Correspondence.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 80, 30 June 1866, Page 3

Correspondence.

REMARKABLE PRAYER. To the Editor of the 'Nelson Examines.' Sib— ln your issue of Saturday last I notice a paragraph, headed " Remarkable Prayer," in which it is stated — on whose authority I trow not, for it is not stated from what work this extract is taken — that after the death of the Marquis of Worcester, the discoverer of the steam-engine, " his widow was advised by her confessor, not to permit the discoveries of her husband to be given to the world, as they might be offensive to the Deity." Will you allow me to suggest that a far more probable reason for this course of action may be found in the pages of Lord Macaulay, the panegyrist oi William of Orange, and certainly a writer whom no one will accuse of any undue partiality towards Catholics. In his History of England, vol. i., p. 37. of the first edition, you will find the following notice . of thiß discovery in the magnificent Bketch whicl » he gives of the Btate of England in 1685 : — " The Marquess of Worcester had recently ob ■ served the expansive power of moisture rarefied bj ) heat. After many experiments he had succeeded ir . constructing a rude steam-engine, which he called £ ! fire water-work, and which he pronounced to be aT admirable and most forcible instrument of propul sion. But the Marquess was suspected to be a mad man, and known to be a Papist. His inventions therefore, found no favourable reception. His fin water-work might, perhaps, furnish matter for con [ versation at a meeting of the Royal Society, but wai ' not applied to any practical purpose." Probably we may discover in this passage a fa 1 more plausible reason for the circumstance to whicl ' your anonymous author alludes, one which reflect * far more strongly on the bigotry of tbe age in whicl | they lived, than upon that of the Marchioness ant /. her confessor. I am, &c, June 27. A Loveb OV TKUTH. i . [ THE MAUNG-ATAPU MURDERS. 3 TO THE EDITOB OF THE ' NELSON EXAMINEE.' > Sib— Seeing a letter in the Colonist of yesterdaj " signed "E. S. W.," the writer of which professes t fc give a correct statement of the manner in which th 1 horse was found on the Maungatapu, I beg to sa, 1 that what he says is wrong. I was the person wh 1 first discovered the footprints of the horse leading ol 1 the road, covered with boughs, and called to it th t attention of a Maori (not Martin), who at my re f quest left the road to examine tbe track, and h 6 quickly came upon the body of the animal, while k was following him closely behind. r I wish only to let the truth of the thing be knowr ft and this is my reason for addressing you on th 1 subject. .- I am, &c., U, OWEKS.