home at such an unseemly hour. Sleep did not come readily that night, my mind was too much disturbed; but in the quiet hours of the early morning I calmly reviewed the whole situation, and rehearsed every detail of the plan of campaign. Then I got a couple of hours' sleep, and by the time breakfast was over I felt sufficiently refreshed, and fully nerved, to carry out the plan which, after renewed consideration, I had determined to follow. I now fully realised the disadvantageous position I should be placed in if this company, with a couple of millions capital, was formed and I was left to fight them single-handed. Even now, after the lapse of so many years, this marvellous revelation, coming as it did at the precise moment necessary to be effective, seems more like an act of eternal justice than one of the ordinary affairs of life. I was startled by it at the time, and, momentous as were the interests involved, I was not unnerved, but, on the contrary, felt greatly encouraged; for though not possessed of that very great physical courage natural to more robust men, I have ever stood firmer in the face of a great, an appalling danger, than when encountering some of the smaller risks we all have to run at times.

On the morning following my unexpected return to London, I paid a visit to Mr. David Chadwick, at 11 A.M; I said I had called to discuss an important question in relation to the great iron and steel company that was to be formed to purchase and take over the Ebbw Vale Ironworks and Mines. He started with surprise, but I had so directly assumed the fact that he made no effort to conceal it. I said: "I wish to call your attention to some facts with which you are probably wholly unacquainted, but which most nearly concern your personal interest, as well as that of myself and of your Ebbw Vale clients." I then told him, as briefly as I could, of the attempts that had been made to destroy the value of my invention by cornering manganese, and thus to force me to sell my patents for less money than they were worth. I also referred to Mr. George Parry's patents, neither of which could be worked without directly infringing mine; therefore that the proposed company could not manufacture cheap cast steel without a license from me, and, what was of still greater importance to him and to them, was the fact that the New Ebbw Vale Steel and Iron Company could not even be formed at all without my consent and permission.

Mr. Chadwick, not unnaturally, doubted this confident expression, and said: "That's got to be proved." I said: "You must excuse my plain speaking, and allow me to call a spade a spade; I have but to express what is my determination, unless my terms of surrender are accepted. Do not suppose me weak enough to calculate on gaining a single point by mere bluff; I know, by reputation, that you are a very unlikely person to be led away by such means. I also know, on the other hand, that you might readily enough in your own mind come to this conclusion: 'Well, let Bessemer do what he likes in law; it will take him some months, but we shall have got our capital in a few days, and shall be in good fighting trim, with £2,000,000 to back us, and can thus afford to laugh at any threat from him.' Now this is just the very thing I have set myself to frustrate. I can fight the question now with £100, and obtain a victory in two or three days, but if I once let you get your capital, it might cost me £10,000, and a couple of years' struggle in the Law Courts; so you see I must choose this very day to fire the first shot, unless your clients make an immediate and unconditional surrender; or unless you hold out a flag of truce for two days to enable you to communicate with your clients."

"Now there are two ways of carrying on such a war. If I were bent on fighting, I should mask my batteries, and so fall upon you unawares, you thinking that my armament was very small; but I have no desire to fight unless I am driven to do so, in which case I should know how to defend myself. There is a great disadvantage in some cases in allowing your enemy to underrate your strength and to rush headlong into war, hence it is my policy just now to show you how completely I have you in my power. What I want, and must have, is the giving up by the Company of all obstructive patents in their possession, and the immediate taking out of a license from me to use my patents instead."

"If this is refused, what is my inevitable course? I go from here direct to my solicitor, who can readily, in two hours, make a formal written application for an injunction in the Court of Chancery to restrain the company owning these patents, or any new company formed for that purpose, from using them. Meanwhile, I get a thousand blue and red posters printed, announcing the fact that I, Henry Bessemer, have applied for four separate injunctions in the Court of Chancery to restrain the Ebbw Vale Companies using certain patents for making steel, which they are in possession of; and, further, that I have absolutely