of conditions to every rank of life.

The importance of steam navigation has been still more recently
ascertained. When it was first proposed, Sir Joseph Banks, President
of the Royal Society, said: "It is a pretty plan, but there is just
one point overlooked: that the steam-engine requires a firm basis on
which to work." Symington, the practical mechanic, put this theory to
the test by his successful experiments, first on Dalswinton Lake, and
then on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Fulton and Bell afterwards showed
the power of steamboats in navigating the rivers of America and Britain.

After various experiments, it was proposed to unite England and America
by steam. Dr. Lardner, however, delivered a lecture before the Royal
Institution in 1838, "proving" that steamers could never cross the
Atlantic, because they could not carry sufficient coal to raise steam
enough during the voyage. But this theory was also tested by
experience in the same year, when the Sirius, of London, left Cork for
New York, and made the passage in nineteen days. Four days after the
departure of the Sirius, the Great Western left Bristol for New York,
and made the passage in thirteen days five hours.[1] The problem was
solved; and great ocean steamers have ever since passed in continuous
streams between the shores of England and America.

In an age of progress, one invention merely paves the way for another.
The first steamers were impelled by means of paddle wheels; but these
are now almost entirely superseded by the screw. And this, too, is an
invention almost of yesterday. It was only in 1840 that the Archimedes
was fitted as a screw yacht.

A few years later, in 1845, the Great Britain, propelled by the screw,
left Liverpool for New York, and made the voyage in fourteen days. The
screw is now invariably adopted in all long ocean voyages.

It is curious to look back, and observe the small beginnings of
maritime navigation. As regards this country, though its institutions
are old, modern England is still young. As respects its mechanical and
scientific achievements, it is the youngest of all countries. Watt's
steam engine was the beginning of our manufacturing supremacy; and
since its adoption, inventions and discoveries in Art and Science,
within the last hundred years, have succeeded each other with
extraordinary rapidity. In 1814 there was only one steam vessel in
Scotland; while England possessed none at all. Now, the Briti