“Why don’t they,” he asked, “petition Parliament to take Sir Francis Bassett’s mines from him? He acknowledges that he has derived great profits from using our engines, which is more than we can say of our invention; for it appears by our books that Cornwall has hitherto eaten up all the profits we have drawn from it, as well as all that we have got from other places, and a good sum of our own money into the bargain. We have no power to compel anybody to erect our engines. What, then, will Parliament say to any man who comes there to complain of a grievance he can avoid, and which does not exist but in his own imagination? Will Parliament give away our property without an equivalent? Will they not collect that equivalent from the county of Cornwall? Will they adjudge them to pay us any less sum than it has cost ourselves? Will they not further add some reward for the quantity of life that has been devoted to the pursuit of what is evidently for the advantage of others, but hitherto has not been for our own? Lastly, will Parliament compel us to work for anybody without a remuneration adequate to our experience, or will they oblige us to labour for any one without our consent? We are in the state of the old Roman who was found guilty of raising better crops than his neighbours, and was therefore ordered to bring before the assembly of the people his instruments of husbandry, and to tell them of his art. He complied, and when he had done said, ‘These O Romans, are the instruments of our art; but I cannot bring into the forum the labours, the sweats, the watchings, the anxieties, the cares, which produced these crops.’ So, every one sees the reward which we may yet probably receive from _our_ labours; but few consider the price we have paid for that reward, which is by no means a certain annuity, but a return of the most precarious sort. To put an end, as far as lies in my power, to all disputes with the people of Cornwall, let them pay my debts and give me a reasonable sum for the time I have lost, and I will resign my part in their favour, and think myself well off by the bargain. Or, if you can find any man who is agreeable to yourself, I’ll sell him my share on reasonable terms, and, like the sailor, I will promise to contrive no more fire-engines. In short, my dear Sir, with a good cause in hand, I do not fear going before Parliament or anywhere. I am sure that if they did anything they would put us in a better position than we are in now.”[199] [199] Watt to Boulton, 31st October, 1780. Boulton MSS.