patented, can combine them to some new and useful effect, perhaps such a combination would be lawful.

Indeed his specification seems to have been composed with so much zeal as to have inadvertently included one of Dr. Thornton's own inventions patented about a month previous, for flutter wheels as now generally used an accident that would alone have invalidated the whole had there been none other. There are however some well informed people in this State who suppose the monopoly is but another name for Mr. Fulton's patents. To such men it would be convincing to say, they were never asserted on the western waters or middle states, as it must be admitted if they could have been, his friends would have had a glorious harvest. How efficient would then have been the law of Congress of 1819!-to extend the jurisdiction. of the Courts of the United States to an original cognizance as well in equity as at law, of all cases, arising under any law of the United States, relative to patents, with authority to grant injunctions to prevent the violation of the rights of inventors, &c.

The

gratitude of the western states overlooking the meritorious Fitch who led the way thither, would have poured wealth into the lap of the fortunate combination. No Sir. The whole subject is now so generally and so well understood that it is the best policy perhaps to say no more of Mr. Fulton's patents.

I am perfectly aware of the principles and advantages of Watt's engine. His philosophical mind doubtless advanced this art greatly; but it has by no means stopt where he left it. Some improvement has been made in every part of the engine, that generally bears his name. It is well adapted to large vessels-but it will not be denied that economy in the steam engine for general use is a very great desideratum. It is natural that prudent men, not particularly conversant with the subject, should prefer a machine already in use, to one that is more new. But this sort of preference is not con

demnation-for choice is the prerogative of money: If my friends prefer Watt's to Morey's, I shall eheerfully acquiesce, and wait the period when it will be preferred for light and moderate boats: meanwhile I shall endeavour to make even Watt's engine more powerful than ever, by our patent improvements in boilers, fuel, condensers, &c. Any one patent is a sufficient title to a free access to and operation upon the waters of New York, if they are still a part of the United States. Should you contend against this principle, you must first, in your own right, I think, find ground to attack from, for we are above you; and then means to invalidate every patent that is employed on board. You will not dare to venture on the ground of monopoly into the Courts of the U. States. You affect to hold in derision my very important patent of the steam tow boat: You even accuse me of having borrowed the impulse of my enterprise from seeing Mr. Fulton's. You are not content with irony, but from habit I suppose, season your discourse with a little obloquy. It is difficult to account for this on any other principle than apprehension and interest: But as I can neither reciprocate your sentiments or your style, I must content myself with reminding you of the answer of Timoleon or some other old Grecian to his friends who questioned him on his silence towards a certain Cynic, or snarling philosopher-" He derides, said he--but I am not derided.'

Had Mr. Fulton been the first or earliest builder or inventor of steam boats in our country, there might have been some room for your suspicion, as I am less of a mechanic, than man of business. But as in fact the practicability of employing this power in navigation had been so fully demonstrated on the Delaware and Hudson by Fitch and by Morey, it would have been equally rational to have referred my enterprise to the same origin as Mr. Fulton's own.

But as we do not accuse Watt of demerit from following Savary and Newcomen, nor Cartwright, Trev

ethick or Murray for following him—as it is not indeed thought derogatory to the reputation of Dalton, Black, and Lavoisier to have followed Priestly-or to Sir Humphry Davy to have improved upon them all -why this inveteracy against one who devises a new and useful application of the steam engine? The answer is monopoly-and I proceed to show how gratuitous, not to say malicious was your accusation.

It so happened that I was in England paying some little attention to canals and steam engines at the time Mr. Fulton was there, and had the pleasure of his acquaintance, perhaps before your friendship commenced. On my return I was employed by a respectable incorporation to manage and finish their canal and construct others-I had seen the steam engine applied to every usual purpose, but had not actually been in New York since his return. There was no occasion to see Mr. Fulton's steam boat therefore, for any purpose I contemplated, nor did I employ a Boulton and Watt engine in my early experiments but one of Evans's, on a different principle, as lighter and less expensive. My design was first to introduce the employment of steam power on the navigation I was opening, so that my first steam tow boats might facilitate the transportation on the Merimack between the small canals around its falls, that even its highest freshes should not impede business.

Two or three summers I was gradually advancing my design to maturity, not thinking of Mr. Fulton, till his jealousy of all who appeared to him to encroach upon his wide province, led him to make inquiries and obtain information. It was then, that he, to use his own words, "made further discoveries, "extending to an incalculable degree, the benefits of "his original discovery and invention." His new claim clashed with the application I at length made for a Patent, as advised by counsel it was lawful to apply for, and obtain. The arbitrators whose award I annex, of course settled it unanimously in my favor.

I must do Mr. Fulton the justice to say that in explaining my plan I may not have informed him of my intention to take out a patent. He probably discerned at no very distant time a new era of good fortune in the triumph of the State canal-policy. He saw so distinctly the effect of my improvement that it must have appeared to him an innate idea-a latent plan of his own. An enthusiast in canal constructions, as appears by his theoretical work on this subject, it must have been a striking invention that effectually extends the Erie Canal to the city of New York more conveniently than if a towing path had been effectuated along the shores of the Hudson.

You

Now to be consistent Sir, you must respect the judgment of the man whom you have eulogized for wisdom, talents and virtues. You did not indeed in your Life of Fulton, commend this particular act. entirely omit it, as militating perhaps with the object of the work. And you might still have let it sleep, in kindness to those who may have some feeling. For you know there were letters and affidavits in that case; but I have no wish unnecessarily to swell this one beyond the limits of defence.

To call your attention back to the HudsonIf steam towing boats do not substitute certainty for uncertainty, and speed for delay: If it is an invention of no utility, it will not be used; it will be naturally nugatory :-If it is of no consequence, why need it trouble you? Your fears are arguments in its favour. While the warmth of your own mind attempts to raise a mist to obscure its meaning, it can be at no loss to discover the principle that was in Mr. Fulton's. The principle of the invention would have been perfectly clear, had he prevailed in the arbitration. Yourself and other friends would have eagerly adopted his language, in pronouncing it "immensely valuable."

Indeed, since I have travelled in the western counties, and become pretty well informed of the resour

ces of the State, I assure you Sir, I think better of my patent, and my opportunity of usefulness than ever. And since too I have seen your Act of Incorporation, and considered of it, I have become sensible of my error in attempting to open a negociation with you, in which my solicitude to occupy myself preferably elsewhere has led you to deceive yourself as to my views, of the propriety of which you can have no serious doubt.

The sixth section of your act of Incorporation restrains you from freight. This restriction to the view of monopoly may have seemed merely a small concession for the good will of the owners of fifty or sixty Albany sloops; but to other eyes it has the appearance of originating in more foresight, than the Assembly in 1798 possessed; as well as in more justice and policy, than those of 1808 and 1811 exercised. To myself it looks like the incipient expression of public opinion, and a gentle reminiscence of the authority, which the Legislature holds over you.

Can you bring yourself to believe that the Assembly in these enlightened times, meant by that inhibition, to foreclose the State of New York from the use of Steam Power in her Internal Commerce, possessing the noblest and best river in the United States for its use, with the most extensive relations for its utility? I can much more easily believe that there were members so well versed in the science of political economy, as to have calculated the public loss hitherto sustained by the exclusion of fair competition, and mechanical science; which prospectively for sixteen years, amounts to millions of dollars. I can believe that some cool financier was there, who unaffected by the glowing anticipations of Canal emolument, calculated arithmetically, the early probabilities of canal income, the amount of Interest accruing and accumulating on the investment; and who therefore felt the necessity of every help to escape taxation, and the importance of favouring the means of regu