132 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrS JOURNAL. 



[March, 



wish it could screen !) lliat accumulation of architectural absurdities— Euck- 

 ingham Palace. AVren was no " Goth"— his Westminster Abbry towers 

 attest tills ! — but he ranks amongst tlie very greatest modern architects; he 

 wrote well too on his art, yet asperses a skill he attempted to rival and failed 

 to reach— the power of "spirirg-up," with an " allectalion of height and 

 grandeur.''* St. Bride's steeplc'became unsafe, though it had never been half 

 the height of Strasburg Cathedral, nor stood half the time ! Bow's, somewhat 

 about St. Bride's altitute, may stand better, — perhaps much because it employs 

 both within and without^Gothic props.and principles. 



We return from onr not altogether irrelevant digression, and repeat — iron 

 should no more pretend to supplant or represent the beautiful stone-work of 

 tointed edifices, than stone the reticulations and convolutions of chain-work. 

 Frivolous minds or very green experience alone can relish either. Certain 

 Neapolitan statues by one C'orradini, a popular sculptor (that is, stone- 

 carver), which exhibit tlieir forms under nets or veils wrought upon the solid 

 marble, our travelled gentlemen and ladies .pronounce miracles — and such 

 they are — miracles of the vilest taste and paltriest ingenuity. Cast-iron 

 architecture, Classic or Gothic, is still worse, because no miracle, good or 

 bad, at all; it goes to destroy the art, as afne art, and will do it if patronized, 

 by substituting machine productions for man's immediate handiwork. Let us 

 assure ourselves of this, — whatever removes the artist's own hand from his 

 material, removes his spirit from it also, and just to the same distance. Many 

 mechanic helps between it and him will prove just so many artistic obstacles ; 

 his manufactures will augment, but deteriorate. Of the architect at least well 

 may it Le sung, 



Ay me what perils do environ 



Ttie man tliat meddles willi cold iron 1 



We have been more serious upon this matter than perchance it deserves ; 

 indeed, why should we care much about domes or spires, when Heaven's 

 stupendous cupola stands for ever above our Iieads, when those numberless 

 crag-pinnacled steeples, built by the Supreme Architect, from the Spitze-horn 

 down to Derbyshire Peak, are within sight of eye or of mind ? Tliese will 

 suffice, let man do what he may I But we have said all we have said, because 

 Truth is the greatest of all utilities, being useful even where it illumines 

 perishable, unimportant objects, as its virtue remains in the soul !' 



* V. Parentalia. These "senseless arti6cers** (he thus stigmatizes them elsewhere) 

 never lilte him built a prodigious and prodigal second story us a mere maslf to smuggle in 

 foreign conveniences. Such are the concealed flying buttresses which support St. Paul's 

 spine and haunch. 



GKEAT WESTERN STEAM SHIP COMPANY. 



The last meeting of the shareholders of this company seems to have been 

 regarded by the directors with some misgivings, for, contrary to the usual 

 practice of respectable companies, the press were excluded. It is not un- 

 natural that the directors should have been so desirous to keep their pro- 

 ceedings in the background, for a most unsatisfactory tale does their report 

 relate. It is a supplement to the many similar narratives by them of arrange- 

 ments misconceived, of reckless and meddling experiments, of serious and 

 embarrassing failures, and of vexatious delay. The Great Western having 

 been slightly injured in one of her recent voyages, affords an eligible oppor- 

 tunity to Mr. Experimenter Guppy to alter her paddle-wheels, and try some 

 of his new views upon her, although she is acknowledged by the directors as 

 having, with her ordinary paddles, proved the fastest ocean steamer. Had 

 the company a number of boats, a lucrative traffic, and large dividends, so 

 far from disapproving of any experiment of the kind, we should have con- 

 sidered it highly laudable, we should have praised the public spirit of the 

 directors, and awaited with complacency the failure or success. Here, how- 

 ever, is a company with only one boat running, the success of the company a 

 matter of doubt, and so far from the managers doing what is safe, " letting 

 well alone," they are rushing heedlessly and recklessly into experiments, 

 which may turn out well, but which just as likely may end in loss to the 

 company. On such grounds we see these proceedings with regret, for we 

 have no confidence in the management. 



As to " the Great Postponed" — we beg pardon — the " Great Britain," she 

 is not forthcoming yet, and her advertised days of starting cannot be com- 

 plied with, for ludicrous to detail, this" momirum, horrendum, informe (we 

 believe we may add, in compliment to the board), inyens, cui lumen adivptum," 

 this mighty whale among the minnows, cannot get through the lock-gates. 

 We beg to recommend for the figure head Sterne's starling, if prepared with 

 a Guppyan profile, and a profuse repetition of the motto, " 1 can't get out." 

 Anything so extremely preposterous, so ridiculous to every one but the poor 

 shareholders, has scarcely ever been known, but it is avowed by the directors 

 that they built the vessel without making themselves duly acquainted with 

 the dimensions of the gates, subsequently calculating on the Dock Trustees 

 allowing them to pull down one side of the gates to let her out. This the 

 Dock Trustees refuse to do, although the company are willing to go to an 

 expense of i'30O for the purpose. Nay. the Directors have gone so far as to 

 offer a thousand pounds towards the' permanent enlargement of the dock- 



gates, and even this has been refused. The conclusion is, that the way novr 

 proposed for getting her out is to construct three or four iron pots or tanks 

 to be put under her keel, by which it is expected she will be raised some 

 three or four feet ! and so to be carried through the gates on stilts. We 

 should not, however, be turprised, at the rate the company are going on, if 

 like other detenus, she were only got out of custody by being whitewashed, 

 for management so careless, and expenditure so profuse, we have rarely ever 

 witnessed. In addition to this, there is another mess with the Dock Trustees, 

 for through miscalculation, the water in the dock had to be lowered eight 

 feet, in order to allow " the Great Postponed" to be floated. The trustees 

 claim some JE800 compensation, and the directors resist, so that a snug law 

 suit is hkely to be manufactured on this score. As to the conduct of the 

 Duck Trustees, we cannot speak in favour either of its immediate or ultimate 

 policy. A parcel of Bristol hogs could hardly have done more to injure the 

 city than have these trustees, they exacted dues from the Great Western 

 when she could not get through the gates, and though they received £2,500 

 dues upon her, besides those upon her cargoes, they were not satisfied till 

 they drove her permanently to Liverpool. Indeed all that the enterprize of 

 a few energetic individuals has projected and done for the city of Bristol 

 promises to be destroyed by the pigheadedness of its inhabitants. Bristol 

 now occupies a very low rank in the list of ports, in consequence of the dis- 

 advantages she labours under in not being able to supply a return. The 

 Great Western Cotton Works, which would have had the effect of locating 

 an important manufacture on the spot, have not been adequately supported, 

 the Great Western Steam-Ship Company have been driven away, and their 

 yard is to be shut up, and thus the only chance Bristol had for retrieval, by 

 becoming a great steam port, has been irretiievably destroyed. Indeed, even 

 as to the trade she has, it is likely before long to be seriously affected, for 

 the Great Western Railway Company cannot afford to lose traffic if the people 

 of Bristol can, and they will undoubtedly promote docks at Pill and else- 

 where, to which all the Irish, and Welsh, and Somerset steam tonnage will 

 be removed, and which will have superior facilities for the conduct of all 

 traffic. So much for greediness. 



Meanwhile, however we contemplate the proceedings of the directors, they 

 inspire us with equal distrust of their prudence and capacity. At first they 

 were to have trunk engines, then they altered them ; first they adopt a par- 

 ticular system of screw, and then they alter it. The worst of it, however, is, 

 that they are already engaged in making the screw, while they have been 

 making trials elsewhere, in consequence of which they are going to change 

 the form again, of course at great expense and with great delay. The next 

 thing we suppose will be to do away with the absurdity of straps for working 

 the screw, and to substitute cog-wheel gear, and next the incumbrous flue 

 boilers will have to he exchanged for tubular boilers. *' Never ending, still 

 beginning," the whole performances impress us with the idea that they can 

 be meant for nothing but to provide snug berths for some parties who want 

 such provision. 



The directors also ask the shareholders to arm them with the power of 

 retaining the yard and workshops, and tendering for Government and other 

 contracts. Whatever may he our views with regard to the general policy of 

 such a measure, we must say that the directors have made out no case for 

 such confidence to be reposed in them, and the shareholders can only antici- 

 pate a profuse expenditure, a great deal of meddling and bungling, and a 

 great delay in getting returns, if any should ever be forthcoming. Who, too, 

 will trust parties with contracts who have not as yet shown that they have 

 practical experience on the subject, and who have pro tanto failed in every- 

 thing they have undertaken ? 



A general meeting of the proprietors of the above company was held on 

 Thursday, March 14, at Bristol. The following is an abstract of the Directors' 

 Keport : — 



" The receipts by the Great Western for 1843 have amounted to £33,406 

 Os. id., and the expenditure has been only £25,573 4s. id.; the receipts for 

 1842 having been only £30,830 8s. 2d., while the expenditure was £28,615 

 Is. \d. To the improved state of things in the United States much of this is 

 to he attributed, a good deal to the close attention to expenditure; but your 

 directors believe still more to the circumstance of Liverpool having been 

 altogether the rendezvous for your business on this side the Atlantic." 



The report then states that the Great Western's last winter voyage to Nevr 

 York, by way of Madeira, had been rendered unprofitable, the carelessness of 

 the New York pilot having allowed her to touch the ground, in consequence 

 of which that vessel had to be surveyed and repaired at her Majesty's dock- 

 yard at Pater, at an outlay of £C06, in addition to which it was calculated 

 that a loss of £1,500, in passengers, had been sustained by the unavoidable 

 delay, and change in the times of sailing. She had been subsequently docked 

 in Bristol, and " thoroughly examined," when, according to the directors,, 

 it was " impossible to over rate her condition." The pilot at New York 

 had been suspeiuled on the representation of the company, and the under- 

 writers at Lloyd's had signally marked their sense of Captain Hosken's merit 

 in bringing home the vessel. " The Great Western has run nearly 240,000 

 miles, at a higher average speed than bad been attained by any other sea- 

 going steamer — IO4 miles per hour." In September last the company's en- 

 gineer reported that the boilers, which had done duty for six years, might, 

 at an outlay of £1,000, be made to last for one, or, at most, two seasons 

 longer. Under these circumstances the directors thought it better to have 

 new boilers, the estimate for which is £3,000, which are now being rapidly 

 put up on board, are known by the name of tubular, and require only half 

 the space of the old ones, by which the stowage of the ship, for either coals. 



