338 [AssEMBLy 



the morrow, but that if any active measures are taken now on the 

 subject of his letter, he will remain here until Tuesday next, and 

 give any information or explanations that may be desired. I would 

 merely add, for the information of all, that M. Vattemare has made 

 an Agency here, where any and all articles desired to be sent to 

 France for the exhibition to which his letter refers, left at the agency 

 here, would be forwarded to his house in Paris direct. 

 Very respectfully, 



JOHN J. SPROULL, Jigent. 



Mr. Vattemare' s Letter. 



New-York, October 7, J847. 



To the Honorable the President of the American Institute'. 



Sir — Allow me, on the occasion of the present Fair, to call your 

 attention to a proposal I had the honor of comunicating to you 

 three months ago. I mean the possibility of having in Paris a 

 Public Exhibition or Fair, of specimens of all the inventions, or im- 

 provements, the result of that wonderful ingenuity for which the 

 Americans are so justly celebrated. This plan was conceived, and 

 the determination to realize it was seconded by the parties interested^ 

 on receiving the following letter seven years ago: 



" Patent Office, U. S. A., July 10, 1840. 



" Sir — Permit me to embrace the opportunity to assure you how 

 much 1 appreciate your zealous efforts to aid the cause of Science 

 and the Arts, by national exchanges of publications and other objects 

 of interest. 



" It would give me great pleasure to contribute to the promotion 

 of this new piiilanthropy. 



"Among the various modes of advancing your views, it has occur- 

 red to me that if inventors in the United States should, through your 

 agency, present to the French Government the free use of their dis- 

 coveries or improvements, that government might in some suitable 

 manner reward the meritorious. Such a benefit might induce numer- 

 ous communications from inventors too poor to defray the expenses 

 of a foreign patent, and yet more desirous that the public should 

 have the free use of the inventions, than to see it taxed arbitrarily 

 by one who has no other merit than being the first introducer. 



