254 
A Chronological History of the West- 
Indies is announced ; by Capt. Taomas 
SouTHEY, R.N. 
Letters of Horace Walpole to the 
Earl of Hertford during his Lordship’s 
Embassy in Paris are printing. 
A display of the Commercial Power 
of Great Britain, by Cuarres Durin, 
is. in the press, under the direction of 
the author. 
The Rev. Dr. Worpswortn, Master 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, has in 
the press a work on the question re- 
lative to the author of the “ Icon Ba- 
silike,” in two sr to his Grace the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. 
A History, Directory, and Gazetteer 
of the County Palatine of Lancaster, 
is in the press. 
The Emigrant’s Note Book and 
Guide, with Recollections of Upper 
and Lower Canada during the late war. 
By Lieut. J. C. Morean, will soon be 
published. 
Sermons and Charges, by Thomas 
Fanshaw Middleton, D.D., Lord Bishop 
of Calcutta, with Memoirs of his Life, 
are preparing. By H. K. Bonney, 8vo. 
FRANCE. 
The celebrated Dr. Wolf, of Berlin, 
died lately at Marseilles, whither he 
had gone for the benefit of change of 
air. He was sixty-six years of age; 
and favourably known throughout Eu- 
rope for his excellent editions of the 
Greek and Latin Classics, with his own 
erudite notes. 
NORTH AMERICA. 
The great Canada Ship.— The ‘ullow- 
ing is from the Quebec Mercury of the 
31st July :— 
The long-expected launch of the great 
ship took place on Wednesday morning 
last, at the point of the island of Orleans, 
in presence of a large concourse of people. 
The St. Lawrence, which but a few years 
ago, comparatively speaking, had borne on 
its waves only the rudely-constructed ca- 
noe of the native Indian, has now floating 
on its waters the largest ship in existence, 
or of the building of which for navigable 
purposes we have any authentic record. 
This immense vessel has, with great pro- 
priety, been named The Colombus. Her 
dimensions are as follow :—length, 300 
feet ; breadth of beam, 50 feet ; and depth 
of hold, 30 feet. Her madel is also as ex- 
traordinary as her dimensions, being pre- 
cisely that of a Canadian batteau ; that is, 
perfectly flat-bottomed and wall-sided, the 
stem and stern post nearly or altogether 
perpendicular, and both ends sharp alike, 
without any fulness, as is the case in the 
bows and sterns of ships of the usual con- 
Literary and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
[Ocr. 1, 
struction: so that her floor may be com- 
pared to a parallellogram, with an acute, 
equicrural triangle at either extremity. Her 
tonnage by register is 3,690 tons ; but/she 
is thought to be capable of carrying at least 
6,000 tons freight: her stowage is some- 
what embarrassed by the massy beams 
which connect her side-timbers, or she 
would probably freight 7,000 tons. ‘This 
ship has been an object of general curio- 
sity since she was first laid down ; her di- 
mensions so far exeeeding any which have 
yet been attempted in the largest ships of 
war, that even a faithful report of the bulk 
was receiyed with suspicion, and a number 
of vague stories were set afloat as to the 
intentions of the builders in framing this 
wonderful craft. It was imagined by many 
that a solid mass of timber was to be built 
in something like the shape of a vessel, and 
covered with an outward sheathing of 
plank sufficiently strong to render her ca- 
pable of traversing the ocean at a favour- 
able season, when good weather might be 
expected. But as the work advanced, it 
became evident, from the regular plan pur- 
sued, and the solid manner in which her 
massy frame was connected, that something 
more was intended thana mere ship-shaped 
raft. She is now a complete vessel, and 
it is expected will prove sufficiently ma- 
nageable, but will not probably perform 
more than one voyage. Every precaution 
has, however, been taken for the safety 
and comfort of those who are to navigate 
her; her cabin and a safety-room . being 
prepared, that should the vessel by any 
means become water-logged, the crew 
would endure but little inconvenience. 
Many pevsons entertained doubts of the 
possibility of launching this stupendous fa- 
bric; and there was not wanting those 
who affirmed that she would neyer-float, 
but remain on the blocks where* she was 
built—a” monument of the presumptuous 
folly of the projectors. - The events of 
Wednesday proved how much the wonder- 
ers and doubters had been mistaken, and 
shewed bow ably the work had been con- 
ducted, and how minutely and justly the 
builder had made his calculations. At 
half-past or thirty-five minutes past seven, 
this ponderous mass was put in motion 
with as much facility as any smaller vessel, 
and slid majestically into the St. Lawrence. 
The length of the ways was somewhat less 
than 600 feet; and precisely one minute 
elapsed between the period when she 
moved and that of her reaching the water, 
—her entrance into which was greeted by 
apprepriate airs from the military bands in 
attendance, and repeated salutes from the 
guns of the steam-boats, and some which 
had been planted on the shore for that 
purpose. Her ways was much scorched 
by. the friction of her motion, and so great 
a smoke arose, that distant spectators 1ma- 
gined some aecident to have taken place. 
From 
