with a view to obtaining a special Act of Parliament for a patent, I was compelled by the circumstances of the case to defer till some more favorable opportunity, on my expected return to England, any attempt of the kind.  The Emperor of Russia, however, refused to ratify the contract made with me by the Counselor of State, and my design of returning to Europe was frustrated, and I have not to this hour [April 2, 1847] had the means to prosecute this enterprise to a result in England.  All my exertions were needed to establish my telegraphic system in my own country.

“Time has shown conclusively the essential difference of my telegraphic system from those of my opponents; time has also shown that my system was not published in England, as alleged by the Attorney-General, for, to this day, no work in England has published anything that does not show that, as yet, it is perfectly misunderstood....

“The refusal to grant me a patent was, at that period, very disastrous.  It was especially discouraging to have made a long voyage across the Atlantic in vain, incurring great expenditure and loss of time, which in their consequences also produced years of delay in the prosecution of my enterprise in the United States.”

The long statement, from which I have taken the above extracts, was written, as I have noted, on April 2, 1847, but the following interesting addition was made to it on December 11, 1848:—­

“At the time of preparing this statement I lacked one item of evidence, which it was desirable to have aside from my own assertion, viz., evidence that the refusal of the Attorney-General was on the ground ‘that a publication of the invention had been made.’  I deemed it advisable rather to suffer from the delay and endure the taunts, which my unscrupulous opponents have not been slow to lavish upon me in consequence, if I could but obtain this evidence in proper shape.  I accordingly wrote to my brother, then in London, to procure, if possible, from Lord Campbell or his secretary an acknowledgment of the ground on which he refused my application for a patent in 1838, since no public report or record in such cases is made.

“My brother, in connection with Mr. Carpmael, one of the most distinguished patent agents in England, addressed a note to Mr. H. Cooper, the Attorney-General’s secretary at the time, and the only official person besides Lord Campbell connected with the matter.  The following is Mr. Cooper’s reply:—­

“’WILMINGTON SQUARE, May 23d, 1848.

“’GENTLEMEN,—­In answer to yours of the 20th inst., I beg to state that I have a distinct recollection of Professor Morse’s application for a patent, strengthened by the fact of his not having paid the fees for the hearing, etc., and these being now owing.  I understood at the time that the patent was stopped on the ground that a publication of the invention had been made, but I cannot procure Lord Campbell’s certificate of that fact.