The Enquirer

[communicated]

What shall we do for blankets, if Congress do not take off the restrictions on commerce?

The English factors and runners say we must do without such articles, as no country can furnish them but England. Let us take an item of this, as Dean Swift said.—We shall shew those gentry that we are not at so great a loss as they imagined.

An ingenious soldier of the army of the U. States has given proof amounting to demonstration, that we shall feel no privation, if we should never import another bale from her manufactories. Elkanah Cobb is the inventor and patentee of this new mode of making blankets by the aid of machinery ; a sample of the manufacture has been exhibited before Congress, and has, I hope, generally, met their approbation. A plan is now forming to bring this useful discovery into immediate operation, and it is contemplated that by the 4th day of July, (a day dear to every real American) this manufactory with the labor of four hands, will completely finish 25 pair of blankets of an excellent quality, every day ; a saving of labor beyond the comprehension of any but those best acquainted with the advantages of machinery.

Mr. Cobb deserves well of his country ; he has suffered persecution from his friends in his native state, Vermont, at one period being called a lunatic, for having expressed his mind on the subject of his invention, which induced him to engage in the service of his Country as a private soldier, that at his hours of leisure he might pursue a favorite object. The President of the United States who has ever been the friend and patron of his countrymen's ingenuity, has been pleased to express his approbation, upon a sample of one of the blankets having been shewn to him.