a pressure of more than a few pounds per square inch, Hence it was, that, although her boiler was rent, in consequence of a defect in the workmanship, nobody suffered by the accident. The alarm led the engineer erroneously to stop the engine; but the captain ordered him to let it go on; when, the fire being slackened, and the condenser in operation, the water soon ceased to leak out. It is possible, in fact, for an engine to go, when the pressure is inadequate to resist that of the atmosphere, so that, on puncturing the boiler, the air would rush in, instead of the steam's rushing out,

If high steam is to be resorted to, however, there is a very simple mode by which the danger of explosion might be obviated. There are but two ways, in which such consequences can arise, where a boiler is provided with a proper safety-valve. One is, by overloading the valve, in consequence of unduly estimating the strength of the boiler;-the other, by some indiscreet or malicious interference, which impedes the freedom of its action. In order to provide against the first, let the strength of the boiler, in every boat, be proved periodically, by a pressure at least ten pounds more than it is intended to use in practice :-to provide against the second, let there be an additional safety-valve, secured in a case, so as to be inaccessible to every one but the captain; who ought to be obligated not to load it higher than within ten pounds of heroint, to which the boiler may have been proved.

[In September, eighteen hundred and sixteen, the late Gouverneur Morris, Esq. delivered an inaugural discourse before the New-York Historical Society. He concluded his address with the passages which we subjoin. They deserve to be preserved as an evidence of the genius of the respected and lamented author, as a just tribute to the memory of those whose names he mentions, and as a memorial of the project which inspired such eloquence.]

"By the occasion which called us together, we are reminded that Hudson discovered, in one thousand six hundred and nine, the river which bears his name. Imagine his amazement, had some prophetic spirit revealed that this island would, in two centuries from the first European settlement, embrace a population of twice fifty thousand souls.

Europe witnessed, in eight years, four events which had great influence on the condition of mankind. The race of English monarchs expired with Elizabeth in one thousand six hundred and three. Henry the Fourth of France was assassinated in one thousand six hundred and ten. In the same year the Moors were expelled from Spain. And, in the next, Gustavus Adolphus became king of Sweden. These events excited, as they

ought, much attention. But the discovery of Hudson's River, within the same period, was of such trivial estimation as to occupy no space in public annals.

"O man! how short thy sight. To pierce the cloud which overhangs futurity, how feeble. But why be surprised that European statesmen, two centuries ago, were indifferent to what passed on the savage coast of America; when, at the same time, the existence of Russia was unnoticed and almost unknown.

"Little more than a century has elapsed since the decisive victory of Pultowa introduced the empire of the Czars to the society of European nations; an empire which stretched out from Germany to Kamschatska, from the Black Sea to the Frozen Ocean, contains a greater extent than was ever traversed by the Roman eagle in its boldest flight. That vast empire, so That vast empire, so lately known, and so little understood, resisted, unshaken, the shock of embattled Europe, poured the rapid current of conquest back from the ruins of Moscow to the walls of Paris, and stands a proud arbiter of human destiny.

"A mission of no common sort was lately about to proceed from the New World to the Old. From that which in one thousand six hundred was a dreary wilderness, to that which in one thousand seven hundred was a cold morass. It was contemplated that a vessel of novel invention, leaving this harbour, should display American

genius and hardihood in the port of St. Petersburgh. If this expedition be suspended or laid aside, it is not from any doubt as to its practicability.

"There are persons of some eminence, in Europe, who look contemptuously at our country, in the persuasion that all creatures, not excepting man, degenerate here. They triumphantly call on us to exhibit a list of our scholars, poets, heroes, and statesmen. Be this the care of posterity. But admitting we had no proud names to show, is it reasonable to make such heavy demand on so recent a people. Could the culture of science be expected from those who, in cultivating the earth, were obliged, while they held a plough in one hand, to grasp a sword in the other? Let those who depreciate their brethren of the West, remember that our forests, though widely spread, gave no academic shade.

"In the century succeeding Hudson's voyage, the great poets of England flourished, while we were compelled to earn our daily bread by our daily labour. The ground, therefore, was occupied before we had leisure to make our approach. The various chords of our mother tongue have, long since, been touched to all their tones by minstrels, beneath whose master-hand it has resounded every sound, from the roar of thunder, rolling along the vault of Heaven, to the "lascivious pleasings of a lute." British genius and taste have, already, given to all "the

ideal forms that imagination can body forth," a "local habitation and a name." Nothing then remains, for the present age, but to repeat their just thoughts in their pure style. Those who, on either side of the Atlantic, are too proud to perform this plagiary task, must convey false thoughts, in the old classic diction, or clothe in frippery phrase the correct conceptions of their predecessors. Poetry is the splendid effect of genius moulding into language a barbarous dialect. When the great bards have written, the language is formed; and by those who succeed it is disfigured. The reason is evident. New authors would write something new, when there is nothing new. All which they can do, therefore, is to fill new moulds with old metal, and exhibit novelty of expressions, since they cannot produce novelty of thought. But these novel expressions must vary from that elegance and force in which the power and harmony of language have been already displayed.

"Let us not, then, attempt to marshal, against each other, infernal and celestial spirits, to describe the various seasons, to condense divine and moral truth in mellifluent verse, or to imitate, in our native speech, the melody of ancient song. Other paths remain to be trodden, other fields to be cultivated, other regions to be explored. The fertile earth is not yet wholly peopled. The raging ocean is not yet quite subdued. If the learned leisure of European wealth can gain applause or emolument for meting out, by syllables reluctantly drawn together, un