The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-08 00:00:00

Sanatoria for Drunkards.

A recent publication re-excites attention to the
sad effects of the vice of confirmed intemperance,
which is so common at the present day, and to the
question of the establishment of asylums for drunk-
ards. In other countries partial success only has
attended the efforts to overcome the many difficul-
ties that surround the matter of the suppression of
drunkenness, or the management of those over
whom it has asserted a permanent mastery; for so
many unpleasant considerations in which family re-
lationships or friendly intercourse are concerned
tend to engender silence, and bar the discussion of
what is classed conveniently in the category of " un-
pleasant subjects." The majority of men, however,
are unable to resist the conviction that the evil is
in great degree a self-produced one ; and as the
truth is distasteful, it is natural that we seek for an
explanation which plays the role of an excuse, and is
calculated to secure a lenient sentence for those
whose individual responsibility is blamed. Clearly
the mode of cure of drunkenness, at once, in itself,
both efficient and easy of application, is to cut off
,the supplies of the drinker ; but this involves dis-
tinct interference with the " liberty of the subject,"
which the physician shrinks from recommending,
and the public are not disposed to justify without
very cogent reason. The necessity, however, for spe-
cial legislation in the matter is urgent, freely acknow-
ledged on all hands, and will no doubt by-and-by
break through the thick crust of our many pre-
judices, and allow common sense and consider-
ations of policy to exert their due influence. Mean-
while it is the duty of medical practitioners to faci-
litate legislation by determining accurately the na-
ture of that habit to which psychologists give the
terms " oinomania," " dipsomania, " polydipsia,"
and which include cases of so-called uncontrollable
drunkenness. Is it a crime, or the result of a dis-
eased state of brain, of a passion for intoxicants,
which is the chief symptom of a brain alteration, and
which no will can therefore resist, but which con-
quers sense and intellect ? Charity may be allowed
to assert the existence of the latter condition, but
practical experience teaches us that uncontrolled is
a more just expression than that of uncontrollable
drunkenness—that this is not caused by disease, but
is the effect of a habit which had its little begin-
nings that were left unchecked, and that cannot be
held to have diminished the responsibility of the in-
dividual in whom it is exhibited. The existence in
the drunkard of a powerless desire to break away
from the thraldom of a confirmed habit is no rea-
son why we should make an excuse for him—it is
his own election. Violation of moral obligations to
one's self and society involves its penalty in the case
in point, as in other cognate instances--a penalty
which finds one of its worst punishments in a haunt-
ing crave for the liquor which becomes the habitual
drunkard's curse, and is the only remedy he finds
against the " blue devils" of his own producing. It
is an unhealthy sense that classes, with no little
tinge of poetry, the sufferings of the drunkard with
thote of the self-denying martyr. Public sanatoria
or asylums for the confirmed inebriate are by no
means desirable, but they should be under the
strictest surveillance ; private establishments would
be open to great obuse, in which the element of
commercial speculation might play a very promi-
nent part. The drunkard is a criminal, and he
should be deprived of that the possession of which
renders him a positive source of evil to himself and
society—his liberty. In the regime under which
he would be placed there need be nothing harsh,
but it would be most pernicious in practice and
wrong in philosophy, if the drunkard could make
for himself a voluntary arrangement to enter when
he liked and to quit when he pleased, as has been
suggested.-7he Lancet.

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.

Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton Jan. 19.
Ditto, via Marseilles Jan. 13.
Brazil and Cape Verde, by British packet. Fib. 4.
Ditto, by French packet Jan. 22
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena... Dec.
China, Penang, and Sing 'pore. via Soulhampton Jan .19.
Ditto, via garsellies
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton Jan. 13.

India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton.— Jan 13.
Ditto, via Marseilles
India (Bombay), via Southampton.
Ditto, via Marseilles .. Jan. 7
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton Jan. 13.
Ditto, via Marseilles Jan 7.

Mauritius, via Southampton Jan. 19.
Ditto, via Marseille 3 . Jan. 19.
Newfoundland
Portugal . ..... .....Feb. 4
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon
United States and British North America, by Bri-
tish packet
ON An. IS.
Ditto, by United States packet, via Southamp-
ton ...
, Ditto via Cork
••

Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry ..Jan. :11.
West Coskt of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe ....Feb. 3.
West Indies and Paella (except Bahamas and
Honduras)
Baham`...i, via New York. Jan. 19.
Cuba and Mexico Jan. 28
Bermuda, via Haullitx ••••••

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.—At a meeting
of the Nottingham Town Council on Monday (yesterday),
a resolution was passed appointing a committee to wait
upon the council of the British Agricultural Society in
London to ask that body to select Nottingham for the
society's meeting in 1868.
Fnom BOMBAY TO CALCUTTA.—There is reason
to believe that the entire journey from Bombay to Cal-
cutta will be made in four days by the end of the year.—
Bombay Gasette, Dec. 13, 186 G.
THE FINSBURY AND CITY OF LONDON SAVINGS-
' BANK.—The accounts of this institution having
now been balanced for the past year, the managers have
published their usual statement of results, which
is most satisfactory. The transactions of the past
year have again been more numerous than ever.
During the first nine months of the year, which
included tho whole course of the womorable "panic,'
the payments only exceeded the receipts by a little
over £20,000, while during the last three months of
the year the excess of receipts and interest caused a re-
covery and increase of more than £lO,OOO of that amount,
and thus raised the capital at the close of the year to the
sum of £425,287. The accounts open in the course of the
year exceeded 20,000, and the operations upon them were
such as proved the extremely valuable nature of the facili-
ties which aro given by this and other Government savings-
banks for the encouragement of thrift and care. The office
is open, as usual, seven times in each week, and the inte-
rest given is £3 per cent.
NUMEROUS DEATHS FROM THE INCLEMENCY OF
THE WEATHER.—Yostorday a coroner's inquest was held
at the Southampton Coffee-house, Southampton-buildings,
Chancery-lane, on the body of Charles Greene. The de-
ceased came from Birmingham on Thursday to give evidence
in a patent case, and on the next day died suddenly. Mr.
Augustus Greatrex, surgeon, who made a post-mortem ex-
amination of the body, describes it as very emaciated.
The heart was the smallest he had ever seen. The death
he attributed to disease of the heart and lungs, which would
be accelerated by cold on the railway journey from Bir-
mingham. Tho jury returned a verdict in accordance with
the medical evidence. Dr. Lankester, the coroner, said he
thoadbe attributedthatmorn ing b
to
thewho were weak, on being attacked, sunk under the cold.
been
late
in foiTcleedmoefnt 2
weather—old ich
people
THE SEVERE WEATHER.—A man named Warner,
employed as night switchman on tho Groat Western Rail-
way at Reading, was frozen in such a manner that his death
followed on Sunday. It appears that Warner had been a
porter at the company's station at Oxford, and but very
recently removed to Reading. He performed his duties as
narrow-gauge switchman during the night of Thursday,
and went home, but only slept two or throe hours, as he
had arranged to fetch his wife and family from Oxford that
day. He did this, and went on duty at night. On Satur-
day morning he was found in a dreadfully cold condition,
and removed to one of the rooms of the station, where
everything possible was done to relieve his sufferings.
Subsequently he was conveyed home and attended by Mr.
Bulley, surgeon to the Great Western Railway Provident
Society for the Reading district. All that medical ail'
could suggest was done for the poor fellow, but he expired
on Sunday morning from the effects of exposure to the
bitter frost on Friday night.
SIAM AND THE PARIS EXHIBITION. —A commu-
nication from Bangkok of the Bth November contains the
subjoined :--" The King of Siam being desirous of partici-
pating in the groat solemnity of 1867, has given orders to
send immediately on to Singapore a number of products of
his kingdom, selected by himself, to figure in the Universal
Exhibition. Those articles comprise about 33 tons of goods,
and the cases in which they are contained will be shipped
on board the French transport Oruo, which Admiral do la
Grandiere has placed at the disposal of the Siamese Govern-
ment, according to instructions from the French Minister
of Marine and the Colonies. The Orne will, besides, re-
ceive on board M. Daniel Windsor, interpreter to the Mi-
nistry of Foreign Affairs in Siam, and three officials from
the King's palace, who are ordered to accompany the pro-
ductiene oat by their eoYereign."

THIRD EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, 7 o'CLocK.

LONDON GAZE VTE—This Evening.

FOREIGN OFFICE, JAN. 4.
The Queen has been pleased to approve of Don Victor
Shakery as Consul at Liverpool for the Republic of Costa
Eica.

WHITEHALL, JAN. 5.
The Queen has been pleased to grant unto the Rev.
Henry Longuovillo Manse], 8.D., the office and place of
Regius Professor in Ecclesiastical History in the Univer-
sity of Oxford, iu the room of Walter Waddington Shirley,
D.D., deceased.
WAR OFFICE, PALL MALL, JAN. 8.
Royal Regiment of Artillery_ Lieutenant-Colonel and
Brevet-Colonel the Hon. George Talbot Dovereux to be
Colonel, vice Arthur G. Burrows, retired upon full pay ;
Captain Mud Brevet-Major Charles Neville Lovell to be
Lieutenant-Colonel, vice Brevet-Colonel the Honourable
G. T. D..ivereux : Second Captain Markham Le Per
Taylor fo ho Captain, vice Brevet-Major Lovell ; Second
Captain Edward Keate, on the Supernumerary List, to
be Captain ; Second Captain Jones Julian hmith to be
Captain, vice Augustus William Juhason, who resigns ;
Lieutenant Harry Adair Tracey to bo Second Captain,
vice Taylor; Lieutenant Win. Strahan, to be Second
Captain, vica Smith.

11)yal Engineers—The ternplrary Commissions as Lieute-
nants of the following Otll:ers to ba made permanent,
viz.: —llirry Crokar Fox, Francis Masco.ll, John Towns-
end Bucknoll, John Walter Otdey, Montagu Frederick
Omcnanuey, Alexander Donald &Arthur, Richard CAI-
ro w.

BREVET.
Tho honorary rank conferred upon Lieut.-Colonel J. P.
Beadle, retired full-pay, Royal Engineers, which appeared
in the Gazette of 17th July last has been cancollod.
Brevet-Colonel James Pattlo Beadle, on the Retired
Full Pay List of the Royal Engineers, to bo Major-Gene-
ral, the rank being honorary only.
Col. Arthur G. Burrows on the Retired Full Pay List of
the Royal Artillery to be Major-General, the rank being
honorary only.
The following officers having completed their qualify-
ing service in the rank of Lieutenant-Celunel, to be
Colonels in the Army :
Royal Artillery—Colonels John Eliot, Wm. D. Aitken,
and C. a. Fuller • Lioutonant-Colonels Henry Lewis, IL
P. de Teissier, C. H. Dickens, G. Moir, C. 8., Jas. Young,
F. W. Swinhoe, G. E. Voyle ; Colonel George Selby ;
Lieutenant-Colonels A. Macintire Thomas Hay Campbell;
Colonels John Worgan, ElwarA Wray J. G. Petrie ;
Lieutenant-Colonels J. D. Woolzome, C. 8., W. S. Hatch,
A. Wintle, Henry Lo Goyt Bruce, F. G. Nuthill, A. T.
Cadell, and D. Gaye.
Royal Engineers—R. Maclagan, J. H. Maxwell, J. D.
Campbell, M. Kennedy, A. do Lisle, W. R. Dickenson, C.
Scott, C. IL Hutchinson, and James Pattie Boadle, since
retired on full-pay.

- ADMIRALTY, JAN. 4.
Mr. Alexander Brown has this day been promoted to
the rank of Engineer in her Majesty's Fleet, with senio-
rity of Dec.l7, 1866.

JAN. 7.
Commanders John Bertie Cator, Thomas Hodgkinson,
and John Crawshay Bailey have been allowed to assume
the rank of Retired Captains ; and Lieutenant Henry Pres-
cott Bance that of Retired Commander from the Ist inst.,
under the provisions of her Majesty's Order in Council of
July 9, 1864.

AMERICA.

(BY ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7.

The House of Congress has passed a resolution
directing a committee to inquire into offences com-
mitted by the President by 108 Ayes to 38 Noes.
This is the first step to an impeachment.
The Radicals are determined to press it.
The President has vetoed the Negro Suffrage
B ill.

FAT

OKI

LivEurooL, Sunday.

On Saturday night, during the gale and snow-
storm, the iron ship James Crosfield, of 1,000 tons,
bound from Calcutta for Liverpool, was wrecked off
Laugness Point, Isleman. All hands were lost.
She had on board nearly 1,700 bales of cotton.

GREAT YARMOUTH, Monday.
A sad disaster occurred here yesterday, resulting
in the total loss of two vessels, while there is every
reason to believe that their crews also perished. The
weather on Saturday night was exceedingly stormy.
There was a terrific gale from the S.S.E., the wind
blowing with the force of a hurricane, while the sea
ran mountains high, so that no ordinary boat could
live in it. At about 11 p.m. flares were seen in the
south part of the roadstead in the direction of
Gor:eston, and about midnight a brig, which after-
wards proved to be the Ark, of Sunderland, was
driven ashore to the south of the harbour. The
Coastguard fired rockets, and the mortar apparatus
was used, but there was not a soul on board the
stranded ship. It is supposed that the crew took to
their boats and were drowned, as no tidings of their
safety had reached Yarmouth up to this afternoon.
At daylight yesterday the masts of another brig were
seen to the E.S.E. of the pier, and, from a, boat which
was subsequently picked up, it is believed that the
Sarah, of Sunderland, is also lost. Yesterday after-
noon the body of a sailor about 40 years of age was
cast on the beach near the Star Battery. Deceased
had a medal in his pocket, besides a leather purse.
The mast of a sloop, the Ann and Charlotte, from
Goole for London, is just visible on the edge of the
dangerous Scroby sand. The vessel was driven on
the sand during the storm ou Saturday, but the crew
of four hands were saved, and were taken to the
Yarmouth Sailors' Home.

PENZANCE, Sunday.
During a strong gale from E.S.E. yesterday
(reports Mr. Nicholas B. Downing) a schooner
went ashore at Long Rock. The Richard Lewis
lifeboat, of the National Lifeboat Institution, was
at once launched, and was happily the means of
rescuing the shipwrecked crew of six men. Again
this morning the same lifeboat went afloat and saved
the crews of 11 men from the Selina Ann, bound to
Plymouth, and the Heiress, bound to London, the
former vessel having gone to pieces. There are
wrecks all over this coast.

The Looe, Exmouth, and Poole lifeboats were
also launched on Saturday with the viaw of rescu-
ing shipwrecked crews, although they did not have
the opportunity of rendering service in that respect.

RAMSGATE, Sunday.

Capt. Sha'w, the harbour-master, reports the fol-
lowing gallant services performed by the lifeboat
Bradford, of the National Lifeboat Institution, sta-
tioned at this port. Shortly before 8 o'clock yester-
day morning, the wind blowing from E.S.E., with
thick fog, guns were heard at intervals of 5 minutes,
apparently from the North Sand Head and Gull
lightships. The Bradford lifeboat and the harbour
steam-tug Aid were immediately manned; and left
the harbour about 810 a.m. At this time the
wind increased and the thick fog suddenly dispersed,
when a schooner was observed on shore on the off
part of the North Sand Head. The Aid, with the
lifeboat, proceeded through the Cudd Channel, to-
wards the North Sand Head, and on arriving in the
Gull Stream, at 8 30 a.m., fell in with a ship's boat
with eight men on board. The lifeboat hove to and
they came alongside, and were taken on board the
boat. They reported the vessel to be the schooner
Mizpah, 140 tons, of Brixham, from Amsterdam to
Genoa, cargo sugar. The tug then returned to the
harbour with the crew, at a quarter-past 9 a.m.
The master of the Mirpah reports that she went
ashore about 7 .p.m. the previous evening. On the
tide flowing the water was over the cabin floor,when
they soon after left her and got on the brig Faith,
of Boston, riding in the Gull Stream, where they
remained until the morning. On the brig getting
under way they left in their boat for the shore,
and were picked up by the lifeboat. Again,
about half-past eleven o'clock last night,
when it was blowing a heavy gale and
a heavy sea was breaking, signal guns and
rockets were fired from the Gull Lightship. The
lifeboat once more put off in tow of the steam- tug,
and proceeded in the direction of the light vessel,
and on arriving they were told that a large flaring
light of distress had been observed in a south-east-
erly direction. At this time it was thick with snow,
and it was agreed to keep about the sands until day-
light, hut about 3 o'clock it was so intensely cold
that the lifeboat and tug were forced to return to
the harbour. As, however, it was probable that the
services of the lifeboat were required to some dis-
tressed vessel, she was again taken out about eight
o'clock this morning in a strong gale and tremen-
dous sea. This time, it being daylight, they dis-
covered a vessel ashore close to the Trinity Beacon.
After attempting no less than six times to bring the
lifeboat alongside the vessel on shore, through a
very heavy sea and broken water, they succeeded at
last in saving the crew, ten in number, from the
wreck, the lifeboat losing both anchors and cables
in the service, and arrived in the harbour with the
shipwrecked men all safe at 215 p.m. The crew
when taken off were very much exhausted. She
proved to be the Danish bark Aurora Borealis, of
Itibe, Smith master, 236 tons, from Newcastle for
Messina, cargo coals—went on shore at 4 30 a.m.
Jarman, the coxswain of the lifeboat, reports that
he never encountered such terrific weather, intense
cold, and heavy sea in all his experience. The crew
could not have been saved without the assistance o.
the steamtug.

SHIELDS, Sunday Night.

About midnight yesterday one of the most severe
gales from the S.S.E. that has been experienced for
some years burst on the north-eastern coast. It was
ace9mpanied by blinding showers of hail, which
seemed to cut the face as they were blown before
the gale among the watchers on the coast. From
12 o'clock until 5 this morning the wind blew a hur-
ricane, and in consequence we have had the greatest
loss of shipping at the mouth of the Tyne expe-
rienced this winter. Alook-out was kept by the Pre-
ventive men and the lifeboat crews, and about 20
minutes past 12 last night the man on the look-out
on the south side of the Tyne saw a vessel
coming ashore behind the south pier. He burnt
a blue light, and immediately three guns were
fired from the Spanish Battery, which was the signal
for the South Shields Life Brigade to muster. The
south pier was covered with ice, and the Preventive
men and the Pier Police had to crawl down on their
hands and knees, as they could not stand before the
blast, while carrying the hawser and rocket lines
down. About 20 of the Life Brigade mustered, who
were soon increased to 50, and three or four rockets
were fired over the ship ; but the crew seemed to be
so benumbed with the cold and terrified by the tre-
mendous gale that they could not use the lines when
they had them fired on board. The three Shields
lifeboats, the Providence, the Tyne, and the Nor-
thumberland, were got out and fully manned ; but
such was the force of the wind and sea that, though
the crews of them pulled with all their strength for
two hours, they never got the boats outside the har-
beur, and were at last obliged to abandon the en-
terprise and return into port. The first vessel which
endue ashore with the Mary Mac, of Whitstable,
and an hour after she was followed by the Cora,
of the same place. At 2 o'clock in the morning a
new ship, the Lucerne of Blyth, from London, came
ashore, and an hour after that another Whitstable
vessel, the Mergee, so that by 3 o'clock there were
four vessels all behind the south pier, thumping
against each other and bumping on the stones, and
threatening to knock each other to pieces before the
crews could be all got off. The night, which was
extremely dark, the terrible sea that was running,
the gale which blew in violent gusts, and brought
with it showers of sleet and hail, the dangerous con-
dition of the pier from the ice, the howling of the
wind, and the smashing and crashing of the ships,
with the shouts of the seamen and life brigade, the
reports of the rockets, and the great excitement of
every one lest the ships should break up, and drown
the men before they could be got off made up the ele-
ments of a terrible scene. The Cora was driven by the
k ;de al3zlg:,iide tht.pier, and the crew were at last able to
swing themselves Loin one of the yards, on to the ,
parapet, and thus save themselves. The Lucerne,which
came ahore after the Cora, ran into her starboard I

quarter, which she smashed in. She also'carried away
her mainmast, but as she was the innermost ship the
crew of the Lucerne were instructed by the life bri-
gade to get on board of her, and they had not been
there ten minutes when their own ship slid over with
her deck to the sea, and immediately broke in two,
becoming a perfect wreck. The crew of the Mergee
were also enabled to swing themselves off the jib-
boom on to the pier, all except one lad named Payne,
belonging to Canterbury, who was making his first
voyage. He was paralysed with fright, and though
the crew tried to induce him to do so, he would not
leap, and while he was thus hesitating the ship
swung over, broke up, and he was thrown once or
twice into the air upon the rigging, and was then
drowned. The crew of the Lucerne were brought
ashore by the life brigade. As the crew of the Mary
Mac were afraid that they could not be saved by the
life brigade they had their long boat out and put a
Loy into it. But the boat got stove, the boy was
washed out and was drowned. Ultimately one of the
crew was able to throw a lead line towards the shore,
which was caught by a 111A11 who plunged into the
surf, and the life brigade was thus enabled to get a
hawser and cradle off to them and save them. The
four vessels are total wrecks, and two of them, the
Mergee and the Lucerne, have been nearly pounded
by the sea into matchwood. At 4 o'clock this morn-
ing there was another alarm of a vessel ashore. The
William Butcher, of Whitby, ran on to the edge of
the Herd Sand. Hcr crew were taken off by the
Pomfret and Goole lifeboat, belonging to the Na-
tional Lifeboat Society, but the master refused to
leave her, and she was taken off this afternoon with
the assistance of three powerful steamboats. But
she is very leaky. It seems that the reason why the
four vessels ma behind the south pier and were lost
was that the masters, having lost sight of Tyne-
mouth light in the hailstorm, mistook the south pier
for the north pier at the mouth of the Tyne. The
Mary Mac last Tuesday, while between the Dud-
geon and Cromer, ran into and sunk the Bonny Lass
smack, of Gravesend, and it is feared killed a
man. A considerable fleet of light and laden
vessels put into the Tyne to-day. The master of the
Olive Branch, from Ghent, reports that last night
he lost Robert Sharp, a seaman, overboard, off
Flamborough Head, who was drowned. The
weather has moderated to-day, and the snow is fast
disappearing.