The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

THE CASE OF WILLIAM IL WEBB.

There is an article in Wilkes' Spirit of the Times
d Order,"friends in
etnhnoitnsi
oi loge.
edn'ti'ltel
mla ola:ne rsreoatthteall
laesnmanree ill-advised itsne
which Mr. William H. Webb, the well-known
panegyric on him in a
ship-
builder of New York, obtains an unenviable promi-
weekly paper, never before seen by the Spirit, but
whichwas forwarded, with the article on Mr. Webb,
marked, trailed with ink all the way down two lonaa.
columns. Mr. Webb is characterised
by his bio-
grapher as of almost superhuman abilities. " Such
men," he says, " are the very pillars of the Sta • •
the foundation upon which the nation depends.te'
Indeed," he exclaims, vaulting to his climax by a
few more phrases like the above, "the value of such
a man to the country it is impossible to estimate."
Now, says the Spirit, all this froth is harmless
enough, except to this man of very moderate abili-
ties, whom it makes egregiously ridiculous. But it
is not harmless, and therefore not excusable, that
his spurious glory should be supported by preten-
sions to inventions which belong to others (such as
the invention of ironclad war steamers) ; nor is it a
matter of indifference to the country that the man
who built the Re de Italia, which was sunk at the
first broadside by an Austrian ship; who con-
structed the Japanese steamer, for whose manifest
defects the unhappy native agent was consigned by
his Government to death ; who built the General
Admiral, which has been an incubus upon the Rus-
sian navy ever since, and upon whose hands even
this Dunderberg lies as a dead weight—we say that
it is not a matter of indifference that the man who
has made all these deplorable failures, should be put
forward as the great American mechanic.
Mr. Webb's biographer claims that in shipbuild-
ing "America has won, and has triumphantly main-
tained, the first place," and that " Mr. Webb is the
man who has borne the American standard to this
victory." Now, it is notorious to every American
of experience that the once undisputed superiority
of Americii vessels upon the ocean, has yr.lded
of late years to the superiority of the ships
of England, and particularly the steamships of
the Clyde ; and every intelligent American
also knows, that this decadence of our naval archi-
tecture, as compared with that of Great Britain, has
taken place during the very period through which
Mr. Webb has figured as the most prominent ship.
builder in the United States. If this melancholy
fact is to prove his title to be one of the most ex-
traordinary men of the country, we can only agree
to the proposition with a reservation, which must be
far from gratifying to his worshippers. A great
man impresses himself upon his period by lifting it
forward in the path of progress ; not bysymbolising
a grade of its decline. Mr. Webb will certainly
prove himself a great man, if he gets that failure,
the Dunderberg, off upon the Goverrimeat for two
or three millions of dollars ; but to do that he will
have to have great luck, and several relays of patent
biographical paint.
Following the assertions of Mr. Webb's genius
in the way of shipbuilding, of which the unbought
Dunderberg is made the great example, a claim is
put in for " abilities of the highest order," in the
masterly manner in which he has managed, and is
managing, the affairs of the Nicaragua Transit
Company, whose steamers purport to run between
New York and California. Now, it is notorious