The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-22 00:00:00

Ashburton

Aylesbury
Berwick ~,

Bridgnorth ...
Brighton ~.
Buteshir© ...

Cardiganshire :::
Carnarvon „•

Cavan county
Chatham
Closter
Chitheroo ~,
Colchester ~,

Dublin city ...
Essex, North
Exeter ...
Fromo
Galway city ...
Grimsby ...
Helstono
Hertfordshire ...
Horsham ...
Hull ...

Knarosborough
Kincardineshiro

Lancashire, South
Lincoln ...

LIRE:

Meeting of the New Parliament.

There is much speculation in various quarters in
reference to the time which will probably be ap-
pointed for the re-assembling of the new Parliament.
There does not appear to be any explicit regula-
tions upon the matter, but circumstances which
have attended the last three dissolutions may enable
those who are curious or interested to come to a
conclusion on the subject. On the 6th July, 1846,
Lord John Russell became Prime Minister, and re-
tained that position until the 27th of February,
1852, when the Earl of Derby succeeded to the
office of First Lord of the Treasury. On that day
the noble earl made his first ministerial statement
to the House of Peers. On the Ist of July in that
year the Parliament was dissolved. The new Par-
liament re-assembled on Thursday, November 4th,
under the auspices of Lord Derby, who was Prime
Alinister. On Friday, Dec. 3, Mr. Disraeli, who
was Chancellor of the Exchequer, made his financial
statement. On that budget the Conservative Minis-
try was wrecked, and the Earl of Aberdeen became
Prime Minister on the 28th of December, in the same
year. The next dissolution of Parliament was in
1857, during the administration of Vicount Palmer-
ston. A majority of 16 against the Government on
the question of China induced the noble lord to dis-
solve Parliament, and the dissolution took place ac-
cordingly on the 25th of March. A new Parliament
was called to meet on Thursday, April 30, and on
that day the first session of the new Parliament of
Queen Victoria assembled at Westminster "for the
despatch of business." It lasted until April, 1859, by
which time Lord Derby had again become Prime
Minister. In that month Mr. Disraeli brought in his
Reform Bill, and it was defeated, the =Den being

The first voyage which the Great Eastern has
made for many months has just come to its con-
clusion. Bearing in View its results, it is one of the
most important—as regards its incidents, one of
the least eventful she has ever made. Such a short
trip, indeed, could scarcely be expected to afford
much of narrative interest but for the fact that on
the speed and seagoing trim of the Great Eastern
depends the success of one of the most hazardous
undertakings of modern times. To sink an unbroken
rope beneath 2,500 vales of the stormiest sea in
the world is of itself a sufficient achievement, but to
sink an electric cable through which the people of
the Eastern and Western hemispheres can talk
almost as fast as they can write is even as yet one
of the visions of scientific progress, of the reality of
which only the success or failure of the Great
Eastern's approaching cruise can be the test. If all
goes well with her, before three years are out half-
a-dozen cables will he laid to America, while, on
the other hand, if this third most costly and most
carenuiy panneu atuernpt should fail, it is likely to
be the last venture of the kind that will be made
for years to come. The few details connected with
the Great Eastern's actual departure may be con-
densed into the simple fact that of the two tugs ap-
pointed to wait on her, one broke down at the last
moment, and the other had to be kept alongside—
a simple fact,• apparently, but nevertheless one
which involved a loss of passage to many who were
to have come on board, but who had put off their
departure till the last minute.

The voyage commenced at noon precisely on
Saturday, the 15th. At that-hour the last link of
the apparently interminable length of chain which
held her came crawling slowly up the side covered
with mud, and in a minute after the single 8-ton
Trotinan anchor, which had held her with such cer-
tainty during the most severe weather, was at the
bows, and the word was passed to go ahead at half
speed. The screw vas first to get to work, and,
amid continued cheers from the crews of all the boats
and yachts around, the Great Eastern began to move
slowly on. At first, as against a strong tide and
dead smooth water, the motion was imperceptible to
those on board, but as with slow laboriots strokes
the huge piston rods o: the paddlewheels began to
rise and fall, the vessel went ahead with greater cele-
rity, though certainly not with the rapidity that was
expected, even from " half speed." Mr. Moore, the
pilot in charge, and Capt. Anderson were on the
bridge, and without at all disparaging their labours
or their responsibility, it is only fair to say that
both were materially alleviated by the presence of
her Majesty's ship Porcupine, which had buoyed
the whole of Bullock's Channel, down which the
Great Eastern was to pass, and which now still
further secured her Way by going on a few
hundred yards ahead, and showing precisely the
track along which the great ship was to follow.
Under such safe conduit, therefore, the risk to the
Great Eastern was reduced to nil. By 2 o'clock
she gained the mouth of Bullock's Channel, the
muddy green waters of the route outside the
Goodwins lay ahead, and with hearty cheers
from her crew the Porcupine turned up towards
the east coast, and left the Great Eastern to
her own devices. The only incidents of her
progress thus far had been an occasional meet-
ing with a crowded pleasure-boat from Ramsgate
and Margate. Even these, however, were few and
far between, for a general impression prevailed that
the vessel would leave at daybreak, otherwise there
is no doubt that the first start would have been dan-
Igerously incommoded by the presence of a perfect
mosquito fleet of yachts, steamers, and pleasure
boats. Once in the open water the order was given
to go ahead with the engines full speed. With the
first attempt to execute this order an unpleasant dis-
covery was made whichhas been, and still is, a source
of some anxiety and trouble to all interested in the
success of the great undertaking in which the Great
Eastern is engaged. Shehas not much more thanhalf
sufficient steam power either for the weights she
carries or the work she has got to do, supposing her
to meet with headwinds and rough weather. The
Great Great Eastern has now on board rather over
25,000 tons, or a greater burden than the combined
weights of all the submarine cables that have ever
been
n d
Cape made
Grnesinicsetz. T
the
firsth was worked between Dover
ae great mass of this weight
—that is to say, two out of the three main tanks of
cable—is of necessity placed aft, thus bringing her
down too much by the stern, so much so, in fact,
i as from this alone to reduce her speed at least two
knots
e worst. or so
however, is by no means
h
This,
for these tanks it has
the
per
To hour.mak e
been found necessary to cut off two out of the six
boilers, which supply the screw engines, preventing
the generation of more than 15ib, of steam in the
boilers, and thus at once reducing by at least 25
per cent. what was always a most deficient motive
power. Looking at this formidable diminution,
the weight to be driven, and the deep immersion
by the stern, it is not very surprising that no
more than 26 revolutions per minute could be got
at starting from the screw engines. With the
paddles it was almost worse. So deep were they
that, though reefed to the inner ring, and one-third
of the breadth of the floats entirely removed, they
were still half drowned, and at starting barely four
revolutions could be got out of them. Under these
circumstances it will not much surprise any one to
learn that when the open water was gained, and the
Great Eastern tried to go full speed, she did little
more than turn five knots an hour against the tide.
In spite of the most careful management by the
chief engineer, Mr. Beckwith, this was almost the
average speed, or rather slowness, during Saturday,
and it was well on to dusk before Deal was passed,
a distance of less than 40 miles from the starting
place eight hours before. Beyond this unfortunate
drawback all the engines worked well and easily.
Off Margate the forward boilers of the paddles began
to prime a little, as has always been their wont, but
it only lasted a short time, and did not again recur
to any serious extent. There were no signs of
heated bearings, or other mechanical difficulties,
and if the engines had only had a better proportion
of steam power to the stupendous work they had to
do, there would have been nothing to desire. No
doubt some of the want of speed was due to the
very foul state of the Great Eastern's bottom, but
themain causeswere, as we have said, deficient steam
power, too deep immersion of the hull, and irregular
stowage.

There was no wind on Saturday evening, and the
sea was as calm as a mill-pond—a condition in which
every one earnestly wished it might remain, for the
Great Eastern's fitness to meet bad weather could
be judged by any one on the old rule of given two
quantities to find a third. Supposing a ship can
steam six knots, requiring three to keep steerage
way on her, what is to be done when she meets with
a wind and head sea that reduce her speed to two
knots ? The answer is unpleasantly obvious. It
must not, however, be supposed for a moment that
these observations as to steam power and stowage
will apply to the vessel when she begins paying
out
the Atlantic cable. For this important work she
will only start when the barometer is high, and
with every prospect of settled fair weather for
some days. Every day, then, she will get rid of
at least 300 tons of cable and 250 tons of coals,
or, in round numbers including
,expenditure of
stores of all kinds,reduction of
amount of
water in cable tanks, Sic., she will lighten by
750 tons every 24 hours, and lighten, too, exactly

when she wants it most—astern and amidships.
Three days therefore will, when paying out the
cable, take nearly 2,800 tons out of her—a reduc-
tion which, by bettering her trim, will very likely
add a couple of knots to her speed, which is certain
to increase every hour she advances in her work. At
12 on Saturday night the light at Dungeness was
passed, when the revolutions of the paddle engines
had increased to a little over five and the screw to
28, bringing up the speed of the vessel to about 51
knots. This improvement, though small, was a
hopeful sign, though a sad falling off for those who
remember how, under sail and steam, the Great
Eastern used to fly on her first trial trips and do her
16k knots an hour. It is a curious coincidence, and
one worthy of note, that Saturday, July 15, when
the Great Eastern commenced her voyage, was the
sixth anniversary of the landing of the shore end of
the first successful Atlantic cable at Bull's Bay,
Newfoundland. The dawn of Sunday, the 16th,
broke warm, thick, and misty. A light smoky haze
hung over the distant shore, which looked like the
shadows of capes and cliffs with here and there a
dim indentation, which we were told was where
towns stood. The sea was literally as smooth as
glass, with a long, slow, lazy rounded heave, but
not a breath stirring, not a sail or a ripple in sight.
It seemed like a regular ocean Sunday, when ships
and winds and waves alike had knocked off work.
Calm as it was, however, the soft-looking pulsation
of the tide began to make the Great Eastern move
at last, and a regular, even swing, rather than a roll,
set in. It was as soft and perfect as the movement
of a pendulum, but still deep enough as it went
some eight or ten feet each side to tell upon the
water in the cable tanks. The cable, as our readers
will recollect, is stowed in three enormous water-
tight iron tanks, each placed level about with the
main deck, and, therefore, some 30 feet above the
ship's bottom. To support the enormous weight of
these tanks the most massive shoring has been used,
though, even with all the shoring and the steadiness
of thn vpacipl, +ha loud. inooacant eroctlring M the tim-
bers underneath showed on Sunday the immense
strain to which they were subjected, At times,
indeed, the straining was as loud and violent as was
made by the overworked timbers of the Agamemnon
during her great voyage with the first Atlantic
cable. Each of these tanks is filled to the surface
with water in order to keep the cable at an equal
temperature for testing its insulation to the utmost,
the total bulk of water in the three being about
1,200 tons. But as water is at the best the most
dangerous ballast a ship can carry, all the tanks are
fitted with double valves to enable the whole to be
run off into the sea in the course of a couple of
hours or so. These valves were of use on Sunday,
for just before Captain Anderson began Divine
service in the dining saloon the roll of the ship,
though not deep and very slow, began to toss the
water out of the aftermost tank on to the lower
deck. It was necessary, therefore, to reduce the
quantity of water by some three or four feet, which
was at once done by opening the escape valves for
a quarter of an hour or so. Shortly after noon
Portsmouth was passed, and immediately after the
picturesque heights of Ventnor and Bonchurch were
close in sight, with their white villas shining in the
sun.

By this time the working of the engines had again
considerably improved, the paddles doing from six
to six and a half revolutions, the screw 29, and the
speed was 6.2 knots, or about six and a quarter
miles an hour. The great difference of distance
run by the engines and the distance run by
the ship was due to the deep immersion of
the latter, and her defective trim, in conse-
quence of which nearly one-third of the
power was lost in the " slip" of both
screw and paddles. The weather still con-
tinued marvellously fine. Even the lazy swell of
the morning had died away to absolute stillness, and
the sea was as quiet and, we may add, as bare of
shipping as if the Great Eastern was traversing
some undiscovered inland lake for the first time. At
9 o'clock the high land of Portland could just be dis-
cerned through the dim blue mist, and from that
time till 12 at night the few visitors that walked
the deck had nothing to amuse them but watching
the vivid lightning in the east, generally a fore-
runner of wind from the opposite quarter on the
following day. On the morning of Monday, the 17th,
every one's hopes were revived on learning that the
engines were going still better, and that seven knots
an hour had been accomplished during the night.
Plymouth had been passed outside the Eddystone
soon after 6 a.m., and the Great Eastern was well
on her way to the Lizard. The weather was as fine
as ever, but the barometer had fallen a tenth or so,
and the little breeze there was came coldly from the
north-west. The sea, too, had changed its aspect.
No longer was it of a turbid green, but every ridge
of its low regular swell was of as deep a blue as in-
digo, and its foam had a sharp, crisp, frozen-look-
ing brightness that sparkled like diamonds in the
sun. Near the Lizard the Great Eastern kept very
close in shore ; so close, indeed, that every fissure in
the grim wall of the rocky coast could be distinctly
seen as the white surf kept raging against the cliffs,
seeming to spring so high and quickly up, and falling
so slowly back into the sea again. The spirits of the
passengers rose high as fresh improvements as to
speed were reported from the engine-room, and
a speculative mania seized them all, which evinced
itself in the wildest bets as to the time the Great
Eastern would arrive off Valentia, and the time she
would start for Newfoundland, in the course of
which almost every hour in the day and every day
in the week found its takers and backers. As to
the time of arrival at Valentia all on board, . of
course, were clear ; but the time of departure was
not so certain, inasmuch-as some suggested that the
Caroline might not have laid the shore end. But, as
the Caroline had started for Valentia ten days before
the Great Eastern left the Nore, this was generally
taken as a preposterous suggestion, and received with
derision ; so the betting went on more violently
than ever, till after lunch it culminated in a grand
sweepstakes, when the numbers were duly drawn
and allotted, and every one went up to see the
Land's-end. Of course, the Land's-end was there,
and there also on the port-bow of the Great Eastern,
tumbling about and making bad weather of a swell
to which the big ship never moved, was a screw
steamer. Her unwieldy gambols were, of course,
looked at with the listless pitying indifference with
which passengers in large ships always behold the
misery of those in small ones, till some suggested
that the vessel was very like the Caroline with the
shore end. The idea was, of course, laughed to
scorn, but the laughter did not change the fact, for
such it proved to be, and the Caroline, which should
have been waiting with the shore end at Valentia,
had been waiting for a week past at Falmouth for
fair weather, and, calm as it was to the Great
Eastern, appeared not to have found it even then,
so much and heavily did she roll. There was no help
for it, and, though the Great Eastern had neither
steam nor speed to spare, it was clear that the Caro-
line and her shore end could not be left behind. The
usual uproar and nautical complication incident to
passing a tow rope to a vessel at sea were then
gone through with the customary hoarse cere-
monies among the subordinates, and, after
about an hour's delay, the Great Eastern, in addi-
tion to her own load, had to pull another vessel
after her, lugging her through the swell as though
she would tow her bows out. This totally unex-
pected addition to the labours of the Great Eastern
engines made a difference of at least a mile an hour
in her speed, and, in sporting terms, totally changed
the face of the betting as to time of either arrival at
or departure from Valentia. Seriously speaking,
however, it was matter of grave disappointment to
all interested in the success of the great undertaking
1 that a delay of such vital moment should occur at
the last. It was certain in loss of time in lowering
and laying the shore end to delay them three days,
and it might so far derange the plans as even pos-
sibly to delay the completion of the great work till
next year. Perhaps, unjustly, but certainly not un-
naturally, therefore, all connected with the Caro-
line were in high disfavour on board the Great
Eastern, and in the general disappointment few
cared to look at the Land's End which they came
up to see, though the ragged wild rocks on which
the lighthouse stands never looked more picturesque
than on that day, with their grey sides flecked and
mottled by the white breakers, and all around as
dill Pad dead as a sea of blue glass, This 'Pleb

appearance, however, was not, unfortunately, of
very long duration. The barometer had been going
down steadily ; grey ragged clouds began to appear
on the south-west, which a rising wind drove up
from the horizon with ominous rapidity. By 9 the
sea was rising and the wind was fresh, both clear
abeam of the great ship, which, hurrying a mass of
smoke and cloud of sparks out of each funnel, still
kept her way almost as steadily as if she had been
anchored at the Nore. The sparks gave some cause
for anxiety, as they had on Sunday night, for
from this cause the Great Eastern has on different
voyages set her sails on fire three or four times.
There was little need of apprehension of a similar
mishap on this occasion, for the wind came
up with a drenching rain, which only lulled
at intervals as a strong gust of wind came
whistling through the rigging. As night wore on
both wind and sea increased, though neither was of
sufficient strength to affect the great ship to any de-
gree worth mentioning. The high stowage of her
weights kept her from rolling to any considerable
degree, though the improvement of her trim in this
direction only seemed to make her more susceptible
of movement fore and aft, and she pitched consider-
ably. But if all was well with the. Great Eastern it
was the very reverse of well with her unhappy little
consort the Caroline, towing astern. Iler situation
towards the middle of the night was really. alarming.
Overloaded andunderpowered, with no steerage way
on her, she was pulled through the now high rising
waves with a force which threatened to submerge
both her and the shore end at once and for ever. To-
wards the grey of the morning it seemed as if she
must have foundered outright. The Atlantic was
covered with a driving mist, half rain, half spray,
which rendered it difficult to distinguish where the
sea ended and the ragged watery sky began. The
waves, too, had changed their aspect from a low soft
rounded blue to high livid-looking ridges, capped
with dirty foam, which leapt and rolled in wild irre-
gular array, sometimes dashing against each other
and exploding upwards in a cloud of dangerous
broken water, but mdkitly forced in rough confusion
pell-mell before the wind. Against the Great Eastern
these rolled harmlessly enough, though they struck
her sponsors with a tremendous boom that sounded
like an explosion, or hit her on her port bow, and,
running savagely along her sides, made her tremble
and quiver from end to end, but this was all. With
the poor Caroline, however, the case was widely
different. Reeling heavily through the waters as
though already wrecked, she was towed, not over,
but through the waves by the' Great Eastern.
She was simply swept fore and aft. Every wave
that dashed over her decks seemed as if it would
cover her, as, indeed, it very likely would have done
but for the Great Eastern, which, to do her justice,
if she often towed her under the waves, more often
towed her up again.

Towards Tuesday morning the weather, which had
never been what may be called very rough for the
Atlantic, began to moderate, and the angry clouds
broke in a dismal shower till towards 11, when the
sun shone out clear and fine, and the waves sub-
sided, much to the relief of those on board the
Caroline, and not less so to those on board the Great
Eastern, who had watched her labouring and heavy
plunges with sincere anxiety.

At noon the observation showed a run of 145
knots, or six and a half knots an hour, another great
improvement on the speed of the engines, consider-
ing the state of the weather, and the heavy vessel
that had been towed astern through all of it. The
state of the shoring under the cable-tanks was ex-
amined and found to be absolutely perfect, while the
electrical condition of the cable itself was even more
satisfactory than when the Great Eastern started
from the Nore. Towards the mid-day- of Tuesday
the weather again changed, became squally and over-
cast, with wind from the S.W., a high swell, and
showers of heavy rain. Off Crookhaven the news-
paper despatch boat for telegrams came off, but the
sea was too high to permit her to do more than com-
municate by signal, and in a few minutes after she
was lost in the hazy drift of rain and spray that
almost hid the bold rough headlands behind the
Fastnet rock as behind a veil. From this point
nothing occurred till the Castles were rounded, and
with a strong south-westerly wind, heavy rain, and
high beam sea the Great Eastern steamed slowly
past the entrance to Bantry Bay and Beerhaven.
In the face of the continued rough weather it
was seriously debated whether the Great Eastern
had not better make for this harbour at once, but
eventually it was decided to tow the Caroline to
Valentia and leave the Great Eastern to seek Beer-
haven afterwards. Those on board the Caroline will
long have a vivid and painful remembrance of that
night, as the Great Eastern pulled their ship through
waves, under waves, across waves—in fact, everyway
but over waves—against the deep, angry swell of
the Atlantic. Fortunately for those on board, the
hawser parted at what seemed to be the very crisis
of her fate. This was at son Wednesday morning
—a few miles off the Skelligs—the wild, desolate
mass of rock on which the lighthouse stands, and
about 20 miles from Valentin. Into Valentia har-
bour the Great Eastern slowly and carefullysteamed,
firing guns, and making signals to those on shore ;
but no answer came, no boat was sent off, though it
was stated that the Hawk, the Great Eastern's ten-
der, could be distinctly seen inside the bay. A curi-
ous contrast to this seeming indifference was afforded
by her Majesty's ships Terrible and Sphinx, both of
which had been waiting on and of the land for the
great ship's arrival, and both of which were almost
alongside as soon as it was daybreak. As no boat
came from Valentia, it became necessary to send one
from.the Great Eastern. Many wished to go on
shore ; but when the danger of getting the cutter
alongside was seen with the still greater danger of
trying to get into it, the number of candidates for
places gradually diminished to the three officials
whose duty it was to land. Once these were sent
safely adrift, the Great Eastern made the best of her
way out, for Valentia, with a south-westerly wind
and heavy swell, was no place for her. Her head was
put about, therefore, and all speed made for thisport,
where she will remain at anchor till the sea mode-
rates sufficiently to enable the shore end of the cable
to be laid. Two or three days are certain to elapse
before this work can be commenced, and then, and
not till then, will the ships steam out to meet the
shore end, complete the splice, and away, with the
best wishes of all, to lay the Atlantic Telegraph.

SELF-ACCUSATION OF MURDER.—A few weeks
ago Charles Percy Fuller, a native of Ramsey, in
Huntingdonshire, who is married to an actress of some
note, was found guilty, at the Middlesex Sessions, of ob-
taining money under faiso pretences, and sentenced to
twelve months' imprisonment. He was removed to Cold-
bath-fields Prison, and about a fortnight ago stated to the
authorities that in July, 1864, he went to Ramsey, on
a visit to his brother, Mr. Alfred Fuller, a veterinary sur-
geon ; that their sister Elizabeth resided with Alfred ; and
that whilst there he (prisoner) poisoned his sister by the
administration of tartarised antimony, assigning as his
reason the desire to possess some money which he be-
lieved would accrue to him at the death of his sister.
The prisoner went on to say that since his sister's death ho
had received £125, and that he expected more. The pri-
soner was so earnest and circumstantial in his statement
that the authorities attached some weight to it, and the
services of Inspector Tanner, of the detective police, Were
called into requisition. The prisoner having solemnly
repeated his statement to him, Tanner forthwith departed
for Ramsey, where a vigilant inquiry was set on foot, with
the aid of the district members of the Huntingdonshire
police force. It was found that Miss Fuller died on the
19th July, 1864, at the age of 23, she being the eldest
daughter of the late Mr. Charles Fuller, veterinary sur-
geon. The statement that prisoner received £l2O is false,
and in addition Elizabeth Holding, servant to Alfred, at
the period of Miss Fuller's decease, states that deceased
theo s
ellself -
awcacsusoefdteninuirldl,earneld.
htehvaetr
sdauwrinhgis
her
sister la
bs tu
t til lwn iecses.
of these occasions ho gave her some ginger beer. It is
proved by several persons that prisoner had not been in
the house with his sister for five weeks before her death,
during which period she went to Hastings for the benefit
of her health. Moreover, she had boon attended by Mr.
Bates, surgeon, of Ramsey ; Dr. Ward, of Huntingdon ;
and Dr. Walsh, of London, who would appear to have con-
curred that the cause of death was phthisis, and a certifi-
cate was given accordingly. Inspector Tanner and In-
spector Hamilton, of the local constabulary, attended before
the Revs. James Linton and George Johnstone, sitting in
Petty Sessions at St. Ives, on Monday last, and made a
report of the above circumstances; but the magistrates de-
clined to warrant any application to the Secretary of State
for exhumation. It is probable, however, that a requisi-
tion to the Home Secretary will be forwards" rom the
neighbourhood.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

LIVERPOOL-FitmAY.

At our market to-day we had a limited attendance, with
very little doing in wheat at a decline of 2d to 3d per
cental on previous prices. Flour was very dull, and rather
lower. Indian corn was scarce, and held for rather more
money.