The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-27 00:00:00

under religious instruction at comparatively small ex-
pense. At few other seasons are the emigrants ready to
listen to advice, or able to devote so large a portion of
their time to self-improvement. It is plainly our duty
to embrace these opportunities and to do what in us
lies, that the people which England sends forth shall
make her colonies prosperous and respected. From the
report it appeared that the total number of ships visited
during the past year was made up as follows :-109
Government ships, carrying 39,742 emigrants ; 92 pri-
vate ships, carrying 23,000 ; 13 sailing from Liverpool,
carrying 3,250 ; and 24 sailing from Bristol, carrying
6,000 in all 238 ships, carrying nearly 71,992 emigrants.
The total receipts of the society by annual subscriptions
for the year ending April was 3701. 17s. • donations 6101.
Bs. ld.; collections, 44/. 7s. 6d.; total, 1,0251. 12s. 7d.;
with the balance from last year (19D?. 71s. 5d.) made a
total of 1,216/. 44. The expenditure had been 958/.,
leaving a balance in hand of 258/. 4s. The com-
mittee are still unable, from want of funds, to en-
gage the services of salaried matrons. All they can
do at present is to give them, prior to embarkation, a
short course of instruction in their duties generally. To
obviate this difficulty it is proposed to raise immediately
a fund of 1,000/.

The meeting was afterwards addressed by several
gentlemen, among whom
Archdeacon DAVIS, from Melbourne, detailed the
difficulties of a voyage of 14,000 miles. He said that in
Victoria the proportion of males to females was 10 to 1.
Where this disparagement in numbers exist, there is
great danger to the female emigrants on arrival if not
adequately protected. No relief was to be found for idle-
ness in Melbourne or other places in Australia. The idler
was passed by with contempt by everybody. The picture
given by the rev. gentleman of Tasmania was the reverse
of everything that is good.
Resolutions in conformity with the objects of the meet-
ing having been agreed to, a vote of thanks to the chair-
man terminated the proceedings.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, APRIL 26,

Her Majesty's ship Hastings, 72, Captain Austen,
unbent sails this morning at Spithead, and was towed
into harbour by the 3 Sprightly and Echo steamers to be
dismantled and paid off. The widow and daughters of
the late Admiral Sir Francis Austin, with their baggage,
were landed at the dockyard yesterday.
The London, 90, Captain Charles Eden, returned to
Spithead this afternoon from Plymouth.
The Illustrious, hospital-ship, was inspected this
morning by Rear-Admiral Fanshawe and Captain Scott,
of the Neptune.

The of&ers and crew of the Agamemnon, Captain
Sir T. Maitland, having been turned over from the
Camperdown, the sickness having entirely disappeared,
and her stores are being reshipped with all possible dis-
patch.

The Vulcan steam troop-ship, Captain Von Donop,
has been supplied with lower yards and topmasts, and
will shortly be ready for sea.
Wind, S.W., with fine weather.

PLYMOUTH, APRIL 26.
Her Majesty's steam-frigate Odin, 16, Capt. F. Scott,
arrived in the Sound last evening. The sickness on
board the Odin left as soon as the land was cleared. She
has been to Vigo. On entering Plymouth Sound only
one engine was used, as one of her boilers is out of
repair. She is expecting telegraphic orders to return to
Portsmouth.

The Sanspareil, screw steam-ship, 70, Captain S. C.
Dacres, left the Sound at 5 p.m. yesterday for the east.
ward.

The merchant-brig Hamlet, of London, Capt. Har-
wood, from London, the 16th inst., for Adelaide, with
passengers and a general cargo, put in here yesterday
afternoon with pumps choked and leaky.

WOOLWICH, APRIL 26.
It is not yet known who will be master shipwright at
Woolwich Dockyard in the room of Mr. Oliver Lang,
deceased, but it has been decided that Mr. 0. W. Lang,
assistant to the master shipwright at Chatham Dockyard,
is to be promoted to be master shipwright, as he is the
senior assistant master shipwright, although Mr. Chat-
field, assistant master shipwright at Woolwich Dock-
yard, is the senior as an officer in her Majesty's dock-
yards, and, consequently, it rested between these two
officers.

The officers of the Woolwich Dockyard battalion com-
mence their summer drills to-morrow, and the workmen
recently entered in the yard are having new clothing
made for them previous to the men commencing their
summer drills.

The Phoenix screw steam-sloop, Commander Edward
A. Inglefield, is now so heavily laden that she draws 16
feet of water. She has a large supply of stores and
coals, but a portion of the latter will be consumed in
her voyage to the North Polar regions. It is now de-
cided that two sailing vessels, laden with stores for
Captain Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, will accom-
pany the Phoenix to Beechy Island, and the Diligence
store-ship is now loading at Deptford, to be employed,
in addition to the Breadalbane, on that service. The
Breadalbane has taken on board 200 tons of the best
Welch coals at this port, and will be taken out of the
basin and up to Deptford to receive provisions. She
will then return to Woolwich and fill up with patent
fuel.

THE NAVAL COMPASSIONATE FUND-WHO
HAS THE CONTROL ?

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING HERALD.

Sir,—l feel that I need no apology in addressing my-
self to you on a subject which is of peculiar importance
to the widows and fatherless, especially to those con-
nected with the Royal Navy, You have always , stood
out boldly in protection of those who might deem them-
selves oppressed—you have constantly opened your
columns to the complaints of those whose sufferings
have been neglected in high quarters ; and I therefore
• have every hope that you will render your powerful in-
fluence in causing an inquiry to be instituted as to the
distribution of a fund which originally was intended to
be devoted to the wants of the poor and needy.
I am the widow of a master who served long and gal-
lantly in the late war, and who left behind him, owing
to the utter callousness of various Boards of Admiralty,
nothing but a good and honourable name (beyond the
pitiful pension of 401. per annum) to his widow and
orphans. In due time, after considerable exertion, I
obtained B'. a-year as an allowance for my daughters
until they a:,tained the age of twenty-one ; for my boys,
who were above sixteen, but who, from circumstances,
were quite unable to provide for themselves, I got
—nothing. My daughters are still unmarried, and,
owing to ill health, can do nothing towards obtain-
ing a livelihood, My appeals to the Admiralty in
their behalf are met with the usual cold official letter,
and thus am I left to struggle on in my old age, con-
tending with poverty and sickness on an annuity that
would be looked upon with contempt by the valet or
cook of any one of their lordships, or of the chief clerks
of the Admiralty. I can expect at my time of life but
little at the hands of those who have the dispensation of
the Compassionate Fund ; but, in the name of the wives,
children, and sisters of the gallant men now serving their
country, will you pardon me if I beg that you will publish
the amount annually devoted by Parliament to maintain
this fund, and the name of the particular Lord of the Ad-
miralty under whose directions it is distributed, and the
reason why a captain's orphans should be entitled to a
larger sum than those of a commander, lieutenant, or
othr junior officer, unless the father had peculiarly dis-
tinguished himself, for it should be borne in mind that
it takes as much to feed and clothe the one as the
other.

This fund has hitherto escaped the notice of an in-
quirer into modern abuses, and I trust the time has now
arrived when, with the invaluable assistance of your pen,
its mysteries will be opened out to the public, and an
equitable investigation ensue.—l am, sir, your obedient
servant, /

A MASTER'S WIDOW.

Portsmouth, April 14, 1853.
[We believe that Mr. Hay, the Chief Clerk of the
Admiralty, has the control of the Compassionate Fund.
—ED. Al .H.]

THE JAMES WATT.—The James Watt, launched at
Pembroke, is a two-decker, and is pronounced by 'com-
petent judges to be as fine a vessel as was ever launched.
She is fitted with the auxiliary screw propeller, and has
Robinson's patent tiller, which is necessary, as the shaft
of the screw comes up through the cabins, and it is
therefore requisite, In order to clear the casing of the
shaft, to have recourse to a long tiller. She is, fitted
with an outside balcony and spacious galleries. She
will be taken round to Plymouth by Mr. Brown and his
party of seamen-riggers, and, on arriving at that port,
will immediately be got ready for commissioning.
" PRIZE MONEY.—Woodhead and Co. have given notice
that the account sales of the proceeds arising from the
capture of the slave-vessel, name unknown, by her Ma-
jesty's ship Castor, Commodore C. Wyvill (in Company
with her Majesty's ship Dee, F. H. Stirling, Esq., lieu-
tenant commanding), on the 7th of June, 1850, will be
registered in the High Court of Admiralty on and after
the 7th day of May next.

PRIZE MONEY.—Messrs. Case and Loudoneack have
given notice to. H. B. Beresford, Esq., lieutenant com-
manding, the officers and crew of her Majesty's brigan-
tine Spy, who are entitled to share for the slaves cap-
tured in two canoes_ on the 3d of November, 1851, that
their respective- shares will be paid to them, or their
legal representatives, on the 17th of May, 1853, at No.
1, James-street, Adelphi, and re-called every succeeding
Tuesday and Friday for the usual period, agreeable to
act of Parliament. Scheme of Distribution—Flag, 141.
Os. 4d. ; commander, 26/, ss. Bd. ; fourth class, 71.
19s. 6d. ; fifth, 41. 13s. ; sixth, 3/. 19s. 9d. ; seventh,
;
2/. 13s. 2d. ; eighth, 1/, Os. 7d. ninth, 16s. Id. ; tenth,
9s. lid.

THE CEMETERY OF PERE LA CHAISE, PARIS.—Went
at a little after el even, to the cemetery of Pbre la Chaise,
' and have seldor.t been more affected than I was at this
very interesti:ag place, which throws a sort of charm over
death, and highly creditable to the domestic feelings of
the Fren'.4l The inscriptions, some of them most simple
and ta"Aching. Moliere and La Fontaine's tombs are near
each other, but not decorated or soignes. I did not see
Ney's nor Labddoy4e's ; the name of the former, I
hear, is effaced; and it is only to be found out with the
assistance of the Concieive. The tomb of the Isabeys is
remarkable. Suard's too, who died lately, very old, at
the bottom of the inscription over him is, .11 attend son
amie—somebody wrote Qu'il attende. I saw there the
tomb of poor Miss Cogblan, the Duchess de Castries,
axon optima, aq the stone called her.—Diary of Thomas
Moors.