The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-13 00:00:00

THE RE GALANTI7OIIIO.

The Gibraltar Chronicle of the 28th ult., in reporting the
departure on the previous day of the Italian frigate Re Ga-
lantuomo for Naples, gives the following additional parti-
culars of her disastrous voyage across the Atlantic :—" An
American gentleman, who was accommodated with a pas-
sage to Italy in the ship, bears admiring testimony to the
discipline and calm courage with which both officers and
crew conducted themselves in the perilous crisis, It appears
that for three days and nights they were literally looking
death in the face. The straining of the vessel in the storm
made her leak so much that in the contest between the over
tasked crew at the pumps and the water pouring in from the
opening seams, victory was long doubtful. At one time they
gained slightly on the water in the hold—at another a fiercer
paroxysm of the hurricane overpowered all the exertions of
the crew, and the terrible report went round that the water
was gaining upon them. To add to the horror of their situa-

tion, some of the pumps at one time got out of order, and the
water so far got the mastery as to extinguish the furnaces and
deprive the ship of the aid of her steam machinery. But
throughout this desperate struggle for life nothing like
flinching or despondency was visible, and the American
gentleman who had admired the performances of the gay
young Italian officer in the ballrooms of New York, in which
city they had been hospitably entertained and feted during
the winter, was much struck by the coolness and pluck with
which they worked away at the pumps, and by their ex-
ample encouraging the crew to exertion. There appears to
be an impression on the part of the officers that the Com-
mander of the Star of the West did not make every effort he
might have done to keep by them. When he came within
hail, and their sinking condition was made known, he re-
plied that he could give them no assistance. It is admitted,
however, that he made the signals as stated in hie report,
and the circumstance of the vessels parting company is ex-
plained by the fact that they were not lying to, but that the
Re Galantuomo was running free, and the Star of the West
was apparently accompanying her, but not steering in a
parallel line, and therefore her oblique course every hour
separated the vessel by a greater distance. Besides the
main-deck guns, the cattle that had been taken on board for
their supply during the voyage were thrown overboard to
lighten the ship. For three days all the fires were extin-
guished, and officers and men working at the pumps had no
other food than biscuits, water, and whiskey. When tho
storm was past the commander of the Re Galantuomo de-
termined to return to New York. A succession of strong
westerly gales frustrated this intention, and he then stood
to the northward in order to make the port of Halifax; but,
as it a perverse fate were opposed to the gallant ship, hard
north-west breezes ,barred her progress in this direction
also, and it was at last decided to bear up for the Azores.
It was thus 35 deys after leaving America before the Re
Galantuomo reached a port in which to refit."

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE,

-41,

OXFORD, May 12.
In a Congregation held this day at 2 p.m., the amended
"Local Examination" statute was read ond promulgated.
Professor H. Smrrll rose to propose an amendment. Ho

thanked the Council for the omission of the clause ' con-
scientice cause,' but could not approve the proposed arrange-
ment of the religious examination. He would omit the
whole of the third paragraph of the statute, and modify the
opening clause of the second in such a way as to make the
history of the Bible alone requisite, and that he would re-
quire of all. He commented with some severity on the cir-
culation of a document by a member of Convocation asking
signatures to a declaration which ho thought ambiguous.

Mr. GRIFFITH (of Wadham, secretary to the delegacy)
opposed the statute, pointing out the extreme difficulty of
carrying some of its provisions into effect, and criticising
the looseness of the wording.
Dr. PUSEY defended the statute. He characterised the
objections taken to it as contradictory to each other, de-
fended his circulation of the document alluded to, and no-
ticed as important facts that it had obtained 95 signatures,
and that among them were those of all but three of the Ox-
ford parochial clergy. With regard to the alleged difficulties
in the way of working the statute, they were forced on the
framers of the statute by the delegates, who urged that the
case of those persons who should decline the religious exa-
mination altogether required to be met and provided for.
He concluded a long speech by entering into various sta-

tistics, by which he endeavoured to show that the working
of the Oxford scheme, as respected the religious examina-
tion, had not hitherto been satisfactory.
Professor RewLlNsorr replied to Dr. Pusey. It hadbeen
often said that statistics might be made to prove anything,
and he believed that a careful study of the delegates' re-
ports would show Dr, Pusey's to be fallacious. He con-
ceived that the difficulties in the way of working the statute
which Dr. Pusey could not see, had been underrated rather
than overrated. It was said that the delegates had forced
these difficulties on the framers of the statue; but this was
not the case. The delegates had asked for no change in the
system actually at work. They had merely (as doubts had
arisen as to the wording of the old statute) asked that the
system at work—with which they were satisfied—should be
legalized. He hoped the present statute would be rejected,
and that the Council would then understand that what Con-
gregation wanted was the plan of the delegates.
The MASTER of BALLtob agreed with Professor Rawlin-
son and Mr. Griffith as to the difficulty of working the
statute. He argued that the making the religious examina-
tion a "plucking subject" would induce numbers to decline
it, and that it was undesirable to make boys at such an early
pge declare themselves Dissenters. The Cambridge system
had been spoken of in favourable terms by the supporters
of the statutes, but they forgot to mention that by that
system no one was "plucked" for failure in religious know-
ledge. He thought the experience of the delegates had been
unduly slighted, and mentioned that Dr. Howson, of Liver-
pool, and Mr. Giffard (late of Birmingham school) were
strongly against the proposed compulsion.
Professor BERNARD opposed the statute on three grounds
—its extreme complication, the difficulty in working it, and
the contradiction between the compulsion now sought to be
introduced and the principle of opening the examination to
all which had been originally adopted.
Professor SHIRLEY regretted that the statute was not in
English, It might then have been intelligible. He did not
regard it as embodying the principle which he had wished
to support in signing the document circulated by Dr. Pusey,
He disliked the double doctrinal standard—Scripture and
the Prayer Book—which it was proposed to set up in a sort
of contrast one with the other. If the statute was again
brought forward in its present shape, he hoped the last
clause of the third paragraph would be made the subject of
a separate vote.
Professor BURROWS thought that complicationhat
before
eeree
necessary feature of a statute on such a subject as
very
the house. He regarded Dr. Pusey's statisticsbe
generally
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de
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and even a
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be rejected.
was in favour of the statute,
The PROVOST O.
difficulties which had b
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gt already estab-
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University its
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a,
of Merton, as ono of the three parochial
clergymen who had not signed Dr. Pusey's document, gave
his reasons for dissent from it. He supported the amend-
ment of Professor Smith. The Congregation was dissolved
at 4 p.m.

The Vice• Chancellor has announced that the Denyer
prize will not be awarded this year.