The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-25 00:00:00

TILE STEERAGE PASSAGE OUT TO

AirElei CA.

ship
(From the London Amer— lea».)
The steerage passage out may be made either in
a sailing
port of or steamer. Liverpool is the great
departure for both, and the best starting
point, partpilcenulhathrleyinthe beginning or the close of
the year.
London is
summer season, a departure from
roraptisieto be preferred for the fine view
of the coast
English Channel that is ob-
tained; bat London only offers the choice of a pas-
sage by sailing vessel. To make the Channel voy-
age by steamer, Southampton is the port of de-
parture, and from that port a passage may be
made in United States or German steamers.
The Irish steamers present the attractions of the
Irish coast, and the shortest sea voyage
a steam-ship.
Whether the passenger takes
or a sailing vessel, the steerage is much
the same in both. It is the forward part of
the ship, between decks, and although fitted up
with common deal boards, it is always very com-
fortable, both in winter and summer. In fact, no
fire is needed nor supplied. Between the steerage i
of different steamboats and sailing ships there is con-
siderable difference if privacy is desired, and intend-
ing emigrants must, as a rule, judge for themselves
between one ship and another. In some ships and
steamboats the berths rise from the floor to the ceil-
ing, without partitions of any kind, and the only
privacy that. is obtained is by the hanging up of a
curtain ; while in some steamboats and sailing
vessels the steerage is formed into different state-
rooms or compartments with closing doors. When
this latter is the case, the unmarried men are put
into a state room by themselves, and the unmarried
females with the married people in the other state
rooms. This is by far the most comfortable arrange-
ment, although the best of feeling invariably exists
where the separation is of the more slender kind.
One of the excellent requirements of recent le-
gislation is, that the steerage passengers, and in
fact all the passengers on board every ship, must
be served with a given quantity of provisions
weekly ; and the quantity it may be said is amply
sufficient for all wants. There is so much beef,
pork, flour, beans, peas, oatmeal, and tea and
sugar, and other things, and a fire is provided
on deck at which the passengers cook for them-
selves. This is usually undertaken by one of the
passengers who is willing to receive a gratuity
from the others ; and when the passengers are
very numerous, it not unfrequently happens that
the captain .remits the passage money of the
person or persons who undertake this duty.
This cooking of the provisions necessitates
the providing of cooking utensils by the pas-
sengers ; and it may be added, that although
the ship supplies all that is needed by the passen-
gers in the way of food, there are a few luxuries
which experience shows the wisdom of taking at
least with every family. These are potatoes, a box
of herrings, a ham or two, a little arrowroot, and
extra sugar. With these a steerage passage may,
be undertaken with more comfort than might gene-
rally be supposed. Nothing more serious than
cooking food and eating and sleeping distracts the
attention of the passenger, after he has got over the
first day or two of sickness. In steam-vessels there
is this difference, that the food is served out cooked
to the passengers ; and steamers charging rather
more than doule for the voyage, and doing it in less
than half the time, they are able to supply a few
luxuries in the eating way, and steam steerage
passengers are not under the necessity of providing
extras.

Passengers will usually meet with people fall of
information on board the vessel in which they
make the voyage, but they should form something
like a definite plan of proceeding before setting
out, and not be easily diverted from it. If they
have made up their minds to go to Canada or the
Western States, they should go and set to work
the moment they arrive, and face all difficulties
and overcome them. Nowhere has the poor man
so many chances of getting on as in America, but
the truth cannot be too often repeated, that work-
ing people are what is wanted, or people with
money and brains enough to know how to use it.
Such can soon turn the wilderness into a garden,
and raise their families to a state of comfort and
independence which they cannot reach at home.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA
RAILWAY.

There were no further important fluctuations yes-
terday in the stock of the Grand Trunk of Canada
Railway, the closing prices being again 26 to 27.
A decline, however, of one per cent. took place in
the first and second preference bonds. Subjoined
i 3 a statement regarding the critical condition
of the company from one of the latest numbers of
the Toronto Globe. It is greatly to be regretted
that the only information obtained for the nume-
rous families interested should be through such
casual channels, more especially as the proceedings
and the fate of the concern are so mixed up with
the violent party politics of Canada that whatever
is published regarding it in that country is sure in
a greater or less degree to represent some angry,
bias. The responsibility for the absence week after
week of definite explanations rests, however, as
According
has already been explained, with the official
management both in Canada and on this side.
she following
ofcontinuing
art article let
traffic
would aopppecr aar
thateven .
to
possibility
th
tions is placed in doubt by the imminent
prospect
of the rollinm„,stock
being seized to satisfy local
creditors, and that the opposition to any appeals to
the Government for further aid threatens to be
energetic and uncompromising
"It has been known for some time
in railway
circles that the Grand Trunk Company was
in extrends, and that the beginning of the
end' was near at hand. The employes of the
company have not been paid their salaries
—the tradesmen and contractors have pushed
in vain for payment of their accounts
—the bonds of the company have for some
months past lain under protest for non-payment of
interest—and last, though not least, rumours have
been afloat that the London bankers of the concern;
Messrs. Baring Brothers and Co., and Glyn, Mills,
and Co. were about to press their claims for im-
mense balances due to those firms on open account.
These statements have been accompanied with the
additional allegation that the lien or mortgage
given in security to the preference bondholders
covered the real estate and track only, and did not
include the rolling stock of the line ; and it has been
averred that the moment the London bankers ob-
tained judgment the trains on the entire road would
be stopped, and the Government pushed to come to
the assistance of the company.
" Whether all of these statements are or are not
correct this much we believe is certain, that at the
Whitby Assizes a judgment has been recovered
against the company by the London bankers above-
named for the enormous sum of £BOO,OOO sterling.
We are also assured that the directors of the Grand
Trunk have brought the condition of their company
under the attention of Government, and urgently
demand further aid. That they will succeed in
their application we have no fear, for, though Mr.
Cartier, the Premier, has been long solicitor of the
company, and Mr. Galt, the Finance Minister, is
deeply concerned in its fate, and Mr. Ross, another
member of the Administration, is most improperly
president of the road, still it is quite certain that the
Government, as now constituted, has not strength
left to carry any Relief Bill through Parliament.
For the present, fortunately, the public chest is
safe from that danger.
" Were we inclined to exult over fallen oppo-
nents, we might now feel tempted to point a moral
from the strange history of this Grand Trunk
scheme. We might trace the criminal errors com-
mitted from time to time by the men who have
used the road for their own selfish purposes.
We might recall the opposition given by this and
other journals to their mad procedure at its several
stages, and the urgent manner in which we en-
treated them to stop in their reckless career. We
might remind the friends of the road,' so called,
how clearly we pointed out the end to which they
were hurrying the enterprise, and the utter ruin
they were bringing on thousands of innocent per-
sons in Europe who had possibly trusted their all
to their keeping. We might remind them of the
taunts with which our warnings were received and.
the bold predictions of the future success that was
to cover all our alarms with ridicule; and we
might summon the Gaits and the Rosses, the
Cayleys and the Cartiers, to the bar of public
opinion to palliate, if they could, the disastrous
termination to which thus early the scheme has
been brought by their mismanagement.
" We confess, however, we have no present
desire to rake up these scenes of the past, in-
structive as they are. It is well that those who
have striven in the public interest to avert coming
evils should have the fact publicly acknowledged
when time has established the correctness of their
positions ; it is equally desirable that those who have
forced ruinous measures on the country, in defiance of
reason and in spite of solemn protests, should be held
to a strict account for their conduct ; and for all this
no doubt there is a time coming. But these consi-
derations are lost for the present in the thought of
the injury that must be entalled by the explosion
of so vast a scheme. We have no desire to add to
the embarrassment of those who undertake the e
unravelling of the tangled web. We have no desire
to say a word that might injuriously affect the
claims of hundreds of small creditors who are
urgently looking
,for their money. But what we
hope is, that the entire management of the company
from top to bottom will be changed—that it will
be placed in hands totally unconnected with
politics—that the misrepresentations by which it
has been bolstered up will be ended, and the real
position of the company fearlessly examined and
ascertained."—Times City Article.