what would now be called in 24mo., with
about eighty pages. There have been six
subsequent editions—the last having valuable
notes by Mr. Partington. The original
edition had a dedication to the King, which
would appear extravagant were there not
ample proof of the marquis's intensity of
loyal devotion. In the next edition there is
an address or dedication to the two houses of
Parliament. He modestly states that, during
the intestine commotions, he had lost between
six and seven hundred thousand pounds of his
princely fortune by his adherence to the royal
cause; he thanks them for having granted to
him a kind of patent or monopoly in the
advantages possibly accruing from an hydraulic
machine which he had invented; he expresses
a wish that the country may reap benefit from
some among the remainder of his projects, all
of which he presents to the nation through the
King and Parliament; he states that he had
expended ten thousand pounds in establishing
a kind of experimental workshop, where a
skilful artizan, Caspar Kaltoff, had been for
thirty-five years employed at his expense in
various constructions connected with the new
inventions; he offers to put into practical form
any one of his century of inventions which
Parliament may deem likely to be useful to
the nation. He finishes his address by
subscribing himself, "My lords and gentlemen,
your most passionately-bent fellow subject in
his Majesty's service, compatriot for the
public good and advantage, and a most
humble servant to all and every of you—
Worcester."

Many of the earlier inventions relate to
secret correspondence—a subject to which an
immense amount of importance was attached
in bygone times, before penny posts, and
Queen's heads, and adhesive envelopes were
thought of. Sometimes a peculiar kind of
ink was employed, which was invisible until
treated with a particular chemical liquid;
sometimes a device was impressed on the seal
of such a nature as to convey information
intelligible only to the sender and the
receiver; sometimes a secret cipher or alphabet
was used. The marquis appears to have been
fond of that sort of construction which (if we
may compare small things with great) is
exhibited in Mr. Babbage's calculating machine,
where there are various revolving circles, which
may occupy an infinite number of different
positions with respect to each other, and each
position be made to indicate some particular
figure, letter, word or idea. The marquis
spared neither time nor cost in developing his
contrivances. There is among the Harleian
MSS, one in the hand-writing of his lordship,
descriptive of a kind of short-hand which he
had invented; there are no less than forty-
seven engraved plates, of small folio size,
illustrative of the system, the diagrams being
printed in red ink. The system comprises a
series of small octagon spaces, with a line
branching in various directions from a central
point. The system is, however, somewhat
clumsy.

After five inventions relating to these
matters, the marquis starts off to the subject
of telegraphs, and speaks of two or three
which evidently belong to the same class as
those which the Admiralty employed until
a recent period. The inventor then gives
loose to the organ of destructiveness. He
speaks of "an engine, portable in one's
pocket, which may be carried and fastened on
the inside of the greatest ship—tanquam
aliud agens—and, at any appointed minute,
though a week after, either of day or night,
it shall irrecoverably sink that ship;" he
mentions "a way from a mile off, to dive and
fasten a like engine to any ship, so as it may
punctually work the same effect, either for
time or execution;" but, as a counter-irritant,
he points out "how to prevent and safeguard
any ship from such an attempt by day or
night;" and his preservative mood also
appears in his "way to make a ship not
possible to be sunk, though shot at an hundred
times between wind and water by cannon,
and should she lose a whole plank, yet, in
half an hour's time, should be made as fit to
sail as before;" but he returns again to the
destructive by his way "to make such false
decks as in a moment should kill and take
prisoners as many as should board the ship
without blowing the real decks up or destroying
them." Much of this is very curious and
interesting. Mr. Partington thinks that the
first of these contrivances may have included
a gun-lock, a charged bomb-shell, and a
clock; the gun-lock being made to act upon
the bomb at a given moment by the clock.
When Mr. Fulton with his torpedo, and
Captain Warner with his long range, have
described more than they appeared able to
perform, we must allow the marquis a little
doubtful obscurity in his "mile-off" project.
The unsinkable ship was perhaps an anticipation
of the water-tight compartments of
modern times.

One of the inventions is quite delicious.
Only imagine "how to make upon the Thames
a floating garden of pleasure, with trees,
flowers, banqueting-houses, and fountains,
stews for all kind of fishes, a reserve for snow
to keep wine in, delicate bathing-places, and
the like; with music made by mills; and all
in the midst of the stream, where it is most
rapid," only imagine, we say, a Commissioner
of Sewers converting our great metropolitan
cloaca into such a paradise! The Mexicans
know something of this matter; they form
floating gardens on the lake near the city;
they first plait or twist willows with roots of
marsh plants, and upon this foundation they
place mud and dirt which they draw from
the bed of the lake, and thus may be formed
the soil for a garden. When the owner
wishes to change his locality, he need give
no notice to quit; he gets into a boat and
tugs his garden after him. The marquis