of my estimate of the deposition he has lodged, to say that this Parthian shaft—­the last that he could hurl at an invention which he has so long and so remorselessly pursued—­is a fitting finale to that career which the public justice of the country has so signally rebuked.”

Mr. Holt paid a noble tribute to the class of men of whose rights he was the official guardian:—­

“All that is glorious in our past or hopeful in our future is indissolubly linked with that cause of human progress of which inventors are the preux chevaliers.  It is no poetic translation of the abiding sentiment of the country to say, that they are the true jewels of the nation to which they belong, and that a solicitude for the protection of their rights and interests should find a place in every throb of the national heart.  Sadly helpless as a class, and offering, in the glittering creations of their own genius, the strongest temptations to unscrupulous cupidity, they, of all men, have most need of the shelter of the public law, while, in view of their philanthropic labors, they are of all men most entitled to claim it.  The schemes of the politician and of the statesman may subserve the purposes of the hour, and the teachings of the moralist may remain with the generation to which they are addressed, but all this must pass away; while the fruits of the inventor’s genius will endure as imperishable, memorials, and, surviving the wreck of creeds and systems, alike of politics, religion, and philosophy, will diffuse their blessings to all lands and throughout all ages.”

When Mr. Goodyear had seen the manufacture of shoes and fabrics well established in the United States, and when his rights appeared to have been placed beyond controversy by the Trenton decision of 1852, being still oppressed with debt, he went to Europe to introduce his material to the notice of capitalists there.  The great manufactories of vulcanized India-rubber in England, Scotland, France, and Germany are the result of his labors; but the peculiarities of the patent laws of those countries, or else his own want of skill in contending for his rights, prevented him from reaping the reward of his labors.  He spent six laborious years abroad.  At the Great Exhibitions of London and Paris, he made brilliant displays of his wares, which did honor to his country and himself, and gave an impetus to the prosperity of the men who have grown rich upon his discoveries.  At the London Exhibition, he had a suite of three apartments, carpeted, furnished, and decorated only with India-rubber.  At Paris, he made a lavish display of India-rubber jewelry, dressing-cases, work-boxes, picture-frames, which attracted great attention.  His reward was, a four days’ sojourn in the debtors’ prison, and the cross of the Legion of Honor.  The delinquency of his American licensees procured him the former, and the favor of the Emperor the latter.