52 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Feb. 3, 



other rivals ; this, too, must necessarily continue, so long as the cost 

 of inatorials for a vessel, and the cost of lier stores, are so dear in this 

 country, and cheap and abundant elsewhere. If we have not only to 

 bring timber from the Baltic, but to pay a heavy duty on it, it is evi- 

 dent that shipowners on the Baltic can undersell us, so too, if our 

 shipbuilders and mariners are paid higher wages, and if the stores of 

 the ship are more costly here than in America or elsewhere. If, how- 

 ever, we can change these conditions, it is evident that the prepon- 

 derance must be on our side, and steam navigation affords us the 

 means of doing this. Iron for ship building and machinery is indigenous. 

 Dot imported, and is cheapest here ; the skill of our workmen is able to 

 defy foreign competition; we are exportersof steamers, and machinery; 

 this country is rich in the possession of the best coal, with which we 

 hirgely supply olher countries; our eiiginemen leceive higher wages 

 abroad than they do here. Thus we are able to build and to work 

 steam ships cheaper than any other people, while the cultivation of 

 this branch of trade will develop our own resources, largely increase 

 the workings of our iron and coal mines, invigorate our manufacturing 

 and mercantile industry, and give employment to large numbers of the 

 population. On these grounds we feel the deeper interest in the 

 subject, and we urge it on our readers as worthy of their most serious 

 consideration and co-operation. 



The present lime is also most favourable for making a movement in 

 advance; the part taken in the navigation of the wide seas by other 

 countries, is very small. France is engaged in the Mediterranean and 

 Levant lines, and also in the East Spanish ; in the north, the Russian 

 line is the only one of her connexions worth mentioning. Her most 

 serious effort, however, is in connexion with the West Indies, though 

 we do not anticipate such serious damage from a mercantile business 

 carried on by naval officers, and, of all naval officers. Frenchmen. 

 Austria has taken part in the Levant and Black Sea trades, and re- 

 quires watching. The operations in the Baltic are comparatively 

 of little importance. The Anglo-Americans are principallv occupied 

 ■with the navigation of their own rivers and coasts, and would still be 

 so, had not the neglect of the Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company 

 invited them into the West Indies. While little has been done bv 

 others, we have done much. We hold the chief part of the steam 

 navigation in the northern seas from Christiania to St. Ma!o ; also on 

 the Iberian coasts, and in the line to Egypt. We have the Trans- 

 atlantic routes to Boston, New York, and the West Indies, the 

 traffic of the coasts of Brazil, Chili and Peru, and that of the East 

 Indies. 



If, however, such are our opportunities, we have been far from pro- 

 fiting by them as we might have done ; though large profits have at- 

 tended good management, the most serious depression has been the 

 general result. Misconduct and rashness have been among the 

 causes tending to this catastrophe, while many unfavourable circum- 

 stances have aggravated the casualties naturally attendant upon new 

 enterprises, neither have there been wanting the distractions which 

 cabals, rivalry, enmity, and revenge, infallibly produce. The loss of 

 property and the loss of confidence have been very great, but we be- 

 lieve the period of adversity has now passed by, and that such evils 

 as remain, readily admit of correction. The Liverpool and Boston 

 line of packets has done its duly regularly, and given good proofs 

 of what may be done by careful and well'intentioned administration. 

 The Great Western Steam Navigation Company have suffered most 

 severely, both by their own misfortunes, and the success of their 

 rivals. The unhappy loss of the President, and the unfavourable state 

 of the money market, impeded them in their endeavours to recr\iit 

 their force, while the line to Boston, supported by a government grant, 

 has been able to cut down their prices, without any efficient means of 

 competition. It is very evident that the traffic to 'the United States 

 admits of unlimited extension, when rapidity of transit, frequency of 

 communication, and lounessof price, are brought to bear, as in time 

 they will be and must be. The Great Britain is a powerful means 

 to this end, but when the time comes that the passage can be made 

 weekly, with a duration of only ten or twelve days, and a cost of as 

 many pounds, the traffic must be immense. Hilherto, neither to the 

 United States, nor to the East or West Indies, has any adequate ac- 

 commodation been afforded for second class passengers who, of course, 

 form the bulk of the contributable population. Of the fatality which 

 has attended steam navigation in the West Indies, we will speak pre- 

 sently, and the subject of Pacific steam navigation we have already 

 fully discussed. In no case, however, can we see any grounds for de- 

 spondency ; adversity tends to increase its own evils, as good fortune 

 ministers to its own further success. With the extension of steam 

 navigation, and its conduct on enlightened principles, all the evils that 

 now afflict it will cease, and it will, we hope, become as it ought to be, 

 one of the great arms of national strength, and a powerful contributor 

 to the national wealth. 



The scheme for West India steam navigation was undoubtedly one 

 of the most magnificent ever submitted to the English public, its very 

 vastness appalled common minds; like the creation of a Frankenstein, 

 it struck terror into those to whom its movements were entrusted. 

 The origin:il plan has been freely blamed — its projector has b'-en as- 

 sailed, and all the evils and mischiefs which have blasted the concern 

 have been charged upon his head; yet surely ihat can liave been no 

 insane project, which the most cautious merchants pledged themselves 

 to support with their wealth, which the experience and scrutinizing 

 examinations of the Admiralty and its officers approved, and towards 

 which, with small objection, the several bodies of the legislature 

 voted a large and burthensonie grant. The plan was great, it is (rue, 

 but it was simple — entailing large outlay, but economical, because com- 

 prehensive — and ensuring a great profit, by leaving no source of traffic 

 untouched. The long cimnexion of Mr. Macqueen, its projector, with 

 the West Indies, and the prominent part which he had taken for the 

 advocacy of particular interests, did not blind him in the views he 

 adopted, but both he and the government of the day considered the 

 plan as the means of binding together our own colonial interests, and 

 securing the trade of the otlier West India possessions ; while a route 

 opened across the Isthmus of Panama, gave us access to new markets 

 in the Pacific, the intercourse with our cliief customers in the southern 

 slave states of America was made more direct, and our communica- 

 tion with the Brazils, a great consumer of our produce, efliciently 

 provided for by a branch line. This plan has received not merely the 

 momentary approval of the Admiralty functionaries of the day, but it 

 has been stamped with the approbation of the French government, 

 who appreciating the immense advantages which it would give to 

 this country, have started a rival line of their own, arranged on the 

 same principle, and calculated, if well conducted, seriously to injure 

 our interests in that quarter. We do not think, then, that Mr. Macqueen 

 is to be rashly condemned for consequences which deviation from his 

 plan has mainly contributed to produce. 



It so happened, as it too often does, that the very support which 

 the plan met with, was a fertile cause of misfortune ; nothing appa- 

 rently could be more fortunate than the strong support of the Admi- 

 ralty and the West Indian interest, nothing, in fact, was more preju- 

 dicial. At an earlv period, intrigues took place among the members 

 of the direction, to limit the operations to our colonies, by which the 

 communication with the Havannah, and Mexico, New Orleans, and the 

 countries on the Mexican Gulf, was to be sacrificed for petty islands, 

 many of them more burthensome than they are productive. This 

 was very specious, and colonial men readily adopted it, but a subsec- 

 tion also declared itself for sacrificing even the colonies genera ly to 

 Barb.idoes, and this party ultimately succeeded in carrying the day, 

 so that Barbadoes has the advantage of several days post before the 

 olher colonies. This alone would have been sufficient to unhinge the 

 plan, but out of compliment to the Admiralty, naval officers were ge- 

 ner.dlv appointed to the vessels, and a naval system of uniform and 

 administration adopted, and as navy men were bitterly opposed to 

 giving up the packet system, and have been constantly endeavouring 

 to get the company knocked up, and the whole matter taken into the 

 hands of Government, it was not to be wondered at that the scheme 

 was burked by the parties engaged in carrying it out. Insolence 

 towards passengers, neglect of duty, refusal to comply with customs 

 and quarantnie regulations, or to receive goods and passengers, were 

 common occurrences, while the loss and grounding of vessels, intoxi- 

 cation and insubordinations were not rare. Intrigues were also set aHoat 

 by some of the leading officers of the Company, to supplant others, 

 and there can be little doubt, that not the least among the misfortunes 

 of the company, have resulted from the success of these cabals. Thus 

 with an incompetent staff at home, treachery among the officers and 

 agents abroad, a new administration at the Admiralty, the in- 

 (rigues of the colonial party, the attempts of the naval party to knock 

 up the concern, and of a colonial party to depreciate its value, and 

 buy it into their own hands at a low price, operations began, and such 

 a series of disasters has been the result as no common ability coidd 

 stem, and which the exertions of the Directors, men of large capital 

 and great talent, could not prevent. As a consequence of the intrigues 

 Mr.Macqueen resigned his appointment in the company, and all the mis- 

 fortunes being attributed to him, he has been obliged, in hi sown defence, 

 to enter upon explanations of his conduct, while he has also become an 

 assailant, whose incessant attacks have greatly depreciated the con- 

 cern. This we regret, as he is himself largely interested in the com- 

 pany, both morally and pecuniarily, and his co-operatton with the 

 directors would go far to arrest the downward course of the concern. 

 What is wanted is ]ieace, and a gradual return to the original plan, 

 the correctness of which every day's experience tends to establish. 



The prniphlct now before us goes largely into the controversy be- 

 tween Mr. Macqueen and his opponents, but into the minutiae of that 



