luence upon the improved mechanism of our
own generation.

To him must be attributed no slight share in the revolution that has
been effected in the materials for naval warfare. Of the superiority of
steamers to war-ships, he was one of the first advocates. His own
rotatory engine was never extensively adopted, and was superseded by
other engines which, lacking the great merit of direct action upon the
paddles, that it was his object to attain, had other and greater merits
of their own; but in their adoption his great object was realized,
seeing that that object was not his own aggrandisement, but the
development of the naval strength of England.

CHAPTER XXV.

LORD DUNDONALD'S SECRET WAR-PLANS.--HIS CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THEM
WITH LORD LANSDOWNE, LORD MINTO, LORD HADDINGTON, AND LORD
AUCKLAND.--HIS LETTER TO THE "TIMES."--THE REPORT OF A COMMITTEE
CONSISTING OF SIR THOMAS HASTINGS, SIR JOHN BURGOYNE, AND LIEUT.-COL.
COLQUHOUN UPON THE SECRET WAR-PLANS.--A FRENCH PROJECT FOR NAVAL WARFARE
WITH ENGLAND.--LORD DUNDONALD'S OPINION THEREUPON.--HIS VIEWS ON THE
DEFENCE OF ENGLAND.

[1833-1848.]

Zealously as the Earl of Dundonald strove through nearly twenty years to
perfect and to make generally useful his inventions in connection with
steam shipping, he attached yet greater importance to another and an
older invention or discovery, which, though its efficacy has been
admitted by all to whom it has been explained, has never yet been
adopted. This was the device known as his "secret war-plans," for
capturing the fleets and forts of an enemy by an altogether novel
process, attended by little cost or risk to the assailant, but of
terrible effect upon the objects attacked.

These plans were conceived by him in 1811, and in the following year, as
he has told in his "Autobiography," he submitted them to the Prince
Regent, afterwards King George IV. By the Prince they were referred to a
Secret Committee, consisting of the Duke of York, as President, Lord
Keith, Lord Exmouth, and the two Congreves; who, on the details being
set before them, declared this method of attack to be infallible and
irresistible. Lord Dundonald was pledged to secrecy by the Prince
Regent, and it was proposed to employ the device in the war still
proceeding with France. That proposal, however, was abandoned, and
another, for a trial of the plan under Sir Alexander Cochrane in North
America, in 1814, was prevented by the Stock Exchange tr