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

eutivlne,.llcit

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
and evasions innumerable it has at last been resolved
to 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 ba 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
Fault in witnessing the scheme referred to applied
to a structure of such very noble and remark-
able dimensi ms. That we ours.lves 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 conj, ctured. During several years peat 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.
perativ= necessity of trying the screw upon a large scale
end with proper precautions,if only as an experiment.
W hat 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 89
to its sufficiency. In spite of every objection, we
felt assured from the outset that this invention, be-

Yond all other!, was the one to which our energies
sbould be directed, as the most valuable means
ufforded us both as a weapon of defence and as a
weapon of aggression. While the Americana were
contriving their formidable addition to the art
of modern firearms, and the French were simulta-

neouily cdming into effect their marvellou3 info

vatic:lm in Musketry, we brew that in the scientific
application of the screw propeller to our naval force
lay the secret of enhancirs 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 thousand 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
alrewiy in the hands of the Chasseurs de Vincennes.
It wou'd be satisfactory of course to witness,
in addition to all this, the organization

a this country of an institution kindred

in its charxter with the noble establishment
called the "Ecole CCE:It Major," in which France
is perpetually educating for her forces a reserve of
deeply•experieoced, sagacious, and
gifted generals. Such a dream, however, appears to
us little lees than an_ absurdity after the proceed-
ings which, during the present year, have called
down such merited derision upon the authorities at
the Admiralty. If we look for improvement, we

must look fur improvements more compatible Ns ith our
lung-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 fell 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 in the re fl-fctions 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-
ward state when viewed on Friday last by Captain
Sir BALDWIN Wealeet, 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 have been effected,
the launch of this splendid vessel may take place
Were the close of 1852-1842 having witnessed her
commencement, and ten years having been conse-
quently devoted to the labour of construction. After
alluding to the facts above-mentioned, we rest satisfied
that every wellwisher 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 Ro) al Albert, a vessel of 120 guns)
and 3,394 tons old measurement.
of
100
lams, the Jampoeswe.
Besides the Royal AlberWatt, and the Agamemnon,
t there are the Sanspareil,
.r equivalent to one-third of
guns--in course of being fitted
many a vessel when
on two decks, of 80
T in acLion, seeing that she can ma-
anwgernua predicaments
outs pi,tslicsocmr epbavns a
ma-
noeuvre without her sails when the
_
rigging is de•
sotffr oay ed
lee.
shAidore,
hAoirdee, thoethesrcrde
shipwreck.
may be readily saved from
dorbyin

It will not be through the judicious or statetman_
like conduct of her MAJESTY'S Government, or, we
hhould rather say, of the Secretary of State for the
Colonies and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if one
of its most important end valuable dependencies be
still preserved to the British empire. We will not
say that Australia is 'sacrificed, but most assuredly
the bonds by Inbich it is connected with the
mother country are considerably weakened and
impaired through the cbOinacy and perversity,
or negligence
wroola'.
and insouciance li of Earl Gk,Y or
Sir cu
The errors of these Mi-

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 vexatm questiones 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 dercripticn, 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-
mivation on the part of the Noble Esrl, which be mis-
calls "firmness," but which m)y 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-
continence of transportation to any of the Australian
settlements. An Anti-Transportation League has
alrezdy 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 offscouriegs 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 graceful
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
befo'e his Lordship, and drew his attention to the
question in its most important bearings. lie pointed
out the circumstances under which transportation to
New South Whiles bad been di:continued,
and Van Dimen'a Land made the sole
receptacle for British criminals, and clearly
and explicitly detailed the frightful moral and social
evils which the convict system bad 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 transportation
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 bad 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.

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

THE ELECTION.

[BY SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH.]
(From a Third Editicu of the Morning Post, published

at three o'clock).

PARIS, MONDAY, Disc. 22, 2.11 P.M.
Votes known at Lille, Rouen, Meilne, Valenciennes,
and some towns in the provinces :

Yes 173,000
No

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH-COAST
RAILWAY.

Traffic—Week ending Dec. 20,11851 ... £8,34t 5 5
Traffic—Week ending Dec. 21, 1850 ... 8,333 17 6
Total of the half-year, to this date, 1851 ... 320,064 0 10
Total of the half-year, to this date, 1850 ... 292,889 17 11
Total number of Passengers—Week ending
Dec. 20, 1851 ... 44,865
_

Passengers ...
Goods ...

... ... ... £6,467 110
... ... ... 1,877 3 7

Total ... ... £8,344 5 5
Total miles open, 1851, 17314; ditto, 1850, 1711‘
London Terminus, Dec. 22, 1851.

Amongst the notices for application to Parliament
for Bills iu the ensuing session we observe one entitled
" The Great London Drainage Company," being to incorpo-
rate a company for the purpose of effectually draining the
metropolis, to collect the sewage from all existing sewers
which are now emptied into the river Thames, and to pre-
serve the river from the impurities at present passing into it,
by diverting them into a tunnel sewer, and to collect all
the produce of the sewers for application to agricultural
purposes. When we see the many great and advantageous
schemes which have been carrier ii to successful operation,
surely the one noticed above, promoted by Mr. Morewood,
cannot fail not only of being well supported, but warmly
encouraged.
CELLBRATION OF THE DUKE OF NORTBUMBER-
LAND's BiaTllDAY.—Monday last being the anniversary of
the birthday of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, the
occasion was celebrated by a public dinner in the theatre at
Aluwick. The party was a very numerous one, numbering
nearly 230 individuals, the theatre being completely filled.
The company was principally composed of the tradesmen
htiliC:l;a withdrawne:'t
and others of Aluwick, and a sprinkling of the tenantry of
The chair was occupied by Mr. Mark Smith,
bookseller.—Berwick Warder.
. PROFESSORSHIP OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AT OZ.,
isannforoumnceedomthpeattallilorn.Bfaorrr),i,heof
next vacancy
College,
in
the Professorship of political economy. The contest will now
lie between Aolfr.C.
MagdalenN.eate, Fellow of Oriel; Mr. R. Lowe,
The candidates are alleand formerly Scholar of Trinity.
and Mr. G. li. Rickards, late
Michel Fellow of
late Fellow
Queen's ;
emrsboerfscoonfvotchaetiobna.r. The present
expires in March next. The ap-
professor's term of aticem
pointment is in the memb
We understand that Le
~ the grand master of the free
this division of the. county, has
the sum cf 2,7001. in endowing schools in
MASONIC MUNIFICENCE.—
lso endowed a church with Gel.
looking out fur eligible
hla;ii
tlseednil
ydiaerci
eegcxe:ppuiteocentl ididroehml
expended
sdS:tnaasrnkdfi
ceir:
aE3s
also
an'aosthlearteclhyurch with A sum from 7-'.
an pur-
chase to 100/.
perper annum,
an
tnnouuraemn:d.idiacaurn
standard.