitulation by the wild Indian, of the good qualities of his chief, departed to the hunting-grounds of the Great Spirit. 1831. The following extract from an anonymous pamphlet published this year, called "An Account of the Origin of Steam Boats,"* &c., will show the great progression of Steam Navigation within the last eight years, and the erroneous impression of its capabilities, even so recently as 1831. "Experience has shown, that the space required for an engine and machinery, occupy too much of a vessel to leave enough for the profitable con *The only work I have seen on the subject, but too imperfect for authority, and at variance with this pamphlet. veyance of cargo, either as to tonnage or distance, to 1832. The "Alburkah," of 60 tons and 15-horse power, built by Messrs. Laird, for river navigation, for the African expedition, the first iron steamer that went to sea. The "Garryowen," of 100-horse power, built at the suggestion of Mr. C. W. Williams, for the City of Dublin Steam Navigation Company, the first regular sea-going iron steamer. This substitution of material seems destined to form an era in steam navigation. 1838. The "Sirius" commenced the first steam voyage from the Old to the New World, on the 28th of March. The "Great Western" started on her first voyage to New York, on the 8th of April, and made the passage in fifteen days four hours. 1839. The "British Queen" left on her first voyage to New York, on the 10th of July. We see at a glance, by the above, the slow growth of Steam Navigation, and how it has gradually crept on to maturity, overcoming all difficulties and discouragements. We examine with eager interest the earliest struggles of a mighty power in its infancy. We trace it when, as a mere matter of speculative science, it first attracted the slight and careless notice of the Society of the Royal Institution in the old country, and the still more contemptuous investigation and unfavourable report of the Philosophical Society in the We witness now, with surprise, its long and unaccount new. able neglect; the confident incredulity expressed respecting its generally useful and profitable employment, even when its practicability had been established. Steadily progressing with irresistible strength, we find it at last become the object of careful and repeated legislative enactment; and we go back again a few years to compare, somewhat incredulous at the contrast, the first feeble efforts of a power to move four tons, with its present employment to drive across the ocean, in opposition to the storms that sweep over the Atlantic, a vessel exceeding in size the largest man of war in the British Navy, compelling the very waters which she rules so triumphantly, to yield the means by which she holds them in subjection. By this example of the extreme ridicule with which a singularly useful and successful discovery was received in its progress, we are taught the folly of despising what is new. Scotland took the lead from Symington, and taught Fulton, who carried it to America. From America it naturally spread, by contiguity, to the adjoining British Plantations; and thence returned to Scotland, to complete what she had begun. Obtaining, at length, an uncertain footing in England, in 1813, it was still eight years before she roused herself from her singular apathy; when, taking it in hand in earnest, with that steady perseverance which has ever distinguished the individual efforts of her people, and the united energies of the country, in peace or war, she speedily equalled all competitors. She now rivals any State in numbers, and surpasses all nations in the grandeur and power of her steamers. The British, in Quebec, displayed considerable enterprise by their example to the mother country, in building, so early as 1814, a steamer of the size of 387 tons. But the chief merit is due to Scotland. She may indeed rest content for the next hundred years, with her contribution of talent to the great authors and great men, who will for ever render memorable the end of the last century. There is no parallel in history, but that period when Rome held within her city, at the same time, the great cotemporaries, Cæsar, Pompey, Cato, Brutus, Livy, Horace, Virgil, and many stars of lesser magnitude. Since that brilliant constellation, no country can boast of having given to the world, within the same space of time, a Hume, a Robertson, a Scott, a Watt, and a Symington: the two first historians surpassed, in modern times, only by Gibbon; the third, the great magician, evoking and commanding like another Prospero, and the "dainty Ariel,” the passions and feelings of all times, unequalled even by Shakspeare, in the universality of the enjoyment he creates; and the two last, giving not the mere, though mighty, impulse to matter in manufactures and civilization, but acting upon mind, by rousing mechanical ingenuity, and the peaceful arts, from the doze of centuries; and by the stimulus, thus thrown out, exciting the power of intellect to keep up the momentum, and increase its progression. Thus has that little speck in the waters, sent forth the master spirits to move nations, whose works influence the present, and shall be felt by generations yet unborn. In Steam Navigation, however, as in most other important inventions in this country, all is the result of individual enterprise. Government neither did anything to encourage and protect the infant power, nor has rewarded the individual who first showed the country its use and advantages. Looking at the table with our present knowledge, we feel surprised, not so much that the application of steam to navigation should have remained so long undiscovered, but, that once proved practicable, its progress should have been so slow. It is no less remarkable, that it was not investigated by some of the great men of that period, whose names are more familiar to science. But, like many other discoveries, it was received but coldly, and none anticipated, from its dawn, the surprising results that have rendered it second in importance only to the mariner's compass. That it was not of easy achievement, may be best estimated by the length of time, and the many miscarriages that attended its accomplishment. The difficulties of all great undertakings may be so ascertained. The part Symington took in its origin only requires to be known, to associate his name with the illustrious men with which the latter end of the last century abounded. The advocates of Fulton and Bell's pretensions to the original invention of steam navigation-for as to Taylor, he is a mere "nominis umbra"-may think this pamphlet wanting, for not dwelling at greater length on their respective merits, and showing more fully the share, I have already shown, they had in its introduction. I have only not done so, because my chief object was to find and fix permanently the real inventor; to trace a complicated river to its much disputed head, careless, to a great degree, of those little branches which only distract attention, and, if followed far, divert from the true course, leaving but little time and energy to seek its origin with the confident assurance of accuracy. However large those branches may become, and however fertilizing in their results, they are but offsets, deriving their own existence from a higher source, which if it had not been, themselves would probably never have attracted attention. I have shown that the true spring was not in America, but, taking its rise from Symington, in the old country, it flowed, through Fulton, to the new. From what has been stated in these pages, the question may be thus shortly summed up:— Hulls first suggested Steam Navigation in 1736, at a time when it was impossible, with the then state of the engine, to make it generally useful. Symington, with equal originality, not only suggested it in 1788, but, having invented a new construction of the steam engine, adequate to produce the intended effect, constructed it, applied it, and proved the practicability of his invention in that year, and in 1789. (See Fig. 2.) Mr. Miller |