Napoleon asked how young James Watt had managed to flee. Even experts like him, who had escaped from Egypt and Elba, did not know—so who else could?
As for why old James Watt knew he would flee to France, it was because he had met one of young James Watt's Dutch friends. In young James Watt's eyes, France might have been in terrible condition, but it was still the best country he knew. Since around 1794, he and young Boulton had probably donned the cloak of diligence, as if they had completely turned over a new leaf and become qualified heirs to their fathers' businesses.
Unlike his relationship with his father, young James Watt was politically active. He joined a Literary and Philosophical Society in Manchester and a constitutional society friendly toward the Jacobins.
Watt remarried. He had initially thought this was young James Watt's rebellion against him, but later the young man went to Paris with his friends and came into contact with Lavoisier and other chemists. Many of them corresponded with his father, and they all talked about politics rather than philosophy.
Through those correspondents, old Watt learned what young James had been doing, and young James was ordered home. Yet after returning to Manchester, he delivered a speech to the Paris Jacobin Club through Manchester's Constitutional Association. He marched with Cooper, waving flags at some international gathering, and was then arrested.
Fargeon said that whether young James Watt had joined a radical revolutionary organization or a conservative one, he was very likely involved with the Jacobins.
Birmingham's Lunar Society sympathized deeply with the French Revolution and, because of certain domestic issues, opposed some conservative forces as well. But joining the Jacobins could still be seen as a stain.
Boulton's solution was to have his son settle down