The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-25 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

In resuming our notice of the conditions at present
regulating the armaments and equipments of our steam
fleet, we have to acknowledge the value of some sugges-
tions contained in a letter addressed to the First Lord
of the Admiralty by Captain Robert Spencer Robinson,
of the Royal Navy, a copy of which he was obliging
enough to send us; but as it appeared to be intended
only for private and limited circulation, we did not con-
ceive that we should gratify the author by giving a more
extensive publication to his name than he seemed to
have designed for himself, though we willingly aided in
the dissemination of doctrines so entirely in concurrence
with our own sentiments previously expressed. To
those, however, who are inclined to pursue still further
the clue which we traced out the other day, we can well
commend the perusal of this able and intelligent
pamphlet. Our remarks on that occasion tended to show
how it came to pass that for many obvious duties we had
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but too many, perhaps, prophesied. We now pass from
our mishaps to our miscarriages,—from our accidents
to our blunders ; and shall endeavour to throw some
light on the circumstances which preclude even the single
class. of steam ships we have adopted from answering
their own projector's designs, and which lead to such un-
remitting expenses and exposures. All our steam navy
should not be frigates; but all our frigates should at least
be good ones—should swim when they are launched, and
take the guns they are pierced for. We observed some
time ago that the comparison between the steamers
turned out from merchants' yards and those launched
from the Royal docks, so frequently drawn to the disad-
vantage of the latter, was thus far unfair,—that the
former were exempted from that condition whiCh in-
duces the greatest difficulty—namely, the necessity of
carrying heavy guns. Fur, although certain companies
are bound by contract to build vessels capable of mount-
ing powerful metal on emergencies, they have never yet
been tried, and we have reason to fear they would prove
quite incompetent to this contingent part of their
duties. Against this plea, however, we must set off
the fact that, Government vessels are almost equally
prone to consider their armament as nominal; for we
believe we are correct in stating, that three or four
only of the steam-frigates have ever been found able
to receive the main-deck guns at which they are rated.
So that both classes are thus far even, except that the
Royal Mail packets do undoubtedly sail, though they
may not be able to fight ; whereas many of the war
steamers, with almost as much uncertainty as to their
abilities in the latter line, are
.utterly devoid of any
compensatory excellence in the former. It is in the
engines, however, and in the mutual adaptation of these
machines and the hull, that we suspect the serious fault
to lie ; for the discovery of the right principles of ad-
justment on this point would probably bring with it the
means of improvement in all our other deficiencies. In
our paper of the 30th of November last we called atten-
tion to some of the circumstances which were said to
affect the arrangements injuriously in this particular,
and we observe our conclusions confirmed by some of
the illustrations which Captain Robinson has adduced.
Fifteen years ago the Surveyor started, as Mr. Hume re-
marked in the debate of the 29th ult., with nine
steamers which were done to his hand by way of mo-
dels, and which he was at liberty to use for his deduc-
tions. Two of these were the Comet and the
Lightning—good vessels even to this day, but not good
enough to content the Surveyor. He took his departure
from the Comet, and produced a terrible caricature in
the Gulnare, which, after a second failure under the
anagrammatical apellation of the Gleaner, was finally
condemned, but the Comet lines were not reverted to.
His translation of the Medea was not quite so bad, since
it seems to have suggested the Devastation class, which,
if not an improvement on its original, is yet respectably
spoken of. But it is to the all-pervading and radical
error of these experiments that we wish to direct
especial attention; and this, as Captain Robinson has
stated, is our pertinacity in testing too many points at
once. We never start cceieris paribus; we are, conse-
quently, never able to establish an improvement or de-
tect a fault, and remain just where we were at first.
In the first place, we never know beforehand for what
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to be a steam-ship," to carry so many guns ; and
there the instructions end. In the next place, whereas
the hull, the moving power, and the armament have
all a direct relation to each other, the proportions of
which remain to be discovered, we are never content to
ascertain one point at a time, and the result is, that we
ascertain none. Captain Robinson agrees with ourselves
in approving the Vesuvius and Stromboli, which were
fitted with Napier's beam engines. The only fault ever
found with these engines was their weight, and it was
justifiable to try an experiment for removing it. . The
Driver was accordingly fitted with Seaward's engines ;
but, unfortunately, a simultaneous experiment was tried
upon her hull, so that it is now quite impossible to draw
any certain conclusion from her recent meritorious ser-
vices. Had either the hull or the engines, only been
changed, we might gain some architectural or mechani-
cal deduction from her creditable circumnavigation of
the globe ; but, as it is, one, experiment vitiates the
other ; and whether the engines or the hull exhibit the
improvement it is hopeless to conjecture. Again, the
Devastation was tried with another new engine—
Maudslay's double cylinder but at the same time her
horse-power was increased by 120 over that of her
class, so that whether any improvement or inferiority
arose from her double cylinders or her double
power no human shipwright could say. Once
more, when the Cyclops disappointed us, we were
not content even with two experiments in her suc-
cessors, but we actually tried three, for the improved
specimens of this class were lengthened by ten feet in
hull, were strengthenad by 100 additional horse power,
and were then equipped by two new kinds of engines,
one from Messrs. Fawcett, and one from Bolton and
Watt. After this, it will not create surprise that our
system of naval architecture contains so very few
axioms. No less than ten different sorts of engines are
now in use in the steam navy, and these of as many
different powers, in vessels of as many different dimen
sions. Well may Captain Robinson consider comparison
and deduction as difficult ! We will conclude with one
snore remark. It is obvious that all our late observations
were applicable to paddle-wheel steamers only, and
would be mainly negatived by the general introduction
of the screw, which would both diminish the chance of
damage and leave the broadside entire. We have seen
too by the trial of the Amphion last week, and by the
orders which we reported in our naval intelligence for
the construction of an 80-gun screw ship, that the Ad-
miralty are attentive to this point ; and yet of such a
character are our experimental combinations that, up to
this moment, the exact relation of the power of the
screw to that of the paddle remains unascertained 1—
Times.

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FRENCH PLAYS, ST. JAMES'S rHEATRE.—His Im-
perial Highness the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia,
attended by the Hon. Colonel Grey, the Baron Brun-
now, Admiral Lutke, Monsieur de Berg, Monsieur
Koudiraffsky, and the Baron Friedriks, honoured the
French plays with his presence last evening. His Im-
perial Highness occupied her Majesty's box. Her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, attended
by the Baroness Hamerstein and Mr. Edmund St. John
Mildmay, also honoured the theatre with her presence.
We observed also the Duke de Palmella, the Baroness
Brunnow and Mademoiselle Olga de Lechner, Lord
Clitden, Lord Somerton' Lady and Miss Macdonald,
Lady Jodrell, Sir W. and Lady Martens, Lady Meux
Monsieur and Madame Uzielli, Mrs. Mountjoy Martyr;
Sir Henry Mildmay, the Count Kiehl] 14/280 e the Baron'
Nicolai, and Mrs. Milner Gibson. gg
TEIB Jastyrr AT CAMBRIDGE.--A new work of an
eharanter 4rnn, thm iron of Sir Glom
e
Stephen, has just appeared under she title of " The
Jesuit at Cambridge.' It is a narrative of events sup-
post.d to have occurred at the university, thrown into
the form of a novel ; the principle personages both
Catholic and Protestant, having been drawn, it is said,
from existing originals, and the whole movement to-
wards Popery displayed and illustrated in a manner as
entertaining as it is truth-like. We are, indeed, very
much inclined to discredit the author's statement that
the work is but partially founded on fact ; for extra-
ordinary as some of the incidents would be in real life,
there is so much probability in the narrative, that they
seem introduced to preclude any recognition of personal
identity. This clever work will doubtless be perused
with deep interest even by the ordinary novel reader,
and at our universities it will not only be read but
studied.

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THE NEW NOVELS.—Among the many works of
distinguished novelists for which this season has been
remarkable, the following may be regarded as among
the most popular :—Mrs. Trollop's " Three Cousins,"
and "Father Eustace," Mrs. Gascoigne's " Evelyn Har-
court," Mrs. Gore's " Temptation and Atonement,"
Mrs. Crowe's "Story of Lilly Dawson," and the author
of " Whitefriars' " historical romance of " Caesar
Borgia."
ARRIVAL OF THE GRAND DUKE AND DUCHESS OF
SAXE WEIMAR.—WOOLWICH, MAY 24.—Intelligence
was received at an early hour this morning, that the
Grand Duke and Duchess of Saxe Weimar would ar-
rive in the Cyclops, a war steamer of the King of the
Netherlands, and at nine o'clock A.M. a guard of honour,
under the command of Captain Elliott, proceeded to the
dockyard in honour of the royal visitors. Lord Den-
bigh, Master of the Horse in the Queen Dowager's
household, and Sir Andrew Barnard, with three royal
carriages, arrived in the course of the forenoon, and at
twenty minutes before two o'clock P.M. the signal was I
given that the Cyclops was in sight, with the standard
of the Grand Duke at the mizen. At ten minutes past
two o'clock the Cyclops arrived opposite the dockyard,
and Commodore Sir J. Gordon Bremer having hoisted
his broad pendant on the barge of the William and Mary
yacht, proceeded with Lord Denbigh, Sir Andrew Bar-
nard, and several members of the Queen Dowager's
household to the Cyclops, and escorted the Grand
Duchess on shore, and conducted her Royal Highness to
one of the royal carriages ; Captain Hall attended on
the gentlemen and members of their Royal Highnesses'
' suite. Their Royal Highnesses left Woolwich dockyard
at half-past two o'clock for Marlborough House, on a
visit to her Majesty the Queen Dowager.
A letter from Dresden says that forty students of
the University have been severely punished for having
been present at the meetings dangerous to the State and
public order.