The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The good fortune which is said to wait
upon valour does not always attend jobbery, however
determined and courageous. If ever a body of men
had this title to success, it was the promoters of the
famous Galway Company. They procured a subsidy
from Lord Derby's Government by methods and
arguments which Conservative speakers ware after-
wards driven to justify upon principles worthy of
Sir Robert Walpole. Having signally and re-
peatedly failed to fulfil the conditions of their con-
tract, they treated the forfeiture of it as 814 insult
to Ireland, and rallied their countrymen of all par-
ties to their rescue. The screw was put on and kept
on with such relentless dexterity that Lord Pal-
merston's Government gave way under it, and actually
consented to renew the subsidy. It is true that they
affected to shelter themselves under the report of a
committee, and even went through the form of treat-
ing the question as one of public interest; but the
trick was too simple to deceive any one, and, to do
Lord Palmerston j ustice, was never intended to have
this effect. It was no secret that the £70,000 a year
was to be paid by the Post-office, not for the more
speedy conveyance of our American mails, but as a
peaceoffering to Irishmen. From this point of view
there was, perhaps, no need to be ashamed of
it. It is ten times more important that Ireland
should be satisfied than that we should hear from
America, a day sooner or later, and no less than
this was the real consideration for the bargain.
Still it was hoped that, just to save appearances,
the steamers would keep their time, and not break
down too often. If there had been no fleet at all,
it might have been worth while to pay the money,
but Mr. Alderman Reynolds and others had been
careful to inform us that there was a very fine fleet
all ready, to enumerate the number and tonnage of
the vessels, and to adopt a high tone, as though the
arrangement had not the least taste of a resem-
blance to an Irish job, or what Lord Ulanricarde
happily called " eminently an Irish question."
This bold play, as we have said, deserved better
Luck than has befallen the Atlantic Company.
We have not before us a detailed list of all the
disasters that have occurred on this line since it
was reopened, bat we know quite enough to make
us sympathise with all those who have anything
to do with it. If the stars in their courses
had fought against the shareholders, their elite.
comfiture could not have been more complete.
Either on the high seas, or in entering tome hat,
I.bour, or in quitting some harbour, something is
sure to go wrong with their vessels. If they are
not °Aught in a fog the machinery gets out of order,
and if the machinery does not get out of order they
come in collision with a rock. This is whet has hap-
pened to the last of which we have any intelligence.
"The Atlantic Royal Mail steamer Anglia, from
Liverpool to Boston, went on the Black Rock in
Galway Bay at 5 a.m. to.day." This beats every-
thing. In Galway Bay, the very station of which
the capacity and safety were so much extolled, and
which was to become the great Atlantic port of the
British islands, a vessel well found and skilfully
commanded runs straight upon a rock. However,
it is not so bad as it might be, for "it is expected
that she will be got off safely at high water."
This reminds us of the language in which the
American newspapers are wont to announce the
usual result of a Federal invasion. The " safety"
of a vessel that is floated off a rock close to the
Irish coast in an attempt to cross the Atlantic at
express speed is like the safety of a conquering
force that is withdrawn by a strategic movement
behind intrenchments. The Anglia may
.be saved
from shipwreck, but can she possibly arrive punc-
tually at her destination ? If we may waive for a
moment the reserve which makes us unwilling to
put this company on its defence, we would fain ask
what conceivable claim it can have to public sup-
port unless it can fairly beat all competitors in the
time of transit. On the supposition that there was
no job in the case, Galway was selected not as the
most convenient starting point in other respects
either for passengers or goods traffic, but simply as
the nearest port to America. It was assured that the
mails, at least, could be transmitted from one con-
tinent to the other with the utmost despatch and
regularity. How have these expectations, if they
deserved to be called so, been fulfilled ? We will
not go so far as to say that not a single voyage has
been made within the agreed time, but we may
safely assert that such voyages ha"Ve been the ex-
ception, and not the rule. Again and again the
news brought by these vessels has been anticipated,
and the practical inferiority of the Galway route
established by the only test that we can apply. One
purpose, and one only, has hitherto been served by
it, that of facilitating the passage of emigrants from
Conuaught to New York. This is not the place to
inquire whether this is a proper object of Imperial
policy, but it was not the motive assigned for the
grant, and Mr. Gregory would scarcely advise us to
provide the United States with recruits at our own
expense. Now, either the penalties for these inces-
sant defaults will be enforced or they will not. If they
are not, the other Companies who now compete
handicapped with the Atlantic will have the best
possible reason to complain, and the job will have
been carried beyond the limits of fair play. If
they are, they will eat into the profits of the
concern and bring down the dividends terribly.
Nor can we see any fair prospect of improvement.
After the former breakdown, and the fierce agita-
tion both in and out of Parliament about the rights
and wrongs of Galway, we may take it for granted
that every precaution of which their means ad-
mitted was taken by the directors. Accidents may
happen, but they do not happen with the unifor-
mity of a fixed law, and though " misfortunes," as
the shying is, " do not come singly," they rarely
come in such numbers and with such regularity un-
less where they have a permanent cause. It will
be impossible to evade the question whether the
Galway experiment has not been tried long
enough. Ireland had set her heart on its being
made, and it has been made for many months
under every advantage. So far it has proved a
dead failure, and a eecond set of shareholders are
threatened with ruinous loss. Must this company
be tested, as cannon are tested, up to the point of
a destructive explosion, or shall some other gratifi-
cation be provided for the Irish nation in lieu of it?
This is what Parliament will have to consider. If
the directors can show that they are the victims of
a fatal series of mischances, or the peasantry of
Connaught can make good their demand for a cheap
means of transport under the name of a postal
service,, we have not a word to say against it. We
have long advocated the concession as a pecuniary
largess to Ireland, and we freely admit that the
recipients should be consulted as to the form in
which they will take it.

POST.—If the author of the grim tragedy, the
last act of which came to a close on Monday night,
had not been a man skilled in poison—specially
educated, so to speak, in a department of science
which he turned to such devilish account—many
individuals, conscious of being the objects of some
outstanding feud, might well resolve to live exclu-
sively on eggs. The subtle power at a poisoner's
command of inflicting sudden and silent death was
perhaps never more forcibly illustrated than by the
murderer Hunt on Saturday night. The conditions
under which the wife and two children succumbed
to poison without the circumstance being discovered
until the cab door was thrown open, its destination
being reached, are so extraordinary—would have
seemed, had they not actaally occurred, so impro-
bable—that the author of a sensational novel,
drawing on his imagination for the results, would
hardly have escaped the imputation of transcending
the probable to a wholly unwarrantable degree ;
nay further, we argue that if the wretched mur-
derer-suicide had given himself up to the police at
once—as soon as the hue and cry was raised—de-
nying his cognisance of the deed, and throwing the
accusation on his wife, the probability of such aver-
ment would have been strong that whatever the
coroner's jury might have done, the judge's jury
would never have convicted on the strength of such
evidence as has been hitherto adduced./ That, when
the man Hunt got out of the cab opposite Furni-
val's-inn, his wife and children were alive, and that,
subsequent to his departure, the fatal dose of prus-
sic acid was adminstered by Mrs. Hunt, would have
been an hypothesis so plausible that it must have
commended itself to a jury if backed by Hunt's
own asseverations. This view of the case will be-
come the more evident if we pass cursorily in review
some of the specialities of prussic acid. Quite true
it is that real, absolute, undiluted prussic acid is so
dire a poison that a mere drop of it let fall, not t()
say upon the tongue, but into the eye' the
killsa
strong animal—a dog, for instance—with
sud-
denness of a lightning stroke or a cannontil-ball;
but
this sort of prussic acid we apprehend must have
person
rt esacnn*
nbeoetnboeubtooufgthhte; qiut esmtiuosnt.
beln p
rtehpea
rfierds t place,by tbe
decomposes. If the
using it, and when prepared must be kept sue-.
murdererrounded by
boughtice,
itprrsepsiidelyaeid,
it could not have
had more than five per cent. strength, and most pro-
acid i h chemistry
intermediate
hibly only three per cent. It is indeed competent to
a
s he w
assum:s_thmatanHutu.
was—manufactured prussicainte d w
Hunt—acquainted
in strength between that of absolute acid and the
dilute liquid of the shops ; but even this assump-
tion, if adopted, by no means removes the difficulties
which beset the case. Whatevert be orgi nal strength,
it would seem to have been diluted by mixture with
beer; and for that reason it is with the hypothesis
of dilute prussic acid that we have to concern our-
selves. Now, the progress of symptoms—dilute
prussic acid being swallowed in a fatally poisonous
dose—is somewhat as follows ;—For
seconds, or about, no effect will be
perceptible
three
tirble;the
patient, noticing a strong taste of bitter almonds,
will heeome conscious that some extraneous mate-
rial has been swallowed, no more. With the fourth ,

second, or about, comes a convulsion, probably a
shriek, then short, sharp, muscular twitches, and
gasping supervene, and, usually before a quarter of
a minute has gone by, practically speaking, death;
though the heart may continue throbbing up to the
end of half a minute. Such being the normal march
of symptoms, the difficulties of assumption is rela-
tion to this case begin. In the first place three
individuals coald have not drunk simultane-
ously of one pot • the drinking must have
been consecutive; and the case required that the
third individual should have swallowed the fatal
dose before any cognisance, or even suspicion of
foul play, had arisen on the part of the two pre-
ceding. It is necessary, in point of fact, to assume
that the triple poisoning should have been accom-
plished in three seconds of time. Such a result
would not seem easy to bring about. Three seconds
would appear to be inadequate for the taking Of
three draughts, each by a different person, from the
same vessel; even though the marked odour of
prussic acid (resembling that of bitter almonds) had
not been present. We do not mean to assert that
the progress of results, as recited, is absolute to the
letter—that it may not be subject to variations ; but
the latter are slight, and even if admitted, they
import difficulties to take the place of others elimi-
nated. If, for example, the time between adminis-
tration of the poison and death be extended, then
it is accordant with what experience has shown, to
assume a prolongation of convulsions, shrieks, and
other demonstrations ; sufficient, it may reasonably
be assumed, to have challenged attention on the
part of the cab-driver. It needs no words of assur-
ance on our part to make the public understand that,
but for the closing of this horrible drama, we should
not have felt ourselves justified in offering these
remarks. Justice to the prisoner would have
prompted an absolute reticence on a topic the dis-
cussion of which should in common fairness be
determined by a criminal court only. His death
has removed all such scruples. We, in common
with toxicologists and the public, may now
study the case apart from every consideration of
human interest, regarding it only as a problem,
very much as the chess•player might study a
series of combinations on his chequered board.
The tale has a moral, one that the very highest liv-
ing authority on poisons inculcated:long ago, that
may bring confidence and consolation to the nerves
of some people who, perusing a record of modern
poisoning, may apprehend danger to themselves.
Master poisoners, according to Christison, must
henceforth be somewhat deeply versed in the science
of their art. The present case justifies that observa-
tion; and even the poisonings accomplished by
Catherine Wilson do not constitute an exception.
Passing now from the murdered wife and children
to Hunt himself, the poison aconite, with which he
elected to cut short his evil career, merits a remark.
Aconite, the active principle of monkshood, has no
affinity whatever with strychnia, although certain
contemporaries have stated the reverse. Neither
are the effects similar; for whilst strychnia pro-
duces horrible convulsions, aconite has the remark-
able property of wholly destroying sensation with-
out motion ; in other words, giving the indiviaual
poisoned by it a total immunity from pain. We
cannot but regret that the ends of justice were de-
feated by the folly of the police, who went in uni-
form to Hunt's house and knocked at hia door,
thus giving him the opportunity of swallowing the
fatal draught. The public, however, may derive
some consolation from the consideration that the
whole case is one of an extraordinary exceptional
nature.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

NEWARK.-WEDNESDAY.

A tolerable quantity of wheat on offer at our market to
day, and the demand was fair, at a slight decline on the
rates of last week. Barley and other articles were not ma-
terially changed.
White wheat new, 43s to 46s Barley, grinding.. 30s to 3'26
Red do. 37s to 42s Oats, old, .. ..25s to 288
Old white 42s to 46s New do 208 to 24S
Red do. 41s to 448 1 Beans.. 378 to 405
Barley, malting.... 368 to 408 1 Beans, new 3.28 to 34S