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poverty-pauperism in all its disgusting forms-taxes on all things, from the light of heaven to the furniture of the grave -and a soldier at every door. Let him then return to his own country and reflect, that within a century, and under the constitution formed by his fathers, it has grown great and prosperous its population increased from three mil

lions to twenty millions of people-its commerce extended until its flag casts a shadow upon every sea-its population well fed, well paid, and equally protected by the laws: he will then no longer disregard the importance of domestic peace and unity, but will nerve himself for every contest in which he can do service for the CONSTITUTION and the UNION.

HOW ARE WE LIVING?

OUR noblest life's an hour of morning slumber-
Not couch'd at rest, but walking in our sleep,
Begirt with dream-born phantoms without number,
And wandering dimly by a star-lit deep;
And now we seem to run, and now we creep,
Or droop in weariness on bended knee,
And now a moment gain some little steep
And think to scan the Illimitable Sea,

As o'er it we might reach our ports of destiny!

And ever and anon, where, fringed with flowers,
Some tranquil bay runs up into the land,
The laughing Pleasures build their summer bowers,
And near them beckon with enchanting hand,
Where Venus' star beams softly on the strand;
And Sirens sitting in each glassy cave

Utter alluring strains, so sweetly fann'd

By tremulous airs along the sea-beat pave,

As drown the solemn voice of ev'n the Eternal Wave.

And then, again, the airy steeps are piled,

Where Pride and Fame are throned, and ancient Power;

Lo! on the beacon'd battlements and wild

What crown'd and mailèd phantoms shine or lower!

Hark! how the trumps are blown from tower to tower,
And Mars' red planet, burning on the sky,

Rules the ascendant of the thrilling hour;

And ever voices from their summits cry

"Ho! climb and win renown, that ye may never die!"

And these have power upon the wisest mind,
To make it oft forget or vainly flee
Those warning tones that, wafted by no wind,
Yet come to us from o'er that Unknown Sea.
Oh! oft the noblest toil a space to be

Brief dreamers on those false and giddy heights,
Whence throngs have fall'n to undreamt misery-
Or turn aside where Pleasure's hand invites,
And taste the Circean cup which all the soul benights.
Yes! this is human life! If some have seemed
Not all-perversely journeying on their way,
Forgetting not the wondrous light that streamed
On childhood's path with strange celestial ray,
But onward watching for the burst of day-
Yet ever so the multitudinous crowd
Forget, and grope, and blindly lingering stray,

Or halt in strife, till breaks the misty cloud-
Around their naked souls a sea of light hath flowed!

STEAM NAVIGATION.

Ir the immortal spirits of Watt, Fulton, and Trevithick can look down on the things of this nether world, and behold the grand results their discoveries and inventions have produced, and contemplate the vast good conferred by their labors on posterity, and the still more extensive blessings which are reserved for unborn millions,-what pleasure, what triumph must be theirs! For half a century the steam-engine had remained a barren fact in the archives of science, when the self-taught genius of the Glasgow mechanic breathed into it the spirit of vitality, and conferred upon it energies, by which it revived the drooping commerce of his country, and when the auspicious epoch of general peace arrived, diffused its beneficial influence to the very skirts of civilization. Scarcely had the fruit of the labor of Watt ripened, and this great mover been adopted as the principal power in the arts and manufactures, than by the enterprise aud genius of Trevithick its uses received that prodigious extension which resulted from its acquiring the LOCOMOTIVE character. As it had previously displaced animal power in the MILL, and usurped its nomenclature, so it now menaced its displacement on the ROAD. A few years more saw the spirit of Fulton arise and call into existence what has proved perhaps the greatest and most important of all the manifold agencies of steam-that by which it has given wings to the ship, and bade it laugh to scorn the opposing elements, transporting it in triumph over the expanse of the trackless ocean, regardless of wind or current, and conferring upon locomotion over the deep a regularity, certainty, and precision, surpassed by nothing save the movement of chronometers or the course of the heavenly bodies. Such are the vast results which have sprung from the intelligence of three men, none of whom shared those privileges of mental culture enjoyed by

the favored sons of wealth; none of whom grew up within the walls of schools or colleges, drawing inspiration from the fountains of ancient learning; none of whom were spurred on by those irresistible incentives to genius arising from the competition of ardent and youthful minds, and from the prospect of scholastic honors and professional advancement. Sustained by that innate consciousness of power, stimulated by that irrepressible force of will, so eminently characteristic of and inseparable from minds of the first order, they in their humble and obscure positions persevered against adverse and embarrassing circumstances, impelled by the faith that was in them, against the doubts, the opposition, and not unfrequently the ridicule of an incredulous world, until at length, by time and patience, truth was triumphant, and mankind now gathers the rich harvest sown by these illustrious laborers.

It was about the eighth year of the present century that Fulton launched the first steamboat on the Hudson. After the lapse of four years the first European steamboat was established on the Clyde. From this time the art of steam navigation, in the two great maritime and commercial nations, the United States and Great Britain, advanced with a steady and rapid progress. But it took different directions, governed by the peculiar geographical and commercial circumstances attending these countries. The genius and enterprise of the United States saw before and around it a vast territory, intersected by navigable rivers of unequalled length, forming lines of water communication on a colossal scale between its extensive interior and the seaboard. The Mississippi and its tributaries, with their sources lost in distant tracts as yet untrodden by civilized man, and navigable to large vessels for many thousands of miles, the Hudson, all but touching upon those magnificent

The invention of the steam-engine may perhaps fairly be dated from the year 1700. The date of Watt's improvements was between 1760 and 1784.

+ Trevithick constructed the first locomotive engine in 1804.

As the steam-engine was usually applied to mills previously worked by horses, it became the custom to express its efficacy by naming the number of horses which it displaced; hence the term HORSE-POWER.

inland seas that stretch along the northern boundary and are almost connected with the Mississippi by the noble stream of the Illinois, the majestic Delaware, rendered memorable by the military achievements of the Father of American independence,--the wide Potomac, which washes the spot where his venerated remains are deposited,-a coast thousands of miles in extent, fringed by innumerable bays and harbors, and landlocked basins having all the attributes of lakes, these addressed themselves to the eye of the engineer and the capitalist, and determined the direction of enterprise in the task of realizing what the foresight of Fulton had shadowed out. The application of steam power to inland navigation-the construction of vessels suited to traverse with speed, safety, and economy, these rivers and lakes, these harbors, bays, and extensive inlets-this was the task and the vocation of the American engineer, and this the interest of the capitalist and the merchant. And well may the American behold with honest pride the manner in which this object has been accomplished. Well may he direct the attention of the astonished European to the floating palaces in which he is carried between the head and the source of each gigantic stream. The world has afforded hitherto no parallel for such magnificent apparatus of transportation. *

The problem of steam navigation, however, presented itself to the British engineer under other conditions, and invested with a body of very different circumstances. A group of islands intersected by no considerable navigable rivers, and neither requiring nor admitting any other inland navigation save that of artificial canals, separated, however, from each other and from the adjacent continent of Europe by straits, channels, gulfs, and other arms of the sea,-it was apparent that if steam power should become available at all, it must be adapted to the navigation of these seas and channels-it must be adapted to accelerate and cheapen the intercourse between the British islands, between port and port upon their coasts, between them and the various ports on the adjacent coast of Europe, and perhaps even finally to a communication with the Mediterranean and the coasts of Africa, Asia, and Eu

rope which are washed by it. While the American therefore was called on to contrive a steam-vessel adapted to in land and smooth-water navigation, the British engineer had the more difficult task to construct one which should be capable of meeting and surmounting all the obstructions arising from the vicissitudes of the deep.

It cannot be denied that the easier problem fell to the share of the American. The honor, however, from which he was excluded by the minor difficulties of the question, will be cheerfully awarded to him by his generous rival for the superfluity of success, the tri umphant perfection to which he has at tained in the achievement of its solu tion. It seems as though the aspirations of genius, ashamed of the too great fa cility of the task assigned to it, sought, in accomplishing much more than the bare conditions of the proposed problem exacted, that glory which would have been necessarily accorded to the solution of a problem of a higher order.

The result of the labor and enterprise of the English nation directed to this inquiry has been the present sea-going steam-ship. In the first attempts short trips alone, such as could be completed in a day or less, were contemplated; and lines of steamers were accordingly established between the principal ports of the United Kingdom on the Irish Channel, and between those on the eastern coast of England and the nearest ports of France, Belgium, and Holland. Further improvements gradually extended this intercourse to the coast of Spain, the islands of the Mediterranean, aud finally to the chief ports of Egypt, Turkey, and Syria. As yet, however, the problem of sea navigation by steam was invested, by the geographical character of the region in which it was carried out, with one condition most essential to its facility and success. Wherever the voyages extended beyond what could be accomplished within a short interval of time, they were resolved into stages, at each of which relays of fuel were available, and at which the machinery could be overlooked and put to rights, and the boilers, if necessary, cleaned out. Thus the Mediterranean packets touched successively at Corunna, Gibraltar, Malta, Corfu, and lately at Alexandria. In

Nothing can exceed the surprise of intelligent foreigners on first ascending the Hudson in such vessels as, the Troy, the Empire, the South America, or the Knickerbocker.

cases of emergency they might also run into any of the other ports along the extensive coast by which their course lay.

The importance of expediting the communication with the British dominions in the East next forced itself on the attention of that government and the East India Company, and it was soon determined to extend the operations of steam power to India. One or two steamers (impelled however pro hac vice more by sails than steam) were despatched and succeeded in reaching India by the Cape, relays of fuel being provided at several stations on the route. Steam power now penetrated to the heart of India, and the astonished Hindu beheld incomprehensible floating buildings, vomiting fire and smoke, ascend the waters of the Ganges and the Indus. The presidencies of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay were placed in easy communication; and finally, a line of steamships formed and still maintain a constant and regular route for passengers and despatches between Bombay and Suez by the Red Sea, and between Alexandria and Malta by the Mediterranean, the Desert between Suez and Cairo being intersected by a good road capable of being traversed by wheeled carriages. The time between Bombay and London was consequently reduced from four months to little more than the same number of weeks.

tion the mean immersion of the wheels. The former cause of variation would increase with the badness of the weather, and the latter would augment with the length of the trip. Although, however, these causes would diminish the efficiency of the moving power as compared with its effect in smooth water, a large balance of its locomotive virtue would still be available.

To be protected from the effects of the sea in rough weather the machinery must be below the deck. Its form and arrangement must then be accommodated to this condition, and not governed by those circumstances which would confer upon it the greatest mechanical efficiency. The nature, construction, and action of the paddle-wheels render it necessary that the machinery which propels them be placed in the centre of the length of the vessel, and the fuel must, of course, be at hand. The machinery and fuel must therefore have that position in the vessel-the middle-where tonnage is most valuable. To bring the machinery within the desired limit of height, cylinders were made in violation of the usual proportions; the length being generally equal to the diameter; instead of being twice that dimension, the proportion found best in practice. The beam, instead of being erected above the cylinder, was placed below it, (to save height;) and, as a consequence, two beams, with two sets of parallel motions, became indispensable, where one had previously been sufficient.

The difficulties which attended the adaptation of the steam-engine to the propulsion of sea-going ships in general, The adjustment of the power, tonnage, and more especially to ships required to and fuel to each other, and to the length make long trips, not capable of being of the trip, so as to obtain the greatest (like those of the Mediterranean and practical advantage and commercial proOriental lines) resolved into stages of fit, was a problem of the greatest nicety moderate length, were various. Assum- and most consummate difficulty. It is a ing that the vessel is propelled by pad- problem about the solution of which endle-wheels, (the method universally gineering authorities have not even yet adopted until the improvements of Cap- been brought into accordance. The tontain Ericcson,) the fully efficient per- nage of a commercial steamship may be formance of the engines requires that regarded as appropriated to three purthe wheels should have one uniform im- poses-1st, to freight and passengers; mersion, and that both wheels be equally 2d, to the propelling machinery; and immersed. The complete fulfilment of 3d, to the fuel. A sufficient space must this condition was evidently impossible, be reserved for the first, otherwise comsubject to the vicissitudes of the deep. mercial profit, the sole object of such an The rolling and pitching of the vessel enterprise, could not be realized. would produce a continual variation of such ships will always have the first immersion of the wheels, and the grad- class of sailing vessels to compete with, ual consumption of the fuel during a and as they must generally depend for trip would produce a corresponding di- their profit more on passengers than on minution of the displacement or draught, freight, great speed is a condition absoand would diminish in the same propor- lutely indispensable to their success.

As

Great speed, however, requires that the power should not have too small a ratio to the tonnage. The more powerful the machinery is in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel, the more expeditious, ceteris paribus, will be her voyages. But from this springs a consequence of great importance in these projects. Just in the same proportion as the power of the machinery is augmented will the daily consumption of fuel be increased, and in a voyage of a given length, therefore, the stock of fuel provided at starting, and consumed on the trip, must be greater in a like ratio. The fuel provided for daily consumption must then bear a fixed proportion to the power of the machinery; and the whole stock of fuel provided for the trip must be in the combined proportion of the time of the trip and the power of the engines. For long voyages then it would be necessary to build ships with engines sufficiently powerful to insure the necessary average speed, with tonnage not so great in proportion to the power as to be inconsistent with that speed, and at the same time sufficient to leave space for profitable cargo and passengers after the requisite stock of fuel for the voyage was provided.

Beset with these difficulties, and perplexed by discordant conditions, engineers, practical mechanics, and men of science, as might be expected, offered various and conflicting counsel.* For short trips, such as the channel and coast navigation, little difference existed, precisely because there no practical difficulties presented themselves. But for ocean voyages there were almost as many different opinions as individuals. All however agreed, in what indeed was very evident, that in long ocean voyages the power must have a less proportion to the tonnage, and therefore a less average speed can be obtained than in short trips. Some recommended the proportion of four, some of three tons to each horse power, and between these opinion fluctuated. In the midst of these discussions, two grand projects were promulged, and courted the attention of enterprising capitalists, the one, to establish a regular steam communication between Bombay and the Red Sea, in the face of the southwest monsoon; and the other, to open a

great steam road between the capital of the East and the capital of the Westbetween London and New-York. Subscriptions were solicited companies formed-all the machinery of the sharemarket was soon brought into full operation-and the celebrated steam-mania of that day seized upon the British nation.. In the midst of this excitement the keel of the Great Western was laid down at Bristol in the summer of 1836.

It is a fact well worthy of remark, in recording these events, that in this fever of excitement towards a project, the realization of which would so seriously advance the interests of this country generally, and of the city of New York in particular, not a dollar of American capital found its way to it! Our people and our press lauded the enterprise to the skies, and cheered on their British friends, as hundred after hundred was poured in to swell the growing capital; but, while they cheered, they quietly buttoned their pockets. Was it that with the shrewdness so characteristic of the nation, these cautious calculators saw that the pear was not ripe, but that its maturity might be forced in the hot-bed thus constructed at foreign cost? Was it that they wisely foresaw that, though the enterprise must lead to eventual good, it must first become the grave of a large portion of capital? Was it that they waited till the soil, still in its natural barrenness, should be manuredby British gold, and ploughed by British labor, and that when the requisite fertility: should have been imparted to it, then, and not till then, they would cast in seed, with the assured expectation of an abun dant harvest? Was it rather that, in a genuine philosophic spirit, they reasoned on abstract principles, that all such projects must reach complete success through a series of failures; and that the prudent course were to tarry till the experiment, having passed through its first phases, should, in the fulness of time, reach that condition in which a successful issue might be regarded as secure?

We speak not here of that success, the realization of which should consist in barely crossing the Atlantic by the agency of steam. Although, in the asperity of disputation at the epoch now referred to, individuals are represented as doubt

See the Reports and Evidences of Committees of the Houses of British Parliament on steam communication with India; and other measures of a similar kind, where the principal engineers, engine-builders, nautical men, and men of science were examined, and their evidence reported.

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