The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-11 00:00:00

,-~=

experimental cruises shifted her stores, and restowed her
provisions 'so as to neutralise some of the dangerous imi
perfections of her steerage qualities, her heavy rolling,
&c., which were reported on her pYevious trip. The
Queen, it must be allowed, has also been judiciously
handled at last, and altered in dock in the interval that
has elapsed since that period, so as to hate eXhibited
railing qualities of a much superior order to any that,
up to this time, she had ever been found to
manifest. We are to'o thankful for a good
first-class man-of-war not to rejoice at the
distinction she has attained ; and for that distinction
Sir WiLLIAM SYMONDS is entitled to take credit, as a
set-off against the very seirious account which Sir
CHARLES NAPIER, Captain BERKELEY, and other not
"ex officio," but professional " auditors of the navy esti-
mates" have brought against him for wasteful disburse-
ments of the public money on his own unprofitably con-
structed ships. And this allusion to the Gallant Com-
modore reminds us of a certain "Return" moved for,
last session, by another naval officer of distinction in the
House of Commons (Lord INGESTRE), and just distri-
buted under the title of " Navy ;
Queen, &c.," ordered to be printed Bth August 1845,
(N 0.634). Among this mass of papers is the " Return,"
we allude to, " of the expenses in building and repairs of
the ships undermentioned, distinguishing those built by
the Surveyor of the Navy, &c., &c." In this list we
find the Queen (110), built by Sir W. SYMONDS, in
1839, at a cost of 83,0001., and repaired in 1843 ; again
repaired in 1844 ; and again TWICE in the present year,
1845. Now, it is curious to observe how the
changeable and extensive character of these re-
pairs has increased in the present year smcz the former
trip of the Queen 'with the Experimental Squadron.
The Queen is only six years old, and she has undergone
repairs during the last three years of that term no less
than four times. In 1843 her repairs cost 464/. only.
In 1844 her further repairs cost 1,8531` This year the
cost of her first batch of additional repairs, &c., was
1,5201., being for " alterations of gripe, additional false
keel, rudder, post, and stations of masts." These,
we apprehend, were "alterations" very clearly
connected with those defective sailing and steer-
ing properties that had been so sensibly ex-
perienced on the former cruise. But what is the
amount of the last repairs—the second demand on that
account for the fist seven months of 1845 ?-6,270/.
for " repairs and fittings ; CAULKING, COPPERING, build_
ing magnaines according to the new establishment, &c.',
So that here is a total expense of 10,0001✓ in three years,
for repairs of a new first-rate, which, prior to her cruise
of last year, can scarcely be said to have seen the sea.
If alterations of gripe, additions to false keel and
rudder, and changing the station of masts, bespeak
original errors of draught and construction,
in what regards the steering and sailing of
a ship, the caulking and new coppering and other most
extensive and expensive repairs to her hull bespeak,
with equal significance, vices of' construction that have
caused her timbers to strain and her frame to labour.
Let us then be permitted to hope, at least, that if Sir
ILLIAM is to be continued in his post of Surveyor of
the Navy, he will in future condescend to learn
from the ascertained deficiencies, faults and errors
of construction always complained of in his ships,
and now tested and irrefragably proved by the
success which has attended these radical and elementary
alterations of his original draughts, estimates, and
designs, what he has so long and obstinately persisted in
refusing to be taught by the practical example of other
systems adopted by other builders. Whilst the yards
of our private builders at Cowes, in London, at Southamp-
ton, at Greenock, at Douglas„ have been turning out
vessels of all sizes and capacities, from pleasure sailing
yachts to steam-frigates, designed with so much theore-
tical science, and laid down, and built with so much
technical judgment, skill, and compactness, as to be
models unrivalled for the combined qualities of
symmetry and sailing, of easy steerage and hardi-
ness, compactness and capacity, unrivalled by
the naval architects of any other country ;
our Government ship-building is so notoriously inferior
to that of our most formidable rivals, that an old French
84 is still in our vast navy an unequalled ship of her
own class ; and new 74-gun ships, like the Scarborough,
no sooner take the sea than they are discovered to be so
worthless as to be compelled to be broken up, and their
materials sold at a loss of probably 35,0001.10 40,0001
on one such ship to the country. The official survey on
the Scarborough, made in 1830 (as we learn from
another of the returns before us), reported that the re-
pairs she then needed would amount to 47,1181: No
doubt, therefore, it was far better to sell the materials of
such a worthless hull at once but is it not intolerable,
to say nothing for the present of the public peril
incurred by such scandalous mismanagement, that the
nation should have its money squandered on such
blenders of professional incapacity? From a "Return o
the expenses on the building and repairs of the Ships
undermentioned, distinguishing those built by the Sur-
veyor of the Navy and other constructors," some of Sir
WILLIAM SYMONDS' favourite craft appears to have re-
quired very speedy and very costly cobbling. The re-
pairs of the Queen, as we have already shown, in six
years cost 10,1071. without any service ; 121 per
cent. on her building cost of 83,0001. The
Vanguard, one of Sir Wuswe's eighty guns,
which was built for 62,1151., cost for repairs,
in ten years, 11,6001, or within a fraction of 19 per cent•
The Pique (only saved from foundering on her home-
ward voyage from Quebec, by the seamanship and intre-
pidity of the Hon. Captain Rous and her gallant crew),
a 36 gun frigate, cost 33,000/. for building in 1834. In
eight years her repairs had cost 6,0471., after getting
on shore, 3,670/. more ; together 9,7171., or 30 per
vent. The Vernon (50), completed in 1832, cost 48,4871
She was built in twelve months. In the first three sub-
sequent years ber repairs were 5,5471. In the next three
(18135 to 1838), 12,4701.; in the early part of the present
year, 3,534'. Thus, in thirteen years, the repairs of this
new crack experimental ship, the Surveyor's mas-
terpiece, it was said, before he brought out
the Queen, have stood the country in a sum of 21,5511.,
or 44f per cent. on her building cost. But Sir Wri.•
Lrem's Vestal (78) has proved, comparatively speaking,
a still more chargeable affair. She was built in 1833 for
21,383/. In eleven years her repairs had amounted to
12,8701., or 60 per cent. on her build I We suppose we
are not to have these results inflicted on us in future,
otherwise the exceptional superiority in experimental
'cruising of the Queen and the Albion will be dearly pur-
chased at the expense of entailing a renewal of Sir WIL-
LIAM'S extravagant searches after " the practical."

The Madrid journals of the 3d instant contain abun-
dance of rumours, but no intelligence of interest. Two
of them affirm that a marriage between the QUEEN and
the Prince of ASTURIAS has been arranged, and will
shortly take place ; while a third, the Ileraldo, pro-
nounces the match impossible, and adds, that not the
slightest symptom of such a result has been evinced dur-
ing the royal progress in the Basque provinces. The
Globo, on what authority is not stated, anticipates a fa-
vourable settlement of the sugar question between the
Spanish and British Governments ; and the Clamor
thus denounces the NARVAEZ Ministry:—" All parties
are hostile to the Government ; every class of men ex-
ecrates it. Liberals, Conservatives, Carlists, Apostoli-
cals direct against it their just resentment. There does
not exist an independent journal that does not oppose it ;
there is not a political party that does not consider itself
outraged by it."

The QUEEN arrived at Pampeluna on the 3d ; on the
following day the French Princes entered the palace,
and were received by the Court with every demonstration
of enthusiastic welcome,

Little business was done on the Bourse. The Three
per Cents. were quoted 33 for account, but nothing was
done in the other stocks.

Most of the Paris papers contain brief comments on
the arrival of Queen VICTORIA at Eu, which was an-
nounced to the good people of the capital in the follow-
ing telegraphic dispatch :

" " EU, SEPT.: 8, 9 o'CnocK, A.M.
The Queen of England has just arrived. The King pro-
ceeded to meet her Majesty, and went on board her yacht.
" The Queen afterwards entered the royal barge, with the
King, Prince Albert, the Prince de Joinville, Prince Augustus
of Saxe Coburg Gotha, and M. Guizot, and landed at Treport
at nine o'clock, the weather being magnificent, amidst the
acclamations of the entire population."
The remarks of the Opposition journals on the event
are not in the best taste. A strange delusion prevails
among the monopolists of France that the QUEEN in
making friendly visits to her relatives at Coburg and to
the French Court, had something else in view than per-
sonal gratification—that, in fact, she was on a diplomatic
commission, got up expressly for promoting the com-
mercial interests of her country. The Pressc infers that
she was not successful in -Germany, for, says that jour-
nal—" It is affirmed that the QUEEN returns little
pleased with her journey to the banks of the
Rhine—a journey which has concluded more
abruptly than was avticipated."
The Commerce, alluding to this statement, expresses a
hope that " her MAJESTY had not gone to Franco to
seek compensation for the failure, and to renew the nego-
tiations for a commercial treaty between the two coun-
tries." These appear to us very contemptible paragraphs
in papers that profess to contain information for men of
common sense, and certainly are not at all in keeping
with the usual gallantry of the French character. The
Constitutionnel, in rather a better spirit, thus alludes to the
interview between her MAJEST y and Prince METTERNICH ;„