eld in the
hands of a responsible government. However, so eager was he to make a
practical test of the telegraph that, governments apparently not
appreciating their great opportunity, he was willing to entrust the
enterprise to capitalists. Here again he was balked, however, for,
writing of his trials later, he says:--

"An unforeseen obstacle was interposed which has rendered my patent in
France of no avail to me. By the French patent law at the time one who
obtained a patent was obliged to put into operation his invention within
two years from the issue of his patent, under the penalty of forfeiture
if he does not comply with the law. In pursuance of this requisition of
the law I negotiated with the president (Turneysen) of the Saint-Germain
Railroad Company to construct a line of my Telegraph on their road from
Paris to Saint-Germain, a distance of about seven English miles. The
company was favorably disposed toward the project, but, upon application
(as was necessary) to the Government for permission to have the Telegraph
on their road, they received for answer that telegraphs were a government
monopoly, and could not, therefore, be used for private purposes. I thus
found myself crushed between the conflicting forces of two opposing
laws."

This was, indeed, a crushing blow, and ended all hope of accomplishing
anything in France, unless the Government should, in the short time still
left to him, decide to take it up. The letters home, during the remainder
of his stay in Europe, are voluminous, but as they are, in the main, a
repetition of experiences similar to those already recorded, it will not
be necessary to give them in full. He tells of the enthusiastic reception
accorded to his invention by the savants, the high officials of the
Government and the Englishmen of note then stopping in Paris. He tells
also of the exasperating delays to which he was subjected, and which
finally compelled him to return home without having accomplished anything
tangible. He goes at length into his negotiations with the representative
of the Czar, Baron Meyendorf, from which he entertained so many hopes,
hopes which were destined in the end to be blasted, because the Czar
refused to put his signature to the contract, his objection being that
"Malevolence can easily interrupt the communication." This was a terrible
disappointment to the inventor, for he had made all his plans to return
to Europe in the spring of 1839 to carry out th