Memorials of the lineage, early life, education and development of the genius of James Watt

JAMES WATT. 169
powered Bailie Watt to repair to Edinburgh, for the purpose of engaging
Mr. Walter Steuart, advocate, to proceed to London, to act as counsel
for them in opposition to the proposed " Lock-bill."
Into a matter of such a nature, in which not only his father the
bailie, but also his Greenock friends generally were so deeply
interested, it may easily be conceived the speculative mind of Watt
would enter with some ardour. It was a subject not unfamiliar to
him, — his grandfather, probably, but particularly his uncle, John
Watt, having, as we have already seen, directed his attention, as a
practical surveyor, to the navigation of the Clyde, and, as early as
1734, made a survey and map of the river, to which was annexed a
chart of the Firth and adjacent Islands, as far as the North Channel, —
a most valuable contribution to the hydrography of those days. 1 This
fact might, of itself, be sufficient to induce the supposition of Watt's
forming an acquaintance with the able engineer now officially employed
by the city of Glasgow to report on the river improvements. But
other elements might have assisted in bringing about an intimacy ; in
which case, the striking similarity so discoverable in the events of
their respective lives, could not fail to be suggestive, at least to one of
them, and be productive of convictions that were capable of leading to
important ulterior results. Both of these young men had spent their
early days in precisely similar pursuits, and both had started in life as
philosophical instrument-makers. Smeaton, who was only about nine
years older than Watt, was already in the possession of public confi-
dence, and reaping the fruits of an established reputation as a civil
engineer ; Watt, though at the same moment giving proofs, in his
less public vocation, of possessing a vigorously inventive genius, was
yet far from earning the rewards which that genius merited, or
which the circumstances of his position rendered desirable and even
necessary.
1 For a succinct account of Jolin Watt's Map, see page 53, supra.
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