The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-30 00:00:00

THE STEAM NAVY,
(From the Times.)

Skill and perseverance have triumphed over the per-
tinacious resistance of matter, and the Portsmouth
authorities, as has been duly reported, have succeeded
this week in subduing her Majesty's steam-ships Avenger
and Retribution into four hours utility and obedience.
Both vessels consented to be taken out for an airing, and
returaed in a satisfadtory temper, without having either
stabborrly refused to stir, or ruptured themselves by too
impetuous an exertion of their strength. It is obvious
that no ships In the world know better how to behave
themselvei than ours, whenever their capricious tempers
happen to be in some degree conformable. Lest the
rer-r.arks which we, from time to time, think fit to make
ur,ion this point should be misunderstood, we readily
'avow that it is with no wish to disparage any particular
system, or to depreciate the difficulties in the way of
complete success, that we call public notice to failures
which are, indeed, something rather more than occa-
sional, A new element has been introduced into navi-
gation, naval architecture, and naval warfare ; we
have, fortunately, a 6 yet had little necessity for putting
our inventions Into practice, and we can only be
guided by the results of such experiments as can be
made with tb.e nearest imitation of reality. Excellence
is no morP, likely to come by intuition in the construc-
tion of *steam-frigates than in any other department of
science. We must make indulgences for the rudimen-
tary epoch of the system. We know, perhaps, little
, J
w aat steam can do; certainly we know little what it will
do. It may transfigure the aspect of naval warfare, or
it may, as is sometimes suspected, prove considerably
less influential. It is obviously safer, however, to act on
the former hypothesis, and this we can hardly do with-
out some uneasiness and dissatisfaction at our present
plight. We have not made sufficient progress. What-
eier in:.-ty- be the explanation of the fact—whether the
difficulties of construction and adaptation increase in a
greater ratio than the mere scale of the ship—or whether
we have at some point taken a wrong turn—it is cer-
tain that we have by no means improved in proportion to
our efforts or our experience. The two little Deptford
vessels of 1822—the Comet and the Lightning—are no-
toriously better craft, of their class, than those that
have been built since; and it is hardly too much to say
that the latest specimens of our skill are the least suc-
cessful ; so that an inference might be drawn, with
apparent plausibility, that we were actually retro-
grading. Moreover, in the single real trial, and in the
most decisive of the experiments, to which our steamers
haTe beer, subjected, the result has been unfavourable.
At Acre they answered less than any other class the
expectations that had been formed of thg new system of
warfare, and in our -squadrons of evolution they are
pretty irr,ari?.!)ly found v,'anting. They put us to great
cost, and produce n::' adequate return. They don't sail,
and it is surmised tlloy won't fight. We build them of
wood, and find that they won't float; we build them of
iron, and find that a single shot may possibly send them
to the bottom. Whether these deficiencies are the
attributes of our steamers or of abstract steamers,
we do not take upon ourselves to pronounce; but the
question is one of immense importance, and its public
discussion must tend to bring us more nearly to the
truth, and to diminish the cost of the investigation.
A pamphlet, from which we published an extract a
few days back, upon the engines of our steam-navy,
points to an element in the consideration of these
matters sometimes neglected. It is possible that the
fault may, at all events occasionally, lie exclusively in
the engine-room, that the construction of the vessel may
be admirable, and that she may be unexceptionably
manned and handled, and yet be half her time imperfect,
and the other half incapable, owing to the mistakes of
the manufacturer, after she had left the surveyor's
hands. Though the writer of the pamphlet does not
conceal his personal interest in questioning the plan by
which engines have been supplied to the navy, yet his
statements and arguments are liable to the less suspicion
in so far as they are allowably founded on official returns
made to the louse of Commons upon Captain Gore's
motion for that purpose senie time ago. It is there
shown that the engines furnished by one particular
house, in two cases out of the five included in the returns,
were actually incapable of duty for the respective pe-
riods of 393 and 353 days out of a service of three
years ; while in two other cases the engines from ano-
ther manufactory were only invalided for 38 and 51
days each, and yet that the latter house obtained scarcely
any share of Government favours compared with the
former. Unhappily, though these returns were made in
1843, they are particularly a propos to 1846, as may be
seen by our naval intelligence week after week. The
effect still remains, whatever may be the existing cause.
It is, undoubtedly, in the highest degree desirable that
the benefits arising from the free play of public com-
petition should not be lost to so material an item of
public expense, and so important an object of national
excellence. If the best engines can be supplied on the
Clyde, they should come from the Clyde ; nor can we
conceive it possible that the Admiralty can be without
statistical returns setting beyond a doubt the facts
requisite to form a judgment on this point. Those
engines which are proved to do the most work with the
least coals and fewest repairs are the engines with which
our steam-ships should be fitted ; and this discovery
can be made, we should imagine, without any fear of
bias or delusion from ex parte statements or professions.
The responsibility upon this head, however, is not en-
tirely shifted from the shoulders of the Surveyor of the
Navy ; for, independently of that supervision which he
may be presumed to exercise, the, future quality of the
engines is materially affected by the conditions which
he imposes on the manufacturer. Limits as to space and
weight must of course be attended to, but it is said that
they have been assigned somewhat arbitrarily during
our magnanimous experiments, and that the results have
been found detrimental And there is one point con-
nected with these discussions which common humanity
forces peremptorily on our notice. We now employ
steamers pretty generally on the African coast, and the
climate to which these vessels may be thus destined
should be at least as much considered in their construc-
tion as the curious speculations of a naval architect. A
premium has lately been set upon small engine-rooms,
and the authorities have been humoured cn this head
with very little regard to the lives of the unfortunate
engineers. But let our readers only imagine the conse-
quences of superadding to the deadly pagues of our
slave-trade service a confinement for two-thirds of the
day to a small furnace-hole I The place, in its own
nature, is as little like earth as possible, and we surely
need not lend it the appliances of our caprice to effect a
more complete transformation.

The Sacred Harmonic Society's next Concert will
take place on Wednesday next, when Handel's Solomon
will be performed.
A CHRISTIAN'S LIBERALITY TOWARDS A JEWISH
CHARITY.—It is with the liveliest sense of gratification
that we record the following act of liberality by
a Christian gentleman towards a Jewish Institu-
tion. An application having been made by the Build-
ing Committee of the Jews' Orphan Asylum to
James Chadwick, Esq., requesting thst gentleman
to lay down pavement on the grounds attached
to the building, and to inform them what the expense
would be for the same, Mr. Chadwick was pleased to
state in reply, that, if the committee would allow him, he
would be happy to do the work required, without any
charge to the charity, as it would aftbrd him pleasure to
give his assistance in so good a cause. This expression of
kindness and benevolence was readily accepted by the
committee, who acknowledged it with sincere and grateful
thanks, requesting that the donor would allow his name
to be recorded as an honorary life governor of the
charity ; and, in commemoration of this act of benevo-
lence, resolutions were adopted by them to the following
effect:—That the following resolutions be transmitted by
letter to James Chadwick, Esq., for his munificent do-
nation:—Reaolved, in order to mark the sense
of the committee of the above institution of the liberality
anti benevolence of James Chadwick, Esq., in paving
at his own expense the court-yard, and other parts of
the premises, that his name be enrolled upon the list of
Life Governors of this Charity. 2nd. That the name
and circumstances attending the munificent donation of
James Chadwick, Esq. to this institution, be engraved
on some conspicuous part of the pavement, to per-
petuate the before-mentioned act, and to be in' ribed
in the following terms:—The entire pavement D.f these
premises was presented and laid down at the sole ex-
pense of James Chadwick, Esq., a Life Governor of
this Charity.—November 15, 1846.—Jewish Chronicle.
THE COBDEN TESTIMONIAL.—The committee for
managing the Liverpool contribution to the Cobden fund
have decided upon closing it on the 31st of December—
a circumstance to which we must emphatically direct
the public attention, because, so far, this town has not
yet acquitted itself of the duty it owes to the cham-
pion of free trade. Thousands who peruse these, lines
are already better off, and will for years obtain aug-
mented profits in their business compared with what
would have been their success in life had not the great
measure of 1846 been carried ; and although many were
thelabourersin the field, to whom the harvest of a nal don's
prosperity will be owing, yet Richard Cobden was tl7 to one
leader whose argumentative plough penetrated the; most
stubborn soil, and whose well-scattered seeds of thought
have quickened into growing intelligence thrialighout
the length and breadth of the land. All men owe him
a substantial compliment—something in requit el of his
labour, and as monetary first fruits of their gai IL Many
have subscribed handsomely, but others have, hitherto,
held back from the work. To the latter we now ap-
peal, that they may no longer be forgetful of what
is due from them ; that they may hasten to contri-
bute in a manner which shall do justice to their gra- ,
titude, and which shall be worthy the accept:awe of
him who devoted years of toil, and has :sacrificed
health and wealth in serving the whole cortrrty,abnyd
producing a new state of things beneficial to ull,
in the profitable results of which he can only pte.
ticipate as an individual member of the commu-
nity. It will, in future years, be a rentiniscence
honourable to all, and gratifying to the desc, en dents of
all, that at the right time, and in the right w ay, they
paid a tribute of recompense to one of the ni ost able
and most disinterested of our country's benefit ctors.—
Liverpool Mercury.
CAUSES OF HASTE AND CARELESSNESS IN BUlLD-
nrc.—We have on various occasions pointed of it. the im-
perfect manner in which bricklaying is now Ty .rforreed
in England, and the causes which have led to this state
of things. " Operatives, speaking generally, hi Iv() ceased
to feel interested in the production of good v vork ; all
they desire is to get over the ground, and very often
this is the case with their masters too." " lim,ty bad
work, induced by competition and the operations of spe-
culative builders, has become so much the habit of our
bricklayers, that it is difficult to find men capable of
producing superior work; or, at all events, it is: difficult
to induce them to abandon their hasty, careless mode of
proeeeding, and exercise the skill they posses s." use
begets indifference : whatever has answered the, purpose
Once, will do so again, it is thought; and so men go on,
house after house, in the same defective course, without
once thinking of its inefficiency,or making any efforts
at improvement. The wondeis, not that an accident
does occasionally, too often indeed, occur, but that
log:tuns a 9 n4%1 ihcigg 01401 tit 611.--Th &milder,
_ _ • .