The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-28 00:00:00

CATOR, THE FRENCH PILOT.

The following is a brief outline, from the Bou-
lonnaise, of this remarkable man, who was drowned
some days ago at the mouth of Boulogne har-
bour by the upsetting of the boat with the mail :
Delpicrre, generally called Cater, was born in
1787. He followed the profession of his father. His
courage, tact, and prudence recommended him to the
command of the privateer Itancunier. On the 2d of
December, 1811, aided by three other privateers, he
attacked the English cutter Olympia, of 14 guns and
75 men. After a bloody and hard fight the cutter was
taken. Such a prize entitled him to the cross of the
Legion of Honour. But his father was in priscn con-
demned to death, the Boulonnaise says, for some parti-
cipation in the affair of Moreau ; others say for assist-
ing emigrants to escape, and returning with others
who were looked upon as spies. Whatever the cause,
Cator offered his honour and his prize for his
father's liberty. The Government accepted them

n December'lB2l he saved the crew of the Aimable

Rose, for which the Minister made him a pecuniary
donation. In 1829 he did a similar service to the crew
of a fishing boat that would have been lost at the en-
trance to the harbour. In 1830 whilst walking on the
jetty, he heard screams proceeding from the middle of
the harbour ; lie flew to the spot, saw a child struggling
in the water, instantly dashed in and brought it safe to
land, when he discovered it was his own child ! He
obtained that year a silver medal. In 1831 be obtained
another, 30 fr. from the Minister and 50 from the
Humane Society for saving the lives of several pe, sons.
In June 1832 Cator and four men were at sea in his
boat, when a violent tempest coming on, the boat was
capsized and the whole at the mercy of the waves.
Three men perished, one struggled against his fate with
Cater, who, with that admirable generosity for which
he was at all times distinguished, seeing that his com-
panion was neither so good a swimmer nor so cool as
himself, ceded to him the oar with which he was aiding
his own efforts for life, and struck away for the shore,
Fortunately a boat came to their assistance, and both
were saved. Two days afterwards Cater rescued from
the harbour young Delande, who was near perishing.
In December of the same year he received the decora-
tion of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and the In-
stitute testified its approbation of his private life by a
donation of 1,000 francs. Among his virtues were
goodness of heart, mildness and affability of manners,
the utmost simplicity, kindliness of disposition and love
and affection for his parents. Cator had a large family to
support, bet the yearnings of his youth to rescue his
father from prison, and to sacrifice wealth and honour
to his happiness, showed equal strength and love when
his wife and children surrounded him ; his father was
old and required attention. Cator had him in his own
house, that he himself might see that nothing was want-
ing to his.comfort and happiness.
Such is a faint outline of the pilot's life, whose death
we all so much regret ; a life usefully spent for himself
and his country ; a life that we would humbly recom-
mend the Institute to have fully detailed, printed and
circulated, as an incentive to all in the same sphere of
life to do likewise, be respected and rewarded. Such a
life would be more useful to the State than twenty lives
of conquerors and ravagers of the earth.

DREADFUL ACCIDENT.--EGIIAM, JAN. 26.
—Yesterday morning a dreadful accident occurred to a
lad named Keen, the servant of C. Clarke, Esq., of this
town, in consequence of the accidental discharge of a
double-barreled gun, loaded with No. 1. shot, the contents
of which entered his right arm, just below the elbow,
shattering it in a most horrid manner, and lodging between
the elbow and the wrist. The sufferer (accompanied by his
master) proceeded to the London University Hospital, in
Gower-street, where, upon his arrival, amputation of the
arm, from above the elbow, was performed by Mr. Liston.
PRESBYTERY OF STRATIIBOGIE.—On Thurs-
day !rut Mr. Edwards was ordained minister of the parish
of Marnoch, by the seven suspended clergymen, agreeably
to a decision of the Court of Session, and in defiance of
the General Assembly. The scene on the occasion was
most riotous and disorderly. When the Moderator ap-
peared in the pulpit, for the purfose of preaching the cus-
tomary sermon previous to the induction, snow-halls, pieces
of e ood torn from the seats, and missiles of various de-
scriptions were hurled at the Presbytery from the gallery,
and for nearly two hours nothing could be done. At
length, through the intervention of the police, order was
restored, and the remaining proceedings were gone
through without interruption. How far exhibitions of this
description will forward the schemes of the non-intrusionists
will be seen in due time.
RESPITE FOR THE CONVICT AI4RAE.---We
understand that a respite has been sent north, to Inverness,
of the sentence of death lately pronounced by the High
Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, on Alexander Willie, late
farmer arid ;•attle--Inler, for ram Tl:c respite, we arc
Gold, is granted for nn unli.nif.d period,—Editibitryh
Sir Hugh Palliser, 13..)tt., and Mrs. Lockhart
are still residing at Castletown House, county of Wexford
but intend returning shortly to England.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THY DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
We have been long accustomed to read in the jour-
nals of Opposition—whether Whigs or Tories occupied
the benches on the left hand of the Speaker—that the
last Royal Speech at the opening or prorogation of Par-
liament was the worst of all Royal Speeches which had
preceded it. We expected, of course, a repetition of
the usual depreciatory and condemnatory remarks in
the Tory journals of this morning on the Speech from
the Throne with which Parliament was yesterday
opened, and we have not been disappointed. The
Speech, however, is in the hands of the public, and
will, we apprehend, be judged of on its own merits
by those capable of judging, irrespective of the corn-
:ncndations of journals which support the general policy
of Ministers, and the vituperations of those who em-
ploy their powers in assailing and condemning it. If
the document so unmercifully assailed were really as
rich in defects as is asserted of it, how is it that in
neither House—although the Tories possess a decided
majority in one, and a powerful minority in the other--
how is it, we ask, if the Speech were really deficient in
some and erroneous in its other topics—that the Tories
did not move an amendment en the Address, which
was an echo of the Speech, and thus manifest to the
country their superior acquaintance with its foreign
relations—its colonial dependencies—and its domestic
condition ? That the Tories are exceedingly desirous
of exhibiting their superior capabilities of government,
will not be doubted. That a successful onslaught on
the Ministry at the very opening of the Session, and
on the Address to the Throne, in reply to the Speech
of the Queen—which we are again and again re-
minded, is the composition of her Ministers—would
have been seized on by their hungry partisans as a
realization of their hopes, as the fulfilment of their con-
fident predictions, uttered in every form of language
during the recess, cannot be denied. And yet they
suffered the golden opportuaity to pass by Tile Mi-
nisterial answer to the worst of all Royal Speeches
was suffered to pass in both Houses nem, con. ; and
the duty of declaiming against it, and amending it, is
consigned to the journals of Opposition, instead of
being performed by the Duke of Wellington and Sir
Robert Peel, backed by Oe gtpvir tkey command in
their respective Houses !-•A Speech flora the Throne,
which, we are assured by the Post, is " but a mockery
of the public and an insult to Parlisment,"—on which
the Herald employs upwards.of a column in denouncing
its sins of omission and of commission—exhibiting what
it is, and what it ought to have been, in that peculiar
style which pertains to its Heraldic wisdom—was al-
lowed to go forth stamped, by implication, with the ap
probation of her Majesty's opposition in both Houses !
No wonder that the Tories shake their heads, and talk
of a " coalition," with such indications of tacit assent
on the part of their leaders to the course pursued by the
Government!

(From the Standard )
The sessional Speech has been already in the hands
of our readers, who have for themselves observed its
utter inanity, beyond even the al!owed license of such
addresses in saying nothing. This Speech is distin-
guished from all that went before it in the omission of
even allusion to the important topics of public interest ;
it not merely guards against any avowal of opinion upon
such subjects—it evades even a mention of the subject.
This is a necessary result of the anomalous and un-
precedented position of a Ministry, holding office
without the possession of any substantive power
whatever ; dependent now upon Conservative support,
now upon the aid of the Radicals, it is compelled to
steer a course which will not commit it absolutely
against either party, and such a course requires that
it keep clear of every great question. Conscious
that it can do nothing of itself, it must be careful to
say or hint nothing of its proposed lice of action.
The two most urgent subjects of consideration at
this time—the relations of the country with France,
and the repeal sedition in Ireland—these two
subjects, for which every man would anxiously
look, in the very fist instance, for infor-
mation in the so-called Royal Speech, are wholly
omitted—omitted under circumstances when the omis-
sion may be productive of the niost serious conse-
quences. The natural tendency of the. neglect of
France must be to exasperate the jealousy; of the sensi-
tive and high-spirited people of that country ; the
silence on the subject of the repeal sedition cannot
fail to afford encouragement to the repeal traitors.
The intimation of law reform would be the one
commendable passage of the Speech, had we not had so
many intiatations of the same kind, to give assurance that
that paragraph is introduced without any purpose of acting
upon its promise, and only to help out the length of the
Speech. The debates which arose upon the motion for
the answering Address, amply compensated the mea-
greness of the Speech, at least as far as the question
of our relations with France is concerned. Here the
Conservatives were exhibited in their true place, as
the actual government of the country, the guardians
of its interests and honour, and the protectors of the
peace of Europe. It is not only in domestic affairs
that Sir Robert Peel and his friends now exercise
the primary authority. They, and they only, main-
tain our military and naval establishments at the
point necessary for public safety—they, from the floor
of the Houses of Parliament, are the efficient diploma-
tists for preserving Europe in peace.

SPORTING INTELLIG6NCE.

MANCHESTER-TUESDAY EVENING.

There was a very good attendance this morning; but so
little business was done, that we only need give the ful
lowing quotations :
THE RIDDLESWORTIT. —Not named.
THE CHESTER CUP, P. P.—(Accept !or not.)
7i to 1 agst Mr. Ridsdalc's Bloomsbury—off
14 to 1 agst Col. Cradock's Gallipot
20 to 1 agst Mr. T. Walter's Sir George
20 to 1 agst any other
100 to 3 art Mr. Price's Tuley
100 to 2 agst Col. Peel's Gibraltar
HO to 1 agst Lord Westminster's Maroon
Offers to back the field v 8, take 10. The grand magnet
was Bloomsbury, next to him the Irish division. Re-
triever would have been backed in hundreds at 20 to 1, but
the layers " hold hard."