, was able to speak of the engine in more
approving terms than he could adopt in his official capacity. "I need
hardly say," he wrote on the 6th of September, 1842, "that the report of
continued success in your rotatory engine gives me great pleasure, not
only upon your own account, but as promising a valuable addition to our
naval power in its application to ships of war. As a high-pressure
engine, the complete success of your plan has, I believe, been
recognised by all who have attended to it, and it is in this form that I
had contemplated its application in the first instance as an auxiliary
and occasional power in some ships of war."

At length, though not with all the energy that he desired, Lord
Dundonald's engine was put to the test by the Admiralty during the Earl
of Haddington's tenure of office in that department. In May, 1842, he
was invited by the new First Lord, who, in common with all the world,
was aware of the zeal and intelligence with which he had devoted himself
to the consideration of every branch of naval science, to communicate
his opinions thereupon. The first result of this invitation was a letter
showing remarkable discernment of evils then existing, and curiously
anticipating some later efforts to correct them.

"The slow progress," wrote Lord Dundonald, on the 7th of June, "which
the naval service has made towards its present ameliorated state--yet
far from perfection--has not permitted any one Board of Admiralty in my
time to stand pre-eminently distinguished for decisive improvements.
These have rather been effected by the gradual changes which time
occasions, or by following the example of America, or even of France,
than by encouraging efforts of native genius. This has arisen from
causes easily remedied; one of which is, that the rejection or adoption
of proffered improvements has depended on the decision of several
authorities, who consequently feel little individual responsibility, and
imagine themselves liable to censure only for a change of system. Thus,
my lord, a still heavier responsibility has, in fact, been incurred by
continuing, long after the most superficial observation demanded a
change, to construct small ships of the line, and little frigates, which
the great practical skill and bravery of our countrymen were taxed to
defend against the powerful eighty-gun ships of France and the large
frigates of America. This timidity as to change caused many years to
elapse, after the