The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-25 00:00:00

PRESENT.

Lord Chancellor Albemarle Falkland Erskine
Dessborough Sydney Glenelg
AnCIDITSTIOP. Burlington Torrington Lilford
Canterbury Cotrenham Milford
Cowper BISHOPS. Manners
DUKES. Craven Chester• Monteagle
Arglll Elgin Manchester Mo•tyn
lioxburzh Gostord Sa.isbury Overtone
Somerset Granville Panmure
Grey BARONS. Po'timore
litArtQuisEs. Harrowby A slitiu. toil Saye and Sele
Ails ury lichcster Byron Stafford
Breadai bane Kingston Cainoys Stanley of Alder.
Clanricarde Meath Cremorne ley
Townshend St. Germans Fe Manley Wodehouse
Westminster Somers De Tabley Wrottesley
Dufferin Ward

EARLS. VISCOUNTS.
Ablrgdon Enfield

LanAdowno

Devon

PAIRS

Ellenborow h

Exeter, Bishop

We, ester, Bishop Re heiter, 141ehop
Fitzharlinge Buck] gliam
Arundel Tenterden
kudeley I.engf,rd

THE BELLE-ISLE NUISANCE.

On Saturday, at Clerkenwell, Mr. Richard Cross, of
No. 8, Little King-street North, Camden-town, was
summoned before Mr. Tyrwbitt, be being the occu-
pier of a ceitain building used for the purpose of
slaughtering horses and boiling offal and blood, situate
at the Shoot, its Belle-isle, Maiden-lane, the said bus ness
being a nuisance injurious to the health of the inhabi-
tants of the neighbourhood. The court was crowded by
the inhabitants of the district.
From the evidence adduced, it appeared that the de-
fen lanes yard in which he carried on his business was
only six yards long and four e ide. When the officers
visited the defendant's premises, the stench was intoler-
able, and the place was filthy in the extreme. There were
no means whatever employed for mitigating the nuisance,
which is, however, capable of very great improvement.
In the shed there was one copper, four feet in diameter,
used for boiling the flesh, entrails, bones, &c., and at the
time the visit was made the water was being heated
prior to the introduction of the bones. There was no lid
or cover to the boiler, and the vapours escapedunchecked
through a hole in the roof. There was then a ton of
bones piled on the floor in a very putrid state. The shed
was paved, but the drain was almost useless, and
l there were pools of putrid blood lying about. The walls
were covered with filth and animal refuse. Some entrails
in an advanced state of decomposition were hanging
from one of the walls in the yard, and there were also
two coppers containing putrid blood.
The following are the recommendations of Mr. Brad-
ley, the surgeon,:-1. That the premises may be
thoroughly cleaned. 2. That there might be a supply of
water laid on. 3. That the place may be properly
drained and paved. And 4. That the effluvia arising
from the boiling of bones should be made to pass through
the ash pit or furnace previous to being earned away by
a shaft into the external air, and also that no accumu-
lation of bones or offal should be allowed.

..... .. ..._ . _ .. ...
Mr. Tyrwhitt fined the defendant si. and costs, but
before inflicting it, he would give the defendant three
weeks to comply with the request of the parish, then, if
they were properly carried out, the fine would not be
enforced.

SUICIDE.—A young man, twenty-eight years of age,
named Jackson, committed suicide on Wednesday last,
on the railway between Southampton and Dorchester,
about three miles from the former town. He laid hini-
self deliberately down just before a running train, placed
his head on the right hand rail, and his feet on the left,
and was killed instantly. He appears to have been per-
fectly sober when be did this, but was an inveterate
drunkard.

(From the Times of this clay.)

Fortune proverbially faVours the bold and does
not always withdraw her smiles from the rash, and
so the House of Peers may boast that it has
triumphed for a moment over: the Crown. We
have no wisk to deny or dissemble the magnitude
of this victory, and as little to conceal our sense of
the means by which it has been obtained. The
Rouse of Peers saw in the attempt to renew peer-
ages for life what they believed 'to be an invasion
of their dignity and a curtailment of the , privi-
leges of their Order ; their passions were excited,
their fears were stimulated, and so they took the
matter into their own hands, and assumed a posi-
tion requiring an impartiality which they scarcely
pretended to possess. Nor was their chilli to act
as judges in their own cause better founded in
right than it was in fairness and sincerity. The
deriving its existence
House of Lords, as a 1)04
from a succession of individual acts of a higher
power, does not appear to have any greater right
to exercise any control over the adiniesiOn of new
members into its Order than any other body sinii-
larly situated. What would be said of a.claim on
the part of 59 County Court judges to resist the
appointment of a sixtieth because they considered
him disqualified accsrding to the law ender which
they Sit, ordeal insurrection of the Privy Council
because some member was obtrieded .upon it who
had not, in their opinion, the proper sinalifications
for the office ? Upon such a'foundation'is built
the new jurisdiction, whieh-has circumscribed the
prerogative of the Crowns and defeated a well-
meant attempt to remedy the monstrous deficiencies
of the highest tribunal of appeal.
The conclusion has been worthy of its commence-
ment. At first, denying that' Lsrd Wensleydale
took by his patent any peerage at all, and speaking
of him only as Sir James Parke, in utter contempt
of his writ and patent, the Peers subsequently
saw fit to retreat from this untenable position, and
to take refuge in one which, could it be brought to
any test, would surely not be more tenable—that
her Majesty could, by her patent, make Sir James
Parke a.nobleman, but could not by her writ make
him a peer of Parliament. The writ, the law books
say, gives the seat in the House of Peers and a
peerage in fee ; the patent limits the effect of the
writ. The peers hold, on the other hand, that the
writ is absolutely void, and the patent limits that
nullity, or rather extends it into a peerage for life.
The conclusion, then, is, that half the Queen's pre-
rogative remains—that, namely, which allows her
to confer honours ; but that the other half, which
annexed to those honours a seat in the Legislature,
is abrogated by a majority of the House of Peers,
unless the Crown condescend to comply with the
conditions which the Lords are pleased to press-ibe
for its guidance. We know not whether the strug-
gle will be protracted, and the Lords compellel to
inflict the last indignity on their Sovereign by re-
fusing the bearer of her writ and patent access to
the chamber from which he has been, only as far
as words are concerned, excluded. It matters
little how the dispute terminates ; the victory has
been gained, sand we have only to consider what
will be the next step to be taken now that the ap-
pointment of peers for life has been established by
the same proceeding to be theoretically legal and
constitutional and practically impossible. The
remedy is gone, but the grievance remains. To
reform the peerage, by rendering it more easy of
access to men of shining abilities but of moderate
fortunes, is denied to us, and the house must shine
on by its own light with such aid as it may gain
from an occasional legal luminary who has, in addi-
tion to a profound knowledge of the law, the
equally indispensable talent of saving a large for-
tune. The non-legal peerscannot administerjustice;
the legal peers are few in number and advanced iu
age. The house is closed for three months of
the legal year, and might be closed to the
suitors altogether without any loss to the suitors.
A tour of appeal, unless stronger and abler than
the Court appealed from is a heavy and cruel op-
pres ;ion, a souse of delay and expense incurred
only to give the worse reason a chance of triumph-
ine over the better. The matter, therefore, comes
to this—that there is no chance of reforming the
Judicial Tribunal of the House of Lerds front
within, and the questionseelsee hathmr t.
be abon.b,..t attogetner. Tots latter remedy wOuld,
indeed, be prderable to existing abuses, but would
be liable to grave objections. The constitution of
the Exchequir Chamber is by no means perfect,
the administration of equity would suffer much
from want of a Court of Appeal, and the law of
Scotland would probably be far more technical and
narrow in its principles than it is had it been left to
the exclusive interpretation of Scotch expositors.
Is there, then, no remedy, and must we
give up in sheer despair our highest tribunal
because its members will not let us reform it
by an exercise of the prerogative ? We think
not. We believe that ancient precedent and
modern praotice combine to point out a simple
and satisfactory solution of the difficulty. The
House of Lords and the Privy Council are, it
appears, only two branches from the same stock—
the ordinary or lesser Council of the King. Both
have inherited judicial powers, but, while the House
of Lords has insisted •n exercising thoie powers
itself, the Privy Council has delegated them, with
great advantage to the public, and without any
loss of dignity or consideration to itself, to the
Judicial Committee. Such, it appears, was anciently
the practice of the Lords, who were aided by a
Court of Assistants, which heard the arguments
and pronouncedjudgment in the name of the Sove-
reign and tire Peers. This us, ful tribunal gradually
fell into desuetude, and the Peers, by successive
encroachments, made themselves masters, after the
Restoration, of the appellate jurisdiction of courts
of equity, and of the right of reviewing the deci-
sions of the Scottish Court of Session. From that
time to the present they have exercised this juris-
diction with a dissatisfaction gradually increasing
as the public has now become more enlightened,
till it has reached its culminating point iu the re-
cent abortive attempt at correction by the establish-
ment of a life peerage. Now, what would be easier
than to return to the state of things which formerly
existed in the House of Lords, and has for the last
20 years prevailed in the Privy Council? Let there
be formed by act of Parliament a Judicial Com-
mittee of the House of Lords, consisting partly of
such members of the House as are skilled in law,
together with such other judges as may be neces-
sary to give the Court the requisite strength, who
might bear the title of "Lord," and be members
of the House in its judicial capacity, without being
created Lords of Parliament. Something must be
done, and we can imagine nothing more likely to
extricate us from our present embarrassment with-
out injury to the Peerage than such a proposition.
It is of no use to lament past errors. Whatever
be the faults that the Peers have committed they
are an essential part of the constitution, and it be-
comes the nation to take more care of the dignity
of their order than they seem disposed to do them-
selves, under the guidance of rash and impetuous
counsellors.

(From the Times of this day.)

loss
and

There is to be an end of the internecine warfare
between the four great railway companies. The
Great Northern, the North-Western, the Midland,
and the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln, have
agreed to refer their differences to the impartial
arbitrament of Mr. Gladstone, the late Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer. The ex-Minister some five
years ago made an award under similar circum-
stances, which, if it has not satisfied every one,
may at least, in fairness, be said to have given very
general satisfaction. This is a result at which the
public should rejoice, as well as the shareholders of
the different companies, for it can never be the
interest of the public that any one of these great
corporations should cease to prosper. No concern
in the long run can afford to do business so cheaply
as a thriving one. Any temporary abatement of
price dependent upon the necessity of defeating an
opposition must in the end "be followed by a cor-
responding rise. The shareholders must, and will
in the end, make up their losses, as well as replace
their operations upon a correct basis. They must,
in fact, be indemnified for every penny they have
uselessly spent during the abnormal period of mad
competition. The passengers who rejoice that
they can now run down to Leeds for 55., or to
Peterborough for may feel very sure that
when the period of opposition fares is at an end
they will be compelled to reimburse to the com-
pany, in some &Alia or other, every penny they
now appear to have saved. This is, in other
words, to say that, in the long run, the railways
must be worked at a profit, and not at a loss.
Great incoi ivenience may, no doubt, result to the
shareholders in the meanwhile, and many who had
placed their money in the concern as a permanent
investment will suffer great inconvenience. Sellers
will be m:in
Y----buyers, save on speculation, will
be few, and altogether the great lines of communi-
cation thi:oughout the country will be affected
with the taint of jobbery. This cannot he a.whole-
some state of things, and therefore we ought all
to rejoigo that good sense has prevailed, and Viat

the chairman and directors of the four compa-
nies have perceived in time that the interest of
their constituents is best consulted by compromise
and reciprocal concession. A scheme of a traffic
arrangement, which is to he binding for 14 years,
is to be submitted to Mr. Gladstone, and his award
is to be final for the periCid named.
It was at the meeting of the proprietors of the
Great .Northern lino, held on Saturday at the Lon-
don Tavern, that the opening of the Railway Peace
Conferences was announced. The proposition to
Which we bare just referred was first made to a de-
putation from the other companies, and by them
rejected. After a little time for consideration bet-
ter counsels, however, prevailed, and the original
proposition of the Great Northern directors was
returned to them as the basis of a settlement by
the very persons who had previously rejected it.
When the measure was laid on Saturday before the
general meeting for its approval or rejection, it
was carried by acclamation ; followed, " by long
and enthusiastic cheering." Thus far, then, the
matter is in good train, and there is every reason
to believe that the three other companies are quite
as much in earnest as the Great Northern. It is
only from compromises of this kind that any
safety or stability can be looked for in our English
system of railway property. • There must either
be Parliamentary control, or, competition for all
practical purposes unchecked. With us the latter
system has prevailed, and, whether for good or
for evil, we must accept it with all its conse-
quences, and the good sense of the shareholders
must supply the place of legislative check or con-
trol. A district which is traversed by two, three,
or four competing lines must be worked; in fact,
as though the lines were but one concern. Oppo-
sition begets opposition, to the detriment of all the
competing parties, until theY are driven in the end
to do that which they might just as well have done
in the first instance—namely, accept the decision
of an impartial arbitrator, and a scheme for con-
ducting their traffic which shall offer equal advan-
tages to all. The pity is that the same principle
has not been applied to the allotment and con-
struction of lines as to their working. 'A district
must be pre-occupied. The directors of lines which
appear to be remote enough from the scene of ac-
tion rush into mad contest. Branches are formed
long before the districts upon which they are thrust
are really ripe for their reception, and the trunk
lines are bled that the useless suckers may flourish.
It is meet unfortunate that some form of arbitra-
tion could not be applied to these ruinous contests
for priority of occupation, as well as to the strug-
gles for the monepoly of traffic when the lines have
been once formed.
Before concluding our few remarks upon this
very important subject, we would draw attention
to the financial result from the reduction of fares
in the recent instance of the Great Northern. It
appears that during the first week of the cheap
trains 556 persons were booked from Doncaster to
London—the total receipts being 1041. 2s. During
the week ending on Saturday last there were 775
passengers booked as before—the total receipts
being 1461. 17s. ; total for the two weeks 2501.
19s. Before the period of the competition the
same station produced as the result of its London
traffic about 601., the number of passengers being,
on the average, 40. Of course, on glancing at
arithmetical results of this kind, the expense of
extra trains, additional staff, wear and tear-of the
line, &e., must be taken into account ; still, on
the whole, do not the calculations seem to show
that upon a system of far cheaper fares the railway
traffic might Ise made much more productive to
the shareholders ? The custom of more frequent
travelling would beget the necessity for it. If such
results were obtained in a fortnight, what might
not a year produce ? If this contest tends to prove
that cheap fares are not inconsistent with good
dividends, both the public and the shareholders
will have no reason to regret it.

THE JOSEPHINE WILLIS.

The following official reports have been sent to
the Board of Trade from the gentlemen charged
with the late official investigation into the circuin-
stanccs of the loss, by collision with the Manger-
ton steamer, of the above vessel :
" Mu. YARDLEY'S REPORT.
" Thames Police-court, Feb. 20.
1,.„6 to elate teat, peeeeen t to the
instructions contained in your lordships' letter, dated
the 6th inst., assisted by Commander Robinson, R.N.,
antler as assessor, I have made ingetry respecting +Are
of the Jesephiee Willis on the night of the 3d inst.,
to report as follows :
The Josephine Willis was a -British ship of 786 tons
register, which, manned by a crew of 40, including all
hands, and carrying 70 passengers, sailed from the port
of London, bound for Auckland, New Zealand, on the
2d inst.
" Immediately before departure elm was surveyed
and in every particular approved by an authorised
emigration agent. About six p.m. on the 3d she
passed the South Foreland ; the wind was south-east,
the sky was clear and starlight ; the atmo-phere hazy
on the water and horizon. Soon after passing the
South Foreland the wind changed to south-sonth-
ea•t. The collision which led to the loss of the ship
happened a few minutes after eight p.re., the direction of
the wind and the state of the atmosphere being then as
last stated. Tee ship's course was W.S.W. the regts-
ler channel course to clear Dungeness. The rate of
sailing—a'l plain sail being set—was seven knots. Folks-
stone bore N. by W., 4t miles distant. The town lights
and harbour light were indistinctly visible, The chief
officer, Fester Claytor, was en deck in command. The
master was below ; two men were ler ward on the look-
out. One of the look-out men now reported `a light a-
head on the starboard bow withel.' The chief officer
ran forward from the poop and obsi rued a bright light
ahead, and, mistaking this for Dungeness light, ordered
the helm te he etarboarded, so as in his judgment to
bring the ship a point to port, and steedied the helm.
After a time he saw a red light on the starboard bow,
according to his statement, as much as four ponete, and
very shortly afterwards a green light also. As song as
the red light and bright light were visible, they wete
known to proceed from a steamer. The green light being in
sight, and all the lights being visible, showed that the
steamer wee coming directly on the sailing ship ; but,
according to the chief officer's evidence, the direction leas
abaft the stern of the ship (see vol. 1, p. 102) ; the ships
being now very near, the stearnei's helm being hard-a-
port, that of the ship, by order of the chief officer, sae
put hard-e-starboard, in order to ease the blow. The
steamer struck the ship stem on, just before the main-
rig,ging. The steamer was the Mangerton, of 363 tons
register, commanded by Bourchier, tracFne; between
Limerick and London, worked by a screw of 130-horse
power, with a crew of 25, carrying on that voyage about
40 passenger', 25 of whom were women and six or seven
children. At the time of the accident the deck was in
the temporary command of the boatswain, stationed o
the bridge, who was acting second mate, and assisting
in the captain's watch. There was a look-out for-
ward, and also another on the bridge, and a very
experienced seaman at the helm. '-roe captain was
justifiably below for a short time, with the first
mate, for the purpose of consulting the chart, to be
prepared in the event of not obtaining the assistance
of a pilot. The steamer was proceeding in a course E.
by N. N., under easy steam, at about eight knots.
Seven or eight minutes before the collision a bright light
was seen at au apparent distance of a mile to a mile and
a hal, about a point and a half on the port bow. After
a few minutes this vanished, when the helm .was put
a-port. The light again became visible, and also the
sails of a large ship, when the helm was put hard a-port
and the collision took place as above described. Im-
mediately before the collision the engine was stopped,
and immediately afterwards backed. The bowsprit of
the steamer being foul of the main rigging the ships were
not got apart under 10 minutes. I will new venture to
express my opinion as to the causes of this disaster. This
I do with the greatest diffidence, inasmuch as the question
involves considerable nautical knowledge. It mey safely
be said that if the chief officer of the Josephine Willis had
not mistaken the nature of the bright light which he saw,
and if lie had followed literally the rule of the road,' as
prescribed by section 296 of the Merchant Shipping Act,
this accident could live been avoided. Considering the
haziness of the atmosphere, this mistake, notwithstand-
ing the disparity of the distances, seems excusable.
Having starboarded Ms helm upon the assumption that
the light seen was that of Dungeness, the red light and
soon afterwards the green light were visible. In fact,
the three lights were together visible, and so as to seem
to indicate that, by pursuing her then course, the ship
would have easily cleared the steamer if the latter, in
stead of porting, had starboarded her helm. Tlis brings
me to what I cniceive to be another cause of the acci-
dent—viz., the deficient light on board the Josephine
Willis. This l'ght was placed on the bowsprit, and con
eisted of a lamp with three panes, each showing a differ-
ent light, the centre one being bright, and the others
red and green respectively. This undoubtedly is not
such a light as ought to be shown when danger is
had
minent. It, however, unfortunately happens that it a
received the sanction and approval of the emigration
agent who inspected Ithe ship, and was thus calculated
to mislead the commander of the ship into a confidence
of its efficiency. Moreover, it appears that there an
ambiguity in the Admiralty directions on the
to
of
ships' lights, one clause mentioning ' bright white lights,'
another bright lights.' I think that it will appear from
the evidence that the lights of the steamer were seen
before that of the Josephine Willis; and that of the latter
perceptible. The officer in
the coloured sides were
command of the latter ship having confidence in his light
would probably assume that it was visible as soon as the
others, and that the commander of the steame z mould
shape his course according to that of his own ship. An-
other concurring case I suggest with great diffidence is
the order given on hard the Ateaunr to port the helm,