The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-16 00:00:00

1 for the use : ilie ships, and let the
ID,:
nte;
only hear wises was chargsd for the use of a
gun brie, let thew think of the conscience of the
Adesingy to churl)", for the use ef the Algerines r!
gun-blig 1,4631., which was f,,urteen hundred tolies
s
more than -.tie was e orth—a vessel which it iwe'sd;
disentes re tla. e had ever been
2,543/. was slisreed for the excess of yietuie w
fg
Why shsulei these offiess's charged for their .
nauce during their exreditl:n. If Captain Disee,e,gis
had nor been sucsesSful, would the) have •ctiarge"L'id,
this 13,0001. Certainly not. Such a proceeding "is
mon.eisity
in future ca.,es, induce the par-ties to k. ep the
their own hands, ins of risking it on any AdreLuld
C. urt or proeceding.. On the face of these bills he '"rate,
s. e a/it 6,861/. fisd b en ever-charged, and, at ell, so
that reductiou should be aa.ale. He hopsd th,a'sviss
Noble Lord would concede the metien ehieu„ sat
sought, to see if the 13,0001 which had been ta;l";',s;,
of the Admiralty C.,urt ea, fairly spent. It was, at Von
but right that they should know how the money had se
applied, and an endeavour made to make them disgo..,
the money, who bad got it so unjustly. Whether be
n al culprits were connected with the Admiralty °itts•
Treasury, he could not say, but at least the C"m, mat to,
should be appointed to learn where the money Wages',
Mr. PARKER said the case came on in 183°D'itbs
therefore, a long time had transpired since then airy
present peri,,d. The case, when rarose, came for in% oil
before the ordinal.) tribunals, and was adjudicated.
by those of the highest eminence in the country. 01 et
cupied the- time about sixteen or eighteen In"11,' obt
least, and the result was sue.i as the Admiralty ta° de
just and fair. Before the decision, the AdreiraltY,:isa
every necessary inquiry. and he believed the cone' bl,
they had come to was a right one. The vestiell /be
therefore, been settled in the due course of tne idg
adjudications were made in 1833, and it was deessieei
that 17,0004 should be given to the captain and gal
13,0001. to the Admiralty ; and 12,000/. tor iecl"„ed tp
expences. After what had been done, he was h"e"ools.
say that it was too late to bring forward the motio.ehth
It turned out that the parties were dissatisfied with to
decisions of the Admiralty, and an appeal was gel
it
the highest court in the country, the Privy Coen boa
was thus, then, that the matter now stood. It had sr
moved in 1842, but the then Chancellor of the, hol
chequer, in answer, just cited again the answer that as.
been given in a court of law. Such a decision th or
vernment was not of course, inclined to overture
review.
hi
m+ C. NAPIER said that it appeared to h.133' hi
t if
1, y
understood the case rightly, that a certain sum of 0- •
was given to the captain, but he never heard of 511„creS
thing as salvage being to be deducted from such et be
as the wear and tear of a ship; and he must say t""-_
thought it was a most shabby proceeding. fair
Sir J. GRAHAM said he was bound to state theta,
the decision, of which complaint was made, he wa,Bo,
cially responsible. That decision was come to 'for
and that the Hon. Gentleman opp-sqe, the gembe,:oted
Dorset, and the Secretary for Ireland were setlell'biab
with the particulars of the case. The decision at..,l* hol
the Board of Admiralty had at that time arrived IV
not been come to without the utmost deliberation. boo
Board had at that time, in addition to the parties !illy
he had already named, the assistance of two most th'irol
guished naval officers—Sir Thomas Hardy and ital:rgtr
Dundas. Now, what were the circumstances ?
quantity of treasure had been shipped. in a single v-'for
from some place in the Pacific, and had beentirsall
tunately wrecked somewhere on the coast of Bras' sill
orders had been sent out bsr the Admiralty to 111 e
Dyer,
officer on the station to send same one to a-- icsi,
if possible, the large treasure which had heelld oe
and Admiral Baker, who was then in coteo3s' sbel
the station, dispatched Captain Dickenson ver
duty. Captain Dickenson, he must say, had ;t.
fo: med the duty in a very efficient 11D ea
It occupied, he believed, somewhere about o:7iitbe
months, and no fault could certainly be found wlwoil'
admirable way in which Captain Dickenson h°"O,4lY
charged that service, and when the treasure wasaated
recovered, the Government had awarded to th,,a, inetiP
the vessel sn ample salvage for that service. 1114sti00
sion of the Board of Admiralty had not given sati!Wief
to the salvers, and they appealed to the Curt 01 vet
Council, by whom an additional sum of 12,0001. badttl
awarded to them. On ascertaining this award, the
or Admiralty deemed it but right that there sh(witTblid
some compensation for the exsenditure of the P
stores, which had been used in the service. irne
exercise of the discretion with which they Ile so.
vested, they had deducted a sum of 1,400/. for of
besides an additional amount for the vietui,oaitht
the men while occupied in this duty. This they t" one
the) were called upon to do for the protection of thePfsder'
service. The matter had first come under the Con
seig
ation of the Board of Admiralty in 1832. It w, slit. 100 la
brought under the notice of the New Adreillie'r; after
1834. It was again considered in 1836. It 'a aessag
wards brought under the consideration of the r
in 1839, and it was subsequently decided upon by Sir
see
Peel's Government in 11,42 ; and all these several
ties had confirmed the decision that had been come 'urea
the first instance. For the original decision, he aha
peated, he was responsible. In the first instance of
salvage had amounted to 17,0001., and the Court
Privy Privy Council had subsequently given an additional Bit
of 12,000/. ; and he must say, without wishing in .11,
smallest degree to detract from the merit of Capt. pie'
enson, or those connected with him, or without wish%
to throw the smallest imputation on the way in robin'`
they had performed the service, that they had receiree-
sufficient reward.
Mr. WAKLEY said that it was unfortunate thef anti!
had
the Right Hon. Baronet who had just sat down 4,1
risen to address the House, scarcely ten sentencesl,
bsen heard during the whole of the debate. The Pp,
Lord who introduced the measure had not been he,
the Hon. Member who followed him had not been hard.;
and the Gallant Officer oosite had not been he;3J,
but the Right Hon. Gentleman had such a quiet, hlO
...04.
smooth, gentlemanly mode of speaking, that he to
en
ably had great weight with the House, and very the/
carried the Members with him on questions whei.n, jos
did nut agree with him.—(Hear, hear, and a latlgu'asite
the IlSght Hon. Baronet had not stated the casedouse
fairly, and he believed that the Members of 11° otitis
had no more important duty to do than to invt
the conduct of any public department, arid to ingul—f the
the pre
meedings of the executive, for the benefit the
the
public service. ,The Right Hon. Baronet had stet 00r
case, hut he had been wrong ; but instead of acjaseas
!edging the wrong, he had simply rested his had
upon the fact that those wk ► had followed him
tilled his proceeding. The Right Hon. Bal.?„n-ii et
isfy
been in office and it was astonishing how 11- 2(1
those who were in office assented to the ear,/
sions of those who had been in office.--(Hear'
bTehtewreeenwatshealiwn•asysa,miin
tthreu: ho,uats. n der fa I agree The
__(Laughter.) won
wlthigichht
heH ohnitediugria.vbelne,
fßerarhoeswetashtaltdthsetabseedad tohfethedroeicosrdie
of Admiralty at the time, but he had been he llghl
egregiously wrong ; and, for his own part, hv 1:-°e fa
it was al vays the best plan, when such was the cha: wig
a man to come forward manfully and say that been
wrong, rather than to persist in it; and it would 1017., 00
far letter for the Right Hots Baronet to have S. for
the present occasion, han to persist in a
P 1-bt deeteV,3sts,
which no redress had been obtained for the 813 ere
for it had received none but official answers. NOW "gerl.
was a remarka!de similarity in all official answers
for his ..wu part, he thought that the better plan 7oi
be to stere.itype than' at once, to cast them in leets'cial
to say in reply to an application that this was an ofth,bee,
answer.—(Laughter.) The whole case lay in a er Fie
but the Right Hon. Baronet had not fairly stated Ate on
represent,'d it as if Capt. Dickenson had happened to bi
the South American station. and that he had been sen'sy
Admiral Baker, who was in the command of the gl,hs
dron to receiver the treasure which had been lost ill ;To
Thetis, and as if this was a common official duty 10
course of the service.—(Hear, hear, from Capt. Pechez
Why, G.ptain Dickenson was the whole author of tt,
fore. When he had first named it to Admiral War
that officer had considered it as only a wild eche
_intof
iptla wnaL all planned. Nobody had ever thought of it it was his capacious and scientific mind by whi
he'c"
which was never likely to be brought into any practiS
effect, or likely to be of the slightest use to the counts'
,
at large, and it was entirely through Captain Dickeen
that the immense aneount of treasure had been recore7
from the wreck, and that, too, from a depth under Pr%
varying from 35 to 79 feet—(Hear)—and that, too, ehP'To
distance of many thousand miles from England. wit'vt,
appliances but those furnished by his own ingeeetjlo,
without any assistance from the Government but the bed
as the Gallant Member for Brighton
(Capyt.
et R h elith o.s 'Pese
properly called it, this "horrible brig."
ea Per
means only Captain Dickenson had personally
124,000/. out of the 164,0001, which had been lost, oho
dinlsol7,eoOseOrtv;iefeorhatdhe gentleman -
hhaadd in r.
succeededtctree ohviemre
liOWee
the plans laid down by Captain Dickeenlisotin.
tt
owning to his plans alone that it was ever recur
iir
The Government bad but rendered the srnallest_ease
lance beyond the services of this horrible brig; all and
rest had been effected through the energy, be
ability of Captain Dickenson, even his fire eog,T;ark•
had been compelled to convert into an earth had
He said that the Right Honourable Barooo., the
not stated the case fairly; for instead of supperal3l,.ool.
Gallant Officer, the Admiralty of that day had t"" sea
the whole of the responsibility on his shoulders' hod
when at length success had crowned his efforts, ibeYsil-
come in with a huxtering, mean, contemptible, 00d fle
hick kind of prosecution, fo rob him of his rewer'" le
100:01
could not say how, but he deeply regretted that the
entirely
dfo
Lord who introduced this question had not been Ali pOS
by the House, and especially that the House hai„.oi
heard the two letters which he read—a letter 10'1,10
for a hawser to help Capt. Dickenson in his labour,,* is
the reply that was made to that application. The "Jd'hie
Was lost in December, 1830; the captain commenced
labours at the close of December, 1841; and the
cation for the hawser was made in the June folio it
The letter was signed by Lord John Townsend, 1/11
stated of
"Sir,—l am directed by my Lords Commissioneroo
the Admiralty [the Right Hon. Baronet was Fire,.tateeet
at that time] that no expense can be suffered
by the public in the endeavour to recover the te;seft
from the Thetis. The request was for a 6i-it eh'
and cannot be complied with.
"Signed, "JOHN TOWNSEF;fte%
The second letter was dated August 11, and
noticing the application of the 11th of June, leo
declined the request for this 6i-inch hawser• is
second letter was signed by Sir John Barrow, 0° motif
was plainly evident that the Board of AdnairaltiLlhe
diated the whole concern—(Cheers)—and yet, wij`-seao
treasure had been recovered—when the money ...4$
safely lodged in the Bank of England, then they bronPr,
in this claim of the new salvers, and at the eleventh a‘
and tilt., fifty-ninth minute of the eleventh hour, wo
is
came forward with their nasty bill of costs.--(Ctindoehew-
and laughter.) And this, be it remembered, wag
es
the sanction of the Right Hon. Baronet. ItAb boa
searched all their dirty journals for a precede."gel
found one, there might have been some exoti*