The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

A fLI7'EItA_RY CELEBRITY .REASONS
FOR NOT ATTENDING THE SOCIAL SCIENCE
CONFERENCE.

(Front the Ca:7(.4,11*(7n Mercury.)

A literary celebrity having been invited to this
Conference, he has sent an extraordinary reply to
Lord John Russell, the President-elect, of which
the following is a part :
Good, my Lord,—l have to hand, conform to
postmark, "Woburn Abbey," your letter inviting
m to lake part in the so-called " Social Confer-
ence," to come off in Birmingham, or some other
place of like mind, some time in October next

ensuing.
Last, if not least, of Bedford's race, let us rea-
son together. Why, in name of all the rationali-
ties, or the non-rationalities for that matter, do ycu
ask me ? Have I in any sense ever shown myself
a word-deliverer ? Some poor thoughts of mine have
been committed to the pressgang, to be by them set in
pica, large or small as seemeth them good.. [Thanks
be to the Serenities, I am not now paid by the line,
page or sheet—leaving that sort of thing to the
doomed of Grub-street.] But because I indite
somewhat with the pen of a ready writer, that is
when in the spirit—for I deny the postulate of
Samuel Johnson (born at Lichfield), that any mere
man can doggedly make himself shed ink to purpose
—because I can at times do battle with the pinion,
does it follow that I can screech to knife-grinders
and razor-sellers at Birmingham during any month
of this year of grace that Cant may select from
the Kalendar ? I hate Brummagem and its
wares. Gods ! the years of agony and blood and
pimples that this same Brummagem has cost me
and the aggregates of humanity, with its so-called
sharp razors ! Was it not there, or at Sheffield, or
somewhere else, that an unstrung ruffian put forth
something called a razor•strop, which (as he phrased
it), was to convert the toilet of early morn from a
terrorinto a pleasure ? Did I not try that Diamond
Abomination, and shed much innocent blood thereby,
and have I not, Nebuchadnezzar-like, been ever
since obligated to let my facial hirsuitities remain
unkempt andunshorn. Assist me Dr. Slop, Balsam,
and the Athanasian creed, to curse that man.

not do good when you could, instead of catching
shoe applaudits by going down with the night train
to Brummagem. Is the emancipation of Jewrymoney
lenders to save the commonwealth ? Save the mark!
Issachar's burdens oppressed no shculders save his
own, and being well padded with usury, he
never felt them. Could Rothschild not light and
pave Jerusalem, or Salomons lay dawn a. grand
trunk from Dan to Beersheba, and so i a:sing the
wind in Palestine, contrive to make the Promised
Land a land where men would not only promise to
pay, but in reality come down with the rhino. Tilts
sick man lacks rupees, and for ready money the Holy
Land might be transferred to Montefiore in tut,
jugglery of conveyancing that Fitzroy Kelly may
think lies nearest to his conscience. But
let not your Lordship think to raise the
Gentile by elevating the Jew. Ah, but there's
that live-long Reform Bill. In Humbin,'..4
sacred name, you, Baron John, indited a thing
that has to be coopered in twenty years ! There's
_Magna Charta and the Treaty of Union as fresh as
paint, and that after many centuries. Angels,
unfold your cambr'e ;--a Lord, nay, a erary Lord,
who writes plays and biographies to boot, hears a
nation's cry, and offers the mechanic, starved down
to the depths of a 'Walking skeleton—he offers such
this panacea. Friend, be of good cheer—your re-
demption drawcth nigh. I, John Russell, am at
this present now returned by Shoreditch without
you; but look up to heaven, for next year you will
have a 57894th share in my election.

HARBOURS OF REFUGE COMMISSION

WEST HARTLEPOOL, OCT. 19.

The commissioner: resumed their inquiry this
morning at 10 o'clock. Mr. R. W. Jackson was
re-examined at some length. He produced a plan,
showing the great fields of coal and ironstone lying
within the line of coast between the Tyne and Runs-
wick Bay. He produced returns of the number of
lives saved by the Hartlepool and West liartl -
pool lifeboats from the ycar 1846 to the present
time, amounting to 55.7 in the whole. He also sub-

milted a reduce—el plan for a refuge harbour, the cost
of which would amount to about £987,520, and
enclose an area of 1,286 acres. He calculated that
every vessel frequenting the coast would, on an
average, use the harbour three times a year, in the
proportion of twice in ballast to once loaded. Mr.
Calver, C.E., gave evidence as to the condition of
the bay during 1846, the last time he minutely
examined it. He found then that it was silting up
over two-thirds of its surface from one-quarter of
an inch to 21 feet. Since that period he kn-nv
nothing of his own knowledge, but could easily
conceive that changes might take place to com-
pletely alter the state of things that existed at that
time, and which he then deemed likely to continue
to exist. Had a refuge harbour been formed in the
bay in January, 1857, he believed that all the ves-
sels wrecked on the 4th of that month would h
been saved. He deemed both Sunderland and Bed-
car unsuitable places for a harbour of refuge. Mr.
H. Mossman, havenmaster, handed in returns, of
the prevailing winds on the coast f r a lengthened
period, ascertained from tables kept at tie light-
house, a return of the wrecks occurring Iv' hin thi'
limits of the port, and a return of the numb r of
storms, with the variation o.e the compass, durin;
the years 1854-5-6-7. Mr. W. Russell, outdoor
manager of the Wrecks Committee of Lloyd's, gave
evidence of the peculiar adaptability of liartlepool
Bay for a refuge harbour, it being the most central
port on the coast. He preferred one large harbour
to a number of small ones, though under certain
circumstances he would prefer two moderate-sized
to one large one. A harbour at Filey would be
valuable to vessels that had weathered the York-
shire coast, and one at Hartlepool for vessels that
had not cleared the high land of Yorkshire. Mr.
W. Hutchinson, contractor, who had made an esti-
mate of the cost of the work proposed by Mr. Jack-
son, would undertake to execute it at £375 per
cubic yard, notwithstanding that the breakwater at
Alderney, similarly constructed, was costing £568
per yard. He had made careful ca'c alations, and
could execute the work for that sum in five years.
Several nautical witnesses, North Sea pilots, ship-
owners, and captains from various ports were
examined, including a Hamburg captain, all of
whom agreed as to the great necessity of a refuge
harbour on the coast, and that Hartlepool was the
most fitting place for such harbour. Presuming that
two harbours instead of one were suggested, they
would approve Hartlepool-bay and Filey-bay. The
commissioners terminated their sitting at a quarter
to 10 p.m., and proceeded next morning to Redcar,
which place they had originally not intended to
visit.