ithets of an offensive
character. Bramah replied to the farrago of nonsense, which he
characterised as "unmannerly, absurd, and illiterate that it must have
been composed when the writer was intoxicated, mad, or under the
influence of Lucifer," and he threatened that unless Huntington
apologised for his gratuitous insults, he (Bramah) would assuredly
expose him. The mechanician nevertheless proceeded gravely to explain
and defend his "profession of faith," which was altogether unnecessary.
On this Huntington returned to the charge, and directed against the
mechanic a fresh volley of Scripture texts and phraseology, not without
humour, if profanity be allowable in controversy, as where he says,
"Poor man! he makes a good patent lock, but cuts a sad figure with the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven!" "What Mr. Bramah is," says S.S., "In
respect to his character or conduct in life, as a man, a tradesman, a
neighbour, a gentleman, a husband, friend, master, or subject, I know
not. In all these characters he may shine as a comet for aught I know;
but he appears to me to be as far from any resemblance to a poor
penitent or broken-hearted sinner as Jannes, Jambres, or Alexander the
coppersmith!" Bramah rejoined by threatening to publish his
assailant's letters, but Huntington anticipated him in A Feeble Dispute
with a Wise and Learned Man, 8vo. London, 1793, in which, whether
justly or not, Huntington makes Bramah appear to murder the king's
English in the most barbarous manner.

CHAPTER XII.

HENRY MAUDSLAY.

"The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection
of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of
tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines.....
The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at
the head of the industrial arts."--C. BABBAGE, Exposition of 1851.

Henry Maudslay was born at Woolwich towards the end of last century, in
a house standing in the court at the back of the Salutation Inn, the
entrance to which is nearly opposite the Arsenal gates. His father was
a native of Lancashire, descended from an old family of the same name,
the head of which resided at Mawdsley Hall near Ormskirk at the
beginning of the seventeenth century. The family were afterwards
scattered, and several of its members became workmen. William
Maudslay, the father of Henry, belonged to the neighbourhood of Bolton,
where he was brought up t