The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-17 00:00:00

EASTERN SLAVE TRADE.

Lord Brougham has published his speech on the Eastern
Slave Trade, delivered on March 6, with the following dedi-
cation to the Duke of Wellington :
TO ARTHUR DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K. G., &C.
The uniform candour which guides your public conduct,
and so often makes you sacrifice what ordinary men would
reckon fair party advantages, induces me to hope that you
will listen to the earnest entreaty which I now make, that
will peruse the arguments and the statements of this
spa ech with the attention certainly due to the subject, though
not ,to the speaker. IF you do, I feel very confident that you
will disposed to admit that your moving the previous
question upon my resolutions last night was ill-considered ;
and even if you should not arrive at this conclusion, I still
entertain the most sanguine hope that a further attention to
the subject will incline you to support the next proposition
that may be brought forward upon the same matter.
There is but one meaning of a previous question. It never
can with propriety be moved unless when the original motion
was held to be irresistible on its own merits. Consequently,
no Ministry, ever before, with my knowledge, would consent to
accept of an escape from a vote of censure by a proceeding
which admits their guilt or their error, and only professes an
unwillingness to condemn them. Unless the truth of the re-
solutions was undeniable, the previous question last night
could have no meaning, and my motion should have been met
vv

th a direct negative.
The eagerness with which the Ministers caught at your offer
of letting them escape, censured in substance though without
formal sentence pronounced against them, provided they would
adopt and enact your plan themselves, was very remarkable.
But this made no difference in their former conduct. Nay,
all the regulation which they can make must leave the worst
parts of their whole error untouched, because they make laws
for the coast of Africa, or the settlement of foreign crowns.
But if it is certain, nay, if it is admitted by yourself and
others, that this order should not have been issued at all events
without guards and precautions, surely it was not expecting
too much to look for an expression of disapproval from Par-
liament when a measure for encouraging the slave-trade was
brought before it. ;The character of the country, and its suc-
cess in all negociations on the foreign traffic, seemed impera-
tively to require that step.
I have in this address to your Grace employed not the lan-
guage of panegyric, which you of all men, would the most
desms,', but the language of truth which you know well how
to value. " The treachery which deceives is as criminal as
that which would dethrone you"—was the memorable saying
of the great French orator to a sovereign* who loved the
treason of pleasing flattery more than the loyalty of unpala-
table truth.
It is a thing of the utmost importance to the honour and in-
terest of the country, that one who stands in your pre-eminent
position should, upon such a question as the slave-trade, have
his eyes opened, in order that he may be found to side with
all the other great statesmen of this age.
March 7, 1838. BROUGHAM.
Massillon.—" La perfidie qui vous trompe est aussi cri-
minelle quo cello qui vous detroneroit."

THE VICTORIA. STEAM-SHIP.

DREADFUL ACCIDENT.

This vessel left her moorings off Blackwa 1 at about half-
past nine o'clock yesterday morning, to proceed down the
river as far as the Nore, for the purpose of trying some expe-
riments in steam navigation, which the proprietors esteemed to
be of the utmost importance. Lord G. Lennox, Mr. Wil-
liams, M. P., and many friends of the proprietors, including
several ladies, were on board, and everything went on prospe-
rously till the vessel arrived off Erith. It is difficult to say at
what rate the vessel was going through the water at this time.
The hull itself was, perhaps, not moving at a greater rate than
ten miles an hour when the calamity occurred. At this mo-
ment an explosion of one of the boilers, or of some tube con-
nected with them, took place. The noise of the explosion
was not unlike the rumbling of suppressed thunder, or the
growling which is said to precede an earthquake. It was ac-
companied by clowds of steam, vapour, and smoke, so dense
that for several minutes it was impossible in theimmediate
'ighbourhood of the steam-engine to see your hand before
you. No accident beyond a few bruises happened to anybody
on deck, except to one of the Messrs. Hall, who, in jumping
from the gangway, considerably hurt his leg. Within
a few minutes it was ascertained that five of the men,
engineers or stokers, were seriously hurt; one poor fel-
low was discovered lying dead amongst the coals, and in the
engine-room were two others so dreadfully burnt and scalded
that little hopes are entertained of their recovery ; another of
the sufferers is scarcely less injured ; the two others are also
much burnt and scalded—they were, however, able to stand.
The scene upon deck was a fearful one. The sufferers, from
the effects of the smoke, fire, and steam, were reduced to the
appearance of negroes ; they were foaming at the mouth, and
uttering groans of agony. Every assistance that could be ren-
dered to the wounded men was afforded them. Almost imme-
diately after the accident another steamer passed close to the
Irictoria without offering the slightest assistance, or even in-
quiring the nature of the injury. The Vesper steamer shortly
appeared in sight, was hailed, and ran alongside the crippled
snip. The body of the dead man was taken in a boat to
Erith ; the surviving sufferers were carried on board the
Vesper, into which most of the passengers of the Victoria
also got. When the Vesper arrived at Greenwich she ran
alongside the Dreadnought hospital-ship, and there the unfor-
tunate men were immediately put on board. It is to be re-
gretted that very little hopes are held out by the surgeons on
board tine Dreadnought of the recovery of three of the men.
The opinion of a person thoroughly experienced in such
things was, that the starboard boiler had burst near the
bottom, and that the explosion had been horizontal ; in-
deed, had the upper part of the boiler or boilers burst, it must
almost necessarily have driven the fragments of the engine and
machinery upon deck, for the engine used on board the Vic-
. toria is what is called a " steeple" engine. It has not the long
transverse horizontal beams which are generally in use, but works
perpendicularly, so that the beams in working rise many feet
above the deck. The writer of this notice was, at the mo-
ment of the explosion, upon the gangway, which passes across
the vessel from one paddle-box to the other, within a foot and
a half of those upright beams, examining the machinery ; he
was in a moment almost stifled by the vapour and blinded by
the smoke. Cries were resounding on ail sides, and every-
thing was in perfect darkness. To find the ladder by which
to descend to the deck was impossible ; and he, with several
others, was obliged, to prevent suffocation, to jump from the
narrow plank on which they had been standing. The Vic-
toria is a remarkably fine vessel ; she is splendidly fitted up ;
indeed, the appointments of the great cabin are almost like
those of a palace ; she has a hundred beds or berths ; she is
built of oak, African teak, and pitch pine ; her model is very
fine ; she is nearly 1,000 tons burden, and upwards of 400
horse power; her length is 200 feet, breadth 30 feet, over the
paddle-boxes 56 feet. She is to perform voyages from Lon-
don to Hull. •
FURTHER PARTICULARS.—One of the unfortunate men,
George Brock, a stoker, died on board the Dreadnought,
hospital-ship, at half-past one o'clock. The other sufferers,
whose names are William Allen, the chief engineer, Thomas
Walker, the second engineer, and Joseph Robinson, stoker,
were going on as favourably as could be expected when our
reporter made inquiries. Allen was standing at the top of the
companion or stairs leading to the engine-room when the ex-
plosion took place. A cry was raised at the same moment of
Stop the engines." Unmindful of the danger, he rushed
into the engine-room and was immediately exposed to the
whole force of the steam. Although frightfully scalded he
succeeded in stopping the engine and prevented further
damage, as the steam was then blown off through the regular
channels. Four other men, who were in the engine-room
when the explosion took place, escaped unhurt.

THE JET D'EAU AT THE ELE-

PHANT AND CASTLE.

On Friday afternoon, about three, the inhabitants in the
vicinity of the Elephant and Castle, Newington Butts, and
numerous passers by at those busy and crowded thorough-
fares were astonished by the singular spectacle of a column
of water suddenly bursting forth at the corner of the New
Kent-road, and rising to the surprising height of upwards of
eighty feet. For about twenty minutes this magnifizant
jet d'eau maintained an altitude of upwards of sixty or
seventy feet. The cause is said to arise from the following
circumstances :—A turncock in the employ of the Vauxhall
Water Works Company, had been in the habit of leaving
the keys, or turning implements, used for the main-pipe at
a butcher's shop in the Kent-road. A plumber in the
neighbourhood procured the keys, and turned off the
main at a time when the Company's works, assisted by a
new forty-five horse power steam engine, were in full ac-
tion, forcing the water to Dockhead, Rotherhithe, and the
utmost limits of their extensive ramifications in that direction.
Such was the resistance ere the catastrophe, that the action of
the steam-engine was impeded full two minutes until, being
taxed to its utmost power, a ferrule on the main pipe was
forced out, thereby preventing the engine's destruction, and
consequent demolition of the Company's works, with a loss of
life and property that might have occurred to a frightful and
incalculable extent. The consequence, however, was, that the
whole body of water so forced, exceeding five tons per minute,
fell on the Rockingham Arms, and the roofs of Messrs.
Williams and Sons' extensive premises adjoining thereto,
which latter were for the time completely submerged, and
their valuable stock of mercery and drapery greatly damaged,
and partially destroyed; the deluge in its progress carrying
with it the ceilings throughout their buildings. On this sub-
ject the Correspondent of a Morning Paper makes the sub-
joined observations :
" The magnificent jet d'eau at the Elephant and Castle,
rising to the surprising height of upwards of 80 feat, shows
what might be done in the way of forming jets d'eau in any
of our public squares. Were the occupants of the surrounding
houses in Grosvenor-square, Russell-square, or any other to
join together and have a steam engine, of 20 horses power,
erected in a concealed situation in some adjoining mews, such
a jet might be produced as had not been seen previously to
that of the Elephant and Castle. Such an engine need only
work occasionally in the Spring and Summer, and only for
five or six hours a day. A jet d'eau, even 40 feet high, in the
centre of Trafalgar-square, would have a magnificent effect,
; especially in coming from Parliament-street."

The Attorney-General for Ireland and Lord Mor-
peth transacted business yesterday at the Home Department.
Yesterday afternoon the Rev. Win. Clayton left
Mill-hill Academy (of which he was the theological tutor),
accompanied by his eldest daughter, for the purpose of tak-
ing a walk, but they had only proceeded a very short
distance when Mr. Clayton suddenly dropped down in an
apoplectic fit, and expired without the utterance of a single
word.