The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-15 00:00:00

REMARKABLE INCIDENTS CON-
NECTED WI'T'H tnE LIFE OF THE LATE
LORD NELSON.

It has often been remarked upon what a slender balance
the fate of many things hang, and how much the
smallest event may accelerate, or retard and destroy,
the most important matters connected with the affairs
of life.

In the year ISOS, memorable in the annals of Great
Britain for the glorious battle of Trafalgar, when the
gallant Nelson fell, a French and Spanish squadron,
sailed f,,r the West Indies with objects of conquest
and plunder in view. Lord Nelson was not long in
ascertaining this, and was soon in pursuit of that
fleet. His Lordship arrived in the West Indies
at the time the combined fleet was there, and which it
would appear meditated an attack upon the Island ofTrinidad, at that time under the government and mili-
tary command of Sir Thomas Hislop, a distinguished
and gallant officer, who having secret information of the
intentions of tt e fleet, lost no time in placing the island
in a complete state of defence, forming also a determina-
tion to resist to the last extremity. It so happened this fleet
consisted of exactly the same number of ships that was
stated to compose the fleet of Lord Nelson when he was
last heard of, but as he was considered to be at a great
distance at that time from the West Indies, it was never
contemplated that he could possibly be in the West
Ind:es or in the neighbourhood of the Island
of Trinidad. When early one morning the signal
was made from the windward signal-posts of the island
of the approach of a fleet of men-of-war, amounting
exactly in number to the information received
of the combined French and Spanish squadron, which,
as already stated, was precisely the number
of Lord
Nelson's fleet. The officer in charge of the signal-posts
immediately conceiving that this was the combined
squadron, set fire to all the buildings of the port, and
made good his retreat to the port of Spain, the capital
of the island, after throwing all the guns over the preci-
pice and destroying the batteries. The fleet, which
afterwards proved to be that of Lord Nelson, conceiving
from this proceeding that the island, as had been previously
reported, was in possession of the enemy, continued its
course, and towards evening,wheu it;was too dark to observe
signals and discern objects on shore, anchored in regular
line of battle in the Gulf of Paris, within a short dis-
tance of the strong batteries known by the name of His.
lop's Advance; the flag-ship, the Vanguard, being the
head ship, and close under a tremendous battery of
thirty-two pounders and nearly a dozen of heavy mor-
tars, one discharge of which was sufficient to have sunk
several line-of battle ships in a moment. Thus were
the British fleet and the forces on the island playing at
cross purposes—the former conceiving the place to be in
the possession of the enemy, and the island in return
conceiving the fleet to be a hostile one ; and in
this awkward and critical situation a night of
anxious uneasiness was passed by both parties.
At length towards morning it occurred to Lord Nelson
to send a boat well armed and manned, with muted
oars, towards the shore to see how matters stood. The
boat pulled cautiously towards the beach where several
English sentries happened to be posted, who were then
passing the word to one another, and on the officer in
command of the brat listening attentively be distinctly
heard English voices and English language, on which he
lustily called out " Who's there? Are you friends?
If so, here is an English man-of-war's boat coming on
shore." And onwards dashed the boat, and in an in-
stant the lieutenant found himself not in the presence of
a guard of French and Spaniards, but in the middle of
a party of the gallant 37th Regiment of Infantry, then
quartered in the island and stationed at Fort George.
The first thing to be done now was to apprise the Go-
vernor of this extraordinary circumstance, and the next
after that to apprise the officer in command of Hislep's
Advance' and to prevent his firing on the British fleet;
and he was fortunately prevented just in time to save the
fleet, at all events the Vanguard, the flag-ship, from de-
struction, as the officer was at the very moment the
aide-de-camp arrived preparing the fuzees for the mor-
tars, the men with lighted matches standing ready at the
guns; and in a few minutes more, in all probability, the
Vanguard would have been at the bottom of the Gulf
of Paris—a wreck at the tomb of the gallant Nelson,
and the battle of Trafalgar would never have been
fought. Instead of St. Paul's containing the ashes of
the gallant hero, a watery grave would have been his
lot, and that, too, lamentable to say, accomplished by
British guns and British soldiers.

DEATH OF SIR JOHN BROOK STONHOUSB,
We have to announce the decease of the above baronet,
who expired a few days since at Clifton, at a very
advanced age. The late Baronet was formerly in
the civil service of the Bengal establishment,
and was many years Registrar of the Zilla Court
of Ghazeepore, but had long since retired from
his duties in India. He succeeded to the baronetcy on
the death of his uncle (the 12th bart.) in 1810. The de-
ceased is succeeded in the ancient honours of the family
(the baronetcy created as far back as 1628) by his son,
now Sir Timothy Vansittart Stonhouse, in the civil ser-
vice of the East India Company, at Madras, born 1799,
and married to Miss Sturt, eldest daughter of the Rev.
William Sturt, of Long Critchil, Dorset.
Cant. CoN. IN HIGH Lira.—ln an action which
has been brought against a Noble Duke for criminal
conversation, which has formed the topic of much dis-
cussion in the higher circles, and which has given birth
to many rumours, an application was made on Friday
to a judge at chambers, by Mr. Edwin James, u
counsel for his Grace, for further particulars in
p res • ect of the dates and the occasions upon which the
alleged offences were stated to have been com-
mitted. The Learned Judge, after a lengthened discus-
sion, intimated his opinion that the information which

was afforded by the statement in the declaration was
very vague and Inaccurate; but added, that the rule of
practice in such cases prohibited him from making the
order applied for. The case will, in all probability,
come on for trial at the sittings after the present term.
The damages are laid at an unusually large sum—several
thousands.— Observer.

REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH -STAFFORDSHIRII.--•
BIRMINGHAM, SATURDAY.—SOTUaiSRS continue in cir-
culation as to the probable candidates for the represen-
tation of South Staffordshire ; but, considering the
varied chances of success, there is evidently a growing
feeling in favour of a practical man, like Mr. Forster,
of Walsall. Commercial matters, such as those of South
Staffordshire, require an adequate representative. Mr.
Forster, it will be remembered, was the first Member
returned to Parliament for the borough, with which, as
banker, his name is so honourably associated. His
opinions are Conservative, and his great knowledge of
the manufacturing as well as agricultural interests of
Staffordshire would render him a valuable representa-
tive of the Southern Division. Until the funeral of Earl
Talbot, nothing will be definitively announced.
CARDIGAN ELECTION.—Mr. John S. Harford has
issued an address, !dated the 11th instant, to the elec-
tors of the Cardigan burghs, vacant by the death of Mr.
Pryse Pryse, whom he opposed at the last general elec-
tion. Mr. Williams, the late Member for Coventry, is
spoken of as likely to come forward.
DUDLEY, SATURDAY.—This evening the last o
the quarterly meetings of the iron-masters of this district
was held here at the Swan Hotel, when the prices, of
which you have been already apprised, were fully con-
firmed, and with every reasonable prospect that they
will be maintained throughout the ensuing quarter.
The attendance was numerous, and some brisk orders
w ere said to have been taken for foreign as well as do-
mestic purposes.
ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.—The season commences
this evening with Paer's one act operetta, Le Maitre de
Chappelle, and Auber's charming opera, Le Domino Noir,
in which Mons. Conderc and Madlle. Charlton will make
their appearance.
SACRED HARMONIC SOClETY.—Handers Judas
Maccabeus, which gave such great satisfaction at the
last performance by the above society, is to be repeated
next Friday.
STORM IN MORECAMBE BAT.-011 Wednesday
last, a storm raged in Morecambe Bay that exceeded in
violence any experienced for a series of years. Being
the highest of the spring tides, too, such an immense
body of water was driven up the bay as to cause an
overflow of the banks in a great many low-lyigg °That,
lions. The surf was blown with violence agains_s_ng
windows of many houses situate near the shore,
n e. übg
great alarm to the inmates and doing
ecoc
erable
damage. At Greenodd the water overflowed the na
nd col.
and road, carrying away a quantity of timthe tide was
liers' basket rods. At Barrow, wherreem
embered, the
within a few inches of the highest evtehre
patent slip, Vraa
steamer Helvellyn, repairingcet
she rested and forced
it is feared, great in-
highembankmentsusa between Barrow and
di iven from the blocks on
.wnitif;gh,
banks,nj and covered 11
upon the shore,
j cy. The railwaylnjury. Up the Duddo
sPaienldsliktehwethe
Broughton, damaging
Kirkby to the line
railway from be a week before the trains
so much that it will
likewise sustained
Nanny and Betty, can run
• the schooner
overflowed
thes i
of Fleetwood, was
driven near to Dunnerholme• she did
driven on shore not re-
but some difficulty
ceive much injury, will be experienced
/
e Journal.
in getting her o Car
ERRATUM. 1 our report of the gas t• mee mg in
Farringdon Without, in our Saturday's publication, we
that Mr. Manby movedthe •
stated
third resolution—it
should have been Mr. Matay.
A POLICE Doc.—A dog, of the bull-terrier
breed,
belonging to Mr. Tibbey, of Hereford, some time ago
evinced a strong partiality to the members of the police
force, and at the commencement of their night duties is
attendance regularly in attend
at the station-house to accom-
pany some one of the officers upon whom his choice for
the night may have fallen. Upon one occasion the
officer, wishing to get rid of his canine attendant, some-
what roughly threw him over Wye-bridge into the river,
but
in a few minutes the dog was again at his heels.—
Gloucester Journal.
UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION. The Imperial
Austrian Government have presented to this institution
a selection of their military maps, exhibiting nearly the
whole of that great empire in thirty sheets. The
execution of these maps is of the highest order, and to
a soldier they exhibit the whole varied face of the
country with unusual perspicuity, and although crowded
with names of towns and villages all are most distinct
and visible. The maps were presented through Baron
Koller, Austrian Charge d'Affaires.
AN EXPENSIVE UNDERTALING.—The Chapel-hill
pits, belonging to the British Iron Compan are a
length freed from the enormous quantities o water—
the accumulation of years—which have so long flooded
them, and coal has at last been found. The water, two
years ago, when operations were first commenced, Wag
84 yards deep, and the expense attending its draining is
estimated at no less a sum than 10,0001. This includes
the erection of engines, stacks, and whimseys and the
losses occasioned by breakages, &c. The pits have been
previously worked, but it is known that an excellent
mine still remains to compensate the enormous outlay in
arriving at the treasure.— Were:ester Chronicle.