dividual distinction and of national fame contained in that sanctuary which has been referred to in the resolution, there will be none, the justice and propriety of which the English public and the whole world will more willingly acknowledge, none that will be inscribed with a name to which Englishmen, in the natural spirit of national rivalry and pride, will more fondly point, than that which shall bear upon it the name of Watt; for never, hitherto, has there existed a country in the world, that could boast of having given birth to a man, who, by the sole force of his own philosophic genius, has conferred such benefit, not only upon his own country, but upon mankind at large, as have resulted from the inventions of Mr. Watt. Although the grand invention of the separate condenser in the Steam Engine may be dated so far back as sixty years ago, yet it was not till the year 1784 that its adaptation to rotatory machinery was perfected; and it is from that period we may trace all the great results that have followed to our country and to the world.

! I have been anxious to procure some data, on which to form an estimate of the probable number and power of the Steam Engines in this island; and I am assured, that the data on which M. Dupin has founded his calculations are nearly accurate. It is stated by him, that the amount or number of Steam Engines in England is somewhere about ten thousand. Taking these, on an average, to be equal to twenty horse power each, we have 200,000 horses acting together, for the total force employed

in manufactories, mines, &c. during a period of from ten to twenty-two hours each day. There must be at least from two to two and a half sets of horses kept to perform a work of this description, which would raise the total number equivalent to the ten thousand Steam Engines, to from four to five hundred thousand horses! The difference of cost between the coals consumed by these engines and the keep, &c. of the above number of horses, would amount to above fifteen millions of pounds sterling annually. And, if this calculation was carried farther, so as to set before you an idea of the annual saving in human labour through the medium of these 10,000 Steam Engines, the result would be so prodigious as to be hardly credible to any one. My Lord, as the representative of that county which witnessed the earliest and most extensive application of Mr. Watt's invention, it has frequently occurred to me to reflect on the prodigious change which, in a few years, almost within my own memory, has been wrought on the face of that country. By the agency of Mr. Watt's inventions, minerals have been raised with a facility and in an abundance adequate to the supply of every part of the world; by the power of Mr. Watt's mind, lands which had lain waste, or were occupied by a solitary tenantry, have been covered with towns, daily extending their limits, and uniting with each other, and the whole face of the country is seen glowing with industry, intelligence, and wealth. Surely, then, it is due that we should take some public step to record our gratitude for

such services. Had Mr. Watt been living, such a measure, gentlemen, would have been unnecessary. You have heard from those who had the happiness of his personal acquaintance, that in his manner and habits of life he was one of the simplest of men. Equally devoid of ostentation and of jealousy, he was, in all the affections of the heart, one of the kindest and most philanthropic of his kind. He ambitioned no other monument than that which his own genius had created;-he aimed at no other reward than the consciousness that no man in former times had promoted to an equal extent the wealth and power of his country, or contributed so largely to improve the condition of his fellow-men. But we have a duty to discharge. We owe it to his son, to his relatives, to his friends, above all, we owe it to ourselves, that we should unite in recording our sense of the inestimable value of the benefits we have received from him. It is incumbent upon us as a nation, to proclaim to the world that it is in the production of such characters that we place our chief pride. I beg leave, my Lord, to second the Resolution.

THE RIGHT HON. MR. SECRETARY PEEL.-Although, gentlemen, no one feels more strongly than I do, that so far as human intellect can do justice to the merits of Mr. Watt, that justice has been done, and that it is perfectly hopeless in any one, and perhaps presumptuous, to attempt to add to what has fallen from those who have addressed this assembly, yet, I trust, from the peculiarity of my situation, I may be heard for a few

moments. I say the peculiarity of my situation, because I differ from those who have preceded me, in this respect, that I belong to that very numerous class of persons who have derived a direct personal benefit from the important discoveries of Mr. Watt. Gentlemen, I am one of those who derive all that they possess of worldly prosperity from the honest industry of others; and that man must have a base and ungenerous mind, who, upon such an occasion as this, (such an awful and affecting occasion), could refuse to acknowledge his origin and his obligations, with any other feelings than those of satisfaction and pride.

The branch of industry of which I am particularly speaking, is that fruitful source of our national wealth, the cotton manufacture of this country.

That manufacture, important as it was before, received new life and spirit from the discoveries of Mr. Watt.

I believe that it was in the year 1790 that the first Steam Engine, which applied a rotative power to machinery, was erected in the town of Manchester.

Before that period, the cotton manufacture had been chiefly carried on in remote, and, comparatively speaking, inaccessible places.

It was dependent for its support either upon animal power, or upon unassisted nature; but the inventions of Mr. Watt gave it an energy, which effected a complete revolution in the trade. was transferred, from wild and thinly inhabited

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districts, to the centre of population and industry. Each branch of the trade, which before had been separately carried on, is now brought together; and so perfect is the combination, that I understand it is possible to see within the same room, and in an inconceivably short space of time, every process conducted, by which the raw produce is transformed into the most beautiful fabric that adorns the female form.

When I recollect what has taken place in that county since the year 1790, in the short space of thirty years, when I look at the individual fortunes that have been made,-the new towns that have sprung into existence,-the thousands of human beings that have been born, who, but for the discoveries of Mr. Watt, would never have seen the light, I am lost in admiration, not so much of the powers of mind of Mr. Watt, as of the dignity of human nature, which is ennobled by discoveries like these, that give subsistence to thousands, while they widen the limits and add to the strength of the empire.

It is, therefore, my Lord, with the most heartfelt satisfaction that I give my warmest support to the proposition for erecting a Monument to the memory of so great a man. I feel an obligation to him from higher considerations, than those of the wealth to which he may have contributed. I feel the class of society from which I derive my origin, exalted and honoured, by possessing such a man among its ranks.