The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-02 00:00:00

THE :SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 2, 1860.

THE GREAT SHIP COMPANY.

The Chairman has issued the following circular
to the shareholders : _

" Gentlemen,—As much misrepresentation and
misconception exist with regard to the history and
position of the Great Eastern, it has occurred to me
that it might, at the present moment, be instructive
and useful for me to place before you the actual
facts, which, going back as they do to a period
anterior to the first projection of the Great Ship,
justify my asking your attention to a retrospect of
my connection with the undertaking.
" It is so far back as 1851 that I became asso-
ciated with others in the formation of the Eastern
Steam Navigation Company, the object of which
was to afford the public the advantage of a semi-
monthly communication with the East, and of a com-
peting line by Trieste. The direction was composed of
several English merchants of high standing, Mr.
Crawford, the present member for the City, being
chairman, combined with Mr. Edlman and Mr.
Goshen, representing the Austrian Lloyds. At the
end of that year I visited Calcutta, and the various
ports en route ; and on my return to Europe I con-
ferred with Baron Bruck, the Chairman of the Aus-
trian Lloyds, and now Finance Minister of Austria,
as to the measures necessary to be taken to carry out
the objects of the company. In the course of the
same year Lord Jocelyn obtained the appointment
of a committee to inquire:into the question of Indian
steam communications; and that committee having
reported in favour of the establishment of competing
lines in the hands of distinct companies, the Eastern
Steam Navigation Company tendered for one
monthly service. The mode in which they were
defeated is fully detailed in a letter which appeared
in the Times under date 10th August last, and I
need not recapitulate the facts in this place ; but I
may simply observe that the result of the grant of
the double service to the Peninsular and Oriental
Company was to preclude the possibility of estab-
lishing any competing line by the Red Sea route.
At this period the late Mr. Brunel, profiting by the
experience of the previous few years as to the im-
mense gain in point of economy, space, and speed,
by increased size in ocean steamers, conceived the
daring project of adopting a new form of competi-
tion, by the construction of a vessel able to carry
fuel for the longest voyage, and thus to perform the '
journey round the Cape.of Good Hope at great speed,
and with many other advantages over all existing
steamers; and ho, in conjunction with Mr. Scott
Russell, laid their plans before myself and one or
two members of the board, to report on the com-
mercial merits of the scheme. It is only due to my-
self and to those who were first associated with me
in investigating these plans to mention here, that,
although satisfied, after very mature deliberation, of
their merits, if the soundness of the scientific and en-
gineering principles involved were fully established,
we hesitated as to the prudence, looking at the ques-
tion in all its commercial bearings, of attempting at
once so great an innovation, and we urged, as an inter-
mediate step, the building of ono vessel of 10,000
to 12,000 tons ; but we were overruled and the
larger vessel was commenced. In a financial point
of view we have been proved to be right, for there
cannot be a question that lel the smaller vessel
been built, the capital of the first shareholders
would have been amply sufficient to complete and
send her to sea, and that in the Crimean war and
the Indian mutiny she would have done good ser-
vice to the State, and more than cleared her origi-
nal cost. At the same time it is only due to the
genius of Mr. Brunel to prove the soundvess of his
calculations as to the larger vessel, and that ulti-
mately, although the financial consequences to
those concerned in the first arrangements have
been di :astrous, the Great Eastern will, with proper
support and feeders, be probably commerciatly
even a greater success than a smaller vessel. Dur-
ing the progress of the building of the Great
Eastern the contractor unfortunately became in-
volved difficulty, and I had imposed on me the
very painful duty, on a committee of works, jointly
with two other members of the board, of suspend-
ing the payment of the engineer's certificate in his
favour for a large amount, a measure by which that
money was saved to the shareholders. A sort of
interregnum followed, during which the engineer
took charge of the progress of the works, until the
unexpected delay and ruinous expenses of the
launch—a matter in which it is needless to say the
directors had practically no voice—involved the
undertaking in serious embarrassments. You, gen-
tlemen, and the public generally, have done ins the
justice to recognise that to my unceasing
toil and exertions, the resuscitation of the enterprifre
from what was generally believed to be irretrievable
ruin is mainly attributable ; :and when the arrange-
ments were completed I was asked to accept the one-
rous, but what has proved to be by no means enviable,
position of chairman of the Great Ship Company.
One of the first measures of the directors was to in-
vite ten ders for the'complete finishing of the vessel for
a fixed sum ; but in a work of such magnitude, and
in many respects of such novel construction, much
difficulty was experienced in getting sufficiently clear
and binding specification to ensure that any con-
tract would really include the completion, in all
respects, fit for a sea voyage. With none of the
parties tendering had I, at any time, any personal
interest whatever, and the circumstance before
alluded to tended to induce me to prefer a new con-
tractor being employed; but in this as in all other
matters connected with the ship I waived all per-
sonal considerations and feelings ; and finding that
Mr. S. Beale, ALP., Mr. R. M'Calmont, and several
of the old and influential shareholders, representing
collectively, with their connexions, more than half
the capital, and who assisted at our deliberations
before the arrangements were concluded, concurred
in considering that, as Mr. Scott Russell possessed
all the plans and models, and was the only engineer
who would undertake to complete the paddle-wheel
engines, on which a large amount of money had
been already expended, while his tender differed
from all others in embracing entire completion as
a first-class ship, and being willing to give good
security for the proper completion of all the work,
he was the most suitable party, we agreed to accept
his tender. An agreement was at the same time
made to place the work under the control and re-
sponsibility of Mr. Brunel, as engineer; and to
name competent arbitrators to settle, from time to
time, all questions on which disputes might arise.
Having, at great personal discomfort, resided prin-
cipally on board the vessel for many weeks, in
order to press forward the completion, I can say,
from my own knowledge, that any objections raised
by the engineers, the captain, or myself, to any
part of the work, were always brought before the
notice of the arbitrators, who had from the first,
and still possess, the power of deciding on all ques-
tions connected with the contract. Although, in
addition to the share capital of £330,000, the com-
pany possessed a borrowing power of £50,000, as a
working fund, and to provide against contin-
gencies, always considered a large item in such an
unprecedented undertaking, we could not overlook
the fact that, notwithstanding the efforts of the
directors and the other friends of the enterprise,
a considerable amount of the first capital remained
unsubscribed ; and the unremitting exertions of
myself and my colleagues were directed to urging
on the engineer and contractor the completion of
the ship by the time named in the contract, in order
to enable her to cross the Atlantic before the win-
ter, and thus obtain employment which would assist
in placing the unsold shares, and in other ways
contribute to replenish the company's exchequer;
and but for an engineering neglect, with which the
directors cannot in any way be chargeable, this
end would have been accomplished. As the re-
quirements of the Board of Trade were neither
numerous, nor needed much time to execute, it was
thought still possible, even after this accident, to
have carried out the original plan ; but the report
of the surveyors who were called in was of a cha-
racter to throw on the directors a very grave re-
sponsibility had any further accident occurred on
the long voyage, and it was consequently decided
to keep the vessel for the winter at Southampton.
The requisite funds leave been raised on mortgage
to. discharge existing obligations and to meet cur-
rent requirements ; and the arbitrators are employed
in taking the necessary evidence to enable them to
arrive at a decision with regard to the final settle-
ment of the 'contractor's account. Pending their
decision you will not expect me to make any re-
marks which would appear to have a tendency to
anticipate their jedgrnent ; but I may repeat, that
the work necessary to render the vessel fully com-
petent to undertake a long voyage, embracing the
requirements of the Board of Trade, cannot involve
any heavy amount, and that for any ladies of the
contractor the company hold good and valid secu-
curity. It was always a matter of notoriety that
the Great Eastern was constructed as the pioneer of
newa system of ocean steam navigation, and that
the full advantages of such an important innovation
could not be realised by working tliG vessel singly,
but that if successful, she should eventually be coin-
billed with a line of simildr vessels with such modifica-
tions and improvements as experience migut show to
be necessary, with feeders for the various Eastern
markets. With the exception of the accident off
Hastings, which in no way affects the soundness of
the principles involved in the construction of the
great ship, or warrants any diminution of the con-
fidence displayed by the public when she anchored
at the Nore, she has, as far as present experience
has furnished grounds for an opinion, realised the
expectations generally entertained by the projec-
tors ; and unless we look for explanation in the mis-
representations or exaggerations of interested par-
ties, and probably to the want of concord even in
your own camp, itis impossible to comprehend how
the shares, which stood at par when the vessel was
to all intents and purposes an untried experiment,
should be now at a depreciation of half their value.

Judging by offers which have already been made to
commence the employment of the ship in a regular
trade, it may fairly be assumed that the opinion of
her being in most respects a great success is not con-
fined to the actual shareholders ; but in whatever
form the arrangements considered best calculated to
place her in a field of permanent and profitable em-
ployment may be carried out, I beg to assure the
shareholders that my confidence in the undertaking
remains not only unshaken, but confirmed by expe-
rience; and I look forward, without any misgiving,
to her forming, at no distant date, one link in a
great chain of communication which will diminish
by one-half the time now occupied in distant ocean
voyages, and be a source at once of advantage to
the public, and of profit to those more immediately
interested.

" I may be permitted, in conclusion, to say a few
words on matters personal to myself, but on which
it is desirable the shareholders should possess
correct information ; indeed, I may say that
nothing but the desire to afford them the most
explicit details on all points would have induced
me to break the silence I have preserved in the
face of a tissue of misrepresentations with which
for weeks past myself and my colleagues have
been assailed. I have now been connected
for a period of nine years with an undertaking
which I have always considered rather of a national
character than a mere private speculation, and have
devoted much of my time and energies to its pro-
gress, seeking no emolument or reward which was
not contingent on its success. In the old and new
companies I have lost a very large amount, and
although I still continue one of the eight largest
shareholders in the present company, the restora-
tion of the existing shares to par would go but a
very small way to compensate for such sacrifice ;
while against this loss of time and money I have
never received a sixpence in any way whatever, ex-
cept the trifling fees which have during the past
few months been paid to me and other members of
the board, for directors' attendances. I can further
prove, when called nn, that not only by the late
chairman, by Mr. Brunel and others, have I been
looked on as one of the main supports of the enter-
prise, but that from first to last I hive contributed
to save the shareholders many thousand pounds of
money; while the difficulties which have sur-
rounded the undertaking at various times cannot
be considered as having been within the control of
myself or my colleagues. Nothing but the consider-
ation of what was due alike to my own name, iden-
tified as I have been from the first with the under-
taking, and to my brother shareholders, would have
induced me to continue to combat the incessant diffi-
culties with which it has been surrounded, difficulties,
sometimes I regret to say, occasioned or enhanced
by some of those on whom we ought to have been
able to rely for cordial support and co-operation, and
I have neither the wish nor the intention to continue
in such a position one hour longer than is necessary
to fulfil the duty I have undertaken of endeavour-
ing to free the concern from its embarrassments,
and carry it forward to complete success. Courting
inquiry, as I do on every point, and adding the as-
surance that at the general meeting on the 11th
January every required explanation will be afforded,
I would ask the shareholders whether, with these
facts before them, they will continue to give their
cordial support and confidence to myself and those
who created and have preserved this great property,
rather than to others who, with a short-sighted and
ignoble policy, are sowing broadcast the seeds of
suspicion and distrust, and circulating misrepre-
sentations of the grossest description, which they
have ample means of knowing to be totally un-
founded, with the view of promoting their own per-
sonal aggrandisement, even at the risk of ruining
the enterprise. This letter will not be without its
use if it induces my brother shareholders to reflect
on the true position of matters, and to pause until
they have data on which to form a sound judgment
as to the past and of the present and prospective
value of their property.—l am, gentlemen, your
faithful servant, " R. J. It. CAMPBELL.
" 11, King William-street, London,
Dec. 20, 1859."

The following letter has been addressed by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to Mr. Campbell :
" Downing-street, Dec. 5, 1859.
"My dear Sir,—lf I rightly understand your
letters of the 30th and 2d, you have not failed your-
self to perceive that there are reasons which must
prevent the Government, at the present moment,
from entertaining any proposal for the employment
of the Great Eastern. Among these reasons are the
intention to propose the renewal of the select com-
mittee on subsidies, the general duty of the govern-
ment to avoid anticipating the judgment, or fetter-
ing the hands of parliament, in a matter which it
has taken under special consideration, the heavy
demands from other sources upon the Treasury;
and, lastly, the as yet incomplete condition, accord-
ing, to documents in the public journals, of the Great
Ship herself. The questions, what are the claims
of the old ocean route compared with that by the
Mediterranean, and again with the isthmus of
Panama, deserve a more open and careful inquiry
than can be undertaken by a minister or a depart-
ment in the course of its ordinary duties. I hope
they will receive this full examination at the hands
of the committee. You ask for an assurance that
no new fixed subsidy shall be given for Indian or
for Australian service, until the result of the Great
Eastern voyage shall have determined certain ques-
tions. My answer is that it is the desire, and so
far as it depends upon them, the intention of the
government to avoid all engagements which might
embarrass and prejudge the future, until they them-
selves, and until parliament shall be in a condition
to take a comprehensive view of the whole subject
as to routes, as to cost, and the mode of meeting it,
as to the proper object of subsidy from the govern-
ment, and as to its effect upon the competing enter-
prise of private parties, and upon the mastery of
difficulties and improvement of steam navigation.—
I remain, my dear sir, faithfully yours,,
(Signed) " W. E. GLADSTONE.
" R. S. R. Campbell, Esq."

THE LA TP OF CI:JURO' _RATES.

(From the Liberator.)

If we were to attempt to summarise the results of
our legal meditations upon the law of church-rates,
they IA uuld probably run pretty much as follows :-
1. By the general law of Christendom, and also
(according to high authority) by the law of Eng-
land, the repair of the church fabric and the pro-
viding of things necessary for divine worship were,
from time immemorial, imposed upon the Tithe—a
fourth part, and afterwards a third part, being set
apart to that end.

2. There is no trace in our law of any machinery
whereby the making or payment of church-rate
could at any time (prior to recent enactments) be
enforced by process of common law.
3. Such making and payment were originally
enforced by the ecclesiastical courts, which, being
in unlawful usurpation of authority, they were
" prohibited" from doing by the Court of Queen's
Bench ; and they still are so prohibited, except in
so far as they have, in some cases, been allowed by
Act of Parliament to proceed to such enforcement.
4. The ecclesiastical courts, by virtue of their
constitution, can make no order affecting the land,
but their decrees affect tho person only of the plain-
tiff or defendant before them

5. Thee objects for which, in legal contemplation,
a church-rate could be made, embraced only the
repair of the fabric, and the provision of things
necessary for divine worship; but, by connivance
of the ecclesiastical courts, rates are in most cases
made, not for these objects, but for objects wholly
alien thereto, such as the feasting of churchwar-
dens, payment of illegal and unseemly fees to arch-
deacons and their officers, and a certain sensuous
luxuriousness among the congregation, whick must
be inappropriate, in contemplation of law, to the
duties in which they are presumably engaged.
6. At the time when the compulsory enforce-
ment of church rates thus ceased to be, in certain
cases, illegal, all men were of one religious belief.
7. The law of church rate has for many years
been the subject of contention and dispute; it hav-
ing been at one time contended that churchwar-
dens alone had the power to make a rate; and
at another, that the minority in vestry could make
a rate ; and divers other weak inventions having
been imagined, some of which are still subsisting—
as appears by a certain declaration of the arch-
deacons of England and Wales, and sundry other
evidences.

8. It is now the law of the land, that if the ma-
jority of the parishioners duly assembled in vestry
be of opinion that the fabric of the church is in
actual want of repair, or that provision is requisite
for the decent performance of divine worship, the
vestry may make such provision by such lawful
ways and means as to such majority shall seem fit.
9. Among such means the vestry may include
an equal and sufficient rate.
10. The law takes no means to enforce upon, but
leaves it optional with, the vestry to make any pry-
vision or none for the aforesaid purposes ; and while
the law rigidly scrutinises the validity of any pro.
vision, if made, it accepts, in all cases, the decision
of the vestry against any rate, or other provision
as final,
11. All men are not now of the same religions
belief; and the state of things lids passed away in
which the maintenance of Church-rates is either
desirable or possible. Wherefore it is humbly
submitted that they had better be abolished.

IHE NAVY.

The Urgent, screw troop ship, Commander W.
E. Hire, sailed from Portsmouth at noon yesterday
for Queenstown, with 10 companies of the 2d bat-
talion 24ta Foot. The troops arrived by rail from
Aldersliott on Saturday, the train being taken into
the dockyard, where the troops alighted, and were
marched at once on board the Urgent, in compliance
with the orders of his Royal Highness the Com-
mander-in-Chief. This is stated to be the first time
that a train conveying troops has entered the dock-
yard, the custom being for the troops to leave the
train at the company's station at Landport, and
march through the town into the dockyard. It is
also the first instance of a regiment marching with-
out its ammunition, as is the case on the present
occasion with the 24th. The following are the
names of the officers and the number of troops &c.,
embarked :—Col. C. H. Ellice ; Major Bazalgette ;
Captains Glyn, Clarke, Barclay, Browne, Gaskell,
Tarte, and Hitchcock; Lieuts. Franklin, Pulleine,
Foott, Hallowes, Ogilvy, Farquharson, Leech,
Chamberlin, Goldsmith, and Sawbridge ; Ensigns
Hewitt, Wardell, Airey, Eaton, Hitchcock, and
Bramhead ; Paymaster Streatfield ; Quartermaster
Cusack; Surgeon Holloway; Assistant-Surgeons
Colohan and Hollingsworth, and two officers' wives ;
37 sergeants, 17 drummers, 39 corporals, 616
privates, 50 soldiers' wives, 42 soldiers' children.
Adjutant Surplice embarked with the regiment,
but landed again and joined the detachment at
Winchester, in consequence of orders received
by telegram to that effect. The part of
the regiment stationed at Winchester consists of
one field officer, two captains, four subalterns, 10
sergeants, three crummers, eight corporals, and 95
privates, with their proportion of women and chil-
dren. There also remain 17 in the custody of the
civil power, and two men in the garrison hospital
at Portsmouth. The greater part of the regimental
baggage remains at Portsmouth, the Urgent being
unable to take it, owing to her having embarked as
large a proportion as possible of the regiment.
The Queen Charlotte, three-decked sailing ship,
in the steam basin at Portsmouth, was commissioned
on Saturday by Capt. R. S. Hewlett, C. 8., to take
the place of the Excellent as gunnery ship of the
port.

The Lucifer, paddle steamer, which left Ports-
mouth on Wednesday last for Portland with a moor-
ing lump in tow, put back to Portsmouth yesterday,
in consequence of the rough state of the weather.
Staff-Capt. J. Pope, of the invalid depot at Chat-
ham, who has been appointed Adjt. of the 2d Sur-
rey Militia at Guildford, has been succeeded at St.
Mary's barracks by Brevet Lieut.-Col. J. de Tessier.
Intelligence has been received at the head-quar-
ters of the Royal Engineers, Chatham, that the
officer selected by the authorities to command the
expedition about to be despatched by the Govern-
ment to New Zealand is Capt. J. W. Gordon, R.E.
The selection of the non-commissioned officers and
men who are to compose the expedition is now be-
ing made at the Royal Engineer establishment,
Brompton barracks. The Royal Engineers will be
employed in making a careful survey of the whole
of the island, and in the various engineering works
required to be undertaken for the improvement of
that colony.
The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—Capt. A. P. E. Wilmot,
C. 8., to the Sanspareil, commissioned ; Capt. E. K.
Barnard, to the Nile, commissioned ; Com. J. F. C.
Mackenzie, to the Nile; Lieut. W. M. Sanctuary,
promoted t• be commander on the reserved list, vice
Lloyd ; John F. Williams, chief engineer, to the
Cumberland, for service in the Galatea; Thomas
Ramsey, chief engineer, to the Wellington, for
service in the Nile ; W. Pitt, chief engineer, to the
Sanspareil ; T. Brown, chief engineer, to the Ex-
cellent, for service in the Bee ; R. C. Reynolds,
first-class assistant-engineer, to the Excellent, for
service in the Stork ; J. G. G. Dunn, first. class
assistant-engineer, to the Ariadne ; John Bruce
(B), first-class assistant-engineer, to the Alacrity;
J. A. Kitt, acting second-class assistant-engineer, to
the Sanspareil ; J. P. Lloyd, second-class assistant-
engineer, to the Sanspareil; J. Osborne promoted,
and appointed second-class assistant-engineer to the
Alacrity ; G. W. Robins, third-class assistant.-engi-
neer, to the Sanspareil ; W. Frazer, acting third-
class assistant-engineer, to the Sanspareil ; G. T.
Crook, third-class assistant-engineer, to the Ala-
crity; W. Brock, acting third-class assistant-engi-
neer, to the Alacrity ; J. Aitken, acting third-class
assistant-engineer, to the Hogue; E. Carling, act-
ing third-class assistant-engineer, to the Royal
Albert ; J. N. Ross and C. W. Baillie, masters'
assistants, to the Queen.