The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-11 00:00:00

tryirg to pass a rope on to the ship, offering 100
rupees to any man who would take it out. Crowds

zees be protected by the authorities ? Cannot it
be enacted by the Legislature that it be unlawful
to employ any child or very young person in this
deteriorating work. The jury very properly ad-
ministered a censure in their verdict of acciden-
tal death, to the effect that it was reprehensible
to allow children so young to be engaged in such
combustible materials. This is as it should be,
under the circumstances of the case. It would be
well if not only this establishment but all its
fellows were to take this counsel to heart. It would
be productive of great benefit to all concerned, and
❑o right-minded, ❑or deep-thinking person will fail
to subscribe to the merits of the advice tendered.
A❑ awful warning has been given to the heedless,
and let them not disregard the teaching of expe-
rience. If anything could lesson the horrors o
this reminiscence, it would be out of evil came
good, if some would be persuaded that there is a
limit beyond which cupidity must not venture to
intrude, and that no designs will succeed if they
are not based upon firm foundations. Philan.
thropists and reformers of abuses in distant lands
may well look at home at first, and find out
whether within a stone's throw of their dwellings
they may not find enough to engage their atten-
tion and arouse their energy. " Children," says
the Psalmist, are " arrows in the hand of the
giant," but how are we throwing away our re-
sources if we suffer our young population to perish
in the flower of their age, or to contract the most
fearful diseases through the unseemly traffic to
which they are doomed. If the commonalty tole-
rate such a scandal, and permit such abuses, it
cannot be said of them—" they shall not be
ashamed when they speak to their enemies within
the

were round him, but none would willingly encoun-
ter such a fearful risk, when an English sailor

came up, and, knowing nothing of the reward,
volunteered to swim out with the cable. He sac•

ceeded in his gallant task,: and, having fastened
one of the ends of the rope to the bow of the vessel,
returned to the shore amid the hearty cheers of the

spectators. It must have been a greater reward to
this gallant British seaman than the unexpected
rupees which awaited him that the nine men on
board all reached land in safety by means of his
rope before the
_vessel went down. Of course,
when ships of this size were wrecked outright,
smaller craft could not hope to escape, and the
destruction among the river boats and steamers was
terrific. Nine out of every ten boats are said to
Ihave gone down, and, consequently, the difficulties
I of the case are increased tenfold from the want of
means of communication with the ships. The police
hulks have all foundered with only one exception,
while a great part of the vessels that were swept
away from their moorings were carried high and
dry upon the opposite back of the river, from whence
many of them can hardly be got off. LLOYDS'
agent calculates the number of ships and cargoes in
jeopardy: at at least 100, and the loss of property
represented by that figure must be something seri-
ous. Still sadder is the loss of life, which is as yet
not even guessed at. The number of English sea■
men lost is variously computed from 100 to 300,
while the lose of the natives is not even calculated.
They went down in hundreds at a time on their
fiats, and the survivors are now helpless and deso-
late, for they have not a home standing, and the
heavy rain on the piles of decaying vegetation col-
lected by the storm is producing malaria and fever,
At this unhealthy season of the year, this is espe-
cially to be deplored, and active measures are
necessary to avert the dangers still following
on the track of the storm, It is unfortunate that
the Governor-General should be absent at the
Darbar in the Hills, but we do not doubt that he
will return at the first moment possible after the
news reaches him. He will find a very different
city from the one he left—with unroofed houses
and churehes, with desolated parks and averues,
roads blocked up with fallen trees, and the Govern-
ment dockyard itself iu ruins, while the river still
presents a moat melanchol; spectacle. We must
be thank:ul that the destruction of European life
has been comparatively small; but the loss, ruin,
and disaster which it has carried in so many quar-
ters, will long mark the terrible cyclone of 1864 as
memorable in domestic and commercial as in
meteorological annals.

:ate."

It is certainly a disgrace to the resources of our
boasted civilisation, that periodically some lives are
sacrificed to the false systems and faulty manage-
ment that prevail in our workshops and manufac-
torieP, to say nothing of the establishments where

milliners' and dressmakers' assistants are cribbed,
cabined, and confined at their tedious toil by stern
and unpitying taskmasters and mistresses. Every

now and then some unhappy victim falls a sacrifice,
and a nine days' wonder is created; but hardly has
the tomb closed over the sufferer before every one

goes on his way, heedless of the cause and forget•
ful of the consequences of the sad calamity. Surely
it would be more becoming it due heed were paid
to the matter, and the right means taken to pre.

vent others falling into the same dangers and being
beset with the same perils. Such cocd ict would
be more seemly in a Christian country, and conduce

more to the credit of its citizens and the welfare o

the community than the apathy which now reigns

so paramount in quarters where it might least b,
expected. T, .e case of the unfortunate 1).1. MICHAEL
NluateetY is one that deservedly claims attention,
alike from its painful character and the disclosures
made i❑ consequence concerning others who follow
the same trade in considerable numbers. One
mistake must be guarded against, not to look upon
this as an individual instance of misfortune or acci-
dent, nor to consider that the establishment i❑
question was particularly faulty in its selection of
workers, too juvenile to be fitted for the responsi
bility. It may surprise some to learn that as many
as 1,800 children and young persons are employed
in the lucifer manufactories of the kingdom. Sad as
the fate of MURPHY was, it must be borne in mind
that in dwelling upon his risk we are also alluding
to the chances to which this immense number are
exposed. It is no exaggeration to state that this is
a subject of great importance, and demands the
attention of those suited and qualified to act, and
able to exercise a repressing influence in this mania
for employing those too young for the dangerous
tasks assigned to them. The Deputy Coroner bore
his testimony to the prevalence of the reprehensible
practice. He stated that "he saw children whom
he would not entrust with a lighted candle at
work near fire works, and in the midst of the most
explosive materials." The sentimental reader
may shudder at the details, and shrink
from the perusal of the frightful death which
the poor lad MURPHY met with, but their feelings
might be rather more painfully excited it
they were told that he is one of a class whose
name is legion, and that hundreds of youthful
creatures who should by rights be sheltered in
some home under the fostering care of relations,
or at least be employed in suitable tasks, are
dragging on their weary work in the midst of this
appalling life in death affair. Can it be right or
fitting that for the sake of the profits of such
cheap emplo3 ees human life should be placed in
imminent peril, and children exposed in situations
of risk that it is fearful to contemplate. The
cause is a national one, and from the thousand
homes of England should rise the voice of censure
at such management. It is scarcely possible to
imagine a more distressing death than that which
carried off the boy Mefurnar. It must have been
a merciful relief when he ceased to exist in such
torments. He was stirring some compound too
vi,;leutly, it is supposed, when the dangerous mat•
ter exploded, and it is only wonderful that he
was the only victim to the catastrophe. The par-
ticulars of his sufferings are most dreadful to
realise, He was burnt with the mixture in a
frightful manner, and his throat was so in-
jured that he could hardly breathe, and indeed
soon afterwards died in agonies. The well-known

lines in the song—
" Wives and mothers most despairing, call them lives of
men."

may, with bitter significance, be applied to this
fatal business, which traffics with its tender human
victims. It is the existence of children that is at
stake in this flourishing trade; and may not their
young voices plead for their release from ranch un-
suitable labour. When they are taken in some cases
at the age of six. years, it seams time t) do some-
thing in the way of emplrling a remedial agency
to redress such grievances, and put a period if pos•
Bible to much that is unmeet and unadvisable. The
parents and guardians of these little outcasts are
much to be censured for permitting them to enter
upon such a hurtful traffic; but in many cases it is
the little wanderers of the wayside who are taken
to do the work. If they are bereft of those near
and dear, if the ties of family are severed, and the
friends once trusted indifferent or perhaps departed
this life, ought not the welfare of these embryo citi-

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, isOVEMBERII, 1861
'EL

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)