Mr Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, who first experimented in the
application of steam to navigation, never received any mark of
gratitude from his country; his family, though long in comparatively
reduced circumstances, remain to this day equally without requital on
that account. Henry Bell, who, taking his ideas from Mr Miller's
experimental boat, first set a steam-vessel afloat in this country,
spent his latter years in poverty, from which he was rescued only a
short time before his death by a small pension from the Clyde
Trustees. Mr Thomas Gray, whose Observations on Railways, published
about thirty years ago, may be said to have given origin and impulse
to our present railway system, by which three hundred millions have
been expended, died in poverty, to which he had been reduced by his
exertions in the cause; his widow and children are at this day in that
state, without any public acknowledgment of his services to the
country; and his son has lately applied to nearly every railway
company in the kingdom for a situation, but in vain. Beyond a pension
of L.50 a year to the widow of Mr James Taylor, who prompted Mr Miller
to try his experiments, we are not aware of a single penny having been
expended by the country in requiting the services, or compensating the
losses, of individuals in respect of steam communications of any kind.