fellow-citizens of Glasgow, and try to rouse the leading gentlemen of all parties in politics and religion (for Bell is our common benefactor) to make an appeal to government or to parliament in his behalf. I shall speak right on as I think. Truth and justice shall be my guide. I have yet no personal acquaintance with Mr. Bell. I have studied his history, and gleaned information of his patriotic worth, which I now feel it my bounden duty to lay before the public, and I hope Whig, Tory, and Radical, will aid in the undertaking. I believe they will.

"Gentlemen of Glasgow!—How long will you keep silence on this subject? You see your noble river studded with beautiful fireimpelled vessels, which glide away with the swiftness of the swallow-cutting through the wave, against tide and wind, and carrying you in safety and comfort to those sweet watering-places which adorn the frith of this Queen of Scottish rivers! And to Mr. Bell we owe these wondrous barques. From his Comet they all spring. Let a public meeting

be immediately called. Let some of our ingenious, and influential citizens, come forward, and let a memorial be drawn up, expressive, and comprehensive, which shall embody Mr. Bell's claims for a grant from parliament. Where is there a man in our nation who more deserves this than the planner of the Comet? What has he done for his country and for mankind! He has united our nation with all lands. The winds and tides are now no obstruction. The steamer bolts away; and thus Heaven has opened the gates of intercourse, by the instrumentality of these firedriven ships, which will speedily work wonders through the world, and spread knowledge, science, literature, civilisation, far as the dwellings of humanity reach, and religion will follow in their train.

"Steam-boat proprietors of Glasgow, and engineers and builders of these magnificent barques, whose speed and strength have outstripped the dreams of poetry! you are emphatically Bell's debtors, and I doubt not will aid him in his intended application to government. A captain of one of the Clyde

steamers told me some time ago, that the proprietors of the steam-boats offered Mr. Bell the proceeds of a day's sailing of all the boats on the river, and this annually, which he refused to accept. I think he did right. It was kind in them to offer this; but Mr. Bell looks to his government for reward. A boon from head quarters is what he richly merits, and will yet wait with hope that the British government will take up his case; with the determination to return him something for all that he has done for us, and not wait till his death, and then aid in the solemn farce of erecting a monument to the memory of one whom they neglected while he was amongst them, thereby displaying the humanity of Sterne, who wept over a dead ass, and allowed his own mother to pine away for want of bread!

I am, Mr. Editor, respectfully, yours, "E. MORRIS."

The Glasgow press took a generous and a manly interest in Bell's case, and these letters were copied into the Edinburgh and

Liverpool newspapers, with friendly comments by the editors and their correspondents; which, as far as the press could aid the cause, excited a strong hope of success when the application should be made in London. As we have before mentioned, upwards of thirty-five towns and counties backed Mr. Bell's application; Glasgow taking the lead in this just and patriotic measure, in behalf of that ingenious and persevering man, who had expended his own property, and broken down a vigorous constitution in the triumphant introduction of that great and magnificent scheme, which had for years employed the minds of our most gifted mechanics and philosophers, from the days of Jonathan Hulls, to the period when the Comet commenced her career, which will carry its owner's name and fame into every nation where steam navigation shall be established. Towards the end of September, 1826, I wrote a short letter to Mr. Bell, requesting him to draw up at his leisure an account of his own life, the date and place of his birth, his parents, his education, the date of his steam experi

ments, &c. which statement I wished to incorporate in my conclusion of the series of letters in his behalf, which had then made a deep impression on the minds of the citizens of Glasgow. In a short time, I received the following answer from my esteemed friend, to which I solicit the attention of my readers.

"HELENSBURGH, Oct. 1826.

"DEAR SIR,-I duly received yours of 22d Sept. 1826, to which I give the following answer. In giving you a short account of my birth, it is necessary to give some account of my ancestors; they being all mechanics, in the millwright line. I sprang from the Bells of Evan Water. I was the fifth son of Patrick

Bell and Margaret Easton. The Bells, as millwrights, were known, not only in Scotland, but in England and Ireland; and my mother's friends were equally well known as builders. Some of their productions were the Carron works, the first part of the Forth and Clyde navigation, and the contract of Leith wet docks. Their relations as resident engineers or inspectors under Thomas Telford,

B