The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-05 00:00:00

THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE.

MENAI STRAITS: TUESDAT AFTERNOON.—Every
precaution having been taken against a recurrence of
the contingency of yesterday, the transport of the
huge mass of tube, 472 feet long and 2,000 tons in
weight, was successfully effected to-day. During the
entire night large beacon fires were blazing on the
various platforms and on the shores of the Straits, to
assist the workmen in watching and adjusting the
great network of floating apparatus. It is almost im-
possible, without actually being present, to realize an
adequate conception of the difficulty and hazard of the
operation, and of the iliad of implied contingency in-
volved in the safe launching, over a rapid tideway, of
a mass of material of such immense bulk,

No clue had been discovered to the suspected cut-
ting of the tackle yesterday, and it is asserted by the
Liverpool seamen to have been occasioned by the keel
of a large vessel from Carnarvon passing over the
cable on Saturday, the keel in question being cased
with iron, and consequently liable to cut.
From daylight until the hour at which operations
commenced crowds of people continued to wend their
way towards the works on either side of the Straits,
while upon their surface sailing and other boats found
it difficult, and, at many points, dangerous, owing to
the rocks and the rapids, to make headway through
the channel against a strong gale.
The pontoons and tackle that were to play the all-
important part in the great process were minutely
examined at an early hour by Mr. Stephenson, Cap-
tain Claxton, and Mr. 0..2-k, to ascertain that the
stay-braces, keelsons, bulkheads, tie-bars, caulkings,
and pumps, were all right. There were eight of them
ready to do duty, and take the 2,000 tons load upon
their backs, and bear it down the stream, six of
them of wood, and two of iron, their maximum
floatage power being 3,200 tons, each capable of sus-
taining 400 tons, and containing 19,000 cubic feet of
water, and of displacing a like volume when sub-
merged. Such is the amazing buoyancy of these
vessels that it is thought four of them would have
been sufficient to float the superimposed mass, but the
surplusage of disposable power was to enable those
who had the floating of the tube to adapt their arrange-
ments the more readily to the state of wind, and wave,
and weather. The displacement power of the pontoons
was equal to 2,400 tons. The subsidiary or control-
ling tackle, in the shape of cables and hawsers, were
extended over the Straits, and were two miles in
length, and 4 inches in diameter, attached to the
different capstans and on board the pontoons, where
the strain on them was enormous. These hawsers,
worked by the capstans, and by means of which, as
it were in leading strings, the tube was guided,
reached from the pontoons to the Anglesea shore,
kept afloat on the surface of the stream by
innumerable barrel buoys, and by means of which
the motion of the iron mass, governed by the play of
the capstans, was accelerated or retarded at the will
of the engineers. Each pontoon is 100 feet long, 25
feet wide, and 11 feet deep. The two iron ones are
of wrought iron, closely riveted together. There are
large valves in the bottom of each pontoon, which are
kept constantly open, and in this state the tide has
entered them and left them daily without producing
any buoyant effect. A complete dock has been cut
out of the line of beach, which consists of schistus
or slate-rock, directly under the tube, so as to admit
of the entrance of the pontoons. The provision in
the pontoons of valves allowed the water to be ad-
mitted for sinking them the moment that the tube
touched the shelves. The depths of their sides and
flat bottoms gave them all the requisite buoyancy,
with a comparatively small draught of water. By
capstans fitted on their decks, acting in contact with
those on shore, the haulage of the tube was effected.
Precisely at eleven o'clock, during a momentary
snow-storm, but which in a few minutes was succeeded
by bright and brilliant sunshine, Mr. Stephenson,
Captain Claxton, Mr. Edwin Clark, Mr. Brunel, Mr.
Bidder, and Mr. Wild scaled the ladders that led to
the top of the stupendous tube, and gave the note of

preparation to Mr. Forster, Mr. L. Clark, Mr.
Greaves, and Messrs. Watts and Maclaren, who had
charge of the pontoons and capstans, amid the cheers
of the surrounding multitudes who thronged the
towers and adjacent heights. The operation of
floating had been commenced by carefully closing
all the valves in the pontoons at low water, which
enabled the pontoons to float as the tide rose, and as
they rose buoyantly with it, to lift the tube from off
the stone piers on which its extremities rested. A
crowd of carpenters, with axe in hand, then laid on
lustily to the land ropes, and the great horizontal
roadway, thus released from those restraints, com-
menced its movement upon the waters. It was at
this juncture that all the capstans, cable, stoppers,
hauling lines, and hawsers came .into 'active opera-
tion for the accomplishment of the critical opera-
tion of floating the great mass, broadside and at
first in a slanting direction. The tackle having
been brought to bear on its buoyant burden,
and dragged it oat about 150 yards into the
stream, with its end to the space between tha towers,
the next grand movement consisted in what is termed
" slewing ' it round, so has to cause it to face the span
between the piers. At this period a considerable
pause took place, the better to prepare all hands for
the arduousness of the operation. Suddenly the
command was given to " heave all," and amid the
clang and revolution of capstans the mass again moved
on, until it was within a few yards of its destination.
After a few more vigorous heaves the Carnarvon end
of the tube glided to its appointed spot, and in a few
minutes after the Anglesea end slowly slided into its
position, amid the roaring of cannon through the ra-
vines of the Straits, the waving of flags, and loud and
long acclamations from the multitude. Not the
slightest drawback` in the shape of accident occurred.
Owing to the sudden turn of the tide at a few
minutes past 12, by which time the operation was
finally completed, and, indeed, only just in time to
render its completion practicable, the pontoons under
the tube bad, with the numerous sailors on board,
to beat a precipitate retreat, and on their
leaving a clear space of some eight or ten
feet was left between the tube and the
tide. The entire operation, as timed, occupied
about an hour ; the floating of the former tube an
hour and a half, having a greater distance to travel
over in its transit, and the appliances not being so
perfect. It will be fully three weeks before the tube
is lifted, the masonry having to be filled in, and it is
thought the successful process of floating may have
the effect of causing the highway to be completed by
February—a month earlier than was expected. Not
less than 2,500,000 of cubic feet of masonry had been
constructed, though only three years had elapsed since
laying the first stone. The work had gone quietly
on with such perseverance that three cubic feet had
been accomplished per minute :since the commence-
ment, allowing twelve working hours to the day and
six working days in the week. The great strength
and rigidity of the tube to resist strain and tension
consist in its system of bee- hive cells. The cellular
top of the tube, in which its great strength lies, is
divided into eight compartments, and the top and
bottom platforms forming these cells are composed of
iron plates six feet long, and one foot nine inches wide
throughout, 12-16ths of an inch thick in the middle,
and increasing in thickness at the extremities, where
they are 14 16ths of an inch thick. The vertical plates
at the sides are of the same thickness. They are all
bound, jointed, and rivetted together, as it were
into one laminated mass. The angle-irons of the
corner of the cells, which materially assist in the
resistance offered to compression, are strongly jointed,
the rivets being one inch in diameter. The method
by which the bottom of the tube floated yesterday is
put together is different from the top, the bottom
being that especial part of the tube that will be
solely subjected to a tensile or tearing strain, the
great aim in the arrangement of the plates being to
secure uniformity of strength, and this has been
securely effected by Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Fair-
bairn, by means of composing the whole of the bottom
of the tube of an infinite number of small pieces
joined together, and a system of chain rivetting is
adopted which distributes strength over all parts of
the structure. The sides of the tube forming the
medium of communication with the top and bottom
are constructed of similar iron plates rivetted together,
so as to insure the requisites of rigidity, tenacity,
and lightness. The top and bottom sides were at
first intended to be parallel, but were altered to give
a rise of seven feet on the centre pier, and so as to
taper off, with a slight curvature, from a depth of
thirty feet in the middle to a depth of twenty-three
feet at each end.

Should the first line of tube be completed by March
of 1850 the works will then have been nearly four
years in progress. Telford's Menai Suspension-
bridge was eight years in building; the weight of
its iron-work, compared with that of the Britannia-
bridge, being as 644 to 10,000 tons, or in the ratio of
one to 15.

EBENEZER ELLIOT.—This remarkable man and
original poet, whose death was annoueced in The Sun
of Monday evening, was born the 17th of March, 1781,
being one of eight children. His father was a clerk in
the iron-works at Masborough, near Rotherham, with a
salary of 701. a-year. Of his early life little is known;
the anecdotes which friendship has gathered from his con-
versation represent him as uniting great poetic sensibility
with much practical inaptitude. On leaving school at an
early age, and discovering great proficiency in arith-
metical attainment, he was placed by his father to work
is the foundry, and it is recorded that a sense of his
shortcomings often caused him to weep as, coming dirty
from his work, he saw the invoices" or drawings of his
brother Giles. Mr. Elliot commenced life as a working
man; ho came to Sheffield under peculiar circumstances,
and some hundred and fifty pounds worse than nothing.
After much exertion and endurance he was favoured by
fortune, and he was wont to relate how, sitting in his
chair, he for a time made bis twenty pounds a- day, with-
out even seeing the goods that he sold. The corn-laws
spoiled all that, and made him glad to get out of the
business of a bar-iron merchant with part
of his earnings, the great panic of 1837 having
swept away some throe or four thousands at once. His
first place of business was in Burgess-street; the house
is pointed out at the right-hand corner as you go up.
Removing hence, when business had increased, he estaL-
lished his warehouse in Gibraltar-street, Shalesmoor.
Shortly after he built a handsome villa in the suburb of
Upper Thorpe, whence he could behold Sheffield smok-
ing at his feet. The counting-house where Ebenezer
Elliot made fame as well as fortune, was strangely fur-
nished—iron bars jostling Ajax and Achilles, for the
classic poets were great favourites with our rhymer,
although he could enjoy them only through the medium
of a translation. Elliot has been called the Burns of
the manufacturing city. His honest-natured heart taw
with indignation Monopoly rob Labour of its wages, and
convert plenty into famine. He attacked the bread tax
most manully. Ile sent out, right and left, "songs,
sarcasms, curses, and battle-cries," among the people.
To his alarm " Up ! bread-taxed slave," England cc ased
not to respond till the corn-laws were extinguished.
Sioknoss for six minths visited him at intervals with in-
crossing severity, bat his habitual serenity never once
forsook him; indeed, this was a period of great mental
activity. On Saturday, the Ist inst., be drew his last
breath at Argilt-hill, near Barnsley. Of five sons, two
conduct the steel business of their father, and two are
clergymen of the Church of England. He has also left
a widow and two daughters.—Daily News.

EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR IN KENSAL-GREEN CE.
METERY.—Yesterday afternoon an extraordinary scene
took place in Mensal green Cemetery, and which has
created some considerable interest and surprise, in con-
sequence of the body of a gentleman having been ex-
humed, in pursuance of a warrant issued by Mr. M. H.
Wakley, the Deputy Coroner for Middlesex, without the
presence of a jury. The deceased was a gentleman of
property, residing in Hyde-park-square, and shortly
before his death, which took place in Scotland, made a
will, leaving the bulk of his property to a gentleman
with whom he was residing at the time of his decease.
It being known, however, that he had made a will in
England, inquiries were made, when it was stated that
the English will had been placed in the coffin with the
corpse, and hence it was deemed desirable to disinter
the body, an additional reason being, that it was said no
medical man had been called in during his last illness.
The coffin and the body underwent a very rigid exami-
nation, but no will could be discovered. The body of the
deceased appeared not to have been wasted, and there
were still some plaisters adhering to the chest. No
will having been found, the Coroner said it would be
necessary to have a post-mortem examination of the
body, and the contents of the stomach were removed
and placed in a jar, for the purpose of being analysed.
The Coroner directed that Mr. Garrett should perform
the analysis, and that the body should not be again ,
in-
terred until a jury had seen the bAly. The remains of
the deceased were then properly secured, and the jar and
its contents were taken away by Mr. Garrett, who was
directed to report to the Coroner the result of the ana •
lysis, as soon as possible. All the parties then left the
cemetery.
TUE PRINTERS' PENSION SOClETY.—Yesterday
evening a general meeting of the members and sub-
scribers of the above association, founded in December,
1527, for the relief of aged and infirm printers and their
widows, was held at the London Tavern, 11. Fley, Esq.,
in the chair, for the transaction of general business. The
report read was highly satisfactory. There are now 55
pensioners on the funds. Notwithstanding there bad
been a decrease of income during the past year, from
various causes, the benefits of the society have not been
curtailed, but, on the contrary, an increase had been
paid to the pensioners. The funded property, at the
date of the last audit, amounted to upwards of 5 3001.,
which produces the society about 2001. per annum.
The amount paid to male and female pensioners during
the past year was 5281. 17s. The report concluded with
an energetic appeal to the public f9r oupport.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CIIRONICLL.
Sir,—The public have read with painful interest
the able reports of your correspondents on the state
) of the labouring classes in England.
That these disclosures of the sufferings of the poor
have excited a general and a sincere sympathy i s
proved by the many and liberal contributions which
are daily forwarded to your office for the relief of the
most suffering of these classes—namely, the needle-
w9irien. I rejoice at this evidence of a Christian
spirit. It emboldens me to lay shortly before your
readers some suggestions which I trust they may
think not unworthy of their consideration.
Let me begin, then, with the class which has an
indisputable right to priority--the needle-workers.
Theirs is the most helpless s,,x—the most intense
poverty—the most fearful degradation.
Make every allowance for the natural exaggeration
of sufferers relating to their own wrongs, and for the
involuntary exaggeration of a benevolent man listen-
ing with horror to the detail of such sufferings--strip
your Correspondent's letters of all but the bare re-
cital of facts—omit all his description of the sufferers
themselves—forget, if possible, their own shame-
stricken and despairing recitals—and what a picture
is left! 33,500 women engaged in this one trade, of
whom 28,500 are under 20 years of age, and of these
a large portion living, or attempting to live, on sums
varying from 4id to 2id. a day !
I rejoice that the ready sympathy of your readers
has sent alms to these poor creatures; that is, to
those few out of the 33,500 who had the fortune to
come under the observation of your Correspondent.
There will be a week's food for the children of one ;
there will be clothes got out of pawn for another ;
till, in a few weeks, the alms will be exhausted—
the subject, by all but a few, forgotten—and the
same dreary monotony of starvation will again be
their lot.

Cannot these alms be so applied that permanent
good may be effected ? Instead of palliating the
symptoms might we not trace the causes of the malady,
and make a vigorous attempt to repress or diminish
them ?

Let us see what these causes are.
" The cause," says every one, " is the mania for
cheap goods, which drives down profits and wages to
the starvation point."

But a mania for cheapness would not, in itself,
enable the purchaser to get goods cheap, unless other
causes operated to their cheap production. The will
of the purchaser has, in fact, much less to do with
the matter than the position of the salesman and the
producer.

Every capitalist—by which I mean every man em •
barking his money in any trade or calling, with a view
to got his living—is trying to attract cuotom to himself
by underselling his neighbour.
Every labourer—i. e., every man, woman, and child
working for wages—is trying to secure employment
by accepting lower wages than his neighbour; and
every purchaser, as a matter of course, prefers the
cheapest article.

Tile truth is, our wealth and our population have
both outgrown the narrow area of our country.
We want more room. We have too much capital
and too many people—more capital than we can em-
ploy with profit—more people than we can maintain
in comfort.

All your reports tell the same t Ile in a greater or
less degree. In the mine, in the field, in the factory
—everywhere a fierce competition between money
and money—between man and man.
This does not apply to all trades in the same de-
gree. In some, either wages have not fallen, in which
case the labourer has gained an income, as the same
money wages will now command far more of the
necessaries and comforts of life than formerly ; or
else, they have not fallen in a greater proportion
than the prices of the necessaries he purchases, in
which case he stands just where he did.
But in no trade does the competition of labour
with labour exist to the same extent as in all kinds
of apparel-making ; and for this reason—the labour
is principally done by women. But the number of
women in Great Britain greatly exceeds the number
of men. In 1821, the females out numbered the
males, in round-numbers, by 117,000 ; in 1831, by
213,000; in 1841, by 320,000; and at this moment,
so great has been the male emigration in the last nine
years, that there cannot be less than half a million
more females than males in Great Britain. Now,
women have far fewer trades in which they can
engage than men. Their choice is very limited, and
as their field of employment is narrower, so is it,
proportionably, far more crowded. This needle-
working, which is one of the largest, is the most
over-crowded of all trades ; in none, consequently,
has the reduction in the price of labour and the cost
of the article produced been so great.
Theirs, then, is the case in which the causes I have
pointed out are in most active operation, and the
effects produced the most baneful. What then is to
be done for their relief ? I hear many say—" This
system of cheapness or competition must be put an
end to." But how ? By whom ? By the Govern-
ment ? Now, what is meant by this ? Does it
mean that laws shall be made to regulate the retail
prices ofevery article sold in every shop, street, and
alley, in every town and village in England ? Let
us suppose that this, if it were possible, would secure
a certain profit more or less to the vendor ; but,
for the producer, there must be, further, a
law regulating the amount of wages for
every labouring man, woman, and child. Due
regard, of course, must be had, not only to the
different prices of the necessaries of life in dif-
ferent districts, but also to the varying skill,
strength, and application of each individual person.
This scheme is, of course, too absurd to be enter-
tained seriously by any one. But I see that it has
been seriously proposed to remedy the evil by for-
bidding schools under heavy penalties to take in
needlework beyond what is necessary for the purpose
of instruction. On what principle are we to forbid
any one from working or earning what they can,
especially children, whose education often depends
on the maintenance of their school by this very
needlework ?

Are we, then, to persuade people, as a matter of
duty, to give more for a thing than they can get it
for—the tradesman to pay for labour, the consumer for
his goods, more than the market price ? Is all bargain
to become a matter of charity ?
No; social evil 3 are neither to be cured by Act of
Parliament, nor by attempting to contravene tine
laws of nature.

What, then, is to be done ?
That this plethora of capital and population must
have room found for them elsewhere is no new
doctrine, nor do many now dispute it. But I
have shown that there are peculiar circum-
stances affecting the female labour market which
entitle it to a priority of relief. Leave this crowd of
women here and they will destroy one another—more
and more poverty, more and more infamy—body and
soul both destroyed. Why not give them the means
of escape ? In the southern hemisphere is 3 vast
continent, which is as much a part of the British
empire as Wales. It has been peopled partly by
forced partly by voluntary emigration. In the first
case the disproportion of the sexes (the reverse of
course of that which we see in England) is enormous.
Philanthropists have been shocked at the results upon
society there. But even in the case of voluntary
emigration the greater hardihood and spirit of adven-
ture of the male sex have naturally brought out a
greater number of male emigrants. In 1847 there
were in South Australia only 13,622 females to 17,531
mates, including children ; the disproportion among
adults being, of course, greater. In New South
Wales, in 1847, of the adult population 83,572 were
males, and only 41,809 were females. In Van Die-.
men's Land the same disproportion exists.
A redress of this inequality is the crying want of
society there ; just as the redress of the opposite
inequality in this country is the necessity here.
Any woman so emigrating is a woman saved; and
further, if any numbers go out, the status of the re-
mainder is bettered. The competition is diminished,
and wages pro tanto improved.
The cost of a passage of an adult to Australiats
151. ; wonderfully little when the length of the
voyage and the comforts provided are considered, but
very large when we have to deal with the removalof
numbers.
But let us suppose that we only deal with a few.
' The sums sent through your office for the relief of
the needle-workers must now amount to some hun-
dreds of pounds. These sums have
been directed to
be employed for the benefit of particular individuals,
whose cases seemed to your readers to be especially
distressing. But these alms must at last be ex-
hausted, and when exhausted, f the recipient has
not been altogether removed from the trade, she will
be in no way benefited. On the contrary, she will
return to ber privations with a keener sense of their
intensity from the contrast she has known ; whereas,
the same sum which has thus been almost wasted, in
enabling her to Continue in a trade which can bring
her nothing but suffering and temptation, would, if
applied to her emigration, have enabled her to escape
from it.

But I do not intend that we should deal with ti
few only. I propose that we should offer to those
who still have health and years before them, and
above all, who still have character, the means of
escape from a country where their only possible
calling brings them ruin, to a land which offers
them the pruspect of a home where they may dwell
in comfort and honour.
The emigration of a few is a certain and positive
benefit to those few ; but unless we enable large
numbers to go we can effect no sensible or perma-
nent improvement in the situation of those who remain.
What we do must be done on a large scale. For this
a vast fund will be required ; but I have no doubt'
that in this country, abounding in wealth, abounding
also, I trust, in a self denying and Christian spirit,
such a fund can and will be raised.
Neither will machinery be wanting. The clergy

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