contrivance for drying linen. In his eighty-third year, Mr. Watt was still occupied in inventing a machine for copying statues, but this remained unfinished, death arrested his hand; he died in the year 1819, at Heathfield, in Staffordshire; and thus, full of years and honours, ended the life of a man who, though born in a secluded village town, and reared in comparative poverty, was yet enabled, by persevering industry and the happy gifts of nature, to contribute so greatly to the commercial prosperity of the world. Mr. Watt was elected a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1784, of the Royal Society of London in 1785, and a corresponding member of the Batavian Society in 1787. In 1806 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the spontaneous and unanimous vote of the Senate of the University of Glasgow; and in 1808 he was elected, first a corresponding, and afterwards a foreign member of the Institute of France. A few years before his death it was intimated to him, by a message from Sir Joseph Banks, that, to use the words of Mr. Muirhead, the highest honour usually conferred in England on men of literature and science--namely a baronetcy, was open to him, should he desire it; but, although Watt felt flattered by this intimation, he determined, after consulting with his son, to decline the honour. Five statues have been erected to the memory of this illustrious man, of which number the one in Westminster Abbey, by Chantrey, bears on its pedestal the famous inscription by Lord Brougham:-- NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH BUT TO SHEW THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNT TO HONOUR THOSE WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE THE KING HIS MINISTERS AND MANY OF THE NOBLES AND COMMONERS OF THIS REALM RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO JAMES WATT WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE STEAM ENGINE ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX. --_Muirhead's Translation of Arago's Historical Eloge of James Watt._ London, 1839.--_Memoir, by his son J. Watt_, _Encyclopædia Britannica_.--_Quarterly Review_, October, 1858. WILLIAM H. WOLLASTON, M.D., P.R.S. &c. Born August 6, 1766. Died December 22, 1828.