what others had done before him, was the means of bringing to a workable state that all-powerful and most useful machine, the steam-engine.  The people of Greenock may well indeed feel proud of being citizens of a town that produced such a man; for though many places have given birth to great and valuable men, and persons who rendered the world vast and lasting service, yet, I may safely say, no one has surpassed James Watt in the benefits he has bestowed on the world, on its trade, its commerce, and its means of communication for both body and mind, as the producer of the steam-engine.  There were not even coaches in his time, and his first journey to London was performed on horseback, a ten days’ ride, very different to our ten or twelve hours now-a-days.  His life and determination show what a man can do, both for himself and his fellow-men, and are a bright example to be followed by all those especially who belong to such associations as the one I now have the honour to address.  He not only thought, but carried out his thoughts to a practical issue, and, though laughed at, he still stuck to his great work, and by his perseverance gave to the world one of its greatest boons, and certainly its greatest motive power—­the steam-engine.  The first use of the engine, as you well know, was the pumping of water.  Rude were the machines made by Savory, Newcombe, and others, to achieve the desired end, but Watt, in his small room in the cottage at Glasgow, at last brought about a triumph that the world at large now feels and acknowledges.  I will not go further into the history of a man so well known and appreciated, as his memory must be here, but will go on to say something briefly on the results of the operations of the mind over the material placed before it, to bring into form and make it practically useful for the advantage of man.

Steamers.—­Greenock must see and value the great power at her disposal in the steam-ship.  She has now her large building yards, and it was from her yards that, in 1719, the first ship—­belonging to Greenock, and I believe built there—­sailed for America, and from that time the trade increased rapidly.  And I believe Glasgow launched the first Scotch ship that ever crossed the Atlantic in 1718, only one year in advance of Greenock.  The large building yards of Greenock bring into the town sums of money which, but for these yards, would go elsewhere, and deprive the community of many comforts, not to say luxuries.  They are the means of carrying on the import and export trade of this thriving town in a way that could not otherwise have been done; famous as this place is for shipbuilding, spinning, and its splendid sugar-works.  These latter you have indeed reason to be proud of, for there are few finer.  The increase of importation of sugar is striking.  In Britain in 1856, our imports of this article were 6,813,000 lbs., in 1865 it was 7,112,772 lbs.  Though all this did not come to Greenock, yet from what you do in this trade, I think the word