The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-06 00:00:00

BELFAST.

I have the honour to submit a plan, showing the im-
provements that have taken place in this harbour since I
reported on it in 1836. All that part coloured " brown"
is entirely new, consisting of embankments formed, and
a cut made, and deepened to nine feet, at low water.
They are at present excavating and deepening the river,
from the bridge down to the cut, and widening the
quays at the north, or town-side of the river, to meet the
rapidly increasing demands of the trade. When these
works are finished, vessels drawing 9 feet water will be
able to get up to the quays at Belfast, at low-water
springs.
There will be always some difficulty in navigating the
tortuous part of the channel, until the second cut is made
(particularly in thick weather or dark nights), owing to
the great length of the steam-vessels now generally in
use. When the second cut is made down to Garindyle,
the channel will be straight. Gas lamps may be placed
at intervals, along the embankment, which would enable
steam-vessels to run up and down at all times, as easily
as a carriage gees along the street. As a port of com-
munication with Scotland, and the north of England,
there is no doubt but a great many passengers would
fiud it very convenient to be landed at Belfast; yet, it
must be remembered, that the sea passage between it
and Ce.irnryan is fifteen miles longer than that between
the Cairn and Larne; and, although these fifteen miles
are performed in the comparatively smooth water of
Belfast Lough, considerable delays might reasonably be
expected from navigating it in thick weather, or dark
nights, particularly among the shoals at the upper and
narrow part of it: on the other hand, passengers or
mails landed at Larne might be sent in two directions.
Those for the northern parts of Ireland might go direct
by a railroad to Ballymena, or by the new road along
the north-east of Antrim to Coleraine, Londonderry,
Donegal, and Sligo, while the other portion destined for
Belfast, and the whole of the centre and south of Ireland,
would find a rapid and economical mode of transmission,
by means of a railroad to Belfast. It is, therefore, rea-
sonable to suppose that a majority of the passengers
would prefer the safest and most expeditious sea passage,
which is, manifestly, that between Lochryan and Loch
Larne, in consequence of there being no limit to the
size or power of the steamers, which might be placed on
that line.

Having complied with your instructions, by reporting,
to the best of my ability, ou the present state of Loch
Larne, Loch Ryan, Portpatrick, Donaghadee, and Belfast,
I humbly submit, for their Lordships' information, the
following trials I made last month (December, 1845), to
test the relative merits of the route by Portpatrick and
Donaghadee with that by Loch Ryan and Loch Larne.
On the 22d of last month I went, during one of the
hardest gales we had this winter from the N.N.W., in the
Albion, an iron merchant steamer, from Streviraer to
Bel'ast (49 miles), in five hours and a half. The
Albino is about two hundred tins burthen, has one
kindled aid thirty horse power, and draws when loaded
six feet and a half water. She had a full cargo, and
averaged nine milts an hour against the gale. I timed
her from passing C.tirnryan to abreast of Larne, and she
ran the dis:ance (30 miles) in three hours and a half.
This, considering the circumstances of wind and water,
is as long a passage as would occur, during the year, be-
tween Cairnr) an and Larne.
I also went, on the 17th of last month, in the Pike
mail boat, Lieut. Boyton, from Donaghadee to Port-
patrick. The water was smooth : we had a leading
wind, and the sails were set ; yet, owing to the limited
size and power of the boat, we were two hours and fifty
minutes running across (19 miles.) This clearly proves
the great superiority of the Larne and Loch Ryan
route ; for the Albion went against the hardest
gale we had this winter, two miles an hour
faster than the largest boat that could enter Portpatrick
could go, in fine weather, with a fair wind. The mail
boats, during adverse gales, are obliged to tack, under
steam and canvass, across the channel, having neither
length nor power to stem the gale. The Pike, Lieut.
Boyton, was, under such circumstances, nine hours and
a-half crossing, a few days before I went in her.
It will naturally occur to you, Sir, to ask, why has
not the route via Portpatrick, been abandoned long ago,
if there be such objections to it ? The reeson is easily
explained. When the Commissioners of Inquiry into
the Post-office Department, 1836, strongly and una- '
nimoasly recommended in their report (Sixth
Report of the Commissioners appointed to in-
quire into the department of the Post-office, 1836), that
no further expense should be incurred on Portpatrick or
Donaghadee, and that Cairnryan and Larne should be
adopted as the best route for the mails, the proprietors of
Portpatrick, and the civil engineer, stated that, if the mo-
ney then voted for the completion of Portpatrick (23,7001.)
was expended on it, the harbour would be rendered
perfectly safe, and possess ample accommodation for the
reception of first-class steamers, drawing 12 feet water
and upwards.
Although the Lords of the Treasury had complied
with the recommendations of the Commissioners of In-
quiry, by stopping the works and paying off the work-
men, yet their Lordships' considering that nearly
150,0001., public money, had already been spent on
Portpatrick, and that the Engineer was quite confident
of success, their Lordships consented to go on with the
works.
The present state of Portpatrick sufficiently explains
the result. _ _ _ _

Under these circumstances, it is my humble opinion,
that is well worthy of their Lordships' consideration,
whether a fair trial of the two routes is not desirable.
By granting it, their Lordships will settle a question
which, for many years, has been the cause of consider-
able anxiety to the bankers, merchants, and manufac-
turers of Scotland and the North of Ireland.—l have the
honour to be, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,
GEO EVANS, Capt. R.N.

INSTRUCTIONS to COMMITTEES

OF RELIEF DISTRICTS IN TOWNS IN IRE-

LAND.
(Etracted from minutes of the proceedings of the Com-
missioners appointed in reference to the apprehended
scarcity.)
The Commission having had under their considera-
tion the necessity of establishing local Committees, pro-
perly organized, in towns where destitution is likely to
prevail, through whose superintendence the approach and
progress of distress, in such localities, may be watched,
and the means of relief administered, according to the
instructions of Government, it is resolved—
I. That the Mayor, or, where there is no Mayor and
Aldermen, the Chairman of the town Commissioners of
any town in which it shall be established, on good and
d
sufficient grounds, that extreme distress isntnaetanr
at
hand,op,e
in consequence of the failure in the p
ed of the follow-
requested to convene a meeting, cornpos
ing classes:—
Mayor and Aldermen.
The town Commissioners (In towns where there is no
Mayor or Aldermen.)
Clergymen of all persuasions.
Chairman of any Poor Law Union, which may include
any part of the town.
Poor Law Guardians of electoral district or districts.
Magistrates of Petty Sessions.
That this meeting should select, from amongst them-
selves, not more than twenty members, who, with the
resident Magistrates (if any), Cost-guard officers (where
available) and an officer of the Board of Works, should
form the Local Relief Committee.
II That each Committee should hold regular periodi-
cal meetings, at a place or places to be fixed by them,
where all Committee business should be transacted ; and
that regular minutes should be kept of the proceedings,
in a book to be supplied to them from this Commission,
and that three members should be a quorum.
111. That it is evident, and is also in strict accordance
with the views and instructions of the Government, that
the owners of property, and other rate-payers, are the
parties both legally and morally answerable for afford-
ing due relief to the poor, and tf at the same parties are,
from their local influence, and their knowledge of the
situation and wants of the people in their neighbour-
hood, best able to furnish such relief, without waste or
lujidirectiO 91. the New employed,

That the measures to be adopted by the officers of I
Government, are to be considered merely as auxiliary
to those which it is the duty of the persons possessed of
property, in each neighbourhood, to adopt.
That the Local Committee should, therefore, put them-
selves in communication with such persons, and should
solicit subscriptions from them, proportioned to their
means, and to the extent of distress in the locality to
which they belong.
That where, notwithstanding such subscriptions, some
assistance is likely to be required from the Government,
a list of the sums subscribed, together with a list of in-
dividuals from whom subscriptions might have been ex-
pected, should be confidentially brought under the notice
of the Lord Lieutenant, who, after due consideration of
the case, will determine on the sum to be contributed,
from the funds at his disposal, in aid of the local sub-
scriptions.
In cases where there may arise a scarcity of food, within
a district, or the price of food may have been artificially
raised, the Government will be prepared to transmit to
the Local Committee, at cost price, including the ex-
penses of carriage, a quantity of food corresponding to
the amount of subscriptions paid in for that purpose, and
to place that food in the Minis of the Local Com-
mittee, for distribution, on their own responsibility, at
cost price, or as wages of labour to destitute persons
un-
employed on local works, or when absolute destitution
is united within ability to labour, in gratuitous donations.
IV. That, in cases where any assistance is afforded
by Government, either in aid of local subscriptions, or
otherwise, the following rules are to be invariably ob-
served in the administration of relief :

Ist. A task of work shall be required from every per-
son capable of giving it, who applies for relief.
2d. The payments for the work performed shall be
made in food, and shall, in every case, ce limited to
such a quantity of food as will be sufficient to support
the workman, and the helpless persons of his family.
3d. If, in any case, it be impracticable to pay in food,
the payments in money shall be limited to what is ab-
solutely necessary for the above purpose.
4th. Gratuitous relief shall be afforded only to those
persons who are entirely incapable of giving a day's
work, and who have no able-bodied relative on whom
they are depend, nt, and in these cases only, in which
their reception in the workhouse of the union to which
they belong, is, from want of room, impracticable ; and,
lastly,
sth. The works in which destitute persons are em-
ployed, shall be in prosecution of some public improve-
ment, approved of by this Commission, within, or
adjacent to, the distressed locality, and shall be such
as will be capable of being brought at once to a close,
when the circumstances of the people are improved.
V. That the Committee should ne prepared with plans
or suggestions of small useful works of public improve-
ment, for the employment of the destitute poor, in all
cases where relief is given to the able-bodied.

VI. That the Committee should divide the town into
districts, and should obtain minute reports of the cir-
cumstances of each family, from whom application for
relief may be made ; that at their meetings certificates
or tickets should be given to such only as are ascer-
tained to be without means of providing for their fami-
lies ; that such tickets or certificates be the authority
to the Superintendent of the Public Works for receiving
the persons to whom they are granted ; and that a re-
gister of all certificates or tickets granted by the Com-
mittee be preserved in a book, to be supplied for that
purpose by this Commission.
VII. That the secretary, or person officiating as such,
of the Committee, should take charge of the books, and
other documents, and should conduct the correspondence
with this Commission:
VIII. That towns in which there is no mayor and
aldermen, nor town commissioners, be considered as
coming under the class of county relief districts.
J. P. KENNEDY, Secretary.
Castle, Dublin, 14th March, 1846.