Upon the third point, the first consideration was the amount of ammunition, and the committee give details, showing that the city was abundantly supplied. They, of course, had no means of ascertaining whether the case was the same with regard to the army; and, if it was not, the fault of that too must lie with the generals. But the committee mention one significant fact, that on his retreat from Cremona, Charles Albert separated his artillery from the main body of his army, and sent it to Placenza, where it could not be of any possible service, instead of Milan, whither he went himself, with the professed intention of defending it to the last. In order that they might act in every thing in concert with the King, the committee, on the 31st July, sent to him at Cremona, to know what was his plan of operations, and were informed that he would look to the defence of the Adda from Cremona to Cassano; leaving the Milanese to provide for it from Cassano to Lecco. The Milanese proceeded actively with the duties thus pointed out to them, but on the night of the 2nd August, hearing that the Austrians had already passed the Adda, a deputation was sent by the committee to Lodi to ascertain the King's views, and to concert with him the necessary measures. The deputation were referred to Gen. Bava, and by him were solemnly assured that the King had determined to march with his army to the defence of the city of Milan. The committee immediately recalled all the forces they had despatched to the defence of the Adda between Cassano and Lecco, and called upon all the country to rise and hasten to the defence of Milan. But from this time they found themselves hampered and thwarted at every point by Gen. Olivieri, who apparently was anxious to back up his authority with their popularity, and, by keeping them still in some apparent authority, to throw upon them a share of responsibility for the negotiations which were being carried on behind their backs with Radetzki, and which were only imparted to them when resistance had become impossible: 6 "As soon as it was known in the city that a capitulation had been made, there arose a cry of indignation and raging despair. They exclaimed that they were betrayed. The citizens wandered at hazard through the city, protesting against the ignominious compact. Everywhere arose the cry, Rather let me die than see the Austrians again!' The Greppi palace, where the King was staying, was barricaded, and some muskets were fired at the windows. The only two members of the Provisional Government who had remained at their post, published a protest against the capitulation, a copy of which was presented to the King. In consequence of this tremendous excitement, the King caused it to be proclaimed from the balcony that, seeing that the citizens were so resolved to defend themselves, he and his sons would remain with them, and shed the last drop of his blood in defence of the city. The citizens demanded to have this proclamation printed, which was accordingly done." While this was going on in the city, the most active preparations were being made in the camp for the immediate departure of the army. had to pass through the horrors of a civil war with the King and his army, before engaging with Radetzki :: If the Milanese had resisted, they would have "When the citizens saw that resistance was impossible they emigrated en masse. More than 120,000 persons, three fourths of the population, spread themselves, exiles, over the Lombard territory. Never was there seen a spectacle so moving-so austere a solemnity—a spectacle so eminently national. History will recall this sublime protest of Milan against the desertion of Charles Albert, and against the foreign yoke! More than 100 citizens lost their reason in that accursed moment!" The committee then proceed to contrast these facts with the statements contained in the proclamations of the King, and then state the conclusions to which they come : "We believe that the sacrifice of Milan, with all the Lombard Venetian territory, and the Duchies, was planned by the King immediately after the defeat of Somma Campagna and Custorza; and that the retreat upon Milan was only a means to effect that most base agreement. We believe that the King carried on the war in good faith until the defeat on the 25th July. We believe that until then there was only the greatest want of skill; the army was incapacity. After the defeat came the betrayal.” most brave, but its generals admirable only for * * AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST STEAM VOYAGE ON THE BRITISH SEAS, PERFORMED BY THE THAMES STEAM-PACKET, FROM GLASGOW TO LONDON, IN THE YEAR 1815. The application of steam power to navigation | tion; and it is certain that no practical results of must ever remain one of the most wonderful tri- any utility followed. umphs of human ingenuity. Scarcely more than half a century has elapsed since the first steamboats-frail barks whose greatest achievement was creeping along canals or rivers, were launched; and now, so rapid has been the course of improvement, that every sea is crossed by huge fabrics, that . Walk the waters like a thing of life; bringing distant countries into almost immediate connexion, and breaking down the barriers of ignorance and barbarism. It will be expedient, before entering on the immediate subject of this article, to pass briefly under review the history and progress of steamnavigation before the year 1815, when the first long sea-voyage was performed. Thomas Gonzales, Director of the Royal Archives of Simancas in Spain, published in 1826 an account of an invention by Blasco de Garay, a naval captain, who, it is stated, exhibited in Spain, in 1543, an engine, by which ships of the largest size could be propelled in a calm without the aid of oars or sails. He made an experiment before commissioners, appointed for the purpose of examining his invention at Barcelona, on the 17th June, 1543,- the vessel used being a ship of two hundred tons. Garay, we are informed, wished to keep his mechanism a secret; but it was observed to consist partly of a large cauldron, or vessel of boiling water, and of two movable wheels, one on each side of the ship. The experiment succeeded so far, that the vessel was propelled at the rate of two leagues in three hours; and the inventor was awarded by receiving a sum of two hundred thousand maravedis, besides having his expenses defrayed from the public treasury. It is added, that the invention would have been further encouraged had not State expeditions of great consequence claimed the immediate attention of the emperor. But it is important to mention, that the authenticity of the entire history of Garay's invention, as published by Gonzales, has been called into ques The next indication that we have of moving vessels by means of steam occurs in the Marquis of Worcester's Century of Inventions, which was written in 1655, though not published until 1663, in which allusion is made to an engine, which, placed in vessels, ships, or boats, shall "draw them up rivers against the stream, and if need be, pass London Bridge against the current at low water." The ingenious Denis Papin, who had long been engaged in a scheme for moving machinery, by creating an atmospheric vacuum by the explosion of gunpowder in a cylinder, turned his attention on the failure of this plan to the force of steam; and his proposition to obtain a moving power by this agent possesses great interest, being intimately connected with the Royal Society and Newton. It should be premised, that Papin was engaged as a curator to the Society, and brought various interesting inventions before them. In Weld's History of the Royal Society an account is given of Papin's communication, by which it appears that, as early as 1690, he conceived that steam might be effectually employed to propel ships by paddles. His words are: Without doubt, oars fixed to an axis could be most conveniently made to revolve by steam tubes. It would only be necessary to furnish the piston-rod with teeth, which might act on a toothed-wheel properly fitted to it, and which being fixed on the axis to which the oars were attached would communicate a rotary motion to it. It was not, however, until 1708, that Papin submitted his more carefully considered plan to the Society, for "moving of ships by steam." The scheme is detailed at length in the work just alluded to; and it is further stated, that Papin was willing to put it in execution provided that the Society would pay him his expenses, which he estimated would amount to fifteen pounds. The whole subject was referred to the president, Sir Isaac Newton, who, without doubting that Papin's proposition might be made available for the "moving of ships and galleys," inclined to the opinion that the expense of making the trial would far exceed what Papin estimated; and, unfortunately, as the Society in those days were sadly crippled in their finances, nothing was done in the matter. This is greatly to be lamented, for we cannot doubt that the discovery of the high-pressure engine for propelling ships would have followed: and Newcomen, adopting Papin's cylinder and piston, with Savery's mode of condensation, a few years afterwards, completed the atmospheric engine. In 1736, Jonathan Hulls took out a patent for moving vessels by steam power, which were to act as tugs for towing other vessels, as he conceived it better to place the machinery in a separate vessel than in the ship itself. His contrivance consisted in giving motion to two paddlewheels suspended in a frame projecting from the stem of the vessel, by means of two atmospheric engine cylinders furnished with pistons. However ingenious this plan might have been, there is no evidence of its ever having been reduced to practice, although Hulls published an able defence of his scheme, which he maintained was perfectly practicable. applied to paddle-wheels. Mr. Taylor, who was at the time living with Mr. Miller in the capacity of tutor to his family, suggested applying steam power to move the paddles; but neither of them could devise a method of connecting the steam power with the paddles. In this dilemma they resolved to seek the assistance of Mr. Syming ton, an engineer, who was at that period actively engaged in endeavoring to adapt the steam-engine to carriages. The result was, that Symington, assisted by Miller and Taylor, constructed a small engine, the castings of which, oddly enough, were executed by a founder of the name of Watt; and in October, 1788, the engine was placed in a small pleasure-boat belonging to Mr. Miller, and was tried on Dalswinton lake. The engine was placed on one side, the boiler on the other, and the paddle-wheels in the middle. With all the disadvantages of a first trial, and with cylinders only four inches in diameter, the boat moved with a velocity of five miles an hour: and the engine was removed from the boat, and preserved for many years as a trophy in Mr. Miller's library. An anxiety was now felt to try the experiment on a grander scale; and Mr. Miller purchased a large boat, which was used Numerous inventions now followed, which we on the Forth and Clyde canal, and which, under have not space to enumerate — some embracing the joint superintendence of the three aboveingenious contrivances, others remarkable only named gentlemen, was fitted with engines and for their whimsicality; for example, it is recorded paddle-wheels, and propelled at the rate of seven that a M. Genevois, a minister of Berne, invented miles the hour. It is curious that, with this great in 1759 a species of steam propeller, which, like success, Mr. Miller, who was the capitalist in the foot of a duck, would expand, and present a these experiments, should have carried his atlarge surface to the water when moved against tempts no further. The boat was dismantled, it, but would fold up into small compass when and regarded only as a curiosity; and Mr. Milmoved in an opposite direction. It is scarcely ler directed his attention to other objects, which, necessary to add that these duck-feet oars failed, as he conceived, held out a more immediate prosbut it is a curious, and at the same time a mel-pect of improving the condition of his country ancholy fact, that similar apparatus has been fre- than of enriching himself. quently re-invented since the days of the pastor of Berne, and with the same degree of practical success. The experiments of the Comte d'Auziron in 1774, and of the Marquis de Jauffroy on the Seine in 1782, with those by Rumsey, Fitch, and Evans, in America, led to no beneficial results; for, although steamboats were constructed and set in motion, it cannot be said that they succeeded in practically establishing steam navigation. This honor cannot, indeed, be claimed for any one person, but it may be safely advanced, that the interesting experiments and labors of Patrick Miller, James Taylor, and William Symington, mainly conduced to bring about this great consummation. Mr. Miller lived in Dalswinton, in Dumfriesshire; and in 1787, tried several experiments on the best mode of propelling single, double, and triple vessels, by the power of men and of horses But Symington, with happily more perseverance and determination, commenced a series of experiments on steam navigation, under the patronage of Lord Dundas, which, although they did not lead to the immediate adoption of steam vessels for commercial purposes, tended in no unimportant degree to their establishment; for it was mainly to the inspection of Symington's experiments and steam-boats that Fulton was indebted for his ideas respecting steam navigation. Fulton had made some experiments of a similar nature to those of Symington on the Seine at Paris, under the auspices of the American chancellor, Mr. Livingstone, who had tried to establish steam-boats in America, but failed. Fulton's experiments met with no better success, for his vessel moved so slowly that the experiment was pronounced to be a failure. Fulton subsequently went to Scotland, where he introduced himself to Symington, who has left on record an account Thus originated commercial steam navigation, which unquestionably is due to the enterprising and speculative Fulton, though it is clear that he was indebted to Great Britain for many of his ideas. Rivals soon appeared in America; a few weeks after the triumph of Fulton, Stevens of Hoboken had a steam vessel ready; but as the monopoly of steam navigation, in the State of New York, was secured to Livingstone and Fulton, he could not employ it upon the Hudson, and, therefore, took it round by sea to the Delaware. This is an importaut fact; for if we except the rather traditionary case of Garay, Stevens was the first who ventured to sea with a steam-vessel. of Fulton's visit. He says, "I was waited on by Mr. Fulton, who, after making himself known, candidly told me that he was lately from North America, and intended to return thither; but having heard of our steam-boat operations, he could not think of leaving this country without first waiting upon me, in expectation of seeing the boat and procuring such information regarding it as I might be pleased to communicate." Symington then goes on to relate, that at Fulton's earnest entreaties he shewed him his steam-engines, andi put his steam-boat in motion, carrying him eight miles in an hour and twenty minutes, "to his great astonishment." Fulton made copious notes of every thing that he saw, and having obtained all the information he could, which Symington declares he most liberally imparted to him, ordered, it is said, a steam-engine under an assumed name, from Bolton and Watt, and shortly after-mercial purposes in Great Britain. Bell had wards returned to America, where, in conjunction with Livingstone, a patent was obtained, securing to them the prospective advantages of steam navigation in America, by what they rather insincerely termed their invention of steam-boats. In 1806 Bolton's steam-engine arrived in America; and in 1807 the first steam-vessel, called the Clermont, was launched on the Hudson; and after a trial was announced to sail from New York to Albany - a distance of a hundred and forty-five miles — which it accomplished at the rate of about five miles an hour. Colden, in describing the first trip of this vessel, says: The minds of the most incredulous were changed in a few minutes; before the boat had made the progress of a quarter of a mile, the greatest unbeliever must have been converted. The man who, while he looked on the expensive machine, thanked his stars that he had more wisdom than to waste his money on such idle schemes, changed the expression of his features as the boat moved from the wharf and gained her speed; his complacent smile gradually stiffened into an expression of wonder; the jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling to repress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced for the moment by a vulgar astonishment, which deprived them of the power of utterance, till the triumph of genius extorted from the incredulous multitude, which crowded the shores, shouts and acclamations of congratulations and applause. Her passage up the Hudson struck terror into the sailors of other vessels. Colden says, that when the Clermont was seen at night, "the crews shrank beneath their decks from the terrific sight, and others prostrated themselves, and besought Providence to protect them from the approach of the horrible monster which was marching on the tides, and lighting its path by the fires which it vomited." Returning to Scotland, we find that Henry Bell of Helensburgh, on the Clyde, was the first person who made use of steam-vessels for com aided Fulton in his experiments; and he states in a letter that he addressed to the editor of the Caledonian Mercury in 1816, that having furnished Fulton with valuable information and drawings of machinery, &c., he was led "to think of the absurdity of giving other countries the benefit of his experience and opinion and not putting it in practice himself in his own country, and from these considerations he was roused to start a steam-boat." This was the Comet, a vessel of about twenty-five tons, forty feet keel, and three horse-power, which carried passengers between Glasgow and Helensburgh in 1812, and plied regularly during that and the following year: her speed was about five miles an hour. The speculation, in a commercial point of view, was most successful, and the profitable introduction of steam navigation on the rivers of Great Britain proceeded rapidly. It was still, however, a question whether steamvessels could be used for open sea-navigation, and nautical men for the most part entertained the opinion that they were unfitted to brave it. George Dodd,* an enterprising but unfortunate man, decided the point. The boat with which the first British sea voyage was accomplished was built on the Clyde by Messrs. Wood and launched in 1813, under the name of the Argyle, but was subsequently called the Thames. states that she registered seventy-five tons, was seventy-nine feet in her keel by sixteen feet beam, and was furnished with engines of four Dodd teen-horse power, and paddle-wheels of nine feet | land. In consequence of the negligence or mis in diameter. The vessel had been plying during a year between Greenock and Glasgow, carrying passengers, when she was purchased by some persons in London, who destined her to run between that city and Margate. She was the favorite boat on the Clyde; passengers were in the habit of waiting some hours, choosing rather to sail in her than in any other vessel; and she succeeded so well as a commercial speculation, that she realised to her original proprietors by her trips on the Clyde 2500l., which she cost originally, independently of 3000l. for which she was sold to the London company. understanding of the pilot, who had altered the course of the vessel during the night, they ran a great risk of being wrecked. Dodd had given orders that the vessel should be steered so as to gain the Irish coast by the morning. At break of day a heavy gale was blowing, and it was discovered, that instead of being off the coast of Ireland they were within half a league of a lee rock-bound shore, two miles to the north of Port Patrick. It blew too hard to attempt to beat off by the united power of sails and steam; Dodd, therefore, depending entirely on the power of his engine, laid the vessel's head directly to windThe vessel was exclusively appropriated to the ward, and ordered the log to be kept constantly conveyance of passengers. She had two cabins; going. It was soon ascertained, to the great satone in the front, the other in the stern. The isfaction of all on board, that the vessel was stern cabin was elegantly fitted up without berths, clearing the shore and going direct in the wind's and furnished with a small but well selected li- eye at the rate of three knots and a half. When brary. The engine occupied the middle of the he had acquired a sufficient offing, he bore away vessel, the boiler being placed on the starboard for Loch Ryan, and gained the Irish coast. Dodd side, and the cylinder and fly-wheel on the lar- was firmly of opinion that no other power than board. There was nothing disagreeable in the that of steam could have saved the vessel from movement of the machinery; when seated in the destruction. He now continued his voyage to cabin a slight motion was perceptible, but not Dublin, where he determined to remain for a sufficient to impede writing. The vessel appear-short time to rest his crew and to examine the ed larger than she actually was, in consequence of a gallery which projected on each side, and which formed a continuous deck, interrupted only by the paddle-boxes. The cabin windows opened on the gallery deck, and not immediately on the water. The smoke was carried off by a funnel, which also did duty as a mast, and carried a large square-sail. It seems, indeed, to have been the anxious wish of the constructors of the early steam-boats to disguise the ugly smoking chimney under the designation of a mast, and some even went so far as to raise up a top-mast in the thick folds of the dense smoke. Eighteen large port-holes were painted on the outside of the gallery, and two on the stern; and the appearance of the vessel was so formidable to those to whom it was a new object, that several captains of frigates stated that if they had met it at sea they would have endeavored to reconnoitre it previously to approaching it. Mr. Dodd went to Glasgow expressly for the purpose of fitting the Thames (as we shall now call her) for sea, and of navigating her to London. His crew consisted of a mate, four sea men, an engineer, a stoker, and a cabin-boy. It was not without heavy misgivings on the part of many persons in Glasgow that Dodd started for his long voyage, but, full of confidence in his vessel and crew, he boldly put to sea in May, 1815. The commencement of his voyage was far from auspicious, the weather was most unfavorable, and the sea ran extremely high in the narrow channel separating Scotland from Ire machinery. Here it was that Mr. Weld first heard of the vessel, and we now leave him to describe the rest of her voyage in his own words:— On the 25th May, 1815, I heard by accident that a steam-vessel had arrive 1 at Dublin. I immediately went to see her, and found her on the point of starting with a number of curious_visitors upon an experimental trip in the bay. I was so much pleased with all that I saw and heard concerning her, that having previously intended Captain Dodd to receive me as a passenger and to proceed to London, I determined to request to be permitted to accompany him throughout the voyage. He at once consented; and my wife having resolved on sharing the dangers of the voyage with me, we proceeded to make the necessary arrangements for our departure. On the 28th May, being Sunday, we left the Liffey curiosity, but only to cross the bay as far as Dunat noon. Many persons embarked with us from leary (now Kingstown), where they landed. Unfortunately, the sea was very rough, which occasioned the most violent sea-sickness amongst all the passengers. Several naval officers were on board, who were unanimous in declaring it to be their firm opinion that the vessel could not much danger in venturing far from shore. I live long in heavy seas, and that there would be deemed it right to inform my wife of this opinion; but although she suffered greatly from seasickness, she persisted in her intention of accom *These, as the writer has often heard stated, comprehended all, and probably more, than would now he required for a voyage to America. But it must be remembered that this was the first long sea-voyage; and even now persons would hesitate to undertake such a voyage in a small boat of fourteen-horse power. |