It is obvious to all who have observed society that such a system of “_discrediting_” carried on for a series of years, especially against one too much occupied or too proud to expose it, must end in establishing the set of opinions propagated by the party. Honest and even tolerably well-informed persons, will at length be misled, and be found to adopt them. Opinions thus propagated must have had their influence widely spread, and unless those members of the various administrations with whom decisions relative to the Difference Engine rested, had been either highly skilled in mathematical science, or deeply read in human nature, it would have been almost impossible for them not to have been misled. The former qualification is unnecessary; the latter is indispensable for a statesman. Of the _eight_ Prime-ministers with whom I have had communications relative to the Difference Engine, _one_ only personally examined it; doubtless not with the view of criticising the mechanism, but of reading the character of its author. Had my _official_ intercourse with that eminent man commenced earlier or continued later, the fate of the Calculating Engines would probably have been far different. It is always difficult to trace intriguers up to a direct intercourse with government. In the present case, the vanity of some of them overcame their judgment, and they gave themselves out as advisers of the government on scientific subjects. To these I shall not at present refer, but confine myself to citing from official documents two cases of direct communication with the government by persons on whose judgment it appears to have relied. The Whigs seemed to have had great confidence in the devotion of the Rev. R. Sheepshanks to their interests, since they took the extraordinary step of appointing him, although a Clergyman, one of the Boundary Commissioners under the Reform Bill, and he is, I believe, at present one of the Standard Measure Commission. The Astronomer Royal, besides his situation at Greenwich, has been a member of several Commissions:— The Tidal Harbour Commission. The Standard Measure Commission. The Harbour of Refuge Commission. The Railway Gauge Commission. The following are extracts from his Annual Reports:— “The Board of Admiralty, on my representation of the interruption to our business caused by the rating of so many Chronometers, and _by my own employment on public business unconnected with the Observatory_, immediately sanctioned the employment of an additional computer.”—_Astron. Royal, Rep. June 1841_, p. 7. “On former occasions I have avowed without scruple that I do not consider the Royal Observatory as a mere isolated place for the conduct of Astronomical observations. I consider it a part, perhaps the most important part, of the scientific institutions of this country.”—P. 18.