The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-20 00:00:00

LITTLE JOHN FINALITY,

_ves a lord, whom men they call
N. morsel of mortality ;
roll as members small,
gs extol the stature tall
Of little John Finality.

In mind as
Though WI

' Upon the Bill I fix my foot,"
Exclaim'd this sprig of quality ;
No further urge the rash pursuit ;
For, by the Gods of Lilliput,
I'll stand on my finality."

Thus John remain'd a year or so
Opposed to Radicality ;
Though many said 'twould prove no go,
And thought this Whiggish world below
Too fickle for finality.

1 is the half-reformer's fate,
,s witness old Egalite,)
u mobs who furnished him of late
!arns a double dose of hate
mentioning finality.

ose who leave Brown Stout,

Tee-totality

i'ol;n's friends no longer could hold out
kgainst the pressure from without
Which threaten'd their finality.
then first the open-question plan
Made half his colleagues halloty ;
Through all their ranks the movement ran ;
Yet still 'twas thought our little man
Held fast his own finality.
But Walsall, Canterbury too,
tnd eke the Principality,
le the baffled Whigs look blue;
last began to rue
ss for finality.

So, able to resist no more,
O'Connell with his wallet, he
Tries to throw open the franchise door,
And 1-ill with Irish votes the floor
In aid of his finality.
But BULL begins his brows to bend
In wrath at such rascality ;
And soon, as many signs portend,
Resolves to make a final end
Of John and his finality.—Blackwood.

THE BRITISH QUEEN AND PRESIDENT

STEAM-SHIPS

From the

"aval and Military Gazette)

, -
What must be considered the failure of the 2000 tons
steam-vessels British Queen and President, from which
so much was expected, has given rise to a good deal of
controversy in naval circles as to the cause which has
produced so unfortunate and unlooked-for a circumstance.
As no matter can be more interesting to naval men than
what relates to steam navigation, we have been at pains
to collect such data as will enable them to form opinions
and draw deductions with greater certainty than they can
do wanting this necessary information. Both the vessels
in question were built at Limehouse, by Messrs. Curling
and Young. Their dimensions and tonnage are some-
what alike, the British Queen being about ten feet longer,
but having a deck less than the President ; the power of
the latter is represented as that of GOO horses, while the
former has only a power of 500, or according to -gime
accounts 450 horses. The engines of the President
were made by Messrs. Fawcett and Preston, of Liver-
pool ; those of the British Queen by Messrs. Robert
Napier and Co., of Glasgow ; and both are represented
as beautiful pieces of machinery. It is evident that in
these two vessels there is a great disparity of power for
torn

ge ; but it is remarkable that, although both have
repeatedly made tedious passages, the President is the
most unfortunate of the two, and when she left New
York on the 11 th ult. had only twenty-seven passengers
on board. The vessels provided by Mr. Cunard for the
Halifax line, which have made and continue to make the
passage so regularly, were built in the Clyde, by Messrs.
Duneans and Messrs. Steele, of Greenock, and Messrs. J.
Wood and C. Wood, of Port Glasgow
,and Dumbarton.
They are all, we believe, of nearly the same dimensions,
and about 1100 tons, with engines of 420 horse power.

,tate these particulars in order that our naval friends
- - • -

may be the better able to draw their inferences ; for in
steam navigation, like everything else, there must be some
rule of horse power for tonnage (supposing all vessels to
be constructed on the best model), which will apply with
the most profit, over or under which it would not be
proper to go. On comparing the British and American
Company's vessels with Mr. Cunard's, there appears a
very great disparity ; for the vessels of the latter have, as
relates to the President one-third more, and in the case
of the British Queen nearly double the horse-power, to
propel the same weight in tons ; and this on the face of
ough to account for their greater speed, and cer-
tainly of accomplishing the voyage in weather when the
others would be obliged to abandon their course, or una-
ble to make head against a gale. Cunard's vessels have
also the advantage of being built of scantling sufficient to
bear a heavy armament ; and this, so far from being de-
trimental to their speed or efficiency, turns out precisely
the reverse ; for while the British Queen was obliged to
suspend work for some months, and undergo repairs
which cost several thousand pounds, after running for one
season only, the others have neither strained nor started
anything, and will, like our vessels of war constructed
with stout scantling on improved principles, probably
continue to run for years before the hull requires repair.
Our readers will recollect, that when Mr. Young (of the
firm of Curling and Young) sat in Parliament for Tyne-
mouth, that gentleman never let slip an opportunity of
lenouncing Sir William Symonds' system of ship-building.

We believe this was done from conscientious views, and
that he was imposed on by certain members of the ci-
devant school of naval architecture, who boasted that
they crammed him for the nonce. Now, we find how
. .
much

..ier it is to preach than to practise ; for although
tt draught of these vessels was, we believe, furnished
"r( Somerset House at the request of the company,
'h ,er owing to the want e
:
n ,or other fault in the constsrturecnti
shortgttll:l;
we
er
finsidzetheotf
airs became necessary in a verytime after the
,sels left the builder's yard. It aplpeaorstes,ith 400
oe us that yes.
Is of about 200 feet long and oci
,orse power, are the best calculated for quick passage
across the ocean from point to point, and that when their
dimensions extend beyond this an increased ratio of power
must be appended, to attain which would be most e
ex-
pensive ; besides that the machinery and fuel would
occupy nearly all the space in the vessel. The construc-
tion of these large steamers was designed on the score of
economy, on the assumption that the same establishment,
with a small increase of seamen and stokers, would suffice
to work a vessel of double the size. But this may be an
At all events, the experience to be derived from
voyages of the British Queen and President does not
Z4l",,nt us altering the opinion we recorded in these
PaKeCiy4en first those vessels were designed.

,can din g