LORD DUNDONALD'S RETURN FROM AMERICA.--HIS ARGUMENTS FOR THE RELIEF OF
THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES AND THE WEST INDIA TRADE.--THE TRINIDAD
BITUMEN.--LORD DUNDONALD'S OTHER SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS AND VIEWS.
[1851-1853.]
The Earl of Dundonald's time of service as Admiral of the West Indian
and North American Stations expired in April, 1851. On the 31st of
December, 1850, Sir Francis Baring wrote to inform him that Sir George
Seymour had been appointed his successor. "It is with some regret,"
said Sir Francis, "that I have performed this duty, as it has been my
pleasure to have been in communication with you, and to feel that an
important command has been placed in the hands of an officer of your
lordship's high professional character and merits. You must permit me,
in making this announcement, to add my sincere thanks for the manner
in which you conducted the duties of your position, and particularly
for the valuable information you have communicated to the Board, and
the attention you have paid to the many points you had brought before
you."
On the 14th of May Lord Dundonald left Halifax, and he reached
Portsmouth in the beginning of June. During the next few years his
mind was much occupied with the further consideration of various
topics suggested by his observations and explorations on the other
side of the Atlantic. It will be enough to make brief allusion to the
most important of these.
Subjects of hearty regret to him, repeatedly brought under his notice
during his three years' stay in the North American and West Indian
waters, were the great depression of the British fisheries in the
neighbourhood of Newfoundland, and the yet greater depression of trade
consequent on the remission of slavery in the more southern colonies.
For both he sought to provide a remedy. He urged, as has already been
shown in the extracts from his journal, which was published, and
attracted much attention, in the summer of 1852, that special help
should be given to these colonies, not only by the removal of all
restrictions upon their commerce and manufactures, but by protective
enactments in their favour.
His reasons for this view, as regards the Newfoundland fisheries, in
which he thought not alone of the interests of the colonists, were set
forth by him in a letter addressed to the "Times," in August, 1852.
"Were not the question of maintaining our nurseries for seamen," he
there said, "more important than commercial considerations, I should
not venture, through your favour, to trespass on public attention
regarding the North American fisheries; but, perceiving that
impressions are likely to be made by writers, avoiding responsibility
for erroneous opinions by withholding their names, I feel it a duty
explicitly to state that it is not to the amount of fish caught and
cured, to the price at which it can be sold at home or abroad, or to
the number of persons employed in the fishery, but to their
nationality and vocation, to which I attach importance, in order that
our fisheries shall form hardy British seamen in oceanic vessels, like
those employed under the bounties paid by North America and France.
These being the considerations, the question is not whether it is
consistent with the enlightened theory of free trade to pay a premium
which shall transfer capital from the pockets of one class to those of
another, but whether it is wiser and more economical for the community
at large to uphold such nursery, or to maintain even a skeleton of
warlike establishments--perhaps to build, equip, and employ additional
ships of war, squadrons, or fleets, to watch, perchance to contend
with, power thus cheaply developed by rival nations. I ask whether the
bounty given to enable steam-packets to cross the ocean is more
consistent with free-trade principles than a bounty awarded to our
fisheries as a nursery for seamen. A colonial premium is indeed talked
of, and by those unacquainted with facts, who do not foresee its
operation, it may be deemed a substitute for a bounty by the parent
State; but I advisedly assert that such colonial premium would not
rear one disposable seaman for our naval service, and that even the
colonial fishermen would derive no commensurate advantage, such is the
impoverishing effect of the inveterate system of truck-dealing that
boat fishermen, even from the harbour of the capital of Newfoundland,
are chiefly paid by daily wages; the advantages derived from the
employment of two half-idle fishermen being greater to the
truckmaster, in the absence of an available market, than the like
amount of fish caught by one customer. It is manifest, by the true
theory of free trade, that it is unimportant whether the French and
Americans obtain their bait and catch fish within our limits or not,
or even whether the world is supplied by them or by us; but it is not
so if foreign nations thereby rear, employ, and maintain in time of
peace fifty thousand seamen, who, in the event of war, are at the beck
of their respective Governments, while Britain, the rightful owner,
has not one available seaman from the fisheries. On subjects of such
vital importance it is essential that general theories, however good,
shall not be supported in detail by false reasoning, or by captivating
appellations inconsistent with truth. Nine-tenths of our western
colonies are still taxed on every article of food, and on all existing
property, animate and inanimate; a state of things alike adverse to
production and trade. Is it reasonable to imagine, if the interests of
colonists are not considered jointly with those of the parent State,
that they can continue to administer to our wants, comforts, and
luxuries--above all, to our commercial nursery for seamen, the source
of our national greatness? A Parliamentary investigation is
indispensable to afford a chance of escape to these noble possessions
of the Crown from impending ruin."
For the relief of the West Indian colonies Lord Dundonald was also
anxious to obtain the intervention of Parliament; but he believed that
he had himself discovered one source of possible advancement for them.
His remarks concerning the pitch lake of Trinidad have already been
partly quoted. Having first explored that lake in the beginning of
1849, he at once recognized the importance of its stores of bitumen,
and much of his leisure from official duties was employed in
observations and experiments with a view to its being utilized. He was
soon convinced as to its great and various importance. The decomposed
bitumen that lay in vast beds around the lake he found exceedingly
valuable as a manure; and he perceived that the liquid mass, of which
boundless supplies might be obtained, could be put to many very
valuable uses. Here he discerned the presence of a new material of
commerce which might prove of incalculable benefit not only to
Trinidad but also to all the other West India Islands; therefore he
urged its employment, and, though but little heed was paid to his
advice, the successful results of the few cases in which it was
adopted fully justified his opinions.
After his return to England he also sought zealously to make his
discovery beneficial to himself. He was to a great extent baffled by
the obstacles common to new projects; but his projects afford curious
illustration of the activity of his mind and the fertility of his
inventive powers. "Used as a mastic," he said in a concise enumeration
of the uses to which he found that the bitumen might be put, "it is
peculiarly suited to unite and ensure the durability of hydraulic
works. It renders the foundations and superstructure of buildings
impermeable to humidity. It is admirably adapted, by its resistance to
decomposition by the most powerful solvents, to the construction of
sewers, and, being tasteless, it is an excellent coating to
water-pipes, aqueducts, and reservoirs. When masticated and prepared,
it is a substitute for costly gums as applied to numerous purposes.
Combined with a small portion of ligneous matter, it constitutes a
fuel of greater evaporating power than coal, and, when pulverized and
scattered over growing potato-plants or other vegetables, it prevents
their destruction by insects or blight, and acts also as a fertiliser
of the soil. Essential and viscid oils are obtained by various
well-known processes from bituminous substances, but from none in such
abundance and possessing such valuable properties as the oils
extracted from the bitumen of the lake of Trinidad, as well as from
the petroleum of springs still in activity."[23]
[23] The following patents, for the use of the Trinidad bitumen, were
taken out by Lord Dundonald:--1851. "Improvements in the construction
and manufacture of sewers, drains, waterways, pipes, reservoirs, and
receptacles for liquids or solids, and for the making of columns,
pillars, capitals, pedestals, bases, and other useful and ornamental
objects, from a substance never heretofore employed for such
manufactures."--1852. "Improvements in coating and insulating
wire."--1852. "Improving bituminous substances, thereby rendering them
available for purposes to which they never heretofore have been
successfully applied."--1853. "Improvements in producing compositions
or combinations of bituminous, resinous, and gummy matters, and thereby
obtaining products useful in the arts and manufactures."--1853.
"Improvements in apparatus for laying pipes in the earth, and in the
juncture of such pipes."
The "Observations on the long-desired, yet still unaccomplished
proceeding, whereby to effect the embankment of the Thames and free
the river from pollution," by the Earl of Dundonald, are especially
interesting at the present time:--"It will probably be admitted that
the Thames above bridge is unnecessarily broad, unless considered as a
recipient for back-water; and that the long margin of shallow water
between London Bridge and that of Vauxhall is of little importance,
even for that purpose, as gravel, sand, and other substances, may
advantageously be removed from the central bed of the river, fully to
compensate for the water that would be excluded by an embankment of
one-sixth on both sides of the channel.
"An easy method of accomplishing this object would be to cut a ditch
on each shore, equidistant from the centre, and fill it with
bituminous concrete, as the foundation of a parapet or wharf to be
formed of similar materials. Within this a main sewer might be
excavated, and constructed in like manner of conglomerated gravel and
sand from the spot.
"It will of course occur that, although roads may be carried over the
entrances of the various docks by swing-bridges, yet these entrances
present obstacles to a direct line of sewers.
"To enable this difficulty to be overcome, very solid tunnels, floored
with hard pavement stones, set in bitumen, may be caused to descend in
subverted curves below the entrances of the docks, whence all matters
deposited may occasionally be removed by see-saw locomotive dredges on
wheels, worked either by mechanical power, or by the current acting
directly on the dredge."
While thus urging the importance of bitumen, and initiating many
mechanical operations which have quickly and extensively been turned
to the great advantage of society, Lord Dundonald was not unmindful of
his older inventions and the arguments by which he had long sought to
promote the naval strength of England. Of these inventions one in
particular--that of his improved steam-boilers--had been largely
adopted, and found highly beneficial during his absence from England,
and its use continued after his return. From them he hoped, and not in
vain, that good would result to the general extension of naval
science. He was cheered during the last years of his life by seeing
the adoption of many of the views on these matters which he had
advocated long before. Others have yet to be enforced.