The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM TIIR MORNING rarEns OF THIS DAY.
(F,Olll the Morning Post.)
Our readers, no doubt, remember that we were fortunate
enough to be the first to announce. the Treaty ef last July,
which shook the political fabric of the European sastem to its
very foundation. Since then this agitatioa has never ceased—
an armed peace has been found to be a hollow truce, which
could not continue without collision ensuing, and it has been
the nearly general opinion of all the great political characters
of Ent ope that, rather than continue a state of things which
might produce a convulsion when least expected, aud exhaust,
in the meantime, the resources of nations hy unnecessary taxa-
tion, it would be better to wage war, and settle the question
at once, when the source of aggression wcs generally ac-
knowledged. Under circumstances of so much alarm, we
are most happy to announce ths daily increasing hopes
of tie completit n of a trea'y (already some time en the taus),
by which the French Government uou'd re-enter the pale of
friendship with the Powers on whose fiat dept nds the peace of
the world. There are still many difficulties opposed to the
conclusion of this compact, and it would be premature in us to
descant upon the conditions of a treaty which vary every ele-
ment under the Protean vicissitudes of tortuous diplomacy.
Although the opinions Ant
have only given tt
mice to their opinions in favour of France as it
oh party
compulsion of the Tory interest, and that of every
alliance,
in Parliament, it is but just to say tlmt Lerth.
1 Palmereuurnsdtoenr
has if IWay s been favourable to tho Fre
and se could mention more than one great
Idifficullies arise
diplomatist—whe-
ther he be an Esterhazy or a Bulow—pin__ . ..cr,
d f suggest new
to the consummation Si) earnestly to bebwi "
ustslich to reunite the
modifications and proposes new means
Without adding
anything dissevered amity of France and England.etsr the general demon-
anything further, but connecting
Prgance which characterized
stration of good feeling towards
parliament—the subsequent di-
minutionthe move recent conduct o
'n the ranks of the French army
the openinx of the Session of
rpella'ion in the Chamber off
of a very largseoufoure:aritei
by order of Marshal
tocnitai t doubt but our hopes are well
31. Guizot in answer
Id that it is a matter of the highest
d commercial security of
Deputies—our readers
fiomopnodretdal.iceNt\or
We
h: ea;Pir eo°arni c' 1c)tio:
(ril“o rni n g" Herald.) Europe.
hoopla that does
a Wh., boon to the
'ciart VYserpent's sting. Even " e eap justice" is
' nt. to the hostile designs o”f our liberal rulers
.ur:yu, arse_." general_ education cov,ered a deep-laid
notT hcaerrreyisin
made subserviie
upon trial by
scheme egai"st t"
yal,lioliNnlgi !ri
ts"u,.work
k Loonsi'n'—p
rtohdeule:onogr-clraiwmcrime,
Amend-
mostsuffer
It gron of the country. Thee stinof that
t?
in' meet ta
t envenomed4lcdtealhl,wpoible Government, as if afraid that it was not
„Ifi..iently pre l'fie of evil to the labouring classes, is
pressing the Legidature to incase into it fresh vitality and
venom. We are glad to see that the parishes in the me-
tropolis and in many parts of the provinces are bestir-
ring themsjves to endeavour to avert the continua:ace of
this tyrannical and unchristian law, as a permanent curse upon
the country ; for the attempt to renew it for ten years is, as we
lormerly stated, equivalent to an attempt to inflict it upon the
nation for ever. The evidence of its calamitous operation is
strong- and abundant enough now to stop it ten times over, un-
less Parliament is resolved that no evidence of its disastrous
effects shall weigh against it in the scales of national legh,_
lation, though, as holding the faith of Christians, we must
believe that it will weigh heavily against its authors and pro-
moters ni the balance of Divine Justice. It is written,
" When he ma'seth inquisition for blood he remembereth
them, and forgetteth nut the complaint, of the poor." The
fearful judgments denounced in Holy grit against great aid
famous cities and states of old, for the hard hearted adoration
of Mammon and the oppression of the poor, how can we, with
better
e ? But this is all
matter
and ridicule for utilitarian scoffers and philoso-
phical k
of °sly
alecudrge,
deserve and hope to escape
"liberals, " who strike at Christianity itself whilst
s: the poor with the scorpion-lash of a law that directly
Econtravenes
Precepts of the volume of mercy, where the
gpoorm are a epeatedly recognised, and their causo
r,.ohu t in
of g
he
e
pleaded with their oppressors in language of the most pathetie

EVENTING EDIrION

ornonstrance, or their wrongs male the subject of terrilale and
awful denunciations.
( From the Times.)
The deplorable calamity which it was our duty to record last
week, of the loss of 124 human beings by the collision between
the Governor Fenner, American passage ship, arid the Not-
tingham steamer, ought to suggest very uncomfortable reflec-
tions to the minds of her Majesty's Government. In the case
of railway accidents :Nlinisters have been aroused from apathy,
not, we verily believe, because they care about the matter, but
by the loud and resolute tone in which the public has de-
manded protection. Every consideration which can justify
such a measure as that proposed by Mr. Labouchere for the
regulation of railways applies with equal force to the case of
steam-vessels, or we should rather say, with greater force.

- -
After the labours of two committees of the House of Commons
prior to 1820, and of the Commissioners appointed in 1838 to in-
quire into the causes of steam-vessel accidents during the ten
preceding years,—after the evidence collected by those com-
missioners from the most respectable sources, clearly pointing
out the nature and extent of the evil, and the appropriate re-
medies ; and after the several reports, all agreeing in their
conclusions, we did not expect that this subject would be left
in state quo till the Session of 1841; and the country will hold
those who have utterly neglected a matter of so great import-
ILLICE4 on which they could not possibly plead inadequate infor-
mation, responsible in a high degree for the disasters which
have occurred in consequence. 'The extent of the evil may be
judged of by the fact, that the Commissioners enumerate
about a hundred steam-vessel accidents attended with loss of
life, and ti 34 lives lost by those accidents in the ten years over
which their inquiries extended. Nearly half these accidents
happened within the last three years of the period; 2:1, with
the loss of 137 lives, in the space of 15 months only from Ja-
nuary, 1838, to April, 18:39. Since that time the number
I.as increased; and three vessels, tho Tyrian, the City of Bou-
logne, and the Governor Fenner, have perisheA by collsions
alone since the sprint, of 1840. The chief causes of these dis-
asters hale been the foundering, &c., of vessels at sea from
unseaworthiness ; the bursting of boilers from want of strength,
or the use of improper safety-valves, &e. : and collisions from
the want of an ascertained " rule of road," and a uniform sys-
tem of signal lights. This was tits case with the unfortunate
Rothbay Castle, in which 119 souls perished. Boilers and ma-
chinery -are constantly worked after they are comp!etely unfit
for ash. The Forlarshire, and the Abbey, two vessels wrecked,
the one in September, 18.38, the other in harsh, 1839, were
both sent to sea with boilers . leaking, and patched up in the
most disgraceful manner. Those of the Abbey were plugged
with horse-dung, old r.pes, and hemp I In the Forfar-
shire, whose owners knew in what condition she was
when she put to sea, for:y-five byes were lost. Numerous
and dreadful explodons have been caused by the
practice, which, down to 1839, was general in Scotch-built
steamers, of using exposed and accessible safety-valves, which
worthless engineers frequently overload or tie down for the
purpose of gaining an extraordinary degree of velocity at start-
ing. To provide against the recurrence of the first two
classes of accidents, arising from unseaworthiness of hull
or -machinery, and unsafe construction or position of boilers'
or sa'ety-valves, the Commissioners recommended the adop-
tion of a compulsory system of registration, with periodical
surveys and licerves. It was proposed to place the regulation
of the system under a department to be created for the
purpose in connexion with the Board of Trade, similar to
the railway department; and we are at a loss to understand
why no steps have been taken for carrying these suggestions
into effect. The third class of disasters, that arising from
collisions, as in the recent . unhappy case of the Governor
Fenner, is thus described by the Commissioners :
" Collisions between steam-vessels, and between tly-m and
other craft, occur so frequencly in crswded waters, they are
often so fatal to and so generally attended with litigatkm
and LO:tipen,,e in tepairiog da oiage, that Sr' want of alaw Yo
dies .
the es4l is the .1,14ecl of. complaint with nearbi
Mir ,espwalent... (..11.sions occur boil) Le day aid by
night, ill riser:. They efmnitsiik arise from
the Slice of an u,,iversal uojerstatlaing as to 'the rule of
the road' to be observes! by vessels in passing one another, and
from the absence of an universal system of night-lights and
signals. Time practice is at present regulated only by custom
or by the by-lsws of different ports. which custom, beibg
rttrions, is productive of serious collisions even on time hiyh
acne, "

As a remedy f. r these evils they refer to and adapt • the sug-
gestions of the Commissioners appointed in I bib to inquire
into the laws relating to pilotage, who recommended a way of
reducing alt these different usages to a un form system by posi-
tive enactment. We do not hesitate to say, that if these re-
commendations had been attended to by Government, the
Governor Fenner with her crew, and the po,r emigrants whom
rsh laws harshly administered were driving to seek refuge in
a fore:gu soil, would probably never have perished.