o England, but her steam was only intended to be
auxiliary to her sailing power, for her boilers had only a pressure of 20
lbs. to the square inch. She sailed from New York on 28 Mar., 1819,
reached Savannah on 7 Ap., and anchored at Liverpool on 19 June; on her
return home her engines were taken out, and she was finally lost off Long
Island. In 1836 the Great Western Railway founded the Great Western
Steam Co., whose vessels were intended to run from Bristol in
co-operation with the railway, and the first ship built was the Great
Western, the largest steamer then afloat. She was 236 feet long and her
engines showed 750 indicated horse power, her registered tonnage being
1,300. She was intended to be the pioneer ship, and was ready for sea in
April, 1838; but competition was as keen then as now, and the St. Georges
Steam Packet Coy. started their s.s. Sirius, for the voyage to New York,
from London, on the 29th March. She had a tonnage of 700 tons, and her
engines were of 320 horse-power. She was elegantly fitted-up, and
started with 22 passengers, whose number was increased at Cork, and,
being intended solely for a passenger boat, carried no cargo. On going
down the Thames, she encountered her rival, the Great Western, which had
a pleasure party on board, and a trial of speed took place between the
two, resulting in favour of the Sirius. She sailed from Cork on 9th
April. The Great Western sailed from Bristol on the 12th April, and both
reached New York on the same day, the Sirius being first. The Great
Western made, in all, 64 passages between the two countries, her fastest
passage occupying 12 days, 7.5 hours. At the present writing, the record
voyage for an English steamer (the _Lucania_) is 5 days, 7 hours, 23
minutes.

The _Manchester Guardian_ of 14th April gives an account of a woman
living in that city, who for many years passed as a man, which has
occurred before, but the extraordinary part of this story is that she
_married another woman_.--"Subsequent inquiries confirm the truth of the
statements made in the _Guardian_ of Wednesday last, as to this singular
case. This woman man, who, for probably more than 25 years, has
succeeded in concealing her sex, and in pursuing a trade of more than
ordinarily masculine and hazardous description, with a degree of skill
and ability which has led to her establishment in a good business in this
town, bound herself apprentice, at the age of 16 or 17 years, to a