No attempt that deserves notice, has ever been made in our own country upon which any claim, adverse to Mr. Fulton's, has

steam navigation, we may notice the following very important mistake: "It would probably be found of advantage," says the author, "to have a power of changing the velocity of the paddle-wheels according to the circumstances of the current; for when the boat goes with the current, (the velocity of the paddles remaining the same in both cases,) the paddle enters the water comparatively at rest; whereas when the boat goes against the current, the water is going in the direction of the motion of the paddle with great velocity." This last position, as the author unquestionably means it to be understood, is very true, but the mistake is in supposing that the current is passing the boat. In reference to the boat or paddles, the water, with whatever velocity it may run over the bottom, or by the land, is always stagnant, as much so as it is in relation to a chip or other body floating on its surface; so that the current cannot accelerate or retard the paddles, and any power to change their velocity, would be much worse than useless.

It would seem from this work, that an Englishman conceived some idea of a steam-boat, nearly eighty years ago. Mr. Buchannan, the author of the treatise we have mentioned, says that a correspondent of his informed him, that a pamphlet was published in the year seventeen hundred and thirty-seven, by Jonathan Hull, of London, under the title of "A Description and Draught of a new invented Machine for carrying Vessels or Ships out of, or into, any Harbour, Port or River, against Wind or Tide, or in a Calm."

Mr. Buchannan gives, as an extract from this pamphlet, a description of the mechanism employed. But this is merely the description of the earliest atmospheric steam-engines, and their

been pretended, except one, of which a Mr. Fitch, a very ingenious mechanic, was the projector, and which was made on the Delaware, in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-three, subsequently, it will be observed, to the experiment of the Abbé Arnald: so that if Mr. Fulton is not entitled to be

power, which, when applied to proper instruments, the author of the pamphlet says, "must drive a vessel with great force."

From this expression it is to be presumed, that this is a mere project, and that no attempt was made to execute it. Yet certainly if any other than Mr. Fulton is entitled to the credit of being the inventor of steam navigation, it must be this Mr. Jonathan Hull: for he seems to have come as near to the ideas of a perfect steam-boat, as any of the succeeding unsuccessful projectors; and among these, as being the oldest, he is certainly entitled to the highest rank.

But Mr. Buchannan very candidly admits, that Mr. Fulton is entitled to the merit of having been the first who contrived the means of usefully applying the power of steam to navigation, which is all that Mr. Fulton ever claimed: Mr. B. says, " In eighteen hundred and seven, Mr. Fulton of New-York, introduced steam-boats in America; which were the first that succeeded in a profitable way."

This gentleman saw the vessel which was constructed by Lord Stanhope in seventeen hundred and ninety-five. He appears to have taken great pains to inform himself as to the origin and progress of steam-boats. The admission of Mr. Fulton's claims by a Briton, thus circumstanced, cannot be unimportant.

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considered as the inventor of steam-boat navigation, because he was not the first to think of it, for the same reason, Mr. Fitch cannot have that merit.

Mr. Fitch's boat was propelled by paddles and not by wheels.

Mr. Fitch was supported by an association of wealthy men, who themselves witnessed the performance of his boat, who had advanced large sums of money, which were expended upon her, and the reimbursement of which depended on her successful operation. There was at least one of this association, who would not be pleased to be considered in any, but the first rank of mechanicians; yet this vessel and the project were entirely laid aside, after the vessel had been moved by her machinery, several times for some distance up and down the Delaware river. It must be remarked, that this abandonment was made by Mr. Fitch and his associates, after he had obtained an exclusive right to

some time after Mr. Fitch had relinquished, or abandoned his project, went to London. With the pecuniary aid of a wealthy American, and several monied men, he built a steamboat on the Thames. She was to be propelled by the engine's working a vertical pump in the middle of the vessel, by which the water was to be drawn in at the bow, and to be expelled at the stern, through an horizontal trunk in her bottom. But this boat was in her turn abandoned without ever having been in successful operation. Can it be believed, that if Mr. Fitch had constructed a steam-boat that was capable of performing to any useful purpose, Mr. Rumsey would have so entirely failed? or that if he had seen the successful operation on the Delaware, of such water-wheels as are now used on the Fulton boats, he would afterwards have resorted to the unpromising means of propelling his boat, which he adopted?

But, perhaps, the most satisfactory evidence of the success which attended these