The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-09 00:00:00

NAVAL INTAGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH, THURSDAY.— We Some short time
since (during the absence of the Channel squadron) no-
ticed the great disparity of officers in comparison with
the number of men of the Royal Marine force engaged
in the Channel squadron, and drew attention at the
same time to the captains of the corps, many of whom
have served double the time which ought to have gained
their promotion to the rank of field. officers.
On Sunday last a field-officer and four captains
marched to this garrison chapel with the marines of this
division, whose united periods of service amounted to
the almost incredible total of 210 years, the junior of
these five officers counting upwards of 40 years' service.
If anything could demonstrate the unfairness and im-
policy of the present system of brevet promotion, the
above astounding fact would, beyond a doubt, do it.
According to this statement, Captain A, because he has
had the good fortune to get his company quickly, comes
in a general brevet in preference to Captain B, who was
in the service before A was born ; B having been con-
demned to linger on through the greater part and best
years of his life before attaining the rank of captain.
Thus is poor B doubly a victim—first, through too long
deferred, heart-sickening hope, and then through the
working of an unjust rule, whichcontinues to ill-use him
because he has been so long neglected.
Surely an appeal on such substantial grounds as these
would not be contemned, and the prayer of the serving
captains of her Majesty's land forces, who served in the
great war ending in 1814 (who have never voluntarily
been on half-pay), to be included in the coming bre-
vet, will not be heartlessly rejected. The boon is not
much for such petitioners to ask ; it is a boon easy to
grant, as it would not involve any great expense. We
sincerely trust this brief appeal on behalf of the long-
neglected veterans of the Royal Marine corps will be
in some part the means of obtaining for them that jus-
tice at the hands of their country which their long,
faithful, and meritorious services so pre-eminently merit.
The St. Vincent, 120, Captain Sheppard, bearing the
broad pendant of Commodore Sir Francis Collier, has
been expected to come up momentarily all day. Up to
our dispatch leaving (five o'clock), however, she had not
made her number.
The Crocodile, 8, Commander Gomer Lowe, arrived
last night from Hudson's Bay.
The Fairy yacht was undocked this day.
PLYMOUTH, OCT. 7.—The storm in this neighbour-
hood has somewhat abated, but we are occasionally vi-
sited by heavy squalls from the southward and west-
ward.

About half-past ten o'clock this morning her Majesty's
ship St. Vincent, 120, Captain John Sheppard, with the
flag of Commodore Sir F. A. Collier, endeavoured to
work out through the Western Passage, under double-
reefed topsails and foresail, the wind blowing hard from
the westward. When reaching into Cawsand Bay, on
the larboard tack, she put about, and while in stays was
caught in a tremendous squall of wind and rain between
Redding Point and the western end of the Breakwater.
Being compelled to go before it, she brailed up her fore-
sail, and under foretopsail and jib returned to her
anchorage in the Sound.
His Imperial Brazilian Majesty's frigate Constitu-
cional, Captain Ignacio, remains in the Sound. It being
found that the Turnchapel, private dock, was not suffi-
ciently capacious to receive the frigate, application has
been made to the authorities at her Majesty's dockyard
here. In consequence, however, of the activity prevail-
ing in our naval departments doubts exist of the possibi-
lity of repairing the frigate at this arsenal, failing which
she will be sent to her Majesty's dockyard at Ports-
mouth, or to the naval arsenal at Brest.
When last here the Constitucional, then called the
Isabel, was officered and manned almost entirely by
Europeans; now her officers, with two exceptions (Por-
tuguese), are' Brazilians, and the duty is carried on
entirely in that language. At present her complement
(450) includes 80 Englishmen, 6 Americans, 5 Germans,
3 Frenchmen, 6 Spaniards, 2 Italians, and 8 Manilla-
men. The remainder is made up by Brazilians, Portu-
guese, and natives of Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, and
Valparaiso. The English are stationed at the helm,
the mainyard, and the waist. The duty in the tops is
performed exclusively by those who talk Portuguese.
The Buckinghamshire, of 1,800 tons, Capt. M'Gregor,
which came in on Monday, has perhaps the largest
cargo of tea in point of weight ever imported. She left
Hong-Kong the 6th of May, and St. Helena the 20th of
August. Before making the Cape of Good Hope she
damaged her rudder in the casing, just below the deck.
Captain M‘Gregor very skilfully fitted a tiller outside
the ship, and thus brought the vessel home. She has a
crew of about 130 hands, viz., 20 English, 60 Lascars, 25
Chinamen, and 20 Manillamen. Her only passengers
are Dr. Lunn and Mr. Batley, who landed here yesterday.
Among the casualties during the gale is the loss of the

Ocean, belonging to this port, the crew of which were
landed yesterday by Captain Cox, of the brig Margaret,
of Weymouth, from whose log the following is ex-
tracted :

"Sunday, October 2, 4 P.M., saw a brig to the leeward,
under close-reefed canvass, and signals of distress. Bore
down upon her ; she proved to be the Ocean, of Ply-
mouth, from Newport, bound to Plymouth, and found
her in a sinking state. The sea was so rough, and it
was blowing so strong, there was no possibility of getting
the crew from the ship. We lay by her during the
night, and at 7 A.M., on Monday bore away under her
lee, and succeeded in getting the crew on board. Saved
the boat and all their clothes, Scilly bearing S.S.E., 9 or
10 leagues. Half an hour after the crew were on board,
the brig went down."
Mr. Hamilton Hamilton, late Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Brazil, who

came home passenger in the Constitutional, has been
staying with his lady for the benefit of his health, at
Elliott's Royal Hotel, Plymouth. This gentleman pre-
sented on Tuesday last to Admiral Grenfell an elabo-
rately-chased coffee-jug, and elegant silver salver, pur-
chased here from Mr. Cave, on which was engraved the
following inscription :—" From Hamilton Hamilton,
E.E. and M.P. of her Britannic Majesty at the Court of
the Brazil, toJohn Pascoe Grenfell, Rear .AdmiraLin the
Imperial service, in remembrance of much kindness ex-
perienced during a voyage to England on board the Im-
perial frigate Constitution, bearing his flag, in August
and September, 1846." Admiral Grenfell remains at the
same hotel a few days longer, and previous to com-
mencing his duties at Liverpool as Brazilian Consul-
General visits his relatives in the neighbourhood of
Exeter.

THREE O'CLOCK, P.M.—Wind S.W., blowing strong,

OCT. 7, TEN P.M.—The storm of this morning has
continued increasing through the day. The wind is
blowing very heavily, and veers from W.N.W. to W.S.W.,
with occasional rain.
Her Majesty's ship St. Vincent split her foretopsail in
her attempt this morning to go to sea.
The barque Forager, Captain Spendlove, of and from
Hull, for St. John's, New Brunswick, in ballast, having
reached lon. 24, came in here this afternoon. On the
19th ult. she was distuasted, thrown on her beam-ends,
lost three top-masts, sails, yard, and gear, decks swept,
and ballast shifted. At the same time several vessels
were observed, one of which, an English brig, is sup-
posed to have foundered. The gale continued several
days after the 19th.
The Buckinghamshire East Indianian, about two this
afternoon, drifted in the Sound, and was compelled to
drop her second bower anchor.
An Inverness schooner, of 90 tons, the Benoni, Cap-
tain Christie, coal laden, struck on the rocks under
Queen Anne's Battery (having for safety left her moor-
ings in Catwater), broke her rudder and started her
stern-post. With assistance she got into the Pool this
evening.
The brig Simpson, of Scarborough, from Odessa, with
tallow, for this port, when outside the Pool, had her
warp cut by a trawler under sail, and in consequence
fell to leeward athwart the rocks outside the eastern pier.
On the flood, she was got off without much damage.
Several of the trawling sloops which went out this
morning were obliged to run back for shelter. The
Union lost her fishing nets altogether. The James and
Mary buoyed and slipped her trawl. •
The pinnace belonging to his Imperial Brazilian Ma-
jesty's frigate Constitticional, which came in this morn-
ing for provisions, has made three unsuccessful attempts
to join the frigate in the Sound. A boat belonging to
the Buckinghamshire is similarly detained.
THURSDAY, 6 O'CLOCK, A.M.—The storm continued
until midnight, but, with the exception of a gale at 3
o'clock, there has not been much wind since, and at this
hour it is blowing moderately from the westward. How-
ever, there continues strong indications of heavy weather
in the sky. Providentially, no further damage has oc-
curred in the port.

SUICIDE or A FEMALE.—Wednesday Mr. Mills
held an inquest at the George and Dragon, Upper Cleve-
land-street, Fitzroy-square, on the body of Margaret
Fitzgerald, or Walsh, aged 26. About three weeks
since she consented to live with a pensioner, in Little
Orchard-place, Portman-square. He left there, and
brought her to Cambridge-court, Cleveland-street.
He left her more than a week ago, and a prey to re-
morse, despair, and destitution, she hanged herself on
Monday morning, in a kitchen tenanted by several par-
ties in the above-named court, which the jury and the
summoning officer described as an unparalleled nuisance.
The jury, in the hope that publicity would cause the
proper authorities to abate the demoralizing nuisance,
having returned a verdict " That the deceased hanged
herself, but in what state of mind there is no evidence
to prove," appended to it, " That on viewing the place
where the deceased woman was found dead, they had
found the court to be ill ventilated, dark, and filthy in
the highest degree, and unfit for the residence of human
beings; and they express a hope that either the pro-
prietors of the houses in Cambridge-court will speedily
voluntarily put them in a proper and habitable condition,
or the authorities in whom is -vested the legal power to
abate nuisances in the metropolis will adopt measures
for compelling the said proprietors to amend the un-
healthy character of the buildings."
ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.—Dr. John
Ryan yesterday commenced a series of lectures on
endiometry and ventilation, as applicable to buildings,
dwellings and shops. Public instruction on matters so
important to the health of private individuals, as well as
to the community at large, ought always to be received
with satisfaction ; and we are quite assured that no one
could attend one of this talented gentleman's lectures
without receiving so much condensed information as to
enable him, by means of the usual apparatus, to ascer-
tain the purity or impurity of any atmosphere in which
he might be placed. The varieties of endiometer, were all
carefully explained by the Professor, and the proper
formula for calculating the amount of oxygen, as well as
watery vapour and carbonic acid, were most simply com-
municated. The principles of ventilation, recently so
warmly contested, were also very carefully and philo-
sophically explained, so as to meet the comprehension
of the numerous classes who attend the establishment;
and we trust that this course of interesting lectures, so
useful and so instructive, may be still continued in the
lecture-room of this popular institution.