lOS 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[April, 



By thia time the Captain's funds had been greatly reduced, and he 

 applied to tlie trustees for a remittance, which they, however refused 

 and he was reduced to the necessity of canvassine; his friends for fur- 

 ther sums which was after some difficulty suppliecl. This was in Feb- 

 ruary, and it was not till the winter had expired that the gap was 

 squared and tilled up and the tides were expelled for the third time 

 on the Isth of June. He continued also to increase the height of the 

 dam till it was two feet above the level of a high tide that occurred in 

 November, occasioned by the conjoined effects of a great storm and 

 the moon's being in perigee. 



It appears from his statements that the works had left him in a sadly 

 crippled state as far as regarded his purse, and he concludes by urging 

 the trustees at least to make up his deficiency that he might be enabled 

 to steer clear of his creditors. He says "If I may — now the work is 

 completed and so many years (5) spent therein, be but freed from the 

 debts and engagements into which it has plunged me, and set at liberty 

 to offer myself upon some other work, whereby I may be of use to my 

 country and have an opportunity of getting my bread; I shall cheer- 

 fully submit to whatsoever shall be thought fit as to any consideration 

 or reward to myself." He further volunteers his services for the im- 

 provement of the ports of Dublin and Dover, reports on both of which 

 he subjoins to his narrative. I cannot, from the want of access to 

 proper data (occasioned by a casual visit to the country), take any 

 step towards ascertaining in what way the petition of our author was 

 received by the Trustees and the house of parliament, as such informa- 

 tion is not contained in his own narrative, that he was in some way 

 freed from actual imprisonment and allowed to go at large in the prac- 

 tice of his profession, seems evident from the book which he subse- 

 quently published. In the Bibliotheca Britannica there is mentioned 

 in the short catalogue of his labours as an author •' Proposals for the 

 draining the Fens in Lincolnshire. 1727 fol. His death is said in the 

 same book to have taken place in 1733. 



I shall now conclude by explaining my reasons for thus having brought 

 a condensed view of this half forgotten work before the public through 

 the medium of these widely circulated pages. Many who might have 

 taken an interest in the work have no opportunity of reading Perry's 

 own narrative from its unfrequent occurrence ; and from the somewhat 

 incoherent and cloudy stile in which it is written, the reader is fre- 

 quently a little puzzled to know exactly what the author would be at. 

 Even the description of his scheme (simple though it was) is not by 

 most readers to be apprehended by a single perusal. These reasons 

 and the wish to make the name of the successful projector of so formid- 

 able a work, better known to the profession must excuse me for occu- 

 pying so much valuable room. 



* » 



STEAM VESSEL INQUIRY AND INQUISITION. 



The labours of the Commissioners have at last brought to light the pro- 

 mised Shiloh, in the shape of such a bill, as was never before seen, anil we sin- 

 cerely hope will never be seen again. The abstract which we have perused is such 

 as was to have been expected from its concoctors, and the sources from which 

 they derived their ideas of legislation ; the bill seems to be a cross breed be- 

 tween a French police ordonnance, and an excise or custom-bouse act of par- 

 liament. Such inspectors and such surveyors, and such modes of ac ion ^ 

 were never before contemplated in this country, at variance with the recog- 

 nized laws of all sound economy, they are obviously at variance with the 

 national character, and the interests of the empire. It is by unshackled in- 

 dustry and by that alone that this mighty empire his been created, and that 

 't is to be maintained, and it is on the prosperity of steam navigation m par- 

 ticular that our strength depends, and the means of profiling by our re- 

 sources. What therefore can exceed the insanity wh'cli proposes to place 

 inventors and manufacturers under a yoke, which in every other country has 

 fet'ered the progress of science, and retarded the adv>anccment of the nation P 

 What are we to expect when we see spies under the name of surveyors intro- 

 duced not only into the workshops, but into the study, not to be contented 

 by tampering with the machinery, but who must meddle with the Aery de- 

 si,5n itself. Men who are to constitute a new middle class between the manu- 

 facturer and the shipowner, who are to tell one what he is to muke, and the 

 other what he is to buy, who are to be censors of the noblest eftbrls of in- 

 vention, and judges of last resort in cases where the most learned dis- 

 agree. Do we believe that the plague intro luced among marine engineers 

 will fester among them alone without extending (o every other class of en- 

 gineers? We neither believe it, nor can others. Itis what is done in France 

 and what will be done here ; the police will not stop till they regulate the 

 working of the engine in the factory, as well as the progress of the steam 



boat on the water, and the locomotive on the rail. To denounce this to 

 Englishmen is unnecessary, to nime it is to point out its train of informers 

 and penalties, and to insure its instant condemnation. 



The motives which inspire this bill, can have no origin in common sense, 

 ihey can proceed only from some hateful inspiration, and what that is it 

 would be difficult to point out. The least excusable would be to enable a 

 government, always in arrear of private enterprise, to pillage in other estab- 

 lishments f r the mamtenance of the new factory at Woolwich. We cannot 

 believe that they would hesitate to do so, when they are regardless in every 

 other point. 



We felt it our duty to oppose this measure from its first suggestion, we 

 have followed it with uncompromising hostility throughout its threaten- 

 ing progress, and we were not inclined to relax w hen we saw it assume a 

 shape so formidable. Having issued a circular to the manufacturers, meetings 

 have been held at which men, the first in talent, enterprise and wealth in the 

 country have come forward to prove by their own conduct the justice of the 

 course which we had pursued in their defence, and we trust that such an 

 opposition is organized as will at least paralyze the operations of this 

 obnoxious bill, if it do not destroy it in its birth. 



We have on former occasions shown that the evidence on which the report 

 was founded was most trumpery and insufficient, and we trust that our readers 

 are convinced, that the only effective operation of the proposed measure would 

 be to injure the best interests of the country. Commissioners of course are 

 to be appointed, but where men competent for the duty are to be found, none 

 but the concoctors of the bill can devine, for no practical man can. Qualified 

 surveyors are still less to be expected, and raw theorists or ignorant empirics 

 seem to be the classes from which these inquisitorial functionaries are to be 

 supplied. To them are to be confided the most extraordinary powers, not 

 only the mere privileges of meddling, but judicial authority over their victims. 

 Even district surveyors are to have all the extra legal powers of a parliamentary 

 committee, to call for papers and for documents, and to examine persons on 

 oath, to prosecute for penalties, and to receive half those penalties for their 

 own share. This is the plan to which all principles of justice, of truth, and 

 of experience are to be sacrificed, and by which the talents and intellects of 

 our ablest men are to be subjected, and manufacturers, some of w bom have 

 not less than a hundred thousand pounds invested in their business, are to 

 be hampered and destroyed. 



SURVEYING POLES. 



Sir, — Allow me through the medium of your interesting Journal, to 

 suggest to practical Surveyors a very useful, although seemingly triyial 

 addition to the ordinary Surveying Poles, as a substitute for the piece 

 of paper commonly used to render the pole distinguishable from a 

 long distance when driving a line over land. 



Front view. 



Side view. 



B ick view. 



n 



^Dl 



1^' 



It consists of a disc of tin about six inches in diameter, which fi>r 

 convenience in carrying may be joined across tlie middle as shown in 

 the accompanying sketch; its ojien position being secured by a little 

 bar A to be turned into the latch B. An iron ring or socket C is 

 screwed on the top of the pole and receives the disc in a slit while 

 the screw D secures it. It is almost needless to remark that the disc 

 should be painted white on both sides. 



Yours obediently, 



1 1, Craven-street. Charing Cross, 

 March I'J, 1840.' 



G. P. DEMPSEY, 



