LETTER XI.

VOYAGE UP THE HUDSON-STEAM BOATS-FULTON-HOBOKENGREENWICH-HAERLEM CREEK-THE PALISADES-TAPPAAN BAY-SLOOPS-VERPLANK'S POINT-HIGHLANDS-FORT PUT

NAM-MILITARY ACADEMY-KAATSKILL MOUNTAINS-ALBANY -JEALOUSY OF LARGE TOWNS-GREAT CANALS-FEUDAL

SYSTEM-MOHAWK RIVER-COHOES FALL-CHURCHES.

Albany, October, 1818.

I HAVE now made two passages in a steam boat on the Hudson; the river in which this system of navigation was first successfully attempted. Of this honour we cannot deprive America, and it were unmanly and ungenerous to attempt it. Americans are very far from pretending that Fulton was the first projector of steam vessels, but they are entitled to maintain that he was the first who succeeded in bringing them into operation; and there can be little doubt that in doing so, he very materially improved on the plans which others had proposed.1

"The merit of a great original conception cannot be denied, but the talent of its possessor is frequently eclipsed by the improvements it afterwards undergoes, and the splendid combinations in which it is involved. The Marquis of Worcester seems to have had the first crude notion of a steam engine-Newcomen constructed one, but the name of Watt is immortalized in the history

We can state with truth that experiments were made on the Forth and Clyde Canal many years ago to ascertain the practicability of what has now succeeded; and although it is said that the attempt was abandoned solely in consequence of the injury which was done to the banks, by the violent agitation of the water, yet it is not probable that the result was in other respects very encouraging, for had it been so, there was sagacity enough in our countrymen to have transferred the system to river navigation.

Fulton' was indebted for his ultimate success to the efficient aid of the late Mr. Livingstone, Chancellor of the State of New York, who supplied the funds for his experiments. Mr. Livingstone's friends were at first inclined to censure what they esteemed his temerity in embarking in so vapouring a scheme, but a few months wrought a wonderful change in their opinions, and his family is now reaping the rich fruits of his enterprize. The only legislative encouragement which the projectors received, was an exclusive right for a term of years, of navigating steam vessels in the

of the arts as the efficient author of the invention. The applica tion of steam to the propelling of boats is not a new idea; nay, experiments were long since instituted to prove its efficiency. The bright and ample honour of our Fulton, is, that he succeeded where others failed, and that he carried into execution what others had abandoned as impracticable and senseless," North American Review, No. XXXIV. p. 242.

waters of the State of New York.2 This was however a prodigious monopoly, for it includes the navigation of the Hudson, Lake George, Lake Champlain, the lower part of Lake Erie, the American side of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, Long Island Sound, and the bay of New York. Large sums have been paid to the Company by various individuals for liberty to navigate different portions of these waters.

The steam boats on the Hudson are much larger than any which we have seen at home, and in many respects very different in their construction. I have sailed in one which contains upwards of 120 permanent sleeping births, and these are frequently inadequate to the accommodation of the passengers.3

• This monopoly was for a time silently acquiesced in by the neighbouring States, but of late they have begun to manifest great discontent that New York should send shoals of steam boats into their harbours, while their steam vessels are not allowed to enter those of New York; and as a retaliatory measure the States of New Jersey and Connecticut have interdicted New York steam boats from approaching their shores. Lawyers of great eminence have given it as their opinion that the power which has been assumed in granting this monopoly, is completely inconsistent with the Federal Constitution, and the question is now awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court at Washington. (1822.)

3 The vessel here alluded to is the Chancellor Livingstone, which was the largest and finest steam vessel in the United States, while I was there. Through the kindness of a friend in New York, and another in Greenock, I am enabled to subjoin an accurate statement of the Chancellor Livingstone's dimensions, power of engine, rate of sailing, and cost, as contrasted with those of the

The distance from New York to Albany is reckoned at 160 miles, and the fare including

Majestic, the largest of the steam packets which ply between Greenock and Liverpool. The American Vessel was built in New York, and her engine made at Fulton's works at Powle's Hook; the British one was built by Mr. Scott of Greenock, and Mr. Napier of Glasgow furnished the engines.

three meals is seven dollars, or thirty-one shillings and sixpence sterling. An additional dollar how

It will be observed from the above statement, that the cylinder of the Chancellor Livingstone's engine is exactly of the same diameter with that of each of the two in the Majestic, yet the power of the American engine is rated at 75 horses, and the others at 50; this is accounted for by the longer stroke of the piston in the American engine. The machinery of the Chancellor Livingstone rises 4 feet, and the top of the piston 15 feet, above the deck. In the Majestic the machinery and piston are all under the deck. This arrangement, which is universal in the American steam boats, gives a longer stroke to the piston, and the increased power enables them to enlarge the diameter of the paddle wheels; it however raises the centre of gravity so much, that it seems at first sight scarcely capable of application to vessels which go to sea, and carry sails, which none of the American boats did when I was there. Since my return however, a steam ship has been established between New York and New Orleans, and a steam brig between New York and Norfolk, which are rigged with schooner sails, and in both, as the cuts in the newspapers indicate, the machinery and piston rise considerably above the deck. The Majestic has three masts, with schooner sails, and spreads when in full sail 3000 yards of canvass. Her shortest passage from Liverpool, a distance of 245 miles, was performed in 19 hours, exclusive of stoppages, which is at the rate of rather more than 12 knots an hour, and she once ran from the Craig of Ailsa to Greenock, a distance of 60 miles, in 3 hours and 40 minutes, which exceeds 15 knots an hour. The Chancellor