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

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 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 officers 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 Phenix 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 nu 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 afund 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 81. a-year as an allowance for my daughters
until they attained 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
other 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. 111 . H.]

THE JAMES WITT.—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
*ill 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 Loudonsack 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—Fkig, 141.
Os. 4d. ; commander, 261. ss. Bd. ; fourth class, 71.
19s. 6d. ; fifth, 41. 13s. ; sixth, Si. 19s. 9d. ; seventh,
21. 13s. 2d. ; eighth, 1/. 6s. 7d. ; ninth, 16s. 7d. ; tenth,
9s. 11d.

THE DEAD OF THE FUTURE AND THE GENERATIONS OT
THE PAST.—I think it necessary to inform my readers
that these remarks are a reprint of my " Practical Sug-
gestions for the Establishment of National Cemeteries,"
published in the year 1849. A strong conviction of
the necessity of the case, and a belief that I might ren-
der a service by the republication, has alone induced
me again to take up the subject. I have neither the
inclination nor the space at present to wade through the
mass of " Reports" which have been subsequently issued ;
but I may remark, that already precious irredeemable time
has been lost which the people had a right to expect
should have been employed in energetic action. Instead
of wasting time and money in arbitration, which has even-
tuated in a sum of 117,000/. being awarded for the Nun-
head and Brompton cemeteries, which sum the Treasury has
declined to advance ; those to whom the power of provid-
ing an efficient remedy for a grievous and hourly increas-
ing wrong has been delegated, ought to have opened forth-
with cemeteries sufficiently capacious to receive the dead
of the metropolis for centuries to come. And here let
me observe, that not only the dead of the future, but the
generations of the past, demand our care and solicitude.
Myriads of bodies piled one upon another in the vaults
of our churches and chapels, which have been during
centuries converted into charnel-houses, are furnishing
their quota to the general mischief. Thousands of those
whose bodies have been so disposed of have not a single
living representative. If, after due official notice,
they were unclaimed, what sentiment could reason-
ably be offended if a solemn and appropriate
transmission were accorded them by funereal
trains to a cemetery ? Having myself personally
superintended the exhumation and removal of
many thousand bodies from the cellar under Enon
Chapel, Clement's-lane, Strand, in the years 1847-8, I
am fairly entitled to express my opinion that what has
been done by an individual, alone, and unassisted, may
be accomplished by an imperially constituted autho-
rity. This undertaking was effected without any acci-
dent, and four up-heaped' van loads of human remains
found Christian burial in the Norwood Cemetery, whilst
an enormous quantity of coffin-wood from the same
place was consumed by fire at Sydenhatn. I mention
these circumstances in order that I may place on record
a remarkable fact, viz., that although upwards of 6,000
persons visited this wretched receptacle during the time
it was in my possession, and although I am acquainted
with many who had placed relatives and friends there,
yet only one person made any inquiry concerning one
body, out of the many thousands there deposited.—
C. A. Walker, Surgeon, on the Past and Present Con-
dition of Intramural Burial-places.
ALARMING HIGH TlDE.—Yesterday afternoon, owing
to an immense amount of land-water, arising from the
recent excessive rains, and a strong north-easterly wind ,
the waters of the Thames rose to an unusual height, and
at half-past four overflowed their usual boundaries, inun-
datin.;• the low-lying places on both banks. At seve-
ral of the steam-boat piers extra accommodation was re-
quired to land and embark passengers. It is fortunate
the tides are on the neap, or the damage would have
have been more extensive.