The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-29 00:00:00

to prepare petition without detty, awl ferwArd them to parliament,
preying ter the pagans of the " Ten Hours hill" so prop's. ed br I.tr.
John Field( n.
The lls.tnoira from Rostrick seconded the resolution,
which was carried.
The I)m.soArs...from Oldham moved the filth retiolutiJn
'•' - - '

That eith a slew of supportmg 74r. lielden to carry Ms bill, and
of laying before the member, of parliament 1k rt .3 wools sad fe&A.:O
e the rictory warkero, thin mrcting think it detarable that eatt county
should appoint and mend to !nation delegates whose duties shall be to
ailvotrate the paw.the of hi, bill, :Li the only nhasare uothliai short of
which will nattily the factory workers.
And it, too, was carried.
Thanks of the delegates were Toted to Lord Ashley, Mr.
Fie'den, Me. Brotherton, Mr. Hindley, Mr. T. S. Dun-
combe, and ull other parliamentary friends ; al as to Mr. R.
aistls e, Mr. John Wood, Mr. W. Walker, and all friends
out of p trl'aracut ; likewise to the editors of the I lows,
Post, !Jerald, anti all other newspapers, metropolitan and
li provincial, which support and publiala the proceedings in
f .rour or the bill, and to the editor of the Ten Iloara' Ad-
vacate, and the chairman, after which the meeting separated.

THE GREAT BRITAIN.
BRISTOL, Dec. 28, 1846. The following report
from Mr. Brunel has been printed fur circulation amongst
the proprietors of the Great Western Steam-ship Company
IS, [hike-street, Westminater, Dec. 14, 18:d.
Gentlemen,—Aceending to your request I have, as noon as my en-
prageinents would allow of my (exeunt London, paid a visit to the
Great Ilrltain, and I now beg to n pert to you the state in ethieh I
found the vessel, and my opinion of the beat meant, to be talien for
recovering the largest possible amount of the i loporty inveoled in
loc. If I na.tei those opinious a moiety, and without nue qualiMem
times you will not suppose that I have the pneumption let tint Were
infallible, but unrety that I am out:sortie:l, by the 'norms: of the
time left me to wrLe to you, to avoid all e.reurnii oution, art to give
you as simply and briefly ace possible the opinionn I have formed. At
the same Witte 1 ant bound to say that I have nut formed them hastily,
end that my caacictions upon the several points on which I may ex-
prim my holing. are very strong.
First. —As regards the preterit date of the vessel. I wen agreeably
disappointed, atter the report a which had reached me, to had her, tea
a whole, and Ludt-pendently of the mere local dauragea, of which I
aid speak presertiy, lair:icily sound, and as strong and as loam In
form as the day sne wan lamella.
In receiving this statement, you must bear in mind the great differ-
ence between an iron vessel and a Umber-built ship. In the former,
parts may be considerably damaged, or even destroyed, and the re-
mainiler may not only be untouched, but may be lett unstained and
uninjured. In a timber ship thin can hardly be the case. If any con-
niderable portion of a Mips bottom in stove in, the dna: it, or ribs
completely moose the ship ant the pidaking longitudinally cannot fall
to be strained to a very oonaiderante distance in both directiona
You must therefore remove from your minds all impreasiona de-
rived from your exec-view:o of damages sustained by timber-built
ships in order to understand my Automat, which to strictly correct,
—that, except the pare actually damaged, the extent of which is
comparatively sanalL the ship fin permotly sound, and an good as the
hour when she struck. Thee soundness and freedom (roam any da-
mage extends from about the five-foot water-line la the tap :wan Ile
exception of the injury sustained by the knocking away of the rudder
post, and a blow under the stern) ; nearly the whole of the vessel
therefore sound. Ihe principal injury ih in her bottom, under the
boilers and comma The vessel has es idently been thamping upon
the rocks, and utmost entirely upon this port of the bottom, from the
first few days after she grounded, and at oreoent, in all probability,
bee whole weight ip resting on thin port; yet, notwithetanding this,
she is perfectly soraigbt, and boa not broken, or even eeprung
an inch in the whole length. The boilers hare bee it forced up
about Moen inches, and one of the condenser:. has heen lifted about
eight inche breaking the airpuntp. At prevent this is morl . the
extent of damage Ocoee, all of which could easily be repaired if the
vessel were in dock.
I will now state my opinion of the best means of recoveiing the
largest possible amount tat the property which has been invested en
her. In thin view 1 can only imagine two alternatives : the one to
beck her op on the sled, and male the most of the materials ; Lice
other to get her afloat, and into port, and restore her into good con-
dition, or sell her to than who would so restore her. the first
alternative may, I think, be diseanhal at once. The plates and rib.
eti'un Con vu,d are daticult enough to convert into useful motertula
for any other purposes, even in the silt of workaltops and with
1001, and apothem:et at hand. In such a ',lnce us thenetrum they,
I du not believe the matcria:s would pay the expense of cut-
ting up. The mast', nouns charm, toe., in fact, the stores,
and perhaps u few of the lighter parts of the engine, might
repay the cost of removal; but the whole would certainly
not amount to many thousands —preamble* hundreds would
be a eater estimate of the :mount to be realined, clear of all ex-
To remove the vessel and take her into port, and either restore
r ter sell be r, in then Me only means of reeiverino any port of the
whole of tae capital invested in this ship. Ii she is so brought into
port, cube may he worth, unrepaired, 40,n0u/., 40,000 t., or etyma,
according to the opportunities that may otter themselves of em-
ploying her usefully, or of selling he. 'lto onl quention
is, then, how, itt the least expenne, r
tool at they onioileat
risk, is the vessel to by got into port f But an I will now
endeavour to prove to you the mode of getting the vessel off the theer
and into port let again quite secondary to the e.nsidcrauou of how to
preserve it where it is, ea that it may be in a condition to be re-
moved, and to be worth retouving when the means of doing thts are
ready, and the proper time in arrived for attempting it.
In the first plate, I assert, unheeitatingly, that no man in his senses,
and ct hu thoroughly understands the etreunistottees of the ease
the weight and 'neaten of the vowel—Um amount of the rise and 101 l
of the tide, and draught of water mound per—and the extraordina-
rily expo-CAI nouation —would dream of calculating upon completrm
the requline nouns for floating her under three mouths. Ire the
mean time the ship tein,t be owlet:LAl. Even if it were practicable
to construct the neeensary apparatus, and to dust the yowl to-mor-
row, it would be little short Otlllaillie6llo go to sea with it at this time
of the yea.. But I met doing wrong to downs a nee which Milllta
arise. 'the vessel cannot, according to any
:rational calculation of
chances, be got off tenter three months; sad it is emally against all
protrability that, it lett unpnitected, there would ha itnythilig worth
taking oft a: that time It is uncles, therefore, at this moment di,
cunning the Pat mole of floating the vensel, and, I think, under the
cireurnotanrm, would be mud unwise hastily to deterntioe upon any
plan. The first thing is, to know whether there tiro any memo of
preserving the ccesel, and whether any melt plane tall he curried into
effect at some reasonable cost, which it may be worth incurring. 1
have looked at the enema and conneltred the very tap mei etiolation
in whloh she is placed (and it more ex posed one could hardly be found),
and 1 OM Matthaei,' that to Hoed breakwater of ordinary conntruction
could be made at any mationable expenoe, or in time to prevent mis-
chief. There is no depth of Pant into which to drive piles and the
rock in too uneven and broken to allow of any framing being
constructed and meowed to it; and any frame work would fee liable to
be destroyed during the program of Its 1...0mi1l maim, an that already
atiemptel has loon, and clic umber might be the cause of serious da-
mage to the ship. The plan I should tocionuttend wound, at leant, be
free from these objeeti. an —would he comparatively ineopennive
I am firmly mentos:el, would be perketly effectual as a protection.
At the came time, few persons who hove not wen the effect of a sea
beating against fagots will share in that conviction.
What I uvxnneueml is, to tom, under the stern, and along the ex-
! posed hide tit the vessel, a mane of (aguto, made of strong end long
sticks, and used in the manner which hoe been so humwfully or:m-
used in 11olland and elsewhere, for the repair and protection of honks
against the sea, the fagots. being picked clearly, and, for a onnsOler-
thicknesn, against the ships aide, and up to the level of the dee as,
secured with rods run vertically through the mum, and chains Laid
horivontally, :not landing the whole tightly to the ship. The heaviest
sea has no effect upon molt a neuen; and I believe the mewl would
remain as uninjured, and indeed as unaffected by the sea 06 if in
dock.
Eight or ten thousand fagots —three hundred or four hundred
fathoms of 1-inch Or -iamb oecond-hand chain cable, none of which
need be lost—three htindreil or hair hundred / rods, sharpened at the
ends —a thousand bags to till with sand, with what stores you have on
board, would suftlee ; and if next corning ',prinks, and the gales which
have hitherto tooompronled them, are softly posed, I cannot foresee
any difficulty whatever in completing the protection I propose. Of
course, in all works dependent upon wind, weather, and tide, cer-
tainty cannot be attained ; but of one thing I um quite certain, that
no other plan offers the autar chance of meows or at so small a cost.
I have communicated to Capt. Chalon the steps which I took In
conjunction with Capt. Ilmken for procuring the (tomtit before I left
Dominant. I have aloo communicated to him the direction, which I
gave with respect to the intone" ibc., See., and it ia unncceweary,
therefore, that I nhoutel repeat them. I will only recapitulate, in a
few words, the substance or the advice I have above given, and of my
resuming.
You have a valuable piece of property lying on a most exposol
shore. If preserve el for a few menthe, that property will, in all pro-
bability, be worth 40,0001. or a 0,00111.; if neglected for a few weeks,
it will probably be worth nothing. Can you, as men of bonuses,
wider such eirewuntaneta waste your time at this moment in dis-
cussing what you will do three months hence, and which plan you
will then adopt to take your property to market But will y not
rather first, and immaiately, adopt derisive steps for prtaervl that
property, and then consider what you had bent do with it ?
I have no wish to escape the responsiblity of ode-thing you, as you
request me to do so, as to my opimon of the bog plan to be adopted
hereafter for removing the ship; but, adhering to the principle
that 1 have laid down, f should decline to do so at percent did loot net
rumen to fear that you might be hang time and money, by ',lying
upon expectations which, lam convinced, would be dimpponted. I
wood steongiy urge upon you not to place your rethotee upon
any plan which depends upon floating the soma by camel", and
taking her to net unrepaired, and, therefore, candy dependent
upon those camels. The immense breadth of thew footing
camels, and the risk of taking such an cmnconageable finding
illmonnected mass to sea, cannot have been correctly or nutft-
ciently entonatod ; and the certainty of the whole going to the bottom,
in the ascot of even a very moderate gale of wind or a slight emelt,
has been apparently quite lost sight ot. 1 ern also of opiaton that the
difficulty of Idling the vessel at ail by auxiliary:floats has been under-
rated. The rowel has worked herself shoot five or Piz feet into
the solid rock and nand, and may very probably get a little
deeper before tee time for lifting arrive.. she must, therefore, be
lilted say, at least, four feet, to foar feet six niche., before abe could
be got out of the dock she has made; and the floating power
must therefore be calculated at least to Mao her five feet
" inched so to be quite sure of moving her. Now there is not
more than ten feet of water around the vessel, even at high water of
ordinary springs, and it would be impossible to calculate upon more
than nine feet as • certainty. No floating power worth having can be
got in the vessel, sad the !looting vessels must therefore be capable of
sintaining the whale weight, with a draught, when the vessel is
lifted, of only about bar feet. The weight to be sustained in two
thou*nd tow, and to do this with vessels drawing only four
feet, would require that they should be upwards of thirty feet in
breadth on each side, farming, with the ship a total width of upwards
acme hundred to mac hundred and twenty feet, and upwards of three
hundred Pm in length. I dame say that this operation is impracticable,
but it is at lust a very difficult one, and must be almost eutirehy &i-
-ndent upon weather, and, unless in pparfoctly smooth water, • very
harardaas one. My belief and conviction is that the safe mode of
proceeding, and by far the cheapest, will be to lift the vessel by me-
chanical means—to lay ways under her—and co haul her up suffi-
ciently far to be safe from the sea to repair her, just aufftciently to make
her water-tight, then to launch and bring her to Liverpool or Bristol.
But, as I have betbre stated, we have time to consider these points, if
in the meantime we take steps to preeerve the ship. If the property
is not even now worth protecting, it will indeed be wade of money to
be preparing, at some etxtsiderable expense, to remove what will, in
all probability, be only then a valueleas carcase.
If the directors should determine upon adopting the course I base
recommended, I must remind them that the plan to one depending
entirely on the Mill, the vigour, the aptitude for expedients, and pos-
sibly (If bad weathw should come on, and day after day the work be
destroyed) on the unwearying perseverance and deteranned confidence
in the plan of the party directing It, and the sufficiency of the means
at his command.
I cannot conclude without doing justice to Mr. Bremner, whoml met
on board, and acknowledging the friendly and liberal manner in which
he dimwitted the various wears to beadopted, and eminent me with his
valuable advice; and although I may have somewhat differed with him as
to the advimblity of attempting to float the vessel away to sea without
first repairing her, yet upon mod points we were pollster agreed
and I firmly believe that if any man could takeher off (and it it would !
be prudent to let him do so), that Mr. Ltremner'a great experience and
sound loudest knowledge, and good sense in devising any plan, and
his energy and skill in carrying ft out, would ensure every chance of
'acs's which the circumstaoces admit of.-1 WC gentlemen, pow
end eat nerrant, I. KL' K. 88, 111..—Tu the Directors debt Great Western
Ste aimahip Company.

IRELAND.
DUBLIN, DECEMBER 27.
Christmas is still held in reverential regard by the provincial
journals. There arc only one or two country papers come
to baud to-day from the provinces, most of them having
either omitted their publication on account of Christmas, or
published in anticipation to avoid working on that festival.
The meeting to which I referred in a former letter, in
Belfast, for the purpose of calling on the government to
stop distillation, was held on Thursday last. Th.
Mayor presided. The motion in accordance with the
object of the meeting was supported by Mr. W. S.
Crawford, M. P., and Mr. Thornton. It 'WU op-
posed by Mr. Ferguson and the Rey. J. T. Porter. The