The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-18 00:00:00

1110 Mil

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER Is, 1844.

perience of the acting Lords will induce them
to return to the adoption of such noble models of the
old school, but with all the improvements of modern
science and observation, an the Neptune and other
such three-deckers. But having already expressed
our reprobation of everything like favouritism in ad-
ministering such vital interests as those wherewith
the Admiralty have to deal, we must enter a very
brief plea for their adoption of tried improvements
and certified inventions, having for their object to
supply existing deficiencies in nautical mechanism, ra-
ther than in nautical science. We are anxious, in
respect of one of the most extraordinary of these
improvements and inventions—the (as it appears
to us) invaluable " Ship Manceuvrer" of Mr. ROBERT
FOULESTON—tO learn the number of her MAJESTY'S
ships to which it has yet been applied? By this
" Manceuvrer," as it is shown by the abundant docu-
mentary papers and certificates just published by
its ingenious inventor, " a ship's head may be directed
at all times to any point required." The Earl of
DUNDONNALD, Captains T. BENNETT, Sir W.
DILLON, W. H. SMITH, Sir THOMAS HASTINGS
and F. BEECHEY, R.N., Commanders MILES, CRAU).
FURD, W. BROWNE, R. RICHARDSON, J. PARLEY.
R.N., Lieutenants BALLEY, M. COMBE, J. BIL-
LINGSLEY, HUGHES, T. CAREY, HENRY BUTT)
JAMES CLARKE, R. J. JEFFREYS, J. WILLIAMS,
ALFRED MILES, R.N., and Master Srmor(Ds,
R.N.—all attest their unqualified satisfaction
with its properties. There are succinctly de-
scribed by Mr. FOULESTON himself :—" The
power of immediately turning a ship, so as to
direct her head to any given point, independently of the
rudder and sails, has long been felt to be a desidera-
tum by practical seamen. This want is supplied by
the present invention, the principal advantages of
which are its simplicity ; its general applicability ; the
prompt means, both of attack and defence, it affords
to engagements ; its security from cannon shot ; and
the facility with which it may be made to subserve
any other means that are now used for steering.
The invention consists in a powerful screw, secured
within a tube, and fixed (out of reach of cannon shot) in
! the dead wood of a vessel's stern, at right angles to the
keel. It is worked by a capstan, operating on a ver-
tical spindle, which communicates by means of a
bevel wheel and pinion, with a horizontal shaft, into
which the pinion is keyed to the screw. They, acted
upon by the capstan and their accessories." We shall
endeavour in a day or two to find room for some ex-
tracts from the pamphlet whence we extract this
description.

Our readers may perhaps remember that, some five
or six weeks since, Mr. O'Cossmees, publicly an-
nounced his intention of coming over to England
previously to the meeting of Parliament, and making
a sort of tour through the country, everywhere pro-
claiming his own and his country's grievances. He
promised to treat his English audiences to a full and
particular history of the State Trials, of his own sub-
sequent imprisonment, and of all matters appertaining
thereto, in the confident assurance that his narrative
would be listened to with interest, and the popular
indignation be roused at the idea of the injustice
done him and his brother traversers. Mr. O'Cox-
N ELL would not have been disappointed in
his expectations. He would have found the majo-
rity of his English hearers—who are notoriously fond
of fair play—perfectly ready to sympathise with the
story of his wrongs, hacknied as is now the theme;
but, distrusting their feelings towards him, he has
thought fit to change his mind ; and if he now visits
this country, it will only be as a Member of Parlia-
ment, in the discharge of his senatorial duties. At
the Repeal demonstration, which took place last week
at Waterford, the Honourable and Learned Gen-
tleman, alluding to this alteration in his ♦iews,
observed that he had no longer any hope of being
able to make an impression on the heads or
hearts of Englishmen, for they evinced a total
disregard of everything Irish; and then proceeded to
make an attack on the English Press, which his ac-
cused, in no measured terms, of refusing to report
the grievances of the sister country. Really this is
doing us gross injustice. When have we hesitated,
in common with the majority of our Contemporaries,
to denounce the conduct of Government towards
Ireland ? When have we ever declined to make
known the wrongs of that ill-starred country, and to
insist on a full and complete measure of justice being
awarded to her? Have not the columns of the
English Press teemed month after month, week after
week, for many years past, with minute, circuni-
stantial reports of Repeal meetings at the Con-
ciliation-hall, and Repeal dinners at the various
provincial towns of Ireland ? There is not a
public man in the empire whose sayings and doings
have been reported at such length, and with such
scrupulous accuracy in the English journals, as Mr.
O'CONNELL. He is the ♦ery last person who should
complain of our neglect. E►en his worst jokes have
been chronicled with the minuteness of an item in a
tradesman's ledger. Nay, so studiously solicitous
has the Press been to d o him justice, that it has not
omitted even to make honourable mention of the
velvet crown-shaped cap, which he wore the other
day at one of the Repeal gatherings, and
in which we have every reason to believe
he looked unusually captivating ! 'Why then does he
denounce us, instead of exhibiting towards us all the
bland benevolence of gratitude? Simply because we
will not pay more deferouce to his Repeal crotchet
than it is worth, but will persist in maintaining that
it is the most absurd notion that ever entered into
the brain of a political day-dreamer Let Mr.
O'CONNELL come forward with some practicable re-
medial measures for Ireland—let him agitate the
landlord-and-tenant question, a reform in the Irish
Church, or an improvement in the national education
system, and he will find a great portion of the Eng-
lish Press ready and even eager to take part with
him ; but he cannot in reason expect us to coincide
in his views of a Repeal of the Union, when we
know and feel, in common with the majority of
our countrymen, that while such a measure would be
highly injurious to England, it would be absolutely
ruinous to Ireland. Indeed Mr. O'CONNELL himself,
whatever he may choose to allege to the contrary, is
at length awakening to a conviction of this truth.
We hear no more about the plan of assembling the
three hundred delegates in Dublin, each with a hun-
dred pounds in his breeches-pocket—no more proposals
for monster meetings—no more confident predictions as
to the exact year and month when the Irish
Parliament will assemble in College-green, with
ToM STEEL for its Speaker—all these schemes and
prophecyings are at an end ; and we have instead, what?
—a vague exhortation to Irishmen to " be up and stir-
ring," with a view to the acquisition of Repeal some
time or other " Oh, lame and impotent conclusion !"
Whenever a Vestry agitator has nothing she to say,
he invariably makes a point of exhorting his fel-
low-parishioners to " be up and stirring," and usually
adds, that the " eyes of Europe are upon them !" In his
speech at Waterford. Mr. O'CoNicELL has not thought
t beneath him to take a leaf out of the Vestryman's
book, for, after strenuously recommending his hearers
to "be up and stirring," he winds up by assuring
them that " the eyes of Europe are upon them," or—
te quote his own words—" we have already made
Ireland a subject of consideration to all the nations of
the earth !"

From the acceunts we have recently published of
the release of the gigantic " GREAT BRITAIN" from
Cumberland Basin in the Bristol Docks, our readers
will have learned, with pleasure, that the mightiest
ship in the world is now a free denizen upon her des-
tined element. This stupendous production of mer-
cantile enterprise and mechanical science at length
walks the waters " like a thing of life." Long may
it be her lot to attract the admiration of the civilised
world in general—the wonder and respect of
the nautical profession in particular— as the
marvellous embodiment of the daring pro-
ject of her builders. They aspired to pro-
duce a specimen of steam-ship building that
should be matchless in its dimensions, its capacity,
and its velocity of motion. They have accomplished
even more. With the working of her " Archimedean
screw" she can run, it seems, from eleven to twelve
knots an hour, not stretching a yard of her canvass.
Her mighty fabric is said to be unaffected by the
vibration of the steam-engines which work that
colossal propelling power, and the passengers in her
spacious cabins can scarcely detect the momentum
of her speed. In less than seventeen traversings
of her deck from stem to stern, the astonished voyager
will have paced one mile ; and between two and
three of our old 36-gun frigates would represent no
more than her own single stowage of more than
:3,500 tons ! What performances may not be antici-
pated from such powers and such means, working
with all the ease, celerity, and precision, which the
late trial-run demonstrated the Great Britain to pos-
sess ! To what increased facilities and rapidity of
transit from and to the remotest regions, under gua-
rantees how much enhanced for the safety of those
whose calling it is "to tempt the trackless deep,"
may we not be justified in looking forward, after this
test of a vessel thus stupendous in her construction !
The whole human race, perhaps—but assuredly the
great maritime and commercial Powers of the world
—may be considered as deeply interested in the
memorable and successful result of the experiment
isve refer to. We make no apology for recurring to it,
and the rather as we have, of late, so frequently had
occasion to direct public attention to the progress of
naval architecture in another branch of that science--
namely, the construction of our ships of war.
We have no disposition to revive the controversy
-which has been so long and warmly maintained be-
tween the advocates of the Surveyor of the Navy's
" intuitive-principle" of ship-building, and the stick-
lers for the canons and practice of naval architecture
according to the matured state of our experience in
the actual construction of ships, Yet wea re grati-
fied to learn, on the authority if(toouwri vigilant. Con-
temporary, the Plymouth `limes
that
tshtrictures
on this very important subject we holddthtlat
theecoun:
try at large is very much indebted),
Admi-
ralty have given orders to suspend for the present
the building of any more ships on the principles
adopted in the construction of the Queen (110)
and the Albion (90). The time has come,
we trust, at which the judgment and ex-

mit to their dominion. Application will be made i
to the Diet for ample satisfaction, and if that
is refused the Catholic population will be
excited against the Protestants, and war will
ravage Switzerland, and the Jesuits will
govern Lucerne, perhaps S witzerlan d." We
have little fear of this. The neighbouring
people of France as well as the Government have
well-grounded suspicions of this dangerous sect, and
their countenance will not be without its use in
repressing attempts to revive priestly power. The
Sikle says, a report is current that the King of
PRLTOSIA has determined to give a Constitution to his
kingdom. After stating the fact, which we consider
very improbable after what occurred last year, it
says:—" Before publishing it, and in order not to de-
lude a great number of people who have already been
once disappointed in their hopes, we have made
minute inquiries, and we believe we can guarantee
our information in the terrms in which we give it,
and with the reserves, which it will be convenient
not to lose sight of."
Little business was done at Towrom's on Sunday.
The Three per Cents. were quoted at 85f. 10c. to
85f. 15c. for the Account.

Madrid journals of the 9th instant have been re-
ceived, but they bring no news.
The Three per Cents. closed at 3lh cash, and
M 15-16 at 60 days. The Five per Cents. 211 at
60 days; the Coupons at 25 at GO days; and the
Floating Debt at 731 for the 18th of January.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of
Cobourg and suite arrived at the Dover station, at
the Bricklayers' Arms, at twelve o'clock pes?erday,
from Windsor, and took their departure immediately
by th• railway for Dover, en route to th• Continent.

The accotais from Switzerland in the Paris papers
confirm the statement which appeared in The Sun of
yesterday, that tranquillity had been re-established
for the time at Lucerne, though faint hopes were en-
tertained that it would be of long duration. The
Jesuits had gained a temporary victory, and they are
resolved not to rest till all their enemies—that is, the
friends of liberty and the enemies of priestcraft, are
put under their feet. Will the Protestant Cantons
and unprejudiced Catholics, however, submit to their
dominion ? The Constitutionnel of Sunday takes a
gloomy view of the affair and looks forward to a civil
war. " The inhabitants of Lucerne," it says, " who
had risen against the Jesuits, have been dispersed,
their chiefs are in prison ; many have been killed, but
the Rev. Fathers are not satisfied ; they care not for
civil war breaking out in the Cantons; they will
lend aid to it if necessary, and they will strengthen
their influence by the ruin of the Protestant States,
and those Catholic States, which will not sub-

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 18 18-41.

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