It therefore became only a question what the purchase price should be. To fix this, these ten gentlemen met us by appointment at the Victoria Hotel, Westminster, about ten days after the opening of the Exhibition. Mr. Longsdon left this delicate negotiation entirely to me, and at the meeting I pointed out the peculiar difficulties we had met to discuss. The thing to be purchased could neither be measured nor weighed; there was no analogous case to use as a guide or precedent; the patents might bring in a very large sum of money, or a quibble of the law, or some other invention, might render them of little value. Thus I had to propose a sum which might fairly be estimated as a very profitable purchase for them, if all went well. At the same time I was to realise a considerable present profit, while my future action was wholly untrammelled, as my partner and I still retained three-fourths of the whole property intact. Having thus briefly reviewed the position, I said: "Gentlemen, we have thought this matter thoroughly over, and I have come to a fixed resolution to accept a certain sum in cash for this one-fourth part of the proceeds of my invention; or, otherwise, I will keep the whole and run my course uninsured. I must therefore beg you to give me a distinct " Yes" or "No" to my offer. I cannot haggle, for no one can demonstrate it is worth so much more or so much less. I have fixed on an easily divisible sum among ten gentlemen, which has all the advantages of round numbers. I have fixed on £50,000 as the purchase price." Mr. Platt, who occupied the chair, said: "We have heard your definite proposal, and if you will be so good as to go into the adjoining room for a few minutes, we will discuss your proposition, and give you a reply."

I then left the meeting; after a lapse of not more than ten minutes I was called back, when the chairman said they had talked the matter over, and had unanimously agreed to accept my offer.

In the course of a few days, a formal and satisfactory document was prepared by the joint industry of the solicitors on both sides, and Mr. Longsdon and I were invited to dine with Mr. Platt and his friends at the Queen's Hotel, Manchester. This was about three weeks after the opening of the Exhibition. We had a very pleasant and friendly dinner; we were all mutually pleased with our bargains, and in a bumper the company drank to the success of the new steel process, and long life to the inventor, a toast to which I had the pleasure of responding. Then came the formal reading of the bond, and its signature, after which there was still another interesting ceremony, which was performed in a genuine Lancashire fashion, each gentleman producing from the depth of his pocket a neat little roll of Bank of England notes of the value of £5,000, which was handed to us in the proportion of our respective shares, viz., £40,000 to myself and £10,000 to my partner Longsdon. The meeting then broke up in a most cordial manner, and the friendly feeling thus inaugurated was never for one moment clouded by a single expression of dissent or dissatisfaction in the whole ten years of our business intercourse, during which time I had the great pleasure of handing over to my friends their 5s. in the £, amounting on the whole to something over £260,000. As a further testimonial of our mutual friendship and regard, Mr. Platt presented to Lady Bessemer, in his name and those of our Manchester friends, a portrait of myself painted by Lehmann, and exhibited in the Royal Academy.

I have mentioned these facts because it is almost impossible to conceive higher testimony to the value of my processes than this purchase of a share of the invention with all its risks; a testimony which was justified by the results obtained, while our War Office officials did not venture to purchase even a few ingots of our steel sufficient to make half a dozen 40-pounder gun-tubes.

At last there came a time when the British Government abandoned welded-up iron gun-tubes, and they and Sir William Armstrong parted company (on February 5th, 1863), the Government paying the Elswick Ordnance Company £65,534 4s. as compensation for breaking the contract with that Company, as well as paying the other sums which are given at page 5 of the Report of the Select Committee on Ordnance, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 23rd, 1863. The following copy taken from that Report accurately gives these amounts.

The whole supply of Armstrong guns and projectiles has been obtained from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and the Elswick Ordnance Factory.

1st. The sum of 965,117L. 9s. 7d. has been paid to the Elswick Ordnance Company for articles supplied.