MISREPRESENTATION OF DR. LARDNER ? S VIEWS. 



Such was the report of the Times of the speech in which I 

 was afterwards, and have ever since been, represented as having- 

 declared a steam voyage across the Atlantic a mechanical im- 

 possibility ! * 



11. What I did affirm and maintain in 1836-7 was, that the 

 long sea voyages by steam which were contemplated, could not at 

 that time be maintained with that regularity and certainty which 

 are indispensable to commercial success, by any revenue which 

 could be expected from traffic alone, and that, without a govern- 

 ment subsidy of a considerable amount, such lines of steamers, 

 although they might be started, could not be permanently 

 maintained. 



12. Now let us see what has been the practical result. 



Eight steam-ships, including the Great Western, were, soon 

 after the epoch of these debates, placed upon the projected line 

 between England and New York ; the Sirius, the Royal William, 

 the Great Liverpool, the United States,'!* the British Q,ueen, the 

 President, the Great Western, and the Great Britain. 



The Sirius was almost immediately withdrawn ; the Royal 

 William, after a couple of voyages, shared the same fate ; the 

 Great Liverpool, in a single season, involved her proprietors in a 

 loss of 6000/., and they were glad to remove her to the Mediter- 

 ranean station. The proprietors of the British Queen, after 

 sustaining a loss which is estimated at little less than 100000?., 

 sold that ship to the Belgian government. The United States 

 was soon transferred, like the Great Liverpool, to the Mediter- 

 ranean trade. The President was lost. The Great Western, as 

 is well known, after continuing for some time to make the voyage 

 in the summer months, being laid by during the winter, and after 

 involving her proprietors in a loss of unknown and unacknow- 

 ledged amount, was sold. Of the Great Britain, the fate is well 

 known. 



Thus, it appears, in fine, that after the lapse of nearly fourteen 

 years, notwithstanding the great improvements which took place 

 in steam navigation, the project advanced at Bristol, and there 

 pronounced by me to be commercially impracticable, signally failed. 



13. Meanwhile another project, based upon the conditions which 

 I had indicated as essential to the permanence and success of the 

 enterprise, was started. 



Mr. Samuel Cunard, a Canadian, who had extensive experience 



* Uotices of this speech, substantially the same, appeared in the 

 Edinburgh Review, the Monthly Chronicle, and other periodicals of that 

 date. 



t This vessel was not actually placed on the line, but was prepared for 

 it. She was afterwards called the Oriental. 



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