don,
where he could receive better instruction than it was possible to obtain
in Scotland at that time. The kind Professor, diviner of latent genius,
went so far as to give him a personal introduction, which proved
efficient. How true it is that the worthy, aspiring youth rarely goes
unrecognised or unaided. Men with kind hearts, wise heads, and influence
strong to aid, stand ready at every turn to take modest merit by the
hand and give it the only aid needed, opportunity to speak, through
results, for itself. So London was determined upon. Fortunately, a
distant relative of the Watt family, a sea-captain, was about to set
forth upon that then long and toilsome journey. They started from
Glasgow June 7, 1755, on horseback, the journey taking twelve days.

The writer's parents often referred to the fact that when the leading
linen manufacturer of Dunfermline was about to take the journey to
London--the only man in the town then who ever did--special prayers were
always said in church for his safety.

The member of Parliament in Watt's day from the extreme north of
Scotland would have consumed nearly twice twelve days to reach
Westminster. To-day if the capital of the English-speaking race were in
America, which Lord Roseberry says he is willing it should be, if
thereby the union of our English-speaking race were secured, the members
of the Great Council from Britain could reach Washington in seven days,
the members from British Columbia and California, upon the Pacific, in
five days, both land and sea routes soon to be much quickened.

Those sanguine prophets who predict the reunion of our race on both
sides of the Atlantic can at least aver that in view of the union of
Scotland and England, the element of time required to traverse distances
to and from the capital is no obstacle, since the most distant points of
the new empire, Britain in the east and British Columbia and California
in the west, would be reached in less than one-third the time required
to travel from the north of Scotland to London at the time of the union.
Besides, the telegraph to-day binds the parts together, keeping all
citizens informed, and stirring their hearts simultaneously thousands of
miles apart--Glasgow to London, 1755, twelve days; 1905, eight hours.
Thus under the genius Steam, tamed and harnessed by Watt, the world
shrinks into a neighborhood, giving some countenance to the dreamers who
may perchance be proclaiming a coming reality. We