it is now equally manageable and durable with any of its predecessors. To preserve the boilers, the engines were at one time made as tight as a still, any waste from escapes being replaced with fresh water obtained by distillation, so that almost the identical water was carried voyage after voyage. This had no better result than the premature decay of the boilers, which when not so well cared for, are apparently more durable. It was found at once easier and less injurious to use sea-water to replace waste; when so treated, and managed with equal care, the highpressure boiler of the compound engine seems to last as many years as those of the old low-pressure type. The somewhat abstruse question of the use of jacketed cylinders has practically received an adverse solution; for, whatever be the merits of the controversy, the economy was imperceptible, while the complexity of the castings, and the consequent risk of accident, formed at all times a distinct objection.

The shipowner, looking at the commercial side of the question, and not wanting an engine for scientific demonstration, but for practically propelling a ship, will naturally select that description which does it best on the whole; and if he finds one engine, though burning slightly less fuel than another, outbalances that saving by being more costly to buy and keep in repair, will naturally prefer the second. Thus simplicity, accessibility, freedom from likelihood of derangement, and ease of repair are becoming daily more marked features in the steamboat engine, even if these entail slight departures from the most economical form. It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later, so it is not to be wondered that owners prefer the safe to the scientific. It is also found that it is almost as bad to have too many parts as too few; that arrangements which are for exceptional and occasional use are rarely available when wanted, and have the disadvantage of requiring additional care. Their very presence, too, seems in effect to indispose the engineer to attend to essentials. Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity. The human factor cannot be safely neglected in planning machinery. If attention is to be obtained, the engine must be such that the engineer will be dis posed to attend to it. In one part only it seems impossible to have too much, the boiler. When, however, the requisite provision is made for all things going well and being easily kept right, astonishing results are obtained. Forty days' continuous steaming without a stop is not an uncommon performance. The generation is hardly passed which was told that a steamer could not cross the

Atlantic, and already the engineer has grappled with and overcomethe longest distances on the surface of the world.

It is somewhat singular how great a failure the auxiliary steam vessel has been, that is, where the engines are used intermittently, sails being employed whenever the winds are favourable; and this. failure is all the more remarkable, because, at first sight, hardly any doubt could be entertained of success. On all long voyages,

there are parts of the ocean difficult to cross under sail, and a speed of 6 knots an hour continued even for three days might shorten the voyage by weeks; also, if that speed were attainable, tug-boatswould be unnecessary for going up rivers, or entering or leaving harbours, and short cuts might be made available which could not be safely taken under sail alone. Nevertheless, great as these advantages are, and frequently as the experiment has been tried, failure has been the almost invariable result. The famous "Great Britain," the best specimen of this arrangement, has abandoned her long-continued and remarkable service to Australia. The reason does not lie on the surface; it is probably twofold. In these vessels. the sailing department cannot be economised, while it is practically impossible to keep the engine expenses in a reasonable proportion to engine services. Hence a slight increase of engine staff enables a continuous service to be maintained, which being done, the sailing department may be at once so immensely diminished as to go a long way towards compensating for the additional fuel; and the vessel changes her character, gaining the advantages and repute of a steamer instead of a sailing vessel.

No review of recent steamboat enterprise and progress would be complete which did not touch on the part Government has played in various ways, whether

(1) By subsidies for maintenance or assistance of mail services,

or

(2) By interference in design, condition, and equipment, on the plea of providing for the public safety.

Both are difficult problems, and if the Author cannot consider that unmixed good has come of the interference, he will not deny that some advantage has resulted, and that political situations have arisen when it was impossible to avoid interference of somekind.

Postal subsidies were originally granted in aid of lines of communication which it was supposed could not live, or at any rate be maintained with regularity, without. No doubt the ends aimed at were realised. Communication was opened at an earlier date, and maintained more regularly, than it would have been without;:

and some most imposing fleets have come into existence under the system. But to one who could see behind the scenes as a shipowner, and more especially if he were interested in mechanical progress as an engineer, there was a reverse to the picture. The lines thus created were huge monopolies; the Government money was used to crush competitors, and as a matter of fact, did much to postpone all outside improvement in steam carriage at sea. Also, every result was obtained by simple money expenditure. Science, economy, contrivance, thrift, all went for nothing. The day of subsidies is nearly over; they have caused great waste, weakened the character of steamboat enterprise as a whole, and left those who received them with both fleets and habits unfitted for the race of open competition.

The

A volume might be written on the results of governmental interference with steamships on the plea of public safety. This interference has grown up, during the last twenty-two years, from a simple survey, principally confined to boats and one or two other similar matters, to a minute and comprehensive inspection, beginning with the laying of the keel, and not ending with the destruction of the vessel. It is attributable to the unreasoning cry, “Any interference is justifiable which provides for safety." executive department of the Board of Trade has professed itself averse to much of this interference; and it has been the Legislature, more prone to emotion and less informed as to the intricacies of the subject, which has imposed these heavy burdens. In practice, however, the Board cannot be said to have given much effect to its professed aversion, for it has rendered its interference exceedingly onerous and obnoxious, stretching it largely in many directions beyond the points obligatory on it by enactment. The rules on which its legion of surveyors is instructed to proceed have been embodied in a volume, which will repay perusal, and will be found not unamusing. It is an unwholesome fact that, under the plea of safety, the Board is gradually assuming the position of designer; and it is suggested that this Institution would add to the services it has rendered to engineering progress by protesting. The system is too new to have wrought much ill; but resistance to novelties and preference for stereotyped forms are the results only too naturally to be expected.

Did the limits of this Paper admit, it would be interesting to criticise the regulations individually. That they do not approve themselves to well-informed engineers is evidenced by the dissatisfaction and irritation they have produced, and the remonstrances made by important associations. The eccentricity of the laws is

noticeable. Surely life on shore is as worth preserving as life at sea. Yet no law governs the boiler of the railway engine, and the public rides with perfect safety-as years of experience with thousands of instances have proved-behind a locomotive carrying 120 lbs. of steam on a boiler which, if it was in a steamboat, would be restricted by law to about 70 lbs. In fact, if sea rules for boiler strengths were enforced on shore the infliction would be intolerable.

It would be satisfactory, if it were possible, to conclude this review with the statement that, those who have been the actors in this peaceful revolution have profited by it. Shipowning is a pursuit in which, more than any other, success depends on personal management. No doubt a few persons have reaped consi-derable rewards; but as a whole, and viewed over a series of years, it has been a bad trade for most of those engaged in it. The perpetual progress of invention has made good vessels unprofitable while still new; the ease of competition, except in subsidy-protected trades, the temptation there has been from the advantage every newcomer possesses, and the fitfulness of the demand for steam shipping, have all contributed to produce the result, that the steamship owner has worked for the public rather than his own good. Nor is the case different for the owners of the cargoes his ships have carried. Rapidity of transit has done away with the possibility of large profits, while the necessary hurry and roughness of steamers' ways have much disturbed those accustomed to the accuracy and leisure of sailing vessels. Indeed, it is a matter >of frequent remark, that profit and comfort are driven out of any trade a steamboat enters. In fact, the one who almost alone has profited by the change has been the over-idolised idol of these later free-trading days, the consumer.

[Mr. STEPHENSON,

Mr. STEPHENSON, President, said he had known the Author for many years, and was not acquainted with any man who had more deeply studied or was more conversant with the compound engine. He had not only for a long period engineered his own ships, but had been the consulting engineer and adviser of other large companies.

enormous.

Mr. HOLT remarked that the changes which had been wrought by steam shipping in a commercial point of view had been While railway enterprise had been carried out by a few large companies, which had occupied certain districts and rendered themselves very observable, the increase in steamers had been mainly due to private individuals who owned one, two, or three vessels; the great companies which had attracted most attention had probably not moved the greatest amount of cargo, or effected the greatest amount of change.

Mr. SAMUDA, M.P., desired to refer to some points of special interest to the Institution. One was the inspection, or rather direction (as it had grown to be) of the Board of Trade and other departments, which he thought had had a most damaging effect upon the profession. Instead of advancing the science of marine engineering and naval architecture, it tended to prevent the development of the talents of engineers and to subordinate them to those who were placed in absolute authority. He did not desire to find fault with any particular department, but when men of life-long experience were the only ones who really advanced science step by step, by adding improvements in the special matters with which they were concerned, it was disheartening and discouraging to them to find either the Board of Trade, or the Admiralty or Lloyd's surveyors, laying down hard and fast lines, and compelling the registration of their decrees. The result was extremely serious, taking away from the engineering profession the power of development, and causing it to pass into the hands of those who were content in a subservient way to follow the directions of theorists, who insisted on regulating the advance that was to be made in such matters. That might appear to be an ungracious way of putting it, but he spoke as a very old member of the Institution, who had gone through every phase of shipbuilding, and had personally felt the inconvenience to which he alluded. It was a painful thing for men who had acquired a position in their profession, to be dictated to by the representatives of the different departments. He should not have spoken thus if he had not believed that it was in the interest, not only of the Institution but of the public, that a wider permission of development should be