the present Chancellor of the University of Oxford will not be on the list of its perjured betrayers. But, we have heard it said, that, admitting the truth of our allegations, it is for the interest of religion to cloak the offences of its ministers, and the terms, perjured violators of their trust,' &c., though appropriate to the offence, and not unsuitable to ordinary offenders, are, at the best, harsh and unseemly when applied to a class of dignified divines. To this, we answer:— In the first place, these, the severest epithets we use, are those of the statutes themselves, which confer on the heads of houses a public authority to abuse; and are by them prospectively affixed to the very lowest degree of that abuse, of which we have been obliged to characterise the very highest. The statutes apply them to the only breach of trust which the legislature contemplated as possible, the less careful enforcement of some unessential enactment; we, to the deliberate and interested frustration of every fundamental law. fundamental law. In fact, if the thing is to be said at all, unless Oaths are but words, and words but wind,' it can be said in no other, in no milder terms. In the second place, it is blasphemous to hold that religion is to be promoted by veiling the vices of its ministers; and foolish not to see that these vices are directly fostered by concealment and toleration. In the third place, so far is the sacred profession of the offenders from claiming for them a more lenient handling of their offence, it imperiously calls down upon their heads only a severer castigation. The holier the character of the criminal, the more heinous the aggravation of the crime. The lesion of moral and religious principle in the delinquent himself, and the baneful influence of his example on society, are in the present instance carried to their climax by the very circumstance that the per'jured violators of their trust' had clothed themselves with the character of religious teachers; and in virtue of that character alone were enabled to manifest to the world a detestable proof of how diametrically opposite might be the practice and the precept of a priesthood. It is not that one man forswears himself in a smock frock, another in a cassock and lawn sleeves-it is not that an illiterate layman commits in ignorance a single act, and a graduated churchman perpetrates half a lifetime of perjury, with full consciousness of the transgression and its atrocity-it is not that the former gains a dinner and contempt, by cheating government of a few pounds, the latter wealth and consideration by violating his public trust, and defrauding the church, the professions, the country, of their education-it is not that the one offender may grace the pillory, the other the pulpit and the House of Peers; these are not surely circumstances that can reverse the real magnitude of the two crimes, either in the estimation of God, or in the eyes of reasonable men. Why, then, repress the moral indignation that such delinquency arouses? Why stifle the expression in which that indignation clothes itself? But though there be no call for such restraint we have imposed it. We have spoken plainly, as in duty bound, but without exaggeration as without reserve. Dicenda pictis res phaleris sine, Et absque palpo. Discite strenuum Non est meum descendere ad oscula Aut nimias acuisse laudeis.' Nor do we hazard our imputations, if unfounded, with impunity. We do not venture an attack, either agreeable in itself, or where defeat would be only fatal to the defender. We deeply feel that the accusations of a betrayal of trust, self-seeking, and perjury, to whomsoever applied, are of the most odious complexion; and that the accuser, if he fail in establishing his proof, receives, and ought to receive, from public indignation, an almost equal measure of disgrace with that reserved for the accused, if unable to repel the charge. But when this charge is preferred against a body of men, the presumption of whose integrity is founded on their sacred character as clergymen, on their hallowed obligations as the guides, patterns, instructors of youth, and on their elevated station as administrators of the once most venerable school of religion, literature and science in the world; what must be our conviction of its importance, of its truth and evidence, when we have not been deterred from the painful duty of such an accusation, by the dread of so tremendous a recoil! And in reference to the actual Heads, it is now nearly four years since we first exposed the fact and the illegality of the present suspension of the University, with the treason and perjury through which that suspension was effected, and is maintained. In our exposition we were, however, anxious to spare, as far as possible, the living guardians of the University and its laws, and to attribute rather to an extreme, an incredible, ignorance of their duty, what would otherwise resolve into a conscious outrage of the most sacred obligations. But since that period The Heads can the benefit of this excuse has been withdrawn. not invalidate the truth of our statements or the necessity of our inferences; they have, therefore, in continuing knowingly, and without necessity, to hold on their former lawless course, overtly renounced the plea of ignorance and bona fides, and thus authorized every executioner of public justice to stamp the mark, wherewith the laws, by which they are constituted and under which they act, decree them to be branded. ART. X.-Report from the Select Committee of the House of TH HREE routes have been proposed for communicating with India by means of steam-packets: the first, by the cape of Good Hope; the second, by the Mediterranean, Egypt, and the Red Sea; the third, by the Mediterranean, Syria, the river Euphrates, and the Persian Gulf. These three routes have each their advantages and disadvantages, physical, political, and commercial. To examine these was the main purpose of the enquiry before us; and to the extent of this purpose, the information obtained is as complete and comprehensive, as, in the present state of experience, it well can be. There is a fourth branch of the enquiry-the mechanical-the means, in respect of vessels and engines, by which the object in view is to be accomplished. On this branch, we wish that the enquiry had been carried further; that is to say, (for the enquiry is, as far as the questions go, sufficiently comprehensive,) that a greater number of practical witnesses had been examined, to some points on which there is a remarkable diversity of opinion. There is, finally, a fifth branch,-the financial-what the establishment is to cost, and who is to pay for it; on which there is also a great diversity of opinion, ranging between an immense dead charge on the one hand, and a most captivating profit on the other. The route by the cape of Good Hope has been the subject of one experiment, the voyage of the Enterprise in 1825. The course of the Enterprise was within sight of cape Finisterre, between the Canary islands, inside the Cape de Verde islands, and about a hundred miles from the Cape Verde; eastward, to the island of St Thomas, in the bight of Benin; directly southward, to latitude seventeen degrees thirty minutes south, longitude, seven degrees, forty-five minutes east; thence to the cape of Good Hope; thence to the eastward of Madagascar; then northward, to near the Seychelles; eastward, to the north of Pona Moluba; then to the Andaman islands and Diamond harbour. * The time of the voyage was, in all, 113 days; the average voyage of a sailing vessel is 120 to 130 days to Calcutta. The Betsey from Bourdeaux, which sailed at the same time, accomplished the voyage in three days less than the Enterprise; and other sailing vessels have, on other occasions, done it in much less time. The East India Company's ship, Marquis of Wellington, Captain Alfred Chapman, to Calcutta, passed the Lizard Point on the 10th of June, and saw Point Palmyras on the 30th of August, 1829, being eighty-one days from point to point. This was in a more favourable season than that in which the voyage was made by the Enterprise, and is the most expeditious voyage on record. But we are inclined to think that a sailing vessel, running with the trade winds and the monsoons, must always outrun a steam-vessel in the entire passage; the unavoidable relays and the possible accidents of the latter being considered. The Enterprise had no relay of coals but at the cape. Captain Johnston, her commander, thought the voyage might be accomplished by steam on an average of eighty-days, with numerous depôts of coals in different directions, so that they should be available in all circumstances of wind; that if a steam-vessel could not conveniently approach one, she might bear up for another. The most sanguine advocates for this line of steam-navigation, do not anticipate the probability of accomplishing the object in less than seventy days; but, be the time what it may, still it seems highly probable that half the distance can be done in half the time. *The Enterprise left the land on the 16th of August, 1825, reached Calcutta on the 7th December, 1825, that was 113 days (of which she was 103 actually under weigh) from the land to Diamond harbour: she • used both sail and steam. The greatest run by sail in twenty-four hours, was 211 miles; the least, 39: the greatest by steam, assisted by sail, 225 miles; the least, 80: the greatest heat in the engine room during the voyage, was 105 degrees; the air, at the same time, being 34 degrees and a half: the total distance was 13,700 miles; and the consumption 580 chaldrons of coals, being nine chaldrons per day for sixty-four days, the rest being under sail: the engines were 120 horse " power; the speed of the engines, in calm weather, was eight knots an hour, the log giving nine from the wash of the paddles.'-Minutes of Evidence, page 1. The most direct run which a steamer could possibly make to Bombay, would be 10,700 miles: the actual run of a sailing vessel is seldom less than 14,000, and is sometimes very nearly 17,000 miles. But some deviations there must be; and, if we reduce the distance for a steamer to 12,000 miles, we presume it will be as much as we can reasonably do in the present state of our experience. A nearly direct course from England to the cape of Good Hope is through the Canary Islands, and by the islands of Ascension and St Helena; but St Helena lies in the direct line of the southeast trade wind, and is therefore only taken by homeward bound vessels. Outward bound vessels usually stand away towards South America, and cross the line between twenty and twentyfour degrees west longitude; but the best course for a steamer would be under the coast of Africa, where she would have the advantage of calms, and land and sea breezes. There are, however, many experienced men, who think that the south-east trade wind would not present a formidable obstacle to a powerful steamer, and would take the direct line, by St Helena, for the outward voyage. Against the monsoons, (the S. W. at any rate,) we think it impossible that steam-vessels could make the Cape passage at all. If they could stem them, which we doubt, the wear and tear, and the intervals between the relays would be too great. It has been proposed to have sailing vessels fitted with small steam-engines, for the purpose, especially, of working across the calms and variable winds of the Line. There are many objections to this mode of fitting small engines in large vessels. They would occupy some and disarrange much more of valuable space. They would be altogether inefficient, excepting in calms. The slightest press of air, on a ship with all sails spread, at once outstrips the speed of such engines, and a very slight adverse breeze renders them powerless. The same object would be much better attained, by having a few steam tug vessels of great power stationed between the tropics to tow ships across the calms. With respect to the expense of this route, it must obviously require great power and ample tonnage. The greater portion of the tonnage must be occupied by the machinery and fuel. Add to these the provisions, water, and stores for the crew, and little will be left for passengers, nothing for cargo. We have here at once the elements of a great charge, and a small return. The route of the Cape is clearly the route for sailing vessels with large cargoes of merchandise, but for letters and passengers, which can be conveyed over 200 or 300 miles of land, without any difficulty, or without any inconvenience but the change of conveyance, or VOL. LX. NO. CXXII. 2 F |