[3] There is scarcely to be found on record, a more enthusiastic instance of loyalty and self-devotion than was exhibited by his lordship on this occasion; for with the damning proofs which he then possessed of his Majesty's complete concurrence and participation in the whole matter, there could not for an instant have been a doubt of his own honourable acquittal. There was also a certain assurance of procuring the favour of the Parliament: who required nothing more than these documents to colour the proceedings they were then meditating, and which, indeed, afterwards formed one of the principal charges against this ill-fated monarch.
[4] Lord Orford describes this bill to have passed on the "simple affirmation of the discovery that he (the Marquis) had made;" but his lordship's palpable want of candour in this statement will be apparent when it is known that there were no less than seven meetings of committees on the subject, composed of some of the most learned men in the house, who, after considerable amendments, finally passed it on the 12th of May.—Vide, Journals of the Lords and Commons for 1663-4.
[5] A popular author, to one of whose mistatements we alluded in a preceding note, describes the Marquis as "a fantastic projector," and his "Century as an amazing piece of folly." Having however, in the notes appended to this work, fully demonstrated not only the practicability of applying the major part of the inventions there described, but the absolute application of many of them, though under other names, to some of the most useful purposes of life; we shall leave it to the public to judge, whether the man who first discovered a mode of applying steam as a mechanical agent, an invention alone sufficient to immortalize the age in which he lived, deserves the name of a fantastic projector.
The second edition of the "Century" was published in 1746; the third in 1767: while the fourth, which may be considered as the best edition, is a reprint from the first, and is furnished with an appendix "containing an Historical Account of the Fire Engine for Raising Water." It is dated Kyo, near Lancaster, June 18, 1778. The fifth is a reprint from the Glasgow copy, "by W. Bailey, Proprietor of the Speaking Figure, now showing, by permission of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, at No. 42, within Bishopsgate," 1786. The sixth edition was confined to 100 copies, and dated London 1813.
[6] The above Letter, as appears by the envelope, was directed to his Grace the Duke of Albermarle.
[7] Charles V., after his abdication, retired to the monastery of St. Justus, in Estramadura, where he amused himself, during the latter period of his life, in the making of automatons, in which he was assisted by a very ingenious artist named Turriano.
[8] History of Inventions, vol. iii. p. 326.
[9] Vide Historical and Descriptive Account of the Steam-engine, by C. F. Partington, p. 6.
[10] Since writing the above, the Editor has seen a report on Mr. Brown's engine by Professor Millington, in which it is distinctly stated that the apparatus is fully adapted to the purpose for which it is intended.
[11] Vide Historical Account of the Steam-engine, by C. F. Partington.