The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-08 00:00:00

briefly referring to various measures about to be
brought in during the ensuing session.
Having answered several questions in a satisfac-
tory manner, the following resolution was unani-
mously carried :—" That this meeting thank Mr.
Angerstein for giving them the opportunity of meet-
ing him, and desire to express their satisfaction at
his conduct as their representative in parliament."
A vote of thanks was passed to the chairman ; and
three hearty cheers having been given for the hon.
gentleman and the Queen, the proceedings termi.
netted.

his tools in the business in which he is employed.
'We shall have to require more skill in the agricul-
tural labourers. We see that steam machinery is
about to make a considerable change in agriculture,
as it has already done in weaving and in other
branches of industrial manufacture, and we shall
require men who are able to manage and deal with
those steam engines which are beginning to wander
over the country. I look with satisfaction upon: this
change under the aspect of its benefit to the labourer,
for the result must be that the labourer, becoming
more of a skilled artizan, will have higher wages,
and be saved from much of that druigery which has
to be performed by manual labour. In every walk
of industry the application of steam machinery has
raised the condition of the workman, and so it must
be with the agriculturist ; the labourer as well as the
farmer and the owner of land, will reap the benefit
arising from the application of science and skill to
the implements of husbandry. (Hear, hear.) In a
future year I think it will be well to bear this in
mind in regard to the subjects to be tested by this
competitive examination. (Hear, hear.) While skill
should be the main object to be rewarded, I should
be sorry to omit the offering of prizes for good moral
conduct; because there are a considerable number of
agricultural labourers whose excellence cannot be
tested by any single occupation, but whose merits
must be judged by the character they bear and the
satisfactory way in which they perform their duties.
By this combination we put forward both the merit
of the workman and his moral character. 'We com-
bine the skill and good behaviour of those persons
who are put forward as an example for others to
follow. (Hear, hear.) I think the association cer-
tainly has been of great value. Although not an
ambitious snode of benefitting the workman, it has
been practically useful, and a satisfactory mode
of attaining the object, and I think you
will all agree that in attending these meetings we
are helping on the good cause. (Hear, hear.) I
cannot sympathise with those who would apply the
rugged rules of political economy to the condition
of the labourer, and would leave him alone, let him
be independent, do not interfere with him, leave
him to the accidents of the labour market or you
will interfere with his independence. I cannot take
that view of the subject. I think that the labour-
ing men who join in reaping the harvest which
gives food and wealth to the country are deserving
of the utmost sympathy and assistance wherever it
can be given by the influential members of the
community. (Hear, hear.) Although our agricul-
tural labourers do not risk their lives for their coup•
try they employ them in a useful and beneficial
occupation, and the gratitude which the rest of the
community ought to feel towards them should be
shown by doing what lies in our power to remove
the difficulties, the inconveniences, and the priva-
tions with which they are afflicted. lam sure that
every right-minded man will be anxious to do
everything in his power to improve the condition of
the labouring classes. There are cases in which
persons may do harm when they think they are
doing good, but this association shows a useful and
beneficial way of bringing public attention to bear
on the condition of the labouring classes, and assist-
ing in the development of their good qualities by
the force of public opinion. (The toast was drunk
with the usual honours.)
The MAYOR then proposed the health of the chair-
man, who briefly acknowledged the compliment,
and proposed the health of the committee, the secre-
tary, and the judges, to which toast Mr. Allsop,
Mr. Lordan, and Mr. Hunt responded.
Several other toasts of a local character were after-
wards given and responded to.

The Romsey Labourers' Encouragement

Association.

TI-1E SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 8, 1804.

put in as evidence the report of Mr. Fibbs, the deputy.
receiver of wrecks at Galway.
Mr. O'Dowd said it was not usual to produce the reports
so made to the Board of 'trade, but, with the consent of the
Court, he would undertake to do so.
Mr. Traill said the real question to be decided was, had
Captain Prowse acted judiciously in proceeding on the
voyage without th 3 harbour or port pilot. and, if he had
acted judiciously, whether he had acted skilfully.
It being now nearly five o'clock, the inquiry was ad-
journed.

The inquiry was resumed yesterday.
Capt. Nicholas Frowse, having tendered himself for exa-
mination, said--I was captain of the Anglia on her voyage
from. Liverpool to Boston, on Nov. 7 last. I hold a certifi-

tate of competency as master from the Board of Trade, dated
June, 18.51 I have made 80 passages across the Atlantic,
and have been 18 times in and out of Galway Bay. I have
on three occasions passed through the bay successfully be-

xveen the shoals, steering the same course as on Nov. 10—

viz., E N. Mutton Island Light is the only guide to the
roadstead. The tide flows east and west, or nearly so. The
two dangers are the Black Rock, to the northward, and the

Margaretta Shoal, to the southward. All vessels entering
the bay pass between these two dangers, the distance apart
being three-quarters of a mile. Mutton Island light is the
only light visible in coming through these dangers, and
affords only one bearing. Black Rock lies on the port side of
the vessel entering the roadstead. At high water that danger
is covered, but it shows considerably, perhaps to the extent
of five feet, at low water. It commences to show itself at
half ebb of the tide. The Margaretta Shoal is on the star-

board side of the vessel, and is always covered, but there is
a buoy to indicate danger. The signal of danger on Black
Reck is a perch, something in the shape of the meat of a
fishing vessel with a cross at top. The land by night over-
shadows this perch, or beacon, and at night, as also
by day, it is very difficult to see it until very near to it. I
always understood that the pilot's boundary extended to the
Arran Islands, and also that the compulsory pilotage was

between the roadstead and the rock—but nevertheless I was
always anxious to take a pilot whenever one could be found
outside, and was always on the look-out for one. On two
occasions, having the Mutton Island light direct shead,and
steering E 4 N, I thought this course took me somewhat too
near Margaretta Shoal, and I made a report to Capt. Thom-
pson upon the subject. During 7 voyages since that time I
have invariably steered E IN, and found that course to
carry me in a good fair mid channel. I have steered this
course on two occasions in the Anglia, and with the same
compasses I had on board et the time of her stranding on
Black Reck. I expected to find a pilot at Black Head, but
the pilotage regulations of the harbour are miserably car-
. __ _

ried out, On two previous occasion I had to go into the
roadstead without a pilot, once by day and once by night.
The great necessity is to take a pilot outside of danger,
where they can be of use, but I have had to take him on
board on several occasions when within danger, and, sup-

posing the wind to be blowing a gale from the westward I
do not think it would be possible, with any amount of wait-
ing, to get a pilot outside the entrance. (Captain Prowse here
read the entries made in the ship's log of the voyage from
Liverpool, and which is contained in the evidence of the
chief officer ott the first day of inquiry.) Had the weather
at 6.45 p.m. of the 9th been as clear as it was at three
a.m. of the 10th, I should have gone into the har-
bour, notwithstanding there was no pilot on board,
as I considered there was not the shadow of an excuse
for remaining any longer, and I should have expected
to be severely censured by my employer for losing
valuable time had I done so. Had I remained at anchor
under Black Head until daylight I should not have been
in the roadstead until between nine and ten o'clock.
Mr. Traill—Can you account for the vessel being
stranded on Black Rock, the light at Mutton Island being
ahead of you ?
Capt. Prowse—lt has been given in evidence that the light
bore E 3/4 N, and, if this was so, I cannot account for it; but
I think that the engines being worked at " dead slow" the
compasses must have been attracted by the land.
By Capt. Harris—l have never noticed in passing slowly
through the roadstead whether the compasses have been
affected or altered by attraction of the land. Oa two previous
voyages the same compasses were used, and were then found
correct; and at G ilway, after the stranding, they were
found not to be affected, having corrected themselves.
Mr. Traill—lt would be an impossibility for the compasses
to have corrected themselves as you mention.
Mr. Valiance, on behalf of the company, said—As that
was all the. evidence proposed to be taken, he wished to hand
in fur the use of the Court a copy of the regulations issued
to commanders of the company's vessels, one of which regu-
lations was as follows You are aware from the nature
of the engagements of the company with her Majesty's Go-
vernment, it is of the greatest importance that your passage
should be made with the utmost possible rapidity; but I
urn directed to impress on you ;n the strongest manner,
that even that moat essential object should be regarded as
subservient to the safety of the ship and passengers. You
are expected, therefore, never to incur any danger for the
sake of effecting a rapid passage, and I cannot too strongly
express the importance of the utmost possible caution when
you encounter fog or ice; and if darkness or tho weather
should indicate danger, that y,tu should rather lay to and
await daylight or improvement of the weather, than pro-
ceed under manifest risk, You will enter in the fullest
manner in your logibook all the :facts and reasons of your
conclusions. You will, of course, at all dines ascertain your
true position, giving due consideration to the effects of cur-
rents and variation of compass, and in nearing land you
will keep a most careful and constant look-out, and the lead
continually going."
Mr. Sharkey then addressed the Court on behalf of Capt.
Prowse, contending that he had used every precaution and
discretion under the circumstances in which he was placed,
and handed in several letters bearing testimony to his high
professional character as a nautical man.
Mr. Traill said there were two points for the Court to
consider, viz., whether Capt. Prowse was, justified in mak-
ing the entrance to the harbour without a pilot ; and
secondly, if so, whether such entrance should have been
taken at so early an hour as 3 o'clock in the morning with-
out such pilot.
Captain Harris said the whole fact appeared to him to be
simply whether it was prudent or imprudent for Captain
Prouse to enter the harbour at the time stated. From the
facts as he gathered them, the vessel was due in Galway at
4 p.m. of the 9th, and Black Head was made at 5 30 p.m.,
or very near the proper time. At the time of finding the
weather thick he thought Capt. Prouse had acted prudently
and properly in putting back for the night, having fired
guns and used blue lights, as a signal fur a pilot, and no
pilot coming OR board. On the Admiralty chart the light on
Mutton Island was marked as bearing E by N, and not E 3/4
N, In his opinion, on entering the harbour, every precau-
tion, such as heaving the lead, was carried out; but it ap-
peared they had been groping about at night for a buoy,
about which there was no need to care, if the light was visible
and ahead. It must also be taken into consideration that
the passage was very narrow, the angle not being more than
10 deg., and that it required great nicety in navigating at
night time. He could not, therefore, help thinking that
Capt. Prouse was hardly justified in running in before day-
light, and as a prident commander he would not have done
so himself. There was an Admiralty agent on board, and his
advice was that this individual should be consulted under
such circumstances, and if he testified to what was being
done as correct as entered in the leg, all responsibility and
blame would be taken from the company.
His own opinion
was, and he was sorry to have heard the blame put upon
the compasses, that the error lay in running the vessel on
E 3/4 N, with the tide on the starboard side of the ship.
Mr. Traill, in expressing his concurrence in these obser-
vations, remarked that it was with pleasure the Court had
arrived at the conclusion of delivering up to him (Captain
Prouse) his certificate.
Captain Prouse having thanked the court, the proceed-
ings terminated.

PENAL LEGISLATION IN 8E11,171,1.--Th° different
modes of punishment specified in the Sery lan code
aro death, hard labour, imprisonment, dismissal from pub-
lic functions, fine, the bastinado, civil degradation, a prohi-
bition to exercise certain trades, and lastly, expulsion. The
persons condemned to death are shot; they may, however,
dispose of their property by will. The punishment of
hard labour is for periods of from two to 20 years. The
convicts are employed in prison or in the fields, and wear
chains varying in weight from five to ten pounds, accord
ing to the judgment of the tribunal. Women do not
.
work outside the prison, and are never charged with chains.
Persons condemned to imprisonment are put to some em-
ployment, and in certain cases this punishment may be con-
verted into hard labour, eight months of the latter punish.
ment being counted as equivalent to one year's imprison-
ment. Fines cannot exceed one-third of the fortune of the
person condemned ; if that proportion is exceeded, the sur-
plus is converted into an imprisonment, at the rate of one
day in prison for every 10fr., to the amount of 1,500 fr., and
beyond that sum, of one day's imprisonment for every 15fr.
The bastinado is only
applied to servants, apprentices,
workmen, and thieves or vagrants, and never to persons
who have attained their fiftieth year. In the latter case im-
prisonment is substituted for the bastinado, according to a
fixed scale, the minimum of the bastinado, or ten strokes,
being converted into three or 15 days' imprisonment, and
the maximum into from three to six ni,,nths' imprisonment.
Civil degradation is pronounced for periods of from one to
five years. The prohibition to exercise a trade is applied
to such persons as have been guilty of a crime through the
medium of that calling. It may be perpetual or for a
limited period. Expulsion from a certain locality with
forced residence in a certain place is limited to a maximum
of two years. Foreigners alone can be banished from the
country. The regime of the prisons is mild, and the labour
imposed on the convicts far from excessive. The food,
which consists of two pounds of bread and three ounces of
meat, or a portion of beans daily, is wholesome, and the
clothing good and sufficient. On New Year's Day and on
the Princes' fete day, a certain number of pardons are
accorded to convicts who have served one.half of their
time, and whose conduct has been without reproach. The
two principal prisons in Scrvia aro those of Topchid&e,
near Belgrade, for prisoners under sentence of hard labour,
and of Tchupria for persons condemned to simple imprison-
ment. Each of them bus accommodation for about 500
prisoners.