The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENIAG, AUGUST 12, 1865.

and we went up together. We wont into No. 6 room, and
found the children in bed dead. They were covered over,
and the clothes were undisturbed. A penny piece was
lying on the breast of the youngest. I then went to room
No. 8, and there found the eldest child. He was lying
on his back, with his face a little turned. There
was a bottle containing something like a chalk mixture.
In the room we also found an empty phial and a tumbler.
Dr. Roberts has them now in his possession. I don't know
anything further about the matte; except what I heard
talked about in the coffeehouse.

Elizabeth Maidman—l am chambermaid at the Star
coffeehouse. I saw them twice on Monday. They all
slept together that night. I did not see much that day.
At a few minutes before 10 on Tuesday night I went up
stairs to see to the beds, when Mrs. Clifford told me the
children were gone to bed. I saw the door of No. 8 room
open, that was the room the children slept in the night before.
I went in and found only one child in the bed. I thought
he was asleep. There was no other person in the room.
As I was coming out of the room I met the man Southey
on the landing. I said to him, " How bad that poor child
looks." Southey replied, " Yes, he dots." He was going
towards the room. I had a candle in my hand, but he had
none. He put the door too, and locked it.
Coroner—Are you sure he came out of No. 6 ?
Witness—l was going there.
Coroner—What for?

Witness— To see whether it was all right. Southey
said to me, " You may be sure it's all right there,
miss." I went upstairs. The next morning I went with
Maria Bealo to see the children.

Coroner—Could you swear to that man if you saw him
again ?
Witness—Yes.
Coroner—You are sure you would know him again ?

Witness—Yes, I am sure I should.
Coroner—Youdidnot think the childwas deadwhen you
saw him on Tuesday night.
Witness—No.

Dr. Anthony Roberts, of 3 Lamb's Conduit-street, said
—I was sent for, and I arrived at the Star Coffeehouse at
a quarter to 9. In a room,' No. 6, on the third floor front, I
saw two boys lying on their backs. On the larger child
there was no external marks of violence. They were
quite dead, and I should think they had been so about 8
hours, when I saw them. I was shown into a back room,
where I saw a boy about eleven years of age, he was
lying in bed and quite dead. I saw in the room a bottle
containing a mixture with a white sediment. I was shown
some black looking fluid in one of the utensils. I was
shown a phial in which there was a few drops of a clear
fluid, with a pungent smell. The tumbler smelt the same.
I have made a post mortem examination ; I should say
about 12 or 14 hours after death. I have preserved the
stomachs of all three of the children, and other portions of
the intestines. These have been submitted to Dr.
Harley.
The Coroner said he had received a letter from Dr.
Harley, who informed him that although the examination
was proceeding as rapidly as possible he would not be able
to produce his report before Monday afternoon at the ear-
liest. As Dr. Harley was not prepared to state the nature
of the poison at the present moment, and as there would
be some judicial inquiry as soon as possible, and as that
could not bo done earlier than Monday, he proposed they
should adjourn until Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Coroner—Shall we have the accused present then ?
Superintendent Searle—That is very uncertain. He is
in custody on a charge of murder at Ramsgate, and it is not
known yet whether the authorities there will give him up.
Coroner—Have you any doubt about its being the man
Southey ?
Superintendendent Searle—None whatever. There can
be no doubt that Forward is the man Southey. The per-
son he has murdered is his wife. Mrs. White, I believe,
has gone to Australia.
The inquiry was then adjourned until Tuesday morning.

INQUEST ON THE BODIES OF MRS. SOUTHEY
AND HER DAUGHTER.
RAMSGATE, Aug. 11.
This morning a coroner's inquest was held in the Town-
hall on the bodies of the two unfortunate victims of the
man Southey, by Mr. J. N. Mourilyan, the coroner for
Sandwich. The jury, having been sworn, proceeded to the
Seamen's Infirmary at Ramsgate to view the bodies, and
on their return the following evidence was taken :
William George Tappenden said—l am potboy at the
Camden Arms public-house. On Wednesday evening, a
little before 8 o'clock, a man came to me and asked me if I
would go down to the dyer's, in King-street. That is Mr.
Ellis's. I understood him to ask if a dressmaker lived there,
and they said no such person was there. I went back and
told him, and ho said, "I told you to ask for Mrs. For-
ward." I went back and asked for Mrs. Forward, and she
came doWn. I asked her to put down her address and give
it to me for a gentleman at the Camden Arms. She wrote
it down and I gave it to him. Mrs. Forward is the person
who is now lying dead. The gentleman was walking up
and down when I came back, and when I gave him the
address he went away.
By the Jury—Ho did not sleep at the Camden Arms. Ho
had a large black beard, but I do notknow whether he wore
spectacles.
Miss Adelaide Ellis said—l live at 38, King-street, with
my father. I know Mrs. Mary Ann Jemima Forward, and
have known her 13 years. Emily Sarah Francis Forward
was eight years old. On Wednesday last Mrs. Forward
came into my father's house and asked what the boy
wanted who came for her address. She came in afterwards
and said a gentleman wanted to see her at the Camden
Arms. Mrs. King lived in King-street, exactly oppo-
site. My father went to Mrs. Forward's house and advised
her to see whether it was her husband before she had an
interview with him. While I was waiting to go with Mrs.
Forward she came into my father's house with her husband,
and she said, " I have accidentally met him in the street ;
let us come in here," meaning my father's house. He said
he wished her to go with him up Belmont-place, as he had
something to say to her. She refused to go up Belmont-
place. Forward and his wife went into the parlour, and
she then said to him, " Whatever you have to say you can
say it before Mr. Ellis and his daughter." Forward as-
sented, and I asked him where he had been for the last 71-
years, and he made no reply. Mrs. Forward told him what
she had suffered during his cruel desertion. He said she
had not suffered more than he had done. He said, "I wish
to say to you, Polly, what I cannot say in tho presence of
your friends." She replied, "You may say anything you
like before them, for if it had not been for them I must have
perished." Ile said very little, but spoke of how cruelly
he had been used year; ago, and I replied that that had no-
thing to do with it. I begged of him that his conduct for
the future would atone for the past in some way towards
her. We left them alone for about a quarter of an hour,
and they then came into the passage, where we met them.
Mrs. Forward said, " Stephen has promised to come at
eight o'clock in the morning." I said, " You'll be sure to
come," and he said, " Yes, what I have said I will keep my
word." They left then, and I watched her home. They
were apparently on friendly terms, but he did not shake
hands with her. He did not say where he was staying.
He went up Bellevue-hill. On Thursday, about a quarter
to eight o'clock, Mrs. Forward came over to our house, and
her daughter came in soon after. Forward came in about
20 minutes past eight o'clock. He walked in. (Here the
witness became very much affected, and was accommodated
with a seat.) When he came in he seemed quiet. I asked
him if he would have breakfast, and he said no, he had
breakfasted. His wife was having breakfast. I told them
then, " If you have anything to say you can go up stairs by
yourselves." T hey went up stairs by themselves. Forward
said, "Let the child go with us." We did not let her go
then, but sent her home, and went up stairs to make the
beds. Mrs. Forward sent my cousin for the child. When
I came down stairs the child was at the bottom, and I told
her to go up, as they wanted her. She went up, and I went
into the shop. The child had not been there five minutes
when I heard the report of firearms. I heard a heavy fall
and a rushing to the door. I ran up stairs to see what was
the matter, and I saw Mrs. Forward rolling down the four
stops fronting the landing. She was bleeding frOm the
head, and had been shot. I was going to take hold of the
child when Forward placed the pistol close to her mouth.
1 said, " Forward, what are you doing ?" He said, "No-
thing." I ran down and called father. I cannot say that
he fired at the child again when I took hold of her; but as
I was going down stairs I heard the report of a pistol.
Father was in the dye-house across the yard, and while I
was going for my father I heard another report. I went
and picked the child up and found she was bleeding from
a wound on the head. She appeared to be bleeding from
all parts of the head. She was quite dead. I took her down
to the parlour and sent for Mr. Curling, a surgeon. I did
not go up again for some time, but when I did I saw Mrs.
Forward lying between the two windows. She was quite
dead and had two wounds in her head. I did not see For-
ward after my father had given him into custody.
By the Jury—Mrs. Forward came in yesterday to meet
her husband, but she said she felt very ill. Forward had a
beard and moustache when he called on Thursday morning.
I heard two reports of firearms before I went up stairs.
Richard Ellis said—l reside at 38, King-street. I have
known Mrs. Forward 12 years, and the daughter all her
lifetime. She was eight years old last July. Forward was
called Stephen; that was the only name I ever heard of.
He deserted his wife about eight years ago. He left her
with a sick child, and promised to send her some money,
but ho never did. That child died. It was before the birth
of this. When I heard that an application had been made
by a gentleman fo.r Mrs. Forward's address, I suspected it
was her husband, and therefore watched, because I knew
he would adopt any strategy to get at her. While I was
looking out I saw Mrs. Forward coming along, followed
by her husband. She said to me, " This is ho," and they
went into my sitting-room. She began to reprove him for
the troubles she had gone through since last she saw him,
and then he told the troubles she had gone through. Ho
said to his wife that he had something to communicate to
her which he could not do before her friends. My daughter
said to him that for the sake of making things comfortable
wo would retire, and accordingly we went into the shop.
They were together about a quarter of an hour, when he
left. They were apparently on good terms, and I think he
shook hands with her. He wore a beard and moustache,
and a short coat. On .the following morning he came in,
but did not breakfast. The witness here detailed the cir-
cumstance of having been called by his daughter, and what

he saw on entering the house. He then proceeded—l looked
round at him, and could scarcely recognise him, for he had
taken off his beard and moustache. I said, " Where are
your disfigurements ?" and he said, " There they are,"
pointing to the grate. 1 said, "No, they are not, and I in-
sist upon having them." He then took them out of his
pocket and gave them to me. I said, "Whatever made you
do a thing like this ?" but he made no reply. Presently he
repeated my name three times, and said, ',Ellis, she is better
off now than ever she was. She has suffered a great deal
of trouble, but now she is out of it. Had she lived she
would have had more of it, for if I had returned again to
London I should have been under the sentence of death for
what I have left behind." I said, "What, that dear child
you have murdered," and he said, " Say no more." I sent
for the police and gave him into custody. I told him that
my house would not let after such a thing as this, and that
I should be ruined. Ho replied that he had £1,200 in the
hands of some one, and that I should be reimbursed for all
my loss. He made no resistance nor any attempt to escape.
By the Jury—He did not say why he did not go back to
London.

Mr. Hicks said—l am surgeon. I was called into Mr.
Ellis's house about nine o'clock on Wednesday morning.
On going up stairs to the front sitting room I saw the body
of a female lying on her left side quite dead. She had two
wounds on the right side of the head. One was a small
circular wound about a quarter of an inch in diameter,
about two inches behind the ear. From that wound a
small portion of brain was protruding. The other was
about an inch in front of the ear in a line with the other.
The right eyelid Was open and the eye was much bruised.
Both wounds were about tho same size. They were gun--
shot wounds. The hair was much singed. These wounds
were the cause of her death. Her death must have been
instantaneous, and she must have dropped when shot, for
her attitude was easy. I went into the lower room and
found there the body of a child• She was fully dressed,
and had a hat on. Blood was issuing in large quantities
from the mouth and nose. On removing the hat there was
a large wound on each side of the skull. They were gun-
shot wounds, and the brain was protruding in large quan-
tities. Those wounds were the cause of death. I saw a
small pistol bullet that had been found close to the child.
It had been conical, but was then flattened. The deceased
were Mrs. Forward and her daughter.

By the Jury—The two wounds in Mrs. Forward's head
were made by two shots. It would have been impossible
to have inflicted the two wounds with one shot. The two
wounds on the child's head might have been caused by
one shot:

Police-constable Drayson said—l was called to Mr. Ellie's
house about a quarter past nine on Thursday morning.
When I entered the house I saw a child lying a corpse in
the back room, her head all covered with blood. I went
up stairs, and on the landing I saw a large pool of blood.
In the room I saw the body of a woman quite dead. She
was lying on her left side. I was about to take Forward
into custody, when Mr. Ellis said, "Oh, policeman, take
charge of these articles," and handed me the revolver, the
moustache, and a pair of broken spectacles. Sergeant Per-
kins sent me for a doctor, and I then took Forward into
custody. He was perfectly quiet. When the pistol was
given to me by Mr. Ellis the barn], was warm, and there
was blood on the end of it.

Mr. James Levick an superintendent of the
Ramsgate police. I was sent for about a quarter-past nine
to Mr. Ellis's, and saw Frances Forward in the back par-
lour. This witness then described the scene which has
been already testified to by other witnesses, and added—
Before I took him into custody 1 asked him his name, and
he said, " Stephen Forward, but I have lately gone by the
name of Walter Southey." I then recognised him by his
voice, having know him some years ago. I said, pointing
to Mrs. Forward, " Who is that r and he replied, " That
is my lawfully wedded wife." I asked her name, and he
said, "Mary Anne Jemima Forw" He also said that
her age was 35. 1 asked him whose child that was dead
down stairs, and he said it was his, that her name was
Emily Sarah Frances Forward, and she was eight years
old. I then told him that I was going to take him into
custody for the wilful murder of his wife and child, and
that he need not say anything unless he wished. He said,
"Mr. Levick, if you knew all ycu would not think so bad
of me as it appears." On the table before him I found six
ball cartridges, two pocket-book 4 a razor, some pistol-cap;
a half sovereign in gold, ss. 3d. silver, and 3d. in copper.
Forward had put them all out of his pocket and I made a
list of them. Some one gave me a bullet, which I now
produce. There was nothing in the pocket-books material
to the inquest.
This being the whole of the evidence, the coroner was
about to sum up,' when
Mr. Inspector Tanner, of the Metropolitan police force,
said he was instructed by the Homo Secretary to apply to
the coroner for an adjournment in this case, in order to
avoid a very great difficulty they were likely to get into,
and in justice to the prisoner it ought to be agreed to. Ho
had a warrant for his apprehension for the murder of
three children in London, and if he wore allowed to take
the prisoner to London he would be tried in September
next, but if committed by the coroner ho would not bo
tried until March next, when the witnesses might be dead
and the ends of justice frustrated; and, should he be ac-
quitted in September, then the coroner's warrant could
bring the prisoner down here to be tried for these
murders.

The coroner consulted with the jury, and told Mr. In-
spector Tanner that ho could not comply with his request.
He then proceeded to sum up.

The jury retired at 13 minutes to three o'clock, and re-
turned into court at 10 minutes to three with a verdict of
wilful murder in each case against Stephen Forward.
The coroner then made out his warrant for the com-
mittal of the prisoner to the next gaol delivery at Maid-
stone.

The following is the document already alluded to as
having been written by the prisoner :
"Police Station, Earnsgate, Aug. 10, 1865.
" On Monday, 17th inst., I took three children, whom I
claim as mine by the strongest ties, to Starr's coffee house,
Red Lion-street, Holborn. I felt for those children all the
affection a parent could feel. I had utterly worn out every
power of mind and body in my efforts to secure a home for
these children, also other fivo persons hopelessly dependent
upon me. I could struggle roo longer, for the last support
had been drawn from me. 'AIy sufferings were no longer
supportable. Every last hope had perished by my bitter
and painful experience of our present iniquitously defec-
tive social justice ; and for this I shall be charged with
murder—for criminal murder as well, in the truest and
strongest sense of the charge. I repudiate and deny it. I
throw back the charge on the men who have, by their
gross and criminal neglect, so brought about these sad and
fearful crimes - on those high dignitaries of the State, the
Church, and justice who have turned a deaf ear to my
heart-broken appeals, and refused a fellow-help in all my
frenzied efforts and my exhausted struggles—who have
thereby denied the sacredness of human life, and the mu-
tual dependence of man—the sacred principles upon which
the social system itself is based. Foremost amongst those
—the Hon. Lord Dudley, the Bishop of London, Sir R.
Mayne, Lord Palmerston, the Attorney-General, Sir G.
Grey, Mr. Gladstone, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Ebury,
the Marquis Townshend, Lord Elcho, Lord Brougham
(this name was struck out), Sir E. B. Lytton, Lord Lyttel-
ton, Sir J. Pakington, Earl Derby, Lord Stanley, Mr.
Crossley, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Under all
the terrible run of my life I have done for the best."

A NOVEL ENTERPRISE.--We read in the Toronto
Globe :—" The disproportion of numbers in the male
and female population of all rapidly settled new territories
of the West has often been commented upon, and a large
amount of gratuitous and disinterested advice has been
from time to time tendered to the excessive female popu-
lation of eastern districts in reference to emigration. One
of the results of the war in the United States has been to
cause a large preponderance of single ladies throughout
almost all portions of the Union east of the Rocky
Mountains, and the attention of flocial economists has boon
directed to the question of how such a large number of
widows and orphans are to procure a comfortable living
and avoid becoming burdens to the neighbourhoods in
which they respectively dwell. Governor Andrew, of Mas-
sachusetts, in his last message to the Legislature of that
State, suggested the propriety of some steps being taken in
regard to the surplus women, but nothing was done. His
words seem to have met with a response from the other
side of the continent. In Washington territory the single
men outnumber the single women by eighty to ono,
there being less than one hundred single women in the do-
main. The authorities of that territory, having their atten-
tion called to the subject by Governor Andrew's remarks,
have undertaken to provide a free passage and good fare
from New York to Washingtonterritory for 300 widows and
orphans of Union soldiers killed in the war. The Hon. A.
S. Mercer, of that territory, has arrived in New York to
superintend the movement and see that none but the most
respectable parties avail themselves of the offer. The
steamer is to sail from New York for Panama on the 22d
of next month. All grown up girls and women accepting
the offer are guaranteed respectable employment at $4 in
gold per week, immediately on their arrival, so long as they
choose to avail themselves of it. Although the voluntary
transportation of 300 women from the Atlantic to the
Pacific coast is but a drop in the bucket towards equalising
the sexes in either portion of the country, yet it is the be-
ginning of a very interesting movement, and is sufficiently
extensive for experimental
purposes. Should it prove suc-
cessful, it will soon be repeated on a larger scale, and en-
.gaged in, not only by other Western territories at their
own expense, but with the active co-operation of the States
overburdened with surplus female population."

EADVERTISEMENT.I.HoIIoway's Ointment and Pills.—
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become virulent froro,..persons' reluctance to expose their
infirmities to another. For rightly using Holloway's
esteemed remedies no counsellor is necessary, no advice
beyond that contained in the "accompanying directions,"
is required. Piles, fistulas, and many other ailments which
demand secresy, can be safely conducted by Holloway's
ointment and pills to an easy and permanent cure. They
can be confidently applied in the most painful, irritating,
and dangerous diseases. They purify,
cool, soothe, heal,
and radically cure, when any treatment short of producing
those combined effects must result in unsuccessful if not
disastrous consequences. The severest sufferers of every
class have been restored by Holloway's ointment and
pills.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The public will not have forgotten the
lamentable reports which were received last year re-
specting the health of Father Thames. Everything
about him was represented as in a state of decay,
and it appeared that unless some vigorous measures
were speedily taken he must soon be completely
bereft alike of his beauty and of his use. A select
commiteee accordingly was appointed in the course
of the last session to inquire into the whole subject,
and their report has just been published. The in-
quiry, of course, only concerned the condition of
the river above Staines. Below that point the river
is under the control of the Thames Conservancy
Board, and is in a satisfactory state. But above
Staines the river is shown by the evidence taken by
the committee to be in such a disastrous condition
that the necessary delay which must ensue before
the recommendations of the committee can be put
into effect in the ensuing session appears positively
dangerous. The engineer of the Conservators of
the Thames stated that there are locks on the river
for the maintenance of which he could not answer
for a month. It was " a miracle," we are assured,
that they did not give way under the pressure of
last winter's floods, and if this be so, it will be, of
course, still more miraculous if they hold out
through the next winter. In the event of such a
catastrophe the most lamentable consequences could
not fail to ensue. The navigation, of course, would
be entirely stopped, but othr property besides that
connected with the navigation would be seriously
injured, and even life would be endangered. The
neighbouring mill, for example, would be deprived
of its regular supply of water, and the surrounding
lands would be liable to inundation at every flood
time. How imminent the danger is considered may
be illustrated by the fact that the authorities of Eton
College, in the neighbourhood of which is one of
the most dangerous locks, thought it necessary to
write in the course of last year to the Commis-
sioners, saying that they would hold them respon-
sible for any loss of .life that might happen. In
the face of such a state of things some measures
are absolutely essential. It is one of the first
necessities in a civilised and highly-cultivated
country that the great rivers should be kept
sufficiently within their limits to protect the
land from damage and life from danger. By
the most natural and obvious arrangement it is
understood that the expense of this necessary public
work is supplied by the traffic which is enabled by
means of it to pass along the river. The Thames
Commissioners have at once the charge of keeping
the stream in due order and the privilege of levying
tolls upon the navigation. At the present moment,
however, this arrangement has entirely broken down.
The Commissioners are bankrupt, and have no
means whatever of recovering their position. Since
the introduction of railroads the traffic has steadily
diminished, until the receipts of the Commissioners
have fallen from £14,000 in 1845 to £3,000 in 1864.
The money which under
.successive acts of Parlia-
ment they raised for the construction of their works
amounts to nearly £90,000, the greater part of
which bears interest at 5 per cent., and the re-
mainder at 4i. This interest, however, ceased to be
paid in full in 1852, and since 1863 no interest
whatever has been paid. The creditors, in fact,
consider their case so hopeless that many of them
have offered to compound their claims for 2s. in the
pound. Every expense has been curtailed. All the
salaries of the officers have been reduced ; that of
the Clerk to the Commissioners, which was once
£6OO a year, is now only £l5O, and at last all the
workmen have been dismissed, with the exception
of the lock-keepers who have to collect the tolls,
while all repairs beyond the merest patching have
been omitted. Yet in spite of this ruinous economy,
and the failure to pay the interest of the debt, the
expenditure last year exceeded the income. Nor, if
the Commissioners are left to themselves, is there
any chance of their recovering their position. With
their finances in such a state it is, of course, impos-
sible for them to think of borrowing money ; but
without money the locks must sooner or later give
way, and then the little traffic which still exists will
disappear. Whether or not this state of things is due
in any degree to bad management is not worth dis-
cussion, for the Constitution of the Commissioners
is so unfitted for their position, and their powers
are so inadequate, that it would probably have been
impossible for them to avoid the ruin which has
overtaken them. We have really not the space to
enumerate all the persons who compose this extra-
ordinary Board. Occupiers and owners of land of
the value of £lOO a year in the counties through
which the river passes, clergymen of the bordering
parishes, members of Parliament both for neigh-
bouring counties and for boroughs, all the heads of
colleges in Oxford, deans, canons, mayors, and re-
corders, are combined in one heterogeneous assem-
blage of not less than 800 persons. They are not
amalgamated even to the extent of forming a cor-
poration, and consequently individual commissioners
may be held liable for the acts of the whole body,
and the creditors are only held in check by the in-
credible difficulties they would encounter in recov-
ming money from such an impalpable body. But
their most fatal incapacities are that they have no
power to graduate their tolls, being compelled by
their acts to charge the same toll upon all articles of
merchandise ; and they have a most inadequate
authority over the various interests in mills and
fisheries which exist along the course of the river.
The most obstructive of these interests is that of
the old lockowners. Before the commissioners
existed, and before the present pound or double
locks were erected, it would seem that the owner of
the neighbouring mill made some sort of clumsy
arrangement by which he admitted boats through
his weir, receiving a toll for his expense in keeping
up this accommodation. In this manner there grew
up along the river a number of vested interests, and
in the actby which the commissioners were appointed
a clause was inserted providing that the lockowners
whom the commissioners would displace should con-
tinue to receive just the same tolls as when their
locks were used. There are consequently a number
of tolls on the river where there are no locks at all;
the owners will not agree to any proposals for a
reduction of rates, and the commissioners have
no power to compel them to do so. Even though
the Commissioners, therefore, could put their works
in order to-morrow, they would be unable to reduce
the tolls so as to compete with the railways. In
short, they have no means of raising money, they
have no power to adapt their regulations to the re-
quirements of trade, and both they and the river are
in the last stage of decay. In this state of things
the important question is whether, supposing a suf-
ficient sum of money were provided to put the works
in proper condition, there is a reasonable chance,
under proper management, of sufficient traffic being
obtained to pay the interest of the debt and to main-
tain the navigation. On this point the Committee
obtained very satisfactory evidence. Merchants
resident at Oxford, Reading, and other points along
the river assured the Committee that if the tolls
could be reduced they would much prefer sending
many classes of goods by water instead of rail. It
would be, of course, in many cases an immense con-
venience to ship goods at once from the docks, or
from the ships at the Pool, into barges which would
convey them without further change to the place of
their destination. One witness said that it cost as
Much to bring the goods in London from the docks
to the rail as it cost him to bring them by water to
Windsor. Coals, again, it is said, are much less
broken in water carriage than in the jolting of rail-
way journeys, and a similar reason renders water
by far the best means of conveyance for all sorts of
pottery ware. Water traffic, moreover, is being
rendered much more certain and rapid by the in-
troduction of steamtugs in place of the old system
of horse traction, and it is found that these little
steamers may be worked without the least injury to
the channel of the stream. But the evidence went
not merely to show that water carriage could com-
pete successfully with railways, but that it had al-
ready done so. The Oxford Canal, in supplying
the town of Banbury, has to maintain a direct com-
petition with both the Great Western and the Lon-
don and North-Western Railway Companies. Yet
its manager thinks that it carries as much coal as
the two railway companies together. This wit-
ness, indeed, states distinctly that the traffic on
the Oxford Canal is larger now than it was prior to
the introduction of railways, and the £lOO shares of
the company have risen in the last ten years from
£lO5 to £156. It is only necessary that the locks
should be maintained in good order, that they
should be sufficiently large, and that the tolls should
be so far below the railway rates as to allow for the
expense of the barges, the tugs, and the necessary
attendance. There is no doubt of the possibility of
this last condition being complied with if a case
mentioned by the witness we have just mentioned
can be quoted as an example. A private trader put
a tug on the Oxford canal, and was able to take 120
tons of stone a distance of 35 miles a day at the
rate of half-a-farthing a ton per mile. Under these
circumstances, the committee have concluded that
in order to obtain a traffic sufficiently remunerative
for the due preservation of the river, it is only, ne-
cessary to compound for the debts and the charges
to which the present Board of Commissioners are
liable, to raise a sufficient sum—from £20,000 to
£3o,ooo—to put the works on the river in complete
order, and to place the navigation under proper
management. For this purpose they recommend
that the conservators of the Thames, who have
already managed the lower part of the river suc-
cessfully, shall be intrusted also with the charge of
the upper part. There seems, indeed, no valid rea-
son for separating the management of these two
portions of the river. Their interests are identical,
and the true method of managing them must be the

of Trade should introduce a bill with the requisite
provisions, and we can only trust that no time will
be lost al the commencement of next session in
passing a measure which is on every ground so
urgently necessary.
POST.—The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce
have passed a resolution that the eminent services
rendered to the mercantile community by the
meteorological labours of the late Admiral Fitzroy,
and the fact that he expended all his private fortune
upon these and on his survey of the Straits of
Magellan, call for a public acknowledgment • and
that a fund be formed, to be called " The Admiral
Fitzroy Testimonial Fund," to be invested on behalf
of the widow and children of the late admiral. It
is fitting that the great mercantile port of Liverpool
should take the lead in doing honour to one to
whom every shipowner in the country owes a debt
of gratitude. But Admiral Fitzroy did more than
save the cargoes of merchantmen from going to the
bottom of the sea. He not only rendered eminent
service to commerce but to humanity. He saved
life as well as merchandise
.from perishing at sea.
But besides these services rendered to humanity and
to commerce, besides the great aggregate of life and
property which he was the means of preserving from
destruction, there is another .consideration which
should weigh with all, and which entitles Admiral
Fitzroy not only to the gratitude but to the esteem
and admiration of his contemporaries and of poste-
rity. There is a great lesson in the life of the
admiral, and its moral should not be forgotten. If
he had been overpaid for the work he performed the
benefit of that work to mankind would have been
just as great, and our gratitude would have been
equally due to him. But the fact is that he, in the
performanee of that work, expended all. his private
fortune. His meteorological investigations, though
the best known, and the most important achieve-
ment connected with his name, constitute after all
only a portion of his life's work. He was previously
engaged in the arduous labour of the survey of the
Straits of Magellan, and in prosecution of this emi-
nently useful enterprise he expended large sums of
money out of his private fortune, without which the
work could not have been carried on. His labori-
ous life was devoted to the prosecution of enter-
, prises which had pre-eminently for their object the
promotion of the wellbeing of mankind. There is
no people in the world who will not profit by. his
labours, and we, in common with other maritime
Powers, must necessarily profit the most. Even
had the two great works of his life been as fruitless
as they have been useful to mankind, he would
have been entitled to the world's gratitude for the
singleness of purpose, the goodness of intention, the
unwearying perseverance, the noble spirit of disin-
terestedness and self-sacrifice with which he followed
them out, until nature broke down exhausted. A
man who devotes his life to the service of his country
and of the world, by prosecuting in a great measure
at his own expense, and at the cost of health and
life, great practical works of public utility, is not to
be estimated merely by the actual amount of success
he achieves. The proverb that what is well begun
is half ended applies with peculiar force in a case
like this. It frequently, nay generally, happens
that the commencement of a great work of this kind
is the most difficult part, and the most likely to
break down. From the failure of him who makes
the first attempt and perhaps sinks into oblivion, if
not ignominy, in consequence, those who follow him
learn the secret* of success, and. are able to carry out
the work to its consummation. When once a new
path has been struck out into an unknown country,
it is a comparatively easy affair to follow it up and
explore the land, even though the initiator should
have perished in the first attempt. But this was not
the case with Admiral Fitzroy. Though it is not for
one man, nor even for a single generation, to com-
plete such a science as that which he has had the
merit of originating, still there is no question of his
success so far as he went—that is, so long as his life
lasted. One of his chief merits consists in his method.
To organise, to set in motion, and keep going with
regularity and precision such an elaborate system
of machinery, moral, scientific, and mechanical,
as that with which he carried on his work, was in
itself a labour of extraordinary magnitude and
difficulty. Yet this was, after all, only the inferior
and subordinate portion of the enterprise. There
was the conception of the great ends and objects to
be attained, to which this machinery was, but the
means. There was the daily analysis and co-ordi-
nation of the scientific intelligence brought in from
all points of the compass. When we come to look
closely into the late Admiral's labours the more
apparent does it become that a work so stupendous
has hardly ever been nndertaken before by one
mind. Such works as this are generally entered
upon and carried out by a learned society or com-
mission of experts who divide the labour among
them. It has been remarked that what the great
national Academy had done in France, in regard to
the language, had been done by one man—Dr.
Johnson—in England, who produced the standard
dictionary of our tongue single-handed, unpat:o-
nised, and unaided. What was said of Dr. John-
son applies to Admiral Fitzroy in respect of a work
infinitely greater, whether we regard its magnitude,
its laboriousness, its scientific difficulties, or its
public utility. No wonder that a mind, even of the
highest quality and the greatest strength, and though
it were united to the most robust of physical orga-
nisations, should break down under the weight of
labours so onerous and oppressive. And this enor-
mous mental strain had to be borne from day to day
and from year's end to year's end. The nature of
the work seems to have virtually precluded rest.
There could be no more cessation from it than there
could be a cessation of time or the weather itself.
In this respect Admiral Fitzroy was differently cir-
cumstanced from what he would have been had he
not been the originator of the work. He felt it to
be a point of honour to keep it going. A new work
is on its trial, and if the master's hand be with-
drawn it will break down. The chief of an old es-
tablished system or department has not the same de-
gree of responsibility, the same amount of anxiety
upon his mind. The work is not his offspring, and
there are others who may be able to overlook it
and manage it as well as he. But this does not
apply to the founder of a new enterprise. As it was,
there were many critics ready to impugn the utility
or accuracy, of the Admiral's labours. We do not
complain of this ; criticism is necessary as the test
and ordeal through which new inventions and dis-
coveries have to pass, and ought to have to pass ;
we only mention it as among the considerations
which may well be supposed to have weighed with
such a man to induce him to remain at his post, and
to die at it rather than quit it. •There is an infinite
depth of pathos in the simple statement made by the
Admiral, shortly before he succumbed under an
overwrought brain, that the work whicia he could
formerly do in a quarter of an hour it now took him
24 hours to accomplish. The utter break-down of
a noble intellect in the public service could not be
more simply, more vividly portrayed. The subject
to which allusion was made in this statement of the
Admiral's suggests another large department of
mental labour which constituted a portion of his
duties. In addition to his own observations, to the
analysis and co-ordination of weather reports from'
all parts of the world, and the transmission of in-
structions based thereon to every point on the coast,
the Admiral had to conduct a scientific correspon-
dence with the naval authorities at all the great
ports of Europe. It was in reference to one of these
communications, asking for information, that Ad-
miral Fitzroy stated that what he could not then
answer in less than a day he could once have
answered in a quarter of an hour. It is an obvious
remark, in the presence of these facts, to say that
Admiral Fitzroy as surely died in the service of his
country as Admiral Nelson. We will not institute
a comparison between the labours of two men both
so great in their own way; we would only indicate
the point of resemblance. Each served his country,
in the work he had to do, with pre-eminent zeal and
success, and each stands unrivalled and alone in his
own peculiar sphere. The country was not forget-
ful of the services of the one, and we much mis-
take the character of our countrymen if they do not
' show themselves equally mindful of the labours
and sacrifices of the other. From the letter
which we recently published from Mr. Ferguson,
of Liverpool, the treasurer to " The Admiral
Fitzroy Testimonial Fund," it will be seen that
the resolutions passed by the Liverpool Chamber of
Commerce are being carried into effect, and we
cannot doubt the fulfilment of the hope he expresses,
that the contributions will not be confined to the
mercantile community of Liverpool alone, but that
they will be liberal and universal from all parts of
the country. Indeed, Admiral Fitzroy's rertio
is not merely English or even European—it
cos-
mopolitan ; which is only saying, in other words,
is
that the utility of his labours has been and will be
wexoprlderi.encAedparint
freovienrythceivaselnistnaeid
encotamomfugrnitaytit in the
to
the
r
faogr a reatnpoubbllei,c
sbersfaaocrtiofiro,inagnd nature
—for
rdespect
Fitzroy sacrificed not only fortune,
ntry
rtotionen,bt health
feelingealthand
life itself, in the service of his
of enlightened self-interest is an adequate. motive to
generosity in such a case as this. It p not wise and
prudent, in a purely selfish point of view, to let such
eminently useful public services as Adlniral Fitzroy's
go without some substantial recognition on the part
of the community. He has been instrumental in
already saving many lives and a large amount of
property, and the beneficent work of which he is
the author will go on increasing in the future. Of
this fact there can be no shadow of doubt. Cham-
bers of commerce are not given to poetical exag-
geration or sentimental hyperbole, and we find a
chamber of commerce at a great mercantile port de-
claring that the " services rendered to the mercan-
tile community by the meteorological labours of the
late Admiral Fitzroy are eminent." it now only

same. It is recommended, lastly, that the Board
remains for the country to do its duty towards
the Admiral as he did his in the service of the
country.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

LIVERPOOL.—FI IDAY.
To-day's market was numerously attended, and a large
business was done in Vheat at fully 6d per cental advance
on the prices of this day week. Flour in active request,
and also is to 2s higher. Oats held for extreme rates, but
business was limited. Oatmeal in moderate request, and. •
rather dearer. Beans unchanged.

DERBY-FRIDAY.

Our market was moderately supplied with wheat, which
sold at an advance of is to 2s per qr. A moderato quantity
of grain has been secured during tho week ; the yield of
wheat is irregular ; oats will not be a heavy crop. Other
kinds of grain promise well.
New white wheat, 46s to 52s Od ; red, 43s to 46s per 36
stone. Barley for malting, —s to —s per qr. ; grinding,
28s to 30s per 30 stone. Oath, new, 22s to 25s ; old, 25s to
28s per 24 stone. Beans, old, 43s to 445; new, 40s to 42a
per 38 stone.