ways "gone about doing good," and that he has ever been" first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Indeed so much is he beloved, that he would no doubt become governor of the state, were he not deficient in one quality, which, in our government, is the ne plus ultra of excellence-the power of speech; your petitioner was unfortunately born deaf and dumb. He hopes, however, by the assistance of the philanthropic gentlemen who have come over for that express purpose, to obtain this inestimable blessing.

Your petitioner now proceeds to state the reason of his present appeal. It was about two years ago that his misfortunes began. It is unnecessary to recount how he was hurried from the election ground to a gin-shop, and thence to a card table, how he was carried thence by a young gentleman, who left him with a milliner, who gave him to a young lady, who took him to the playhouse; it is sufficient to say that after many adventures, he was taken by a huge Kentucky merchant, who carried pistols, and brought him to the city of Pittsburg, where he was lodged in the vault whence he now dates this petition. Here, together with many companions, he has suffered under a rigorous confinement. They have borne it long without murmuring, but can bear it no longer. The vaults of a bank, may it please your honours, afford neither air, warmth, nor refreshment, and in such a place your petitioner is in danger of being immured for ever. Nor is this all; so determined are our enemies upon our destruction, that they are erecting new jails in every village for our reception. We are told that one of these prisons is shortly to be established at a place called Noodledoozy, to which we apprehend that we shall be transferred, and confined for life.

Your petitioner, therefore, prays, that your honours will issue a writ of habeas corpus, to bring him before you, and to oblige his keepers to show cause why he is detained; and your petitioner is induced to hope and believe, that when you have reviewed his former character, and duly considered his extensive usefulness, his request will be granted; and the best prayer he can make for your honours is, that you were "not only almost, but altogether such as he is, except these bonds."

And for this, your petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray. DANIEL DOLLAR.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LATE MATTHEW BOULTON.

The following biographical sketch of a conspicuous Englishman, intimately connected with the arts, manufactures, and commerce of his country, will be interesting to the political economist, the patriot, and all those who justly appreciate the importance of such a character to a nation.

Ir genius and indefatigable industry, directed by the purest patriotism, have any claim to the notice of our readers, an account of this gentleman cannot but be highly acceptable. When we contemplate the enlarged extent of his views, the wide and rapid circulation of his improvements and discoveries in the most important branches of art, and the numerous and honourable connexions which he has formed in every part of the civilized world, we shall be obliged to admit that few men possess greater claims to the attention and gratitude of their country. Matthew Boulton was born at Birmingham, the 14th of September, 1728. He received the chief part of his education at a private grammar school. So early as the year 1745, Mr. Boulton having lost his father, who left him in flourishing circumstances, distinguished himself by the invention of a new and most ingenious method of inlaying steel. Buckles, watch chains, and a great variety of other articles, wrought at his manufactory, were exported in large quantities to France, where they were eagerly purchased by the English, who affected to have no taste for the productions of their own country. The confinement of a populous town was but ill suited to such an establishment as soon became necessary for Mr. Boulton's farther experiments. Accordingly in the year 1762, he purchased those extensive tracts of common, at that time a barren heath, with only a small house and mill, on which the Soho manufactory now stands. He laid the foundation of his present extensive works, at the expense of 9,000l. To this spot his liberal patronage soon attracted great numbers of ingenious men from all parts, and by their aid he so eminently succeeded in imitating the or molu, that the most splendid apartments in this and in many foreign countries rcceived their ornaments from Soho. Here too the works of the greatest masters in oil colours were mechanically taken off, with such ease and exactness, that the original could scarcely be distinguished from the copy. This mode of copying was invented by

the late Mr. Eggington, whose performances in stained glass afterwards introduced his name to public notice. The utmost power of the water mill, which Mr. Boulton had hitherto employed, fell infinitely short, even with the aid of horses, of that immense force which was soon found necessary to the completion of his designs. Recourse was therefore had, about the year 1767, to that chef d'oeuvre of human ingenuity, the steam engine. The first that Mr. Boulton constructed was on M. Savary's plan; but the machine was yet, as it were, in its infancy, and by no means answered Mr. Boulton's expectations. In the year 1769, Mr. James Watt, of Glasgow, obtained a patent for such a prodigious improvement of it, that Mr. Boulton immediately sought his acquaintance, and induced him to settle at Soho. At this place the facility of its application to a variety of concerns, wherein great force was requisite, soon manifested its superior utility and vast advantages to the public; parliament, therefore, in 1775, cheerfully granted a prolongation of Mr. Watt's patent for twenty-five years. A partnership now commenced between Messrs. Boulton and Watt; and a manufactory of steam engines, on their improved plan was established at Soho, which still supplies the chief mines and manufactories throughout the kingdom. Aided by such talents, and commanding such unlimited mechanical powers, Mr. Boulton's views soon expanded, and Soho began to exhibit symptoms of the extraordinary advantages it had acquired. The art of coining had long stood in need of simplification aud arrangement, and to this art Mr. Boulton no sooner turned his attention, than about the year 1788, he erected a coining mill, on an improved plan, and struck a gold medal of the full weight of a guinea, and of the same form as that of his new copper coinage lately put into circulation. The superior advantages of that form are obvious. The impression is far less liable to friction; and by means of a steel gauge of equal diameter, money coined on that principle, may be examined by measure as well by weight, the rim being exactly circular. Moreover, the intrinsic is so nearly equal to the current value of every piece, that, without a steam engine and adequate apparatus, every attempt to counterfeit the Soho coinage must be made with loss. The fabrication of base money seems likely, by these means, to be speedily checked, and, it is to be

hoped entirely defeated. The mill at Soho works eight machines, each of which receives stamps, and delivers out, by the aid of only a little boy, from seventy to ninety pieces of copper in one minute. Either of them is stopped without the smallest interruption to the motion of the others. In adjoining apartments all the preparatory processes are carried on with equal facility and despatch; such as rolling the copper into sheets, dividing them into blanks, and shaking them into bags clean and ready for the die. Without any personal communication between the different classes of workmen, the blanks are conveyed to the room where they are shaken, and from thence to the coining room in boxes, moving with immense velocity on an inclined plane, and accompanied by a ticket of their weight. The Sierra Leone Company employed Mr. Boulton's mint in the coinage of silver, and the East India Company in that of copper. He also sent two complete mints to Petersburgh. Mr. Boulton having presented Paul I, with some of the most curious articles of his manufactory, in return received a polite letter of thanks and approbation together with a splendid collection of medals, minerals from Siberia, and specimens of all the modern money of Russia. With the view of still further improving and facilitating the manufactory of steam engines, Messrs. Boulton and Watt, in conjunction with their sons established a foundry at Smethwick, a short distance from Soho. Here that powerful agent is employed, as it were, to multiply itself, and its various parts are fabricated and adapted together with the same regularity, neatness, and expedition, which distinguish all the operations of their manufactory. Those engines are afterwards distributed to all parts of the kingdom by the Birmingham canal, which communicates with a wet dock belonging to the foundry. It could scarcely be expected that envy would view with indifference, such singular merit, and such unexampled success. The inventions and improvements of Messrs. Boulton and Watt were first imitated; and then either decried or disputed. Reason laboured in vain to silence the clamours of injustice, and to defeat the stratagems of fraud. At length, in the year 1792, a solemn decision of parliament, and, about the same time, the concurrent opinion of the court of King's Bench, forbade any encroachmentThe last discovery for which Mr. Boulton obtained a patent, was

the important "method of raising water and other fluids."* Whoever contemplates the merit and utility of a long life devoted to such valuable pursuits, as we have here briefly and very imperfectly described, and recollects, without emotion, that the spot on which so much has been done, and is still doing; where hundreds of women and children easily earn a comfortable subsistence; where population is as rapidly increasing, and the means of national prosperity improving in proportion, was lately a bleak, swampy, and sterile waste, must want understanding to comprehend, or sympathy to appreciate, the happiness of his fellow creatures. To comment upon the private character of a gentleman in Mr. Boulton's situation, would be an useless task; we shall, therefore, only observe, that as his great and expanded mind formed and brought to perfection the wonderful works we have briefly endeavoured to describe, so he felt no greater felicity than that of diffusing happiness to all around him. For a long time previous to his decease, he had been confined to his room by illness, and his dissolution was daily expected. His memory should ever remain dear to the British nation, whose glory was materially advanced in proportion to his own fame. While we commemorate those great men who have sought their country's honour in the fields of war, we ought not to omit paying a just tribute of applause to those who have promoted arts, industry, and commerce, and diffused plenty and comfort through the realm, by cultivating science, and applying it to the useful arts of peace. They are citizens of the world, and should be naturalized in every breast.

EMIGRATION OF OLD MAIDS.

A society of young gentlemen of Connecticut have adopted an article in their constitution to this effect-" that no member shall be permitted to marry under any circumstances an illiterate woman;" and in consequence of this resolution forty old maids have removed into the western country in despair.

* This is an invention, perhaps, only inferior to the steam engine, and the uses to which it may be applied are numerous, and of daily occurrence.

ED. P. F.