430 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



will be sufficient to warrant the necessary expenditure and labor required for recommencing 

 operations. My conclusion is, that it is very doubtful whether it can prove so, even if 1 were 

 certain that I should have the manufacture of all the guns required for the field service; but 

 when I take into consideration the caprices by which I may hereafter be put out of employment, — 

 when I consider that, with your powerful personal influence and favorable opinion and that 

 of your Ordnance Board, more than a year has passed before the Secretary of War has ratified 

 your recomendations, — I think, and I believe that you will agree with me, that it would be most 

 unwise to incur the great expense of preparation for work that cannot be of assured permanency. 

 We have therefore concluded not to recommence the manufacture under the present aspect, 

 without some prospect should come from abroad ; and in this connection permit me to relate 

 to you that I have lately had advices direct from France that the 32-pounder sent there has 

 not yet been proved, notwithstanding the account which was given in the American papers 

 in June, 1846, that it had been tested at Vincennes. My account is from a general in the 

 ordnance service, who was applied to by letter from the French Consul here, and who writes 

 under date of February that it had not then been proved, but that it was intended to try it 

 in a short time. My friends engaged with me here are desirous that I should go out to 

 France and see for myself the upshot of the matter there, and this course I shall probably, 

 almost certainly, pursue. Should the proof in France be favorable, it may end in that encourage- 

 ment that shall induce me to take up the manufacture here ; but should the French officers 

 think that "cast iron is as good as wrought/' or that the material now used for guns is "good 



enough," it will be the end there, and probably here also. 



I pray you again to accept my most sincere acknowledgments for your constant attention 

 to me, and for the efforts made by you in favor of these cannon. As I have been made bold 

 by your many kindnesses, I will now venture to ask if you are acquainted with any officers in 

 the French service to whom you would feel free to give me an introduction, as your letters 

 would, I know, be of great value to me in France. 



With great respect, 



Daniel Treadwell. 



Following out the plan proposed in the foregoing letter to Colonel Talcott, Mr. 

 1 Mrs. Treadwell sailed for England in Auirust. and arrived at London in the 



. _«. — 



latter part of the month. While in London he made no attempt to view any of 

 the military establishments, but occupied himself in renewing his intercourse with 

 his old friends, the Vaughans, Dr. Boott, Mr. Bates, and others, and going over again 

 with Mrs. Treadwell and Mrs. William Parsons what had interested him in his former 



• • 



visits. 



To Dr. John Ware. 



London, No. 135 Regent Street, August 31, 1847. 



Dear Doctor, — Your letter of July 27th reached me on my arrival here three days ago, and 

 I am greatly indebted to you for your considerate kindness in writing so early to me. . • • From 

 Liverpool we went to Kendall, then to Bowucss, Ambleside, Keswick, and Penrith, taking in all 



four or five days. [Note. — M. H. and M. P., two of our fellow passengers whom we met in 



our route, told us that in passing Rydal Mount they sent a note to Wordsworth begging his 



