The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-17 00:00:00

THE OATH OF ABJURATION BILL

In committee on the above bill, Lord John Russell will
move the following clause ;

" That in all cases iu which the oath of abjuration would
be taken were the present law to remain in force, the
following oath shall be taken :
" I, A B, do faithfully promise to maintain, support,
and defend, to the utmost of my power,' the succession of
the crown, which succession, by an act intituled " An act
for the further limitation of the Crown, and better securing
the} rights and liberties of the subject," is and stands
limited to the Princess Sophia, Electiess of Hanover,
and the heirs of her
.body, being Protestants. So help
me God.

"That the penalties and disabilities to which any person
refusing or neglecting to take the oath of abjuration now
in force would be subject, Ehould attach to all persons who,
after the passing of this act, shall refuse or neglcct to take
the oath to maivtain the Protestant succession to the
Crown hereby enacted."

THE LATE ---- -
Mns. KELLY.—V-e Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland has caused a reward of £lOO to be offered for such
information as may, within six months, lead to the arrest
of the assassins of Mrs; Sarah Kelly. On Tuesday the
remains'of the unfortunate lady, Which had been brought to
London, were interred by the side" of her late husband, Mr.
Kelly, in the vault purchased by him in Mensal Green
Cemetery. The body arrived in London via the North
Western Railway, on Saturday night. The remains of the
deceased were followed to the grave by her brother, Captain
Birch and three of her nephews.

At Sea, Nov. 22, 1855.
We left Melbourne on the 12th of last month, and, with
our usual fortune, encounteredivery heavy weather during
the whole of our passage to New Zealand, the sea running
very high, and washing over us continually. One day an
enormous sea broke over us, and the first thing it carried
away was the second gig ; completely crumpling her up,
and smashiig her all to bits. It then stove in the gun-
room and captain's skylights, and washed everything off
the tables in both places, including a bookshelf and a
swinging lamp. They were at breakfast in the gun-room
at the time, and in a moment, officers, teacups, lumps of
butter, servants, and red herrings, were all floundering
together on the deck in three feet of water, and it was
some minutes before the ship recovered herself from the
shock. Eating our meals was a violent gymnastic exer-
cise. and as to writing, it was out of the question. Ten
days of this work brought up the north point of New
Zealand, and it took three more to beat down the east
coast to Auckland, where we arrived on the 25th
ultimo, after the longest sea voyage we have made
since our first arrival from England. We remained
at Auckland for nineteen days. I got up a fishing party
one day, and we went down the river to haul our net, but
we caught nothing but skate and a few small fish. , Some of
the skate were very large, and one of them weighed nearly
three hundred weight, and had a tail as thick as my arm, and
he made an extraordinary noise when he was landed, some-
thing between the grunting of a pig and the bleating of a
sheep, striking out with his fins all the time, and knocking
the sand about so that it was no cosy task to get near him
to give him the coup de gram, which I managed to do with
my hunting knife. We sailed from Auckland on the 12th
of the present month, and have been fighting with head
winds ever since, with the exception of two days, when the
wind favoured us for a few hours, and, therefore, though we
are nine days out, we have only advanced 400 miles, and are
still 700 from Sydney.
The day before yesterday we encountered a most extra-
ordinary danger—one that few ships have ever witnessed ;
that is, we were caught in a waterspout. The day had been
very squally, and we had been compelled to take in sail
several times, and therefore we who were below were not
surprised to find the ship heel gradually over; but when she
went further, and the deck became almost perpendicular,
we could see that something had happened beyond the
common order of squalls, and I felt a sort of faint, sick
feeling of anticipation and vague dread that almost
stilled the prayer that rose to my lips. The suspense
was horrid, and the dread of being strangled below
by the rush of water gave me strength, and I climbed
over the others and managed to reach the deck. There
everything was in confusion, no one was giving any
intelligible orders, and the ship was lying over on her
broadside, with all of one side buried in the water, ropes
and sails flapping about, and men standing aghast, asith
despair in their faces, I noticed one man in particular,
who was sitting upon the deck, seeming in a state of utter
idiotcy, with his hands clenched and his face livid, deaf to
all that was passing around Jim. The sight of so much
anarchy restored my self-possession, and I began to drive
the men to the ropes to haul down the after sails, and
after a couple of
.minutes' work the ship slowly righted.
The captain's gig was stove in by the water, and the davits
(strong curved pillars of iron, as thick as my leg) had been
bent double by the pressure. It seems that a whirling mass
of water had been suddenly seen near the ship, and before
anything could be done it was upon her, bearing her down and
whisking her round and under water, whilst the whirlwind,
by which it was of course accompanied and caused, pressed
her over by the sails and increased the danger. It was indeed
a fearful minute, and nothing but God's hand could have
saved us, for man was utterly powerless against the tremen-
dous manifestation of our Creator's might. As soon as I
could get by myself, I returned him thanks for mercifully
sparing myself and my shipmates, and saving us in our
hour of extreme peril. This was really a very uncommon
adventure, for though ships frequently see waterspouts (I
have seen man)), it does not happen once in five hundred
times that it strikes a vessel. I have never heard of such
an accident occurring, and hope never to see another, for
is so very appalling, for that very reason that it is so
unusual, as no one knows how to avoid its effects after it is
upon them ; though there is a way of prevention before-
hand by firing a gun at it, when the concussion of the air
caused by the explosion breaks the spout before it is near
enough to do any &tinge ; but in our case it moved too
swiftly for that; and all our guns are firmly lashed, on
account of the bad weather we encounter hereabouts,
so that it would have been a matter of time to clear one
away