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THE GREAT EASTEKX.
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OH EAT ION AND HKCIIEATION.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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the hands of the contractors . The Board sees the receipts , and that is the sole audit of this vast expenditure , and at . the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury . Mr . AYvxdiiam once described our officials as no more likely to appropriate the public money than to steal a diamond'snuff-box ; and , relying'oh such hioh-fetched integrity , Parliament votes the public money by millions into their keeping . Latterly , however , confidence has been so much abused—men in high stations have shown themselves so regardless even of oaths , so utterly indifferent as to promises , so devoid of that perfect frankness which encourages trust so ready to trim and to compromise—that the suspicion
will glance over the public mind that amongst some of the cashiers of the nation Pullingeus and -Redpaths may possibly be found . If this should ever happen , we shall probably . find that the national checks are as inefficient to guard against fraud as were those of the Union " Bank . Official men avowedly profess to deal with the public money at their discretion , and they are without control . Men who / from ignorance or wilful neglect , send troops to the Crimea without providing for their subsistence , men who waste millions year after year on building ships to rot or be pulled to pieces , and obstinately refuse to pay just wages for seamen ' s labour , may possibly have amongst . them . Pullingeus and Hedpatiis . For the honest appropriation of public money , the fancied high integrity of public men is no longer a sufficient
guarantee . If amongst them official etiquette , which has lately been so much insisted on , were not held more sacred than justice to the taxpayers , why did not the Chancellor of the Exchequer ( Sir G . C . Lewis ) and the Secretary of the Treasury ( Mr . Wilson ) , who went out of office in March , 1858 , and who must have been "familiar—01 % at least , ought to have been—with all the reasons which then made the renewal of Ci : xakd ' s contract highly unjust and grossly impolitic , both as regards Canada and all general principles , denounce the men who immediately on taking office renewed that contract ? Tliev still remained members of Parliament ,
though" not of the Government , and as such it was their duty to impeach—a proceeding by political opponents which the ' Committee has strongly reprobated . Of what good is ail Opposition if not to keep , the " Ministers right ? The . ignorance of ~ the Tory Secretary , Mr . G . A . Hamilton , could be no excuse for such a flagrant ' wrong . As the ex-officials did not take this honest course , they must permit us to say that their silence , and their not leaving full information , in their records for the new Secretary , looks very much like a collusion between the ins and
outs to have a pretext for perpetrating a gross job , Y \ c will here , having expressed this opinion , leave the matter to the judgment of the public , who cannot like to be cozened by boasting professions of a very unnatural high-minded ness in public men . We must remark , however , with reference to tM £ qucrter ^ M \ iHjhe--origfy " gentlemen interested in the West Indies" to carry mails , Sir Charles Wood , and the Seckijtaky of the . Treasury , who much extended the system , and who ought to—but did
notdenounce the wrong done by his successor—both biung great freetraders—are the persons most highly offended by Sir Chakles Tk-evelyan's breach of etiquette in denouncing ; extravagance and increase of taxation at Calcutta . Sir Ciiahlks was used in Europe by . his superiors to inform Mr . Inmax , on November U , 1859 , in the name of the Treasury , contrary to fact , that "the Board , ' when about to establish a new postal service , was in the practice of inviting tenders by public advertisements ; " and probably the breach of etiquette of which he lias now been guilty , ¦ ¦ nn < l at which other officials are so outrageously wroth , was of that species which proverbially leads to honest men recovering their own . ...
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rpHERE aro somo words in our noble English tongue which lnvft - " ¦ been singled out and sot aside for oho solo purpose , aim ! which look . strange if . used . aut of the . ordinary sense . Thus our fkst . word , " creation , " hns acquired beyond its true sense a partially holy signification , and , connected as it is with tlio Creator , so much bo that it seems almost profanity to use it in n inoro common ' sense . The old anecdote of tho quaker , who said that ho had vorily " created" his waistcoat , since ho ordered it "to bo inudo , and ifc-wiw made , ' Rinuuks of tins profanity , and unless used in cmsos whorp custom has taken away tho stinjy , such us in spunking 1 of tho creation of a peer ,, the erosions of an author , tho creation of a now poem , & « ., the word is so tightly confined to one mooning that wo hwo all the beauty of its use in others . So also wo lo » o llio bjauty of its anti-
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monstrosity to the sight-seers of the Old and New Worlds . That curiosity- satisfied , what can she bo employed for except to carry . an army to India , or run clown a French , fleet ? The story of the Great Eastern is a singularly , comprehensive tale of the ' strength and Aveakness of- man , 'his presumption and his power , his feebleness and his failure , his genius and his fortitude , his folly and his meanness . It is a tragedy and a comedy . We mourn over the lives the monster has cost , and the misery
it has spread . The tale of victims is a long one : the man of genius who imagined the mighty vessel , and fell a victim to his " devotion to tile task of realizing his great conception ; the gallant sailor who ¦ earned her safely through the difficulties which beset her infant fortunes ; and the rank and file of the great army of workers , whoso lives she demanded on the Thames and on the Dorset coast . Turn to the other side , and what food for laughter in the petty squabbles , the grand airs , the baits for constituencies , the noisy meetings of shareholders , and their grave charges of mismanagement or worse , all settled by a , Pickwickian interpretation .
The whole country took an interest in the fortunes of the Great Eastern . Every man assumed some credit to himself , as an Englishman , for her construction , and takes shame , proportioned to that pride , in her failures . We crowed too much over her . We hallooed before . we were out of the wood—calculated her achievements before she was launched—and , despite the warning then given , still thought her success a matter of certainty , until the explosion let out the secret of her many imperfections . The next ship we build of the same size , we shall make much less noise about , and build much better . Some time , however , will elapse before such a monster is again undertaken . The Great Eastern is a warning against attempting too gigantic strides—a significant hint to proceed by safe degrees , instead of
trying perilous flights . As two and two do not always make four , so it is quite unsafe to rely upon mere proportionate qualities in works of a magnitude-which lias never yet been essayed . Theory may prove clearly enough that such and such plates may be combined into a ship , and that engines of a certain power will drive it a certain speed , but whew those proportions vastly-exceed any of which the combination "is . yet known-to us , disturbing causes nrisi \ which nci ' one apprehended . _ Our shipbuilders will proceed ' more -moderately-. ' They have built ' v essels , of 4000 tons , which answer admirably ; they will go on .- to 5000 or 0000 tons ; and from-those starting points-, strong in the newexperiences there acquired , will go on until they .. quietly and safely build rivals of the Great Eastern .
the next Great Eastern will be built for work and not for show . She will be built by men who mean to make a ' profit out of her , and not by a company , which would have liked , 'indeed ,. to have made a profit , but subordinated business eonsiderations to the glory of their enterprise as a triumph of national ' skill and strength . Hero has been . the great shoal upon which the big ship has so often grounded . Her directors liavii forgotten in the interest shown by the country in . their
under-THE Great Eastern is announced to start on her lust voyage to-day , and this time there seems , a fair prospect that the promise of the announcement will be kept . " Onr own correspondents" have given in detail all the incidents of her fourth trial trip , and as during that twenty-four hours' exposure to wind and waves no material defect was discovered , we may venture to assume that the big ship will take her adventurous passengers across tho Atlantic in about the time which would be- occupied
by one of the Cunnrd ... vessels . More 1 him this nobody now hopes . The brilliant promises of a speed which -would put a girdle round the earth in some six months have all vanished , and with 'them tho hope thnt the ship will ever repay the immense sums expended upon her . The mirnelo of size , speed , and economical arrangement , upon which so many eloquent , prognostications of human progress hnve been based , has at present little claim to admiration beyond the tribute due to her gigantic proportions ; and her owners nppoar to base their hopes of recouping their outlay upon exhibiting her as a . specimen of
taking , that they were stewards whose paramount duty it was to obtain a profit for their shareholders , and have fancied themselves public functionaries charged with , a state ceremonial in which the best places wen ; at their disposal for their own friends , Premature as the construction of the Great Eastern was , -slw might probably have paid , because she would have cost muck less money and been much better built , if her directors had beeu mere , men ' of business , only believing in pounds , shillings , aiut
pence ; But after all is said of what might hnve been , that which now has the chief claim upon our attention . Here is the Great Eastern built and ready for sea , and our business would more fitly be Jo anticipate her future fortunes than recount her past mishaps . \\ V do not see a very brilliant prospect before her . As a show or « i transport she may remunerate her present proprietors , reme . inluu--ing that they have bought her at a low price , and'her experience on the Atlantic or on the , Indian Ocean may servo as a very useful lesson to our steam-ship builder .- * .
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June 16 , ¦ 1 . 860 . J The Leader and Saturday AnaiysL 563
The Great Eastekx.
THE GREAT KASTEKX .
Oh Eat Ion And Hkciieation.
OH EAT ION AND HEC'IIEATION .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 563, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2352/page/7/
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