The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-16 00:00:00

ADMIRAL FLEMING.

(From the Atlas.)
We arc glad to see that a change has come over the
spirit of the dreams of our friends the Tories. It is now
loudly insisted upon by them that no appointment, either
in the army or the navy, or in any other department of
the State, ought to be made upon any other ground than
that of pure merit. The appointment of Admiral Flem-
ing:to the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital is vehe-
mently protested against for the sole reason that he has
never been in a general engagemen'.
That this was not always a Tory principle he who
runneth may read in the complaining despatches of Nel-
son and Collingwood, and of every other naval hero who
has found a biographer. The blunders of beardless
Captains, and the querulous sorrow of neglected vete-
rans, strew our naval history too thickly to require the
additional evidence just afforded by the boast of the
Standard that all our old Admirals are Tories.
We could wish, however, that this newly awakened
horror of political appointments were enounced by some
more recognised organ of the party than the Times and
Standard newspapers. If Sir Robert Peel were to
attack an appointment upon these grounds, we should
have very joyous anticipations of the establishment of a
new system of government in England ; but we cannot
, forget that Sir Robert would repudiate these organs to-
! morrow, and that the Times would without hesitation
follow his example, and laugh at those who had been
deceived by them.

OTlic talk about Admiral Fleming's appointment
appears
to proceed from the bluaikr of confounding,
the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital with the
object of the Hospital itself. The Hospital is one
great sinecure, established for those who have deserved
sinecures of the nation—the Governorship of the Hos-
pital is a very different thing. It is a post which calls
for industry, ability, and vigour. A decrepid sailor, by
his very decrepitude, becomes a proper candidate for
admission to the hospital, but a decrepid Admiral, by that
same decrepitude, becomes altogether unfit to discharge
the active duties of the Governor of the Hospital.
There are, doubtless, many brave old men who have
seen more service than Fleming, and who are now droop-
ing beneath their laurels in an honourable old age. But
the proper rewards for these old men are sinecures and
pensions, which most of them have, not a laborious
office with heavy duties and considerable responsibilities.
On M

onday last a man employed on the North
Union Railway was killed near the first bridge south
of Wigan, by the mail train coming down. The unfor-
tunate individual was engaged regulating the rails on the
up-side of the road, when observing the seven o'clock
train from Preston proceeding towards Parkside, he
stepped from that to the opposite line. He had
scarcely done this when the mail train coming from
Parkside to Preston arrived at the spot, and the wheels
of the engine passed over his neck and nearly severed
his head from his body. The mail train was more than
an hour out of time, having been detained near War-
rington by a luggage train carelessly left, on the rails.
This circumstance was probably unknown to the suf-
ferer, and therefore he had no reason to expect any
train at the time on the side of the road where he had
gone for safety, and the morning being very foggy the
engineman could only see a few yards before him, and
was unable to stop the train in time to save the poor
man's life.
BLOWING UP THE ROYAL GEORGE.—At
Woolwich Academy, on the 24th of June, 1789, the
contrivance of one Sergeant Bell, for blowing up the
Royal George was tried upon a vessel built by his direc-
tions upon a scale of one inch to fifty of the Royal
George's size. The vessel was sunk in the river
Thames, and with .501 b. of powder afterwards con-
ducted into her magazine was blown to pieces. The
experiment took place at high water, and answeredevery expectation of the inventor of it--Genikmans
Magazine, 1789, p, 742.