wers, so as under all circumstances to keep company with
a fleet, as not less important than speed and power as a steamer. The
best combination of these very different qualities, or that which will
upon the whole produce the most serviceable ship, is yet to be sought. I
think, also, that sufficient consideration has not yet been given to the
correction of that very grievous defect, the great uneasiness and
excessive rolling of all these vessels, from the low position of the
weights they carry. There is another object in connection with your
engine which I had constantly in view: I mean its adaptation in the
high-pressure form to our ships of war in general. It was my intention,
had I remained in office, to have fitted a frigate with one of your
high-pressure engines--not very high, however--with a view, if the
experiment answered, to the introduction of an occasional steam power in
all ships of the line. I believe you and I may probably differ as to the
amount of steam power it might be advisable to give such ships, and that
you would wish to steam the _Vanguard_ or the _Queen_ at the rate of ten
miles an hour. My wishes are much more humble, and I should be perfectly
satisfied with an amount of power sufficient to give steerage way under
all circumstances, to carry the ship into or out of action, and to
afford her some assistance in clearing off a lee-shore--something about
equivalent to five knots--an amount of power that might probably be
obtained, together with some fuel for occasional use, without
encroaching too much upon the stowage of the ship. I shall be extremely
glad if you can induce Lord Haddington to direct his attention to this
object."

Through the latter part of 1843 and the whole of 1844, Lord Dundonald
was chiefly occupied with the construction of the _Janus_, the
steam-frigate which was being built and fitted upon his plans. She was
shaped in accordance with his "lines," and in her were introduced both
his revolving engines and his improved boilers. "I have just returned
from Chatham," he wrote to a friend on the 6th of April, 1844, "where
everything regarding the _Janus_ is going on very well indeed. And I
have further good news to tell you. The Admiralty are so pleased with my
parabolic lines for ship-building that they have ordered a drawing to be
made immediately of a frigate of the first class, in order to have one
constructed." Hopeful that at last his long-cherished ideas would bring
benefit b