Before he published this work, he submitted his plan, with models of his machines, to the British Board of Agriculture, of which Sir John Sinclair was then president. It was favorably received and strongly recommended by a resolution of the Board, which was communicated to Mr. Fulton in a very complimentary manner. It would not be right to omit noticing that the work of which we have been speaking is not confined to canals. These are so nearly connected with aqueducts and with bridges, that he bestows some chapters, containing new ideas and valuable information, on these objects.

It is gratifying to find that Mr. Fulton ever felt as an American. His long residence abroad did not enfeeble his attachment to his country. Thoughts of her prosperity and welfare were connected with all his projects; and those that he thought might be of advantage to her, he communicated with a promptness and disinterestedness which marked his desire to serve her. With his Treatise on Canals, he published a letter to the governor of his native State, in which he illustrates the advantages of forming interior communications by canals, rather than by turnpike roads; and recommends his own system of small canals and boats, as being preferable to the method of canal

ling then in use in Europe. With the same views, he sent a copy of his work to General Washington, from whom he received in return a flattering acknowledgment.

In the spring of 1798, he addressed two letters on this and other subjects to Lord Stanhope. They have the following title: "Letters from Robert Fulton to the Right Honourable the Earl of Stanhope, explaining the present projects of the Government of France, their plans of aggrandizement, their system of acquiring revenues, and their views with regard to foreign possessions and trades." These are rather essays than letters, and were evidently intended for the press; but whether they were ever published, we do not know. In a confidential letter to Lord Stanhope, he tells him that the title sounds high; that he had adopted it to excite curiosity, and to induce the people of England to read them, and to awaken their minds to the advantages of canals, home improvements, simple taxation, and free trade. In this letter, he makes another disclosure which shows how constantly his country was in his mind, and how intimately her prosperity was connected with all his projects. He acknowledges to Lord Stanhope that his principal reason for wishing these letters to be printed, was that a knowledge of them might

precede his return to America, which he then contemplated; and where he intended, as he informed his lordship, to use all his influence to induce his countrymen to adopt the systems of which his letters point out the advantages.

It seems to be at about this time that he wrote a work which is found among his manuscripts, and which probably was designed to have an influence on the great political questions which were then agitated in France. It is addressed "to the friends of mankind," and is intended to enforce on the French legislators the duty of providing for education, and of attending to interior improvements, upon which he maintains that the happiness of a nation, and more particularly of a republic, most essentially depends; or, to express his sentiments in his own words, he says: "The whole interior arrangements of governments should be to promote and diffuse knowledge and industry; their whole exterior negotiations, to establish a social intercourse with each other, and to give a free circulation to the whole produce of virtuous industry." An universal free trade is his favorite theory in political economy, and one which he loses no opportunity of advocating, with all the force of his ardent mind.

He considers what he calls the war-system of the

Old World as the cause of the misery of the greatest portion of its inhabitants; and this leads him into a curious investigation of its effects, as well as an interesting enumeration of the inhabitants of Europe. These he classes as producers and idlers: of the number of each of these he gives an estimate, and then presents a variety of calculations to show what are the effects of the last upon the society they encumber.

This work, like everything that came from the pen of Mr. Fulton, is written with great natural strength and originality. He never attempts to borrow either ideas or ornament, but is content to express the conceptions of his own mind with force and perspicuity.

There is also among his manuscripts another volume on the same subject. It is entitled, "Thoughts on Free Trade; with reasons why foreign possessions, and all duties on importations, are injurious to nations." It is written with great animation and force.

Ardour and perseverance were characters of Mr. Fulton's mind: when he had conceived what he thought a practicable and beneficial project, he left no means untried, and spared no pains for its accomplishment.

Mr. Fulton says, in one of his manuscripts:

"After this, I was convinced that society must pass through ages of progressive improvement before the freedom of the seas could be established by an agreement of nations; that it was for the benefit of the whole: I saw that the growing wealth and commerce, and the increasing population of the United States, would compel them to look for a protection by sea, and perhaps drive them to the necessity of resorting to European measures, by establishing a navy. Seeing this, I turned my whole attention to find out means of destroying such engines of oppression, by some method which would put it out of the power of any nation to maintain such a system, and would compel every government to adopt the simple principles of education, industry, and a free circulation of its produce."

Out of such enlarged and philanthropic views and reflections, grew Mr. Fulton's inventions for submarine navigation and explosions; and with such patriotic motives did he prosecute them.

Mr. Fulton, while he was on a visit to Washington, January, 1807, was invited by General Dearborn, then the Secretary at War, to make the necessary surveys and drafts for a canal from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi. He declined this undertaking, on account of his engagements with his steamboats and torpedoes. On these, he says in a letter to the Secretary: "I labour with the ardour of an enthusiast." He avails himself of this opportunity of submitting to the Government some ideas on canal navigation; and this letter contains the earliest suggestion we have met with