In May, 1835, Mr. Babbage announced in a letter[44] to M. Quetelet, which was laid before the Academy of Sciences at Brussels, that he had “for six months been engaged in making the drawings of a new calculating engine of _far greater power than the first_.” “I am myself astonished,” says Mr. Babbage, “at the power I have been enabled to give to this machine; a year ago I should not have believed this result possible. This machine is intended to contain a hundred variables, or numbers susceptible of changing, and each of these numbers may consist of twenty-five figures. The greatest difficulties of the invention have already been surmounted, and the plans will be finished in a few months.” Subsequently to the date of this letter, Mr. Babbage visited Turin, where he explained to Baron Plana, M. Menabrea, and several other distinguished philosophers of that city, the mathematical principles of his Analytical-Engine, and also the drawings and engravings of the more curious mechanical contrivances, by which those principles were to be carried into effect. M. Menabrea, with Mr. Babbage’s consent, published the information which he had received in the 41st volume of the _Bibliothèque Universelle de Génève_. The article is remarkable as giving the first account of the Analytical-Engine.[45] An English translation, with copious original notes, made by a lady of distinguished rank and talent,[46] was published in the third volume of Taylor’s _Scientific Memoirs_. But it did not contain all the information respecting the Difference-Engine that was desirable, and Mr. Babbage was consequently led to communicate a short article upon this subject to the _Philosophical Magazine_, which is inserted in the 23rd volume[47]. The more comprehensive statements and official documents which Mr. Babbage has placed at my disposal renders it unnecessary to do more than allude to that article. For nine years, that is, from the year 1833, when the construction of the Difference-Engine was suspended, until 1842, no decision respecting the machine was arrived at, although Mr. Babbage made several applications to Government on the subject. On the 21st October, 1838, he wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, stating that the question he wished to have settled was:—“Whether the Government required him to superintend the completion of the Difference-Engine, which had been suspended during the last five years, according to the original plan and principle, or whether they intended to discontinue it altogether.” This letter produced no result. Time wore on, and Sir Robert Peel became Prime Minister. This was in 1841. Up to the termination of the Parliamentary Session in 1842, Mr. Babbage had received no other communication on the subject than a note from Sir George Clerk (Secretary to the Treasury), written in January of that year, stating that he feared the pressing official duties of Sir Robert Peel would prevent him turning his attention to the matter for some days.