432 MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TREADWELL. 



Inspector-General of Ordnance, and enclosed them with about twenty pamphlets each to those 

 boards. In my letters, I requested that the pamphlets should be given to such officers as they 

 thought most likely to be interested in the sul)ject, and said I should be hajipy to communicate 

 furtlier details and official verifications of the statements in tlie pamijhlet to them, or any of their 

 friends. With this I sent my address. I likewise sent pamphlets, with my address, to the Duke 

 of Wellington, and several other officers, and to Mr. Faraday, Mr. Barlow, and several other 

 philosophers and engineers. The utmost effect that has been produced by all this has been a 

 letter of thanks from the Lords of the Admiralty, but no inquiry for more details concerning 

 the cannon, or anything which would lead to a belief that they had a thought of adopting it. As 

 I can see no way for pursuing tlie suljject further witli any hope of success here, I have con- 

 cluded to pass over to Paris, and see if it be possible to move them to anything there. I hope 

 that you will think that I have done all that could be done usefully, for although I have long 

 since, as you have perceived, lost confidence of success, I have determined to go through the 

 effort of striving for it in the same way that I should do if under the stimulus of hope. . . . 



The last steamer brings us the sad news of the death of Jlr. Patrick T. Jackson. His loss is 

 irreparable to you and his immediate friends, and to be severely felt by the whole community of 

 Boston. . . . 



It appears by the last accounts from Boston, that the Mexican war prospers, if victories be 



prosjicrity. It is certain, liowever, that, atrocious as the war is, our success has created here a 



greater respect for the American character than was entertained for it before the war was 



declared. This and the symptoms of further attempts to pay the State debts have advanced 



our reputation with all classes. . . . 



Daniel Tkeadwell. 



Mr. Treadwell arrived in Paris in October, and here it was much the same as in 

 London, but he had more interest in observing the condition of the people and the 

 buildings as compared with that at his former visit, twenty-seven years before. He 

 at once set about the great object of his present visit, and, with the aid of a letter 

 of introduction from Mr. Isnard, the French Consul in Boston, put himself in com- 

 munication with the artillery officers at the castle of Vincennes, to which his cannon 

 had been sent nearly two years before. A Commission had been appointed by the 

 Duke of Montpensier in the preceding April to prove the gun, and something had 

 been done towards this object before Mr. Treadwell's arrival. But the work went 

 on with the proverbial slowness of government officers, and his patience was sorely 

 tried. However, he visited the castle from time to time to keep himself informed 

 as to the progress of the proof, and the impression made upon the officers in 

 charge. 



To Mb. Francis C. Lowell. 



Paris, October 30, 1847. 

 Dear Sir, — I wrote to you a hast}-, though long, letter by the French steamer of the 24th, 

 which I trust you will have received before this (which I shall send by the way of Liverpool) 



