“The question being put, ‘Whether this Bill, with the alterations and additions now read, shall pass?’
“It was resolved in the affirmative.”
On these three last occasions the Marquis was likewise present.
On the 12th of May[O] their Lordships, in their message,[P] by Sir William Child and Sir Toby Woolrich, to the House of Commons, acquainted them that they agreed to their alterations; and, on the 3rd of June, the royal assent was given to “An Act to enable the Marquis of Worcester to receive the benefit and profit of a Water-commanding Engine, by him invented, &c.”—in these words:—
“Soit fait come il est desiré.”
But the Marquis was not in attendance, as on former occasions, to watch the proceedings.
We have thus traced the progress of this remarkable Act through Parliament; from the 16th of March to the day of its receiving the royal assent on the 3rd of June. It will have been remarked that the Marquis was in constant attendance, and that it was his son who was deputed by the Commons, on the 3rd of May, to present the amended Bill to the Peers. It is impossible to imagine what might have been the feelings of the Marquis himself throughout the period of these prolonged proceedings, but he unquestionably had set his mind on this measure as the palladium of his inventive rights and the forerunner of brighter prospects.
In a memorandum relating to various grants, among others, occurs one to the Marquis of Worcester, thus noticed:—“March, 166¾. That by Act of Parliament his Invention of a Water-commanding Engine, granted him for ninety-nine years, one tenth reserved to the King. The King remitted the tenth to the Marquis upon a surrender of a Warrant dated at Oxford, 5th Jan. 20 Car. I. by which his then Majesty did grant the Marquis lands to the value of £40,000, in consideration of a debt due to the Marquis from his Majesty.”[Q][R]
The prospect of better days had now fairly set in; he had at least succeeded in securing his invention to himself and to his family after him, as a property in the value of which he felt unbounded confidence, roundly estimating it at not less than £400,000. Shortly after the passing of this Act he published his ever memorable and extremely curious and ingenious little work, entitled “A Century of the names and scantlings of Inventions.”[S]
It is dedicated to Charles the Second, and also to both Houses of Parliament; in addressing the latter he expresses himself as being—“by the Act of the Water-commanding Engine (which so cheerfully you have passed) sufficiently rewarded;” and as the work bears date on the title page, 1663, it must have been published after the passing of the Act, in May, that year. This edition, only duodecimo size, consisting of 98 pages, is now very scarce, but it has been frequently reprinted. This small volume was most likely only intended for private distribution, particularly among members of Parliament, and persons whose support might be solicited; for it is generally believed that a company was being organised for bringing the invention into public use.