The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1850-03-24
Communicated.


Among the annual reports Of government required
to be submitted at the commencement OF the session
Congress- that from the Commissioner OF Patents has
become one OF much importance TO very large portion
our feowctizens engaged in the mechanic arts, in
igaon, and in agriculture.
We look for this report with increasing interest from
he woa a. arrs II ~ he
in science and art that seem destined 10 mark this century
with peculiar distinction.
We expect to find from the pen OF the Commissioner
clear and comprehensive Of the discoveries during
the past year in the useful arts and in all the sciences
from which any practical deductions can be drawn
whether they may be applicable TO purposes of every
day life, or TO smooth our path to fields Of higher
search.
We require from the Commissioner Of Patents, in an
eminent degree, pan common sense statement OF wha
the world OF inventors have been about-an expose oil
their fallacies, always more numerous than theil
tumphs-a succinct and lucid description OF all thel
valuable contributions, whether TO art science, and
finally, prospective glance at the wants which yet
cupy the foreground in the boundless field OF invention
and the wants which late discoveries have only served
TO render visible
now in press and all know OF It's contents at this time
is from pamphlet published in New York, under the
auspices Of Horace Greeley, esq which purpoIs TO be
part lArts and Manufactures embracing the Commits
soners views OF the origin and progress OF invention =
"the Motors'--chief levers OF civilizations" "pro-
posed application OF the patent fund = and ION the
into which the report is divided as we gather from the
table Of contents imboded in the introduction" We
have, in times past. very funny specimens oil
human lucubraon issue from the congressional press
which, like all ephemera Of this class, live but their hour
and pass away; but the ranscendenta and
bsseeee editor OF the New York Tribune has not made
thereby into agon language that for the class who are
waiting to profit by il, IS an unknopn TONGUE then the
Commissioner has certainly earned the unenvable distnc
on Of having written the most supremacy ridiculous mass
government in the shape OF public document intended
for the information OF the people at large.
In a Phaanstere OF Founerites, such q tumble oi
words might pass for science IL not sense but that any
man in his right mind should offer 10 intelligent pub.
lie this Ola podrida, made up OF vague specuatons upor
the dongs Of our race before the dawn OF civilization
rhapsodes about Motors that exist only his diseased
conclusions and crude generaties Al
to the study o natural history with the view OF applying
TO the mechanic arts, and especially TO the propulsion
OF seamers-and this too from our Commissioner o
Patents il il the Office had suddenly beer
converted into socialist phalanx We like enthusiasm il
religion, politics. and among artists but with
business, we expect common sense and plain English
It'll quite unnecessary, in treating upon simple matters
OF fact 10 the language of romance, TO coin words
for the occasion still less does our vernacular require
the aid Of foreign idoms in discussing such subjects a
those which the Commissioner has selected for the heads
OF his discourse The Commissioner is evidently deter
mined TO be popular with the class Of society over whom
strange accident must have called him TO preside. In.
ventors he places at the head Of the spseissmeaning
the genus homo we presume. Hear him:
"Nohlng is clear than that mechanical inventions
ordained to animate, clohe, and adon, naked and
torpescent world (his IL clear mud) infnse into
the species the elements Of increasing vgor and felicity
"Whout them nvenors) the prospects and hopes Of the
present had neither been felt II s they who by
discovering physical truths establishing the grand.
est OF moral onessrpeuai progress limtabe advance
ment in social, CIVIL and intellectual enioyments."
Hitherto we had believed that religion. science, tera.
ture and the fine arts, among the "chief levers OF
civilization but the Commissioner has disabuscd us OF
this error he declares that the "Mofors alone are en
tied 10 this distinction What these Motors are, we
shall see further on, but must not do the Commits.
soner injustice in longer Withholding bis description OF
Morses elegraph--a description which the illustrous
inventor with all the arisical feeling know him 10
pos sess will find difficulty in identifying the por.
trait OF his favorite and favored child. Here is
he widest freaks Of fancy have been strangely verified
In the Telegraph, ostt bottle imps and mere attract
i've fares giving color the proposition, thar In natures
Of every popular superstition and that