The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-20 00:00:00

rill DISTRESS IN LANCASHIRE.

Aturros-unnsa-Lywn. The following is the
return of Yr. Widish, chief constable, of the Mate of trade
in this borough for the peat week :—Oottori mills, 37 ; silk
mill, 1 ; machinists, 6 ; bobbin turners, 5 ; collieries, 2 ;
total, 51. Working full time with ail hands, 8 ; working
fell time with part hands, 16; working short time, 12;
stopped, 15. Number of operatives usually employed,
12,165 ; working six days, 2,626; working live days, 412;
working four days, 1,772; troche* three and • half days, I
985 ; working three days, 86 ; working two and a half days,
4; and out of employment, 6,276, being 147 person. more
oat of employment than last week. At the last meeting of
the Ashton-under-Lyne guardians it was stated from the
books that 20,803 persons bad been relieved during the week,
at • cost of 1,2781. 13e. 6d. ; corresponding week lastyear.
12,455, ate cost of 6261. lA. 4d. ; increase, 8,348, at • cost of
6521.2 x. &L DOCillealldnring the hat week, 100, at • cost of
6/. 2s. 9d.; decrease else, the 3rd December, 13,959, at a
saving of 1,0811. 10s. Bd. Number in the workhouse, 411;
corresponding week last year, 520. Vagraote relieved, 43.
The corporation have determined to sewer, pave, flag, and
otherwise complete 2l streets in the borough, at an expeo-
diture of about 17,0001., and to utdertalm other works of •
similar character. under the Public Works Act. 1863, as
moo as practicable.
BLACHBOMPL—The returns of relief presented to
the board of guardians last Saturday indicated an increase
of destitution, chiefly in the Blackburn district. The in-
creased cost was 101., as compared with that of the pre-
vious week, and the number of recipients 100 is excess of
the last returns. In the union 6,706 persons had been re-
lieved with 3571. 3a. 93., against 6,613 in the preceding
week, and 7,559 with 530/. 3s. Bd. in the earresponding
week of 1862. _ _ _

Boiro.x.--The return of the board of guardians
for the Bolton union for the past week shows • slight de.
cream in the number of persons relieved, the somber. being
4,824, and the amount paid in relief 3134 3s. 9d. The num-
bar of inmates in the workhouse has, however, Increased,
there being 712, whilst the weak previous the number was
638. The number relieved by the special relief committee
has been 3,683, au increase of 26 over the week previous,
and the amount paid in relief (including work performed
at the corporation reservoir) 2631. lle. 6d., being 51. 2a lees
than the week previous.
STALTBRIDOE -The following are the statistics
of this fund for the, pest week :-Number of families re.
invert 1,872, coespriang 8,287 pour, at as avenge per
head of 2e. 33e1:, at a cost of 269/. 10s. 6d. ; number of per.
sous in the sewing dames, 1,C60, at a cost of 1614 17a. sd. ;
3.806 canons in educational clause, at a coat of 1931.
19a. 4d. ; total expenditure for the week, 6271. 7s. 3d. It
wu shown, at the monthly meeting of the committee, that
this fund was seriously indebted to the shopkeepers.
PRINTON.-There has been an increase in the
number of able-bodied persons in the employ of the board.
The numbers this week amonot to 2,2'1. 5, or 101 more than
is the previous week. The state of the cotton trade is as
follows :-Persona employed six days, 10,628 ; five days,
8.48 ; four days, 1,170 ; three days, 7131 ; two days, 3,048 ;
total unemployed, 11,042. Total number of mills, 87 ;
milts closed, 23. An appeal to the public has just been
ironed on behalf of the weevers, spinners and minders, and
cardroom workers. soliciting aidsowards organisiug &scheme
of emigration to the British co/Quite for the distreeted
operatives.
ROCHDALE-Mr. George Brierley, the secretaiyof
the Rochdale relief committee, has presented his monthly
report, from which it appears that during the four weeks
ending the 25th of July the committee relieved with food
5,385 persons weekly, or 309 fewer per week than in the
previous month, at a oat of 1,4151 ou the month, or a re-
duction of 282/. compared with the month of Juoe. The
cost of relieving overlookers is reduced from 30/. 16s.
to 221. 16a., end the number from 378 to 312. The number
of children receiving education is 1,315, being a reduction
in the month of 87. The recent changes in the lowing
clamor have tended to reduce the numbers from 1,182 to
about 650. One hundred and enmity men are already em-
ployed on out-door labour. As a rule the men accept the
work most cheerfully, and show .n evident desire to per-
form it most faithfully. Then were in the last week old uly,
78 fewer cotton operatives ou full time, 535 fewer on four or
fin days a week, 37 more on three days a week, 58 fewer on
two days per week, and 634 more entirely out of work than in
the Let week of Juoe. The committee fear that before long
an increase of the number requiring relief may be expected.
WIO•W.-The relief committee have now on their
books 2,882 team representing 7,923 peones, and the weekly
expenditure is 4254 9e. This show. a decree, on the last
return of 409 in the number of persons, and of 181. 12e. 6d.
in the cost

Dmpstches from the Cioveroor of Malts were
received yesterday at the Colonial-office. Dempatchee were
not to the Governors of Gibraltar, Mats, the Mauritius,
Chylous, Hoag Bea& Lhasa, sad Australia.
OILYSTAL YAZACR. ONE SIIILLLEG
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19.—Adatiwities 11 paywrat, 7,106 ;
ditto by as es tickets, 664 ; total. f,710.
Lembo!! Ositleazthewieue OoterAirt(Lnrieso).—
Traffic meet* foe the week aiding Aug. 16. 12,0151. ss. id.
Oreg.& Guam—T. HARRIS And Bow's Chrism
&WI retain the eetebeitoniesy lorig awarded w them by the habitues
of the Oyes : they p b
large sad perfectly dieUset laid of .f
lew, the acme of refer-
tles. T. Hartle and Sow make or alter Opera Glares sous to ea-
weratety suit seerwlghled eyee. • variety of the newest form
and lambics kw this mama. Moderate prices. Thoa. Barrie
votireties. opposite the lirttlai Museum gates, Loodoa.
me.—Vilvertisescaßl

NAVAL AND MILITARY.

ADMIRALTY, AUGUST 19. ATTOINTEIMT.
Lieutenant Thome W. Sateen to the Itattionsion

CHATHAM, lIIIT 19.
Orders have been received at thisA dockyard
directing the new armour-plated frigate Lord Warden, which
is being constricted from the designs of Mr. Reed, the
newly appointed chief eonstructor of the navy, to be built
with a long projecting prow, shaped like a cleaver, and
armed with steel plated, to be used in running down and
sinking a hostile ship. This formidable weapon will be
placed several feet below the water line, and will be corn-
pletely_hkldeu from view when the vessel is afloat. The
Lord Warden is also intended to carry a powerful batters
of guns at her bow, which will prove of great Dorsi.* to her
when engaged in chasing a hostile ship. The Lord Clyde,
which is to be in all respects similar to the Lord Warden,
will not be built at this dockyard, as at fret proProod, bat
at Pembroke, at which dockyard the Research, the pioneer
of Mr. Reed's new armour-clad ships, has just been
launched.

WOOLWICH, soccer 19.
Considerable activity now prevails in the depart•
meat of the military storekeeper at the Royal Arsenal, in
the preparation for shipment of rifled geea, shot, shell, and
otber munitions of war for New 7w4ad, Quebec, Montreal,
Chpe Town, and other foreign statical,.

THE LOSS OP THE “ PARIS" STEAMER.

Tlio.following is the official report on the recent
inquiry at t►e Greenwich Pollee Court into the low at tAle
vessel :

My Lords,—ln compliance with your lordships' direc-
tions, and with the assistance of Captains Harris and Baker,
appointed to act as nautical aseemors, I have made inquiry
regarding the loss of the paddle steamship Paris, of the port
of Newhaven, on the morning of the 28th of July last, on
her passim from St. Halo to Jersey. The Paris was an iron
vessel of 13214.100 tons burthen, built at Port Glasgow in
1852, and owned by Henry Pearson Maples, of Arthur-street
Fast, in the City of Loodoo, and employed on the Channel
Island Station, running between Newbaveo, in the county of
Sussex, and St. Maio, in France, and commanded by Henry
Hemmings, who holds a Board of Trade certificate of com-
peteoey as master, bearing date the 31st of March, 1858.
Aa inquiry has already taken place before the oomraittee of
piers and harbours of the states of the island of Jamey, in
reference to the conduct of Peter John De La Coor, who
held a pilot's certificate, granted by the committee, and was
considered to be in charge of the ship at the time of her
bee His conduct has been oensured by that committee,
sad his pilot's certificate cancelled. She had on board
at the time of her loss a crew of twenty-three persons,
all told, twenty passengers, and a quantity of cargo. The
pilot above-named was engaged to act in that capacity
wider the peculiar circumstances hereafter mentioned. The
Paris left St. Halo for Jersey at 8.30 A.M. of Tuesday, the
28th of July last, and a short time after another steamer,
called the Wonder, followed her, also bound for Jersey, and
there appears to have been a competition between the two
ships. At 8.30 a.m. the Paris war about midway between the
Minquiar Rocks sod Jersey, about mesa or eight ones from
the latter place ; the weather was calm and clear, and the
speed of the veered was about 12 knots an hour. In ap-
proaching Jersey from SC Male there are two channels that
. may be taken, the Middle Channel and the Selletta passage,
of which the former is the more direct, wider, and in every
respect preferable, and generally used. Between these two
channels lies a cluster of rugged rocks, called Le Grunot,
partially exposed at low water spring tide but passable by
weeds of light burthen at certain times al tide and in calm
weather. In making for Middle Channel a N.E. N.
course would clear the °moot and open the Mid-Chanel.
Tbe same course would suit for the Sallette Purge up to
a point distant about three-quarters of a mile from the
Grum*, when, in order to keep to the westward of these
rocks the course would mune to be altered more to the
northward. The marks for the Middle Channel at St. Sa-
viour's Church, a Mfrs breadth open to the S.E. of St.
Helier's Church, and for the Sakti* Gros Roque, on with
the western fdartello Tower. These marts are clearly dis-
cernible in daylight and fair weather, and with a proper
look out, at sufficient distance to pre:sat damage from the
Gruoot. At 8.30, when, as before aided, the Paris wee
about seven or eight miles from Jersey, the muter gave
directions to steer a N.E. N. course, which would serve
for either channel. He thee west below for a short time,
leaving the on the bridge, and in charge (u he cue-
ot of the ship. In about ten minutes he again
came on sad he and the pilot both remained en the
bridge till the ship struck on the °moot, about 9.15 a.m.,
and after grating burily over the rock, sunk in about seven
minutes' time in five fathoms water. That some one was
grossly in fault for this result there can be no doubt ; and
the question is, upon which of the two, the pilot or muter,
or whether partly upon both, the blame ought to rest. To
determine this question we mut first look at
their respective statements, and see bow far they are
supported by the circumstances or by the statements of the
other witnesses. To begin with the master's statement,
which is in substance to the effect following says that
when he had gives the order to steer aN. E. N. course at
8.30, be considered he had no further charge of the ship,
which was from that time under charge of the pilot; that
he himself gave no farther orders, sot did he interfere in any
way, except that when the pilot asked him which channel
he should take, he replied be did not care which so that it
was for the best, meaning thereby that be wished to keep
ahead of the other steamer. He says further that the pilot
told him he should take the Sallow) Passage, to which
he (the master) maim no objection, and that be had
no idea hat that the pilot was doing so till he
saw the ship close to the Grunot just before she struck.
On the other band, the pilot's statement, taken before us
on oath, is to the effect following :—That though he con-
sidered the ship was under his charge, his orders were not
attended to ; that he never maid he intended to take the
Senate Passage, sot did he intend it, bat, on the contrary,
when the master mid he wished to do what was best, or
(as be expresses it) "cut it short," he told biro that the
Middle Channel was the shortest and the safest, and that
it had all along been his intention to take that channel, and
the master must have known that was so • that when he
found he was opening not the marks for the Middle Cheesed,
and too far to the northward, he gave the order to keep
more to the south ; that the master did not comply with
that order, but ordered the ship to be steered in the direc-
tion of the Bounden, and by so doing brought her on the
Grunot Rock ; and that if the order to go to the south-
ward bad been obeyed, even to half the ship's
!smith, she would have gone clear. Between these
determine, so contradictory, and with little con-
firmation of the one more than the other, it would perhaps
be hard wholly to deny the master the benefit of his plea,
that the ship was under the charge of the pilot, and not
under his charge, so se to make him responsible for the
loss. At the same time, supposing the plea to be admitted,
his inattention to the dangerous course of the ship an
scarcely admit of an excuse. He was on the bridge for
some time before the ship struck, but he dote pot appear
to have observed the proper marks of either channel, and
yet be suffered the ship to proceed at the rate of 12 knots.
when he ought to have known of the near approach of
danger. All things coasidered, it seems not unreasonable
to easjecture that the master's deem to "oat it short" had
made him inattentive to the caution that was necessary, if
it did not (as the pilot alleges) actually make him oouuter-
mead the order given by the pilot to keep the ship more to
the southward just before she struck. I have been thua par-
bonier on this part of the case, because it ia with much
hesitation that we have brought ourselves to a conclusion
so favourable to the muter. But, in coming to this con-
clusion, we must not omit to notice the manner in which the
pilot laws have been evaded in this case. It appears that
the pilot, De la Cour was hired at 36e. par week on board
the Paris. The object of this is alleged to be to aave time ,
is looking out for pilots in owning into and going oat of
Jersey. But it appears that it has been the practice of
Captain Hemmiugs, for the last five months at least, if not
much longer, never to take a Jersey pilot, but to pilot his
sbip himself, although he has no licesse for that purpose,
red could not obtain on., not being a native of Jersey.
Even so little did he look apes De Is Cour in the character
of a pilot, that he did not avail himself of his services,
though be was on board re the, from Jamey to St.
Melo. The employment of la Cour ia clearly an
evasion of the pilot regulations of Jersey. But there is a
worse mischief still, as would appear in this cau—vix., that
by thus employing a owl who, as is admitted, was is-
teoiled to be entered on the ship's articles as second
mate. it is quite clear that, when the occasion occurs
for his actiug as pilot he cannot have properly the
authority AM feel the responsibility of that office; and,
at the sane time, while, it does not prevent the master
from exercising his natural authority as master over his
subordioate officer, it leaves him the opportunity of
screening himtell for his own neglect or default
under the plea that the second mate has charge of the
ship as pilot, and that the master and owners are not
responsible for lose or damage. There is little
doubt that the master looked on De la Cour,
and treated him, as one of his crew, and merely a sub-
' statute fee a pilot, in order to save expense, and that
therefore he was bound to see to the navigation of his ship
just sa moth as if there was no pilot on board. Though, for
• the reasons stated, we have felt bound to allow of the
master's defence, and have returned his certifiete—more, it
is true, upon technical them substautial grounds—we have
thought it our duty to expires our strong disapproval of
this mode of employing a pilot, as highly irregular, and
likely to lead to very serious and dangerous consequences.
I hag to forward with this report the depositions of the
several witnesses taken betore me during this inquiry.—l
have, he, JAMAS Taarm.
We 000011 T is the above report.—Hisse Hanel., R.
Basco, Nautical Ammon.
The Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade.

[Stamped. id. Additional.]