structive of her happiness. Without re- and three, Mr. Fulton went from Paris to ference, therefore, to the merits of the Amsterdam for this purpose But the then existing contest, the grounds of agent with whom he was to confer did not which were constantly changing; without arrive and after being in Amsterdam feeling a partiality or enmity to either of three months, he returned to Paris. the belligerents; he was desirous of engaging one of the nations at war, to give We cannot resist the impression that him an opportunity of trying the efficacy some light is thrown upon Mr. Fulton's of his inventions. If they were proved to conduct by the evidence adduced for answer his expectations, he was indiffer- another purpose, by Mr. Colden, from ent as to the temporary advantages it might Lord Stanhope, his early friend and cor give either over the other. He believed respondent. that the result would be the permanent happiness of all, and that in the general Lord Stanhope in the House of Lords, soon In a speech on American affairs, made by good, his own country would largely participate. He considered himself as intro. ducing a new military science, which he wished to prove, and in which he had a desire to perfect himself for the benefit of his country, and of mankind. His sentiments on this subject were not novel, nor without the sanction of the nations which they most immediately concerned. Neither France nor England has hesitated to encourage their citizens, with a view to their improvement in military science, to serve in the armies and navies of foreign states at war, when they have been neutral. "Whatever" says Mr. C." may be the just force of this reasoning, it swayed the mind of Mr. Fulton to honest conviction." It is doubtful whether it will produce a similar effect on any other mind. From the following passage we infer, that the negotiations between Mr. Fulton and the English ministry were clandestine, and were carried on at a time when he resided in France, and was ostensibly attached to her interests: after these experiments were made, he is reported in an English newspaper, to have said, "it was not, perhaps, sufficiently known that, at that very moment, exertions were making in America to carry into effect a plan, for the disclosure of which an individual had, a few years before, demanded of the British government fifteen alluded to a plan, he said, for the invisible thousand dollars, but had been refused. He destruction of shipping, and particularly scheme was then in America, and it was of men of war. That the inventor of this ascertained that it would not, on an average, cost twenty pounds to destroy any ship whatever." While he was labouring for his new employers, some of his torpedoes were thrown from British boats upon French vessels, but they exploded without ef fect-a circumstance which Mr. Fulton attributed to a slight, and easily rectified mistake. To evince the correctness of this opinion, in October 1805, he did blow up with complete success a brig provided for the purpose. Stiil, however, the British ministry were incredulous, and "Mr. Fulton, wearied with incessant applications, disappointments, and neglect, at length embarked for this country.' Mr. Colden here fairly states 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 consequence might result from the application of Mr. Fulton's inventions. The in- It would be doing injustice to the me formation he obtained was communicated mory of Mr. Fulton, as well as that of anto the British cabinet, and excited alarm. other ingenious native American, not to It was determined by the British ministry, notice, before we leave this subject, that if possible to withdraw Mr. Fulton from, Mr. Fulton did not pretend to have been France. Lord Sidmouth, who was then the first who discovered that gunpowder one of the ministers, contrived to have a might be exploded with effect under wa communication with Mr. Fulton, while he ter; nor did he pretend to have been the was in Paris, and obtained his consent first who attempted to apply it as the to meet an agent of the British government means of hostility. He knew well what in Holland. In October, eighteen hundred had been done by Bushnell in our revol VOL. I. NO. IV. 2 K tionary war. He frequently spoke of the greater effect in proportion to the supegenius of this American with great re- riority of their naval force. But no such spect and expressed a conviction that motive can be ascribed to the French his attempts against the enemy would have been more successful if he had had republican government, and they rejectthe advantages which he himself derived ed it—no such suspicion can lie against from the improvements of nearly forty Bonaparte, and after a full trial he reyears in mechanics and mechanical philo linquished it-or against the Dutch sophy. government, and they declined it-no We cannot but think, that it is a very such policy is to be attributed to our exaggerated estimate of the efficiency administration, and still we are told by of Mr. Fulton's contrivances which in- Mr. Colden, (page 207,)" Mr. Fulton's duces Mr. Colden to suppose, that "the plan for submarine warfare met with British ministry never truly intended to no countenance from the government. give Mr. Fulton a fair opportunity of He had not been able to inspire the trying the effects of his engines." executive officers with any confidence The object may have been to prevent in them [it]." We presume, also, that their being placed in the hands of an ene- Commodore Rodgers is not to be accumy; and if that was accomplished, it was sed of connivance in a similar design. the interest of England, as long as she was Besides, Mr. Colden should have ambitious of maintaining the proud title of mistress of the seas, to make the world be- weighed the matter well before he made lieve, that Mr. Fulton's projects were chi- a charge which necessarily implies that merical. Nothing could be more likely to all the experiments made by such men produce this effect, than abortive attempts as Mr. Cavendish, Sir Home Popham, to apply them. This would prevent other Major Congreve, and Mr. Rennie, (the nations from making similar experiments, commissioners appointed by the British and discourage, the inventor. In June, the British ministry appointed ministry) were intended to be decepa commission to examine Mr. Fulton's tive, and that their report was meanly projects. The commissioners were Sir fraudulent and false. Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish, Sir Home Mr. Colden has so far suffered his Popham, Major Congreve, and Mr. John imagination to predominate over his Rennie. Many weeks passed before Mr. better judgment upon this subject, that Fulton could prevail on them to do any thing, and finally, when they met, they he seems really to have supposed [see reported against the submarine boat as be- page 206] that during the late war it ing impracticable. In a letter to the mi- was a main object with the British nistry, Mr. Fulton complains that this report was made without his having been to ascertain the part of the coast where Mr. Fulton might reside, and to called upon for any explanations, and although the gentlemen who made it had avoid it as the peculiarly fulminating before them no account of what had been point of this terrific submerged thunder. done. Indeed, in the first interview which Mr. Fulton had with Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville, the latter condemned the Nauti Jus without a moment's consideration. Mr. Fulton arrived in New-York in December, 1806, and immediately renewed the pursuit of the objects upon which he had recently been engaged in If these engines were, in truth, as terri- Europe, that is, submarine war and steam ble as the biographer imagines, it would navigation. He was encouraged by the not be strange that the British ministry American government, and in the sumshould choose to preserve their navy by mer of 1807 made several experiments, almost any means, from entire demoli- and one of them upon a large hulk brig, tion; and they might oppose the intro- (an unresisting subject) was completely duction of a mode of warfare, which, successful. The narrowness of our though in the first instance it was exert- limits--the necessary length of this ared against their enemies, would infal- ticle-and the notoriety of these atlibly re-act against themselves with tempts, which were made in the vicinity of this city, render it unnecessary for paramount importance, he is entitled to us to detail them with minuteness. In praise enough to fully satisfy the amMarch, 1810, Congress passed an act bition and affection of his friends. The making an appropriation for trying the increased facility of intercourse in many use of torpedoes and submarine explo- parts of the world, and especially on sions. Commissioners were appointed this continent, is such as twenty years to observe the success of the experi- ago it would have required a bold imaments of which the sloop of war Argus, gination to conceive. Can any man commanded by Captain Lawrence, was doubt that Mr. Fulton has been mainly to be the subject. These commission- instrumental in accelerating, if he did ers differed considerably in their reports not exclusively produce this state of of the result to the government. Chan- things? The whole progress of the arts cellor Livingston, with whom, as we shows that the first discovery of a prinbefore mentioned, Mr. Fulton had form- ciple is usually very remote from the ed a very intimate acquaintance and perfection of the practice. This is connexion in France, which subsisted strongly exemplified by some facts during their joint lives, was rather fa- stated by Mr. Fulton himself.-In 1320 vourably impressed. General Lewis gunpowder was discovered; 150 years ("whose long military services and ex- after that period iron balls were first perience," Mr. Colden thinks," render used; muskets were unknown until. his judgment on this subject, deserving 200 years from the same time; and in of the highest consideration,") was ve- these the cumbrous match lock did not ry sanguine of their ultimate success; give place to the fire-lock till the beand such, also, was the opinion of the ginning of the 17th century, that is, biographer, then one of the cominis- 280 years after the first knowledge of. gunpowder. sioners. Commodore Rodgers also made a report, which contained a journal of the daily proceedings of Mr. Fulton and the committee, and very minute descriptions of the machines and experiments. His opinion was entirely against Mr. Fulton's system, and Le concludes, that every part of it would be found totally impracticable. "In the year sixteen hundred and sixtythree, the Marquis of Worcester discovered the expansive power of steam. Thirtythree years afterwards,Captain Savary took. out a patent for a steam-engine, to pump the mines of Cornwall. In seventeen hundred and five, Mr. Newcomen thought of a piston to the cylinder; but he worked A great portion of the work is occuat it nine years before it was sufficiently pied by a statement of Mr. Fulton's improved to give a fair prospect of utility. Fifty-two years after Mr. Newcomen's dismerits, and those of his chief friend and covery, Mr. Watt thought of another imassociate, Chancellor Livingston, in rela- provement, which was the separate contion to steam navigation. The infor- denser. Thus it was a hundred years mation prevalent upon this subject-the from the time of the Marquis of Worceslegal discussions which have already ter, till Mr. Watt's discovery gave the steam-engine, in any degree, its present been had, and which may hereafter perfection; and rendered it so simple, faarise in relation to it, and to speak miliar, and useful, as to be adapted to the honestly, a little distrust of our own many important purposes to which it is judgment, induce us to refrain from a now applied." minute examination of the claims which Another striking illustration to the are advanced in favour of those gentle- same effect, and which may serve to exmen. It is but fair, however, to remark, emplify the nature as well as to manifestthat even if it be admitted that Mr. the degree of Mr. Fulton's benefactions Fulton has done no more than to re- to the public, is to be found in the graduce to successful practice previously dual improvements effected in his steam existing theories upon a subject of such beats since their establishment. We * believe that the average passage of the perhaps this invention is hereafter desfirst boat between Albany and this city tined to display. fell little short of 36 hours, and in some of the present boats it does not exceed 21 hours. Mr. Fulton's attention was strongly attracted during several parts of his life to the subject of improving internal navigation by means of canals, and in particular, he entered with bis characteristic enthusiasm, into the magnificent project which our Legislature is now attempting to realize. In 1811 he was appointed one of the commissioners apor the subject, but he did not sanction the Report which in the subsequent year was returned to the Legislature. It is not claimed by the biographer either that this scheme in particular, or generally this branch of improvement, has received any eminent benefit from the genius or industry of Mr. Fulton. In February, eighteen hundred and fourteen, he addressed a letter to Gouverneur Morris, Esq. President of the Board of Commissioners, in which he shows what would be the advantages of the proposed canal, and exhibits very interesting and curious calculations of the comparative expense of transportation upon land, upon rivers, and upon canals. The same year Mr. Fulton, with the other commissioners, made another report to the legislature: this is the last service he rendered this magnificent project. The occasion and manner of Mr. Fulton's death is thus related. In January, eighteen hundred and fifteen, Mr. John R Livingston, who owned the steam-boat which plyed between NewYork and New-Jersey, but which was stopPed by the operation of the Jersey laws, petitioned the legislature of that state for their repeal. After hearing witnesses and counsel for several days, the laws were rescinded. It was upon this occasion that Mr. Fulton was examined as a witness, as we have before stated. The weather, while he was at Trenton, where he was much exposed in attending the hall of the legislature, was uncommonly cold. When he was crossing the Hudson to return to his house and family, the river was very full of ice, which occasioned his being several hours on the water in a very severe day. Mr. Fulton had not a constitution to encounter such exposure, and upon his return he found himself much indisposed from the effects of it. He had at that time great anxiety about the steam-frigate, and, after confining himself for a few days, when he was convalescent, he went to give his superintendance to the artificers employed about her: he forgot his debilitated state of health in the interest he took in what was doing on the frigate, and was a long time, in a bad day, exposed to the weather on her decks. He soon found the effects of this imprudence. His indispo sition returned upon him with such vio. lence as to confine him to his bed: His disorder increased, and on the twentyfourth day of February, eighteen hundred and fifteen, terminated his valuable life. then in session at Albany, heard of the As soon as the legislature, which was death of Mr. Fulton, they expressed their participation in the general sentiment, by resolving that the members of both houses should wear mourning for some weeks. We presume that our readers will readily excuse our omission of any acCount of Mr. Fulton's well-known and very extensive experiments in relation to the various modes which he devised for submarine attack, and for transferring a large portion of naval warfare beneath the surface of the ocean. We It will appear, by the above slight are told by Mr. Colden that the steam frigate, that imposing if not effective engine of war, owes its origin to these experiments, although it is not apparently connected with them. The untimely death of Mr. Fulton;-the cessation of the war; and the imperfections in separable from the intancy of all improvements, may have prevented the Full developement of the powers which sketch of the life of this valuable citizen, that the three great subjects of his attention and efforts, were the improvement of the art of making canals, submarine warfare, and steam navigation. In relation to the first, we are not aware that he has effected much; in the second, he has displayed great talent and wonderful industry, the effects and utility of which time is hereafter to de velope; and in the third he has done ral subjects of Mr. Fulton's investiga- the author. The work which is the subject of pression is every thing. Considering our remarks, was read as a memoir be- the avocations of the writer, part of the fore the Literary and Philosophical prolixity to which we object, is perSociety of New-York. It was undoubt- haps to be excused upon the ground edly designed for the press, and we suggested by Dean Swift-that he had have treated it as such. We under- no time to write shorter,-but surely stand that the profits of the publication there is a great deal which might have are liberally given to that society by been beneficially retrenched. The merits of Mr. West and his pictures, Mr. Colden evidently does not hold whatever they may be, might more the pen of a ready or practised writer. properly have been left to form a part of His style is sometimes deficient in ele- the biography of that gentleman, whengance, and often in ease and grace. In ever it shall come to be again written, a composition so formal, and so gene- We have thought proper to notice rally stately, we do not like such ex- these imperfections, though of minor pressions as " the little farm on which importance. Upon the whole, we think he settled his mother," page 9. "Ca- the writer has done justice to his subnalling," page 19,-and we particularly ject and honour to himself. disrelish the mock solemnity which results from prefixing the indefinite article to the name of an individual-"they mark the genius of a Fulton," page 13. But these are trifles. The work wants arrangement. The writer seems to have been confused between his attention to chronological order, and his desire to keep separate his accounts of the seve The Appendix contains some in- It would be unjust to the publishers ART. 3. Le Printemps, premier chant du Poëme Chinois, Des Saisons, traduit en vers Français, et mêlé d'allusions au Regne de Louis XVIII., Par Charles Léopold Mathieu, Membre de plusieurs Sociétés Savantes, nationales et étran géres. A Nancy. CHEZ HENER. 8vo. pp. 28. CONSIDERING the frequent inter hitherto, are trifling both in quantity and course of Europeans with the Chi- value. The labours of Dr. Marshman, nese, for centuries, it is somewhat ex- Mr. Morrison, &c. which have so much traordinary that so little should be facilitated the attainment of a language known of their literature. It is the that has heretofore presented difficulties more remarkable, as their pretensions in apprehension almost insurmountable, to learning are so great, and their may, perhaps,pave the way for more imbooks so numerous, for they have portant accumulations of Oriental lore. possessed the art of printing, after a But it is in their popular works of fanfashion of their own, from time imme- cy, in their plays, poetry, and novels, morial. Some of the writings of Con- that we must look for indications of the fucius have, indeed, been translated in- prevailing character and temperament to English, and versions have been of a people. Of these very few have made of a few other works of various fallen into the course of our reading. descriptions. But the acquisitions, This is the first specimen, such as it is, |