The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-28 00:00:00

CORONER'S INQUEST.

THE LATE FATAL STEAM-BOAT ACCIDENT NEAR
WATERLOO•BRIDGE.--Yesterday afternoon the inquiry
into the circumstances attending the death of Henry
John Hay, aged 18, who, together with another youth,
named James John Rogers, was unfortunately drowned
by being run down by the Starlight steamboat, on the
evening of the 14th instant, was resumed before
Mr. Higgs, at the Savoy Palace Tavern, Savoy-street,
Strand.

This was the third inquiry, and the interest attend-
ing it did not seem to have decreased in any way.
There certainly were not so many persons present,
which was owing to the arrangements made by the Co-
roner, who, to prevent the recurrence of any such dis-
graceful scenes as occurred at the last inquiry, had ex-
pressly ordered that no watermen or others who were
not concerned in the inquiry should have admittance.
Mr. Cattarns, the solicitor to the Iron Boat Company,
and several of its Directors, attended, as did also Mr.
Clarkson, on the Company's behalf.
Some five or six witnesses were examined, from whose
testimony it appeared that no blame could attach to
the Steam-boat Company, and the Jury accordingly
returned a Verdict of " Accidental Death," with a deo-
dand of Is. on the steam-boat, and Is. on the wherry.

It is understood that Mr. Labouchere does not
vacate his seat by his promotion to the Presidency of the
Board of Trade. This appointment will give very general
satisfaction.

VICE-CHANUERY.-THIS DAY.)

His Honour the VICEZHANCELLOIL sat in his pri-
vate-room to-lay at Lincoln's-inn, for the purpose of
haring any matters that might press. The Court dis-
posed of several motions totally devoid of public inte-
rest, and upon the case of—

TALBOT •V. THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY,
which was appointed specially for to-day, being called
on, at the request of the parties his Honour agreed to
hear it in private. We are therefore, prevented from
giving the facts to the public.

METROPOLITAN POLITICAL

SUMMARY.

(FROM THE MORNING PAYERS OF THIS DAY.)
The Morning Chronicle of this day, referring again to
the trite subject of Lord Lyndhurst's Anti-Ministerial
Phillipic on Ft iday night in the House of Lords, enters
into a course of argument, the object of which is to show
that that Phillipic told rather in favour of, than against,
the Government :—" Suppose all his Lordship's allega-
tions," observes our Contemporary, " against the Mel-
bourne Ministry substantiated ; let it be that they are as
feeble as he contends ; as contemptible ; as devoid of the
confidence of Parliament and the country : what follows,
but that they must inevitably have been superseded
hut for the Tories being more feeble, More conteMpti-
ble, and more thoroughly destitute of the confidence
of Parliament and the country ? No such Ministry as
Lord Lyinihurst described could possibly stand
against an opposition, even though it were much
!ess formidable in numbers and adventitious aid,
than the Tory faction, had that oppas,itien oven et all re-
spectable in ability, character, and public c it'll keno. The
Learned Lord's argument was in r. slay OA* ugliest comPa•
rative compliment that could be pa d to the present Admi-
nistration. It put in the strongest vices not the at:salute
m. rits of Violate s, but t .ree of I), rs,inal qualification
bich they possess, and of oubl:e confidence which they
,thjoy, as ci m r d with the fit
,lon for i e Lerd Lynd-
husst acts is advecate. Acece ding to hi:. ehowtog, Minis-
ters live no one thing to support them on the eminence
they occupy, save the iev'neible repugnance of the people
for Toryism ; and that suffices. To a °amain extent we agt ee
with Lord L) nd urat. We beli ,to that there is in the country
dissatisfaction enough with the Whigs to turn them out,
were it not for the apprehension of their being succeeded
by the Tories. Syirptonts have not been wanting that
they would not have survived, no, not for one calendar
month, the decline of that apprehension. Had twenty
members of the House of Commons coincided in Lord
Brougham's theory on this subject (his theory of Friday,
we mean, not that of Monday), the doom of the
Ministry must have been inevitably sealed. Only let it be
believed that more good can be squeezed out of Toryism
than is conceded by the Whigs, and the question is de-
cided. But people do not believe even in their capability
of yielding good to pressure."
The Morning Post thts speaks of her Majesty's speech :
—" Yesterday her Majesty in person prorogued Parliament.
The Speech from the Throne upon this occasion consisted
of little more than a mere recapitulation of such important
occurrences, foreign and domestic, as have taken place
since the commencement of the Session. It presents no
topic for remark, all the subjects to which it alludp hay-
ing been already, and many of them very recently, dis-
cussed. What will chiefly excite attention is the very
large proportion of the Royal Speech devoted to matters
remote from the business of legislation, a circumstance
from which it might confidently be inferred, if we had no
other proof of the fact, that the Legislature, whese labours
her Majesty was closing for the present, had afforded an
extraordinary example, perhaps of industry, perhaps of
patience, perhaps of perseverance, perhaps of wisdom, but
certainly of barrenness."
The Tunes comments on the Queen's speech in the
following terms:—" The first portion of the speech, till
the House of Commons is addressed, has excited our
laughter, as it will that of every rational person who duly
considers it. England has nothing to do exclusively with
' the topics to which it relates. Her Majesty rejoices 'that
a definitive treaty has been signed between Holland and
Belgium'—' th A concord prevails with regard to the
affairs of the Levant' (Query Ist—Does it ?)---' that
France and Mexico have been reconciled' (Query 2d
Have they ?)—' that differences between this country and
Persia have not yet been satisfactorily adjusted' (Indeed ?)
—` that military operatiOns are begun in India' (Query
3d—When will they be ended ?) On reading this
wild trash, who is there that will not ask himself,
Where am I ? In Holland or Belgium ? In France or
Mexico? -In Teheran, or some other city of Persia?
Well, but something has been done in the Slave Trade,
ayd with that certainly we have some concern ? No,
nothing done ; but much money wasted, and something
still attempted. Her Majesty, as she is made to tell us
in her Speech, will continue to pursue with perseverance
the negotiations in which she is engaged, to persuade
all the Potters of Christendom to unite in a general
league for the entire extinction of the Slave Trade.' Let
srammarians study the wonderful phraseology of this
sentence—she will continue to pursue with perseverance
the negotiations to persuade.' Unhappy Majesty
f England, engaged in so Sisyehean a task ! On
this Slave Trade itself, if the attempt to abolish it has
been honourable to the humanity of England, as no
doubt it has, in how many ways has it been deeply injurious
to our domestic concerns I Ultimately, however, in the
last clause of the first section of time speech, her Majesty
comes to the internal state of the country—to that which
really interests Englishmen ; and here she might have
expatiated with joy and triumph !—here she might have
put forth the full merits of her Whig- Widical Adminis-
tration, and offered them to the devout homage of her sub-
cis ; she might have said that 'she observed with much
pprobation that the attention' which tier Ministers and
their adherents had bestowed in exciting agitation of every
kind against the established institutions of the country
in Church and State, had in truth had their natural results
—had led to their necessary consequences—and that tumult
prevailed in the most consolatory degree throughout the
, most populous districts of the realm—that houses were
fired—God's temples invaded by tumultuous mobs—and
that those who were unjustly subjected to legal process on
account of these proceedings, had it only to allege in their
excuse; that they had been excited and egged on to th-se
acts by the very Magistrates who were now scrutinizing
their conduct, the minions of the Ministry, to whom, also,
they owed their appointments ! This would have been
just subject of boast to an Administration like the
present. But instead of this, the speech tamely, but
ungratefully, says that methods have been taken even to
repress that excess of zeal which owes its origin to the
Queen's advisers themselves. The portion of.the speech
addressed to the Commons is absurd to a degree of which
no precedent can be found. The new Post-office law, the
effect and working of which, by the way, no one can pos-
sibly foresee ; and—hear it with astonishment ye men of
pounds, shillings, and pence, east of Temple-bar—the
late nearly abortive attempt to fund Exchequer-bills ! If'
Mr. Spring Rice would wish to commemorate this last act
of his imbecile administration, why not take some title in-
dicative of the fact, instead of invading, as we see by the
Gazette he has done, the heraldic rights of the Marquis of
Sligo by assuming the title of Monteagle."
The Morning Herald observes, in the course of a lead.
ing article on the subject of her Majesty's speech :
" When her Majesty, addressing the Lords and Commons,
says, The public business having beer, brought to a
close, I have now to perform the satisfactory duty of re.
leasing you from your long and laborious services.' We
wonder what " mischievous wag" in the Cabinet contri-
buted this passage to the Queen's speech. It is too terse
and humourous for the author of the protocols. Had
Lord Glenelg not been unceremoniously thrust out by his
colleagues, we might have been disposed to attribute
it to him in the unwonted animation of a waking
moment. It reminds us of the dry joke perpe-
trated by a learned but somewhat facetious
Judge, on one of the last summer circuits, who,
at a 'maiden assize, ' when of course the grand
inquest were called together only to be discharged, said
very gravely, My Lord, and Gentlemen, two minutes
since I had the honour to charge you; now I have the
pleasure to discharge you, and the country is very much
obliged to you for your long and laborious services.'
There was this difference, however, between the two cases.
The Grand Jury did not pretend to do any business, but
the grand inquest of the nation were upwards of six months
exceedingly busy in doing nothing. When the Queen's
Cabinet, in composing the Royal speech, plagiarised the
address of a Learned Judge of assize to the Grand Jury of
Huntingdon, they ought to have had the manliness to ac-
knowledge and the candour to quote their authority. To
withdraw attention as much as possible from the frightful
state into which the domestic concerns of the nation have
fallen under Whig sway, the speech is chiefly occupied
with allusions to our foreign relations—because, we sup.
pose, it is thought people understa. ad less about them."
The Morning Advertiser obsery es, with regard to that
part of the Queen's Speech, which relates to the constabu-
Lry force :—" We should have been much better pleased
if the ' cordial assent' expressed. in reference to 'the
. Bills for the establishment of a more efficient constabu-
lary force, and for extending and invigorating the civil
power throu;:hout the country,' bad' been accompanied with
the expression of a hope that, at its..next assembling, Par-
liament would make such just and well-ordered concessions
to public opinion as would secure the, public pence without
the investment of any extraordinary powers in the con-
stituted authorities."