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Submitted to them. If the present committee are incompetent for this buiness, they should be discharged, and others appointed in their stead. But it appears that inventors have been mistaken in the universality of the offer of the premium, in the view of this Committee. It was only offered to those who have the means to put their invention in operation on large scale.” To all others,” unless some good and generous patrons do it for them, the prizes have been offered in vain,” i. e.—not offered at all. This conclusion of this scientific and intelligent oommittee reminds me of the words of a poet :— “ But if you are poor, Heaven help you! Though your sire had royal blood within him, And though you possess the intellect of angels,too, 'Tis all in vain, a useless matter, The world* will ne'er inquire on such a score; Why should it tako the pains 'Tis easier to weigh purses sure, than brains!" * The Committee. C. F. Buffalo, N. Y. [We could not say any more about the action of the Committee than we have said, because we cannot obtain positive information about all its proceedings. We have been told that some of the Committee were” not qualified for their business, and that only five minutes were allowed to each competitor to ex plain his invention. There appears to be something wrong, but where the fault lies we are unable to determine.—Ed. Messrs. Editors—In perusing your valuable paper, I have often had occasion to admire the manly independence and fearlessness with which you have upheld the rights and sustain ed the interests ot inventors, regardless of rank or wealth, and in view of this fact, I was somewhat surprised at the mildness of your reproof, in your remarks on the conduct of the Committee of the American Institute upon the Ray Premium. You say, “it is scarcely fair to advance new conditions for testing an invention, after it has been presented.” In this you are right, but I wish to say, through your columns, that, in my opinion, it is not only unlair, but positively dishonorable ar.d dishonest, as concerning those inventors who have not the means of testing their inventions on a large scale, and who have been induced to spend their time and money upon them, on the simple conditions expressed in Mr. Ray's advertisement, of presentation at the Fair of the American Institute in October, 1852. This they have done, and now they have a right to expect that their claims will be fairly considered and acted upon; and that a committee will be appointed, possessed of sufficient scientific and mechanical knowledge to decide upon the merits of the different inventions
