“Whilst I thank you for the feeling which that offer manifests, I must, under all the circumstances, decline accepting it. “I am, &c. “C. BABBAGE.” Mr. Babbage had an interview with Sir R. Peel subsequently to the date of the foregoing letter: the result was, however, entirely unsatisfactory; and thus, with the communication from the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, terminated an engagement which had existed upwards of twenty years, during which period it is due to Mr. Babbage to state, that he refused more than one highly desirable and profitable situation,[48] in order that he might give his whole time and thoughts to the fulfilment of the contract, which he considered himself to have entered into with the Government. With respect to the Difference-Engine little remains to be added. In 1843, an application was made to Government, by the Trustees of King’s College, London, to allow the Engine, as it existed, to be removed to the museum of that institution. The request was complied with; and the Engine, enclosed within a glass case, now stands nearly in the centre of the Museum. It is capable of calculating to five figures, and two orders of differences, and performs the work with absolute precision; but no portion whatever of printing machinery, which was one of the great objects in the construction of the Engine, exists. All the drawings of the machinery and other contrivances are also in King’s College. Before closing this Chapter, it will not be out of place to put upon record the state of the Analytical-Engine at this period (1848). Mechanical Notations have been made, both of the actions of detached parts, and of the general action of the whole, which cover about four or five hundred large folio sheets of paper. The original rough sketches are contained in about five volumes. There are upwards of one hundred large drawings. No part of the construction of the Analytical-Engine has yet been commenced. A long series of experiments have, however, been made upon the art of shaping metals; and the tools to be employed for that purpose have been discussed, and many drawings of them prepared. The great object of these inquiries and experiments is, on the one hand, by simplifying the construction as much as possible, and on the other, by contriving new and cheaper means of execution, ultimately to reduce the expense within those limits which a private individual may command. [28] In the following account of the Difference and Analytical Engines, besides the MS. documents in the Archives of the Royal Society, I have derived very valuable information from an unpublished statement drawn up by Mr. Babbage, which he has been so kind as to place in my hands. The original documents which are in Mr. Babbage’s possession, and which are referred to, I have myself examined.