The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-13 00:00:00

THE ATLANTIC STEAMERS.

What must be considered the failure of the 200 tons
Acim-vessels Brit;sh Queen and President from which
so much was expected, has given rise to a good deal of
controversy in naval circles as to the cause which has
produced so unfortunate and unlooked-for a circum-
stance.

As no matter can be more interesting to naval men
than what relates to steam navig!ltion, we have been at
pains to collect such data as will enable them to form
opinions and draw deductions with greater certainty
than they can do a anting this necessary information.
Both the vessels in question were built at Limehouse,
by Messrs. Curling and Young. Their dimensions and
tonnage are somewhat alike, the British Queen being
shout tea feet longer, but having a deck less than the
President ; the power of the latter is represented as
hat of 600 horses, while the former has only a power
of 500, or, according to some accounts, 450 horses.
The engines of the President were made by Messrs.
Fawcett and Preston, of Liverpool ; those of the British
Queen by Messrs. Robert Napier and Co., of Glai-
gow ; and both are represented as beautiful pieces of
machinery. _

It is evident that in these two vessels there is a gre
disparity of power for tonnage ; but it is remarkable
that although both have repeeedly made tedious pas-
sages, the President is the most unfortunate of the two,
and when she left New York on the 11th ult. had only
twenty-seven passengers on board.

The vessels provided by Mr. Canard for the Halifax
line, which have made and continue to make the pas-
sage so regularly, were built in the Clyde, by Messrs.
Duncan and Messrs. Steele, of Greenock, and Messrs.
J. Wood and C. Wood, of Pert Glasgow and Dum-
barton. They are all, we believe, of nearly the same
dimensions, and about 1,100 tons, with engines of 420,
horse power.
We staee these particulars in order that our naval
friends may be the better able to draw their inferences,
for in steam navigation, like everything else, there must
be some rule of horse-power for tonnage (supposing all
vessels to be constructed on the best mode) which will
apply with the most profit, over or under which it would
not be proper to go.
On comparing the British and American Company's
vessels with Mr. Cunard's, there appears a very great
disparity ; for the vessels of the latter have, as relates to
President, one-third more, and in the case of British
Queen nearly double the horse-power to propel the same
weight in tons ; and this on the face of it is enough to
account for their greater speed, and certainty of accom-
plishing the voyage in weather when the others would
be obliged to abandon their course, or unable to make
head against a gale. Cunard's vessels have also the ad-
vantage of being built of scantling sufficient to bear a
heavy armament, and this, so far from being detrimental
to their speed or efficiency, turns out precisely the re-
verse, for while the British Queen was obliged to sus-
pend work for some months, and undergo repairs which
cost several thousand pounds, after running for one
season only, the others have neither strained nor
started anything, and will, like our vessels-of-war con-
structed with stout scantling, on improved principles,
probably continue to run for years before the huh re-
quires repair.
Our readers will recollect, that when Mr. Young (of
the firm of Curling and Young), sat in Parliament for
Tynemouth, that gentleman never let slip an opportu-
nity of denouncing Sir William Symonds's system of
ship-budding. We believe this was done from con-
scientious views, and that he was imposed on by certain
members of the ci-divant school of Naval Architecture,
who boasted that they crammed him for the nonce. Now,
we fled how much easier it is to preach than to practise ;
for although the draught of these vessels was, we be-
lieve, furnished from Somerset House at the request of
the Company, whether owing to the waet of strength
or size of scantling, or other fault in the construction,
we find that repairs became necessary in a very short
time after the vessels left the builder's yard.
It appears to us that vessels of about 200 feet long
and 1,000 tons, with 400-horse power, are the best cal-
culated for quick passages across the ocean from point
to point, and that when their dimensions extend beyond
this an increased ratio of power must be appended, to
attain which would he most expensive ; besides that the
machinery and fuel would occupy nearly all the space
in the vessel. The construction of these large steamers
was designed on the score of economy, an the assump-
tion that the same establishment, with a small increase
of seamen and stokers, would suffice to work a vessel of
double the size. But this may be an error. At all
events, the experience to be derived from the voyages
of the British Queen and President do not warrant us
pages when
altering the opinion we recorded ire ihm
first those vessels were desigtv".il.—Naval and Military
Gazette.

DISPUTED Athe Liverpool .
ILL.—At assizes
the DISPUTED
and others v. Sherburne, cecupied
tb'_. court for two days, and terminated on Saturday, the
Jury returning a verdict for the defendant. The case in
many resprcts resembled the celebrated will cause of Tat-
ham v. Wright, which was finally decided about four years
ago, having been brought under the consideration of a Jury
four or five times, and the point in this action was simply
as to the competency of the testator to make a will.
Although Mr. Cresswell, counsel for the defendant, a
Catholic clergyman, occupied nearly eleven hours in stat-
ing the case, a good deal of the time was taken up in the
reading of a correspondence extending over a number of
years, for the purpose of proving the testator's genera
fitness for transacting the ordinary duties of the station he
filled as a country gentleman, and of his decided espabi-
lity to execute the will in question. The LearneJude,
Mr. Baron Rolfe, observed, in the conclusion of his addregss
to the Jury, " tisat if this will was to be impugned on the
ground that the testator was not competent to make it,
there was almost no will in the country which might not
be similarly impugned, and it would shake one's faith in
the ,trength of any wills."
CORN-LAWS.—It is gratifying to perceive, that
at last a general and right earnest movement has begun
on the subject of the Corn-laws. The inhabitants of Leith
are to bold a meeting for the special consideration of that
subject on Monday first ; a great dernonstrat;on is to take
place in Glasgow on Tuesday the 20th inst. A reference
to the import duties of all sorts, and particularly ti e duty
on the importation of Corn, and at this moment a petition
to Parliament praj ing for a total and immediate re cal of
the Corn-laws, is in course of being signed by a II ranks
and in every district of this city, and has already, in 36
hours, received upwards of 5,000 signatures. These move-
ments have but to to followed up with spirit to secure the
triumph of free trade, and the restoration of
prosperity to
the country at large. Every district is deeply inierested
in this question, but none more deeply (than Edinburgh
and Leith. But for the corn and timber duties, which in
a manner prohibit trade with the Baltic, the commerce
between the ports of that tea and Leith might be tripled
or quadrupled.—Edinburgh Chronicle of 461 10
There is a report in Edinburgh ttsat the Earl of
Stair will be her Majesty's High Commissioner to the en-
I auing General Assembly.