The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-07 00:00:00

TH h. SUN,''' LON DON, SATUB DA V JANUARY 7, 187

A DANGEROUS LEAD IN A FOG.
Between ten and twelve o'clock on Thursday night a
very extraordinary circumstance occurred in Hartlepool
Bay, which narrowly escaped causing the loss of a fleet of
vessels on the Longscar rocks. About the first-named
hour a dense fog enveloped the bay, rendering the ap-
proach to either harbour dangerous and difficult, espe-
cially as several vessels arrived simultaneously. Follow-
ing the lead of a French lugger, which was in tow of a
Shields steam tug called the Rapid, they as well as the two
latter, all went on to the great reef of rocks known as the
Longscar. The name of the lugger was the Avenir, Captain
Deligny, of and from Gravelines, and the ships which fol-
lowed her unfortunate lead were the schooner Sovereign
(Smithson), of Poole ; the brig Sussex (Holben), from
Shoreham ; the brig Nio (Gerrard), from London ; the
schooner Gourie (Heigho), from Rochester; the schooner
Phoenix (Ditchburn), from Hastings, all bound for East
Hartlepool; and the brig Brilliant (Clarkson), f rom London ,
bound for West Hartlepool. Very fortunately, the wind,
as is usual in thick weather, was quite calm, and the
vessels beinz in ballast none of them were much injured,
but if the wind had shifted to the eastward the coast
would now have been strewn with their wrecks, and
possibly the dead bodies of some of their crews. Happily,
any calamity of this kind was averted, as the tide was
rapidly flowing, and about midnight, an hour or two be-
fore high water, the fog suddenly clearing and the wind
springing up fresh from W.S.Vir., the first five of them were
able to back off the rock with their own canvas, the
Brilliant was towed off by the West Hartlepool tug
William Charles, and the Vrenchnian by the Rapid, their
injuries being purely nominal.

THE ECLIPSE E
URXGENTPEDITION --H.M.S.
Her Majesty's screw transport Urgent, Captain S. H.
Henderson, arrived at Portsmouth on Thursday morning
on her return from Oran Gibraltar, and Cadiz, with the
parties ofhe
r t o scientific
observe
tnhe and e
c hn tei r
eclipse. assistant
InwhadodlietfitonEtnhge-
lUrgent also brought home Lord Lindsay's party, the
American expedition, and the Messrs. Penrose, Fison,
and
Airey, and Hammond. On the Urgent arriving at Gib-
ralta on the outward voyage, Captain Salmon and ten
non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal Engineers
were taken on board and proceeded to Oran, where they
rendered the greatest assistance to the party of observers
Othe construction of a temporary obintended observations
servatory, While at
ran strong gales prevailed, and the
were but imperfectly effected, as has been already stated
in letters received from Gibraltar, owing to the prevalence
of cloud. The Urgent left Oran with the observers on
their return on the 24th of December, having strong
westerly winds and a fresh gale on Christmas Day. Gib-
raltar was reached on the 28th, and the detachment of
Royal Engineers was disembarked, and the observers, with
their instruments, left there were again taken on board.
The Urgent resumed her voyage for Cadiz and homewards.
At Gibralter, although the Urgent's party of observers met
with but imperfect results, like their brethren at Oran,
from the deck of a ship at the Mole and from two other
points on the Rock good observations were reported to
have been taken. The Urgent arrived at Cadiz on the
30th of December, and, having received on board the
persons left there, together with Lord Lindsay's party,
she immediately left again for England. Between
Cadiz and Gibraltar strong westerly winds were ex-
perienced. From Cadiz to near Cape Ushant fine weather
prevailed, succeeded by strong head winds up Channel.
Immediately on the Urgent's arrival at Portsmouth
on Thursday morning the parties of observers landed at
the dockyard, and left for London by the midday up
trains. The following naval and military passengers were
also disembarked at the dockyard from the Urgent, from
Gibraltar :—Lieutenant Watkin, R.A., Messrs. Gardner
and Wilson, naval cadets, from the Cadet Training Ship
Trafalgar, eight naval invalids, five military prisoners,
one soldier, and one child. The engines have done their
work very efficiently, and the ship is ready to enter upon
any further work for which her services may be required
so soon as her coal and stores are filled up.
The Caledonia has arrived at Naples with Mr.
Lockyer and the naval stores. She was detained by bad
weather and the court-martial at Malta on the com-
mander of the Psyche. The commander was merely
censured, as it was proved that he was engaged with the
eclipse expedition when the ship struck. The Psyche has
broken up, and the Italian Government is assisting in the
salvage.

"It is understood" (says the (Levant Herald)
" that Turkey will be represented in the approaching
Conference by Musurus Pasha, the Ottoman Ambassador

London."

THE SPEAKERSHIT. Notwithstanding
rumours afloat, it is believed in well-informed quarters
that the Speaker will not retire at the opening of the
session.

" JENKINS " ABROAD.-At a recent fashionable
ball in New York a mild-mannered man approached an
elaborately-dressed lady and said, " Will you please
tell me what you have on? A fashion reporter wants to
know."

THE FAILURE OF MESSRS. HARVEY OF MAN-
CHESTER.—The creditors of Mr. Henry Wightman Harvey,
trading as H. W. Harvey and Co., baize and leather cloth
manufacturers, Albert Works, West Gorton, Manchester,
held a meeting on Wednesday at the offices of Messrs. E.
Storer anc Co., solicitors, Fount tin-street, when it was re-
solved to liquidate the estate, and in the event of its not
realising 10s. in the pound, besides expenses, the debtor to
pay up to that sum.—Manchester Examiner.
A NEW TURKISH JOURNAL—EarIy in January a
new journal will be published in French and Turkish, as
the official commercial organ, under the title of Takvimi
Tidjaret, or Moniteur du Commerce. It is to publish all the
judicial and commercial announcements of Government,
and matters of a similar nature, and will be posted up. in
all the public offices of the Empire. The iracM authorising
the publication has issued, and the new paper will be con-
ducted by M. A. de Peraldi, already known in journalism.
Levant Herald.

THE VOLUNTEERS.—The official return of efficients
of the Bristol Volunteer Rifle Corps for 1870 shews ex-
actly an equal number with that of the previous year, but
the number of those who have earned the extra grant of
10s. shews an increase of 62. The latter result is satisfac-
tory, but is attributable to an alteration in the regulations
respecting ball practice. In the musketry return there is
an increase in the number of those who have fired; the
first-class and second-class men are considerably in excess
of last year, while the number of marksmen is about the
same.
THE FENIAN " COLONEL " Bunim—The friends
of the Fenian convict " Colonel " Ricard Burke, who has
been for some time past confined in the Broadmoor Asylum
as an insane convict, have lately applied to the Home Office
for his release under the Queen's amnesty, the application
being made through the solicitor who defended him. The
answer from the Home Office in reply, after reminding his
friends that the Fenian prisoners were pardoned on " cer-
tain conditions," goes on to say :—" The state of mind of
Ricard Burke is reported to the Secretary of State to be
at the present time such as to render him incapable of
such acceptance and performance of the condition. The
conditional pardon, therefore, cannot be granted to Ricard
Burke. The mode of dealing with the case is under the
consideration of the Government, and is not yet decided."
The letter is signed by Mr. Bruce's secretary, Mr.
Liddell.

FRENCH AR➢IAMENTS.—The storehouses at Bor-
deaux have lately been the scene of great excitement.
They have been cleared of their merchandise for the pur-
pose of furnishing room for the Committee of Armaments
to place the arms they have purchased for the service of
the State. During the last six weeks it has supplied
430,000 arms and more than 70,000.000 cartridges.
Before the end of January it will supply 270,000 weapons,
nearly all of them breechloaders. When it is remembered
that Palikao could not succeed in producing more than
4,000 guns in a month, the Government of the National
Defence has reason to rejoice at not having followed the
administrative scheme of the Empire in the question of
providing armaments.

LYONS AND THE FRENCH PRISONERS.—Great
efforts are being made in Lyons to relieve the necessities
of the French prisoners in Germany. The Mining
Company of Blanzy, its employds and workmen, have
sent to the Treasury of the Rhone the sum of 3,271 f.
as their subscription for this purpose. The greater part
of this money came from an allowance made by the company
annually W its men for the fête of St. Barbe, but which
this year they all ay.( ed to give for the prisoners, The
ladies' committee have started a lottery of bijoux for the
benefit of the army, and their appeal has met with a very
general response. A number of valuable articles were
sent in, but, what was more touching, the gifts were not
restricted to the rich. The women of the working classes
readily surrendered their best articles of dress, their little
family souvenirs, and househpld ornaments. On the same
table on which a very handsome marriage parure was
exhibited, a poor woman, who got her living by making
soldiers' caps placed her brooch as a contribution.
AN INCIDENT AT ORLEANS:—A few days ago 1
entered a shop to buy some stationery, and virs kept
waiting for a time because the place was full of customers,
and the only person able to serve me—a woman—was
scolding a big grey-haired German officer. He could
only stammer half a dozen words of French, and she no
German. She appealed to me with excited gesture and
voluble tongue, and I had to interpret between them.
' The whole dispute was about one sou, she declaring
that the Gelman money he offered was short of
the full value of the articles supplied. To avoid noise and
scandal, he yielded, though I verily believe he was right,
and paid the one sou more. Then he asked permission to
write a letter there, and it was evident that he had bought
the pictured paper to send a letter home to his wife and
children. rhe leave was accorded, and shortly after
wards he stopped the woman as she passed, and held out
his hand to make friends, with a few words of soothing
purport. She bridled, but at last gave the sign of amity
which he asked from her, and came smiling down the
shop.—Times Correspondent.

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE STAGE,
The Athenceum says: —We understand that Mr. Alfred
Austin, author of " The Season," will shortly bring out a
new satire, entitled "The Golden Age."—We learn that
a sketch of Scotland in the sixteenth century, which ap-
apears in the current number of Fraser's Magazine, is the
first two chapters of a history of that country, fi om
the Battle of Flodclen to the Revolution of 1688, by Mr.
A. Falconer: the first volume of which will appear in a
few months.—Mr. Macleod has resumed the publication
of his " Dictionary of Political Economy," which was in-
terrupted by his appointment under the Digest of Law
Commission. Part Bis in the press.—A brief history of
Cork, by Mr. John George MacCarthy, of that city, the
circulation of which is almost altogether—though unde-
servedly—local, has reached a third edition. A work of a
more ambitious kind on the same subject, by Miss Cusack,
is announced.—lt is sixty years since Sir Walter Scott
made that purchase of land which was the beginning
of the estate of Abbotsford. Perhaps we may
be allowed to recall the fact that it was in
the pages of the Ath,enceunz that it was first
suggested that Abbotsford should be purchased
by the nation for the benefit of his descendants.—
We stated a few weeks ago that Mr. Heraud, the author
of " The Ingathering," was engaged in a poem on the
subject of the present war, to be called " The War of
Ideas." We now understand that the poem is finished,
and will shortly eppear.—The new Court Theatre, Lon-
don, is now rapidly approaching completion, and will
shortly open for dramatic entertainments.—A new bur-
lesque, by Mr. Reece, is, we are told, in preparation at
the Olympic.
Mr. J. L. Toole will shortly appear in a new drama
recently written for him by Mr. H. J. Byron.
Mr. Sothern will reappear on April 10th, at the
Haymarket, in a comedy by Mr. James Albery. This
actor, we learn, has also purchased the comedy entitled,
" The English Gentleman," from Mr. Byron.