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allowed it to be abandoned. Again, Symington proved it in 1801, 2, and 3, (see Fig, 3,) but still he was not encouraged. His own resources exhausted, poverty, not his will, compelled him to relinquish his scheme, just when success was about to reward his ingenuity and perseverance. His steam boat, however, was not destroyed. Laid by on the Forth and Clyde Canal, it naturally became, at that period, the great show and attraction to every inquiring mind, as a wonderful power that might one day master the winds and tides. It was his misfortune, not his want of success, that he could find no further means of continuing an invention which has since been attended with important consequences to the whole human race, and from which a golden harvest has been reaped. Others were more successful, though at a later period. Numbers flocked to see the boat, and drawings afforded a ready facility of transmitting to America, and elsewhere, the details, immediately money supplied the means of carrying them into execution. It has been shown how Fulton availed himself of Symington's liberality. It was, then, but a poor return, the attempt of Fulton to deprive him of the honour of the invention. The Americans, who seem born in a hurry, and whose existence is passed too continuously in "going a-head," not to be sensible of all that steam navigation has done for their country, have so perseveringly claimed the discovery for their countryman, that it is necessary to clip the wing of this Phoenix, who, with no claim to be considered as "the benefactor of the human race," and having no other sufficient fame to soar upon, would substitute the ashes of worthier men, from which to rise. Engines made by Boulton and Watt, for a steam boat built from drawings taken from the one proved practicable by Symington, in Fulton's presence, and for his satisfaction, form but a perishable foundation against "Time, the Avenger," to claim the invention of Steam Navigation. That much merit is due to Fulton and Bell, for their perseverance in overcoming the

fears and prejudices of the public-the one in America, the other in England—it were idle to deny. That they possessed considerable talent, is conceded as their indisputable right; but that either deserves to go down to posterity, entitled to the honour of the invention, is contrary to fact. We should have heard more of Symington, and less of Fulton, had the former met in England the same encouragement the latter found in America. That Fulton himself did not think very highly of the invention, will appear by the following extract from his letter to Joel Barlow, dated the 2nd of August, 1807. Speaking of the success of the "North River" Steamer, he writes, "However, I will not admit that it is half so important as the torpedo system of attack and defence." It is rather singular that our old friend, Mr. Cadwallader Colden, in his Life of Fulton, says not a word of Fulton's witnessing Symington's steam boat at work, though he gives an account of his visit to England. Symington's experiments are not even referred to. Seeking to justify his friend of the "enlarged and philanthropic views and reflections," for changing sides, and offering his services to England, when France would have nothing more to do with his torpedoes, Mr. Cadwallader Colden says, "Without feeling a partiality or enmity to either of the belligerents, he (Mr. Fulton) was desirous of engaging one of the nations at war, to give him the opportunity of trying the efficacy of his inventions." Very humane, certainly. Such "philanthropic views" would be more honoured in the breach than the observance. "If they were proved to answer his expectations," (blowing ships' companies into the air, and 'not leaving a man to relate the dreadful catastrophe,") "he was indifferent as to the temporary advantage it might give one over the other. He believed that the result would be the permanent happiness of all." Here is a new method of making people happy, and Fulton is, at least, entitled to this invention, which no one will

seek to deprive him of. It is seldom, indeed, that a book containing so much grave humour, so admirably disguised, has come before me. Three hundred and seventy-one octavo pages are devoted to the praises of Mr. Fulton and his various inventions, one of which is thus spoken of: "In a few years, perhaps, all Europe will be surprised to see a flotilla of diving boats, which, on a given signal, shall, to avoid the pursuit of an enemy, plunge under water," (like ducks before a terrier,) "and rise again several leagues from the place where they descended." All Fulton did, to clear the seas with his infernal torpedoes, was to blow up a few unoffending old hulks, which, poor things, being chained fast for the purpose, and having none to protect them, could not get out of the way, and thus became the easy victims of his "prepared carcasses." "He offered," says Mr. Cadwallader Colden, "his personal services, with his torpedoes, to compel the British vessels to be obedient (!) to the will of the Government; but happily they were not so obstinate as to afford an opportunity of trying this terrible mode of compulsion." I dwell very unwillingly, at this time, so long upon Mr. Fulton, but there seems to be a misapprehension of the extent of his talents and claims, though both are considerable. The following sublime panegyric, by Gouverneur Morris, is another instance of the praises lavished upon Fulton as the inventor of Steam Navigation. Rhodomontade can no further go. "A bird hatched on the Hudson" (from an egg stolen by Fulton from Symington) "will soon people the floods of the Wolga, and cygnets descended from an American swan, glide along the surface of the Caspian Sea. Then the hoary genius of Asia, high-throned on the peak of Caucasus, his moist eye glistening while it glares over the ruins of Babylon, Persepolis, Jerusalem, and Palmyra, shall bow with grateful reverence to the inventive spirit of this western world." Now, as moist eyes are somewhat short-sighted, the "hoary genius of Asia,” afore

said, had better wipe his "moist eye," and clear up, and look a little further through the fog, if he wants to see the birth-place of the true inventor. As to the Marquess of Jouffroy's boat on the Soane, it was as unsuccessful as the experiments in America before Fulton's "North River." On this account it deserves no further mention here, though the Marquess does calculate surfaces of pistons by "round inches," an invention of equal originality and merit with his boat.

TABLE, No. 2.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF STEAM VESSELS REGISTERED IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1838, SPECIFYING THE PARTICULAR PLACES TO WHICH THEY BELONG.

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For the whole number of Steam Vessels, registered and not registered, belonging to the British Empire, in 1838, see Table, No. 3, page 143, and the Explanation of the Tables, page 145.

TABLE, No. 3.

OF THE NUMBER, TONNAGE, AND POWER OF STEAM VESSELS IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE,

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Grand total belonging to the British Empire in 1838 810

87,907 70,086 | 157,993 | 63,250

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