“The two following [applications made to the Government] will sufficiently explain them [the undescribed applications of the first half of the period of unanswered application]:—On the 23rd December, 1834, Mr. Babbage addressed a statement to the Duke of Wellington, pointing out the only [the reader will remark this word _only_] plans which in his opinion could be pursued for terminating the questions relative to the _Difference Engine_, namely—_First_, the Government might desire Mr. Babbage to continue the construction of the engine in the hands of the person who has hitherto been employed in making it. _Secondly_, the Government might wish to know whether any other person could be substituted for the engineer at present employed to continue the construction—a course which was possible. _Thirdly_, the Government might (although he did not presume that they would) substitute some person to superintend the completion of the engine instead of Mr. Babbage himself. _Fourthly_, the Government might be disposed to give up the undertaking entirely.” A letter to Sir Robert Peel from Mr. Babbage, dated the 7th of April, 1835, and enclosing the above plans, concludes thus: “The delays and difficulties of years will, I hope, excuse my expressing a wish that I may at length be relieved from them by an early decision of the Government on the question.” From the above it appears that at the end of 1834, Mr. Babbage—though then so full of the _new_ engine, that in September he had asked an audience of Lord Melbourne, to communicate the exact state of the case, and to request, of course, his consideration of the question whether the new engine should or should not take the place of the old one—began his applications to the Government with distinct reference to the _old_ engine, and to the question of its completion or abandonment. Certainly the first of the two applications was not well timed, for it was made when the Duke of Wellington held all the seals, and a Government courier was hunting Sir Robert Peel all over Italy, to tell him to come home quick and be Prime Minister. But it was repeated to Sir Robert Peel in the April following, when the latter was also in official possession of the previous letter. Mr. Babbage having thus filled up the only _lacuna_ which the public press has brought to his notice, we can but repeat that those who would impute to him the blame of the failure of Government to complete his Calculating Machine must begin by proving his statement to be false or defective. In 1835 he complains _to_ the Government of “delays and difficulties,” which he implies to be mainly caused _by_ the Government, and he gets no answer whatever to repeated applications, until 1843. Those who have propagated the rumours that his conduct was the cause of the delay, and that he compromised his friends in the Royal Society, who had aided in bringing him under the notice of the Government, are bound to abstain in future, or to show cause.