The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-22 00:00:00

BREAKWATER FOR PORTLAND ROADS.

(From the Guernsey Star.)
The address and letter of which the following are co-
pies, having been delivered to our distinguished country-
man the Right Hon. Admiral Lord De Saumarez, with a
respectful request that his Lordship will allow himself to
be the distinguished medium of its presentation or trans-
mittal to his Most Gracious Majesty, we hope to be ex-
cused for taking the liberty thus early, of presenting them
to our readers, who, we are sure, will feel a lively interest
in their perusal :
( COPY.) Weymouth, July 29, 1834.
MY Lofts,--I have the honour to forward to your Lordship,
an address to his Majesty from the Inhabitants and Merchants
of Portland, on the subject of " the Breakwater for Portland
Roads." I feel assured your Lordship will approve of the
loyal and affectionate sentiments which it contains, and grant
to the Portlanders the distinguished honour of allowing your-
self to become the medium of its presentation or transmittal to
his Most Gracious Majesty. Allow me to observe to your
Lordship, that it will be most gratifying to the islanders, as
well as to myself, to find this important national subject asso-
ciated with the name of a naval hero so distinguished in the
annals of his country as your Lordship ; and we feel every con-
fidence that it will also receive your Lordship's.v.crious consi.
deration and influential- support.

I have the honour to be, my Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient bumble servant,
JOHN HARVEY.
To the Right Hon. Admiral Lord De Saumarez, &c., &c.

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR. MAJESTY,—We, your Majesty's most
humble, loyal, affectionate subjects, the inhabitants and mer-
chants of the peninsula of Portland, in the county of Dorset,
beg to approach your Majesty with assurances of devotional
attachment to your Majesty's person and throne ; and at the
same time to express the high and grateful sense which we
entertain of your Majesty's condescension in having permitted
the " Remarks, &c., upon the subject of a Breakwater for
Portland Roads," written by the late Mr. John Harvey, and
his son the Postmaster of Weymouth, in the county aforesaid,
to be referred by Sir Herbert Taylor, to the consideration of
the Honourable the Navy Board.
Impressed as we are with the conviction that, in the annals
of the first maritime nation of the world, no record of any struc-
ture would radiate brighter lustre around the name of a Sailor
King, or afford a more striking characteristic of veneration and
regard for the Wooden Walls of Old England, and the inte-
rests of her commerce, than that of the Portland Breakwater;
and that it would be a structure which would afford unparal-
leled and incalculable advantages to the naval and commercial
fleets of the British Empire, at all times and seasons; a struc-
ture indeed that, in the hour of invasion, whenever that should
arrive, would bid defiance to the united Armadas of the globe ;
we ardently hope that your Majesty's name may be handed
down to the latest posterity associated with the commencement
of a structure so gloriously useful and patriotic.
But after the able and circumstantial manner in which the
subject has been communicated to your Majesty, it would be
supererogatory in us to expatiate upon its merits ; and from
the gracious manner in which your Majesty has been pleased
to receive it, we feel confident, that, from its vast importance
and utility,-it will be honoured with your Majesty's gracious
countenance and support.
We humbly pray your Majesty to accept the reiterated as-
surances of our undeniable fidelity and affection to your Majesty.
Dated Portland, this 29th day of July, 1834.
[This address contains 687 signatures.]
We admire the sentiments of the Portland address on
this national occasion. It ii, we believe, the most nume-
rous and respectably signed of any that has emanated from
the island, affording an example worthy the co-operation of
Guernsey, and the other channLl islands, and gspecially
every place in the counties of Dorset, Somerset and Devon,
Hampshire, Sussex, &c. The whole mercantile interests
of this country are relatively called upon to further the
great object in view, to realize the following line of the poet :
" There stands a structure of majestic frame.-"—Pope. _

England must always enjoy the great advantages to be de-
rived from such an extensive and central rendezvous. The
Mechanics' Magazine, No. 555, pages 428-9, produces
most important evidence of the road-stead's capability in its
present state, and touches on its much greater efficiency
by the contemplated breakwater ; we beg to add besides
the thousand vessels there alluded to, which anchored
during the heavy gales of the winter of 1833-4, that full
two thousand more weathered St. Alban's Head—

" Lo ! eastward proud St. it.Alban towers on high,
Swells from the sea and penetrates the sky,"
to avoid the flood-tide, being bound to the westward, other-
wise, in all probability, they must have been carried back
again to the eastward, little short of the Isle of Wight.
A contemporary writer has justly observed, that " most
assuredly the project is entitled to receive the deliberate
consideration of the Admiralty, inasmuch as it would pre-
sent a noble specimen of the riches, the strength, the com-
merce, and the beauty of everything connected with Bri-
tish seamanship, most worthy the renown of England,
creditable to his Majesty's Government, and 'very benefi-
cial to the country at large."
Since writing the foregoing we have been favoured with
a copy of Lord De Saumarez's letter to Mr. Harvey, ac-
knowledging the receipt of the address, and promising its
transmittal to his Majesty, which we also insert :
(corn.) " Saumarez, Guernsey, July 31, 1831.
have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
the 29th instant, accompanying an address from the Inhabitants
and Merchants of Portland on the subject of the breakwater
for Portland Road, requesting me to have the honour of pre-
senting or forwarding the same to his Majesty.
Deeply regretting to be prevented by a late severe domestic
affliction of having the honour of presenting this loyal address

to our most gracious Sovereign in person, I beg to assure you,
for the information of the inhabitants of Portland, that I shall
lose no time in forwarding it to Sir Herbert Taylor to be sub-
mitted to his Majesty, and I feel assured that it will meet with
consideration which its important contents entitle it to from
so respectable a class of his Majesty's subject. . •
I remain, Sir,
Your most obedient, bumble servant,
John Harvey, Esq., DE SAUMAREZ.
Postmaster, eymouth.