The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-18 00:00:00

of the points on which information was wanted were
these : —The stability of the vessel to carry a suffi-
ciency of canvass to obtain the necessary speed was
importantan consideration. The stability was to be
obtained, either by lengthening the vessel, or still
more by increasing the breadth, or else by deepen-
ing it. Each of these modes, however, bore with
it a corresponding disadvantage, and some general
theory of proportion was most desirable. The
second point was to enable the vessel to move through
the water with the least possible resistance. By increas-
ing the stability of the vessel, they increased also the
resistance, and that resistance was also considerably pro-
moted if the vessel left a slough or vacant place in the
water at its stern. The third great object was to increase
the power of the vessel to sail against the resistance of
the wind, as in sailing near the wind her tendency to
drift sideways was much greater than in going ahead.
On none of these points had they any accurate theore-
tical knowledge whatever. The water line, which was
the line formed by the water on being first separated
and then closing behind the vessel, was entirely unsettled,
almost every ship-builder having some favourite theory of
his own, without, however, being able to assign any
reason for adopting it. The reverend gentleman then
gave some particulars of the excellent sailing qualities
of Dr. Corrigan's yacht, but said that it was probable
the wave principle on which she was built might here-
after be still further improved. At least there were
some points on which he would like to cross-examine
the inventor.

Mr. RUSSELL then came forward, and after expressing
his gratitude to the association for directing its attention
to so important a subject, proceeded to explain the
theory of what was known as the wave principle in
ship building. He was first induced to direct his mind
to this subject when the canal companies proposed, some
years ago, to establish swift boats that might compete
with the mail coaches. On being applied to by them,
his first attempt was to build one with a spheroidal bow,
but the result was not as successful as was to be wished.
The favourite shape of bow among seamen at the time
was that called a duck's breast, but the effect was to
raise a large wave immediately in front of the vessel,
which of course considerably retarded its velocity. He
then directed his attention to the motion of the water
itself. When a vessel passed through the water at a
great velocity, a high wave was raised at the head, as
high in the old steamers as four feet, and this wave on
falling back formed a hollow by its pressure immediately
behind it, and the water was afterwards sent out with
great force on both sides of the bow. All this was a
costly and useless expenditure of force. In en-
deavouring to ascertain the least resistance necessary
to bring the particles of water out of a state of rest, he
conceived that there ought to be a similarity between
the motion of water and that of a pendulum revolving in
a circle, and this led him to adopt the form known as the
wave principle. This is different from a bow formed of
two straight lines meeting at an acute angle, in being
narrower than such a bow towards the cut-water, and a
little wider towards the bow. The object to be attained
was, he conceived, to remove the particles of water ra-
pidly, and at the same time not to throw them farther
aside than the breadth of the vessel amidships. That
this object was effected by the wave principle he ascer-
tained in the following manner :—He got his model boat
to be carried along by high-bred horses at a speed of 17
miles an hour, and made the head pass between two
oranges floating on the water, and which he intended to
represent two particles of the water to be removed. The
oranges merely touched the side of the vessel until they
got amidships, and there remained, thus showing that
no greater force had been applied to them than was
necessary to remove them out of the way of the vessel.
Another phenomenon observed was, that, instead of the
high wave at the bow, which sailors thought was a sign
of a ship sailing well, or what they called carrying a bone
in her teeth, the elevation and subsequent depression of
the water were entirely got rid of. He at first thought it
would be better to have the same shape behind, but he
found it did not answer at all. He diseovered, in fact,
that the fuller she was behind, and the flatter she lay
upon the surface of the water, the quicker she sailed, and
that this should be the case is clear, when it is consi-
dered that the water, returning to its level, is governed
by an entirely different law from that by which it is first
separated. These two considerations united led him to
the adoption of what is known as the wave principle.
In the wave formation, the greatest breadth of the ship
is not at the bows, or even amidships, but a great way
aft, in the ratio of three to two, and the other pbculiarity
is, that there is a long and extremely gentle hollow in
the water-line forward, with a very full water-line abaft,
but which is, however, never on the surface of the
water to exceed a cycloid.
An interesting discussion followed, and several mem-
bers expressed themselves highly gratiied at the explan-
ation which Mr. Russell had given of his theory.
MEETING OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE.
The general committee met this•day at three o'clock.
The President in the chair,
The minutes of the last meeting having been read and
confirmed,

Mr. TAYLOR, the general treasurer, read his report of
the number of tickets issued since the commencement of
the meeting. They were as follows :
Old life members 241
New members lO
New annual subscribers 39
Old annual subscribers
Associates
Foreigners
Ladies

Total 843
The amount of money received was 7101., to which .was
to be added the subscription of his Royal Highness
Prince Albert of 1001., and 81.45. Bd. for books, making
in all 8201. 4s. Bd.

Colonel SABINE, the general secretary, then read the
lists of recommendations agreed to by the committee of
recommendation. These were divided into three parts,
the first involving grants of money from the associa-
tion, the second requiring no grants of money, and the
third being recommendations to the Government or
other public bodies. The recommendations were una-
nimously adopted.
The following is a synopsis of the grants of moneys
recommended, with the name of the member, who alone,
or as the first of the committee, is entitled to draw for
the money:—

Kew Observatory £l5O 0 0
MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
Erman, A.—Computation of Gaussian for
1839. (Continuation.) ..... £so 0 0
Birt, W.—Researches in Atmospheric Waves 10 0 0
Robinson, Rev. Dr.—Construction of a new

Anemometer
(Committee).—Complete Catalogues of Stars 70 0 0

CHEMICAL SCIENCE.
Percy, Dr.—On Crystalline Slags, &c 2O 0 0
Schunck.—On Colouring Matters

ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.
Strickland, R. E.—Vitality of Seeds
Portlock, Capt.—Marine Zoology of Corfu lO 0 0
Lemon, Sir Charles, Bart.—Marine Zoology
of Cornwall lO 0 0
Forbes, Prof. E.—Marine Zoology of Britain 10 0 0
Egerton, Sir Philip, Bart.—Habits of Marine
Animals
Spence, William. —On Scorpionidm and
Arachnidre
Owen, Prof.—Tabular Forms for Registering
Periodical Phenomena
PHYSIOLOGY.
Blake, Dr.—Physiological Action of Medi-

cines 2O 0 0

The SECRETARY then read the Report of the Directors,
which stated that though they had made some conces-
sions in their plan to prejudices, it was substantially
still the same. The Company would begin its operations
at King's Scholar's Pond, pipes being carried on to
Hounslow. After alluding to Mr. Martin, the projector
of the company, and the claim he had on the share-
holders for compensation, the report congratulated the
meeting on the certain prospects of a remunerative
return.
Mr. NEISON moved that the report read be received
and adopted.
Mr. PROPERT seconded the motion.
Messrs. Jellico and Owen Jones were appointed
auditors to the company.
Mr. SMITH, of Deanston, then addressed the meeting
and stated at length the experiments which had been made
to ascertain the practicability of their scheme, and
demonstrative of the certain good effects which would
fol:ow its application. He gave notice that he would
move at the next general meeting of the Company, that
the half-yearly meetings its future should take place in.
May and November.
Mr. MOORE, the Secretary, entered into his own
twenty-three years' experience of the good that would
result from the adoption of the Company's scheme, cor-
roborative of the remarks which had already fallen from
Mr. Smith.
A vote of thanks was moved to the directors, and the
meeting then broke up.

DEATH OF SIR JOHN WILLIAMS.
The subject of this notice was at his country resi-
dence, Livermere-park, near Bury, in Suffolk, enjoying
that needful relaxation which this period of the year
usually places at the disposal of the overwrought lawyer,
where his earthly career was unhappily brought to a,
close. The age of Sir John Williams was not much
short of 70 years, but those who knew him considered
that his state of general health was sufficiently good to
warrant the hope that he might be destined to enjoy as
long a life as ordinarily falls to the lot of a successful
lawyer. The learned personage just deceased had been
for the last twelve years one of the judges of the Court
of Queen's Bench ; and if he did not digilay in that
distinguished position talents and attainments of the
very highest order, he at least brought to the discharge
of its onerous and important duties great integrity, a
sincere and earnest desire to administer justice in exact
conformity with the existing state of the law and the ac-
knowledged principles of British jurisprudence. The
subject of this memoir reached the dignified station which
he occupied at the time of his death without much aid from
that species of connexion which in the present day is
deemed almost essential to forensic success; for he began
life at the bar with scarcely any means of procuring
clients beyond that which a distinguished university re-
putation may be supposed to confer. Sir John Williams
was a native of Bunbury, in Cheshire ; his family, how-
ever, were settled in Merionethshire, and Sir John was
always very careful to have it understood that he be-
longed to the principality. His father was rector of a
parish in Merionethshire, but he was also vicar of Bun-
bury, and was residing there when his son John was
born. At the well-known grammar school of Manches-
ter Sir John Williams received the early part of his
education, and he proceeded thence to Trinity College,
Cambridge, eminently qualified by the instruction and
discipline of his boyhood to avail himself of the advan-
tages and acquire the honours which a university pre-
sents to men of diligence and ability. He went to Cam-
bridge in the year 1794, and obtained a scholarship the
first time that he sat. Mr. Williams took his bachelors de-
gree in 1798, and during his under-graduate course ob-
tained several prizes; but the.chief object of hisyouthful am-
bition—that to which he attached much more importance
than to any advancement in after life—was a fellowship.
In hoping for that distinction he was not destined to en-
counter disappointment ; and it is rather a remarkable
proof of his peculiar opinions upon this subject, that he •
has been sometimes heard to say, he considered the
honour of a fellowship, obtained in the face of that com-
petition against which he contended, an acquisition
seperior even to the dignity of the ermine. Mr. Wil-
liams, in getting his fellowship, very modestly acknow-
ledged that he achieved success over a competiter su-
perior to himself in general scholarship. That gentle-
man was obliged to struggle through life as he best
might on the scanty pittance which a poor clergyman
receives, while a more favourable fate awaited Mr. Wil-
liams ; but to his infinite honour be it recorded, that
when professional success and considerable opulence re-
warded his labours, he generously remembered his ool-
lege rival ; and considering him hardly used by fortune, -
allowed him an annuity in aid of the scanty income which
that learned and estimable person derived from a small
church living. It is understood that the annuity has
been continued to his widow.

Long after Mr. Williams quitted college, he devoted
his time occasionally to classical studies, as the pages of
the Edinburgh Review amply testify, for they contain
articles written by him on the orations of Demosthenes,
and on several Greek plays. Even still later in life his
classical attainments attracted attention; and Lord Ten-
terden, a high authority on such subjects, as well as upon
the laws of the land, pronounced Mr. Williams to be the
best scholar throughout the whole profession.
Sir John Williams was called to the bar in the year
1804, and although he did not rise to the highest rank
of the profession, he still obtained a very respectable
amount of business. Mr. Williams chose the northern
as his circuit, and the Liberal party as his political
friends. Both were bold steps; for the magnitude of the
circuit rendered success more problematical in that
quarter than in any other, while certainly no prudent
man could in the early part of the present century see a
prospect of silk gowns, or ermined robes, by connecting
himself with Whigs, Liberals, and other adversaries of
the Church, the State, and Lord Chancellor Eldon.
Slowly, but securely, did Mr. Williams advance in the
arduous profession of the law; accident never seemed to
have procured for him a client, and accident never de-
prived him of one. It could not be said that he en-
joyed a first-rate business; but he scarcely ever lost a
client, and though a man of ardent temperament his
discretion in the conduct of a cause was pre-eminent.
In proof of this, it may be stated that the late Sir John
Bayley has been heard more than once to declare that if
he were to be tried for his life he should desire to be
defended by Mr. Williams. Even the present generation
need scarcely be reminded that the proceedings against
Queen Caroline formed by far the most important occa•
sion upon which any lawyer has been employed during
the present century. The Attorney-General of that
Princess became Lord Chancellor, her Solicitor-General,
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, two of her counsel,
successively, Chief Justices of the Common Pleas, and a
fourth one of the judges of the ecclesiastical courts.
Amongst those eminent men Mr' Williams took a
conspicuous part as one of her Majesty's advocates; and
the almost unrivalled powers of cross-examination which
he displayed upon that memorable occasion fully realised
the expectations of his friends. His skill as a cross-
examiner was generally acknowledged by the profession,
but it was not until after he had exercised
.tha,t
astonishing power upon the notorious Theodore Majoccs
that the public at large became aware of his matchless
"thetalentsQ
• iuneetnittbriraant "
as it was called, his clientsch of an advocate's duty. Soon
became Soon after
more numerous, and his name considerably more public.
An opportunity for getting into Parliament presented
itself in the year 1822, when he stood upon the Liberal
interest for the city of Lincoln, and was returned. The
most remarkable use which he made of his powers and
privileges as a Member of Parliament was to co-operate
with Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor in denouncing the
abuses of the Court of Chancery; but it must be
admitted that the share which he took in the delibera-
tions of the House of Commons did not very greatly
add to the reputation which he had previonsly
acquired; but upon the whole he made rather a
favourable impressiJn on the House, and he certainly
assisted in laying the foundation, or at least preparing
the way, for several of the improvements which since
that time have been effected in the Court of Chancery.
A change of the Ministry at length procured for him
that professional position to which he had for some
years been fairly entitled..
He received a silk gown,
and soon after the accession of NI IV
Ma-
jesty,., her
now Queen Dowager, appointed him her At-
torney-General. In February, 1834, he became one of
the Barons of the Exchequer, and having sat in that
court only one term was transferred to the Court of
King's Bench, where he remained until the period of his
lamented death. It is well known that Sir John Wil-
liams appeared to considerable advantage as a judge in
criminal cases, and that he laboured unceasingly, in
every case that came before him, to reconcile his strong
sense of justice with, perhaps, his still stronger feelings
of mercy. Although Sir John Williams had been for
some weeks past indisposed, he was not thought to be in
any imminent danger, and he had, we understand, been
considered by his physicians as labouring under some
affection of the liver. On Monday last, however, he
complained of increased pain in the chest, and to the
great regret of that very numerous circle of society who
could appreciate his many estimable qualities, his
valuable life was on that day brought to a close.—
Times.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.—His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales has been rated as midshipman on the
ship's books of the Victoria and Albert. Should the naval
precocity of his Royal Highness continue, it may be con-
fidently expected, that, in the year. 1850, he will have
attained the rank of Admiral of the Very Blue; when,
in the event of war with France, he will take the com-
mand of the English fleet against the French admiral,
Prince Joinville.—Puncli.

A WHALE CAUGHT IN THE THAMES.—Wednesday
afternoon, considerable curiosity was excited at Dept..
ford-green, by the appearance of a large whale, which
Thomas Wetherfield and some other Deptford watermen
had caught in the Thames, between Blackwell and
Greenwich. The creature was ultimately placed in a
shed at the rear of the Sir John Falstaff Tavern, Dept.
ford-green. It measures twelve feet in length, the width
of the tail being three feet.

GRAVESEND AND ROCHESTER RAILWAY.---Traffic
returns for the week ending Sept. 14th:--Passengers,
22,965; amount received, b 521. Bs. id.