The Express.
London, England, 1863-04-14 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 14, 1863.

over she sailed from Bermuda to the Son* Pacific I
station, to which her Commodore was appointed,
and after remaining some time at Sydney, she sailed
on the let of February for New Zealand. Those
islands, though not deficient in good anchorages,
are remarkable for the dangerous approach from
the sea to their principal settlements. The coasts
have been most carefully surveyed, it is true, and
the surveys show that the sites of the settlements
were not always very happily selected from a sea-
man's point of view. On the coast where the
Orpheus has met her fate there is • lee shore in
the prevailing winds, and the harbours have
shifting bars of sand. Nothing can be more un-
satisfactory at the best of times than • bar
harbour ; but a harbour on a coast exposed to
tremendous gales, and with a bar that from one
gale to another may be shortened a fathom in
depth, or shifted out of the bearings on the chart
altogether, is a danger beyond calculation, and that
may defy the utmost skill and prudence. The Menu-
ken Bar, on w hich the Orpheus was lost, is one of the
worst of the kind. Siam it was surveyed by Captain
Danny the middle channel has shifted to the
northward, so that the fair way laid down on the
Admiralty charts is become • spit of sand, and
on this very spit the Orpheus, moat carefully
handled, and steered accurately by the Ad-
miralty directions, with a strong leading
wind and fine weather, and with the signal,
" Take the Bar," flying from the pilot-
station, strikes as if by deliberation and design.
The Orpheus, it appears, after a fine
and rapid pomp from Sydney, made the Menu-
kau Bar, eight miles distant, about 1 p.m. on
February 9. It was high water over the bar at
12.30. The course by chart, E. and then N.E.E.,
the wind blowing strong from S.W. to S.S.W., the
ship under all plain sail ; and keeping a very sharp
look out. It was therefore on the first of the ebb,
and going almost before the wind, that the ship
first struck slightly in the after-part at about
1.30. The Commodore instantly ordered full steam
to be put on, to drive her over the bar into deep
water. But ten minutes later she struck forward,
and then when the order was given, " Astern
" full speed," it was found that neither her
engines nor screw would move, and she became
unmanageable, broaching-to in the trough of •
heavy rolling sea. Nothing that perfect self-com-
mand and discipline could do to relieve or save
the ship we omitted; but the ebb was making'
fast, evening coming on, the wind and sea in-
creasing, the ship striking more heavily every
moment, and literally tearing herself to piece'.
The sequel is a melancholy but an inspiring record
of the heroic virtue of English seamen. Commo-
dore Bomar ordered the boats away ; the pinnace
and the cutter with the ship's papers ; the launch
filled and went down with from 80 to 80 officers
and men ; others were swept from the rigging into
the surf, and among these the Commodore, the
Commander, the First Lieutenant, and the Muter.
Next morning at daylight] nothing could be seen
of the ill-fated Orpheus but a stump of one mast
and a few ribs.

Now the public grief impatiently asks who or
what is to blame for this terrible catastrophe
" Take the bar," was the signal flying from the
Pilot station. The ship was seen waiting off the bar
some hours before; no pilot went out to take charge
of her ; she was signalled to come in according to
the chart, when it must have been known at the
Pilot station that the bar marked in the chart had
shifted, and that there was actually a spit of sand
over the fair way which the ship would take.
Was Commodore 131711NNIT imprudent in taking
his ship over the bar, without a pilot on
board, with a strong leading wind, and on the first
of the ebb t He had his Admiralty chart to steer
by, and the signal to "take the bar" before his
eyes. Under what conditions could he have craned
the bar or approached it with lees apparent
risk t What seems lamentable is that there
was no coed pilot in readiness to take charge
of her limarrr's ship when she appeared in
the offing ; and thatorlule twenty-two miles away
anotter of her Museum's ships was lying utterly
unconscious of the disaster, and a Colonial steamer
unemployed, neither was signalled or sent
for until the Orpheus bad gone to pieces. The
steamer that saved a portion of the
ship's company, might, it should seem,
have saved the ship herself if she had
boarded the Orpheus in the morning, and put a
pilot on board. No doubt every aid was ren-
dered and every effort made—too late. It is
easy after the event to suggest what might have
been done. Still, whether it be ignorance or the
mweasonahle impales= of grief, we cannot, on a
calm review of these melancholy circumstances,
conclude that the has of the Orpheus was a
calami.y beyond human prevention or control.

DEATH OF THE RIGHT HON. SIR
QEORGE CORNWALL LEWIS.

It is with deep regret that we ainiounee the death
of the Secretary of State for War, the Right Hon.
Sir G. C. Lewis, Bart., M.P. The melancholy
news reached the War Department this (Tuesday)
morning, and, as may be conceived, cast a gloom
over that department of the government. The re-
spected baronet died yesterday afternoon at Harp-
ton Court, his seat in Radnorshire.

The lamented baronet was the eldest son of the
Right Hon. Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis, Bart,
of Harpton Court, Radnorshire, by Harriet, fourth
daughter of Sir George Cornwall, Bart. He was
born in 1808, and was educated at Eton,
and subsequently proceeded to Christ Church,
Oxford, at which University he took high
honours, being let clam in classics, and 2nd
class in mathematics, in 182& He adopted
the law as his profession, and was called to the bar
at the Middle Temple in 1831, but has not prac-
tised. In 1835 be was appointed one of the Com-
missioners of Inquiry for the Relief of the Poor
and into the State of the Church in Ireland ; and
in the following year was placed on theCommisaion
of Inquiry into the Affairs of Malta ; and was
a Poor Law Commissioner from January, 1839, to
July, 1847, when he was first elected member for
the county of Hereford in the House of Com-
mons. The late baronet sat for that county till
1852, and has since March, 1855, represented the Rad-
nor district of boroughs. He had filled several im-
portant offices in the government He was Secretary
to the Board of Control from November, 1847, to
May, 1848 ; Under Secretary for the Home Depart-
ment from May, 1848, to July, 1860 ; Financial
Secretary to the Treasury from July, 1850,
to February, 1862; and Chancellor of the
Exchequer from March, 1855, to February,
1868; and was appointed Secretary of State for
the Home Department in June, 1859. On
the resignation of the late Lord Herbert of Lea
(Sidney Herbert) Sir George was selected by Lord
Palmerston to fill the difficult and arduous office of
Secretary of State for War. The late baronet suc-
ceeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father
in 1866, and married in 1844 Lady Maria Theresa,
widow of Mr. Thos. Henry Lister, and sister of
the Earl of Clarendon and Right Hon. Chas. P.
Villiers, IL P.
The late Sir George C. Lewis was a distinguished
scholar, and the author of several political
and historical works ; and for several years was
editorof the Edinburgh Review. Among other works,
he was the author of "An Essay on the Use and
Abuse of Political Terms," "An Essay on the
Origin and Formation• of the Romania Languages,"
" On Local Disturbances in Ireland and the Irish
Church Question," "An Essay on the Influence of
Authority in Matters of Opinion," "An Inquiry
into the Credibility of the early Roman His-
tory," "An Essay on the Government of Depen-
dencies," and "A Glossary of Provincial Words
used in Herefordshire."

LAU:IST IN TELliairitiCira
RUSSIA.
T►e Nord of to-day has the following paragraphs
Authority has just been &worded to several capita& in
Russia for the establishment of a Grand Bank of leaded
Credit. Sixty millions of francs have already been sub-
scribed. The founders have entered into relations with
bankers in order to °Maio the amidesce of foreign capital.
The construction of the railway so much desired in
Rued , and of which so much ban been said, between Kiev
and Odeon, may now be considered as a certain fact. The
oommissionaries are MY. le Comte Branicki, Rjevnalri,
Sabaniki, he., with whom are associated many English
capitalati. The °mansion is made for 85 years ; the
government guarantees 5 per cent. ; the capital Is 220
million francs. A general of bridges and roads, Y.
Martchenico, is to leave St. Petersburg, furnished by the
eommasionaries to carry co negotiations with foreign
capitalists. Another line, which will complete the grand
network of Emden railways, has also just been conceded ;
it will continue the Riga-Dunabourg Railway as far as
Vitebsk, priming, it is said, by Polotek.