The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-08 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

you kindly insert in your next im-
pression the following correspondence, which has
taken place between the Building Trades' Con-
ference and the Central Association of Master
Builders, since the operatives forwarded their
memorial of 25th May ?
On behalf of the Conference, yours respectfully,
GEO. POTTER, Secretary.
Conference of United Building Trades,

1, Rochester-terrace, Westminster, June 7, 1860,

To MR. WALES, SECRETARY OF CENTRAL ASSOCTA

TION.

Conference of United Building Trades, 11,
Rochester-terrace, Westminster, May
31, 1860.
Sir,—At a special meeting of the Conference,
convened last evening, for the purpose of receiving
a suggestion from yourself, to the effect that you
thought the employers would receive a deputation
if the Conference were to ask for one—

Resolved,—" That the Conference are willing to
send a deputation if the employers wish to receive
one, that the question may be fully discussed be-
tween the two parties."
I am, sir, on behalf of the Conference,
Yours respectfully,
GEo. POTTER, Secretary.

In answer to the above, the following resolution
was received from Mr. Wales on June Gth :
" That Mr. Potter be informed by the Secretary
that the Committee of the Central Association de-
cline to renew any discussion on the nine hours'
question."

INA.UGURATION OF THE BUST OF THE
RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN PAKINGTON IN THE
NUSEUff OF HASIAR HOSPITAL.

The bust of Sir John Pakington, executed by.
Marochetti, and subscribed for by the medical offi-
cers of the navy, was placed in Haslar Museum on
Tuesday last, in acknowledgment of the great ser-
vice rendered to the medical department of the ser-
vice during the administration of the right hon.
baronet as First Lord of the Admiralty. Theee
were nearly 100 persons present, including Cap-
tain Superintendent the Hon. Geo. Hastings, tle
medical and other officers of the hospital and their
families, the medical and other officers of the fleet,
the Baron Marochetti, and the deputation, consist-
ing of Dr. Nelson, R.N., Dr. Rees, Deputy-Inspec-
ter-General, Dr. Beith, R.N., Dr. Dobie, and Dr.
After the deputation had been formally intro-
duced to the Captain Superintendent by Dr. Nisbet,
the medical inspector-general of the hospital,
Dr. ilel‘Wiaaaaas delivered an address, in the
course of which, with reference to the selection of
Haslar for the reception of the bust, he observed—
In requesting permission of my Lords of the Ad-
miralty—a permission which was most promptly
and courteously granted—to place Sir J. Paking-
ton's bust here, we considered that nowhere was
so appropriate for its reception as Haslar Hospital, •
the chief of naval hospitals, an institution moreover
associated with some of the greatest triumphs of
nautical medicine. It was here that Lind, justly
designated by Sir Gilbert Blane, " the father of
nautical medicine," sent forth a century ago some
of those remarkable works which, by first clearly
pointing out what attention to the simple laws of
nature could effect, contributed so largely to the
health and comfort, and consequently to the effi-
ciency; of our seamen, and gave a high place among
the benefactors of mankind. It was here also that,
some years later, the able, energetic, warmhearted,
but ill-rewarded Trotter, physician to the fleet
under Lord Howe, gave to the world those
plans for sanitary and administrative reform
which have proved of lasting benefit to his
country. Seldom have such talents, combined with
so much zeal, been devoted to the public service as
were those of Trotter. A main object of his life
finds emphatic expression in the dedication of his
"11.1edicina Nautica" to Earl Howe, admiral, the
flag officers, captains, and other officers of the fleet
—"lt has been my wish to make the duties of the
medical profession subservient to the comfort and
happiness of men that have earned laurels for you,
and given security to their country." To have been
the means of raising the health of our navy from
the lowest standard—a standard which long made
a ship of war an object of aversion to seamen—to a
degree which has no parallel among any other
class of men ; to have enabled the Channel Fleet,
whose very existence was at one time endangered
by the terrible ravages of scurvy, to keep at sea in
a state of health and high efficiency at a moment-
ous perioil in the history of this country ; to have
laid down a he;;lth system adapted to all time, to
all classes, and to ail .'.litnatQe, are no mean titles to
glory; and that glory, so honourably earned, pos-
terity has awarded to the illust-njous names of Lind,
Blanc, and Trotter, whose peers in their own de-
partment—when we except Sir John Pringle and
Jackson in the army—none of our public cervices
have produced either before or since their day.
Coming down to later times we have the honoured
name, the reputation, far beyond European, of Sir
John Richardson—the undaunted traveller, the
man of science, and the skilled and humane physi-
cian. This museum, where he long and usefully
laboured, is of itself a monument of his devotion to
those branches of science which he illustrated. And
did it not misbecome me to speak of those still in
office and authority, I could with great advantage
to my case dwell upon the high professional attain-
ments, the long and eminent services, the rare ad-
ministrative power, the untiring solicitude for the
welfare of the service throughout, which charac-
terise the present director-general, and which, as
they have beneficially influenced the past, augur
favourably for the future of the department. I
might advert to such names as Lord Brougham
and the Duke of Richmond in the Lords, and
I3oldero, Wakley and others, in the Commons,
who have benefited the service by their advocacy of
the cause of naval medical officers. It will, how-
ever, be sufficient if you will bear with me while I
bring before you in a few words those statesmen
who, while holding the office of First Lord of the
Admiralty, thought it not unworthy of them to in-
quire into the condition of the medical department,
and make such changes and improvements as the
occasion demanded. And prominently in the fore-
ground of such a view stand the first Lord Melville
and Sir John Pakington. The bust of Lord Mel-
ville, executed by Chantrey, was placed here by a
generation of our brethren now almost passed away,
commemorative of him who, as First Lord of the
Admiralty in 1805, obtained an order in council for
the medical officers, which in that day was properly
regarded as the greatest boon that had ever been
granted them. To Sir Francis Baring and Sir
Charles Wood, who in 1850 and 1855 respectively
held the office of First Admiralty Lord, the grati-
tude of the medical officers is also due for the im-
effected in the department while under
r -
theirule. Those who read the warrant of Lord
Melville of 1g(;5, and that as well as the speeches
in Parliament of Sir or:.'11.11 Pakington, in 1859, will
find a remarkable identity- of object and purpose,
even of the language used on that l-wo occasions, and
certainly an identity of view as to tii_tA.,ceouqrse
to be
taken in respect to the medical ell_r
statesmen in framing their respective warrants, ap-
rear to have considered it quite as much a privilcne
as a duty in endeavouring to provide for the case of
our gallant sailors, subject to all the horrors of war
as well as to the baneful influences of climate, me..
dical attendance not interior to that enjoyed by the
civil portion of the community. They were, in fact,
actuated not alone by the comparatively narrow mo•
tive of advancing the medical officers in rank, peian
lege, and emolument, but also by the higher consi-
deration that the just elevation of those officers was
conducive to the well-being of every other class of
officers, indeed of the whole naval service, and con-
sequently of this country, which in the hour of need
looks to the navy as its main protection.' For these
reasons it has seemed to us that this bust of Sir
John Pakington, executed by the Baron Maroehetti,
and alike admirable as a work of art and faithful

representation of the right hon. baronet, can no-
where stand so appropriately as in the museum, in
companionship with that of Lord Melville, who,
like himself, was an eminent benefactor of the
medical department of the royal navy.
Captain HASTINGS said it had afforded him much
gratification to be present at this inauguration, and
quite concurred in what had fallen from Dr.
M'William with respect to Haslar being the most
appropriate place for the bust of the right hon.
baronet.

Dr. DOBIE, in thanking Captain Hastings for
honouring the occasion by his presence, hoped that,
if not contrary to the usage and rules of the service,
he would be so kind as to convey to my lords of the
Admiralty the sincere acknowledgments of the
deputation for the courteous and prompt manner in
which their lordships had acceded to their request
to place Sir John Pakington's bust where it now
stood, to which Captain Hastings replied that he
should comply with the request of the deputation.
The bust, which is a beautiful work of art, and a
most faithful representation of Sir John Pakington,
was much admired by all present. It stands upon
a pedestal of red granite, upon which there is an
appropriate inscription.

Dr. Nisbet entertained a party at dinner, which
included Captain Hastings, the Baron Marochetti,
and the deputation.

THE FAT,:iL LIFE-BOAT DISPUTE AT
YARMOUTH.

A brig was on the sands within three miles of the
shore at Yarmouth, in that tremendous hurricane
which will make the 28th of May, 1860, memor-
able in the register of storms. The lifeboat was
got out with sufficient promptness ; but the beach-
men whose appointed turn it was to man her, and.
the coxswain appointed to take permanent charge
of her, disputed on his right to command the boat
—the men would not go with Milligan—Milligan
would not quit the boat—and a precious hour was
lost in the squabble, which ended in the beachmen.
quitting the boat, Milligan remaining without a.
crew, until a lieutenant and some men of the coast-
guard and a few volunteers joined him, and they
put to sea. But it was now too late. The brig had
drifted too far into the breakers to be followed, ac-
cording to the evidence of Lieut:Petts ; and strange
to say, they could see no persons on board ; the boat
rode at anchor for hours at some distance from the
brig ; the thousands on the beach saw the crew,
supposed to be eleven in number, climb the rigging
and wildly gesticulate for help. Between one and,
two o'clock—that is, about four hours after she
struck, the ship began to break up, and one by one
the poor fellows were swept from the rigging till
the masts went over, and ship and crew had dis-
appeared. Milligan and the men who remained
on shore agreed that but for the delay the crew of
the brig might have been saved. Mr. Palmer, who
presided at the inquiry before the Lifeboat Com-
mittee, threw the primary blame for the catas-
trophe on the appointment of coxswains ; and,
by a strange piece of reasoning, made the
Board of Trade answerable for these appointments
by the National Lifeboat Association, because the
Board of Trade rewarded the men for their exer-
tions. But whether those appointments were right
or wrong—whether Milligan's claim to the com-
mand of the boat was well or ill-founded, is nothing
to the purpose. Men were perishing within
view—was that a time to settle rival pretensions ?
If the desire had been to save life and not to win
reward, would not the Yarmouth men have acted.
more like those of Ramsgate, who, arriving too late,
threw their waterproops to the men in the boat,
who were without them? Would not Milligan
have yielded to the entreaties of those on the shore
to quit the boat, or would not the crew have sub-
mitted to his direction ? To every cry of "It is
my right, "It is our turn," the answer was "But
men are perishing !"—Bury and No wich Post.
e I

THIS D_3 MARKETS.