The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-14 00:00:00

ELECTION COMMITTEES.- _April 13.

TAUNTON.
The case having been concluded, the room was cleared,
and, after deliberating, the committee announced that
they had come to the following resolution :
" That A. Mills, Esq., is not duly elected to serve as a
burgess in the present Parliament for the borough of
Taunton."

HINTS FOR EMIGRANTS.

(From a Private Letter.)

MELBOURNE, N. S. W., Nov. 5, 1852.—Having expe-
rienced the difficulties in the way of an intending emi-
grant of getting useful information, prior to leaving
England, touching the necessary outfit, and having wit-
nessed the serious loss and inconvenience the ignorance
on these matters has caused many, I beg, through you,
to say a few words to such as intend to emigrate to this
country for the purpose of gold seeking. I speak to the
humbler classes, as those who have means may study
comfort.

Your outfit should consist of two or three blue serge
shirts, two or three flannel cinglets, ditto stockings, one
warm jacket, three pairs of trousers, one pair of strong
highlow boots, a strong walking pair, and a pair of
strong soled shoes for using on board ship,—many bring
slippers, but if you are up early in the morning and like
your salt water bath, as you ought, the deck will be wet,
and strong soled shoes have many advantages ; in strong
winds, too, the decks are usually damp.
Your clothes should be dark, as otherwise they soon
get soiled and look very untidy, as well as keeping you
constantly washing them. They should be useful for
strong work ; one suit may be a little lighter in texture
for ship. I may here remark, a light scrubbing brush is
very useful, being the usual mode of cleaning clothes on
board.

In bedding, two pairs of sheets, a small blanket, and
a blue blanket—the latter will answer for a rug when
lying on deck, it will also answer for the diggings ; a
bed you will not regret throwing overboard on arrival.g
In purchasing your cooking utensils, you must be
guided by the number in the party ; but let them be of
strong tin, and, as you have but little room, make them
all to fit into each other ; a panakin, a hook-pot to hold
one pint-and-a-half, and a small saucepan to make soup,
will be sufficient for one person not joining a party (but
on board parties are formed, with messes of from three
to nine), a washbasin and small baking-dish ; for flour
or rice get small bags made,—you can judge of the num-
ber required by the provision list.
A knife and fork and spoons ; a few tools to enable
you to put up shelves or make any alteration necessary
in your berth—of course, with these you will provide
suitable nails, hooks, &c. ; a flask of oil, one quart ; and
a lamp with globe to give light all round, which will
cost 3s. 6d. A small zinc filter will be a great con-
venience, and a strong tin case for holding fresh water.
You have to walk to the diggings from 35 to 200
miles, and carriage varies from 41. to 101. per cwt. Un-
less you have cash you must carry your traps on your
shoulders. Here all they take—the miners--is a rug, a
small calico tent (canvass tents purchased in England
are useless when required to be carried, being too
heavy), a change of clothes, a large panakin, and a
brace of pistols. Picks and shovels they buy at the
diggings, at from 15s. to 255. each, and very bad ones ;
yet you can't carry them up, and, as I write, there are
hundreds of emigrants delayed here trying to dispose of
the multitude of things, quite useless, which they brought
out with them. Some have been detained 14 days,
and have given away their effects for a mere trifle.
Get a knapsack made before leaving, or make it on the
voyage, that will carry the articles I have named. Don't
stay in Melbourne longer than is necessary to procure
good information as to the diggings you ought to go
to. Take a berth not too near any of the hatchways,
as they are generally open to get up provisions, &c. ; see
that she be not an old ship ; and examine your ticket
that it be filled up for " the wharf at Melbourne," as
many passengers had to pay, some 31. to 51., for getting
themselves and traps on shore.
The money usually spent in an emigrant's outfit would
be of the greatest service to him to support him at the
diggings till he be successful. I may observe, your pro-
visions on board ought to suffice ; do not spend your
money in spirits, &e. ; every penny is of great impor-
tance here to a poor man.

NEWS FOR WOOL GRowERS.—The Journal du Cher
relates an account which, if correct, may turn out very
advantageous to wool growers. About two years since
a farmer named Virel, residing in the canton of
Chatelet, had one of his sheep seriously torn and in-
jured by a dog. Although he had but little hopes of
saving the animal's life, he decided on dressing its wounds,
which he did with some fatty substance mixed with the
juice of certain plants. The animal soon recovered, and in
about two months after the farmer remarked that the
wool on the parts which he had rubbed with his pre-
paration was much finer and longer than elsewhere.
Determined to try a further experiment, he last year
pulled off all the wool from the bodies of six bf his
sheep, and rubbed them with the preparation for
three days following, and then turned them out
with the others. At the end of August they were
shorn, when they produced a much larger weight
of wool than ordinary and of a very superior qua-
lity. It is needless to say that he afterwards ex-
tended his experiment to a greater number, and a few
days since he proceeded to what he calls his spring
shearing, when each of the animals yielded about 5 lbs.
of very superior wool. He calculates that by the aid of
his process, he will be able to have two shearings a year
—spring and autumn. The grease he uses is said to be
only mutton fat, but the herbs employed are a secret
which he, however, says he is very willing to sell to
those who will pay him for it.
LOSSES OF HUMAN LIFE BY WAR.—The last number'
of the Companion to the Almanac contains a curious
return, compiled from official sources, of the killed and
wounded of the regular Bri,tish troops in the military
and naval actions from 1793 to 1815. The results ex-
hibit a less amount of bloodshed than the popular imagi-
nation usually connects with great wars. The total num-
ber of killed was 19; 796, of whom 1,160 were officers. The
total number of wounded was 74,359, of whom 9,720
were officers. The proportion of killed in the navy
as compared with those in the army, is but one-
fourth ; but the wounded were in a much less pro-
portion ; a fact which would seem to imply, that the
means of destruction is much more affective in the for-
mer branch of force. It would manifestly, however, be
wrong to speak, in round numbers, of 20,000 lives as the
total amount of loss by sea and land during these twenty-
two years of war. We know not how many of the
wounded never recovered, or had their lives shortened
and imbittered by the injuries they had sustained. We
are also without any means of stating the number of the
missing, or of tracing their fate. It would probably be
, guina ryc haaertaicotesr
nearerthe__en
truth to speak of 40,000 lives sacrificed by the
ocifutrhinagt
the warlikefirt period were
years.we
rr e noort
example,ofasan
the loss of menzivnenl7in97Las only 38, three of whom
of Sir Ralph Abercrogkei
were officers.
ar. of the arduous cam-
paignsthe numberss.
*no more than 507 men and 22 OficnerEgypt, the loss was
In the years of
increaseo to
the Peninsular campaigns,
1,380 in 1809, which includes the slaughter lt
and 1,628 in 1811, which saw the bloody ecncounntlenrnsaof
Barossa, Fuentes d'Onore, and Albuera. The slain of
1813 were nearly 3,000. At Waterloo there fell 171
officers, and 2,341 private men, while the wounded were
respectively 680, and 9,005.

COMMISSION OF LUNACY ON MR. FEARGUS sidered the treatment he was under perfectly correct,
O'CONNOR.
I though he entertained no hope of his recovery.
Cross-examined—The peculiar kind of mental disease
-
from which Mr. O'Connor was suffering was described
by writers as "moral insanity," involving a completb
perversion or change of character in the intellectual

On Tuesday a commission, in the nature of a writ de
lunatico inquirendo. was opened before Mr. Commis-
sioner Barlow and a jury of freeholders of the connty of
Middlesex, at the Roebuck Tavern, Chiswick, for the
purpose of investigating the state of mind of Mr.
Feargus O'Connor, formerly M.P. for Nottingham, and
a leading Chartist agitator, but who since June last has
been an inmate of Dr. Tuke's lunatic asylum, Manor-
house, Turnham-green.
Mr. Pownall, chairman of the Middlesex bench of
magistrates, acted as foreman of the jury. Mr. Donald
Nicol, and several other gentlemen in the commission of
the peace, were upon the panel.
The commission was supported by Mr. Serjeant Shee,
instructed by Mr. Marshall Turner, of Lincoln's-inn-
fields ; Mr. Springall Thompson, of the equity bar,
instructed by Messrs. Powell and Thompson, of Ray-
mond-buildings, watched the proceedings for the alleged
lunatic.
Mr. Serjeant Shee opened the case in a perspicuous
address, tracing the unhappy subject of the inquiry from
his-earliest entry into political life to the month of June
in last year, when his extraordinary conduct in the
House of Commons led to his being placed in the custody
of the Serjeant-at-Arms, by whom he was subsequently
transferred, on the petition of his sister, Miss O'Connor,
to the care of Dr. Tuke. The learned Serjeant said he
should call Dr. Tuke, and from him the jury would hear
that the character of Mr. O'Connor's mind had become
completely changed of late, and that instead of the strong
mind and vigorous intellect he once enjoyed, his mind
was now absolutely null, and his intellectual faculties
were completely prostrated. Although the recollection
of his past life and the political associations he had
formed enabled him now and then to talk of things long
since past, it was not possible to fix his attention upon
one subject for any period of time, and his reasoning
faculties were entirely gone. Mr. Ernest Jones, a gen-
tleman of his own profession, who had been on very
intimate terms with Mr. O'Connor, and whom he would
call before them, would state that in 1851 he observed a
great change in Mr. O'Connor's mind. He would tell
them that, whereas up to that time he had always been
observant of the courtesies of life and of a peculiarly
gentle turn of mind, after that period he was in the
habit of breaking out in indecent conversation and
exhibiting other eccentricities, clearly showing his mind
to be impaired. Since Mr. O'Connor had been under
Dr. Tuke's management, he had never been violent.
On the contrary, be had shown the docility of a child.
This no doubt arose from the moral restraint which the
treatment of Dr. Take exercised over him. He believed
Mr. O'Connor was not even aware of the nature of the
present inquiry, although every pains had been taken
to make him acquainted with it. The jury would pro-
- bably consider the most important piece of evidence the
interview which the learned commissioner promised they
should have with the party himself, and no doubt this
would tend most materially to enable them to come to a
correct decision. The result of the inquiry was most
important, inasmuch as the small remnant of Mr.
O'Connor's property-1,3001. or I,4ool.—might, with
proper care, be so disposed as to provide the unfortu-
nate gentleman with all necessary comforts for the re-
mainder of his days ; but if the protection of the Court
of Chancery were not thrown round him, there could be
very little doubt he would end his days in a workhouse.
The Commissioner here asked Dr.- Tuke whether he
considered Mr. O'Connor could be safely allowed to be
present during the inquiry. If so, it would be desirable
he should be sent for at once.
Dr. Tuke feared his presence in that room would ex-
cite Mr. O'Connor overmuch. He would himself greatly
prefer that the jury should visit him in the asylum.
The Commissioner said under the circumstances they
would certainly do so.
Mr. Ernest Jones was first called.—He said he was a
barrister, and since 1845 had been intimately acquainted
with Mr. Feargus O'Connor. From 1845 to 1848 wit-
ness considered his mind to have been of the most vi-
gorous character. Mr. O'Connor devoted himself to
political questions, and among his plans for the amelio-
ration of the working classes was a land scheme, which
fell into difficulties in 1849, and was brought before a
committee of the House of Commons by Sir Benjamin
Hall and other members. Witness had observed the
pre-occupation of Mr. O'Connor's mind by this scheme.
He never talked of anything else from its foundation
up to the year 1848, and he always spoke of it in a
joyous manner. He said the money was coming in
very rapidly, and he spoke of the great things he
intended to do when the scheme got into full work.
After the committee of the House of Commons had
been appointed to inquire into the scheme Mr. O'Con-
nor's mind became perfectly prostrate—his memory
failed—and in conversation he would tell the same story
over and over again. Before this period, in 1848, wit-
ness had observed a great change in Mr. O'Connor's
writings in his newspaper, the Northern Star. One
week he would recommend a particular course of action
on some particular question, and the next week, writing
on the same subject, he would lay down totally different
rules for the guidance of his readers. Mr. O'Connor
was on terms of intimacy with witness's family, and his
conduct when visiting them was always marked by strict
propriety. After 1849 witness had no opportunity of
judging of his conduct for two years, but last year he
was much struck with his change of manner. His con-
duct in society was then free and indelicate, and at
length became so bad that when he visited witness's
house Mrs. Jones and her children were compelled to
remain in privacy. About this time Mr. O'Connor
made several speeches in public in a very loose style of
oratory, occasionally interpolating them with highly in-
delicate anecdotes. At Halifax he spoke of the Queen
in a manner which proved him to be insane ; and at
other places, instead of keeping to the object of the
meetifig at which he was speaking, he would burst out
in a violent personal harangue and recount to his hearers
the number of honourable members whom he had knocked
down in the House of Commons. When visiting wit-
ness Mr. O'Connor would occasionally burst into a vio-
lent fit of laughter, and then into a flood of tears, with-
out the smallest perceptible reason for either. Occa-
sionally be would declaim on the ingratitude which he
said had been shown to him by those whom he had be-
friended, but never in a connected manner. He some-
times put his hand to his head and said, " Oh my head !"
and again he would roar like a wild animal for an hour
at a stretch. Witness had seen Mr. O'Connor three
times at Dr. Tuke's asylum. He recognised witness,
but had not the slightest knowledge of a gentleman who
accompanied witness, and who was one of his oldest
friends, and had carried his election for Nottingham.
Witness considered Mr. O'Connor to be of unsound
mind.
Mr. Dougal M'Gowan, printer, of Great Windmill-
street, was next called. He had been on terms of personal
intimacy with Mr. O'Connor, and had printed all his pub-
lications for some years past. Previously to 1846 he
had a powerful and vigorous intellect, and a strong
and retentive memory. In 1851 his memory failed al-
together, and he was quite unable to fix his mind on any
one thing. Witness was present before the Master in
Chancery when the affairs of the land scheme were being
wound up, and saw Mr. O'Connor there. His conduct was
perfectly ridiculous and that of a madman. The ac-
counts of those proceedings which appeared in The Sun
and other papers of that date were not at all exagger-
ated ; in fact, only the more prominent points were no-
ticed, and where Mr. O'Connor was stated to have
threatened to throw books at the Master's head, once
he had done so 20 times. Witness saw Mr. O'Connor
on Sunday last, and found him in a perfectly idiotic
state

senses,

Dr. Conolly, chief physician of the Hanwell Lunatic
Asylum, and father-in-law of Dr. Tuke, proved having
frequently seen Mr. O'Connor since he became an inmate
of Manor-house. His opinion was that the unfortunate
gentleman was labouring under confirmed and general
derangement of the intellectual faculties.
At this point of the inquiry the Commissioner and
jury proceeded to Manor-house. As the morning was
very fine, Dr, Tuke suggested that the interview should
take place in the garden at the back of the asylum. The
Commissioner assented, and with the jury walked on to
the green sward to await the arrival of Mr. O'Connor.
Presently the shrill voice of the unhappy man was heard
echoing through the passages in joyous accents. On
emerging from the house he looked for a moment at the
group of gentlemen forming the jury, and then, fixing
his eye on Mr. Ernest Jones, he at once advanced to
him, and grasping his hand warmly exclaimed, " Here's
Jones ! I love him ! I idolise him ! I deify him ! I
adore him !" The next moment, observing his former
solicitor, Mr. Turner, he grasped his hand and called
out loudly, " And here's Turner ! I idolise him ! He
is the best solicitor that ever lived! He is a capital
fellow, is that Turner !" Mr. Bell now came in for a
share of the unhappy man's criticism. The moment Mr.
O'Connor caught sight of him, he exclaimed, "And
here's Bell ! I love him ? I idolise him ! I deify him !
What a handsome fellow he is ! What beautiful eyes
he has ! beautiful nose ! beautiful mouth ! beautiful
lips ! beautiful teeth ! beautiful ears ! beautiful arms !
beautiful legs ! beautiful feet !" and so on, with
,a ra-
pidity of utterance which it was almost impossible and
most distressing to follow. Mr. Pownall earnestly en-
deavound to attract his mind to a rational subject, and
asked the unhappy man of what his property consisted ?
All he could obtain in reply was, that he had two news-
papers ; but he would not enter into particulars on this
head. The conversation having ceased for a moment,
Mr. O'Connor drew himself up, and striking both hands
upon his thighs to mark the metre of his verse, recited
with great rapidity the following lines :
The lion of freedom is come from his den
We'll rally around him again and again ;
We'll crown him with laurel our champion to be—
O'Connor, the patriot for sweet liberty.
The pride of the nation—he's noble and brave ;
A terror to tyrants, a friend to the slave ;
The bright star of freedom, the noblest of men,
We'll rally around him again and again.
Though proud daring tyrants his body confined,
They never could conquer his generous mind ;
We'll hail our caged lion, now freed from his den ;
We'll rally around him again and again.
Who strove for the patriots—was up night and day ?
Who sav'd them from falling to tyrants a prey ?
'Tomas Feargus O'Connor was diligent then ;
We'll rally around him again and again.

As he approached the end of this doggerel, once very-
popular among his followers, Mr. O'Connor became con-
siderably excited, moving rapidly backwards and for-
wards, and betraying much of that bold address which
distinguished his oratorical displays in former days. A
word from Dr. Tuke, however, quieted him instantly,
and he replied, " I won't say another word, Doctor."
As the learned Commissioner and jury passed out, Mr.
O'Connor appeared anxious to accompany them, but
another whisper induced him to return, and he stood on
the doorway, as the company departed, exclaiming to
each as he passed, " What a handsome fellow you are !
What a handsome fellow you are !"

Dr. Tuke states that Mr. O'Connor amuses himself
with the other patients very satisfactorily, and plays at
cricket and whist with considerable skill. He invari-
ably asks Dr. Tuke to take him to town each morning,
and is always satisfied with the doctor's promise to do
so next day if he is better.
On the return of the jury to the tavern several of the
panel declared that they thought it altogether unneces-
sary to examine Dr. Tuke, but
The learned Commissioner thought it better to ask the
doctor a few questions, and commenced by the formal
inquiry as to what he considered the state of Mr.
O'Connor's mind. _ _ _

Dr. Tuke—Decidedly of unsound mind.
The Commissioner—Have you seen him iii his natural
state to-day ?
Dr. Tuke--No, sir ; he was very much excited
to-day, owing to the number of persons present.
The Commissioner—ls there the slightest hope of his
recovery?

Dr. tuke—Not the slightest.
The Commissioner—Has he any lucid intervals ?
Dr. Tuke—l. think not. He is better sometimes than
at others, but I do not think he ever has a strictly lucid
interval.

The Commissioner observed, that he had no other
question to ask, upon which
Mr. Thompson said he had no direct instructions to
oppose the commission, and, after what he had witnessed
that day, he should leave the decision in the hands of
the jury, satisfied that, in arriving at a conclusion, they
would be actuated by a high sense of their duty to the
community, and, at the same time, of deep considera-
tion for Mr. O'Connor.
The jury, without troubling the Commissioner for any
remarks, at once found "That Mr. Feargus O'Connor
was of unsound mind, and was incapable of managing
his affairs," dating the lunacy from the 10th of June,
1852, the day on which he was committed to the cus-
tody of the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons.