14 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Jan. 



Harities of the voyage at the same time demand the employment of 

 steam vessels of similar size and power to these constructed for At- 

 lantic voyaging, the success cf the enterprise, that is, the continuance 

 of a profitable and satisfactory issue, will be, to say the least of it, as 

 is proper in a case judged a priori, exceedingly problematical. 



The limitation which exists to ocean steam voyaging is txptmejnot 

 impracdcahilily. This limitation is in the present state of the art 

 immoveable and insuperable, and the eslablishment of a steam com- 

 munication with the moon, is quite as feasible as the profitable exten- 

 sion of steam voyaging in the presentstate of the art, to cases to which 

 it cannot be profitably extended. The attempt to surmount difficulties 

 by shutting our eyes to them, is not merely futile, but is in this case 

 productive of unmerited disfavour towards steam navigation. For the 

 origination of enterprises, which from their nature cannot be capable of 

 yielding an adequate profit to render them permanent, destroys public 

 confidence, and fearfully represses the spirit of commercial adventure. 

 There is no achievement whicli ought to be more-grateful to the public 

 acceptation than the analysis and exposition of such illusive enter- 

 prises, yet there is none which frequently obtains a more ungrateful 

 requital. Persecution and calumniation appear to be the heritage of 

 the public benefactor, and the same dark spirit which administered 

 the poisoned cup to Socrates and Phocion, is not extinct at the present 

 day. Yet it is the part of philosophy to bear contumely without de- 

 pression — nor ought the sensibilities of the philanthropist be frozen 

 by the breath cf popular aspersion. If it be beneficent to attempt the 

 dissipation of popular delusion, to continue that attempt unmoved by 

 calumny, violence and derision, is surely an approach to divinity. We 

 trust that Dr. Lardner may lorg continue his patriotic endeavours to 

 direct aright the national energies in any questions similar to that 

 which forms the subject of the present enquiry. Those energies if 

 suffered to run to waste vpill jiroduce a vegetation which may be fair 

 for a season, but which will inevitably prove itself to be deadly and 

 delusive. Like waters poured out in the desert, they may cherish 

 flowers pleasing to the eye, but bearing death in their exhalations- 

 trees of luxuriant foliage and majestic stature, but hollow and poisonous 

 within ; fruit of tempting appearance, but turning in the grasp into 

 bitterness and ashes. With the view of assisting our readers to form 

 a correct estimate of the true character of the Atlantic enterprise, we 

 shall recapitulate some of the circumstances attending the discussion 

 of that question. The asperity which characterized the discussion at 

 Bristol, as well as the subsequent discussions at Liverpool and New- 

 castle was a prominent feature of the inquiry, the more so that it 

 happi'y rarely attaches to statistical and philosophical investigation. 

 The cause of this unbecoming heat has been attributed to the fact of 

 considerable interests having been already enlisted, antecedently to 

 those discussions, in the schemes which Dr. Lardner found himself con- 

 strained to condemn. The managers and directors of these several 

 embryo projects were, it is said, in conformity with our opening ex- 

 position of the besetting frailty of practical men, incensed at the ap- 

 plication of Dr. Lardner"s general conclusions respecting steam voy- 

 aging to this particular case, which they contended ought to be and 

 was an exception. It was considered that the clearness of Dr. Lard- 

 ner's expositions established a conclusion opposed to their interests, 

 and involved an indirect reflection upon their capacity or disinterested- 

 ness, whilst engineers and other artificers were not without that bias 

 in favour of the Atlantic enterprise which the anticipated fabrication 

 of immense vessels might be expected to create. Though unable to 

 J ope with Dr. Lardner in argument, this united party reasonably con- 

 .(.^ ded that Dr. Lardner was entirely wrong, because they were un- 

 doub tedly entirely right. They therefore attempted, and not without 

 some 'eiipo''^i')' success, to undermine his reputation for practical 

 sagacity ^^ attributing to him sentiments he never entertained, and 

 then show '"S '''"'^^ sentiments to be altogether fallacious. When the 

 phantoms t '^"^ arrayed, as if they had been real entities, had been 

 valiantly slain "^® victory was manifestly won, and was so adjudged 

 by "adiscrinii'n ''•'"S ^"'l ^"''g'''f"''f'P"b'i'='" That the popular voice 

 should have a li '''8'''^ '° '''^ advocates of the Atlantic scheme the 

 supcrioritv in the & '■^'^'^55'°" ^^ ^^^^ question is a circumstance which 



has been supposed to be partly due to the effect which any doctrine is 

 capable of creating in the public mind if incessantly insisted on, but 

 chiefly to the contemporaneous development of the most extravagant 

 popular anticipations relative to steam agencies. This species of de- 

 lusion has been not inappropriately termed the Steam Mania. During 

 tlie severity of its paroxysms, projects the most preposterous were 

 received with eagerness and applause, the countiy was drunk with 

 expectation, and for a time appeared bereft of every atom of its ac- 

 customed discretion. In so distempered a state of the public mind 

 the project of Atlantic steam voyaging could scarcely fail to attract 

 numerous admirers. The magnitude and grandeur of the enterprise 

 captivated the popular sympathies, whilst the implicit faith in the 

 omnipotence of steam agencies smoothed down all difticulties and sur- 

 mounted all opposition. But although enthusiasm may win a battle, 

 it is only the material interest'of mankind which can keep the field. 

 Reason may be overborne for a season, but is sure sooner or later to 

 obtain the superiority. A few years of experience generally brings 

 with them the subsidence of the most inveterate popular delusions. 

 Men awake as if from a dream, and it is an honourable trait in the 

 character of public opinion that it has no resentments to perpetuate, 

 but is desirous to atone for whatever injury its frenzy may have in- 

 flicted. 



A very clever writer in the Quarterly Review, No. 123, (1838) un- 

 dertakes to point out the magnificent prospects of Atlantic steam voy- 

 aging, and the advantages direct and consequential which may be fairly 

 expected from it. The period at which this article was written, 

 shortly posterior to the accomplishment of the first voyages of the 

 Great Western, was peculiarly favourable for lending weight to the 

 reviewer's conclusions, and the writer is evidently a man of much 

 general ability. 



We shall proceed to make extracts from this article, as an example 

 of the arguments adduced in support of the advantage of the Atlantic 

 scheme. 



" The effect of this achievement is by no means easily to be described 

 or foreseen. Even the Americans with all their reputation as a self 

 possessed and considering people, have displayed unwonted raptures 

 and antics on occasion of the first arrival of the Sirius and Great Wes- 

 tern at New York, quite as much so as our Bristol neighbours on their 

 return, and we are not sure that either party is to be blamed for it. 

 We are not sure that the former are far out of tlieir reckoning when 

 they speak of this as a new epoch in the history of the world. We 

 can enter into the feelings of the myriads who crowded the wharfs at 

 New York, when the English boats were hourly expected, when finally 

 after days of almost breathless watching (which to fearful spirits might 

 well have attbrded some pretext for disbelieving the new scheme, some 

 excuse for casting even ridicule on it after all), at length on the morn- 

 ing of St. George's day, the doubts, the fears, the scorn were alike 

 destined to be removed for ever from the mind of every living crea- 

 ture, (even, we dare say, but let us say it with due deference, from 

 that of Dr. Lardner himself), for now appears a long dim train of dis- 

 tant smoke in a somewhat unaccustomed direction, it rises and lowers 

 like a genius in the Arabian nights portending something prodigious; 

 by and bye the black prow of a huge steam boat dashes round the point 

 of some green island in the beautiful harbour 



Against the wind, against the tide, 

 Steadying with upright keel." 



It is not very easy to perceive what these doubts and fears really 

 are which the first voyage of the Sirius was destined to remove for 

 ever. The doubts and fears of the possibility of a steamer being able 

 to cross the Atlantic i Dr. Lardner can hardly be conceived to have 

 entertained these doubts and fear, for one small reason among many 

 others, the passage across the Atlantic had been accomplished by a 

 steam vessel about twenty years before. Are the doubts and fears 

 meant to have exclusive reference to the profitable issue of the under- 

 taking? How could the success of any enterprise in steam navigation 

 be ascertained by the performance of a single trip ? 



" The British and American Steam Company who have just launched 

 at Blackwall a ship thirty-eight feet longer than any in her Majesty's 



