The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-04 00:00:00

SOCIAL DISABILITIES OF COLOUR.

The Rev. Edwin Chapman presents his compli-
ments to the editor of The k'un, and transmits to
him, with a request for its publication, a correspon-
dence whL.ll has taken place between Mr. Commis-
sioner Hill, Recorder of Birmingham, and Mr.
Chapman, on the one part, and Sir Samuel Cunard
on the other :

Bristol, June 11.

Sir Samuel Cunard,
Sir,—Under ordinary circumstances, as strangers
to you, it would be our duty to apologise for
intruding upon your time and attention ; but in
a matter which intimately concerns the repu-
tation of your excellent line of packets to tlie
United States, and, indeed, the honour of our coun-
try, we fee: that the statement which we have to
lay before you will show you that we have good
reason for respectfully calling on you to prevent a
repetition of misconduct in your agent which no
Englishman can regard without indignation. We
are sure that it cannot be your will that your pas-
sengers, because they happen to be persons of colour,
should meet with partial and unjust treatment on
hoard your vessels. Great Britain recognises no
distinction of rights because of colour, and the cap-
tains of her mail packets, you will be the first to
agree, must not be permitted to cringe to the un-
hallowed prejudices of foreigners, and thus to make
them the scenes of social oppression.
We gratefully remember your promise in 1847,-
that no more offences such as that committed against
Mr. F. Douglass should take place on board of our
steamers. That this promise has been broken by
your agent in the case which we now proceed to
lay before you will cause you deep concern, both
because you must have considered it as binding
upon all in your service, and because of the morti-
fication Which has been inflicted on persons whose
position, conduct, and character make the indig-
nities to which they have been subjected bitterly
felt both by them and. their families and friends.
That so much time has elapsed since the voyage
was made before sending this application to
you arises from the fact of the documents
necessary for establishing• the case having been
only lately placed in our•hands, owing to their not
being forthcoming when reclaimed from a gentle-
man to whom they were entrusted, in the hope that
he would immediately perform the task which has
devolved upon us.
We enclose extracts from a letter addressed to
the gentleman above referred to, detailing the case
of Mrs. Putnam and her party, and also a copy of
a letter from your agents at Boston. United States,
which will put you in possession of all the facts ;
and we courteously but urgently beg to bespeak
your attention to them, and to ask for such action
thereupon as the case clearly and imperatively
demands.

It only remains to say that some weeks since
Miss Redmond, sister to Mrs. Putnam, a highly in-
telligent and most estimable person, now studying
at the college for ladies in Bedford-square, London,
was present at an anti-slavery gathering at the
house of one of the subscribers to this letter, and
there laid the case before the persons assembled,
who feeling themselves implicated in the unworthy
and most inhospitable treatment which American
passengers had experienced in one of her Majesty's
mail packets, receiving the subsidy of the nation,
and sailing under official colours, requested us to
take such measures as should be necessary for pro-
venting a recurrence of such disgraceful injustice.
In speaking plainly, we feel, Sir Samuel, that we
are offering our best tribute to the candour and
generous feeling by which we believe you to be
actuated.

Waiting the favour of your reply,
We remain, sir, your faithful servants,
M. D. HILL.
EDWIN CHAPMAN.
Address—Rev. E. Chapman Durdham Down,
Bristol.

This correspondence when completed it is our in-
tention, we hardly need say, to publish in the
newspapers.
(Extracts from Mrs. Putnam's leiter.)
London, Nov. 29. 1859.
To —, Esq.
Sir, We purchased tickets as first-class pas-
sengers on board the steamer Europa, Captain Leich,
our party consisting of four—C. E. Putnam, Sarah
L. Smith, Henry G. Cassey, and my son Edmund T.
Putnam. A few days before the steamer sailed I
received the enclosed letter from Mr. Bates,
the agent of the Cunard Company. Upon its
reception I called upon the gentleman, asking him
why we were denied privileges which are granted
to every one until they prove themselves unworthy
of them. He said American ladies and gentlemen
would object to sit down by the side of coloured
persons. I told him we were obliged to sail in the
steamer, and I thought there would not be the least
trouble, as we were able now to travel in the Nor-
thern States of America without any, and were
treated well at some of the best hotels, and I ex-
pected on board an English steamer I should re-
ceive good treatment, as persons living under her
government were not judged by the colour of
their skin but their conduct only ; and I hoped we
should be allowed our seats at the table. On the
2d November we started, and when we had been on
board about two hours one of the servants told us
he wished to speak with us if we would follow him.
We did so, and were shown into a very small room,
and told by him that the captain wished us to take our
meals there by ourselves. We told him that we should
be rather uncomfortable, as the room was in the ex-
treme stern part of the boat, and one of our party WAS
an invalid, and had left home on that account. He
said he had received his instructions from the captain,
and there was no alternative. . . . During the
whole voyage we were not allowed a seat at the
table. . . . And during the last few days of our
voyage we were obliged to sit in the ladies' cabin
by ourselves, and servants bring us food as if we
were criminals, when we had conducted ourselves
with the strictest propriety. The captain commit-
ted a great wrong in submitting to the dictation of
an American agent.—Yours, &c.
(Signed) C. E. PUTNAM.
(Copy enclosure.)
B. and N. A. Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company, Office, 99, State-street, Bos-
ton, Oct. 27, 1859.

For your information we desire to inform you
that a separate table will be provided for yourself
and party on board Europa, hence to Liverpool,
where everything will be furnished you that first
cabin passengers are entitled to ; the person who
applied fer your tickets did not state the fact that
the party were coloured, otherwise we should have
informed you.
Should this interfere with your expectations,
please apply at this office at once, and we will
refund the passage money.—Respectfully,
(Signed) E. C. and J. G. BATES.
Mrs. C.E. Putnam and party, Salem.

Durdham Down, Bristol, June 28, 1860.
Sir,—On the 11th inst. I sent to a friend, with a
request that he would forward it to you, as I did not
then know your address, a packet containing a
letter addressed to you, signed by Mr. Commissioner
Hill and myself, and certain enclosures which we
wished to lay before you.
As we have not been favoured with any reply, I
have the honour of forwarding to you copies of the
above mentioned documents, and earnestly ask your
attention to them, and an answer at your early con-
venience.

I am, Sir Samuel, your faithful servant,
EDWIN CHAPMAN.
Sir Samuel Cunard, Bush-hill, Edmonton.

Bush-hill-house, Edmonton, 29th June, 1860.
Sir,—l have received your letters of the 11 th
and 28th instant.

I do not see that any advantage would result
from discussing the subject matter of these letters,
therefore I must decline entering into any corres-
pondence on the subject.—l am, sir, your obedient
servant, S. CUNABD.
The Rev. E. Chapman, Durdham Down, Bristol.

01.0 fa
w/ a rh
igceh rao uwni
dsttroandei
in Somerset-
shireSlß FRANCIS DRAKE.—At a farm
there is a relic in the shape
now used as the weight on a harrow,
tion is current. "When Sir Francis set out on his voyage,
it is said he told his wife if be wore away for ten years she
might, at the expiration ofitihat ptlriT marry again. Ten
as constant as
years elapsed, during
over she accepted a suitor.
to the church, a huge stone
On her wayfall through the
and fixed upon
Penelope, bhuetwhen-thweyhiewtehrmaet3'shae
kyne%\w'
air close bythe train of her gown ; and
she turned back, declaring
husband. Shortly after he returned
beggar, solicited alms of her at his ow, n
andadoso,it came from her
in the disguised amidsts a
of his feigned tale a smile escaped him, and she recognised
and joyfully led him in,
THE STOCKS.—This antiquated niece of machi-
nery is, it appears, still something more than in much older
times. We find that the West 'Riding constabulary, at
Bradford, have been settling off old scores with a host of
offending tipplers, during the last week, by "clapping"
theta in the " stocks." The place of punishment was fully
occupied both on Saturday and Monday last.l
THE NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE ACROSS THE
THAMES FROM HUNGERFORD MARKET.—Considerable
progress has been made in the preliminary works for the
construction of a railway bridge across the Thames from
Hungerford Market on the Middlesex side to Pedlar's-acre,
Lambeth ; a large number of piles for the construction of
coffer dams have been driven and an immense caisson sunk
on the west side of the Suspension Bridge, in which divers
are at work clearing the sand and shingle from the solid
bed upon which the foundations of the piers are to rest.
Yesterday wot kmen were engaged in constructing another
caisson on the eastern side for a similar purpose ; these are
formed of immense shields of cast iron, firmly fastened
together with screws, bolts, and nuts. The works are at
present confined to the Lambeth side, a good view of which
may be obtained from the Suspension' Bridge.