It was such expanded views and philanthropic sentiments as these, that awakened the genius, excited the industry, and encouraged the perseverance of Fulton.-They were not only connected with his inventions for the application of steam, but we shall see that they gave birth in his fruitful mind, to many projects, which had the same objects. These, though they have not been matured in his lifetime, may want only such talents as his were to bring them into successful operation.

But I must not forget that I am not at liberty to indulge my feelings on this occasion, by pronouncing merely a panegyric on my departed friend. It is my duty to submit to the society some account of his life.

No duty could be more grateful to my feelings than this, did I feel any confidence that I shall discharge it with justice to him or credit to myself. It will too plainly appear, I fear, that I have wanted the necessary materials for writing such a Biography as may

naturally be expected on such an occasion. Till Mr. Fulton commenced his experiments on steam navigation, after his return to this country, in the year 1806, few memorials are to be found of him, other than such as tend to show the activity and employments of his mind.

From that time, he was almost exclusively occupied in the prosecution of those discoveries which were the offspring of his genius: and some history of these will be the most interesting part of this memoir,

Robert Fulton was born in the town of Little Britain, in the county of Lancaster, and state of Pennsylvania, in the year seventeen hundred and sixty-five; he was of a respectable though not opulent family. His father, Robert Fulton, was a native of Kilkenny, in Ireland. His mother was also of a respectable Irish family, by the name of Smith, established in Pennsylvania.

Robert Fulton, the father, died in seventeen hundred and sixty-eight, and was buried in the cemetery of the first Presbyterian church erected in Lancaster, of which he was one of the founders.

The mother died in seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, on a small farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania, which had been purchased for her by her son Robert, in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-six. This farm he owned at the time of his death, and left it by his will to one of his sisters.

Robert Fulton, the father, and Mary his wife, had five children, three daughters and two sons. Robert was their third child and oldest son.

His patrimony was very small; "he was fond," says one of his intimate friends, "of letting this be known, and was desirous of being considered, as he really was, the maker of his own fortune."

In his infancy he was put to school in Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, where he acquired the rudiments of a common English education.

His peculiar genius manifested itself at a very early age. In his childhood, all his hours of recreation were passed in the shops of mechanics, or in the employment of his pencil; and at this early period of his life he had no other desire for money than to supply himself with the necessary materials to indulge his taste for mechanism and drawing.

By the time he had attained the age of seventeen years, he became so much an artist with his pencil, as to derive emolument from painting portraits and landscapes, in Philadelphia, where he remained till he was about twenty-one. In this time he had made the acquaintance of our celebrated countryman Doctor Franklin, by whom he was much noticed.

When he came of age he went to Washington County, and there purchased with the means he had acquired in Philadelphia, the little farm on which he settled his mother. After seeing his parent comfortably established in the home which he had provided for her, he sat out with an intention of returning to Philadelphia.-In his way, he visited the warm springs of Pennsylvania, where he met with some gentlemen, who were so much pleased with the genius which they discovered in his paintings, that they advised him to go to England, where they assured him he would meet with the patronage of his countryman, Mr. West, who had even then attained great celebrity in that art, in which he has since been unrivalled.

Allured by these prospects, he left his native country, and arrived in England in the same year.

His reception by Mr. West, was such as he had been led to expect. That distinguished