Daily National Intelligencer

MESSRS. EDITORS:

I observed in your paper of 14th March last, a communication signed "Amicus Artium," in which the writer desires to be informed of the circumstances connected with the disappearance of Signor Valaperta. In compliance with that request, I beg leave to state the following:

Signor Valaperta had, some time previous to his disappearance, experienced considerable vexation in relation to his work at the Capitol, which so affected his sensibility, that his health and mind were much impaired. After a short illness, he became completely deranged; fancied that he had lost all his friends, and that his reputation was gone; he supposed that the praise bestowed on his works was not sincere—and, like Pygmalion, believed that he had outlived his talents. He often repeated, that he had worked enough, and that it was time for him to rest from his labors. Full of these ideas, he wrote several letters to his friends in Europe, in which he exhibited equally the goodness of his heart and the weakness of his head. On the 4th of March he wrote his will, by which he bequeathed, to his wife & children at Madrid, all that he possessed; and, in case none of them should be found alive, to the poor of the Catholic Church in this city. The same day he left his boarding house about 11 o'clock, and has not been heard of since. False reports concerning him have been spread, no less disgraceful to the authors, than afflicting to his friends; who have only to wish sincerely that his successor, whoever he may be, may, by his talents and principles, acquire in this country a reputation as well merited as that of Signor Valaperta.

L. S.