MUSEUM OF Foreign Literature, Science and Art. SEPTEMBER, 1838. From the Quarterly Review. ATLANTIC STEAM NAVIGATION. London. 1838. 2. A brief Memoir of the Growth, Progress, and Extent of the Trade between the United Kingdom and the United States of America, from the beginning of the Eighteenth Century to the Present Time, &c. &c. By G. R. Porter. 1837. 3. Advantages of Counter Exchange with the United States of America. By S. Revans. London. 1838. on the Forth and Clyde canal, succeeded in really establishing a steam-boat on the river Hudson, between New York and Albany, a distance of about 150 miles. His speed was only six or seven miles the hour; but how astounding must it have been to the unbelieving and jesting crowds on the river-side who witnessed the commencement of the project, when they were compelled to acknowledge its execution! We have heard it lately stated, that of the two members of a leading New York firm in these times, one started for Albany and the other for Bristol, on the same day— each by sailing-packet—and, each being sixteen days on the voyage, the passage to Europe was accomplished in the same time with that between the 'commercial metropolis' of the new world and the legislative capital of the same state. Mr. Porter enumerates thirty-nine To us the most interesting portion in the first-named steam-boats as now belonging to the port of New of these publications, is the account Mr. Porter gives York. Our own inquiries may be more recent, and a of the progress of our means of transportation, chiefly year or two is a matter of some moment in these matwithin the last twenty or thirty years. The world has ters, especially in America, where the whole aspect of seen nothing like it before; and we can scarcely expect their kaleidescope society changes as it were at a jar, that it ever will again-since the period includes, almost while the book of the man who undertakes to deamong other things, the entire history of the practical scribe it is going through the press: we should set down application of steam to navigation. Much the same about sixty steam-boats for New York. A daily jourmay be said of the railways, for, as Mr. Porter re-nal from that busy emporium now before us speaks of marks, those which existed previous to 1800 were, without exception, private undertakings, and comparatively small ones, each being 'confined to the use of the establishment-generally a colliery-in which it occurred;' the public works are all creations of the present century. In 1801 the first Act of Parliament for the construction of a public railway was passed. Since that time nearly two hundred have followed it; and among these enterprises there are three, of which alone the estimated cost-and they are expected to be finished during the present season-amounts to about nine millions sterling! the starting of some ten or a dozen for Albany, at the same hour, and of an equal number seen meanwhile crossing the water in various other directions; most of them, be it considered, boats that may well be called floating palaces.' And again, looking to the interior of that country-a country that would seem almost to have been made for steam-boat navigation, even more than steam-navigation for it—what a spectacle do we there behold of victorious science, energy, and art, making, it would seem, their proud triumphal marches, their 'progresses!' Instinct with all but life, "Tramp, tramp, along the land they ride, Splash, splash, across the sea;' everywhere rejoicingly rushing on, as if, with all their flying flags and noisy engines of speed, themselves to celebrate the advent of that civilization which they do ions. There are, at this hour, scarcely two ports in so much to extend. There are now about forty American steam-boats on Lake Erie alone. On the Mississippi waters, where, twenty years since, there was no such thing as a regular line known, there are now 300 boats at the smallest calculation; we have indeed seen the number rated nearly twice as high. Twentyfive years ago the adventurer who thought of ascending the mighty stream of the 'Father of Waters' prepared himself for a sort of campaign. His packet might tarry at some village on the banks, for wood and water-or a frolic-longer than he would now be in the entire voyage from New Orleans to Cincinnati. The distance up from Louisville to the city just named (where it is no unusual thing to see twenty or thirty steam-boats lying together)-itself, one may say, a product of this same steam-navigation-is about 150 miles, and is commonly accomplished, we believe, like the same distance between New York and Albany, in ten hours. We have before us an authentic paragraph announcing the arrival of a boat in twenty-six hours, down to Cincinnati, from Wheeling, 400 miles on the other side! What a conception do even these trifles give us of the importance of the revolution introduced by the use of steam in navigation, and especially to a population and a country having at once such necessities and such capacities for it as those of the United States! the United Kingdom of any consideration, between which steam-boats do not regularly ply. In 1818 the most sanguine never dreamed of their being available for much more than inland navigation, with here and there a little circumspect sallying out and skirmishing along the curves of the coast (something after the style of the ancients). Who could then have conceived that, in 1838, the time-honoured and world-renowned dynasty of sailing navigation would have been so ruthlessly overthrown by these most irresistible of all revolutionists,-that, not for purposes of travel only, but in a great measure for those of trade (in all the least bulky articles of commerce), the new system should have entirely usurped the place of the old? Who could have believed that by this medium would be maintained our regular communication with all the neighbouring ports on the continent, and through them with Europe at large?-that every week at least-in some cases, daily-London boats would be visiting Hamburgh, Holland, Belgium, the French coast, Lisbon, and Cadiz?-that steam-ships would have compassed, on one hand, the whole 10,000 miles of the route to India round the Cape of Good Hope, while overland advices, by help of the same marvellous agency, were travelling from London to Bombay in between forty and fifty days?—that, adding a bit of a rail-road between Cairo and Suez (eighty miles), and driving the dromedaries off the line (Porter, p. 55), people would be 'calculating' upon sending light goods from Bombay to Marseilles in thirty days?—and that, finally, the same dauntless 'triply-mailed' enterprise which has wrought all these wonders, more and more impatient of any limits to its range round the globe, more and more emboldened by its success, should rush forth at length on the broad Atlantic itself-reducing by one-half, at a single move, the long, long laborious distance which Columbus found, and which has ever since continued, between the Old World and the New? Returning homeward, in this island, where in 1812 we had but a single steam-boat-a small shabby concern called the Comet, running between Glasgow and Greenock-in 1836 there were 388. Mr. Porter estimates the whole number in the British empire at 500; but he does not take notice of Government steamers, and the general catalogue must have been largely increased since his tables were made out. The immense amount of duty' done by these craft-the vast share they have thus suddenly taken up of the commerce of the country is in a far greater ratio to that of other navigations than even these numbers indicate, for, while the latter is of necessity subject to great delays The effect of this achievement is by no means easily and long periods of idleness, it is of the very nature of to be described or foreseen. Even the Americans, the former never to lie still. It was testified, two with all their reputation as a self-possessed and conyears since, before a Committee of the House of Com-sidering people, have displayed unwonted raptures and mons, that more than a million of passengers, including those to and from Gravesend, passed Blackwall annually in steam-vessels; and it is a good illustration of one of the multifarious, social, and economical effects of the introduction of this grand invention, that probably ninety-nine hundredths of this multitude are induced to all this locomotion by the mere facility of it; the amount of the journeying by land, up and down the Thames, being meanwhile rather increased than lessened. The whole character of a nation may well be essentially affected by such an operation as this, going on at once, as it is, in every part of its domin antics on occasion of the first arrival of the Sirius and Great Western 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 their 'reckoning' when they speak of this as a new epoch in the history of the world. We can enter into the feeling 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 afforded some pretext for disbelieving the new scheme-some excuse for casting even ridicule on it after all), at length, on the which, we may say, is now barely beginning to be morning of St. George's Day, the doubts, the fears, the made, and that chiefly in a mere mercantile and immescorn, were alike destined to be removed for ever from diate view. This view itself, however, it must be althe mind of every living creature (even, we dare say-lowed-waiving for the present all farther projections but let us say it with due deference-from that of Dr. into futurity-is sufficiently exciting, especially to the Lardner himself): for now appears a long dim train of Americans, who in many respects have more to gain distant smoke, in a somewhat unaccustomed direc-by the new arrangement than ourselves. The intellition; it rises and lowers presently, 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 that beautiful harbour 'Against the wind, against the tide, gence from the Old World, for example, must of necessity be of more general, various, and lively interest to them, than that of the New World to us. The balance of resources, indeed, is immensely in our favour. Not only does America occupy the western hemisphero by herself, while all the other continents are pitched against her in ours, but on that side civilization has It was worth something to be a passenger in one of yet made so little progress, things are so literally new, these fortunate boats at this moment. We have be- that the 'United States of America' might with some fore us the journal kept by one of the favoured few on plausibility assume to be 'America' at large, according board the Great Western. From the time of crossing to the complimentary phraseology usual amongst us. the bar of the harbour, all her 'poles' were set aloft, The feeling with which we (unless on extraordinary and flags gaily streaming at each,—the foreign ensign occasions) watch for news from America is exceedingat the gaff, and at the fore a combination of the British ly different from that with which foreign tidings are and American,—and ‘at 3 P. M. (the narrative contin- awaited by the people of the United States, whose ues) we passed the narrows, opening the bay of New situation, nationally, in this respect, may be almost York, sails all furled, and the engines at their topmost compared with that of an individual exiled-as poor speed. The city reposed in the distance-scarcely Crusoe says, 'out of society's reach.' Of the interest discernible. As we proceeded, an exciting scene we have in them, iudeed, too much can hardly be said. awaited us: coming abreast of Bradlow's Island, we The great effort implied in this steam-achievement itwere saluted by the fort with twenty-six guns (the self, and the extraordinary sensation which the issue number of the States);—we were taking a festive glass of it has excited, sufficiently proclaim a just appreciaon deck. The health of the British Queen had just tion of the vast commercial importance, at least to us, been proposed the toast drunk-and, amid the cheers of the movement in question; and it could not be otherthat followed, the arm was just raised to consummate wise between two countries sustaining mercantile rethe naming, when the fort opened its fire. The effect lations-to say not a word of any other consideration— was electrical;-down came the colours, and a burst of a character so unprecedented and unrivalled. This of exultation arose, in the midst of which the Presi- appears clearly enough in Mr. Porter's memoir, which dent's health was proposed. The city now grew dis- we have not yet referred to, 'presented to the Statistitinct: masts, buildings, spires, trees, streets were dis- cal Section of the British Association for the Advancecerned; the wharfs appeared, black with myriads of ment of Science,' at their late Liverpool meeting. the population hurrying down, at the signal of the tele-Take our exports of manufactured goods, for example. graph, to every point of view. And then came shoals Few persons, probably, have an accurate understandof boats-the whole harbour covered with them;-and now the new-comer reaches the Sirius, lying at anchor in North River, gay with flowing streamers, and literally crammed with spectators-her decks, paddle-boxes, rigging, masthead high. We passed round her, giving and receiving three hearty cheers;-then turned towards the Battery. Here myriads again were collected;-boats crowded round us in countless confusion;-flags were flying, guns firing, and bells ringing. The vast multitude set up a shout-a long, enthusiastic cheer-echoed from point to point, and from boat to boat, till it seemed as though they never would have done.' So much for the first transports; we cannot doubt that time, experience, and reflection will confirm the general estimate of the importance of this achievement, ing of the extent with which 'America'-alias the United States-is our customer in this great department of our trade. Mr. Porter gives all the annual returns from 1805 to 1836, excepting only those for the years 1812 and 1813 (wartime, and therefore of less importance), the records of which were destroyed at the burning of the London Custom-house. The result is, that of our products in 1835, the United States took more than ten and a half millions out of a total of fortyseven millions; and in 1836, nearly twelve and a half out of fifty-three: so that the proportion of our export trade with this one party to our whole export trade was, in the former year, 22.31 per cent., and in the latter, 23.28. Over-trading there might be in this; there undoubtedly was; but that does not essentially affect the argument on the mercantile interest of the connexion between the two countries:-unfortunately, sterling. At this date we think it was calculated we it has greatly increased it during the last two years, though not in the most agreeable way to either party, we presume. were taking 13,000 bales weekly, or nearly 2000 daily, of this same experimental and contraband article; a third part of our whole exports, on the other hand, being meanwhile made of this material, in a variety of processes, employing or subsisting about one million of our population! Again, look at the importation of a single American article-their cotton, a matter indirectly as well as directly momentous to us from its effect in increasing the power of our customer to consume our products, as Of the vast and increasing interest of our ship-ownwell as in enabling us to produce them. Well might ers in the American trade, we need only say that in the world wonder at the appearance of a phenomenon 1836 our navigation entered the ports of the United so new in trade as the vast demand we have mentioned States to the amount of 547,606 tons, and that this for British manufactures in the market of a single amount was in the ratio of 43.62 per cent. to the Americommunity, one so comparatively unknown to them in can tonnage during the same time, while all other fothe same relations, so remote from ourselves, so much | reign navigation amounted to only 132,607 tons. There disposed and so well qualified, as one might be ex-is no fear then of our underrating the value of our comcused for surmising at first thought, rather to endeav-mercial connexion with such a country as this, or of our to rival us in some respects than to co-operate with our connexions with it of every other kind, as indirectus in any; and moreover, (comparatively again,) so ly tending to the same end. We have entered thus young, so small, and so poor,-well might other na- much into these statistics to show that we do not fortions, we say, wonder at this phenomenon, did not the get them when we say that, nevertheless, the Ameriexplanation of it appear in another-another wonder, can interest is on the whole vastly greater in us and indeed-yet certainly an explanation. History fur- the Old World than ours, on the whole, can be in them nishes no parallel to the case of the cotton-trade of the and the New; and that, therefore, their interest in the United States, as regards the iminense importance of establishment of Atlantic steam navigation is proporthat trade considered in connexion with the rapidity of tionately greater than ours. its progress. This is too familiar a subject to be dwelt on. We will only remind our readers, as Mr. Porter reminds us, that in 1791 the whole export from that country was less than 200,000 lbs.; and that 1787 was the earliest year in which any of their home growth seems to have been exported. It was but little before this date that the first or second congress concluded to lay a small duty on the importation of the foreign article (for it is well known the provinces had been in the habit of importing it, more or less, from the West Indies for a century previous to that time)-with the view of trying the experiment,' as the southern members expressed it, whether this plant might not be made to flourish, 'as some persons imagined,' on their own soil. Still, the five bags which constituted the-from China and the East Indies, and the 'King of whole export in 1785, and the six in 1786, would appear to have been of foreign growth. It was after this, if we rightly remember, that a few bags of American growth were seized at the Custom-house in Liverpool as not being what the master of the vessel pretended they were, so incredible was it that cotton should come from the United States! And now half a century has elapsed, and what do we see? The average annual importation of this article into Great Britain during the last ten years has exceeded two hundred and twenty-five millions of pounds, the value of which (Memoir, p. 7) cannot be less than seven and a half millions sterling per annum, while in 1836 the amount was above 289 millions, probably producing, at the average price of the season, more than ten millions On the other hand, though England is undoubtedly the most interesting of foreign countries to the Americans, in other points of view as well as in a mercantile, it is by no means so in a corresponding proportion. All Europe, all Christendom, exists from them. Even their commerce, with its characteristic energy, perseverance, and 'calculation,' had gone forth, like our own, into almost all lands, civilized or savage, ‘vexing,' as Mr. Burke said so long ago of the Nantucket whalemen, 'every sea with its keel.' But theirs is not a commercial interest alone. It is not mere silks, and wines, and fruits, and jewellery, and ivory, and tea, that the Americans watch for, from France, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain-from Egypt, the Ionian Isles, and Smyrna Muscat,' and his mightiness the Emperor 'Bob Jacket,' head chief of the Fandangoes, near the borders of their fast-spreading colonial setlements on the western African coast-in return for the produce of their seas and rivers, their forests and agriculture, their soap and tallow-candles, their snuff and tobacco, their pork, shingles, flour, flax-seed,* rice, and ice,†-and their *See the 'American Almanac' for 1837. The flaxseed exported in 1836 amounted to more than 450,000 dollars; snuff and tobacco, 360,000; soap and tallow-candles, half a million. These may be called trifling items separately, but the marvel is, to see what an aggregate is made out of such trifles. Under the head of manufactures, for instance, are 'combs and buttons, about 100,000 dollars, and manufactures of glass about 80,000.' It is notorious that great quantities of ice have been exported of late, particularly from Boston to Calcutta. |