The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNES OA Y EVENIN SEPTEMBER 27, 18&5.

up the Bettws Garvon valley, was passed last ses-
sion. Negotiations were pending with the London
and North-Western Company for the working of
the line. The guaranteed interest of 4 per cent. per
annum on the paid-up capital had been duly paid
by the contractor to the 30th of June last.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said that within the last few days he had in-
spected the line, and was well satisfied with the pro-
gress of the work. He thought it would be one of
the most substantial lines ever made. The embank-
ment was formed almost entirely of the large
boulder stones found in the locality. By the ex-
tension of the line through the town of Carnarvon,
and its junction with the London and North-Wes-
tern Railway, combined with the cordial co-opera-
tion of the residents in the locality, there was a cer-
tainty of the undertaking becoming highly remune-
rative.

Mr. WILSON seconded the motion, which was
adopted, and the proceedings terminated.

NEWRY AND GREENORE.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the London Coffee-house, Lud-
gate-hill ; Mr. Overend in the chair.
The report stated that the bill of last session had
passed without a contest, the Dundalk and Greenore
Railway Company haying withdrawn all opposition
on certain clauses being inserted in the bill. By this
powers were obtained to raise additional capital for
the pier at Greenore. The interest of occupiers
along the line was settled, and £1,914 paid to them.
The contract for the tunnel at Carlingford had been
let, and the works were now in active operation.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said he was at Carlingford last week, and
was quite satisfied with the works.
Mr. PARKER, in seconding the motion, said the
line would afford an outlet at Greenore for the north
of Ireland traffic. The Great Western; who ran
trains to, Birkenhead, had never yet been able to
develope their traffic properly for want of such an
outlet. The running of the line of steamers between
Greenore and Birkenhead would give them that
facility.
The report was adopted, and a vote of thanks to
the Chairman concluded the proceedings.

claimant, or gave greater facilities to effect his re-
gistration ? He thought the act had the opposite
effect, and that this piece of legislation was a great
mistake.

The Revising Barrister—ln that I agree.
Mr. James—There was no new power given to
the revising barrister ; there were no means of in-
quiring into the claimant's right except through this
court, and the court could only be set in motion to
make that inquiry by the objection. If this course
was to be pursued, there would come on the register
a host of claims, and the agents would be afraid to
object, not only on account of the expense, but of
the disgrace which seemed to attach to making
frivolous or groundless objections.
The Revising Barrister at great length gave the
grounds on which he based his decision, which was,
that he was bound to give costs to the amount of
their actual expenses to the new claimants, but he
would further consider the question.

saw the prisoner in custody on the Ist July in the present
year, with another woman, for picking pockets in an omni _
bus, and she was sentenced by the Lord Mayor to six
weeks' imprisonment. He had known her on and off for
about four years, and had followed her into as many as six
or eight omnibuses in a day in Oxford-street, the Strand,
to Westminster Abbey, and several places.
Mr. Payne said he would not sentence her to penal ser-
vitude then, but she would have that the next time she
came. The sentence on her was 18 months' imprisonment
and hard labour.

Prisoner—Why not hang me at once ?
She was then removed.

The Revolt of the Portsea Guardians.

A few days ago wo gave some account of a singular dis-
agreement between the Poor-law Board and the Guardians
of the Portsea Island union, comprising the parishes of
Portsmouth and Portsea, For many years past it has been
the practices of the guardians at their fortnightly meetings
to adjourn for tea about 5 o'clock, the public business gene-
rally occupying their attention some four or five hours ; 14
out of the 21 guardians have been the average attendance
at tea, and the character of the meal may be inferred from
the fact that the cost per head has not exceeded 22d. or
21d., and that the entire cost per quarter has never been £3.
This sum has for many years been paid out of the funds of
the union, although not without remonstrance on the part
of the Poor-law Board. At the meeting of the guardians
on Wednesday fortnight a letter was read from the cen-
tral authority, in which it was certified that the item was
again disallowed, and the rebellion then commenced. It
was argued by several of them that the strictest economy
had been observed, for they had had nothing with their tea
but bread and butter, and that after spending four or five
hours in the discharge of public business such slight
refreshment ought not to be objected to. The Chairman
(Mr. J. F. Pratt declared that he would be taken before
the magistrates rather than pay the money they had been
surcharged, and announced that he had made up his mind
not to attend the Board again unless the same were allowed.
At the close of the discussion it was unanimously resolved
" That the Poor-law Board, having refused to allow the
Guardians to take tea at their meetings, and having sur-
charged certain members of the Board with the amount,
the members of the Board positively refuse to attend any
future meetings to administer the poor law until the Poor-
law Board withdraw their opposition thereto." The Guar-
dians present attached their signatures to the resolution,
which was duly forwarded to the Poor-law Board. A
reply was shortly afterwards received from London,
signed " Enfield, secretary," in which it was stated that if
an auditor considers any expenditure which may appear
in the accounts submitted to him to be illegal, he is
compelled to disallow them, and that if the Poor-law
Board, on appeal, should bo of opinion that the audi-
tor was right, they were bound to confirm his de-
cision, having no power to issue any order or regulation
which would make such illegal expenditure lawful. But
they also intimated that if the Guardians were not satisfied
with this decision, they had the right of appeal to the Court
of Queen's Bench, through any Guardian who might have
been surcharged, and that it was competent for the court
to order the costs of the persons prosecuting the certiorari
to be paid by the union. A private meeting of the Guar-
dians was subsequently held, at which 12 members signed
their resignations, and it was understood amongst the body
that no more duty should be performed until there were
some satisfactory adjustment of the question. The conse-
quence was that on Wednesday last not a single member of
the Board was present, and the clerk, the governor of the
union-house, and the relieving officers were the only per-
sons in possession of the Boardroom. The clerk stated that
it would be his duty to notify to the Poor-law Board how
matters stood, and he advised the relieving officers also to
write to that board for instructicns with regard to the out-
door relief. Fortunately, the out-door relief on this day was
unusually light ; but no cheques were signed, and on Thurs-
day the relieving officers wore unable to administer any
pecuniary relief to the poor, who clamoured at their doors.
Several of the Guardians were visited with a like result, and
as the Guardians began to see the consequences of their act,
several met during the morning at the offices of the clerk,
and signed cheques for the dispension of outdoor relief.
The fact of the revolt was communicated to the Poor-law
Board on Wednesday night, and a letter has since been re-
ceived from that body, in which they point out to the
Guardians that they have no power to resign, and remind
or rather inform them of the severe penalty to which they
will render themselves liable if their conduct involves
serious consequences to any of the recipients of poor-law
relief. Thursday was the day appointed for the acceptance
of what are called "the long contracts," for the supply of
provisions to the union workhouse for the ensuing quarter,
and of clothing for the half-year. But the Guardians again
absented themselves and no contracts were taken. To-
morrow the old contracts will be at an end, and unless the
Guardians change their determination, or the Governor
accept the contracts on his own responsibility, the latter
will be in the awkward position of having about 1,500
persons to feed and clothe, without having either food or
raiment at his disposal. Manchester Guardian.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

-0-

TIDIES.—When the people of the Northern States
elected Mr. Lincoln for the second time they were
moved by a happy impulse to choose as the second
magistrate of the country Andrew Johnson, of
Tennessee. The office of Vice-President is in itself
of little importance, and though on two former
occasions a Vice-President has succeeded to the
government of the Republic through the death of
his superior, we may presume that the expectation
of Mr. Johnson's accession to the higher office was
hardly present to the mind of any one of those two
millions of electors. Those who chose him wished
to pay a compliment to the most energetic and
zealous among the few Southern men who had re-
mained faithful to the Federal cause, and it may
have seemed to them that by electing a Tennesseean
they declared emphatically the non-severance of a
seceded State from the Union. But the great crime
of April last has given supreme power to the poli-
tician who otherwise would have filled for the next
four years the dignified but powerless office of
President of the Senate. All parties were startled
at this sudden change of ' men, and there were pro-
bably few but the most extreme who looked on it
without alarm. Mr. Johnson must now receive
the credit of having disarmed groundless fears and
disappointed extravagant hopes. We cannot tell
what thoughts have passed through his shrewd and
energetic mind during these five months of unex-
pected rule, how much he may owe to the sobering
responsibilities of his high "office, how much to the
counsels of two or three able men who have been
schooled to government amid the difficulties and
calamities of the war, how much to his own
Southern extraction, and to the fellow-feeling
which he avows for the seceders in everything but
their Secession. But, whatever the motives which
influence his policy, the Americans have found in
Mr. Johnson an able and successful magistrate.
Mr. Lincoln is said to have meditated in the last
days of his life a large amnesty and the restoration
of the South to its due place in the Union. When
he fell it was not unnaturally thought 111 America
that a sterner rule was to be instituted, and the zea-
lots of the Republican party hastened to accept Mr.
Johnson as their leader, with the hope, perhaps,
that they might use him as their tool. These expec-
tations have, however, vanished. Within a month
after the President's accession to office his leaning
towards a moderate policy began to appear, and
though it was received with marked disappointment
by a strong party of his own supporters, the effect
of it on the conquered South was so favourable and
tranquillising that he has persevered in it, and it
may be expected to characterise his whole term of
office. There is no one on this side the Atlantic who
will fail to rejoice at the prospects which this policy
opens to the newly cemented Union. The Ameri-
cans, with the suppleness of a young people, are
adapting themselves to their altered conditions.
The Southerner who has fought so fiercely for dis-
union no sooner finds it impossible than he rises
from the ground where the superior might of his
enemy has prostrated him, bandages up his wounds,
cakes off his tattered uniform, burns his Confede-
rate colours, and walks to the polling-booth to put
in his ballot as he would have done before secession.
The only true philosophy is to look upon the past as
something with which we have no more to do, and
to treat the present moment as the first of a new
existence. The Southerners appear to be anxious to
draw a pen through the history of the last five years,
and to take up the Union where they left it. This
is not entirely possible, since during this time a great
revolution—the emancipation of the negroes—has
broken the framework of society. But this the
Southerners accept with a readiness remarkable even
in Americans, and ask almost with unanimity that
the Union shall be restored on its old footing. They
profess loyalty to it, and declare, doubtless with sin-
cerity, that they have no treasonable afterthought
in demanding a restitution of their civil rights.
Whether these rights should be restored; how
far the Southern States should be permitted self-
government ; what should be the interference of the
Federal Government in the relations between white
and black ; whether some organic law on negro
suffrage should be passed and enforced over the
whole Union ; when the military force which now
maintains order should be withdrawn—are ques-
tions on which men widely differ at the North,
and they will be for some time to come the chief
subjects of party strife. But we think Mr. John-
son, in his liberal treatment of the South in all
these matters, shows political wisdom and a true
appreciation of the differences which have divided
the two sections of the Republic. The principles
which he enounced in his speech to the Southern
delegation at Washington the other day are con-
sistent both with his former acts and his present
policy. They are simply that the Union must be
maintained at all hazards, by any means, and
against any men or party, but that, the Union

once secured, the rights and political independ-
ence of the States are the best guarantees of na-
tional prosperity. Slavery is gone, and the re-
bellion is over. This being the case, the restora-
tion of all the States to their former relations
with each other and with the Federal Government
is desirable. " While I dreaded and feared dis-
integration of the States," says the President,
" I am equally opposed to consolidation or con-
centration of power here, under whatever guise or
name they bear ; and if the issue is forced upon
us I shall endeavour to pursue the same efforts to
dissuade from this doctrine running to extremes,
but I say let the same rules be applied. Let the
Constitution be our guide. Let the preservation
of that and the Union of States be our principal
aim." This theory undoubtedly tends to give the
South an earlier and larger possession of political
power than is thought safe even by moderate
men of the Republican party. But we think that
the confidence of the President, and the bold
liberality of his policy, are not likely to be in
vain. The secession of the Southern States was
the natural termination of a condition of things
which had its origin in the foundation of the Re-
public. The jealousy between North and South,
which deepened at last into hatred on the part
of the latter, had several causes, the chief being
the existence of slavery in one region and the at-
tacks upon it in another, and, furthermore, the
anger with which the Southern States found their
proportionate importance yearly diminished by the
stream of emigration which continually flowed into
the more temperate regions of the North. The first
of these causes exists no longer ; and as to the
second the South must every year become more
powerless to give effect to any chagrin it may cause.
The chief grounds of quarrel are removed, and those
that remain are henceforth innocuous. The worst
evil the Federal Government can fear is that the
Southerners, in their political intercourse with the
North, may become factious and perverse. This,
indeed, is Lot unlikely; but it is an inconvenience
which can well be borne, and which is sure to de-
crease with time. All the better instincts of the
people will be against carrying on a war of words or
of votes when the war of weapons has failed, and
they will surely find their interest in submitting
cheerfully to the destiny which has linked them for
ever to the Northern States. After all, it is no
grievous doom to form part of the American Union,
even though State patriotism may be vexed by the
insignificant part which Virginia and South Caro-
lina must play in comparison with the time when
they were leading republics in the Union. Presi-
dent Johnson probably sees that both necessity and
interest bid the conquered States to be loyal, and
for this reason restores to each of them its in-
stitutions, and to its citizens their liberties and
property.
HERALD.—The Annual Wreck Register is one of
the saddest and most suggestive of official docu-
ments. Many an ower true tale of death and doom,
of dreadful danger and fearful fate, is told in the
few dry and formal sentences by which the com-
pilers of the Register record the loss of gallant ship
and well-built barque in the stormy seas that wash
our island home. By increased precautions and
vigilant supervision we have been able, in many cases,
to reduce the risks of those engaged in dangerous
occupations on shore. Our coal and iron miners
work amid fewer perils than those which every
moment threatened their grandfathers. Labour
limitation acts have kept alive myriads of factory
workers who, under the system of laissez-faire poli-
tical economists, would long ago have been in their
graves. We have done away with climbing boys, and
mitigated the old enormities of bleaching-grounds.
But it is not in our power thus to stay the havoc
which ocean every year makes of our merchant
navy. The waves will pay no more respect to an
Act of Parliament than they did to the command of
royal Canute, that they should not wet his feet.
Our ships go down in ever increasing numbers and
in every conceivable variety of circumstances. They
strike on sunken rocks when skies are clear and winds
are fair, and they drive helplessly to destruction
when the raging tempest makes skill and courage of
no avail. They " tail on" to dreaded quicksands,
and come to grief on fatal bars which impede access
to many of our rivers. They go down unnoticed
and unknown," when heaven is all tranquillity," and
they fratricidally cut each other to the water's edge,
when they meet in sudden and violent collision.
The wrecks and other maritime disasters during the
past year amounted to 1,741, of which 351 were oc-
casioned by collisions, while in 467 cases the
casualty was followed by a total loss, and in the
others by differing degrees of damage. To this mor-
tality ships of every class furnish their contingent.
The proportion of English to foreign ships on the
Wreck Register is 1,434 to 246, so that, in memory
of the latest shipping returns, our seas are propor-
tionately far more fatal to home than to foreign
built vessels. Among foreign going ships, however,
, the disproportion, though still considerable, is notso
great, seeing that 454 British ships were injured as
against 179 foreigners. But our own coasters are
the ocean's peculiar prey. Upon them does Neptune
levy his heaviest and most distressing tribute. Run-
ning at all times of the year, manned by a race pe-
culiarly stout and hardy, to whom every mile of their
voyage is familiar, they yet furnish the wreck re-
corders with something over five-eighths of their
occupation. It is only putting the same thing some-
what differently to say that nearly half the accidents
of the year occur to ships of the collier class, and
that the immense majority of the injured vessels were
of less than 300 tons burden. Eight hundred and
forty-four colliers came to grief within the twelve
months, their unseaworthy and ill-found condition
being too often the procuring causes of their danger.
And, asshowing that the increased willingness of our
coasting sailors to put to sea in small craft is not
without its drawbacks, we read that 323 of the 1741
injured vessels were under 50 tons burden; 432
more were under 100 tons ; while 658 range from
100 to 300 tons ; so that, in 1413 out of 1741 in-
stances of damage, the vessel sustaining it was not
above 300 tons burden. Judging from the statistics
one would imagine that with ships, as with men,
there were peculiar dangers incidental to youth.
With good luck and good management a well-built
ship will last a hundred years or more. But more
than half the casualties reported in the last six years
have happened to vesselsunder 14 years old. Within
that time, out of 8,220 disasters at sea, 757 have
occurred to vessels that have only been built three
years, 2,252 more to vessels whose ages varied from
3 to 14 yet*s. In ,the range between 14 and 50
years was included a fleet of 3,894 injured ships of
all classes. Thenceforward they go on in a rapidly
dwindling ratio, till those between 90 and 100 years
may be counted on the fingers of one hand, and only
three centenarians remain to bring up the rear. A
perusal of the report in question suggests some very
obvious, but very painful, queries. Much of our
loss of shipping can in no sense be represented as
an unforeseen calamity. Every one knows before-
hand that we shall lose a large number of our coast-
ing fleet, and that the major portion of our loss will
occur upon our eastern coast. And, making every
allowance for defective seamanship and for that
carelessness which is part of a sailor's nature, there
remains an immense residuum of cases in which the
calamities chronicled in the Wreck Register and
laid down on the Wreck Chart are not preventible
by individual effort. Our readers will remember
periods :at which our columns have for days and
days been occupied with condensed notices of
moving incidents, which might easily have been ex-
panded into many volumes. After all the labours of
our meteorologiststhe occurrence of stormy weather
remains involved in great uncertainty, the effect of
which is but too plainly shown in sundry pages of
every year's Board of Trade report. At regular
intervals we have a succession of,gales, which alarm-
ingly swell the number of shipping casualities. In
1861, from this cause alone, 460 were reported ; in
1862 the number rose to 540 ; in 1863 it rose
again to 930 ; and though the devastation was
happily much less in 1864 the compilers of the Re-
gister attribute no fewer than 400 casualties to the
gales of January, February, March, October, and
November. In the face of these figures we feel
constrained to ask whether all this enormous waste
can be called inevitable. Have we done all that
was to be expected of us as a maritime nation, with
an exposed and dangerous coast, to preserve those
who thus venture their life and property ? We are
afraid we must answer in the negative. A perusal
of the Register, a glance at the Chart, shows how
many a good ship might have been saved, how many
a valuable life might have been preserved, had there
been some place of refuge between the Tyne and
the Humber to which a vessel in distress might run
for safety. But though the subject has been fre-
quently pressed upon the attention of Government
nothing has yet been done. At Bridlington,
Whitby,
and Filey, but especially at the last named place,
nature has done much towards forming
.an anchor-
age._ in which any number of ships might ride in
safety during the roughest weather. We need only
to construct a breakwater of adequate size and
strength at the mouth of the bay, and we should
have done a work which would last for all time. In
many places such a work would be desirable, but
at some spot on the east coast it is positive neces-
to go on from year to
sity. Yet we are content_
is
year neglecting a duty whichat least as obvious
as the erection of lighthouses or the maintenance of '
a fleet of lifeboats. The representations of those
who tell that harbours of refuge would be certainly
costly, and probably useless,. are best answered by a
reference to another port ion of the report which
now lies before us. While the number of maritime
casualties shows a steady increase the deaths result-
ing from them show a. most remarkable diminution.
From 4,000 to 5,000 lives are annuallyplaced in peril
by shipwreck upon or near our coasts, and of these till
recently from 800 to 1,000, or about one-fifth; were

ag i•-•••
actually lost. But coincident with the establishment of
lifeboat and signal stations has been a decline of the
loss of life to 516, or about one-eighth ; so that
nearly five hundred lives are annually saved by
means which some people would tell us only serve
to make our sailors rely rather upon the help of
others than of themselves. When we read narra-
tive after narrative of gallant deeds performed by
those who struggle " life, and that alone, to save,'
we may well join with Miss Nightingale in believing
that the age of heroes has not passed away. But
remembering how often these efforts, with all their
daring, prove unsuccessful—and remembering, also,
that even the saved ones often lose all they possess
in the calamity which spares their life, we feel the
action of the Government upon this matter has been
too long delayed. We have little hope that the
present Ministry will voluntarily change its policy
in this particular, but we hope that, early next ses-
sion, some representative of the shipping interest
will:bring the subject under the notice of the house
and of the country. •