Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/106

90 to finish the old Difference Engine on its original plan than to construct a new Difference Engine with the simplified elements devised for the Analytical Engine.

It then proceeded to state that—

The reference to the Royal Society, proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his letter of the 14th of January, 1836, did not take place; and during more than a year and a half no further measures appear to have been adopted by the Government respecting the Engine.

It was obviously of the greatest importance to Mr. Babbage that a final decision should be made by the Government. When he undertook to superintend the construction of the Difference Engine for the Government, it was, of course, understood that he would not leave it unfinished. He had now been engaged fourteen years upon an object which he