The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

THE SU-N, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 21, 1804.

The Loss of the Ship Volunteer.

OFFICIAL REPORT.
The following report has just been received by the
Board of Trade :

Mauritius, Dec. 26, 1563,

The Volunteer, from Mauritius for Calcutta, wrecked
Dec. 8 on.tiarguclos Shoals, appears to have been lost by
the want of experience and presumption of the master. lie
went out of his way fur no purpose connected with the
voyage. He neglected the most ordinary precautions. He
lost his vessel on a weather shore. There are no extenuat-
ing circumstancees, unless inexperience can be considered in
that light ; and had any life been lost his position would
have been a very serious one indeed. The Board beg to
draw attention to the circumstance of there not having been
a second observer, or any check whatever on the sights of
the master. It is impossible now to determine whether the
vessel's position at noon, on Dec. 6 was rightly laid down
on the chart or not. The navigation of the vessel was in the
captain's hands alone. There might have been an error in
the watch, in the sigh's, in the working, or in the ,taking
the time. This reprehensible system of not seeking the co-
operation of one of the officers appears not confined to the
Volunteer. The master states in his evidence that the same
plan was followed by the former master of that vessel
(under whom he served), and that as he was taught so he
acted. If the first mate had been admitted to the confidence
of the captain in the way the Board think he ought 'u have
been, there appears reason to believe, from his evidence,
that the Volunteer would not have been lost. An error of
30 minutes in the vessel's position by observation, by the
effect of an easterly current, was more than sufficient to
produce disastrous crnsequences ; but setting aside this
particular case, such a system seems fraught with danger
to every ship when it is practised. The captain may
fall sick, or die suddenly, and he alone knows the error
and rates of the chronometer and other matters con-
nected with the navigation of his ship, the vessel's
position, the dange's that lie in her track, &c. ; and
an officer suddenly ands himself in command, and, at the
same time, in the sxost complete ignorance of what it is of
the highest importance he should be intimately acquainted
with. Besides, men's faculties rust from want of use, and
what guarantee is tiere that an officer who has been syste-
matically prevented from working the time, taking lunar;
&c., should be ready at that sort of work when required of
him at a moment's notice. The Board trust that this perni •
cious system is conined to but few ships, and that measures
may be taken to do away with it once. Most commanders
are glad to have officers who are good hands at observation
and calculation, and encourage the taking sights of all kinds;
and the feelings of a commander suddenly struck down by
sickness or accident when in charge of a valuable ship, in
perhaps a critical position, with many lives entrusted to his
care, troops or emigrants, or even his own officers and crew
alone, cannot be very enviable when he reflects that, so far
as he knows, he has not an officer fit to replace him as a
navigator, having never tested their qualifications in that
respect, but even carefully excluded them from participat-
ing in that duty beyond the working of the dead reckon-
ing. If the first mate is not the confidant of the captain in
these matters, he ought to be, and the Board trust that
these remarks on this important subject, whether as re-
gards life, property, insurers, or commerce generally, will
not be lost sigh', of. There are no other charges against
Mr. Todhunter than want of experience, consequent ne-
glect of precaution, and a careless sort of presumption too
common to youth. These have led to the loss of his ship,
but he deserves credit for the manner in which he be-
haved after that unfortunate event. There appears to have
been no disorder. Proper and reasonable efforts were made
to get the ship afloat. The preparations for abandon.
ment were made without hurry or confusion, the boats were
fitted and victualled, and the officers and crew were
brought in safety to the Mauritius; and it would be unjust
to Mr. Todhunter not to bring these favourable circum-
stances to notice, and it would be equally unjust to his offi -
cers to suppose that they are not entitled to their full share
of commendation in carrying out the commander's orders
with zeal and intelligence in effecting these objects.
D. \Vann; Harbour-Master, President of the Board.
11. J. BELL, President of the Chamber of Commerce.
JAT4ES FRASER, Agent for Lloyd's.
Trios. H. MULLENS, Surveyor to the Mauritius
Marine Insurance Company.
JOHN S. Ennis, Surveyor for the Melbourne Vic-
toria Insurance Company.
Proceedings confirmed.
BARE LEY.

The Ship John Linn,

OFFICIAL REPORT.

The following is the official report of Mr. Raffles, of
Liverpool, who was deputed by the Board of Trade to in-
quire into the circumstances attending the abandonment of
the ship John Linn :

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS OP TitE COM •
MITTEE OF PRIVY COUNCIL FOR TRADE.

My Lords,—ln pursuance of your directions, I have held
an official investigation into the circumstances attending
the abandonment of the ship John Linn, of Liverpaol,
which occurred on the evening of the Ist January last, in
about littj2o 30 N., and long 37 57 W. In this inquiry I have
been assibted by Captains Harris and Cow, as Nautical
Assessors, and now beg to report :—That the John Linn was
built at St. John, New Brunswick, in the year 1354, and
registered at Liverpool in the year 1858, of the burthen of
1,596 10-100 tons. Her length was 205 feet, her breadth
39 8-10, and the depth of her hold from the tonnage deck
was 22 feet 4-10. Her original tonnage appears to have been
1,171 fJ7- 100 tons, but having been subsequently raised upon,
her gross tonnage became 1,596 10.100, as stated in her
register. The John Linn was owned by Mr. David Fernie,
merchant, of Liverpool, and was commanded by Mr. Thos.
Browning, who holds a certificate of competency as master,
dated the 4th of June, 1860. She had a crew of 30
hands, all told, at the time of her abandonment. The
John Linn left Liverpool, on the outward voyage, in Dec.,
1862, bound to Bombay, and arrived there on the Ist of
May, 1863. While at Bombay she was thoroughly caulked
from the copper upwards to the gunwale, and does not ap-
pear to have made any water as she took in her cargo.
Having completed her loading, which was of great value,
consisting of seeds, spices, dyes, and cotton, which was in-
sured in Liverpool alone at £120,000, she sailed from Bom-
bay, staunch and in good condition, on Sept. 16 last, draw-
ing 22 feet 5 inches aft, and 20 feet 8 inches forward, Dur-
ing her passage home the ship encountered some heavy
weather off the Cape of Good Hope, but does not appear to
have strained or to have made any water. On Dec. 7,
being then in 1 35 N, and 29 39 W, a leads was discovered,
which continued to increase till the evening of Jan, ',when
the ship was abandoned. During these 24 days every effort
was made to contend against the leak, but to no purpose,
and the captain appears to hava Owed his course first for
the West Indies, subsequently for tha Caps 4eVerd Islands,
the then nearest land, on both of which occasions he was
baffled by head wiade. From Dec. 30 to Jan. 2 very bad
weather prevail a gala blowing from the S.S.W., which,
however unusual in that latitude, was siagulorly confirmed
by a reference to the log of the Deogaum, the vessel which
fell in with the John Linn after her abandonment, On
Dec. 31 all the pumps got hopelessly choked with seed, and
they commenced to throw cargo overboard, waking t well
in the afterhold for the purpose of baling, which was con-
tinued till the Felix Bernabo was sighted. The crew were
by this time exhausted, the weather continued threatening,
night was coming on, and the master of the John Linn,
finding the water within 4 feet or 41 feat of her lower hold
beams, embraced the offer of the master of the Felix Ber••
nabo, to take himself and crew on board, and they left
their vessel, and were carried into Martinique. It may
here be added that the captain of the Felix Bernabo, in a
letter addressed to the Commissary of Marine at Martinique,
asserted that the John Linn appeared to him to be unman •
ageable and in a sinking state when he took her master and
crew on board. Within 24 hours of the abandonment the
Deogaum, commanded by Captain Beaglehole, bound from
Callao to Antwerp, fell in with the derelict, but no one
boarded her till Sunday morning, at 7 o'clock. The chief
mate then went on board in the first boat, and he hailed the
Deogaum, reporting the John Linn to be half full of water,
which he estimated at 11 feet. Immediately afterwards Capt,
Beaglehole and his second mate want on board, and stand-
ing on the cargo in the lower hold, sounded with a capstan
bar and found, as he stated, 3ft. 6in, of water. As the cargo
consisted of nine tiers of bags below the cotton, and only
three had been removed, it is obvious that he could not have
reached the skin of the ship by many feet. In fact, the
second mate admitted that when he sounded he struck on
something which he took to be a bag. No other soundings
were taken, and no attempt vies made to sound the well,
although a 7 feet sounding rod was lying on the deck be-
side the pump. The Deogaum remained by the ship till 2
p.m. on Tuesday the sth, during which time they made no
attempt to sail her, but occupied themselves in removing the
ship's sails, stores, and furniture. Upon leaving her the
chief mate, believing that there was no chance of saving
the vessel, upon his solo responsibility set her on tire—an
act which, under the circumstances, was not justifiable, and
certainly not without consulting his master. The Deogaum
sailed slowly away, and the last that was seen of the burn li
-
ing vessel was about 11 p.m., her mainmast having previ-
ously fallen over the side. After hearing the evidence of
Capt. Beaglehole and such of his officers and crew as were
called, I was clearly of opinion that the evidence failed to
substantiate the serious charge which had been made against
the master and crew of the John Linn, the gist of which
was,"•that the ship has been abandoned with 3 feet 6 inches
of water only in her hold, whereas it was obvious that
in a ship of her size they never touched the bottom
in sounding. On the other hand, the evidence of
the chief officer and other of the crew of the John Linn,
confirmed as it was by the examination of a carefully kept
logbook, satisfied me that the master and his ^raw used
every exertion to get his ship home, or into a port of safety,
and silly abandoned her in extremity, and when he consi-
dered it necessary to save life, and after 24 days of unre-
mitting exertion. Under these circumstances, I have had
great pleasure in returning to Captain Browning his certi-
ficate.--I have, &e.,
J. S. RAFFLES, Police Magistrate.
Liverpool, March 15, 1864.
We concur in the obove report,

H. HARRIS.' j
Nautical Amaors,
Jour( Cow,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

-- - ~

SATITRDAY REvaaw.—The material of the present
Ministry excites in the beholder something- of the
interest and admiration which is produced in the
mind by the contemplation of some remnant of
Cyclopean architecture that has endured from prime-
val times. It has no particular beauty, and no
great suitability for the purpose to which it is ap-
plied. But it is impossible to think of the difficul-
ties with which the buildier had to contend, and
which he overcame, without heartfelt wonder. To
have so adjusted rough angular blocks of stone, not
fitting into each other, without cement or mortar
of any kind, as to form a stable and lasting edifice,
must have required almost superhuman ingenuity.
And that is the impression produced on a bystander
who contemplates the task which Lord Palmerston
has achieved in composing his present Ministry
into a structure that has endured so long. Men
more opposed in character, more antipathetic in
sentiment, than some of those whom he selected
for colleagues it would have been difficult to find.
And there were no external circumstances to cement
them together. There was no principle they held
in common, no danger they e.lually feared, no poli-
tical object they combined to pursue. Nothing but
the dexterity of a cunning architect could have
fitted them so ingeniously together. But occasion-
ally the cleverest architect in this style will be
puzzled by some stone of a shape so rugged and
angles so abnormal that it will fit in nowhere, and
only perils the edifice of which it is made to form a
part. If current rumour may be trusted, this is
much the position which is at this moment filled by
Mr. Stansfeld in the eyes of his disquieted leaders.
A Ministry representing the Liberal party as it now
is,is necessarilyconstracted upon peculiar principles.
The natural leadership of course belongs, by Divine
right, to the Whigs. It is necessary that they should
form a decided majority in the Cabinet, and that the
more important offices should be in their hands. But
though strong in statesmen,or at least in veteran poli-
ticians, this historic party is lamentably weak in fol-
lowers. Those numbers which, mean and prosaic
as the consideration may be, are necessary to give
practical effect to adroit partisanship are unhap-
pily not to be supplied by the Whig party! itself.
Like the American militia before the civil war, this
gallant force consists mainly of generals and colonels.
The consequence is that they are compelled to look
around them for alliances by which this vulgar con-
dition of victory may be supplied. The Radicals
are prepared to furnish an adequate contingent, for
a consideration. A concession or two in matters of
principles would do, but, in these days of resting
and being thankful, such concessions are a hard
matter to furnish. Yet this difficulty is easily
overcome, for concessions in matters of place are
more acceptable still. Accordingly the arrange-
ment has been that while, in deference to their in-
alienable rights, the official drawing-room is
occupied by the Whigs, the official steward's-room
is generously abandoned to the Radicals. In
accordance with this understanding, one of the
ablest members of the Radical party, Mr. Stansfeld,
was selected for preferment, and the important post
of Junior Lord of the Admiralty was offered for
his acceptance. Under such circumstances, he
evidently finds inexpressible consolation in calling
himself, " however unworthy, yet a Minister of the
Crown." It might be imagined that this curious
arrangement, by which Whig peers and sons of
peers get the good places, and Radical talents get
the bad ones, was eminently favourable to the
former. In practice, however, this does not always
turn out to be the case. Alliances with extreme
politicians are necessarily hazardous proceedings.
When you take a young Whig into your ranks,
there are certain important points of waich you
may be secure. Yeti may be certain that he will
have scrupulously observed every conventional
decorum. He will never have displayed any
enthusiasm for any cause except at the moment
when every one else was mad about it too. Ho
will never have acquired equivocal friendships by
connection with those doubtful enterprises that are
ranged under the categories of treason or patriotism
according to their success. But all this safe
sobriety is lost directly you venture into a political
temperature more elevated than prevails in the
tepid climate of the great Whig houses. No doubt,
when the Ministers offered a junior lordship of
Admiralty to Mr. Stansfeld, they thought they
were buying the democracy very cheap. It never
seems to have occurred to them that they were
taking Mazzini " with all his engagements" into
the bargain. For a Government that was already
on cold terms with the Emperor of the French, the
discoveries of the Procureur-Imperial, and the re-
marks which they have provoked in England, were
certainly untoward. To Mr. Stansfeld himself they
would have been harmless if it had not been for
the singular want of judgment displayed in his
replies. There seems to have been nothing in his
actual conduct that any reasonable man would have
considered as evidence of more than deplorable in-
discretion. He was on terms of intimate friendship
with an exile, who of coarse was plotting for the
restoration of the cause in which he had suffered.
Ho naturally aided him to the best of his power in
those plans. The only power which a foreign
police can exercise over a refu see who has found
an asylum here is by tampering with the letters
addressed to him through the Post-offices over which
they have power. Nothing, therefore, was more
intelligible than that Mazzini should have his
letters sent to a false address ; and his English
friends would naturally bo willing to allow him
to make use of their houses for that purpose. So
long as the correspondence was confined to political
plotting, there was nothing in the proceedings
either of Mazzini or of his English ally that was
open to reproach. Nothing criminal could be im-
puted to Mr. Stansfeld unless it was shown that,
while he gave this permission, he lux :v that his
friend was concerned in organizing a twardp:
plot. His troubles have been entirely owing je
the singular want of judgment lie dispLvein his
earlier answers. At first the House was very much
disinclined to eater epees the euhject. Investiga-
tions ioto the private lives of public men are not
much to the taste of an gss=Coiy not a few of whose
members inhebit houses of the frailest glass. The
principle of taking a man to task for the friends
with whom he might choose to live was felt to be
one that might be carried very far, If Mr. Stans-
feld had availed himself of this feeling, and had
met his questioner with simple and straightforward
answers, ho would have heard little more of the
matter. That he had been guilty oe Piave impria
dance in continuing, altar: he had taken offiae, to
allow Mazzini to have letters sent under a feigned
name to his house, was acknowledged on Thurs-
day by his friends and in effect by himself. Had
he admitted frankly on the first night all that he
admitted on Thursday, and added a few expressions
of regret, nothing more would probably hC,T6 been
heard upon the matter. Bat he committed an
error, very nearly fatal to the Administration to
which he belongs, in betaking himself to rhetorical
flourishes instead of straightforward answers.
People always believe theee is something wrong
in the case of a defendant who runs off into vague
declamation. The panegyric upon Mazzini was
still more unfortunate. The documents cited by
Mr. Hennessy and Sir Henry Straccy show that at
least there have been times in his life when
Mazzini believed in the lawfulress of tyrannicide.
It was very difficult to persuade the House of
Commons that Mr. Stansfeld was not cognisant of
these writings; and yet, unless he was wholly
ignorant of this tendency of Mazzini's mind, it
was inexcusable in him to have become a blind
participator in schemes of whose character he was
ignorant. But these writings would never have
been dragged into the light if Mr. Stansfeld had
not provoked a scrutiny by his injudicious pane-
gyric. The result was that Mr. Brand's nerves
were rudely shaken ; and the apparent stability
of the Government in the eyes of foreign countries
has been formidably weakened.

LONDON REVIEW.—Some months ago, when a
mysterious paragraph appeared in all the news-
papers informing us that her Majesty had posted
notices over Windsor Palace to the effect that no
smoking would be tolerated upon the Royal pre-
mises, a slight thrill of anxiety ran through the
country. The impression produced was cons;dered
to be of sufficient importance to warrant the semi-
official communication, which followed a few days
after to assure the public, that the caution had not
figured on the walls of that portion of the Palace
which was devoted to the Prince of Wales. Fo-
reigners must have been at a loss to understand the
question from beginning to end. That Queen
Victoria should object to tobacco would be
matter, in the eyes of a philosophical Ger-
man, rather for pity than for alarm, But
a stranger would never comprehend the interest
felt everywhere when the limes announced the
Queen's views, or the relief generally experienced
when it beeame further known that the heir to the
throne was not to be debarred the privilege of ruin-
ing his royal constitution by cigars, Foreigners as
a general rule watch the sayings and doings of their
respective courts with at least as much attention
as that which attaches amongst ourselves to the
various occupations and journeys of the Queen of
England and of her family. Even in Belgium,
where there is little of monarchy beyond the name,
the Duke of Brabant and his brothers can scarcely
enter a shop to buy a pair of Brussels gloves, with-
out finding their adventure chronicled the next
morning in the journals of the metropolis. But the
cigars of the Prince of Wales on this occasion pro-
duced a greater sensation still. With a little more
fanning the subject might hate even told upon the
funds. The two paragraphs connoted to English
ears much more than they denoted to a continental
reader. Nothing could 'be deemed a greater mis-
fortune by the majority of the nation than the

faintest indication of a dissension, however trivial,
I between the Queen and any of her children. Since
the deeply lamented death of Prince Albert, the
Queen's subjects have been watching her with inte-
rest and sympathy, and with much concern. Every
year that she is preserved to ns adds to the difficul-
ties of a very difficult position. The heir to the
throne has grown into a m tnhood that seems to
fulfil the feir hopes universally entertained from the
promise of his youth. We look back on the mise-
rable mischief caused in times not so very distant
by differencos between royal parents and their
children, and congratulate ourselves that we arc not
likely to be harassed by a repetition of the evil.
No shadow of the kind could again fall upon the
Court without stretching itself far and wide over
the nation. Nobody felt, therefore, at all ashamed
of exhibiting as much interest—as even Sir Charles
Phipps himself—in her Majesty's dislike of tobacco ;
or in the amenities invariably observed by one
member of the royal family towards another. The
jealous anxiety with which English people are all
guessing at the sentiments of Queen Victoria about
the unhappy Danish war is excusable, even if here
and there it begins to take an exaggerated form.
Lord Derby pays a visit to her Majesty at Osborne,
or King Leopold comes across the channel to stay
with her at Windsor, and straightway the tongue
of gossip starts off upon its busy round. The leader
of the Opposition has been sent for to tell her
Majesty whether she is obliged by the Constitution
to obey the decision of the Cabinet. Her Majesty's
uncle has travelled over to give her counsel on the
nice point whether Lord Palmerston is not too hot-
spirited an adviser. Finally, we learn from the
unerring lips of rumour, that her Majesty has made
up her mind in case England declares war for Den-
mark to pass the summer at Coburg in a German
castle by herself. All these inventions of the Clubs
filter by slow degrees into the country newspapers,
and are destined in course of time to become the
subject of grave discussion at many a village ale-
house. The excitement the topics in question cause
is partially increased by the evident embarrassment
of the Ministry at having to deal with so compli-
cated a problem as the rival claims of Denmark and
of the German Diet. Whenever Lord Russell can-
not make head or tail of the last despatch from
Berlin or from Vienna, his hesitation is at once put
down to the account of his loyalty, and his head is
supposed to be kept in a state of distraction by his
heart. In spite of all the respect professed by Eng-
lishmen for monarchy as a system of government,
they seem to grow nervous and petulant at the least
suspicion that the Crown is interfering in the politics
of the day. This is a little curious, for nothing can
be plainer than that the wearer of the English
crown must always of necessity exercise a consider.
able personal influence on politics. If there ever
was a question in which Royalty was personally
interested it is the present. The Queen of England
is connected by the closest of all ties with some of
the leading actors in the present German movement.
Her Majesty understands the way in which Germans
view the Slesvig-Holstein affair better, doubtless,
than many of her subjects, She sees the allowances
that ought to be made for the German Courts which
are driven into war by an excited population, and
she knows the history of the various influences that
are at work in Germany itself. If she cares for
England she cannot help being deeply anxious that
England should not rush into war without having
mastered the rights of the dispute. The death of
a wise husband has, moreover, deprived her of the
best and most judicious of counsellers. She has a
consciousness that things seem to be going wrong,
and she has not the benefit of his clear head and his
strong hand. If, under all these circumstances, her
Majesty were not perplexed and troubled, she "oust
be very unlike most other prudent and h'enourable
women. In so natural an embarrass7i:ent there is
much cause for sympathy and retiree%
ECONOMIST.—The number of new companies is
an unceasing theme of remark. They fill the city
articles ; they swell the advertisement lists of all
important papers. Moat men are directors of some
company or another. Every object has its company,
and most objects have many. Is all this good, or is
it bad ? Will it produce great evils, or is it right,
rational, normal ? Are we beginning a right course
which we should have trodden years ago, unless
prohibited and prevented by legislation, or are we
engaging in a series of speculations which will soon
recall the dreadful phenomena of 1847 and 1857 ?
A little inquiry will, we think, show that neither of
these extreme opinions is correct. We think it may
be proved that, as far as we have gone yet, there
lig ground for Caution and discrimination, but no
ground for sweeping censure and condemnation.
We believe the impetus given to joint stock enter-
prises to be beneficial and healthy; we believe that
it will go much further than its most sanguine pro-
moters now imagine; but we also think that, like
all new benefits, it may easily be changed into a
new evil, and that, in matter of fact, some evil
which may be distinctly specified is already being
prodaced by it. First, let us glance at the recent
facts. It appears from the carefully-classified state-
ment which will be found in the supplement to the
Economist of Feb. 20, that in the year 1863, 263
companies were brought before the public, and that
the respective nature of these were as follows :
Banking companies
Financial societies and discount companies
Manufacturing or trading companies
Oc>
Railway l7
Insurance
.. 11
Steam and shipping companies
Mining ..
Hotel companies
Gas••• •O 46
Miscellaneous
18

Now, is 263 a gree°' 263
t ?
or is it no ~• a number, an excessive number,
caution ,e e may impair the reputation for
sa - aich we may think we possess when we
7, 'inn this number is not au excessive number.
Of the merits of the companies we say nothing—
nothing at least now,—but we say that their mere
multitude is no subject for alarm. In the first place,
it is to be considered that the whole of the vast field
till now occupied by private partnerships is at
length being opened to limited companies. They
are trying what part of it they can profitably en-
gage in, and what part they cannot. They were
prohibited till a year or two back, and could not
touch either what was fit or what was unfit for
them ; it is only within the last eighteen months
that the investigation of the true scope and the true
limits of joint stock enterprise has been partically
begun. Before, by law or custom, the bulk of the
trade of the country was in individual hands ; now,
for the first time, we are seeing what part is
adapted, and what unadapted, for management by
corporations. But we should be content to forego
the use of this argument. The capital subscribed
for these companies is, according to the same
authority, £78,135,000, and if we suppose a quarter
of this to be paid up, which is an exaggerated corn-
potation, the absorbed capital is under £20,000,000.
Now, we lately showed that, according to the best
analysis and computation, the annual savings of the
country amounted tol.:130,000,000,and, therefore, if
all these undertakings absorbed new capital to the
whole extent of the sum paid up, they would absorb
but a trifling part of the annual accumulation of
this country. But, further, all these companies do
not absorb new capital to the extent of the sum
paid up. Many of them are wholly or in part sales
of a business already established, already profitable,
already absorbing a large capital. Take a case which
has occurred this week. Messrs. Morrison, Dillon,
and Co., a house in which a colossal fortune has been
made, is to be turned into a joint stock company.
There is no new capital wanted for that. The goods
in the warehouse, and the debts which used to
belong to an unlimited partnership of few members
now belong to a limited partnership with many
members, but the resources of the country are not
trenched upon by the traesfer. It is as much a sale
as if the purchaser were a new private partnership
—as if the firm ceased to be Morrison and Co., and
became Jones and Co. It is evident, then, that the
mere size and multitude of these companies need
not appal us: we have capital for a rest number
more if they be profitable. But will they be pro-
fitable ? To sum up, we do not fear a panic from
the bare operations of these companies. We are
sure the country has capital enough for them or
twice as many. We wish well to the principle 7, of
joint stock enterprise, and are confident of
es-
sential soundness. But we are appr its
Ptensive that
some unwholesome and mischievous trade may be
generated by undue credit and misjudging money-
lenders, and that if a panic arose from any other
cause, these unhealthy speculations would tend by
their collapse to aggravate and intensify it.
SPECTATOR.—Does any one object to the general
policy of the Ministry, either at home or abroad?
Not in the least. Yet no single Minister can make
a proposition which commands support, or keep
himself altogether clear of personal blame, Lord
Palmerston, of course, is au exception. He is never
wrong; but this curious result is only at minable by
paying him the rather question compliment of
supposing that, as Prime Minister, he is not in the
least responsible for the proceedings' of his cola
leagues. Yet even these last, even Lord Russell, and
us unlucky, They manage sino act as to excite
Sir G. Grey• and the underlings, are neLi so much
no enthusiasm in their fevoe-:,
wrong
on the toes of 60111.: while they tread heavily
individual with a crotchet and a
bitter tin
ague, or some section of fanatics which can
live only in a squabble. Without conciliating the
majority, they outrage the minority. Probably a
large majority of the English people in the main
approve Lord Russell's Polish policy ; yet, by some
fatality, he so acted that while the majority regard
it with languid indifference, the two extreme par-
ties, the friends of Russia and the friends of Poland
cannot speak on the subject without foaming at th€
mouth. Sir George Grey is an amiable man, a
clever man, a good speaker, and personally popular ;

w but he is always in hot water. Bat now be for
incurred, and justly incurred, general censa,reso,
his weakness with reference to the convict i°
ley, and that, too, will go to the credit of the Tories
ley, and that, too, will go to the credit of the
ted
probably because the affair would have termit:ious
so very differently in the hands of the in3P,e,;bert
and decided Walpole. Then there is Mr. .1-`," ci.
Lowe. Combining the most finished classical eunife,
tion with the rough experience of colonial I,,nd
successful beyond most men both in Parliament :0o
in society—here, it would seem, was just the
to conciliate everybody while he served the P° 4,3
It has, as a matter of tact, been his destiny to
many propositions for the reform of our educati.e;
system, and every one has been a signal for a P;i,
bub among the clergy, at which the laity scer eil'B
mere self-defence obliged to stop their ears. %,,
will not pause to comment on what all men re°o °of
nise, the tact of Mr. Lavard and the discretion
oo
Sir Robert Peel. But take the crownial just° t
of all—take Mr. Gladstone. His propositiosa,oo%
/east, are no blunders. Never was a more benefi° 13;
measure offered to Parliament than the Governcee
Annuities Bill. It opens a future to the labourer ;g
hope to the only class in this country whicli,tioa
hitherto had no hope—and gives them prote",i4
against the fraud or the incompetency of then 'io,
agitators who govern the so-called friendly skit it
Has it met with the support it deserves ? Ira
even even safe from the opposition of a knot of meta tie
interested in insurance companies, or fearful of ?
wrath of the Odd Fellows at the next eleet,i.°oo
And yet, unless it be in introducing the bill a 'l,or
too quietly and speaking his mind on the motiorli'oo
going into committee a little too plainly, detraehe,
itself can find no fault with Mr. Gladstone. 1", s?
then, is the meaning of these signs and portea.,oo,
They mean that there is a Conservative ren, ,ctigot,
All these little petty mistakes, all this want of
a few years back would have signified nothing' , of
Governments are always open to the same forblep
fault-finding. But in the youth of a party, of
its leaders first seat themselves on the stool! to
office, it is full of life and hope, and no one cares r,
criticise captiously. Small faults are readily
looked, end every proposition wears a roseate P.,ei
If the Opposition open their lips a thousand toario
are ready to defend the Ministry. The malcoateDA
are out-talked, out-voted, ridiculed, and cowed.
few years go by, and there is a change. SuFP°Totf
are languid. Some men have got what they Wble
and some men see they are not likely to get it', ea
measures on which the party were agreed are P°4
and on what should be done next there are di geo
ences of opinion. Then the Opposition gatibad
courage. Its attacks are less vigorously rePn,",,„lo
and consequently are more vigorously plied. 370
passes over to its side. When hope is gone, fajta.
sure soon to follow her sister, and governmentsc„-eri
not found themselves on charity alone. Then
,Iff
begin to recognise the end is near. It is unt,
the Tories are one jot better orators, or stateel"eo
,0;
or administrators, or that the Liberals are or.e
worse than they were formerly. But the sur4Ortio
of the former are uniting more closely , while 'iv
latter party are disintegrating slowly 'under tnee„)o
fluence of their own prosperity. Bel.',,ving this 'yoo
the true state of the case, we.,
use in denying it, no use in making
when the Premier's near relative is beaten for b!'
own county, no use jr., crying,
fool's
there is no as Liberals ae°o
"Peace! Peße'il
paradise, .13P ace. It is better to get out 6'4
Settling keeps us in office but t'f
popularity of.
fail us arty day. So far as the real Liberals are
ro,
cerne the men who care less for power than
F''.ess, they will lose nothing. The wholesoineAerio
of opposition will stimulate their energies, satl`or
them to exertion for life and warmth. The 'Vivi
mere and time servers will be pruned away.
Tories, on the other hand, with the sweets 01
taste the embarrassments of power. If Placenti
twelve hundred a year were multiplied by tn:',"b,
there would not be enough for the crowd 01:00
scure supporters who have not only claims, but' 0
had, one time or another, a nod from Tadpole cl'to,
wink from Taper, and the more eager the exPeeffew
tion the keener the disappointment. Oat of °
for 17 years, the party have no administratorstbad
they cannot cover administrative blunders by a
ige
policy, for their opposition is merely critical, a,
Peel's, Peel's, which Mr. Disraeli lampooned and clap
Then at last the public, which after all is net,'Lv,ri
will, perhaps, begin to see that rest is not s'",si
a thing to be thankful for. John Bull will ru'eti
himself and want to move on, and if it will ha oc'
so desirable a consummation et us have a Tort et
vernment by all means. At present he rese;bitef
an old gentleman who is plethorically drowsy "„-F0
dinner. In vain does his wife shake him—he °jilt;
but for an instant, and then sinks back again of $
a stentorous snore. In his lethargy he is 13:1e0
graceful spectacle, but for the moment it is llie`.ilo
to resist, he must have his sleep out. 3100;b0
this stupor, this Conservative reaction, shoal", Of
made the most of by its admirers, for it isa 50%.•
thing that does not last long, and is
usual If ')
lowed by a rather restless ni
g /.