Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-08 00:00:00

SEAWORTHINESS OF MERCHANT VESSELS.

A case was heard at the Belfast Police Cotirt, which
deserves considerable attention from the legislature
as well
as the public. The ship Harriett Wylda was employed in
the Baltic trade, some six or seven months, and returned
to Liverpool in an unseaworty state. The captain reported
her condition to the owners, but this report was so com-
pletely disregarded that the ship was ordered to take in a
cargo of salt for Quebec. She sailed from Liverpool for
Quebec, but, having sprung a leak, she was obliged to put
into Belfast Lough. She then received order, to proceed
to Ramsay, where the owner resided, and afterwards sailed
for Douglas, Isle of Man. During this time not the
slightest attempt was made towards rendering her sea-
worthy, the seamen being employed the greater part of the
voyage at the pumps. While she remained at Douglas,
four seamen deserted, and these were replaced by others,
from Liverpool. The vessel again attempted to proceed on
her voyage, and, the seamen pumping night and day, she
made some two hundred miles into the Atlantic, when she
was again obliged to put about and return to Belfast.
Four of the crew here left her, and made a claim for a
month's wages. The captain acknowledged that she was
unseaworthy, but the owner threatened, if he would not
proceed with the ship—still in the condition she was in
when arriving from the Baltic—to Newcastle, he wou'd
appoint another person to take the command. The Re-
ceiver of Droits iu Belfast having imposed a penalty of £l,
owing to the captain of the Harriett Wylde not having
reported the ship, and the magistrate having ordered the
men to be paid a month's wages each, any legal recogni-
tion of the transaction there ended. But what the public
and the merchant service are cencerned in is this : are
vessels to be allowed to go from Rod to port in the con-
dition of the Harriett Wylde, without any legislative
interference ? Here we have a ship pronounced, by her
own commander, to be unseaworthy; yet her crew and
cargo are tossed about the sea tor mouths together, and
no legal cognisanceis taken of her condition. The
seaworthiness of a ship, when leaving pen:, is not
a question which should be left alone in the
hands of Lloyds agent, The public have other
interests than those connected with insurance. A
heavy hand is placed by the law on seamen in case of
desertion, and would it not be well that the Legislature
should institute some enactment which would pre'vent the
lives of seamen being vainly endangered, as was manifestly
the case in the instance of the Harriett Wylde ? The
case of the Harriett Wylde manifestly exhibits the
present imperfect state of the law, and the hardships
which it inflicts on the seafaring classes. There can be no
reason why vessels engaged in the general merchant ser-
vice should not undergo something approaching to the
survey of an emigration ship or passenger steamer.—
Belfast Whig.

Exclusively for CLOTHING BOYS from 6 to 20 Years
LEWIS & COMPANY. Runelauh street.

Mr. John Frost, the C'oartist, is about to visit the north
of England for the purpose of delivering lectures.
SHIPS CHARTERED BY EMIGRATION COMMISSIONERS.
—On Thursday, the Emigration CoMmissioners accepted
the Melbourne, for Melbourne, at £l5 18,. 9d.
THE LAuossT or LARGE EGGS.—We have had presented
to us, the produce of a hen of the mixed Spanish and
Dorking breed, a well-shaped egg, weighing four ounces ;
dimensions, eight inches by seven.—Carlisle Patriot.
GLENLUCH.—As an instance of the rapid growth going
on, a plot of beans is in full blossom in Balcarry, the seed planted in March. The grain crops in general look re-
markably well in the parish of Old Luce, and such is the
demand for labourers that every person able to work is
employed ; wages are increasing.—Galloway Advertiser.
STREET PREACHING.—On Wednesday evening, four street
preachers were apprehended by the police, for causing an
obstruction in Victoria-street, Manchester, by their open-
air preaching, and brought up the iollowing morning at the
city Police Court.
THE FORTUNE-TELLER AND HER VICTIM.—OIIe day last
week a middle-aged woman, accompanied by a boy,
entered a grocer's shop in one of the second-rate streets of
Bishopwearmouth. The object of their visit was an-
nounced by the youngster, who said the woman was hie
rvteodatarto
for
Australia, t
out
mother ; and, as she was chef and dumb, she got her
livelihood by telling fortunes. The grocer has two
daughters—young and comely damsels withal ; and
as the woman offered, through the boy, to tell them
all about who they were to have as husbands fur the
low charge of sixpence, of course it was a bargain, and
tshixepgeanpniing girls.orthof mTatareimoolndial
grocerm ystery being was
about
thoughtse he might as well have an inkling as to
and became her willing stave for the moment
cunning hag,
he"
In obedience to her directions produce:! six sovereigns
how he would get on when he got there,s so he too hired the
and placed them in her hand. She fumbled about with
minute or so, but of course there could be no
danger of diddling, for weren't the sagacious grocer and his
them for a
two girls gazing on all the while ? The next part of the
performance was the announcement that the sovereigns
Must be locked up for three days, at the end of which time
the prophetess would return and reveal the result. A box
was thereupon produced, and after tying up what appeared
to be the sovereigns in a piece of old gown, the woman
handed the little parcel to the grocer, to deposit it in
owuanhoiteierl Fubproiodtnatyitlh,oewf
golarertonacnei
ret
.wtueoni
the box, which he was requested to lock, and keep locked,
o
her b
box,e
L locked Clrdahnhave
tehhreputed
unrolled
pn re
sononl eide
the
lingered,
r i
rag,d
and found--six farthings ! The perpetrator of this clever
trick is as yet uncaught, and it is believed she' has with-
drawn to the south of the county. We dig docks—launch
leviathan ships—lay out public parks—and even dream of
free libraries—bat meanwhile Ignorance nurses her foster-
daughter, Superstition, and the child continues to grow
and thtive amazingly. —Sunderland Herald.

MR. W. H. RUSSELL'S LECTURE.

On Saturday Mr. W. H. Russell delivered, in the Phil-
" harmonic Hall, the first of the three ledtures on the war
`which he purposes giving in Liverpool. The body of the
hall and boxes were well filled by a most fashionable
'audience, but the galleries presented only a slight muster,
consequent,no doubt, on the hour, half-past two o'clock, at
which the lecture took place. The reception of Mr. Russell
was most hearty, indeed enthusiastic, when coming from
such an audience, but not more hearty than he deserved.
He commenced his discourse, which was illustrated by
most excellent maps, by stating that he sought merely to
give a personal nareative of the war—to narrate the im_
pressions which the principal scenes and incidents con •
nested with it lied made on his individual senses, &aiming
no infallibility for those impressions, nor pretending to
see through his neighbours' eyes. Ile described his start-
ing from Marseilles on the 29th February, 1854, his fellow
passengers being Greek revolutionary leaders, Italian
sympathisers, socialist missionaries, newspaper correspon-
dents, Queen's messengers, English soldiers of fortune, and
no fortune—in fact, in company with all the "Stormy
Petrels " of the world, whose presence denoted the brew-
ing commotion in the East. Touching at Malta,
where they nmained for a few days, they soon after
arrived abreast of Gallipoli, and here the first indication of
the mismanAgernent which he subsetiuently so fearfully
exposed came under the notice of " Onr Correspondent."
Seated on the beach, and looking as helpless as do " turtles
when placed on their backs just before being made soup
of," were two commissariat officers. The troops wanted
rations, and the country abounded with cattle, but, unfor-
tunately, the commissariat officers could only speak English,
and the inhabitants could only speak Greek, and the English
consul, with his dragoman, had gone to see our minister at
Constantinople, who had gone to see somebody else some-
where else, and the engineer of the steamer broke his leave
and could not be found, and hence the officers picturesquely
seated on the beach and successfully doing nothing at a
Cost of many thousands. Mr. Russell narrated such, inci
dents as this with an infinity of quiet humour, not a jot of
which was lost on his audience, but it was only
in his narration of battle scenes, where he glowed
with his subject, that his power as a " word
painter" was fairly manifested. Casting a melan-
choly glance at Scutari, within the shade of whose
tall dark cypress trees so many memories lie buried, he
hastened on to Silistria and Varna, and described with
singular force the first outbreak of the cholera among the
troops there encamped. In listening to Mr. Russell one
Could easily realise the whole event, so strikingly did he
present it to the mind's eye —the pleasant social party
given the night before by the officers of the 7th Fusiliers,
the joyous chorus, the merry laugh, the more boisterous
merriment as the hours wore on, the deep silence of mid-
night, unbroken even by the sentries' tread, the hot
oppresive atmosphere, and then, suddenly, when the angel
of death had flapped his wings over the sleeping host, the
whole camp. aroused by cries of pain and alarm resounding
on every side. In one giant leap that fatal night the
cholera had sprung eighteen leagues, and in the morning
there were dead in the tents hundreds who had lain down
strong healthy living men. After describing the waste of
time, men, and treasures at Varna, the hesitancy of the
commanders, as well on the side of
,the F. each as the
English, as to what should be done or where they should
go, the proiotind ignorance under which welaboured, as
to the position of Sebastopol, and everything conuectel
with the Crimea, notwithstanding the long existence of a
Costly diplomatic staff at Constantinople; the sailing of
the fleet and transports across the Black Sea; the dis-
embarkation in the Crimea, near the Salt Lake ; the
hardships of our troops the first night - after landing, as
they lay On the' ground exposed to the pelting of a Crimean
storm, while the French' and Turkish armies were corn.•
fortably reposing in their tents. Mr. Russell brought the
allied troops in face of the enemy, and from this moment
until, in imagination, the British cheer was heard ringing
on the heights of Alma, the audience hung upon his words,
so vividly was the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of
glorious war" brought before. hem. The description of
the reconnaissance, on the morning of the 19th September,
was an admirable prelude to the bloody fight, which made
memorable the following day. Presented in the picturesque
garb with which Mr. Russell clothes the incident, oue
could wish to have witnessed it with him, even though his
pleasure should be damped by the rush of an angry
messenger of death in the shape of a cannon
ball in his close neighbourhood. So, likewise,
in his descriptionof the battle of the Alma. The listener,
warmed by the little " brush" of the previous day, is
anxious to advance with our gallant troops up the despe-
rate height. At a glance he is able to comprehend their
position, and he chafes at the break in the narration,
caused by Mr. Russell's desire to explain the order of battle,
which is in fact most admirably told by the map itself.
And now the French have driven in the enemy's left front
—the roar of their cannon is heard on the heights which
crown the shore, and then the order to advance is given to
the English lines. Up the light-division rush, strewing
with their dead and dying the deadly steepe. They plunge
into the Alms, drink of its muddy waters, soon to be
dyed blood=red,- eat of the grapes in the vineyards on its
banks, and, then, with broken ranks, are compelled to yield
to the overwhelming mass of Russians precipitated on
them. Sullenly retiring, they cross the ranks of the
Guards and lltghlanders advancing to their support—all
are in confuston, but only for a moment —again re-formed,
the " scarlet wave" rolls up the hill and amid the roar of can-
non, the angry scream of shells and fierce rattle of musketry,
the heights of Alma are carried by the British bayonet;
the battle of the Alma has been fought and won; a
deafening cheer runs along the English line ; and from the
boom of a solitary cannon comes the defiance of the
rapidly-retreating Russians.
In the above sketch we have given the merest outline
of Mr. Russell's first lecture, which, highly interesting as
it was, will unquestionably be found to be the least
interesting of his narrations, In it he had to wade
through much desultory matter before he could bring his
auditors to those scenes in the description of which he
excels. As we have before remarked, we think his great
power lies in " battle pieces." " Balaklava" and " Inker-
man" will afford the greatest scope for the display of that
Power ; and whoever desire to hear these, the' most
brilliant episodes of the war, fittingly told—if they would
witness the mad•hitt gallant charge of the " Six Hundred,"
and the bloody hand-to-hand encounters which distin-
guished the fight of Inkerman, they will not miss being
present at Mr. Russell's concluding narrations on Tuesday
and Thursday nights.

At LEWIS & COMPANY'S, Ranelagh street,
150YS are CLOTHED from the Ages of 6 to 20 Years

THE RAILWAY PROPERTY.—The deputation waited on
on the Board of Trade yesterday, to present a memorial,
signed by holders of £40,000,000 of railway property,
setting_ forth the grievances under which they labour.
Tun PRINCE OF w
that the Prince
is about to make a tour on the continent
for about six wee. t.his
on the Rhine, and subsequently visit-
nog the Alp,
H, f Baron Ittinrrew. H. will travel incog., under the title
s
The Lunacy Bill furuu
uScotland, which is to be introduced
immediately into the House Commons, is we
the powers
we (Scotsman)
bear, to moist mainly u
of the English board to Scotland,n extension
with a secretary and two
00-operating members here. This will save the experlse of
a separate board in Edinburgh, .
THE DMIOULTY WITH NEW GRANADA
—Advices from
Bogota to, the 24th of April, state that the Macintosh
question was either settled, or on the point of being so ;
and that relations were about to be restored
Juan de
the
two governments. It is added, that Don
bilast theef years in
from New
de Fran-
Sisco Martin, who has resided for the
Paris, is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary r
Granada to the Court of St. James s.
The Medway, 110 days from Melbourne, was off lil
mouth on Friday, with' 50 tons of copper ore. 450
bales wool, 18 000 ounces of gold dust, and 106 passengers
for London. She sailed, 17th Feb; rounded Cape Horn,
24th March ; entered Pernambuco, 3rd May.; left on the
sth, and crossed the line on the Bth ; spoke, 6th April, the
barque Humphrey Nelson, 28 days from Valparaiso for
Llyerpool.