pleased," he writes, "with the new invented
lamp that I shall not grudge two guineas for one of them." He had seen
"a pocket compass of somewhat larger diameter than a watch, and which
may be carried in the same way. It has a spring for stopping the
vibration of the needle when not in use. One of these would be very
convenient in case of a ramble into the western country." A small
telescope, he suggests, might be fitted on as a handle to a cane, which
might "be a source of many little gratifications," when "in walks for
exercise or amusement objects present themselves which it might be
matter of curiosity to inspect, but which it was difficult or impossible
to approach." Jefferson writes him of a new invention, a pedometer; and
he wants one for his own pocket. Trifles like these show the bent of his
mind; and they show a contented mind as well.

While writing of important acts of the legislature of 1785, he is
careful to give other information in a letter to Jefferson, which is not
uninteresting as written ninety-eight years ago, and written by him.

"I. Rumsey," he says, "by a memorial to the last session,
represented that he had invented a mechanism by which a boat might
be worked with little labor, at the rate of from twenty-five to
forty miles a day, against a stream running at the rate of ten
miles an hour, and prayed that the disclosure of his invention
might be purchased by the public. The apparent extravagance of his
pretensions brought a ridicule upon them, and nothing was done. In
the recess of the Assembly he exemplified his machinery to General
Washington and a few other gentlemen, who gave a certificate of the
reality and importance of the invention, which opened the ears of
this Assembly to a second memorial. The act gives a monopoly for
ten years, reserving a right to abolish it at any time by paying
L10,000. The inventor is soliciting similar acts from other States,
and will not, I suppose, publish the secret till he either obtains
or despairs of them."

This intelligence was evidently not unheeded by Jefferson. In writing,
some months after he received it, to a friend on the application of
steam-power to grist-mills, then lately introduced in England, he adds:
"I hear you are applying the same agent in America to navigate boats,
and I have little doubt but that it will be applied generally to
machines, so as to supersede the us