But, until the statement made by him shall be proved either false or defective, it must stand that the Government never returned any answer to the question—Shall the new engine be constructed, or shall the old one be proceeded with? We are of opinion that they ought to have required him to proceed with the old one. They ought to have said—The public can only judge by results: how well satisfied soever men of science may be that the new machine is immeasurably superior to the old one, society at large will never comprehend the abandonment of a scheme on which so much has been expended; they will say—What if, in constructing No. 2, No. 3 should be discovered, as much superior to No. 2 as No. 2 is to No. 1! And if Mr. Babbage had declined to proceed with his first project, when thus urged, it is our opinion that he would have richly deserved a very harsh censure. And of this we are sure, that if Government had allowed him to finish the first machine, and he had done so with success, the House of Commons would willingly have granted money for the second,—aye, and for the third and fourth, if he had invented them. But the Government itself prevented the matter from coming to any such issue. It is possible that Sir R. Peel and Mr. Goulburn allowed Mr. Babbage’s well-known wish[50] to abandon the first plan in favour of the new one to influence their decision. It may be that they were startled at finding that 17,000_l._ expended upon one project was only the precursor of another. If so, we think they put themselves in the wrong by not fastening on Mr. Babbage the alternative of either proceeding with the existing construction, or taking the entire responsibility of refusal upon himself. As the matter now stands, and unless Mr. Babbage can be refuted, the answer to the question why he did not proceed is, that during the eight years in which he had to bear the blame of the delay he could not procure even the attention of the Government, much less any decision on the course to be taken. It is generally understood that Mr. Babbage is determined to proceed with the _Analytical Engine_, gradually, and at his own expense; and that the drawings are in a state of great forwardness. According to Mr. Babbage himself, many experiments have been made with the object “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.”