The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

The Receiver of Wreck at Lerwick has made a
return to the Board of Trade of four depositions of
the master and crew of the brig Jessie Thorns, of
Borrowstoness, from Archangel for Liverpool,
which picked up the American ship May Queen, of
.and for Boston (U.S.)' from Gottenburg, which was
abandoned on the 4th inst.
Capt. Monro, in his deposition, states that about
daybreak, on Sunday, the sth inst., observed a ship
to the north-west, distant about four miles, driving
about as if unmanageable: As daylight advanced,
observed with a glass that there was a signal of dis-
tress flying half down from the peak. Immediately
made sail and bore down on the ship. Sailed close
under her stern and hailed her repeatedly, but re-
ceived no answer. Suspecting something wrong, I
ordered the main-yard to be backed, put out a boat,
and as the sea was running high, I with consider-
able difficulty boarded the ship, when we found her
to be totally abandoned. By her name on the stern
and quarters, &c., and surveyor's certificate of mea-
surement, exhibited in a frame in the cabin, I found
her to be the ship May Queen, of Bath (U.S.);and
by an address on a sealed parcel in the cabin, found
the master's name, Stanwood; and. by entries on a
log-slate, I ascertained that she was not abandoned
before 10.40 a.m., of the previous day (the 4th), and
that the ship, the Sir John Moore, of and for Glas-
gow, was then in company. I have since, by exa-
mination, ascertained that the cargo consisted of
malleable iron in bars, and that she was fitted up
for, and apparently recently occupied by passen-
gers, and their luggage, bedding, and provisions
were lying about in confusion below and above deck.
I hauled dOwn the flag and took possession of the ship.
I personally sounded the pumps, and found 31 feet
of water in her hold. In other respects the ship
was seemingly uninjured, but she had no boats.
When boarded the ship was under the following
canvas three topsails set, the fore one double
reefed, the niain and wizen single-reefed, the main
aback, the spanker and foretopmast-staysail set,
ship on port tack,, and the helm lashed a-star-
' board, the maintop-gallant sail, mainsail, foresail,
and jib hauled up, but not stowed. After having
wore the ship round with her head to S.E., I com-
municated by hailing, and by means of my boat,
with my father, Andrew Monro, the owner of my
vessel, and an experienced shipmaster, who was on
board of my vessel as supercargo at the time. It
was arranged that he should remain in charge of
the Jessie Thorns, while I, with three of my seamen
and a boy, should remain on board of the derelict,
in order to bring her to some port or place of safety.
For that purpose I received on board charts, a com-
pass, and other articles necessary for the Naviga-
tion of the ship, as no such articles were found on
board of the May Queen. It was also arranged
that we should keep in company, so as, if necessary.
to render mutual assistance and advice to each
other. At the time I bore down on the abandoned
ship there was another vessel coming from the west-
ward. She passed round the stern of the May
Queen, then hauled round, and proceeded to the N.
and W. This unknown vessel rendered no assist-
ance, and we held no communication with her. At
this time the stranger was under close-reefed top-
sails, reefed foresail, and topmast-staysail. At this
time the latitude was 60.32 N., and longitude 5.49
W. Having hoisted on board my own boat, filled
the mainyard, and proceeded in company with my
vessel, the Jessie Thorns, to the S.E., with the in-
tention of reaching a port in Orkney or Shetland ;
the wind about S.W., ship heading S.E. by S. to
S.S.E., with a considerable swell from the west-
ward, ship rolling heavily, until Monday morning,
Sept. 6, when we sighted Foula Island; the wind
that day inclined more to the southward. We stood
in for Vaila Sound, Shetland, but as night was
coming on we stood off again, and kept reaching to
windward. On Tuesday, 7th inst„ at 7 a.m., we
got a boat's crew of six Shetland men to act as
pilots for both, and got into and came to anchor
with both ships in Cliff Sound, Shetland, at noon.
On sounding the pumps at this time I found four
feet of water. From the time I took charge of
the May Queen until we reached Cliff Sound
we had not to pump the ship for a period beyond
an hour and a half altogether. On examining
the ship on the evening of the. day of our
arrival at Cliff Sound, I found the bow port
unlashed and the bars thrown aside. There
appeared maul marks on the port and on the side of
the porthole, as if a strenuous effort had been made
to drive the former out while a maul lay on the
breast -hook beside it.—The deposition of James
Cant, mate of the brig Jessie Thorns, confirms that
of the master, and thinks there were about two
feet of water in the well when it was sounded. In
his (the mate's) opinion, there seemed to be no
reasonable cause for the crew of the May Queen
abandoning her. He would have no hesitation in
navigating her in the state they found her to any
part of the world.

Mr. Andrew Monro, owner and supercargo of
the brig Jessie Thorns, adds to his depositions—He
went below with a light to ascertain what the
cargo consisted of, when his attentton was drawn
to the port bow, by seeing the fastenings hanging
down. He also saw a maul and a crowbar lying
immediately below the breastwork ; and it appeared
evident, by marks on the port, that the crowbar
had been used as well as the maul in an effort to
drive and punch out the port.
Malcolm M'Leod, a seaman, deposes to similar
facts stated in the preceding reports.

MR. J. BRIGHT, MP., ON EMIGRATION

The following letter has been addressed by Mr.
Bright in reply to a circular requesting him to
attend a meeting of the Glasgow Council of Trades
Delegates on the subject of emigration :
" Rochdale, Sept. 1.
" I have to thank the Council of your association
for the invitation to your approaching meeting. I
cannot be present at it, but I hope your discussions
will do good to those most interested in them.
"I have read your resolutions, and I am not sur-
prised that great numbers of the working men are
anxious to emirate. If I were younger, and in
their position, I should strain every nerve to enable
me to find a home in the United States or in one of
the British colonies. Ido not think you are quite
correct in the assertions of the resolutions. Gene-
rally the waste lands in the colonies belong to the
colonies. Canada belongs to the people of Canada,
and Australia to the people of Australia, and I
think any other arrangement would work badly.
Any interference by the home Government would
do mischief, and would certainly breed disputes
between it and the colonial Governments and popu-
lations. Again, Ido not know that it is the
' bounden duty' of the Government to adopt mea-
sures to enable a portion of our population to emi-
grate, for if such a duty is laid upon it, I know not
where it must end. Every man who thinks he can
improve his position abroad may ask to be sent
abroad, and, all men having an equal claim upon
the Government, the difficulty may become, and
soon would become, insurmountable. Ido not be-
lieve that it is the duty of the Government to pro-
vide moans of emigration for the people, and there-
fore I could not support the main point in your
•
resolutions.

" What I have told the working men is this—
Here you have no political power, for the arrange-
ments of the Reform Bill purposely excluded you.
Here you are mixed up with the wretched confu-
sion of European politics, and your sweat is pawned
by the crimes of past generations. So thoroughly
arc you involved in European implication that in
any year you may have your taxes raised, and the
demand for your labour destroyed, in pursuit of
some phantom in which your rulers persuade you
that you are interested ; and your own want of in-
formation unfortunately renders you easy victims
to the delusions practised upon you. Not five years
ago you rejoiced in peace, and there was a growing
prosperity evident in every part of the country.
Since that time we have sacrificed 40,000 English
lives, and have spent £100,000,000 sterling in one
war. You were consenting parcies to that war ;
your comrades shed their blood in its worthless
contests, and you have paid a portion of your day's
labour and day's wages ever since to defray the
cost of it, and your voice, so far as it was heard at
all, was in favour of war. What is gained by it ?
Who has gained except the military class and the
eaters of taxes ?

" To working men these wars with Russia, with
Persia, with China, bring only taxes, want of em-
ployment, precarious and diminished wages, and
that pressure upon the means of living which urges
them to look to emigration as a remedy for the evils
they endure. And it is a remedy, and the only
remedy, until great changes take place in public
opinion and in the laws and policy of this country.
If you emigrate you may reach a country where
lend is accessible to you, where there are no great
hereditary proprietors, as in Scotland, who dare
outrage Heaven and mankind by keeping 20,000,
or 50,000, or 100,000 acres of land depopulated that
a handful of men may enjoy the pleasures of the
chase. You may flee to a land where laws of primo-
genture and entail are unknown, or known only to

be abhorred, and where the soil is left free to the
industry and enterprise of the whole people. You
may find a home where such destructive delusions
as the "balance of power" are unheard of, and where
the toil of the nation of which you become a
part is not absorbed to the amount of fifty millions
sterling a-year for wars that are past, and for pre-
parations for wars that are to come. You may be-
come a part of some youthful and growing people,
with whom a feudal proprietorship of land, national
debt, great armaments, oppressive taxes, and a
sham representation are but traditions of a melan-
choly past, to be studied only as rocks to be avoided
in its new and more prosperous career.
" If I do not see how the Government can be
called upon to provide the means of emigration, do
not suppose I think emigration unwise. On the
contrary, I feel assured that, with the past and
present policy of England, labour will find its best
reward in Canada, in the States, or in Australia. I
would prefer that Englishmen should stay at home,
that its foreign policy should be just and rational,
that its burden of taxes should be light ; but, seeing
small chance of such a state of things, I not only
cannot blame, but I must applaud the resolution of
every man who is determined by his industry and
his economy to provide the means of conveying
himself and his family to another, and, to him and
them, a more happy. country.
" Government cannot enable you to emigrate.
Many of you can, by severe effort and saving, ob-
tain the means to cross the ocean; to many, I fear,
this is not pOssible. I can only hope, for them,
that our countrymen may become wiser and that,
under the intuences of a more sensible policy and a
greater economy in the national expenditure, we
may be entering on a period of prolonged peace,
during which even the poorest and most suffering
of our population make some sure progress in the
way of comfort and independence.
" I must ask your excuse for writing so long a
letter, and the more as it is opposed in some degree
to your views.—l am, very respectfully yours,
" JOHN BRIGHT.
" Mr. A. Cumming, 414, Argyle-street, Glasgow."

HENLEY, M.P., AND COL. NORTH,
M.P., ON " PROGRESS'."

THAME, FRIDAY.
The annual meeting of the Thame Agricultural
Association was held yesterday, under the presi-
dency of Mr. J. H. Ashurst, of Waterstock. In the
afternoon a dinner took place, which was attended
by the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, M.P., Colonel
North, M.P., Mr. T. T. Bernard, M.P., and a con-
siderable number of the gentry and leading agri-
culturists of the district.
The usual loyal and patriotic toasts having been
duly honoured,
The CHAIRMAN gave the health of the members
for the county of Oxford, which was enthusiasti-
cally drunk, " One cheer more" being proposed for
" the President of the Board of Trade."
Mr. HENLEY, M.P., acknowledged the compli-
ment. After speaking in eulogistic terms of the
ploughing match and the show generally, he said
—I think this town and neighbonrhood are quite
capable of supporting. societies of this kind, and I
trust they will continue to flourish, for I believe
that their tendency is to improve and elevate the
social condition of the labouring classes. (Hear.)
Some kind friend at the bottom of the table has
been pleased to drink my health in connexion with
the office I now hold. I know that politics are for-
bidden on these occasions, and I shall not trespass
or attempt to break through that rule, as it would
be highly improper for me to do so under any cir-
cumstances. At the same time I cannot refuse to ac-
knowledge the compliment that hasbeen paid to the
Government of which I am a humble member by the
allusion which has been made to the office I have
the honour to fill. At all events in this neighbour-
hood, and by this county, my conduct in taking
office has not been otherwise than approved
(cheers)—and I sincerelyhope that the Government
of which I am a member will be able to fulfil the
expectations of the country. (Cheers.) There has
been a great deal of talk within the last four years
of what is commonly called " progress." Now, in
my opinion, the word progress is entirely a catch-
word. (Hear.) Everybody is calling out for pro-
gress, but before we endorse the cry, it is necessary
that we should inquire what is meant by progress.
(Hear.) Some mean by progress that Bill is to put
his hand into Jack's pocket and help himself, with-
out leave or license—(laughter and cheers)—but if
that is to be called progress, then I frankly confess
that I am not friendly to anything of the kind.
(Cheers.) There are other persons who are for
another kind of progress. They are always for
keeping the ball rolling. They don't know or care
whether it is to go backward or forward, up hill or
down hill, or whether when once put in motion it
is to roll on until it reaches a place which cannot
be named to ears polite, and which, therefore, I will
not mention now. (Laughter.) In point of fact,
they don't care where it goes so loner as they call it
progress. (Hear, hear.) Now I tell you fairly that
lam not for progress of that kind. (Cheers.) But
if people mean by progress that we are to give a
patient and careful attention to all the various
wants of society--complicated as those wants are
in the different phases of society, and divided and
split up as society itself is-4f they mean by pro-
gress that we are to devote our best care and atten-
tion to questions affecting the general well-being of
the people ; to destroy by every means in our power
everything that Nr e may see wrong, and to amend
all imperfections, then I own that I am favourable
to progress, and that I have always been. (Loud
cheers.) lam not now speaking among strangers,
but with men among whom I have lived during
the whole of my active life, and I would appeal
to any one whether any man ever came to me
upon a public matter and pointed out anything
amiss without finding me ready and willing to
give him a helping hand in obtaining amendment.
(Cheers.) I believe myself that we ought to carry
on our public affairs on the same principle as we
manage our private matters ; but I never will put
my foot forward, unless I know where I can safely
put it. (Hear, hear.) So long as I have my foot
on firm and solid ground, I will keep it there until
I know where to put, it on firmer and better ground.
But if any man will show me the firmer and better
ground, then I should have no objection to go cor-
dially with him. (Cheers.) I have ventured to
make these remarks, because I know among whom
lam speaking. I know the kind feeling which
everybody in this neighbourhood always entertains
towards me, and I thank them over and over again
for ten thousand kindnesses. I have never shrunk
from giving up my time in order that I might do
all in my power to promote the interests of the
county, and so long as health and strength are pre-
served to me, I will continue in the same course.
(Loud cheers.)
Colonel NORTH, M.P., 'also responded. After
thanking the meeting for the cordiality with which
they had received him, he said he was delighted to
find that in that, like most other agricultural asso-
ciations, politics were strictly forbidden. They
met there upon perfectly neutral ground, for the
sole purpose of promoting the improvement of agri-
culture, and rewarding good and faithful service
on the part of the labourers. No matter what
their political opinions might be, those were objects
which were deserving the attention of any well-
wisher of his country. (Cheers.) His right hon.
friend and colleague had, however, slightly touched
upon a political subject, namely, the true wealthy,
of the term " progress." He (Colonel North) could
only say that he most sincerely and entirely con-
curred hi every word that had fallen from his right
hon. friend. He was and always had been, for
leaving things as they are unless they saw that by
a change they would be improved. (Hear, hear.)
He could not understand the advantage of upsetting,
everything simply on the chance of getting some-
thing better, and that had always been the feeling
which he had entertained. (Cheers.) ,
The CHAIRMAN, in a brief speech, gave the health
of Mr. Bernard, the member for Aylesbury.
Mr. BERNARD, M.P., in responding, observed
that though politics were excluded lie should have
been glad to seen at the meeting some gentle-
men whose political creed was different to that
which he himself professed, because he believed
that difference of opinion was an essential feature
of the British constitution. It was only in conse-
quence of a difference of opinion that politics could
be discussed at all ; and it was by the discussion of
politics that a proper point was ultimately attained.
He was therefore always glad to meet his political
opponents, and he could not recollect any period
in the history of the country in which polities were
more freely discussed than at the present moment.
There was a degree of openness and candour in dis-
cussing political questions in these days which, in
his early life, he was rarely accustomed to see, and
he thought that that was one of the greatest steps
in the direction of progress which the country had
ever made. (Cheers.)
Some fUrther toasts hiving been given and re-
sponded to, the proceedings were brought to a close,

If there is one thing certain in war,,it is that it
is a race of invention. Every great captain, by
land or by sea, has been distinguished for fertility
of resource, for his use of new materials and expe-
dients, and for readily availing himself of every
opportunity. It is this that leads soldiers to say
of the most illdstrious names in history, " Oh,
they were not soldiers ; they were great men ; they
were adventurers with grand schemes ; they were
very clever fellows and knew how to use other
men; they were well advised and well helped;
they were fortunate; hut they were not soldiers."
We have heard this said of every hero ,1* our .-21iool
books, from Alexander to Wellington ; and the
same comment is pursuing the warriors of our day.
There is a basis of truth in it which warns us to
look out for improved means and improving men.
Caesar conquered the world by a singular combina-
tion of originality and common sense. He made
friends with everybody ; he looked sharply after his
commissariat ; he kept on good terms with. the Jews,
and always met one dodge with another. He was
a first-rate engineer ; he covered his siege towers
with iron, rigged his ships with chains, and, in a
word, always did that which answered the purpose,
without any sentimental prejudice in favour of
mere bloodshed. He fought many a stouts,-blittid,
hand to hand, when necessary ; but lie preferred
sparing his men. Now, what are we doing in the
way of invention ? One hears of nothing but
three-deckers and steam line-of-battle ships, each
one bigger and carrying more metal than the other.
That seems the one idea of doing things handsome.
Meanwhile the French are, as usual, adapting the
means to the end. They are working out a new
idea, which we may some day find a very serious
one. It is nothing less than to run down our
liners with what they call floating rams. They
propose to cast a vessel with thick plates of
wrought iron, like one of their Crimean floating
batteries, till it is as proof as a tortoise or
an armadillo is against common attacks. The
ugly monster is to steam into the thick of the
enemy's fleet, the shot glancing from its sides or
its decks as bullets are said to do from the hide of
an alligator or a full-grown rhinoceros ; and run
first into this ship, then into that, making' each
time such a hole in the side as must send the ship
to the bottom. Our old acquaintance, Admiral
Sartorius, no mean authority, thinks that two
may play at this game, and that we may as well
have our rams ready in case the plan should
answer. He has long had such an instrument in
view, and even urged it upon the Admiralty
in the late Russian war, when two or three
such rams might have forced the dreaded boom
of Sebastopol harbour and run the gauntlet of
all the batteries. So he takes occasion of these
gentle hints from Cherbourg to suggest that we
may hit on a weapon which will render our old
ships of war and Cherbourg itself obsolete.
Meanwhile there is another opportunity which
may never recur. It is not every day that a bran
new ship, of first-rate construction, an eighth of a
mile long, double-skinned, as strong as the Bri-
tannia Bridge, and divided into a dozen water-
tight compartments, is to be sold for an old
song. Yet such, we fear, is the case with the
poor Great Eastern. There is some futile talk of its
being offered to a new company, who will take the
ship at a bargain, and let the original shareholders
have some fraction of their money back again. But
they have not even settled where to put the ship,
or even found out any place on these shores except
Milford Haven—which sounds almost as distant as
New York itself ;where they could put the ship.
In this dilemma we can easily believe that the share-
holders would be delighted to hear of a purchaser
at a quarter of the cost, and then all England might
put its head together to think what to do with the
monster. Why should it not be made a floating
battery that would be a match for all the smaller
fry of the same species projected by our ingenious
neighbours ? We only ask the question. It is true
the ship would not fulfil the conditions assigned by
Admiral Sartorius for the particular weapon he
recommends, but it would at least avoid one obvious
objection to his joroject, which is the great quantity
of power and work to be done by comparatively so
small a vessel. In these days we call 2,500 a small
tonnage, and small it would be for a vessel which
is to have a very powerful engine, iron sides five
inches thick, and twenty guns of the largest calibre.
The utmost strength, the thickest coat, the greatest
calibre of guns, unparalleled speed, momentum
sufficient to run down any man-of-war, three iron
towers of observation on deck, a large projecting
solid ram fore and aft, screw propellers at both
ends, with every part well sheathed and protected,
would be a good deal to comprise within 2,500 tons.
It would be all everything—all sides, all deck, all
ram, all power, all guns, all iron ; and, like a thick-
rinded orange or a very big walnut, there would be
no space or weight left for anything inside. We
may be wrong ; but we much suspect that, the pro-
ject once undertaken, it would be found necessary
to double the tonnage, or be content with half the
objects intended.
i\ro doubt the Great Eastern would not be just
such a thing as Admiral Sartorius has described,
but it might be much more effectual. Suppose it
cased with iron plates, and then planked for a foot
or two below the water line, and a sufficient height
above it. Suppose it then pierced for one row of
the heaviestguns that could be worked, with every
known improvement and means of working. Sup-
pose the sides to receive as much additional strength
as might be thought necessary to carry the ponde-
rous armour. With the calculated speed of 18
miles an hour such a ship would be irresistible.
What if any vaisseau belier from the peaceful fold
at Cherbourg should presume to butt at the iron
mountain, as n sword-fish is said to bury its sword
in a whale, and should even succeed in ramming in
a few fathoms of the ship's side, the 11 bulk-heads
would enable the ship to stand a few such wounds
without going to the bottom. But it would be
quite possible to give se much additional strength
to the line of greatest vulnerability as would ren-
der such a collision fatal to the assailant. So
strengthened and so armed, the Great Eastern
could steam through and through the enemy's fleet,
running down everything that came in its way,
pouring its broadsides in all directions, much as
our ordinary steamers play with the canoes and
junks of our barbaric foes in the East. Granting
that a ship one-eighth of a mile'might take a couple
of miles, and perhaps ten minutes, to turn, it might
do so without much further hesitation, as it would
not have to consult its own safety in the mode and
place of collision. The terrible effect of collisions
at full speed is too well established by the records
of daily disaster to leave any doubt as to the result ;
and we should imagine that the French flock, whe-
ther sheep or rams. would be only too glad to get
out of the way. We throw out the suggestion,
and it seems worth the trial. Ten years hence,
when the Great Eastern is no longer saleable or
no longer exists, Parliament will be asked for a
million to build just such a vessel from the keel,
and it will cost two millions to do it. Now we
have three-quarters of the work done for us, and
can begin from the waterline.—Times.

MURDER IN FRANCE.

The Court of Assizes of the Tarn, three days
ago, tried a carrier, named Saisset, of St. Amens
Soult, for the murder of his wife. On the 10th
June this woman, who was his second wife, and
who during the lifetime of the first one had been
hi 3 servant, was found lying dead in his cellar with
her skull beaten in an 1 her throat cut. A mallet
stained with blood lying near indicated taat it was
with that she had been struck, but no knife 'or
other sharp instrument was seed. Herhusband was
at once suspected, because he had for some time
bCen in the habit of brutally ill-treating the woman
and had promised a 'young woman of the village
that in case his wife died he would marry her. He
was absent at the time the body was found, and
when he returned, after hearing of his wife's death
and descending into the cellar, he calmly remarked
that the murder must have been committed for the
sake of stealing a sum of 350 f., which he had depo-
sited in an old closet in the cellar. But there were
no marks on. the door indicating that it had been
broken open. It was then ascertained that he was
in the house at the time the murder must have
been committed ; and it was found that the clothes
which he generally wore, and a large knife which he
had constantly used, had disappeared, nor could be
say what had become of them. He was arrested,
and afterwards a half-witted young man, named
Calas, came forward and stated that on the night
of the murder, he happened to be sleeping in the
barn of Saisset, when he heard the woman utter
dreadful cries in the cellar, followed by the sound
of blows—and that shortly before Saisset had en-
tered the house, and left immediately after. The
jury found the prisoner guilty, but with extenuat-
ing circumstances, and the court sentenced him to
hard labour for life. On hearing the verdict he
was greatly agitated, but when the sentence was
pronounced he said with a smile, " I did not expect
to get off so easily."