board for part of her cargo, eight bags of cotton, which were seized by the officers of the customhouse, under the conviction that they could not be the growth of America. The following fact ascertained from old newspapers shows the limited extent of the cotton trade for the two subsequent years, viz: that the whole amount arrived at Liverpool from America was short of 120 bags. Now this article is equal in general to some millions more than one half the whole value of our exports. The annual average growth is about one million of bales, amounting to several hundred millions of pounds, of which about one fifth is used in our own manufactories.

We present, in conclusion, the following remarks of a distinguished scholar, upon this great man, occasioned by a visit to the cemetery of New Haven, which sufficiently show in what estimation he is held by those capable of appreciating his merits.

After alluding to the monument of Gen. Humphreys, who introduced the firm wooled sheep into the United States, the stranger remarks: "But Whitney's monument perpetuates the name of a still greater public benefactor. His simple name would have been epitaph enough, with the addition perhaps of the inventor of the cotton gin.' How few of the inscriptions in Westminster Abbey could be compared with that! Who is there that, like him, has given his country a machine-the product of his own skill—which has furnished a large part of its population, from childhood to age, with a lucrative employment; by which their debts have been paid off; their capitals increased; their lands trebled in value ?*** It may be said indeed that this belongs to the physical and material nature of man, and ought not to be compared with what has been done by the intellectual benefactors of mankind; the Miltons, the Shakspeares, and the Newtons. But is it quite certain that any thing short of the highest intellectual vigor-the brightest geniusis sufficient to invent one of these extraordinary machines? Place a common mind before an oration of Cicero and a steam engine, and it will despair of rivalling the latter as much as the former; and we can by no means be persuaded, that the peculiar aptitude for combining and applying the simple powers of mechanics, so as to produce these marvellous operations, does not imply a vivacity of the imagination, not inferior to that of the poet and the orator.' And in concluding he asks," Has not he who has trebled the value of land, created capital, rescued the population from the necessity of emigrating, and covered a waste with plenty-has not he done

The words of Mr. Justice Johnson of South Carolina, in the opinion in the case of Whitney versus Carter.

a service to the country of the highest moral and intellectual character? Prosperity is the parent of civilization, and all its refinements; and every family of prosperous citizens added to the community, is an addition of so many thinking, inventing, moral, and immortal natures."

His tomb is after the model of that of Scipio at Rome. It is simple and beautiful, and promises to endure for years. It bears the following inscription.

ELI WHITNEY,

The inventor of the Cotton Gin.

of useful science and arts, the efficient patron and improver. In the social relations of life, a model of excellence. While private affection weeps at his tomb, his country honors his memory. Born Dec. 8, 1765.-Died Jan. 8, 1825.

DAVID BUSHNELL,

THE ORIGINATOR OF SUBMARINE WARFARE.

Early attempts at submarine navigation.-Drebell's boat.-The invention of an Englishman, for entering sunken ships.-Worcester.-Birth of Bushnell.— Early Character.-Receives a collegiate education.-Account of his first experiments.-Description of his submarine boat, and magazine.-Endeavors to blow up the British ship of war Eagle in the harbor of New York.-Blows up the tender of his Majesty's ship Cerberus, off New London.-Contrives a new expedient to destroy the British shipping in the Delaware.-"Battle of the Kegs."-Dejected at the issue of his experiments, leaves for France.-Returns and settles in Georgia.-His Death.

SINCE the invention of the diving bell in the sixteenth century, we have accounts of several projects for submarine navigation, among which the following are most prominent. "A scheme is said to have been tried in the reign of James the First, by Cornelius Drebell, a famous English projector, who, we are told by Mr. Boyle, made a submarine vessel which would carry twelve rowers, besides the passengers; and that he also discovered a liquid which had the singular property of restoring the air when it became impure by breathing. This last circumstance, with the number of persons enclosed in the machine and the imperfect state of mechanics at the period alluded to, renders the whole story extremely improbable, though it shows clearly that the idea had been entertained and perhaps some attempt made. Another contrivance is men. tioned by Mr. Martin, in his Philosophia Britannica, as the invention of an Englishman, consisting of strong thick leather, which contained half a hogshead of air, so prepared that none could escape, and constructed in such a manner that it exactly fitted the arms and legs, and had a glass placed in the fore part of it. When he put on this apparatus he could not only walk on the ground at the bottom of the sea, but also enter the cabin of a sunken ship and convey goods out of it at pleasure. The inventor is said to have carried on his business for more than forty years, and to have grown rich by it."

It is evident from the perusal of the following pages, that the plans of Bushnell were almost entirely original; and he appears to

have greatly advanced, if not actually to have originated, submarine navigation. In its application as a means of warfare, we must give him the entire credit of originality; although Worcester in his Century or Hundred of Inventions, vaguely alludes to something of the kind, there is no evidence of its application, and as far as regards benefits to subsequent experiments, it is entirely useless. The efforts of Bushnell in the revolutionary, and of Fulton during the late war, at the time attracted considerable attention, and greatly excited the fears* of the enemy. Although, for obvious reasons, the anticipated success did not attend these experiments, we must remember that "invention is progressive ;" and while we hear them derided as visionary, we should reflect that such has ever been the fate, in their incipient stages, of the most useful inventions. The day may not be far distant, when another Bushnell will arise to advance submarine warfare to such perfection as to render it an important auxiliary in coast defence.

David Bushnell was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, some time about the year 1742. His parents were agriculturists of rather moderate circumstances, and resided in a very secluded part of the town. Here in attendance upon the duties of the paternal farm young Bushnell passed the earlier portion of his life, and is only remembered as being a very modest, retiring young man, shunning all society, and bound down to his books.

On the death of his father, which happened when he was about twenty-seven years of age, Bushnell sold his inheritance and removed to the central portion of the town for the purpose of preparing for college, the attainment of a liberal education having long been with him an object of his most ardent wishes. As is customary in the New England villages, the pastor of the society, the Rev. John Devotion, assisted him in his studies.

One of his fellow townsmen Mr. Elias Tully, becoming acquainted with him and admiring his character, very generously offered him a home under his own roof, where he remained until his entrance into Yale college in 1771.

We are ignorant of the origin of Mr. Bushnell's conceptions respecting submarine warfare, but he appears to have turned his attention to the subject in the earlier portions of his collegiate career, so that on graduating in 1775, his plans were advanced to maturity.

* It is well known that during the experiments of Fulton, the British shipping were very cautious in approaching our shores. A gentleman, who was taken prisoner by a vessel of war in Long Island Sound, describes the anxiety of the officers as being so great, that they made a regular practice at certain times of day, of dragging ropes under the ship's bottom. This course, it is believed, was universally practised by the enemy while anchoring off our coast.

"The first experiment was made with about two ounces of gunpowder, to prove to some influential men that powder would burn under water. In the second trial there were two pounds of gunpowder enclosed in a wooden bottle, and fixed under a hogshead, with a two inch oak plank between the hogshead and the powder. The hogshead was loaded with stones as deep as it could swim; a wooden pipe primed with powder descended through the lower head of the hogshead, and thence through the plank into the powder contained in the bottle. A match put to the priming exploded the powder with a tremendous effect, casting a great body of water with the stones and ruins many feet into the air.

"He subsequently made many experiments of a similar nature, some of them with large quantities of powder, all of which produced very violent explosions, much more than sufficient for any purposes he had in view.

“When finished, the external appearance of his torpedo bore some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells of equal size, placed in contact, leaving, at that part which represents the head of the animal, a flue or opening sufficiently capacious to contain the operator, and air to support him thirty minutes. At the bottom, opposite to the entrance, was placed a quantity of lead for ballast. The operator sat upright and held an oar for rowing forward or backward, and was furnished with a rudder for steering. An aperture at the bottom with its valve admitted water for the purpose of descending, and two brass forcing pumps served to eject the water within when necessary for ascending. The vessel was made completely water-tight, furnished with glass windows for the admission of light, with ventilators and air pipes, and was so ballasted with lead fixed at the bottom as to render it solid, and obviate all danger of oversetting. Behind the submarine vessel was a place above the rudder for carrying a large powder magazine; this was made of two pieces of oak timber, large enough, when hollowed out, to contain one hundred and fifty pounds of powder, with the apparatus used for firing it, and was secured in its place by a screw turned by the operator. It was lighter than water, that it might rise against the object to which it was intended to be fastened.

"Within the magazine was an apparatus constructed to run any proposed period under twelve hours; when it had run out its turn, it unpinioned a strong lock, resembling a gun-lock, which gave fire to the powder. This apparatus was so pinioned, that it could not possibly move, until, by casting off the magazine from the vessel, it was set in motion. The skilful operator could swim so low on the surface of the water, as to approach very near a ship in the night, without fear of being discovered; and might, if he chose,