portionate power of steam, is the only invention used in the best steamers now traversing the ocean, and all are guided by the "phantom-ship Clermont" and the immortal spirit of Fulton! We admire Fulton still more as a man of science, as a man whose every invention was the contrivance of a real philanthropist, whose every act was for the benefit of mankind, whose whole mechanical powers and scientific attainments were combined and concentrated to find out and produce things that were hidden and unknown, and whose mind dictated and directed communications of facts and truths to the greatest men then known to the world. He communicated in writing with Washington, with Napoleon, with King George the Third, with Lord Stanhope, Earl of Chatham, President Madison, the National Congress, the officers of the United States' army and navy, Governor De Witt Clinton, of New York, Governor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, Benjamin West, Benjamin Franklin, and with the prominent scientific societies of England, France, and America, on the subjects of education and the arts and sciences; and in all his communications, in all his writings, he is to be most admired for the application of the whole force of his imagination, mind, and genius, to the interests, credit, honour, and glory of his own country.

In 1810, in a letter addressed to President Madison and the Congress of the United States, giving a sketch of the improvements which should be made in America, Mr. Fulton wrote as follows:

"Canals, bending round the hills, would irrigate the grounds beneath, and convert them into luxuriant pasturage. They would bind a hundred millions of people in one inseparable compact, alike in habits, in language, and in interest-one homogeneous brotherhood, the most invulnerable, powerful, and respectable on earth. Say, legislators, you who direct the destinies of this great nationshall Americans, like servile creatures of established habits, imitate European vices, or copy them because they are familiar?-shall they nourish a useless marine, lay the basis for its increase, and send it down the current of time to futurity with all its complicated evils? shall such a system consume our resources, deprive the earth of improvements, draw into its vortex ambitious men, divert the best talents of our country from useful works, and interest them in its support, creating non-productive labourers, who must be the consumers of the produce of the productive class, and diminish their enjoyments?-or will you search into the most hidden recesses of science, to find a means for preventing such incalculable evils, and direct the genius and resources of our country to useful improvements, to the sciences, the arts, education, the amendment of the public mind and morals?

"In such pursuits lie real honor and the nation's glory: such are the labours of enlightened republicans-those who labour for the public good. Every order of things which has a tendency to remove oppression and meliorate the condition of man, by directing his ambition to useful industry, is in effect republican. Every system which nourishes war, and its consequent thousands of idlers and

oppressors, is aristocratic in its effects, whatever may be its name.

"These sentiments exhibit my political creed-the object of all my exertions; and these principles, practised by Americans, will create for them a real grandeur of character which will secure to them the respect and admiration of the civilized world."

And this is the language of Robert Fulton, and he is the man that every American should love to read and speak of.

It was such language, such sentiments, and acts like his, that have placed this country upon the highest pinnacle of fame.

Let us then, as Americans, as neighbours, as friends of the lamented Fulton, erect such a monument as shall show to the world that here, where he is best known, his unblemished virtues, his nobleness of character, and his immortal genius, shall be remembered with gratitude: his noble sentiments, his Golden Deed, and his imperishable motto: "Education, the arts and sciences, and the liberty of the seas, shall be the happiness of the earth," are adopted, and prove to the world the brightest page in American history.

CHAPTER VI.

TORPEDOES.

IT has been mentioned that the Earl of Stanhope had taken great pains to inform himself as to Mr. Fulton's proceedings in France. This nobleman's mathematical and mechanical mind perceived what consequences might result from the application of Mr. Fulton's inventions. The information he obtained was communicated to the British Cabinet, and excited alarm. It was determined by the British Ministry, if possible, to withdraw Mr. Fulton from France. Lord Sidmouth, who was then one of the ministers, contrived to have a communication with Mr. Fulton while he was in Paris, and obtained his consent to meet an agent of the British Government in Holland. In October, 1803, Mr. Fulton went from Paris to Amsterdam, for this purpose. But the agent with whom he was to confer did not arrive; and after being in Amsterdam three months, he returned to Paris.

It may be well to stop here, and notice a matter not otherwise of importance than as it serves to

mark the pliancy of Mr. Fulton's mind, and the versatility of his genius. At a time when he was taking a step which, as he thought, would be decisive of the fate of nations, which put his life at risk, and might determine his own fortune, he amused himself with making sketches from the scenery of Holland, and representations of the manners, figures, and costume of the Hollanders: some of them are broad caricatures, which cannot but excite a smile. They are found in his portfolio ; and though in general they are but sketches, they show that they are from the hand of a master, guided by wit and genius.

Sometime after his return to Paris, the agent whom he was to have met at Amsterdam made his appearance in the French metropolis, bearing a letter from Lord Hawkesbury to Mr. Fulton, which induced him to proceed to London, where he arrived in May, 1804. Lord Sidmouth was then out of office, and Mr. Pitt had resumed the administration. The new ministry seemed to approve of what had been done by their predecessors in relation to Mr. Fulton. He soon had an interview with Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville. When Mr. Pitt first saw a drawing of a torpedo, with a sketch of the mode of applying it, and understood what would be the effects of its explosion, he said that,