The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-09 00:00:00

MORNING SUN

their petition, feebly set forth ; and that, the' think,
can be effectually done, only by your Honourable
House taking into your honest consideration the thou-
sands of petitions for a Radical Reform of your Ho-
nourable House, which have been signed by millions
of the unrepresented people of this nation.
And your petitioners will ever pray.
(Signed by order of the meeting),
JAMES WILKINSON, Chairman,
GEORGE ROGERS, Treasurer.
B. TILLY, Hon. Sec.

HALF YEARLY MEETING OF
THE CHESTER AND BIRKENHEAD RAIL-
WAY DIRECTORS.

(PROM OUR OWN CORRECIPONDENT.)
LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY, OCT. 7.
A numerous and highly respectable meeting of the
Proprietors in the Chester and Birkenhead Railway
• was held at the Clarendon-rooms in this town, at
•12 o'clock to-day, for the purpose of receiving a report
• and statement of the general accounts from the opening
of the line, and transacting other important business.
The Chair was occupied:by HENRY DIXON, Esq., the.
President of the Board of Directors. The meeting lasted
for upwards of an hour and three quarters, and, when
contrasted with sume of the former meetings of this
Company, was remarkable for the unanimity of business-
like manner in which its proceedings were conducted.
The report, which extended to considerable length,
was read by Mr. Mallaby, the Company's solicitor. The
accounts which commenced on the day the railway was
opened, the 21st of Oct. 1840, and were brought down
to the 30th of June, 1841, showed a surplus of upwards
of 5,0001 The average rate of fare upon the line was
lid. per passenger per mile—less by a halfpenny, and in
some instances a penny, than that charged upon other
lines in this country. The extreme lowness of the fares,
and the expenditure incurred in conveying passengers
across the river Mersey to and from Liverpool, were
considered as the chief causes of the com-
parative smallness of the profits ; and the Direc-
tors desired to call the attention of the Proprietors
to the latter subject, in the hope of their being able to
abolish such an incubus. They also conceived it would
be, desirable to have a tunnel formed at the Birkenhead
station, to communicate with the water-side, and thus do
away with the expenses of omnibuses for the convey-
ance of passengers thither. They thought it right
not to make any dividend on the surplus at
present for reasons of a cogent nature, which would
more particularly appear from the statement of the ac-
counts, but to pay a dividend at the next half-yearly
meeting ; and this they hoped would be the last sacrifice
which the Proprietors would have to make, on
account of the undertaking. The Directors had
taken into consideration the propriety of dispensing
with the services of their paid Treasurer,
but they had not, as yet, come to any resolution,
on the subject ; they had, moreover, turned their atten-
tion to the details of the several departments of the ex-
penditure, with a view to their diminution, It was with
feelings of gratitude that the Directors informed the
Proprietors, that although the passenger traffic had in-
creased upon the line, no accident had occurred to any
one, nor had there been any injury experienced by the
carriages, although the rate of travelling was equal to
that on any other line in the kingdom.
Mr. J. MOLYNE&UX moved the adoption of the Report.
Mr. E. GERARD seconded it, and it was carried
unanimously.
_ _

Mr. JACKSON, of Birkenhead, then made a proposi-
tion to the Company to pay the sums of 24,3501. for tie
ferry between Liverpool and Woodside, and 5,7001. for a
new steamboat they had purchased, and to grant the right
in perpetuity to the Company to convey railway passen-
gers from Mankstown-ferry to Liverpool.
The proposition, which appeared fair and reasonable,
caused considerahle discussion, and the Proprietors em-
powered the Directors to enter into a negociation, with
view to its being effected.
The meeting then separated.

VICE-ADMIRAL SIR EDWARD
0 WEN, K.C.8., G.C.H., COMMANDER-IN-
CHIEF IN THE MEDITERRANEAN.
So important a command as that of the Mediter-
ranean Fleet having been transferred into new hands,
it is but reasonable that Englishmen who are beyond
the pale of naval circles should desire to be somewhat
acquainted with the officer to whom it is entrusted.
Sir Edward Owen is the son of the deceased Captain
Owen, R.N., who lost an arm in the service of his
country. He was educated at Chelsea, and became a
Lieutenant in 1793. Five years after he was advanced
to the rank of Post-Captain. His first appointment of
importance was to the Immortalite frigate, about
May, 1802 ; and soon after the renewal of the war, we
find that ship, in company with the Jalouse and Cruiser
sloops of war, driving le Commode, and I'lnabordable,
a French brig and schooner, each mounting 4 guns, on
shore near Cape Blanc Nez, where they were taken
possession of by the boats of the squadron, under a
heavy fire from the enemy's batteries.
In 1803, Dieppe and St. Valery en Caux were bom-
barded by a small force under Captain Owen's orders,
and considerable damage, it was supposed, was done to
those towns.

From this period Captain Owen kept the French
coast in a continual state of alarm ; and l'lmmortalite
was well known to the inhabitants for the daring man-
ner in which, in spite of banks and batteries, she ap-
proached their shores. The character she had gained
along the French coast was indeed very high, and
Count Dumas bore testimony to her bravery. "'Le
Capitaine Owen," he sayF, in his Precis des Evene-
mens,' " Commandant la regate l'lmmortalite, fit ad-
mirer son audace et sa perseverance sous le feu des bat-
teries de la rade."
In the month of July, 1804, Captain Owen pur-
sued a number of large , brigs and luggers on the Bou-
logne coast, caused many of them to founder and
others to be stranded ; and the French account adniits
that upwards of 400 soldiers went down in these ves-
sels, and many others perished. The. weather was at
the time severe, and the French writers ascribed their
losses entirely to the storms. Napoleon, from the heights of
Boulogne was himself a spectator of the scene, apd.it
we are to credit the French writers, evinced much Sen-
sibility on the occasion. He, no doubt, was taught a
lesson by the disaster, seeing that the weather, as well
as the British cruisers, might foil his attempt. to invade
Great Britain.

Boulogne being then the head-quarters of the French
armament, the British squadron carefully cruised about
that place, and while the main body usually lay at
anchor out ten miles N.W. of the port, a division of five
or six vessels, commanded by Captain Owen, generally
cruised just out of the range of the enemy's shells.
During the month of August, great bustle prevailed in
the road of Boulogne, Napoleon being there at this
time in his barge, attended by his two Generals and
Admiral Bruix. Captain Owen, with the squadron
under his orders, was, during this period, engaged in
several sharp skirmishes with the French batteries, in
one of which the Immortalite was twice struck by
shot in the hull, and had four men wounded.
On the 23d of October following, Captain Owen,
standing off Cape Grisnez, gave chase to three praams,
seven brigs, andafifteen luggers, and kept up a running
fight till the falling tide obliged him to haul off, with the
loss of one man slain, and a lieutenant of the Banc de
Leine and ten men wounded, three of whom died soon
after. Captain Owen, in his letter to the Rear-Admi-
ral, says—" From the manner in which our grape-shot
covered the enemy's vessels, their loss in men must
have been very great. I never saw guns pointed bet-
ter, or so coolly." Early in the ensuing year the Im-
mortalite captured El Entrepreda Corune, a Spanish
privateer, of 14 guns and 66 men ; and on the 18th of
July, 1805, Captain Owen had a most severe encoun-
ter with a part of the Boulogne flotilla, by which the
enemy's loss in shipping and men was very great. On
this occasion the Immortalite had her foremast, main-
topmast, spanker-boom, and three boats shot through ;
her rigging and sails much cut, her hull struck in seve-
ral places, two carronades disabled ; 4 men killed and
12 wounded, several of them severely.
During the summer of 1806, hostilities against Bou-
logne were suspended ; but, on the Bth of October, the
Earl of Lauderdale being then known to have quitted
Paris re infecto, Commodore Owen immediately seized
the opportunity of making trial of Mr. (subsequently
Sir. \V.) Congreve's rockets, which had been just in-
vented, and created much excitement.
a 1 ofigrt
ns e
Accordingly Commodore Owen stood for 13u
Bay, and notwithstanding the faultiness
apprenticeship,
h a r g ed
i nay
an
ao t
hourle s tahnadn
1:1100 about rocketsn:f
piwerenat.n a
eise dt
oihsne-
c
town appeared on fire ; while such was the
the batteries.
shore that not a shot was returned ferormu.n
rability
of
The efficiency of the weapon, and th e
The fire
Boulogne were sufficiently ascertains.ny vessels in
blazed from two A.I. till the eveac
longs'iderable range of
the harbour were destroyed,
or
re
the ruins of eight of which
fftehe Commodore's broad
Clyde, the vessel in which storehouses,diseerno from burnt,
u rtnhte
buildings, apparently barracks,
pennant was then fly
Being
almost in sight of our own
withthe flying communications
shores, and the
This is by far the most memorable and most distin-
arnbGianilanutnOinffitecrerru'spete4dretrh.e papers.
guished portion of t
dayegwith accountsof
d almost every
were filled
and attacks on the French gun-boats and
encounters
The public attention was almost concen-
denrognagehde
batteries.
the hero of the hour. His withcotn mthaendeendemy •
5 wtreatewdeolln
remember,Beulogne, and the Gallant Corunaodore was,
un-
daunted bravery was the continual theme of applause.
The daring of the Immortalite and Commodore Owen
filled the whole community, from the Deal boatmen to
the Aberdeen burgher, with wonder and admiration.
The advantage of his deeds to the country has been
called in question. Not a few lives were sacrificed,
and no inconsiderable expense incurred. At the same
time the French flotilla was kept in cheek,eoNjanncded,Napo-
leonif
fbe
was continually and practically n
ever entertained the idea of invading England—that
the enterprise would be one of imminent danger and
great loss. Commodore Owen was, however, highly
applauded by the country ; his services were,
on this
particular occasion, of great value ; but we may be
permitted to doubt, whether the kind of insensible
courage for which he was distinguished, be of the high-
est order even of naval talents,
Commodore Owen appears to have been engaged in
no other memorable matter till the mouth of August,