The National Register.
London, England, 1821-09-16 00:00:00

WARY STEAM

Union Steins Boai.—This boat, the most unique, and
perhaps the most splendid ferry-boat in the country, was
teed on Saturday, and upon Tuesday began to ply regu-
larly at the Dundee-ferry; and, were the piers such as
to admit of her touching them at all times of tide, there
is no doubt but the intercourse by the ferry would be
rendered inure frequent, iu consequet.ce of the increased
comfort and safety of the conveyance.
The Unionis a twin-boat, composed of two hulls,
each seventy-six feet keel, eleven and a half feet beam,
and a eleven and a half feet asunder. They are hand-
somely and substantially built, and well bound together,
by beams fortified with it ; and the mould and execu-
tion do much credit to the taste and skill of Mr. Brown
(of Perth), the builder. The whole length upon deck
is ninety-two feet, and the breadth about thirty-four.—
Thirty-two feet of the one end is left about two feet
lower than the rest of the deck, and railed its for vit.
riages and cattle ; and the doors at the middle of this
space are so constructed as to serve for platforms in load-
ing and unloading. Twenty-two feet in the ceptre are
occupied by the machinery, an' engine being m each
boat, and the paddle-wheel acting in the canal immedi-
ately between. The engines are of 15 horses' power
each; and as they are connected with the same wheel,
they act contemporaneously. So smoothly do they work,
that even now, when the parts may be supposed to be
stiff, there is hardly any tremor in the boat; and, when
the doors which inclose the machinery are shut, there is
very little noise. The paddle-wheel has wooden floats,
and is so divided, that though each half has only eight
floats, the whole acts with the same smoothness as if it
had sixteen, and yet the power is not diminished.
Notwithstanding the immense size of the boat she
obeys her helm very easily. There are two helms, each
constructed of a rectangular iron plate, four feet and a
half in the horizontal direction, and three feet and a half
in the perpendicular. The tiller of each is almost ten
feet long, and requires two men to manage it properly.—
The machinery is so constructed as that either end may
go foremost; and thus the boat can arrive and depart
without the lab or space required for turning round.
The reversing of the motion is effected by reversing the
action of the valves of the engines. These are opened
and shut by an alternate rod, moved by an eccentric
block on the shaft of the paddle-wheel. This_rod acts
upon a double lever, fastened to the rocking shaft of the
valves; when it acts on the lower end of the lever, the
paddle.wheel moves the one way, and when it acts on
the upper end, the wheel snores the other. 'The lever
is made broad in the middle, with a flange round it,
which retains the stud, on the alternating rod during the
time that it is changed from the one end to the other.
The rod i 3 raised or lowered by means of a toothed sec-
tor, into which a pinion works. The two pinions are
on the opposite ends of a rod, which passes under the
index table, below which it has a bevel wheel, acted on
by a similar wheel, connected with the reversing index.
By simply turning this index, the boat passes in less
than one minute from motion in one direction to motion
in that directly opposite. The boat may be steered by
either helm ; and by working both helms at the same
time, it may be turned round in a very small compass.—
Indeed, though the boat seems huge and unwieldy, yet,
in consequence of the impelling power being in the
centre, it can be tinned in a much smaller compas than
a less ()oat with two wheels. Its motion, too, during a
breeze, or across the swell, is much snore steady, as a
good deal of the disagreeable rolling of a two-wheeled
boat arises from the unequal hold which its wheels take
of the water.

A dreadful fire broke out on Monday morning, a lit-
tle after twelve o'clock, in a large five-story house in the
Cowgate, immediately opposite to the foot of the Par-
liament-stairs, Edinburgh. The fire originated in an
apartment on the second floor, and, burning with great
fierceness, soon communicated to the floors above, and
the one immediately below. About half an hour alter,
the stair, a wooden one, was enveloped in flames; but
previous to this, all the inhabitants, except one family,
in the third floor, escaped to the street, many of them
half naked. The family which remained consisted of a
man named Bannerman, his wife, and three children.
Bannerman himself leapt over the window, with a child
in his arms, and escaped with some slight hurts ; but
his wife was less fortunate ; after dropping a child front
the window, she leaped over herself with another its
her arms. They were all three taken up alive, and the
poor woman, who was far advanced in pregnancy, was
carried to the infirmary with one of the children, where
they soon after expired. The other was taken into a
neitshbouring house, and survived but a few minutes.
Mr. Joseph Phillipson, farmer of Algakirk Fen, left
Horncastle on his return home one evening during the
fair, in company with three strangers, all on horseback.
When they carne to a part of the road which is much
overhung with trees, in the parish of Schrivelshy, one of
them called out, " Pull up, don't ride so fast;' another
at the same niotnent struck Mr. P. a violent blow over

the side of the head, which brought him to the ground,
where he remained for sonic time senseless. When he
recovered himself he found that his late companions had
robbed him of his pocket-book, containing 341. Mr.
Phillipson is the person who was robbed of 4001. on his
return to Algakirk from Boston fair.
FATAL. M ISTA K E.—An unlucky circumstance oc.
..a..ed on Friday evening off Kerry Fend, Ireland His Ma-
jesty's sloop of war Redwing fell with the Burred revenue
e.e•ser. Copt; '44 Tandy, and soopobing it to he a smuggler, fired
serer I shots into her, and continued to do Sul for a considerable
thTIC: it was not rill the boats of the ir-da.ing, were preparing
to boanl the Harriet, that Ow tale was discovered. One of
the crew was killed. The Barri, I has been but very lately coin.
missioned, only on her list erWze, and was fornwrly a French
lugger, in wl 'di craft site is retained, and which confirmed the
eapt,in of the Redwing in his WWI' of her being a stinwgler,
having never before seen her on the roast. The tiring was heard
distinctly for a eonsiderald time oft' the Rallybiege shore, mat
upwww. of for shots were fired, accompanied by Fel rated deers
m each vi

202

ON THE LATE INQUESTS.
The Coroner's Inquest on Richard Honey has
(Iciiverea its vcrdici—the proceedings which led to

the inquisition, as well as the oceut:ences during its
continuance, arc now fa:- subjects of consideration,
and may be animadverted upon without a possiboity
of gi% jig a bias where the dec;sion ought to be
without prejudice or prcposession.—Wc shell there-
f 're proceed with a brief re% iow—first, of the con-
duct of Govetnment i,l order'ig the procession to
tike the route that was directed;—secondly, of the
opposition to that route on the pert of the people ;
thirdly, of the violence on the ye-t of the Horse
Guards—and fourthly—of the transactionsunder the
Coroner's Inquisition.

FIRST—Of the conduct of Go-eruntent in or-
derenz the Procession to take the rode that was
directed.—lt was well known that nn inonense
numb,sr of persons of respectability, resitling
and :mannd the metropolis, were anrions to pay
the last respect to the memory of their lentented
Queen, by accAnpanying her remr'is on the road.
A meeting of the Co.,amation of London had been
held, in which it was resolved that the Ci‘ic Body
(certainly the first in importance, wealth, and i-cor-
Illation in the world) should form an escort cri;onneur
to the melancholy procession, from Temple-80,- to
the opposite confines of the City—and yet Ministers
in total contempt of these wishes and resolutions—
wantonly to oppose the wishes of the people—di-
rected that the funeral should be skulked to the
coast, by a road peculiar only for its circuity and
privacy. The ministerial papers, in justification
of the arrangement, and in their attachment to
ribts say " The Queen was the wife of the
King, and every husband has a right to ret;a-
late the funeral of his wife,"—the soph;stif of the
proposition needs not to be pointed out. The King,
as a King, can do no wrong—his Nliristers, as his
advisers, are accountable for all h is et rorr —The King,
as a wan, had no claim to any right over his wife,
living or dead—he had acted least of any thing as
a husband—he had in obedience to bay„ inclinations"
d' iven her from his bosom and her homt—he had
torn from her her only daughter, end prevented
evei y intercourse with her—he had more than tacitly
approvNl the conduct of those who had calumniated
and falsely accused her, and he had enlivened with
the sunshine of his peculiar favour only those who
continued to persecute }ter; and these vet/ men
presumed to secure, in the last instance, their cha-
racter for consistency at the price of illegality, by
opposing the intentions and wishes of the people and
of her executors, regularly appointed by her last will
—a will made in the moment of sorrow, desertion,
pain,and tribulation—a will sanctified by her Cl"is-
tiah forgiveness of all her enemies, even the very
persons of whom she so truly and so emphatically
thalami, "And now at last they have destroyed me."
Si CONDLV—(f the opposition to the-intended route
op, the part of the People—rat populioest vox Dei—

the people generally judge correctly—the people
Inew that the i'ttcnded route was unjustifiable on
every ground of propriety, and the people (wile
the principle of resistance to power "' improperly
ex 2reised, is recognized by the Revolution, which
placed the present family on the Th.one), not de-
serve praise for the;” successful exertion to prevent
the contemplated outrage.
TompLy—Qf the violence Horse Guards..
—The verdict of one Jury has declared this violence
to be NI UR DElt ; the verdict of the other has softened
it down to M ANSLAUG time; and by the evidence of
the soldier, themselves, a more unnecessary sam;fice
of human life has seldom been recorded. One Life
Guartisimm say:, " We told the people to get out
of the way : they would not obey us, pnd we were
forced to cut away at them." We should be very
glad to find out by what tov they were justified in
thus " cutting away." The Constitution, at the
very worst of periods—at those t;mes the most no-
torious for the attempts at inroad un the Fberties
of the people-7 has ken most jealous of the intro-