But the studies of the members of this college are, however, but begun, when the term which marks their apprenticeship has expired. Naval architecture is a jealous mistress, and requires the undivided man. Not the devotion of a few years, but of a life, conse crated to its pursuit. Year after year, with unwearied zeal, must be devoted to its interests; and the cordial and uninterrupted pursuit of its varied details, must meet with that reward which attends industrious la bourers in other departments of the arts.
It has been objected, however, to this institution, that its establishment has a tendency to check those honest and praiseworthy exertions which many among the great mass of the operative shipwrights in the dock-yards were formerly stimulated to make, by the hope of filling those situations which are to be now occupied by the members of the college. But to this it may be replied, that the Admiralty and Navy Board, with a wise and proper forethought, have by no means closed the avenues of promotion to this useful and de serving class of men. Very recently, indeed, we have seen an example of an operative promoted to the rank of a foreman, and a draughtsman of the old institution of things promoted to a similar situation. And this is just as it should be. Among the many operatives which a dockyard presents, there must be some few at least deserving of a better fate, than to spend the long term of their lives in a perpetual state of unceasing labour—some, too, though working at first as humble shipwrights, yet deserving from their talents to rise to command. The great object in a well-regulated community, is to encourage ability wherever it appears; and we are persuaded that the welfare of the country will be essentially promoted by fostering native talent wherever it appears.
The objections, however, that are sometimes raised against the College of Naval Architecture, that science is unnecessary to a shipbuilder, and that time is mis spent in cultivating mechanics, hydrostatics, and flux ions, are too ridiculous to merit a serious refutation in this place; and they are only alluded to, that the future historian of naval architecture, when tracing the effects and influence of the establishment of the college, may class it among the anomalies which dis tinguished its history. To suppose for a moment, that in a fabric so massy and stupendous as a ship, destined for all the terrible purposes of war, or to bring to us, from the most distant regions of the globe, cargoes of the most bulky and unmanageable which in its progress has to cross wide and immea surable seas, agitated at times by the unbridled fury of the wind,—that no science is necessary in her con struction, is to imagine an anomaly of the most mon strous kind. Science is the basis of every well-ordered machine. Science was the groundwork of all that Watt, Smeaton, or Wren ever achieved; and can sci ence be unnecessary in the formation of a ship? Sci ence indeed has hitherto been too much neglected in our dock-yards. We have trod long enough in the blind and uncertain steps of our forefathers; and the establishment of the College of Naval Architecture must be numbered among one of the most fortunate events of the age; and, though notfound in the ranks of its members, we look to it with pride and satisfaction.
In concluding these introductory observations, we would remark, that naval architecture is in so peculiar a degree a national art, that we could wish to see a society formed for its particular cultivation. There are so many advantages to be derived from the co operation of numbers in the prosecution of scientific pursuits—advantages first pointed out by thc prophet ic mind of Lord Bacon, and which the experience of the last two centuries has so abundantly confirmed, that it seems wonderful no attempt has been made to organize a society on a great and permanent scale for the improvement of shipbuilding. And Mr. Harvey has remarked, in the Journal of the Royal institution, " that there is perhaps no subject which requires more essentially the aid and co-operation of numbers than naval architecture; involving as it does so exten sive a field for inquiry, and so beset, as all its elements are, with difficulties of so peculiar and intricate a kind. At the present moment also, there is a spirit of inquiry abroad respecting shipbuilding, which no antecedent period ever exhibited, and which, if taken at the flood, and before the causes that have awakened it subside, must produce consequences of a very im portant kind. What therefore seems to be wanting," continues Mr. Harvey, " is a sort of focus, or common point of union, to rally the disjointed and insulated speculations now afloat respecting it, and to concen trate the efforts of those who feel interested in its ad vancement. This might be most readily and effectu ally done, by instituting a society, the object of which should be, to encourage theoretical and experimental inquiries connected with naval architecture; and to publish from time to time in its transactions, such papers of approved merit as might be laid before it at its meetings." The hint contained in this quotation is too import ant to be forgotten; and we earnestly hope to see it perfectly realized at no very distant time. We have seen, in the cases of the Astronomical and Geological Societies of London, how much their formation has contributed to quicken the cultivation of the interest ing objects for which they were instituted; how by the one the astronomer has been stimulated to watch the celestial concave with greater earnestness and zeal; and how the other has tended to unfold, by gra dual and successive steps, the nature and constitution of the crust of this lower world. Now why, we would ask, could not the same objects be attained for naval architecture: If the union of numbers has quickened geological, and added to the splendour of astronomi cal science, why should not an association of men, de voted to the theoretical and practical cultivation of shipbuilding, produce similar effects? The single sub ject of the resistance of fluids requires it alone; and when we see the magnitude of the obstacles that im pede the march of the great national art we allude to, we earnestly hope that no endeavours will be wanting to surmount them.