The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FBILIAY EVENING, .AUGUST 18, 1865.

narrow gauge, the latter would be extended to Truro
and other places, as he had no doubt the intention
of Parliament would be carried out. The South-
Western Company had always kept good faithwith
the South Devon Company, and he thought that the
Bristol and Exetern and Great Western Companies
had better make terms so as to admit of the narrow
gauge being carried over the broad gauge, otherwise
the narrow'gauge would gain the victory. He con-
cluded by calling attention to a Transatlantic steam
company that was about being established between
Southampton and American ports, which he thought
would bring them traffic.
Mr. CASTLEMAN seconded the motion for the
adoption of the report, which was agreed to ; and a
dividend at the rate of £4 10s. per cent. on the or-
dinary stock was declared, payable on Sept. 1.
On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, the directors
were authorised to create and dispose of the share
capital in the company authorised to be raised by
the Ilfracombe Railway Act, 1865, the Dover and
South-Westeru Company's Act, 1865 ; and the
South-Western General Act, 1865, making together
about £560,000, exclusive of borrowing powers.
Formal resolutions were carried approving working
arrangements with the Okehampton Company for
the extension to Bude and Torrington, and the Sid-
mouth and Budleigh Salterton Company ; also ap-
proving a lease of the Alton, Alresford,Winchester,
and of the Mid-Hants undertakings. The forfeiture
of 77 shares of the Andover and Renbridge Railway
was confirmed, and the directors were authorised to
dispose of them.

A SHAREHOLDER requested that the capital
accounts should in future show the total cost of the
main line and each branch line separately as well as
the expenditure on every half-year.
The proceedings concluded with a Tote of thanks
to the chairman and directors.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The Great Eastern has returned to
Crookhaven, and her arrival dispels all doubt about
the fate of the Atlantic Cable. We have failed a
second time in the attempt to connect Europe and
America with an electric chain, but the circum-
stances of the failure exclusively prove the possi-
bility of success. Two or three petty accidents, due
to causes which were plainly preventable, put an
end to an expedition which, from first to last, ap-
pears to have been conducted by those immediately
concernedin it with the utmost skill, discretion, and
courage. Two or three little pieces of wire sticking
in the gutta-percha, an ill-made swivel of imperfect
strength, a rope unfitted to bear the strain of haul-
ing the Cable up from the depths in which it had
been laid—these are the comparatively trivial cir-
cumstances which compelled the Great Eastern to
return without having done her work. There was
no defect in her sea-worthiness, no question of elec-
trical or mechanical science presented itself which
was not capable of immediate and satisfactory solu-
tion ; the ultimate failure was due simply and solely
to the imperfect strength of a grapnel and the in-
adequacy of the machinery provided for hauling in
the cable after it was once paid out. The Great
Eastern herself, as was suggested by several corre-
spondents in our columns, lingered about the spot
where the break of continuity happened, and it was
not till after repeated attempts were made to get at
the fault, and the drag ropes had been broken again
and again, than an absolute exhaustion of the tackle
on board forced her to return. Even then the
leaders of the expedition had lost heart so little that
they moored a buoy to mark the place where they
left off, so that they may return to prosecute the en-
terprise to success before autumn brings its equinoc-
tial gales. The Great Eastern sailed from Valentia
on the 23d of July, and for 10 days she proceeded
on her way with scarcely an interruption. Two
faults were, as we know, discovered in the cable,
due in each case to the perforation of the gutta-
percha by a piece of iron wire ; but these faults
were so soon detected and so easily cured, that
they only served to heighten the prospect of ulti-
mate success. The first fault occurred in soundings
of 1,000 yards, and ten miles of cable were hauled
in before it was detected. The second happened in
4,100 yards soundings, and it was reached after
about two miles and a half of cable had been hauled
in. On the 2d of August a third fault was disco-
vered, which the electrical tests placed about six
miles astern, and which was apparently due to the
same cause which had produced the other two. The
ship had then advanced five-eighths of her way,
being 1,063 miles from Valentia, having paid out
1,212 miles of cable, and she was in 3,900 yards
soundings. Is was resolved to haul in the cable as
on the former occasions, and for that purpose it was
passed from the stern, where it had been paid out,
to the bow. About two miles had been hauled in
when the cable itself, which had been injured by
chafing on the stern of the ship, parted ten yards
inboard of the bow wheel ; the end, as a matter of
course, went straightway overboard, and those
earth currents which were signalled at Valentia
began working. The spirit of the men on board
was not damped by this untoward accident, and
they immediately began a labour than which no-
thing can be imagined more wearisome. A grapnel
was lowered, two miles and a half of rope were paid
out, and the Great Eastern drifted to and fro over
the line of the cable in the hope of hooking it up.
How many times it passed and repassed drawing up
nothing we are not yet told ; but on the 3d the
cable was hooked. The rope was hauled na, and
nearly one-half of it got back, when a connecting
swivel gave way, and the half which had not been
drawn up went to the bed of the Atlantic to join
the Electric Cable, which latter it was calculated
had been lifted 1,200 yards, or nearly one-third
of the distance from the bottom. It is possible
that some means were adopted to lessen the strain,
otherwise the attempt to haul up the cable by a
single rope seems imprudent. In any case, it
would, perhaps, have been wiser, on the insufficient
strength of the grapnel cable being thus made
evident, to have steered at once for home to get
better hauling-in machinery, but it is difficult to
blame the perseverance a those on board, even
though eight precious days of summer were lost,
mainly in futile attempts, each failing for the same
reason. For three days, indeed, fogs and contrary
winds prevented anything being done save marking
the spot by a buoy with a flag and ball, but on the
7th the cable was again hooked and again lost,
through the breaking of a swivel, after it had been
raised 1,000 yards. A third attempt failed to hook
the cable at all, on account of the grapnel chain
having fouled the flukes of the grapnel ; but on a
fourth being made on the afternoon of last Friday
the grapnel cable again broke, after the electric
cable had been raised 600 yards from the bottom.
The stock of rope on board was by this time ex-
hausted, and any further attempt to haul in the
cable with the imperfect machinery provided was
abandoned. The Great Eastern was reluctantly
turned homewards, but the temporary failure so
little daunted those concerned in the undertaking
that they were unanimously of opinion that with
stronger tackle the lost end can yet be almost cer-
tainly recovered, and the line, nearly two-thirds of
which are laid, can be completed. The simple tele-
graphic despatches which give us a summary of the
proceedings of the Great Eastern, bare as they are,
are a record of steady persistence and endeavour ;
but they show also the complete feasibility of the
Atlantic telegraph. The principal difficulties of the
enterprise are overcome, and failure has ensued
from accidents which may be called provoking from
their littleness. The Great Eastern herself behaved
admirably, and it was the opinion of those on board
that she could be trusted to lay the cable in any
weather. The paying-out machinery worked without
a check or accident, and the insulation of the cable
improved as it was submerged. The enterprise,
in fact, failed simply because no proper machinery
had been provided to meet the accident of the
cable breaking. The cable did break, and although
the lost end was hooked time after time by the grap-
nel, it could not be hauled in. The swivels of the
grapnel cable were unequal to the strain upon them,
and as they rose out of the water the weakest gave
way. The strain was no doubt enormous, and it
constantly increased as the Electric Cable was raised
from the bottom, but it must be possible to construct
tackle sufficiently' strong to bear even this strain.
Imperfect, however, as the strength of the grappling
cable was, there were methods of lessening the strain
upon it, and it is somewhat surprising that they were
not adopted, especially after the failure of the first
attempt to raise the cable. It must have been pos-
sible as soon as the cable was hooked and slightly
raised from the bottom to secure it by a second and
a third grapnel, and so to divide the weight between
three cables instead of trusting it to one. At first
sight, too, it would seem that the attendant steam-
ers might have been used to advantage, though they
do not appear to have in any way intervened in the
matter. Had one or both of them been employed
to tow the cable slowly ahead while its weight was
mainly supported by the grapnels from the Great
Eastern, its rise to the surface would have been
greatly facilitated. But whatever opinion we may
form on the method of hauling in adopted it is clear
that the hauling-in machinery was radically defec-
tive, and some explanation of this ought to be forth-
coming from those who provided it. The weight of
any given length of the cable could be easily calcu-
lated, the depth of soundings along the line of the
telegraph was well known, and it was therefore not
difficult to determine the exact strain which the
picking-up tackle and machinery ought to have been
made to bear. Unfortunately for the Atlantic Tele-
graphic Company, they were too economical or too
careless in this part of their preparations, and they
have suffered for it. Taught by the past, they may,
however, yet redeem their error and accomplish the
great work they have undertaken, for the experience
of the voyage warrants the electricians and seamen
on board in declaring that nothing has happened to
throw the least doubt on the practicability of the
scheme, and that in fact their confidence in success-
fully laying and working the Atlantic Telegraph
Cable is greater than ever.
POST.—The prospect of a cessation of the war in
New Zealand is exceedingly welcome in this
country. If the surrender of William Thompson
really has all the importance generally attached to
it—if he is as influential as he is reported to be, and
the Maoris consent to his act and deed, the war may
be pronounced to be virtually at an end. We may
look for the return of the Queen's troops, for the
revival of trade, and the return of the colony to its
normal state of prosperity. It is useless now to re-
count over again the bungling which led to this un-
happy contest. Much has been said and written on
both sides, with the usual vehemence of partisans,
but nothing has been said to shake the general be-
lief of English people that more tact and considera-
tion on the part of the local Government, in the first
instance, might have quashed the land dispute and
saved this inglorious struggle. Perhaps this is only
what may be said of all immediate causes of war,
which are often as insignificant in themselves as
they are gigantic in their consequences. But in the
case of New Zealand the dispute about Wirimu
King's plot of land only brought to a crisis confu-
sions that had been long working, and were only
waiting for some opportunity of breaking out. The
real basis of the uprising of the Maoris was, the old
one of antagonism of race. Wherever the abori-
gines of any country are brought into contact and
social intercourse with Europeans they immediately
begin to fail, and eventually disappear altogether.
It is not to be expected that while this decay of race
is in process the feelings of the losing side can be
very tender towards its aggressive superiors. The
New Zealanders have seen the English people land-
ing amongst them by thousands, taking land, settling

down, establishing cities, reproducing the Old World
over again in their very midst, encroaching on the
land over which they once ranged so free, and
gradually introducing a state of life for which the
native habits and constitution are not in the least
adapted. While this has been going on the Maori
population has decreased at the rate of five thou-
sand a year, and it needs no gift of prophecy to
foresee that this is one of the things that cannot go
on. It must stop before long, for the steps from
hence to the grave of the last New Zealander are
not many nor far between. That very hardworked
idea of a New Zealand chief contemplating the ruins
of London in a pensive mood is destined never to be
realised. The poor Maori will not survive the decay
of the British capital. He will perish off the earth
long before London has reached its culminating
point, leaving the reversion of the broken arch of
London-bridge to some other Islander of the far
Pacific, probably a Bornese or Feejee. The hope
was once entertained that the New Zealander might
be wholly civilised, and by intermarriage with
Europeans establish a race which should have all
the great physical qualities of the native, combined
with the more refined and civilised mind of the
English immigrant. That dream has long been dis-
pelled ; such intermarriages are few in proportion
to the population, and the results are not encourag-
ing, either as regards the happiness and moral con-
dition of the couples, or the vigour and goodness of
their children. Under these circumstances all that
can be looked for in the future of the Maori is a
gradual extinction in pursuance of what seems to be
a fixed law of the aboriginal condition. It is use-
less to try to stave off that result. It is part of the
nature of things. But it may be, and doubtless is,
possible to alleviate the hardships of this downward
path, and to make the period of Maori existence
peaceful while it lasts, and to this the energies of the
local Government should be directed. Our Maori
fellow-subjects should have every advantage con-
sistent with the right of European settlers, and be
left as much as possible to their own modes of life
and forms of self-government. As long as any
habits, laws, customs, or pursuits of theirs do not
peril the Queen's authority, the safety of the settlers
and the general prosperity of the colony, the natives
should not be interfered with. The treatment of
them by those in authority should be rather for-
bearing than exacting. It should not be forgotten
that although it is the fate of the Maori race to die
out, yet Europeans have no right to endeavour to
hasten that extinction. Quite the contrary; justice
and mercy alike dictate that the dominant party
should treat with pity and consideration those who
are rapidly ceasing to have any hold upon their
native soil. If we once admit the fact that, in
obedience to a law that obtains everywhere, the
Maori race is fast passing away, we cannot be sur-
prised if, in proportion to the decay of the natives
in wealth and numbers, they regard the European
settlers with feelings the reverse of affectionate.
They see all that they think worth living for coming
quickly to nought in the presence of foreigners with
whose social habits and varied industries they have
no sympathies. In proportion as these foreigners
encroach upon their land, and bring them under the
operation of new laws, the reason of which is not
always self-evident, it is impossible but that feelings
of anger, of sullenness, and hate should arise, and
sometimes, under strong provocation, real or fan-
cied, break out into savage and prolonged hostility.
But if we admit this, surely we have a clue to the
policy which ought to regulate the government of
the colony. It must be a policy that recognises the
existing rights of the natives, while it alleviates
rather than exasperates their temper towards their
rulers. There has not been enough of this in the
past government of New Zealand, and there must
be a change for the better unless we are to have
these outbreaks from time to time on slight and
avoidable provocations. Nothing that we have said
is inconsistent with the most vigorous administra-
tion of the Colonial Government. It may be neces-
sary, too, to make signal examples of some con-
spicuous native offenders, but the general tone of
the Europeans towards the Maoris must be more
generous than it has been, and better adapted to
make the condition of this invaded race—for such
it is—as tolerable as possible while it lasts. The
efforts of the bishops and clergy have done much to
draw out the good side of the Maori character, and
to the Church it is mainly due that civilisation has
been able to do as much as it has. But a great
work remains yet to be done, and it is not too much
to hope that with the restoration of peace the gentle
influence of religion may again be felt. It does
not follow that because a few brutal cannibals
slaughtered poor Volkner, and afterwards abused
his remains, that the whole race is of like brutality.
Those Pai Mariris were no specimen of the ordinary
natives, who are in the main a noble race, though
the passions of war have of late shown us only the
worst side of them.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—LEEDS, Aug. 16.
(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn.)
LORD V. HUMPHREY—BREACH OF PROMISE.

Mr. Blackburn for the plaintiff; and Mr. Manic for the
defendant.

Mr. Blackburn, in opening the case, said that Maria
Pamela Lord, the lady who had lost the comforts of a home,
was a widow, and had reached the age of 40 years or more ;
and the defendant was only a few years younger. When
the parties first became acquainted the defendant was mar-
ried, and on his wife dying he engaged the plaintiff to be
his housekeeper and to attend to 'his four children. So
attentive was she to the comforts of the defendant and his
family, that he believed there was no woman like her any-
where, and continually pressed her to marry him. At one
period he actually put in the "spurrings" (i.e., the banns),
but the lady was suffering at the time from inflammation
of the eyes, and with a degree of natural bashfulness de-
clined to go through the ceremony until her personal ap-
pearance was improved. So violent was the defendant's
attachment that he said he would marry the plaintiff al-
though she was blind with one eye and could not see with
the other. The plaintiff being ordered to the country for
the benefit of her health, the defendant engaged a house
for her and her children at Bothwell Haigh, near Leeds,
and went from York once a fortnight to see them. After
this had continued for some time he suddenly announced
that he had married another woman in York who had £6O
a-year.

Mrs. Monica Leyland, sister to the plaintiff, having been
examined to prove the promise, was cross-examined by Mr.
Maule—Was three years older than the plaintiff. In Feb-
ruary last an action was brouoht against the defendant by
her sister, in the County Court, to recover her wages dur-
ing the time she had been in defendant's service. She sued
for 132 weeks at 36. per week, and recovered £l9 16s. 4d.
She also recovered £1 per week for the board and educa-
tion of the children.
Mr. Maule—Was any claim made then for the loss of a
husband ?—No.

Mr. Maule (after turning to the defendant, who was sit-
ting behind him, and asking him to stand up)—Do you know
this unfortunate man ? (Laughter.) I have known him for
several years. Do you know that his wife died in 1861 ?
I know she died somehow or other. (Laughter.) Did your
sister have a husband once ?—Yes. Did he hang himself ?
(Laughter.)—There was grief and trouble over that. The
doctors said it was the fall that killed him. (Laughter.) Ho
was a boiler-maker, was he not ?-11e was. And did he ever
get into hot water? (Laughter.)—I cannot tell you that.
Now, Mrs. Monica, 1 am going to put rather a delicate ques-
tion to you, which you need not answer unless you please.
How old was Maria Pamela ? (Laughter.)—She is 48. And
how old is the defendant, about 30 ?—I don't know what
his ago is. Is he not a man just got out of the foolish
heat of youth ? (Loud laughter.)—l think he looks about
36. (Laughter.) Are you a judge of age, Monica—
(laughter)—of the age of young men, I mean ? (Renewed
laughter.) I don't know. At the time you were living at
Hunslet, was not your sister acting as servant to the de-
fendant ?—Yes. And was not there some joking about
tying up one eye ? Was it not all a joke ?—I don't think
it was. Do you know what a joke is, Mrs. Monica ?
(Laughter, which was again and again repeated at the blank
look on the face of the witness.) I will take it that you
don't on the view. (Renewed laughter.) Was there any-
thing really the matter in your sister's eye ?—There was.
Did you see anything wrong in the defendant's eye ?
(Laughter.) Was he blind with both eyes at the time he
made this promise ? (Renewed laughter.) Have you ever
heard of Cupid ? (In reply to these questions the witness
did nothing but stare in blank amazement at the counsel
and at the audience.) Have you ever heard that Cupid
was blind? (Laughter.) Did you ever see Cupid ; is this
man (pointing to the defendant) like Cupid ? (Loud
laughter.)
His Lordship—Venus was attached to Vulcan—(laugh-
ter—so after all there is not so much improbability in this
case. (Renewed laughter.)
Mr. Maule—About those " spurring " lines. Did you
read them, or hear them read ?—He read them himself.
What were those lines ? Were they in verse or in prose ?
(Laughter.) Was it a valentine ? (Loud laughter.) lam
a bachelor, and want you to tell me what " spurring" lines
are. (Renewed laughter.) Ah, I see you cannot toll me
the contents of the lost document.
Mrs. Armillo Moss, anqther sister, said the plaintiff was
very ill after she heard of the defendants marriage. She
was almost heartbroken.

Cross-examined—Her sister and the defendant's children
had resided with her for two years. When the defendant
sent for the children they were very unwilling to go.
Mr. Maule—What about the quarrel in the kitchen ?
What about the kettle and hot poker? (laughter).—I was
out when the defendant came for his children, and when I
got back I found my sister crying. But did she not toll
you that there had been a battle royal between a kettle
and a hot poker? (loud laughter).—I never heard of it.
How often did he come over to see his children ?—Once a
fortnight. And did you hear him joking about her eye ?
Did you hear him say be would go with one eye to the
altar, like a Cyclops ? (loud laughter).—No. You know

that he is an iron man—that he hag an iron heart
(Laughter.)

His Lordship—The iron appears to have entered into
her soul. (Loud laughter.)
Mr. Maule---Do you know that he is a man who dabbles
in boilers—that he is a boiler man ? (laughter).—Yes.
Whatever the state of her eyes might be, do you know that
she tried to shut up one of his ? (laughter). About these
" spurring" lines, do you know what they were like ?—I
saw them. You saw a piece of paper. Did it contain a
receipt for her eye ? (Laughter.) Did it order the appli-
cation of a little opodeldoc ? (Loud laughter.)—l never
heard it read.

Mr. Blackburn then summed up his evidence, contending
that he had proved the promise, and warning the jury
against the ridicule his learned friend was attempting to
cast on the case.

Mr. Maule said he rose with considerable embarrassment
after the earnest appeal made by his learned friend to the
jury, not to be carried away by any of the remarks which
might be offered to them on behalf of this unfortunate de-
fendant. It was to him a matter grave and serious, and no
jocularity. To be a young man pursued in this manner
by three ladies more or less advanced in life, one of whom
insisted upon being claimed as his wife, was a serious
thing for this audacious man, who had become a husband
for the second time. What would the jury think of the
probabilities of this case when they were informed that the
plaintiff, who was the defendant's servant, had pursued him
in February last in the county court for her wage, and had
never said a single word about this promise ? Just let any
of the jurymen put themselves in the position of the de-
fendant. What would they feel if two ladies like Monica
and Armadillo—(laughter)— he begged the lady's pardon,
Armillo—one of whom was deaf, should have heard some
joke about going to the altar with an eye bunged up—
(laughter)—and seriously making it the basis of an action ?
In regard to those " spurrings,"nobody had ever seen them
or heard them read, and the contents of the document in
question was much more likely to be a prescription from
the doctor, of opodeldoc for the plaintiff's eyes, than any-
thing else. (Laughter.) When the inflammation had sub-
sided, Cyclops put the paper into his forge and burned it.
(Renewed laughter.) His learned friend deprecated any
attempt to laugh the case out of court; but he would laugh
at it in court. Monica, Maria Pamela, and Armillo—(loud
laughter)—had put their heads together to pursue this un-
fortunate man, and, as if they thought that his having got
a second wife was not punishment enough, they had re-
solved that he ought to have a third. (Laughter.) Really
this was the whole case. He hoped the jury would not
encourage such an absurd claim, and 'that they would be
of opinion that he had treated it as it ought to be treated,
as an absurdity altogether. (Laughter.)
His lordship then summed up, remarking that though
there was some evidence of promise, if the jury believed
the witnesses, it rested on the slightest basis of any case
that had ever engaged his attention.
The jury, after a moment's consultation, returned a vet-
diet for the defendant.