434 Monthly Review of Literature. 



the general map.* Carelessness and the utmost incorrectness in delineation 

 are the only features that can be recognised in these maps ; and the work of 

 the engraver is executed no less badly. Let any one compare these sheets 

 with any respectable maps produced in London. What good can result to the 

 proprietors ? 



PRACTICAL SCIENCE. 



A Letter to the Duke of Wellington, on the Application of Steam- 

 power to Civil and Military Purposes : by Sir C. DANCE, p.p. 26. 

 Ridgeway. 



THE work before us has little or no reference to military engineering. The . 

 Duke of Wellington has pronounced steam-carriages, and steam-guns too, to 

 be utterly inefficient, as regards the requirements of war : and so with the 

 ipse-dixit of the greatest general of the age against them, they cannot be ex- 

 pected to have even a fair trial, should, even, our ill-luck drive us into a war. 



Sir Charles Dance, a gentleman with a good deal of ingenuity and yet more 

 of money, did, it appears, some few years ago unite himself in partnership 

 with an adventurous and adventuring, but yet clever engineer, yclept Gurney, 

 who invented the tubular boilers and, we believe, the rocking cylinder. The 

 application of these new engines to locomotives on turnpike-roads has occupied 

 the attention of the partners most particularly; and we must say, that their 

 success has been such, that we are surprised that the matter has not been 

 taken up by persons, whose pecuniary resources enable them, with due re- 

 gard to their own profit, to forward such undertakings. We ought, how- 

 ever, to recollect that the conflicting interests of railroad engineers and 

 general civil engineers are ever likely to be at variance ; and we have reason, 

 besides, to doubt the sincerity of the most eminent engineers when giving 

 their evidence and sentiments on the comparative merits of railroad and 

 turnpike-road locomotives. 



We have not ventured these few remarks without some knowledge of the 

 subject. Mr. Gurney's late establishment has been often visited by us ; and 

 we have had opportunities of seeing Mr. Hancock's and Mr. Ogle's machines 

 in detail, in various stages of completion, and in actual motion. The know- 

 ledge, which circumstances of a private nature have forced upon the writer of 

 these remarks, convinces him that, however favourable railroad speculations 

 may appear prima facie, they will not be found to return a dividend at all 

 commensurate with the outlay of capital. Indeed, if the four great atrerial 

 railroads will be found to return an adequate profit, it may be matter of con- 

 gratulation to the Shareholders. But what do we see ? railroads set on 

 foot for every petty watering-place, market-town, or third-rate harbour in the 

 country, made, forsooth, for the purpose of getting up a trade, where no trade 

 existed before, as if a little iron, grease, and hot wat.r would of themselves 

 create a home or foreign demand. Of the forty or fifty railroad bills now before 

 Parliament the greater part of whose sections (many of which are, we know, 

 rather apocryphal) have been examined and duly valued, we certainly cannot 

 approve of six even on the common principles that a very slender knowledge 

 of dynamic science impresses upon us, as at all desirable for the invest- 

 ment of speculators. But yet, they do speculate ! ! ! 



The turnpike-road locomotives would do well, we are certain, were it 

 not for an oppressive measure of Parliament that acts virtually as a bar upon 

 their introduction into the country. Select Committees (too frequently 

 composed of men equally incompetent to judge respecting the merits of a rail- 

 road to the Moon, or of a railroad to Dover, or of a steam locomotive that 

 would go to Birmingham, or of a more mercurial one, that would conjure one 



* If the publisher desires it, we shall be most happy to forward him, gratis, a copious 

 list of the grossest errors that have disgraced modern geography. ED, 



