This letter is only one of many received by Davy from practical men, all telling the same story of wonder and astonishment “that so simple a looking instrument should defy an enemy heretofore unconquerable”; and all expressing the deepest gratitude to him as its inventor, often in language which gains in force, and even in eloquence, from its very homeliness and simple pathos. The following address from the Whitehaven colliers was among the papers lent to me by Dr. Rolleston:-- “_September 18, 1816._ “We, the undersigned, miners at the Whitehaven Collieries, belonging to the Earl of Lonsdale, return our sincere thanks to Sir Humphry Davy, for his invaluable discovery of the safe lamps, which are to us life preservers; and being the only return in our power to make, we most humbly offer this, our tribute of gratitude.” The names of eighty-two miners are appended--the majority of them--viz. forty-seven--with their mark (+) affixed. What the learned world thought may be judged from the following extracts from an article in the _Edinburgh Review_--a periodical not always characterised by a just appreciation of the work of the Royal Institution professors, for the literature of science contains few things more disingenuous or more spiteful than the attack of “the young gentleman from Edinburgh”--afterwards known as Lord Brougham--on Thomas Young when he first made known the undulatory theory of light. In the _Review_ for February, 1816, Mr. Playfair begins his article on Davy’s discovery by pointing out that-- “The safe lamp is a present from philosophy to the arts, and to the class of men furthest removed from the influence of science. The discovery is in no degree the effect of accident; and chance, which comes in for so large a share in the credit of human inventions, has no claims on one which is altogether the result of patient and enlightened research....