The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-22 00:00:00

THE SUN,

eberenim int

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1851

What we have repeatedly advocated as a most de-
sirable improvement in the construction of our ships
of war, has, we are rejoiced to observe, at length
been deliberately adopted by the Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty. The fact is announced in
another column, explicitly enough, as may be seen
by a glance at the Naval Intelligence. After delays
land evasions innumerable it has at last been resolved
Ito apply to our larger vessels of war the advantages
which accrue from the judicious combination of the
steam-engine with the screw-propeller. As ample
testimony that this resolution on the part of the
authorities is now about to be carried into practical
operation, and that, moreover, upon no incon-
siderable scale, it will be perceived that the
screw and auxilliary engines are about to be ;fitted
into the Royal Albert, a magnificent ship of 120
guns, the largest ever built for the Royal Navy, so that
every one interested in the welfare of his country must
exult in witnessing the scheme referred to applied
to a structure of such very noble and remark-
able dimensions. That we ourselves in particular
should regard the intention of the Lords of the Ad-
miralty with feelings of peculiar gratification may, as
our more observant readers may at once understand,
be readily conjectured. During several years past our
columns have been rendered the vehicle for arguments
often reiterated, but until now ineffectual, demonstrat-
ing not merely the propriety,but the absolute and im-
perative necessity of trying the screw upon a large scale
and with proper precautions, if only as an experiment.
What has hitherto been done in the matter, to the
end that the benefit of the screw as a motive power
for ships of war might be rendered visible, can
scarcely be dignified with the name even of a test as
to its sufficiency. In spite of every objection, we
felt assured from the outset that this invention, be-
yond all others, was the one to which our energies
should be directed, as the most valuable means
afforded us both as a weapon of defence and as a
weapon of aggression. While the Americans were
contriving their formidable addition to the art
of modern firearms, and the French were simulta-
neously carrying into effect their marvellous inno-
vations in musketry, we knew that in the scientific
application of the screw propeller to our naval force
lay the secret of enhancing the maritime strength
of England. Everyone knows well enough, in all
conscience, the astonishing and terrible powers af-
forded to a combatant by the possession of one of
COLT'S revolvers. Everyone also knows, or at any
rate everyone ought by this time to know, the fearful
and deadly effects :producible by the discharge of the
newly invented muskets of the Chasseurs de Vincennes.
According to the most moderate calculations yet
made, one of the conical bullets discharged from the
latter description of weapons, may be propelled to a
distance of no less than one thoueand yards—hurling
destruction beyond a range three times that within
the reach of the regulation musket hitherto used in

the English army. With these extraordinary
changes developing themselves in France and the
United states, yielding to the forces of those great
countries an astounding increase of capacity for war-
like aggression, it is lamentable to reflect upon the
apathy evinced heretofore amongst ourselves in reference
to the adoption of any such really gigantic measures
of improvement. Fortunately, however, of late
there has been manifested in the right quarters a

readiness to enable our soldiers to avail themselves of
these very important innovations. Before long,
therefore, we are sanguine of beholding the adoption
generally throughout the English army,not merely of
pistols fitted out similarly to COLT'S revolvers, but of
muskets contrived upon the same principle as those
already in the hands of the Chasseurs de Vincennes.
It would be satisfactory of course to witness,
in addition to all this, the organization
i❑ this country of an institution kindred
in its character with the noble establishment
called the "Ecole d'Etat Major," in which France
is perpetually educating for her forces a reserve of
well-disciplined, deeply-experienced, sagacious, and
gifted generals. Such a dream, however, appears to
us little less than an absurdity after the proceed-
ings Is hid), during the present year, have called
dow❑ such merited derision upon the authorities at

the Admiralty. If we look for improvement, we
must look for improvements more compatible with our
long-established regulations. Among such improve-
ments, among improvements thus immediately prac-
ticable, we may now happily classify that of applying
to our ships of war the advantages of the screw pro-
peller.

Already we have enumerated so very frequently
the benefits accruing to a vessel fitted out with this
novel and wonderful application of the steam-engine
as a motive power, that a repetition of those benefits
has become altogether superfluous. The additional

speed ensured, the independence of wind and tide,
the safety of the internal machinery, from the circum-
stance of its being sunk below the level of the water—
an advantage which it is obvious could never be ob•
tained with the old and cumbrous system of side-
paddles—must be results such as cannot fail to force
themselves at once upon the mind on the mere
mention of the adoption of the screw power in our
men-of-war. There are other consequences besides
these which must ensue from the employment of the
screw in the Royal Navy of England, which cannot

but spontaneously arise i❑ the reflections of the naval
architect. Those, nevertheless, which are above men-

tioned, brief and incidental though the reference be,
will, we are satisfied, with the majority be more than

sufficient. Such appear to be the impressions which
have at length carried conviction to the judgment of the
LordaCommissioners of the Admiralty. Tardy though
this concession is, it is for that reason, perhaps, only
the more acceptable and the more entitled to our very
earnest expressions of gratification. The Royal Al-
bert will, by reason of this change in the resolution
of the Admiralty, be the means of inaugurating, we
feel assured, a new and memorable era in the history
of our maritime power. Satisfied upon this point, we
are rejoiced to learn that she proved to be in a for-

'ard state when viewed on Friday last by Captain
Sir BALDWIN WALKER, on the occasion of his visit
to Woolwich Dockyard, for the purpose of
inspecting the Agamemnon. So forward, indeed,
that it is expected, after the requisite alterations

to fit her with a screw propeller hare been effected,
the launch of thii splendid vessel may take place
_

before the close of 1852-1842 having witnessed her

commencement, and ten years having been copse-
_

quently devoted to the labour of construction. After

alluding to the facts above-mentioned, we rest satisfied

,hat every wellwieher of our navy will exult with

ourselves in the realization of what we have long an-
ticipated, the screw-propeller being at last selected
as the motive power to be applied to a magnificent
vessel like the Royal Albert, a vessel of 120 guns,
and 3,394 tons old measurement.
Besides the Royal Albert there are the Sanspareil,
of 100 guns, the James Watt, and the Agamemnon,
on two decks, of 80 guns—in course of being fitted
a. power equivalent to one-third of
out
with
in action, seeing that she can ma-
noeuvre without her sails when the rigging is de-
stroyed. Aided by th©
crew, many a vessel when
off a lee shore, or in other dangerous predicaments,
may be readily saved from shipwreck.

It will not be through the judicious or statetman-
like conduct of her MAJEETYS Government, or, we
should rather say, of the Secretary of State for the
Colonies and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if one
of its most important and valuable dependencies be
still preserved to the British empire. We will not
say that Australia is sacrificed, but most assuredly
the bonds by which it is connected with the
mother country are considerably weakened and
Impaired through the obstinacy and perversity,
or negligence and insouciance of Earl GREY or
Sir CHARLES Woop. The errors of these Ali-

nisters are of a totally opposite character—
the one doing too much, the other too little—the one
being of commission, the other of omission ; but they
are equally mischievous, inflicting the deepest injury
on the colonists, either through vexatious interference
and constant meddling, or through the most con-
temptuous and heartless indifference to, and disregard
of, their just claims. To those at all acquainted
with Sir CHARLES WOOD it is unnecessary to say that
it is in his department that the do-nothing policy
predominates ; that he-still considers every question
in the penny-wise-and-pound-foolish spirit, and that he
is at this moment alienating our Australian brethren,
and holding out the strongest inducements to them
to seek assistance from the United States, rather than
risk a few paltry thousands per annum by conceding
the postal facilities so urgently demanded by the
colonists, and to which their rapidly increasing im-
portance so justly entitle them. The tardy proposition
of establishing (not a bi-monthly communication, but)
a mail once every two months—six times a year—
was adding insult to injury, and inflicting intolerable
provocation on the claimants.
The errors of the noble brother-in-law of the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, although equally
mischievous, are of a less contemptible character, and
we certainly should have greater hope of improve-
ment on his side than on that of his close ally and
relative. He is unfortunately too deeply attached
to the principles of centralization; too anxious to
move all the wires and is sue all the commands from
his office in Downing-street, and too much impressed
with the idea that the interests, or the supposed in-
terests, of the parent State are alone to be considered
in the management and government of our colonies,
to be much moved by the representations which occa-
sionally find their way even from the antipodes to the
inmost recesses of the Colonial-office. He thus ad-
judicates and decides on matters of vast importance
on the most insufficient data, and is surprised at the
discontent occasioned by regulations which would
never have been framed or carried into execution had
he possessed anything approaching to an accurate
knowledge of the circumstances of the case, or the
feelings of the colonists.
We shall not now refer to the grievances arising
from the erroneous principles on which the sales of
Government lands have been conducted, or the refusal
to bestow the privilege of " self-government" to the
extent reasonably and justly required by the
people. These versus questions are ;sufficiently
annoying, and subversive of the good under-
standing that should be most strenuously
cultivated ; but there is another grievance even of a
more vexatious description, the evils of which are
patent to the most superficial observer, and on which
a remarkable unanimity of opinion prevails in all
the Australasian dependencies, , which, we regret to
say, is met by an unbending obstinacy, a stern deter-
mination on the part.of the Noble Earl, which he mis-
calls "firmness," but which may be designated by a
different and more homely appellation.
The demand so anxiously urged by the colonists,
and so strenuously rejected by Earl GREY, is the dis-
continance of transportation to any of the Australian
settlements. An Anti-Transportation League has
already been formed, which may proceed to very
formidable lengths so soon as the determined perti-
nacity or reckless perversity (as it may be termed)
of the Colonial Secretary becomes known. The
example afforded by the men of Cape-town—the sig-
nal victory which they obtained over the Govern-
ment, which endeavoured, contrary to their
wishes so clearly and unequivocally expressed,
to transform the Cape of Good Hope into a
penal colony—the receptacle for our most depraved
and hardened convicts, the offscourings of our popu-
lation, will not be disregarded by the Austra-
lians. Under the auspices of Earl GREY, a contest
was rendered inevitable, in which the Colonial-office
was signally, decisively, and disgracefully defeated ;
and it is by no means improbable, that we may have
a repetition of similar proceedings, and with similar
results, in Australia. Such a course must be
productive of the most dangerous consequences,
which might be averted by a timely and gracefu
concession.

Within a few weeks past Mr. KING, a highly in
telligent gentleman who had arrived on official busi.

ness from the colony, laid the real facts of the case
before his Lordship, and drew his attention to the
question in its most important bearings. He pointed
out the circumstances under which transportation to
New South Wales had bean discontinued,
and Van Diemen's Land made the sole
receptacle for British criminals, and clearly
and explicitly detailed the frightful moral and social
evils which the convict system had entailed not only
on that colony, but also on all the other Australian
colonies to which the liberated felons repaired on ob-
taining conditional pardons available for any part of
the Antipodes. More recently these pardons have '
been granted to whole shiploads of convicts imme-

diately after their arrival. It may be difficult
to understand the full extent of this grievance, but
we may easily conceive that it must be of a
very aggravated character, more particularly now
that the gold regions hold out so many temptations to
all unsettled persons. Mr. KING ably discussed the
subject in all its bearings, and showed the natural
state of irritation to which the public mind had been
excited. Earl GREY was, however, . unmoved. He
gave his views in favour of the system so
loudly complained of, and declared that "he
could hold out no hope that transportatio❑
to the originally convict colony of Van Diemen's
land would be abandoned, nor that the Government
would not continue to send transported offenders to
such other of the Australian colonies as had consented
or might hereafter consent to receive them." Issue
is now fairly joined on this important question, and if
the Legislature do not interpose at an early period of
the session, and compel the Government to change
their colonial policy, we fear that the consequences
will be of an exceedingly formidable and unwelcome
character.