As we ventured to anticipate some weeks ago, it is
now obvious that both the Castalia ' and the ' Bessemer ' will be too late, even if they succeed, to save any considerable num- ber of the tourists of the present season from the anguish of nausea,—the Castalia ' being still, we believe, in Dover Harbour, waiting for a rough day to try her powers, and the ' Bessemer ' being only just launched. The latter was launched on Thursday afternoon at Hull, and it is said that she will be able to go through the water at the rate of eighteen or twenty miles an hour, while Captain Dicey's Castello ' can only count with certainty on about twelve. The 'Bessemer' recognises the principle of caste, since it will only be to the passengers who pay for places in the balanced saloon that the motion of the waves will be so compensated as to secure them, it is hoped, from sea- sickness; while the passengers of lower caste, who cannot pay for that immunity, will afford to those who can, the additional satisfac- tion of apleasurable contrast. Captain Dicey'sineention, on the con- trary, if it succeeds, bestows whatever it bestows on all its passen,. gers alike, and is so in keeping with the spirit of a democratic age. England watches with impatience and almost dread the trial of experiments so essential to her travelling children's tranquillity of stomach, and consequently to their peace of mind. A failure in both cases would be a great blow.
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