The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-01 00:00:00

LOSS of the MARSHAL MACDONALD

Letter from a native of Limerick, one t. 4 the crew, to
his father resident in that city, dated Portsmoi'tb, Sept. 9.0 :
My dear Father—ln my first letter to you, I withheld
the particulars of my melancholy sufferings and disaster,
further than the loss of both my legs, but as you require
them, I shall, in as brief a manner as I can, give a narrative
of my shipwreck and sufferings.
On the 7th of November we sailed from Quebec, in the
ship Marshal Macdonald, John Clark, master, with a crew'
of 15 hands and a passenger. On the night of the 22d, off
the Isiond of St. Paul's, we shipped a sea, which carried 12
of us overboard. The Captain, second mate, and Wm.
Cronan (a Limerick boy) were in the cabin at the time our
sufferings con2anenced at this awful moment. Three of our
companions (unable to gain the ship) perished, among whom
was Jack Newton (a native of Limerick). On our recovering
the ship, and some 0, the bustle over, we discovered the chief
mate jammed between the lug-rigging and deck timber. The
Captain and one of the .men got a lantern, (the night being
very dark) and extricated' him from his perilous situation.
All hands were still almost suffocated from the sea flying
over us. The next morning ;re found the mate, carpenter,
and cook frozen to death on de,A. The remaining ten of
us took to the maintop, the ship I:,eing totally waterlogged,
thereby leaving her to the mercy cLe the sea. Three days
afterwards a ship hove in sight, bea,"ing down on us, and
we immediately made a signal of distres,. At the sight of
this ship we became overjoyed, supposing ourselves now
safe on board a ship sent by God, to relic ve us from our
perilous situation. She stood close to us, viewed our situa-
tion, took in her studding sails, hauled her wind, and stood
off again ! Words could not express our feelings on this
savage conduct of her crew. On the masthead ,Ye re-
mained for 15 (lays under the inclemency of the we,ather,
without a vestige to cover or shade us save our wet fro.7.en
clothes, exposed to frost and snow ; and for ten days we
subsisted on half a biscuit each man a day, and for five.'
days on sonic raw pork. On the night of the 7th of De-
ember, we drove on shore against the rocks, at St. Shotts,
ninety miles from St. John's, and in this struggle for life,
three of our companions perished. Next morning, the
scarcely surviving seven of us perceived a hut at a dis-
tance, occupied by a fisherman (a native of Kilkenny), who
treated us as well as his situation could afford ; and here
we remained for four days, and were then taken to Tri-
passy, a distance of fifteen miles. Tee Captain, a Scotch-
man, and I, were severely frost-bitten ; the Captain had
201., with which he procured the necessary means of pre-
serving his limbs, leaving us his fellow-sufferers to our fate.
Our habitation here was an old barn, through the crevices
of which the snow had free access. Soon afterwards our
legs began to rot, and emitted a stench that was almost
ropossible to bear ; still we were suffered to remain in this
state, without any attention being paid to our legs, from
the' 10th of December to the 17th of April, about eighteen
weeks. At length our feet fell from off our legs, attended
with the most excrud,ating pain, which caused the loss of
sight, and the faculty o.r our speech.
Mr. Sy ms, a magistrate of that place, was to blame for our
ill treatment, as lie could have forwarded us to a place where
we would have been properly treated. On the 18th, a seal
fishing vessel put into 'fripassy:. wind bound, and we were
pot on board and sailed for St. Jolm's, where, on the sth of
May, one of my legs was amputstol—my sufferings were
so great, that six weeks elapsed befor,
I could be prevailed
on to undergo a second operation. My left leg is not well
yet. It would take three letters to give -!,•eu a detail of my
sufferings, and the cruel treatment we received of Syms. A
clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Bridge, was.very kind and atten-
tive to me during my stay at St. John's. I was sent here
in a transport, where, I thank God, having once more ar-
rived in a Christian country, I receive the best care avd.
at-
tention.—l remain, dear father, your affectionate son,
THOMAS GOODWIN.
Mr. John Goodwin, Limerick.

CALNE.—The Hon. J. Fox Straugways was duly
elected for this borough last Wednesday.
We can scarcely refer to any weekly, or even daily
source of intelligence, but we meet with instances of persecu-
tion and rapacity in the collection of church-rates ; and a spirit
of public and avowed hostility to their exaction.—Nottingkarn
_Review.
POETRY OF ANGLING.—" I always consider the
mere act of fishing as a secondary consideration. I connect
with it the enjoyment of the country, the song of birds, the
beauty of the day, the refreshment of mind, and the calmness
of thtught which these bring with them. If,' as an old
writer remarks,' an angler is weary, his sport refreshes him ;
if melancholy, it cheers him ; if in pain, it eases him. This is
the prosperity of the fisher. Patience and hope are the two
chicfest pillars that support him.' • * Perhaps
there is no pleasure to he enjoyed at a more easy rate than
that of angling, one more conducive to health, or which corn_
poses the mind to that quiet and serenity which can only be
appreciated by those who have experienced the happiness they
heire, with them. An old angler has justly remarked that he
'who'lives ' Sibi et Den,' leads the most happy life; and when
we reflect that most of our earthly hopes are attended with
anxiety—that ambition, and riches, and power generally, have
some cares or evils to counterbalance, the contented angler
may per,..uo his course, enjoying his beloved recreation with a
mind unru.iied like the stream he wanders along."—Jesse's
.Rambles.
The Rey. Dr. Otter, having taken his degree as
Doctor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, was con-
firmed this day, at Bow Church, and will be consecrated at
Lambeth Palace, to-morroyr, Bishop of Chichester.
It is stated to be the intention of Sir Francis Good-
rielte to have the remains of the late Sir Harry Goodricke re-
moved from Ribstone for interment in the burying-place of his
•own family at Studley. Sir Francis Goodricke has built a
noble mansion, Studley Castle, in Warwickshire, and is pur-
chasing largely, and consolidating his property there,

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LONDON,
SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 1, 1836.

We observe with pleasure that the Reformers of
Caithness, though strong, are not slumbering at their
posts. A _dinner was given to Mr. TRA ILL by his
friends in Thurso last week, a report of which will be
found in another column. Mr. TRAILL is well
known to be a staunch Reformer, and would have
been returned at the Last general election for Orkney
and Shetland, which he represented in the former
Parliament, but for his too great confidence in the
promises of some of the electors, who, when brought
to the test, were found not proof against the stimu-
lants of various kinds applied by the friends of the
Tory candidate. In Caithness, which is Mr.
TRAILL'S native county, he has the great majority
of the constituency on his side, though the most un-
worthy and unjustifiable means have been resorted to
by a few red-hot Tories, the worshippers of Sir
GEORGE SINCLAIR, to get up a party for that poli-
tical spinning-top. The same impulse, it is clear, is
vibrating from one end of the country to the other.

The very earnestness with which the French Minis-
terial Journals defend the conduct of LOUIS PHI-
LIPPE in seceding from the Quadruple Treaty, must
confirm every impartial person in the conviction that
France herself is heartily ashamed of the apostacy of
the Royal President of the " best of RepubliCs." It
is really astonishing to contemplate the zeal with which
the Journal des Debuts, and a few' other tools of the
Government, have laboured to prove that the " march
of events' !las completely altered the face of Europe,
and, as a natura: consequence, forced upon the KING
the necessity of adopting a different system of foreign
policy from that so much .:51 vogue in Paris, imme-
diately after the accession of ti.f ORLEANS' dynasty
to the throne of France. They do 2ot, it is true,
after the fashion of our Tory Contemporarte;, exult in
the disappointment felt by the friends of freedoM jrt
this country—they do not taunt our noble Foreign
Secretary with , not suspecting the pupil . of LA=
FAYETTE of a design to betray those who pined him
upon a throne—neither do they scoff at men who,
believing Louts PHILIPPE honest, took no precau-
,tion against the possibility of political fraud, They
do not, after the fashion of our Royalty-worshipping
Toris, point to the sacred oaths—to the ratified
treaties of a KING, and sneeringly ask—how could
British Ministers be such dolts as to suppose
that lie really ever intended to keep the one, or obSerie
the other ? But, without offending so deeply aoainst
public decency and public morals, they seek to arrive
at the same conclusion, by attempting to spew that all
promises are necessarily conditional, and that in the
case of the Sovereign of the FRENCH, the promises
made by him with regard to Portugal and Spain have
ceased to be binding, in consequence of the recent
events in those kingdoms. Thus, the burden of the