to get this permission aroused my just indignation, and I, as so many aggrieved persons have done before me, and doubtless will do again, wrote a letter to The Times. As this letter has played a not- unimportant part in my life's history, I think it desirable to insert it in this place, although it is not in the chronological order of events.

I may, however, say that I no sooner saw this letter in print than it occurred to me that an ex parte statement of so grave a character against the Government in general, and some of its officials in particular, demanded at my hands some documentary or other proof of the truth of the statements thus publicly made, and that I ought to lay the whole matter before the Government of the day in justice to myself! With this object I determined to address myself to our then Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, and also to furnish printed copies of this communication to each of the other Ministers of State. The following is a verbatim copy of a portion of these communications, as well as of my letter to The Times:--

TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.
Denmark Hill,
November 16th, 1878

MY LORD,

Under a feeling of some imitation, excited by recent events in connection with the Paris Exhibition, I felt impelled to relieve my mind of a long-suppressed grievance which my excessive dislike to controversy has hitherto prevented me from making public.

Under these circumstances I addressed a letter to The Times on the "Reward of Invention," which was published in that journal on the 1st November, 1878, a verbatim copy of which is embodied in this communication, and, as you will see, brings a very grave charge against some of the executive of a former Government; and, after perusing it in print, I saw at once that it was due to my own honour, and but fair to the Government, that I should bring forward some evidence in corroboration of the serious allegations therein contained, the more so as the public press have warmly espoused my cause, and commented in not very measured terms on the treatment I had received at the hands of the Government of that day.

No sooner, however, did the desirability of such corroborative evidence present itself to my mind than I took the necessary measures to acquire it; and notwithstanding the length of time that has elapsed since these events took place, I have succeeded in obtaining the most unimpeachable testimony in support of the charge brought by me against the British Stamp Office; but prior to bringing these proofs before the public, I have deemed it a duty which I owe, alike to myself and to the State, to bring the whole subject under the individual attention of each one of Her Majesty's present Cabinet Ministers; hence I have forwarded a copy of this letter separately addressed to each of them.

As far as my experience of the great commercial transactions of this country extends, I have found that in every instance where a firm takes in a new partner, and in every change of the directors of a railway, who have been elected to administer these great establishments have ever held inviolate the engagements of those whose position they have been called upon to occupy; nor can I for one moment doubt but that Her Majesty's Ministers will feel themselves equally bound in honour, if not to carry out the letter of the engagements entered into with me by their predecessors, at least to make such reparation and acknowledgment of my services to the State as will be both satisfactory to me and honourable to themselves, for I cannot believe it possible that my just claims will be repudiated by the British Government, and that its present Ministers will plead the Statute of Limitations as a sufficient bar to them; for this, after all, would be but to reduce it to a simple debt of honour, a form of obligation which it has ever been the pride of Englishmen to regard as their most sacred bond; and you will, I hope, pardon me when I confess that I cannot but coincide in the opinion so pithily expressed at the close of a leader in an influential journal,¹ viz., that "The Rulers of the State at the present day must be held to have inherited the responsibility of rendering to Mr. Bessemer the reward of the services by which they and the country have so largely profited."

In order that you may fully understand and appreciate the value of the evidence which I have the honour to lay before you, I must beg the favour of your perusal of my letter on the "Reward of Invention," in which