The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-26 00:00:00

THE WEST INDIAN DISASTERS.

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LETTER FROM THE QUEEN.
Yesterday afternoon a large and very influential
meeting was held in the Guildhall, Southampton,
for the purpose of taking measures for the relief of
the large number of widows and orphans who have
been left in that town totally destitute of the means
of subsistence, the result of the late disasters in the
%Vest Indies, but more especially in connection with
the loss of the Rhone and Wye. The Mayor (Mr.
J. R. Stebbing) presided ; and among those present
were Capt. Mangles, chairman of the Royal Mail
Steam Packet Company ; the Right Hon. Russell
Gurney, Q.C., deputy-chairman of the company,
and one of the members for the borough ; Major-
General Wilbraham, and Admiral Hands.

The MAYOR, in opening the meeting, read the
following communication, which he had received
from Colonel Biddulph, dated Windsor Castle, Nov.
24 :—" It being understood that a general subscrip-
tion is about to be raised for the benefit of the
widows and orphans, and others resident in the
United Kingdom, who were dependent on those
who unhappily lost their lives in the late disastrous
hurricane in the West Indies, I am commanded by
the Queen to acquaint you, as Mayor of Southamp-
ton, in which town the misfortune will be more
generally felt than elsewhere, that her Majesty,
deeply commiserating those who have been thus
deprived of their relatives and of their means of
support, desires to subscribe £2OO to the fund."
The Mayor then proceeded to say that it had been
felt that, in consequence of the calamity being so
wide-spread, only a national subscription could
meet it ; and under those circumstances it had been
suggested that relief should be extended to every
British subject in the United Kingdom who was a
sufferer through the disasters.

The Right Hon. RUSSELL GURNEY, M.P., moved
a resolution in conformity with these views, which
was unanimously adopted by the meeting, and a
subscription list was thereupon opened, and realised
upwards of £1,500, among the subscribers being
Mr. GI Moffat, M.P., 100 guineas; Right lion.
Russell Gurney, 50 guineas ; engineers of the Pen-
insular and Oriental Company (first instalment),
one hundred guineas. Captain Mangles said he
could not now announce a subscription on behalf
of the Royal Mail Company, but there would be a
meeting of the board of directors on Wednesday,
when he should strive to set a good example to his
colleagues, and he had no doubt that the sum for-
warded to the mayor would be quite satisfactory
to those who had already subscribed so liberally.
Other resolutions were adopted, and the meeting
concluded with three cheers for the Queen.

Yesterday, at the Mansion-house, a committee,
consisting of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, as
treasurer ; Baron Lionel Rothschild, M.P., the
Right Hon. Russell Gurney, M.P., Mr. James
Allan, director of the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany, Captain Engledue, Mr. B. H. Hartley, and
Mr. George Moffatt, M.P., was formed for the pur-
pose of receiving subscriptions for the relief of the
distress occasioned by the hurricane in the West
Indies, especially at St. Thomas and Tortola, and
of the families of the officers and seamen of the
Royal Mail Company's service who have perished,
and of other sufferers by the calamity. By the
post of yesterday morning the Lord Mayor received
a letter from Mr. Stebbing, the mayor of South-
ampton, with a view of enlisting his lordship's sym-
pathies with the prevailing distress there among the
widows and orphans and other dependent relatives
of the sufferers by the wrecks of the numerous
vessels during the hurricane, and with the injured
and maimed survivors resident in any part of the
United Kingdom. The Lord Mayor and the com-
mittee above named are prepared to receive sub-
scriptions
at the Mansion-house daily between 10
and 2 o'clock.