But while I thus explain the unwarrantable claims which Americans have set forth, I must not allow John Bull to lay the flattering unction to his soul that none of his claimed discoveries are disputed on the other side of the Atlantic, I have seen a Book of Facts printed in America, which charges us with more than one geographical robbery in the Arctic Seas, in which regions, it is well known, American enterprise and sympathy have been most nobly employed.  As I am incapable of balancing the respective claims, I leave that subject to the Hydrographer’s office of the two countries.

The citizens of the Republic have but little idea of the injurious effects which the putting forward unwarrantable claims has upon their just claims.  I have now before me a letter from a seafaring man who has spent a quarter of a century upon the borders of the United States; he is writing on the subject of their claims to the invention of steam, and he winds up in these words:—­“They are with this, as they are with every other thing to which either merit or virtue is attached—­the sole and only proprietors and originators, and say both the one and the other are unknown out of the universal Yankee nation.”  I do not endorse the sentiment, but I quote it to show the effect produced on some minds by the unfounded claims they have put forward.

They have ingenuity and invention enough legitimately belonging to them for any nation to be justly proud of, without plucking peacock’s feathers from others, and sending them throughout the length and breadth of the Republic as the plumage of the American eagle.  How many useful inventions have they not made in machinery for working wood?  Is not England daily importing some new improvement therein from the American shores?  Look again at their perfect and beautiful invention for the manufacture of seamless bags, by Mr. Cyrus Baldwin, and which he has at work at the Stark Mills.  There are 126 looms in operation, all self-acting and each one making 47 bags daily; the bags are a little more than three and a half feet long, and chiefly used, I believe, for flour and grain.  When they are finished, sewing-machines are at hand, which can hem at the rate of 650 bags each daily.  This same gentleman has also adapted his looms to the making hoses for water, of which he can complete 1000 feet a day by the experimental loom now in use, and it is more than probable these hoses will entirely supersede the use of the leather ones, being little more than one-tenth the price, and not requiring any expense to keep in order.

Another and very important purpose to which their ingenuity has applied machinery is, the manufacture of fire-arms.  It has long been a matter of surprise to me, why so obvious and useful an application of machinery was neglected by the Government at home.  The advantages of being able to transfer all screws, springs, nipples, hammers, &c., from one musket to another, are so manifest to the most infantine comprehension, that I suppose they considered it beneath their notice; nor can I make out that they have duly inquired into the various breech-loading systems used in the States, some of which they have been testing in their Navy for years.  As, however, we are beginning to copy their application of machinery, I dare say the next generation will take up the question of breech-loading arms.