The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-12 00:00:00

HIE SUN, LOINDON, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, IEE.

there is to be an extra Session of the Legislature
to meet on the 25th of October. The despatch ends
with the assurance that all are loyal and in good

spirits.

The ravages of the army worm in Texas are re-
presented to be alarming. In many sections of tho
State, it is said, there will not be more than a fourth
of the crops worth gathering.

Accounts from North-East Mississippi represent
the prospects of the cotton crop as very poor. The
negroes, it is said, are unwilling to work or make
contracts with the planters by which the present
crops can be secured.
A despatch from New Orleans states that a cir-
cular has been issued from the headquarters of the
Bureau of Freedmen in that State, announcing that
hereafter, whenever judicial officers, who may have
freedmen on trial, show a disposition to act justly,
no interference will be made by the Bureau.
The Episcopal Convention of the diocess of New
York has exhibited a most conciliatory spirit toward
the Church in the South. It declares that not only
will the Southern delegates be received into the Ge-
neral Convention without a word of reproach, but
the election of the Bishop of Alabama and the crea-
tion of the diocess of Arkansas, and the election
thereto of a bishop, will be accepted by that body
as valid and proper acts.
Miss Emma Jones has been tried by court-martial
in Charleston, South Carolina, and sentenced to pay
a fine of $lOO. The charge against her was that she
had behaved in a disgraceful and disloyal manner
in the presence of citizens and United States' sol-
diers, and had trailed the American Union flag in
the dust, and trampled on it, at the same time utter-
ing contemptuous and disloyal language.

Mr. Disraeli on Farm Leases and Farm

Labourers•

The annual meeting of the Amersham and Ches-
ham Agricultural Association was held on Tuesday
at Amersham. At the dinner in the Town-hall the
chair was taken by Mr. T. T. Drake, of Shardeloes,
who was supported by Lord Chesham, Mr. Disraeli,
M.P., Mr. Du Pre, M.P., Mr. W. Lowndes, Mr. J.
Hale, Rev. C. Lloyd, &c.
Mr. FIELD, in responding to the toast of " The
tenant farmers," made some observations on the ne-
cessity of granting leases to tenants as a security
for their investment, and described the present sys-
tem as a state of serfdom without the name.

Mr. DISRAELI then rose to propose "Prosperity
to the Association and the Agricultural Labourers."

He said—l have a toast entrusted to me which refers
to a class not inferior in value to the farmers them-

selves. If I stop for a moment to make an observa-
tion on the speech we have just listened to, it is not
to provoke a discussion on an occasion like the pre-
sent on the subject of leases. Any one who has given
attention to that subject must know that it would
be impossible on an occasion like the present to ex-
haust the matter, or even to touch on the principles
which lie at the foundation of it. It is very well to
say a farmer ought to have a lease, but you must
consider the terms of that lease, and you will find,
when you come to discuss those terms with one who
would be your tenant, that very different ideas are
attached to these conditions from those which are
entertained by another. Mr. Field said a farmer
should have a lease or tenant right, but a lease and
tenant right are two very different things. Mr.
Pusey was one of the best authorities on this matter
who have flourished in our time, and to his proposi-
tion with regard to tenant right I was always favour-
able. I remember hearing him say in the House of
Commons—although he was a man to whom agri-
culture and husbandry are more indebted than to
any other man in our generation—that rather than
let land on long leases he would prefer to have no land
at all. He thought that letting under such conditions
would deprive him of the opportunity of performing
some of the first duties which, in his opinion, attach
to the possession of land. If you put it to a farmer
whether he will have a lease for a short term of
years, he will give you reasons for objecting to that.
On the other hand, the landlord will say that as the
value of land generally speaking has been rising
for a long series of years, if he grants a lease
for a long term it will be necessary to enter into
some arrangement by which the rent shall be
proportionately and periodically increased. That
again might not satisfy the person who would be
your tenant. (Hear, hear.) The fact is the ar-
rangements under which land is held must vary ac-
cording to the soil and the different counties. Ido
not think any abstract principles can be laid down
on the subject. But this is quite clear, that per-
manent improvements ought to be done by the land-
lord—(hear, hear)—and if that be done there are '
very few tenants, I think, who would wish to embar-
rass themselves with leases. That is a point, I think,
on which experience has led us all to the same con-
clusion. Gentlemen, it is by command of your pre-
sident that I rise to propose success to this institu-
tion, and especially to the agricultural labourers, on
whose behalf (and not on that of the tenant farmers)
this association was principally instituted. I wish to
call the attention of the meeting to a most important
matter. I have always been, as I intimated before,
very much in favour of local institutions which propose
to themselves local objects, and which have closely
followed up their original intention. And of all the
local institutions in this country I have no hesitation
in saying that the Amersham and Chesil= Associa-
tion is the one which has been most successful, and
that, proposing to itself a limited object it has com-
pletely achieved it. The object is to recognise merit
and to reward skill in the agricultural population. It
proposed that object, and it has succeeded in recog-
nising, in rewarding, and encouraging merit in that
portion of her Majesty's subjects. I havenot changed
my opinion as to the expediency of rewarding long
service by a pecuniary donation, and althoagh that
has been a subject of considerable controversy, I
know as you all do, that this is a recognition
of merit which they substantially appreciate: And
so long as the labouring classes associate with them
the feelings which they do at present, it would be
most unwise, and give rise to great and painful mis-
conception if we were to terminate them. It is a
very great mistake to suppose that because to the
editor of a newspaper who perhaps receives £l,OOO
a year the reward may seem trifling, therefore it is
small in the estimation of the person who receives
it. Recollect you must estimate the value of a re-
ward of £3 to a labourer with 12s. a week repre-
sents a sum equivalent to £5OO or £6OO to a gentle-
man with £5,000 a year. Now I have observed that
gentlemen in the receipt of £5,000 a year are not
absolutely indifferent to the chance of receiving
£lOO or £5OO extra. (Laughter.) Why the income
tax, about which the gentlemen with large incomes
make such a noise, does not amount proportionately
to anything like the sum which is obtained in addi-
tion to his income by one of the agricultural la-
bourers whose moral virtues and whose industry are

recognised by this system of rewards. With regard
to the other prizes there can be no controversy.
Careful shepherds, industrious ploughmen, skilful

hedgers and thatchers (as we have in the southern
part of the county, though you have not here), why
should not their merits be recognised by those among
whom they live ? (Hear, hear.) There is another
point touching the condition of the labouring popu-
lation which this and similarsocieties have attempted
to influence. I mean their habitations. (Hear, hear.)
You offered premiums for keeping cottages in good
order, for the cultivation of gardens with the
greatest industry and taste, and in other modes
sought to encourage a feeling of the respectability
of home among the labouring p )or. Gentlemen,
that is an excellent object, but there were, I believe,
domestic difficulties connected with the inspection,
which have thrown obstacles in the way of the con-
tinuation of the prizes for the best kept cottages.
But generally the premiums offered by this and
similar societies for the cultivation of cottage gar-
dens had been productive of much good. I must
repeat what I said on a former occasion, that the
condition of the residences of our agricuitural popu-
lation demands most serious consideration. It is
always said that cottages never will pay a fair in-
terest for the money invested in them. I will not
say, as it is sometimes said, that you must look to
the moral return you receive for building proper
habitations on your estate, though I believe that is
a substantial return ; but I say that in a pecuniary
sense you get a return for your investment. It is

true, that if you build a cottage for £l2O it is not
practicable to receive a rent from the cottage in
proportion to the investment. I admit that, but in
the long run the farmer is so glad to have the
labourer handy on his land, he sees the immense
advantage to the health and strength of the labourers
in having the dwellings well ventilated, that where
the comfort and health of the labourer are provided
for he will give an increased rent. Consequently,
although the direct result may not remunerate the
landlord, there is, on that ground, every reason why
the condition of the labourers' dwellings should be
improved. At the same timein all things there should
be moderation. The other day I was shown some
model cottages—this was in the county of Bucking-
ham—the porches of which were covered with plate
glass. I do not know what they cost, perhaps
£250 a piece. Now a porch is necessary to a cot-
tage, but the labourer ought not to be deprived of
the light of day, or the shining of the moon by
night, by a slate covering, and so I actually
saw the porches covered with plate glass. (Renewed
laughter.) That, no doubt, is folly, and tends to
defeat the object we all have in view. Cottages at
£250 a piece are the " follies" of the poor, just as
we have some buildings which are styled the "fol-
lies" of the rich. Speaking strictly to the toast
I can say there has been during the past 20 years a
decided improvement in the dwellings of the poor in
the county of Buckingham, but there are districts
where there is still very much to be regretted. But
we may may congratulate ourselves here that dur-
ing the last few years there has been a gradual rise
in the wages of labour for the agricultural class in
this county, and that is the foundation of all efforts
for their improvement. Gentlemen, with these feel-
ings I ask you to drink prosperity to this associa-
tion, because it is founded on an excellent principle,
and it has succeeded because it has confined itself
to that principle, and has not aimed at that which
a local association can never fulfil. If you want to
stimulate agriculture and husbandry in this county,
if you want to increase the means by which you
make wealth, and so to become richer, you must
have the larger association referred to by my excel-
lent friend, and that can only be done by a whole
country acting with determination, and animated
by honourable competition. But as regards this
society, it does fulfil its object; it has improved the
condition of the labourer in this district, and there-

fore I trust you will join me in drinking prosperity
and success to it. (Cheers.)

The Loss of the Eagle Speed.

(From the Times' Corresponcknt)

On Sunday morning, the 19th of August, 425
statute adult coolies, or 300 men, 93 women, and
65 children under ten, and 39 infants in arms,
making 497 human beings, sailed from Port Can-
ning for Demerara in the Eagle Speed, Captain
Brinsden. The ship was American originally, and
pine built ; she was not classed high at Lloyd's, but
she seems to have been an average vessel. All the
formalities and inspection necessary in shipping
coolies seems to have been attended to by the Pro-
tector of Emigrants and the agent for the colony,
except one—the crew were not mustered by the
pilot. Had this been done it would have been found
that, though it was of a sufficient strength in num-
bers, only six were able for work. The captain
was, or had been, ailing, but was on duty, and he
was anxious to get out to sea, that there his men
might get well after a debauch on land. The chief
officer was ill and off duty. Even the coolie doctor
was ill, but the poor doctor took his place until the
ship should get to sea. The port master, Captain
Hoskins, accompanied the ship down the estuary.
The ship was towed by the Lady Elgin steamer,
Captain Heath, on board of which, as a passenger,
was Captain W. G. Maitland, of the 29th Punja-
bees. At four o'clock on the subsequent day, when
wind and weather were both bad, the rope connect-
ing the steamer and the ship broke, and during the
two hours occupied in passing another rope the ship
drifted on to the Roy Mutlah sands and sprang a
leak. Professional men assert that if she had been
a new or an iron ship this would not have happened ;
and a correspondent of a Calcutta paper asserts
that 75 per cent. of all the vessels engaged in the
coolie trade are not classed at Lloyd's at all. The
Emigration Commissioners will see to this, doubtless.
With a bad leak and heavy weather the ship ought
at once to have been towed back to Halifax Island,
the nearest good anchorage. Instead of this the
steamer took her out towards sea till, at 10 o'clock at
night, the steamer also broke down and both anchored.
All this time, from 4 to 10, the coolies had been at
the pumps, and continued them till 3 next (Tuesday)
morning, when the steamer was signalled for help as
the Eagle Speed was sinking. The steamer, how-
ever, neither towed the ship with her living freight
back to Halliday Island nor passed lines by which
the coolies might have boarded her, nor sent off her
own three boats to help in transhipping them. The
sea was high, but all the witnesses assert that any
one of these plans might have been adopted, and
would have saved every soul on board. Instead of
this only three of the ship's boats were lowered.
The shrieking coolies clung to the gangways and
bulwarks, eager to save themselves, and a few
threw themselves into the water on hencoops and
were picked up. One boat, manned by the pilot
and crew, made one trip and never returned. A
second, manned by the second officer and others of
the crew, was stove in after the first trip. Captain
Hoskins made five trips, till sunstroke disabled him.
Then the steamer put down one of its three boats,
and it was long till the offer of money and shame
would induce the now saved ship's crew to man it.
They positively refused to save their captain, who
was still on the wreck. At last they made two
trips, bringing him and the coolie doctor and others
off. The scene on board that Tuesday forenoon
must have been terrible. The interpreter had dis-
appeared ; the compounder and others had broken
open the brandy-chest ; the pilot had not returned ;
no one could speak a word of the language ; no
orders could be given. The captain left at half-past
12, and, though the ship did not sink for 18 hours
after, the steamer returned to Port Canning with
only 169 coolies saved, and leaving the rest without
advice or encouragement to their horrible fate. The
excuse given is that there was only one day's coal
on hoard. But even at this stage of mismanage-
ment and barbarity there was enough of coal to
have enabled it to go to Halliday Island, deposit
the coolies, and return for the larger number still
abandoned. A fine boat had been left on the wreck
unlaunched, and as if to condemn the ignorant in-
humanity of those on board +l,. ;4-
launched by the coolies with the aid of one sick
European and four negroes. The boat actually
passed the steamer, and found .its way up to port.
Imagination refuses to picture the horrors of the 300
human beings when steamer and boat had left, all
through that Tuesday afternoon and night, with the
ship sinking, the water coming ever nearer, the
breakers sweeping off the weak and despairing, and
the strong clinging and climbing even higher on the
masts. Wednesday morning dawned, and still no
hope, till about seven she went down, and when the
two steamers sent from Calcutta arrived at the scene
they found only the top of the mizenmast with three
boys clinging to it, and covered with the rags of the
poor wretches who had been washed off or had thrown
themselves into the sea unencumbered in the hope
of safety. When the Lady Elgin returned she saved
50 who had found their way on pieces of the wreck
to Halliday Island, and the Oudh steamer, which has
since been searching the creek, has picked up 10
more. No less than 265 of the 497 coolies are lost.
As if to add to the horrors of the story, several of
the poor wretches who escaped drowning, when they
landed on the mud islets near, were carried off by
tigers. A story is told of two children who floated
to shore. One had left his companion for a moment
and returned to see him in a tiger's
jaws. He again
threw himself into the sea and was picked up at the
last extremity.
I cannot repeat to you the curses, not loud but
deep, which are heard in almost every circle of so-
ciety, but are checked by the fact that a Court is
trying the pilot. No one defends the sailors, who are
acknowledged on all sides to have acted as English-
men are, thank God, but seldom known to act. All
feel that Capt. Hoskins did his duty, and wonder
that he did not insist on the steamer towing the
vessel to land, or at least waiting longer by her,

though he bad no power. Even the captain of the
coolie ship is less blamed than the pilot, who, know-
ing the language andbeing in charge, never returned
to the wreck, excusing himself on the ground that
the crew would not work and his boat was smashed,
forsooth, as if there were not other boats. But the
most culpable seems to have been the steamer's cap-
tain. The lives of these 500 people were in his hands,
and he saved only 169 of them. As usual, when any
such catastrophe as this or the cyclone happens at
any other time than the cold season, both the su-
preme and local Governments are away—the former
enjoying the cool delights of Simla, and the latter in
Assam. 1 trust this catastrophe will open the eyes
of the English authorities to the character of the
coolie trade. The Emigration Commissioners in
their last report, for 1864, write very pleasantly
about it, and certainly all that the Government of
India does for its emigrant subjects up to the time
they go to sea is done. But such a disaster as this,
a similar shipwreck and loss of life off the harbour
of the Natal capital some months ago, such barbarity
as the Mauritius colonists were guilty of nine years
ago, when, under the baseless fear of cholera, they
massacred 152 by exposing them for days on a rock in
the Indian Ocean ; the travaux forces of the French
planters in Reunion, which our agent's report ex-
posed some time ago in our own columns ; the mor-
tality on board the ships, amounting, say the com-
missioners, in many special cases to 22i per cent. ;
the incompetent surgeons, " two of whom are said to
have been constantly intoxicated"—l quote their
own report—all these facts, in the interests of huma-
nity alone, ought to put a stop to our coolie trade,
and to such convention as Lord Russell has made
with the French Emperor, which is as bad as the old
Assiento treaties. But there is another argument.
Is it or is it not a fact that India is under-peopled,
that she cannot grow more cotton for want of hands
to pluck it, that the infant industries of tea and
coffee cultivation in the hills are being strangled by
the difficulty of getting labour ? If so, surely it is
suicidal in the Government of India, whether at
home, where it is pressed by colonial, Parliamentary,
and French interests, or here, where the Viceroy is
but the head clerk of the Secretary of State, to give
encouragement to such a trade—to do more than
allow its subjects to carry their labour to any mar-
ket they like, under a Passenger Act such as that
which regulates emigration in England. In the past
21 years India has sent half a million of her subjects
to the colonies. Of these 310,202 have gone to the
Mauritius, 90,200 to the West Indies, and the rest
to the French colonies and Ceylon. These figures
have a meaning beyond what they would have in
little England. Not only do early marriages, zenana
excesses, poor food, and past anarchy limit the
growth of an Asiatic population, but the mass of
the people are peasants with small holdings, and
there is no labouring class except the 4,000,000 or
5,000,000 of indigenous tribes in the hills, one-sixth
of whom, at least, have been shipped out of the
country. Is it right for the home authorities thus
ignorantly to sacrifice our Indian subjects and the
best interests of India, at a time when there is a cry
for cotton,only to help a few colonists to grow sugar,
and in the vain hope of bribing French planters to
stope the " free labour" slave trade from the east
coast of Africa ? "

The Gale on the North-East Coast.

SHIELDS, Wednesday, 3 a.m.

During the past 15 hours—that is, since the last de-
spatch was sent from this seaport—the gale has continued
to rage with great fury, and at this hour of the morning
there is no appearance of abatement. It is blowing hard
upon the land, and the sea is very fearful. The brig Me-
dora, which foundered yesterday forenoon and drowned all
her crew off here, was an old Tyne collier, and seven sea-
men have perished with her. Her master, Mr. Colbear,
was a good sailor, but the vessel appears to have been one
of those old tubs that are no credit to our marine, and the
sea at the entrance to the Tyne seems to have crushed her
like an egg-shell. The sea and wind were very violent in
the early part of last night, and as the Tyne was somewhat
flooded by the recent heavy rains, vessels were in serious
danger of being driven upon the rocks upon the ebb if they
took the harbour, and the newly-formed corps of volunteers
(the Tynemouth Life Guards), the coastguards, and life-
boatmen kept a sharp look oat. About 8 o'clock last night
a schooner, the Ringwood, of Yarmouth, attempted to seek
the shelter of the Tyne ; but unfortunately, in taking the
bar, the master kept too far to the northward, and the re-
sult was that the vessel ran upon the dangerous reef at the
mouth of the Tyne known as the Black Middens. The
North and South Shields lifeboats were launched and
manned and despatched to the rescue of the crow, and the
Life Guard Brigade also got the apparatus on the rocks, and
succeeded in firing two rockets over the schooner ; but the
crew made no effort to use the lines thus sent off, neither
did they wait for the arrival of the lifeboats, but having got
their long boat out they got into her and made for the shore.
At the time surf was breaking upon the beach heavily and
violently, and the back sweep of the waves was tremendous.
The result was that when the crew got the boat in towards
the shore it upset with them. Two of them, Jas. Johnson,
the mate, and Wm. Whittaker, a seaman, got on a rock,
and by sticking their hands. in the mud they held on until
they were able to climb up the face of the cliff and were
saved. But the master, Mr. James Johnson, John Walker,
and James Cox, seamen, were swept away by a tremen-
dous sea, and were drowned. Johnson and Whittaker
were picked up by some friendly people, and were taken
to the tavern frequented by the lifeboat boatmen, where
they- were furnished with dry clothes and refreshment,
of which they were very much in need. When the life-
boats got down to the ship, which they did at considerable
risk to the crews, the latter discovered that there was no
one on board, and they brought information into the
harbour that the crew had been washed overboard and
drowned, which did not quite happen to be the case. If
the poor men had only stood by their ship they would have
been saved with the greatest ease. The body of the mas-
ter (Mr. Johnson) and that of the cook, middla-aged man,
were found among the rocks at midnight. The vessel, which
has dried at low water, appears to be very much broken,
and seems to be little better than a wreck. A considerable
number of light and laden ships have run into the Tyne
during the past 24 hours, and, with the exception of the
two vessels mentioned above, they have all reached the
port without sustaining any damage. In consequence
of the late great improvements effected by the Commis-
sioners, there is a very considerable depth of water upon
the bar of the Tyne at all times of tide. Only on ac-
count of the improvement in the depth of water in the
estuary of the Tyne, a much heavier sea comes into the
harbour in a storm like the one now raging, and the danger
to human life has become greater. At present the Tyne
and docks are very much crowded with shipping, which are
hero either for loading or shelter. A fleet of laden vessels,
it is hoped, is in tho Humber. But those vessels which
have sailed from the Tyne and have not a good roadstead,
will be in considerable peril, for the weather is really fright-
ful in the North Sea. Among the list of casualties which
have come to hand, we have received information that the
Economy, of Whitstable, has gone ashore at Hartlepool ;
and it is also reported that another schooner, heavily
laden, is ashore upon the Hall Rocks, and that two men
are lost overboard. A shipwrecked crew is also reported
to have been brought into the Tyne by a steamer, the
vessel having gone ashore at Souter Point. The Catherine,
of Lynn. has been lost at Seaham Harbour.

iwOb.

The gale seems to be about over, and since daybreak
this morning the sea has fallen considerably. Last night
after dark a vessel foundered off the Wear and all hands
perished. She is believed to be the Frederick VII., from
lionfleur, and was the property of Mr. Scott, of Seaham
harbour, to which latter place she was bound, light. She
was commanded by Mr. J uray, a native of Rye. She had
two other hands, a foreign seaman and a boy, as crew.
During the afternoon Mr. Scott, the owner of the vessel,
saw her crew making signals, and he took the train from
Seaham and proceeded to Sunderland. In the train he
watched her proceeding northwards, and upon getting
upon the pier he saw her founder. The schooner Favour-
ite, of Ipswich, drifted up on the beach at Sunderland last
night, but her crew, who had taken to the boats, were
picked up by the Privateer steam tug and brought into
Shields harbour. Several ships have arrived in the Tyne
from the south this morning. We have had no rain since
midnight.

The Messrs. Galignani, of Paris, have built and
endowed an hospital for the English poor residing in this
city. It is situated on the new Boulevard de Bineau, and
contains 25 beds, six in the men's ward and six in the
women's, and the rest in separate rooms on an upper story.
It is placed under the direction of an English Sister of
Charity, and two medical men, also English, have under-
taken to give gratuitous attendance. The building, which
has a garden attached, was given over on Monday by the
Messrs. Galignani to the English Ambassador, and becomes
English property from this day forward.
I,ADTERTISEMENT.I—HoIIoway's Pills.—A Remedy for
Bi lious and Liver Complaints.—Those who suffer from
biliousness and liver complaints should try the effects of
this valuable remedy, a few doses of which will make the
sufferer feel elastic and vigorous, remove all impurities,
give a healthy action to the liver, and strengthen the
stomach. If bilious attacks be allowed to continue with-
out using such a preventive, more serious casualties may
arise, and the sufferer be consigned to a bed of sickness.
Holloway's pills are an extraordinary remedy, acting im-
mediately in the removal of acidity of the stomach,indi-
gestion, debility, and nausea, preparing the food thoroughly
for assimilation, rendering each tributary organ perfect in
its function, and stimulating tho kidneys.