The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-14 00:00:00

LOSS OF THE HANNAH.

Last Saturday we copied from a Hull paper an appalling
account of the sufferings of the crew of the Hannah, of
South Shields, which was capsised in the Western Ocean
in July last, on her passage from North America for Lon-
don, with a cargo of timber. We have received a letter
from a correspondent, at the port to which the vessel be-
longed, in which, upon the authority of Hugh Brown, the
carpenter of the Hannah, a number of statements are made
which impute the most culpable negligence, as to her condi-
tion previously to starting on the voyage, and the most
reckless indifference as to the perils she might encounter in
consequence of the manner in which she was laden, in Ca-
nada. We gather from the letter to which we refer, that
the owners and Underwriters are at litigation as to the
settlement of the loss. We do not think it would
be right, therefore, to give publicity to the state-
ments to which we have referred, pent.ling the in-
quiries that are being carried on. Assuming them to
be well founded—as we have no doubt they arc—they
will have their due weight upon the minds of the parties
concerned ; and we must be permitted to absta:n from
prejudging a case, upon all the particulars of whi.eh we
may not ba fully informed. But there are circumstances
connected with the loss of the Hannah, with part of .her
ierew, to whch we may direct public attention, without
being guilty of any impropriety, as between the parties
nterested in the affair ; and with some probability or
adding weight to the arguments we have already and
frequently employed against the too prevalent method of
loading the ships employed in the timber trade. It
appears from the narrative of the Hull Advertiser, that
the sole cause of the loss
theos
sof
ethirecuHmasntannache,
owfithhearllits
attendant calamities, wa
cap-
sizing. " The crew of the Hannah," says the narrator,
" before her disaster, consisted of twelve persons. One
of them was drowned when tirr two daysshiphe,ftc and twoapszzed , on the
16th of July. After remaining
on her ibroaaside, the survivors cut away the nights
on
topmasts,
gtand s
she righted, every thing on her deck being swept away:
heir provisions and their clothes were gone." What,
then, was the cause of the vessel capsizing ? Upon this
point, our correspondent furnishes the following informa-
tion :—" Only 20 tons of ballast was left in her, to steady
her,
every place being filled with cargo, so much so that,
although there were four heights of deals, upon an edge
upon deck, every drop of water and bit of provisions, except
bread, with her spare sails, and all other stores, were there
also. This, of course, made the ship unmanageable, so much
so that when other vessels were carrying top-gallant sails, she
was compelled to he under close reefed topsails. Indeed, the
carpenter is willing to make oath, that if the ship had been in
a moderate condition or trim, instead of becoming water-
logged, and capsising when she did, they could have carried
top-gallant sails, the weather at that time not being bad."
In the loss of the Hannah, then, and the dreadful sufferings
of her crew, we have another illustration of the fatal con-
sequences resulting from the practice of carrying deck-loads
—a thing against which we have always protested, as the
most fruitful cause of the loss of timber ships. So long as
underwriters will permit the practice, so long will it be fol-
lowed ; but we once more submit to them—apart from all
considerations of humanity—whether mere self-interest
ought not to induce them to disallowapractice which eo,
frequently leads to loss ?—Shipping Gazette.

Afeyerbeer has arrived at Brussels, on his way to
Paris, from Spa. Cherubini is sojourning at the Baths.
On Tuesday last, the Honourable Adventurers for
the drainage of Deeping Fen, held their meeting, at Spald-
ing, to receive plans, specifications, and tenders for building a
new stone bridge over the river Welland, in the place of the
present one of wood. Five designs were exhibited. It was
ordered that they be laid before an eminent engineer, in order
that he may report thereon.—Lincoln Gazette.
It may be news to the sentimental reader to be in-
formed that the English expressions " true love" and " true
lover," are not derived from the sentiment or passion love, or
from the fidelity of the lover—nor from the Scandinavian
synon3m to amor, but from the synonym to lex. Our word
love is derived from ice, law, and true from troe, to contract,
plight ; so that " troloved," or " trolov," meant originally,
contracted or pledged in law; and in old times a man might
be a " true lover" to his bond for ten pounds, as well as to his
sweetheart.—Lainy's Residence in Norway.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The last accounts which we published from Madrid
represent both the Government and the people in that
capital as anxiously expecting the resolution 'of the
French Ministry respecting the course to be adopted in
the present position of affairs in Spain. Notwith-
standing the very unfavourable impression that the late
Ministerial changes are calculated to produce, we are
unwilling to anticipate a decision so adverse to our
own hopes—so dangerous, we repeat, to the interests
of Louis Philippe—as a refusal to co-operate with
England in support of the Queen's Government. It
is said that the plan of co-operation proposed by Thiers
could not possibly effect the object to which it was di-
rected. We think differently. The Minister who
proposed the plan—every member of the Cabinet
whose opinion was of any worth—the eminent military
men to whom the plan was submitted—all thought dif-
ferently. We do not discuss the probable result of
a military operation, the result of which must de-
pend on so many contingencies. But there is obvious
folly in attempting to draw from the magnitude of the
intervention that took place in 1823 an argument
against the co-operation that is asked for in 1836.
France would be now with the people—then she was
against them. If France interpose now it must be to
support, not, as formerly, to suppress the Constitution
of 1812. The closing of the frontier against the sup-
plies of Don Carlos—the occupation of the Bastan
with a force of 10,000 men, thus leaving the Queen's
troops to operate against the main body of the Carlists
.--would, we have little doubt, be sufficient to secure
the speedy suppression of the rebellion. But, grant-
ing that the success of this plan is doubtful, should
that influence the decision of the French Government?
When Portugal was threatened with a Spanish inva-
sion, did the Minister of England stop to inquire
whether a force of 20,000 or 30,000 men would be
sufficient to protect our ally ? No. The question,
Mr. Canning emphatically said, was, not whether a
certain amount of force would suffice to protect
Portugal, or whether it was prudent to incur the
expense of the expedition, but whether or not we
were bound by treaty to give the assistance that
was asked. Of what value becomes the guarantee
of any treaty if the fulfilment of its obligations
is to depend upon the notion of the expediency enter-
tained by any Minister or any Sovereign ? It may or
may not have been prudent in Louis Philippe to put
his hand to the Quadruple Treaty. That is now ut-
terly beside the question. The policy of entering into
it he should have considered before it was signed. All
that we have now to inquire is, whether he be at liberty
to violate or evade it ? Unquestionably he is not.
Even if the fulfilment of that treaty threatened to be-
come a sows of danger, instead of extensive and
lasting advantage, still is he equally bound to ad-
here to the obligations lie has contracted. This is
the honest construction which suggests itself to
every right-thinking man, and which practice has
fortunately familiarised to the public mind of this
country. But it would seem that a deviation
from this straightforward course is justifiable
under particular circumstances. Whenever Eng-
land or France may be called upon to fulfil the
engagements they have contracted, it will be a suffi-
cient justification of refusal that they did not think
they could do so with effect. The co-operation of
Louis Philippe might not be successful in establishing
the Constitutional Monarchy- of Spain ; therefore,
though bound by treaty to afford it, he may refuse
And the degraded driveller who insults common sense
with this trash, is the representative, forsooth, not
alone of the opinions, but of the feelings of the people
of England ! The new Ministry of France cannot,
then, adopt towards Spain a line of policy differing
materially from, that proposed by Thiers. Whether or
not they will do so, a few days must decide. When
their determination is before us, call it " menace," or
bullying," or what you please, we shall unreservedly
speak our opinion. If Louis Philippe act honestly,
his Government shall have the credit of it : if not, we
shall say what appears to us the motive and the pro-
bable consequence of his conduct.—Morning Chron.
To-morrow, as most of our readers are aware, the
Newspaper Stamp. Duties Act will comae into opera-
tion. In that Act there was inserted a clause which
rindered it imperative upon each paper to publish
with what, in the Radical slang, is denominated "
distinctive (lie." The meaning of this, in plain Eng-
lish, is, that the name of the paper for which each
stamp is issued shall he marl.:ed upon the stamp. This
jocose proposition originated with the Grunticle, but,
unluckily for our contemporary, Mr. Grote, one of the
city members, took it for earnest. Now, Mr. Grote,
be it remembered, had never been able up to that time
to do much more than move whatever proposition
had the ill-luck to he patronized by him in Par-
liament. On the contrary, though he raised many
questio'ms, lie was never able to carry one. The
" ive die" seemed destined to relieve him from
this very disagreeable notoriety. Nobody could pos-
sibly object to the proposition, inasmuch as it was as
harmless as it was stupid. It happened to be rather
a new line for a ballot-monger—a recommender
and supporter of the " sneaking system"—the great
advocate of the craven crew who pretend to po-
litical rights, yet confess they are afraid to exer-
cise those rights openly—who' talk so largely about
the " voice of the nation," but will not let us hear
it—who never cease to threaten us with the " ma-
jesty of the people," yet would shut it up, like the
prince of a puppet-show, in a wooden box. Still it
was a first appearance for the very illustrious, but very
ill-starred, Sir. Grote, in making a proposition which
even the Ministerial majority of the House of Com-
mons could agree to. Against this proposition of a
" distinctive die" we never said a syllable. In truth,
we were positively in love with it for a moment—for
that moment in which we vainly flattered ourselves that
we might have the " die" done after our own fashion. We
like it still, though the fashion of the die is to be fixed
by the Government. We confess, however, candidly,
that we have been not a little disappointed in learning,
from the Stamp-office, that this said " distinctive die"
is not yet ready—nay, that it will not be ready till the
Ist of January ! Having made this announcement to
our readers, we have nothing to add upon the subject,
except, perhaps, to say that, as so much time has been
taken for the preparation of this said die, we think it
ought to be somewhat of a tasty affair—a thing that
would do credit at once to Mr. Grote, the Grunticle,
and the Government. If we thought it possible that,
to that end, we could offer any suggestion to the Mi-
nisters, certainly this is a case in which we should be in-
clined to sink all political animosity and render the Grote-
Grunticle gem as exquisite as possible. Now, there are
three Misters Rice—Mr.
-Mee, senior, of the Trea-
sury ; Mr. Rice, junior, of the
Treasury ; and a
tertius pas, • a Mr. Rice, of the Surrey Theatre. Each
of these establishments, the Treasury and the Surrey,.
ha :a Cupid of its own. That with which the first
Rices are connected have a Cupid of so long
-landing, that the
tg old boy's" age is as doubtful
as his colour, and although that, as everybody knows,
became suddenly and unexpectedly grey some
years
since, yet, in the present precariousness of politics, it
assumes as many hues as a chameleon ever put on, and
will assume as many as any chameleon can ever put
on—to keep its place. As money, not worth, makes
the man, so colour, not xonsistency, makes the Cupid,
which ever has been, and seems destined always to
be, but a very small creature. At the establishment on
the other side of the water—the Surrey, which consist,s,
not, as the other does, of "His Majesty's Servants"
—there is also, as we have said, a Cupid—a black
Cupid—wile, is personated by Rice tertius. Surely
here is an opening for the Government. Why not make
a graven image of Mr. Rice, senior, of the Treasury, in
the not inappropriate character of a black Cupid, and
cove him never-dying fame on the " distinctive die ?"
It would be only necessary to state, amone-t, other mis-
representations in a speech from the throne, that the
Mr. Rice of the Treasury, and the Mr. Rice of the
Surrey, were one and the same person; and we will Yen-
ture to say that, however untrue the assertion may be, it
will be much nearer the fact than the rest of the
speech, if those who made the last have to draw up
that we suggest. We have three months and a half
good yet till the Ist of January. May we hope that
Lord Melbourne will be able " between this and then"
to spare an hour from weeping over his unniched
saint, the Magdalen, and think of our proposition for
canonizing another Cupid (he is only a black one) in

the person of the senior Rice ! In this case, let us
further recommend that the representative of the Black-
Amour be displayed,—like a cherub on a tomb-stone,
—with an Exchequer-bill at a discount in his mouth.
This would not only neutralize Lord Palmerston's in-
fluence in the Cabinet, which, considering the mess
he has made in foreign affairs, must be particularly
desirable to the colleagues he has " done for" in that
department, but it might possibly tend also (in the
words of the speech from the Throne) to " tighten the
ties" that connect the Whigs with Mr. Fowell Buxton,
and the rest of those humane and religious gentlemen
who are always palavering about the " poor blacks,"
but who support the Government in excluding " poor
whites" from places of worship in England, and in
giving a " heavy blow and a great discouragement to
Protestantism in Ireland," where the poor are actually
starving ! Times.

" Drowning men," says the proverb, " will catch
at straws." The recent conduct of the Tories is a
case in point. Many a straw have they snatched at
within the last few vsars. The last one is the rumour
—invented, doubtless, by some of themselves—that
Mr. Sergeant O'Loghlen is about to be elevated to the
Bench, and that Mr. O'Connell succeeds him as At-
torney-General for Ireland. The Tories—that is to
say, their organs of the press and those who yield a
wholesale credence to their statements—rejoice at this
rumour on two accounts. First, because, assuming it
to be true, they leap to the conclusion that Mr.
O'Loghlen's relinquishing the Attorney-Generalship
for a seat on the Bench would, under all the circum-
stances, be demonstrable proof of the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman's conviction that a dissolution of
the Melbourne Administration is at hand. Their se-
cond ground of joy at the report, taking it for granted
that it is well founded, is, that Mr. O'Connell's accep-
tance of the Attorney-Generalship would put an entire
and permanent stop to agitation in Ireland—would in
other words, shelve him, for all popular purposes, for
ever. In so far as concerns the Tory journals them-
selves, and those of their readers who are simple enough
to believe anything, however improbable in itself, which
they choose to assert—in so far as regards them, we
think it a pity to dissipate the pleasant delusion.
Most willingly would we let them dream on about
the dissolution of the Government, and about Mr. O'Con-
nell's acceptance of the office of Attorney-General ;
but we have a duty to perform to our readers, and that
duty compels us to state, however great the pain it
may inflict on the Tories, that there is not the sha-
dow of a foundation for either of the events embodied
in the rumour to which we have alluded. That the
Administration of Lord Melbourne is about to be
broken up, is a point on which, perhaps, a denial is
not needed. When was it stronger .. in the affections
and sympathies of the people than it is at this moment ?
The nation see the peculiar position in which it is
placed ; they know it has to encounter the deadly hos-
tility of the Peers and a large minority of the Com-
mons, to say nothing of the bitter hate and endless in-
trigues of the Court party ; and because the people of
the United Kingdom are fully aware of all this, they
are ready, at a moment's notice, to make such a de-
monstration of their attachment to that Ministry, as
would at once frighten the Tory faction out of the scanty
remains of propriety of which they can still boast.
Anomalous as it may at first sight appear, we do, we
repeat, regard the combined hostility.of the Peers, the
Tory Commons, and the Court party, to the Admi-
nistration of Lord Melbourne as the greatest security
for its stability. What we always considered as the
rock on which the present Government would split, if
it was doomed to split at all, was the reposing a mis-
placed confidence on the adverse party, and a conse-
quent comparative disregard of the support of the
people. Lord Melbourne, however, has happily had
his eyes open to this danger, and has wisely resolved
to guard against it. He has openly declared that he
has no sympathy with, no dependance on the heredi-
tary Tory Peers, or the party with which they are
identified. He has clone still more than this ; he has
fearlessly avowed himself to he with and for the peo-
ple. To talk then of the dissolution of such a Govern-
ment, is just about as rational as are the notions enter-
tained by the unfortunate inmates of St. Lukes, or of
any similar institution. 'Why do not the Tories'
amuse themselves with the hypothesis that it were
practicable for some half dozen of their number to re-
move St. Paul's ? There would be just as much
reason in the idea a's there is in the notion that they
can displace the Government of Lord Melbourne be
one of their own. As to the weak invention of Mr.
O'Connell's becoming the Attorney-General for Ire-
land, it is just entitled to the same attention as the
other part of the story. There is one party who ought
to know something about the matter, who says there
is not a word of truth in it. That party is Alr. O'Con-
nell himself. It is only a few months since he pub-
licly declared that he would accept of no office under
any Government. The Tories themselves will, we dare
say, admit that the Attorney-Generalship is an office
of this description. The Hon. and Learned Gentle-
man will therefore decline entertaining the proposal,
should it be made to him, for one little moment. Mr.
O'Connell seeks to emancipate his countrymen from
their hereditary bondage ; and no one knows better
than he, that to accept of any Government office would
be to deprive himself of all power of ameliorating the
condition of Ireland.—Morning Advertiser.
It is not because we have any feeling of admiration
for Louis Philippe's course of policy in general that we
cordially approve of one part of it—that which led to
the dissolution of the Cabinet of M. Thiers—a Minis-
ter who disgracefully signalised himself by being the
persecutor of freedom in Switzerland, while he was the
supporter of a ferocious and unprincipled democracy in
Spain ! Although: the Ministry that has succeeded
the late one is not calculated, either by its talents or
public virtues, to achieve a great or glorious destiny,
we arc, nevertheless, pleased with the retributive jus-
tice that worked the fall of M. Thiers, while he was
working the overthrow of Swiss independence. Strik-
ing, as he did, at the existence of real liberty in
a land where its name is associated with splendid re-
collections, he precipitated himself from power by rush-
ing to embrace its blood-smeared phantom in Spain.
The Minister who threatened a " hermetical blockade,"
unless the altars of national hospitality were razed to
the earth in the mountain-home of William Tell—he
who would have the fugitive victims of Russian tyranny
hunted from the land which had given them an asylum
into the toils of the oppressor, tried at the same time
every art of solicitation and intrigue to induce his
Royal Master to send his armies across the Pyrenees,
and enable a licentious and cruel faction to establish
by foreign bayonets, their system of democratic terror
and rapine upon the ruins of an ancient monarchy.
Fortunately for himself and his own Crown, Louis
Philippe did not take the same view of the Spanish ques-
tion as his late Minister. He did not allow himself
to be cajoled or bullied into the projected intervention
by the Palmerston of France. He is undoubtedly a
party to the Quadruple Treaty ; but that treaty was
devised as much to repress the Democrats of Spain as
to discourage the Carlists. It was a treaty to support
the Princess-Regent at the head of a juste milieu
system of policy ; and if Louis Philippe now interfered
in Spain, on behalf of the Democrats, who have over-
thrown that system, he would be trampling on his own
Work. Though we do not look upon Louis Philippe
as quite the wisest of Kings, we believe him a sufficiently
shrewd politician to bean overmatch for any dozen states-
men
the Thiers and Palmerston calibre of intellect.
SOITIC f of our Whig-Radical Contemporaries have re-
cently
discovered that the King of the French is in
rather closer
intimacy with the absolute Northern Powers
than with the
Western mock-liberal alliance. It is now
some years since we
stated the same thing, and thereby
Whig-Radical b
provoked those ,
hig-Radical journals to assail us
with not a little of that
so
litvulgar ribaldry and flippant
abuse in which they
era ydeal. Those journals
were then the panegyrists
of Louis Philippe and his
Government ; nor were they sparing of their
unpa-
triotic eulogies upon those Doctrinaire Ministers who
so cruelly cajoled our Poulet Th
--°Tasons and Dr. Bow-
rings on the subject of "free trade."
We had better
proofs than his refusal to send an
army across the
Pyrenees, to support Sergeant 9arcia's Democratic
dynasty, for believing that Louis Philippe
has long
been on a more intimate footing of alliance with Russia
than with England. His own sagacious perception of
the danger arising from having a Jacobin Club ruling
a nation next door to France, would, of itself, account

for his refusing to agree to the Thiers and Palmerston
project. He sees his neighbour's house on fire, and
he does not wish to kindle a torch at the conflagration
to burn down his own.—Morning Herald.
On Friday, the 2d, we stated that information had
been given to us, by a respectable authority, that very
angry recriminations had passed between the Cabinets
of the Tuileries and St. James's, on the everlasting
question of Spain, and that Lord Palmerston had in
his anger gone to the dangerous length of threatening
Louis Philippe. We did not at the moment attach all
the importance to the communication that it deserved,
because we could not, though fully conscious of the
weak mind of our Secretary of State for Foreign Af-
fairs, imagine that his poverty of understanding would
carry him so far as to indulge in impotent and useless
menaces against the French Monarch, who has not
even taken the trouble of concealing from all the world
that he was playing a double part. But several arti-
cles which have since appeared in the Ministerial press
convince us that the assertion was well founded, and
that the noble author of the Quadruple Alliance was
resorting to most irregular means of carrying his
threats into execution. Judging from the tone of
papers which are in direct communication with him,
or are influenced by the medium of his dependants,
we find that the ignoble plan is resorted to of in-
flaming the public mind of France against the
Sovereign whom we so loudly and so lately proclaimed
as our best ally. Is it proper that this strong distinction
should be drawn between the King of the French and
the French people, and that every inflammatory topic
that can be urged is addressed to them, for the pur-
pose, not of fomenting another revolution—for we
cannot think that so diabolical an idea has been
entertained—but of alarming the nation generally
against their ruler, and of compelling him to submit
to public opinion, if it can be forced to make
common cause with the republican movement in
Spain ? When the first of the articles we allude
to appeared we did not pay it much attention—sup-
posing that the incitement to disorder was in its
usual strain of providing what it calls good govern-
ment for other countries; but when we found the
same thought working through another Ministerial
organ and clumsily imitated in a weekly publication,
the conviction was forced upon us, that the
whole proceeded from the same source, and that
the Foreign Office had issued its fiat of rebel-
lion. We also find in the Dutch, the French, and
the German papers, announcements of the quarrel
which has taken place between the two Cabinets,
and assurances that most angry recriminations have
been addressed from Downing-street. From all these
proofs it is quite evident that Lord Palmerston has lost
both his temper and judgment, and that he has pro-
ceeded to an extremity which must render his position
more difficult—more ridiculous it could not appear—
than it has hitherto been. We hope that the French
nation is able to distinguish between the general cha-
racter of the British press and the public opinion which
it represents, and those party prints which are the
creatures of the Government. It may be assumed
that the bulk of the people do not sympathise with the
angry feelings of our Downing-street despot, and that
the speedier France retires from the Quadruple Treaty
the more fully shall they be gratified. How discredita-
ble is it to our Government that such paltry acts
should be brought home to it. By what authority
does any member of it avail himself of a newspaper
press to excite the subjects of an ally against its So-
vereign ? Events are more powerful than wishes.
They have determined the Spanish question, and Louis
Philippe is right to profit by them. Are we to have
the merit of being the instigators of the Republican
movement at Madrid by the pains we are taking to
foment one equally Radical at Paris ?—Morning
It was adroitly rumoured yesterday in the monied
circles that the Bank at Madrid, associated under
Royal Charter, had agreed to advance the Government
500,0001., to be repaid out of the contribution, or
forced loan, now inflicted on the country. We need
not caution our readers against giving credit to this
story. It is framed to serve a particular purpose. It
is doubtful if the Bank has so much money in its cof-
fers, and if it has, it knows the Government too well
to trust it with a dollar. The Constitutional Ministry
may rob the Bank of whatever money it may be in
possession of, and M. Mendizabal is not a person to
hesitate about doing so, if his Junta de donativos be
not in a thriving condition ? But the very idea of the
Bank coining forward to support the Government, is
absurd to an y person acquainted with its management ;
and we consider the report another attempt at delusion,
of the parties who have so frequently plundered the
English public, by fabrications in Spanish affairs.—
Morning Post.