The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

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(From the Times)
At the great break-up of 1814 there was a con-
siderable number of persons in France, well edu-
cated and of good social position, who knew literally
nothing of the events of the last twelve years. Fed
upon the glorious food of Napoleon's bulletins,
with such comment as might be afforded by the
laboured panegyrics of the Senate and the judicious
reticences and amplifications of the Moniteur, they
had been led on from victory •to victory, from
triumph to triumph, from glory to glory, till at last
the dream was only dispelled by the arrival of the
Cossacks and the abdication of the Emperor.
Many had never heard of the battle of Trafalgar,
knew Eylau and Aspern only as complete victories,
and would, in fact, have been not a little embarrassed
to give even the most meagre account to their children
of the history of the great empire ofwhich they were
citizens during the perisd of its rise, its glory, and
its fall. It is always easier to decide after hearing
one side than both, and we suppose it is out of
compassion to this well-known weakness that the
Moniteur carefully withdraws from the considera-
tion of its readers whatever might be urged in (v.
position to the view which by order- sublime it is
directed to advocate.

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

eagerly we scanned the ocean ! Several times I
caught myself looking and fancying that I saw a
sail ; but it was only the sun lighting up the white
crest of a wave. There was evidently no hope for
us, and many of us became quite resigned to our
terrible fate.
"About noon the smoke and heat had become so
great that we were driven from the top-gallant
forecastle, on which we had continued to pour
water, and indeed were unable to remain forward
of the foremast ; the decks also became very hot,
and we expected every moment to see the homes
burst through the bows ; we were also in some
dread of the foremast giving way, which would
have precipitated our fate, as in its fall itmust have
torn up part of the deck, through which the flames
would then have burst upon us.
" The captain, purser, and myself, pitched over
bottles containing papers detailing our position and
gloomy prospects ;
and I, having iieen wounded in
the thighs by a fall durinc, the night, and feeling
the little chance I would have in a scramble for the
boats, had bid good-bye• to friends and to all the
world.

We have now before us the version which it has •
pleased the French Government to give of its recent
transactions with Portugal, and it has occurred to
us to ask what possible object can be served by
such a manifesto as is there put forth. We can
quite understand the policy of an absolute Govern-
ment, which, as it does many things by force
which it does not like to avow, withholds the
knowledge of them from its people altogether,
but we confess that we cannot understand the
sort of half-confidences to which the Moni-
teur treats its readers, neither showing the
whole case nor concealing it, but making state-
ments so evidently onesided as to furnish the
strongest inference against itself as to the bearing
of those facts which it does not dare to produce.
We really think that no unprejudiced person could .
read the garbled and onesided statement which the
Moniteur has put forward on this subject without
coming. to conclusions most adverse to the French
Government, and that less candour or a little more
would have better answered the purpose of vindi-
--atibm:We-are told that the demands of the. French
Government have met with full satisfaction, and
that the French Government did not make- them
until it had fully satisfied itself that it was right.
This is the argument from authority. The French
Government has a quarrel with Portugal; the French
Government believes itself to be right ; therefore,
the French Government is right. Rex sum.
Nil ultra qucero pkbeius. But, like Atrides, the
French Government is not context with its own
authority,-but must make " a simple statement" of
facts to establish its claims—a simple statement of
facts so very simple that it only tells its own side,
suppressing all that makes against it—a simple
statement of facts which is by no means equiva-
lent to truth. The French Government will not
allow the-matter to be decided in the first instance
by the Portuguese courts, it will not submit to the
arbitration of a neutral Power, to be named by
itself, but in the Moniteur it thinks it can make a
case, and this is the way it sets about it :—First,
the French vessel was seized, according to the testi-
mony
of the captain and the investigation of the
Minister of Marine, beyond the limits of Portu-
guese jurisdiction. The captain was condemned to
the galleys for two years,which may perhaps slightly
influence his testimony. What the investigation of
the Minister of Marine was we are not informed, and
we may conjecture, with some plausibility, that
the investigation was held on the captain's testi-
mony; at any rate, it appears that the Portuguese
officers distinctly asserted the. contrary. This
the French Government Meld-to be conclusive
on the question of jurisdiction. A deeply tainted
witness on one Side, a pure one on the other,
and a decision in favour of the tainted witness—
what can be clearer ? But surely there is something
more in this than a question of fact. The point of
jurisdiction could. only arise on the supposition that
the vessel was a slaver; and, if a slaver, surely not
entitled to the benefit of any jurisdiction whatever.
We had imagined that a slaver Was like a pirate
—fair prize whenever she could be caught, and
it certainly does not increase our respect for
the French Government in this transaction to find
her whole moral and material force embarked in
support of the position that slavers ,ought to enjoy
impunity if they can only pass the limit of three
miles from the shore. Surely, after this, it will be
impossible for the French Government to maintain
that it is one of those Powers. to whom the world
may look for any effort, however feeble, towards
the suppression of the slave trade.
Waiving, however, this argument, of which the
Moniteur, to do it justice, does seem to be a little
ashamed, it proceeds to its old ground—that the
papers of the vessel were regular, that a French
delegate was on board, and yet that the Court at
Mozambique, with incomprehensible blindness,
took no account of these conclusive presumptions,
" nor of any other circumstance," which ought to
have left no doubt as to the fair character of the ship
and the honesty of the captain. What "any other
circumstance" was we do not know, but the facts
which the Moniteur does venture to state, though
they account for the presence of negroes on board
the ship, cannot, we apprehend, be allowed to ex-
clude proof of one other circumstance—namely, that
a portion of those negroes were brought on board
by visible force and against their will—were, in
fact, not recruits, as the Moniteur calls them, but
conscripts. This fact that 13 negroes were
brought on board with their arms tied behind
their backs was proved by the French delegate
himself. The Moniteur has the disingenuousness
to suppress it, and then to state that it is incon-
ceivable how the Portuguese authorities could have
acted in a manner contrary to their duty. The
hopes of the Moniteur were, that the Portuguese
would have eagerly admitted the irregularity
of the proceeding. Those hopes were, it soems,
at first deceived, but the Portuguese Govern-
ment, after a more careful examination, was
brought to a more exact appreciation, and sub-
mitted to the just representations of the Govern-
ment of the Emperor. If words have meaning
this phrase is intended to convey the notion that
the Portuguese Government submitted from a con-
sciousness that it was in error, whereas we know
that it protested solemnly that it yielded only to
force. ThiS last touch gives the transaction its
completeness. A French vessel violates the laws
of God and man by kidnapping negroes, it is con-
demned accordingly, its own Government rescues
it by force from the independent nation against
whose laws it had offended, publishes an official
narrative of the facts in which all notice of the
ground of conviction is carefully suppressed, and
then tells the world that the return of the vessel
was not extorted by menaces, but was the result of
a more careful investigation and exact appreciation
of the facts.

oaitnh,e cshaileofonoffiateetlrv,opuprse.m.r,todoceatot rs,o l‘roler-.
sle,irl'af‘:Tivnhe n p
eer,ttchianettother, chief cabin passenger and my-
thing, for we were all becoming faint. We
were eating what we believed to be our last meal,
but we were calm, and even cheerful, Captain
Johnstone asking to be excused for the manner in
which he was breaking up the preserved salmon,
which, with a few biscuits, were to form our din-
ner ; and I for appearing at dinner in such a guise,
being literally covered hands and face with tar.
"At about 2.30 p.m., and when about to say
Good bye,' in case of not meeting again before the
final catastrophe we were startled with the
,ery of A sail V do not knowAtowlyelll tumbled
on deck, butwe were there in an instant. TriFT
looked to windward, and how faint and ill I felt
when I at first failed to perceive anything but the
ocean and a few black clouds just at the edge of
the horizOn ; how we all at last saw the sail, just
like a distant gull--she was coming down upon us
—close by the edge of the sun's rays on the sea ;
how we all cheered, and wept, and prayed, and
laughed, and clasped each others hands, and cheered
again ; how great rough fellows hugged each other
and wept like children ; how men, who had pro-
bably never prayed before, muttered sincere thanks-
givings ; and how those who had preserved the
greatest indifference when death seemed so near
were now completely overcome, I cannot describe.
I shook hands with at least a hundred—many of
them rough, illiterate men, but who had worked
with a high courage in the hour of danger, and
who were now as sincere in their feelings of thank-
fulness as-the best of us. In less than half an hour
from the time we first sighted her the vessel, which
proved to be the Merchantman, of and from Lon-
don, with troops for Calcutta, passed close under
our stern. How we cheered her, and she returned
our cheer as only British soldiers and sailors can
cheer !

" Our captain hailed_through his trumpet, We
are on fire, will you stand by us ?' to which Capt.
Brown returned a hearty ' Aye, aye; and send my
boats to assist you.'
" Soon two of the Merchantman's boats and three
of our own were launched ; but the sea still ran
high, and we expected every moment to see some
of them swamped, or dashed to pieces alongside ;
but thanks to the ability and care of Mr. Funnel].
and Mr. Tones, the first and second officers of the
Merchantman, and of our own officers in charge
of the boats, they were conducted between the two
vessels without 'a single accidebt. We first einbarked
the womenand children, and by 1 p.m., we were all
safely on board the Merchantman, our captain being
the Cast to leave.

" When we consider the heavy sea running, and
the way in which both vessels rolled about, particu-
larly the Eastern City, from the absence of sufficient
sail to steady her, we cannot but admire the arrange-
ments of Captains lohnstone and Brown ; and to
have rescued 227 souls from a disabled ship in such
a sea, without a single accident, speaks for itself,
" On board the Merchantman Captain Brown had
provided,everything he could devise for relieving
our wants an conducing to our comfort ; and well
was he seconded by. Captain Dawson, commanding
the troops. They had prepared hot tea and biscuit'
for 400 ; what a glorious draught took when I
touched the deck ; never in my life had I tasted
-anything half so good__ The women and, children
were accommodated in the caddy and officers' rooms
and the crew and passengers mustered and told off
to mess with the soldiers and sailors, without the
slightest confusion.
" The Merchantman stood by the burning vessel
during the night, and at about 2 a.m. the flames
burst forth over the topgallant forecastle ; soon
after the foremast went over the side, and in half
an hour the main and mizen masts went also, and
soon after she was all one mass of flames. We
could see her still burning until about 5 a.m., when
the Merchantman having stood away for Table Bay
the distance became too great for us to distinguish
other than a dark cloud resting against the dim
horizon, which was the last we saw of the gallant
ship.
" We in the first cabin saved a portion of our lug-
gage, but the whole of the other passengers and the
majority of the crew lost everything; but we were
all truly thankful for our preservation from a ter-
rible and inevitable death ; and we all feel that the
finger of Providence was in it, for had the Merchant-
man not been obliged to put into Rio de Janeiro,
in consequence of the illness of her medical officer
then in charge of the troops, she could not have
been so far out of her course, and in a position to
rescue us.

" A singular circumstance was reported to us by
those on board the Merchantman. It appears that
while at dinner, and immediately before they per-
ceived us, the captain's lady and some of the officers
affirmed that they heard distinctly, and at regular
intervals, the sound of distant artillery. As we
had no heavy guns, and did not fire off even a
pistol, I am unable to account for the sound, which
may have been caused by some submarine volcanic
phenomena, or there may have been another vessel
in distress at a greater distance, and the report of
her minute-guns may have been carried along by
an eccentric current of air.

" I, and I am sure every passenger on board, are
anxious to bear testimony to the kind treatment
we have received on board the Merchantman. Cap-
tain Brown went about among us like a father ;
and Captain Dawson also did all he could for us
personally, and by urging his men to share every-
thing with the passengers and crew ; and well did
these brave fellows,obey his orders.

So much for the French side of this matter. Is
it, can it be true, that the Government of England,
which is now expending halfa-million a-ear in
the suppression of the Slave Trade, which has for
fifty years unceasingly laboured by the pen and
the sword to put down this traffic, has actually in
this instance not only done nothing to protect its
old and faithful ally in the noble stand which has
been made against the oppression of Fiance, but
that those measures of oppression and coercion
were actually planned in unison with the English
Government ; nay, more, that that Government
lent its full countenance to France from first to
last ? Such statements emanate undoubtedly from
the French Foreign-office, but we sincerely trust
that they are devoid of all other foundation than
that which is unfortunately too notorious—that,
after urging Portugal on in her course of opposition
to the slave trade, we have tamely deserted her in
the hour of her need. It is humiliating enough to
know this ; but we will not lightly
the authority of the French Foreign-office, gn believe,-offic e, the
te
anyeven on
Government of English gentlemen could be found
to add to the desertion of an ally under such cir-
cumstances the inexpressible
servility and meanness
which would be implied in such an union of the
strong against the weak to beat down the right and
secure triumph and impunity to the wrong.

" Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Dawson were very at-
tentive to the women and children. Lieuts. J. R.
Carlisle and J. B. Ruttledge ; Ensigns D. W. B.
Ogilvy, P. W. Howley, and Smith; as also Gen-
tleman Cadet R. H. Inglis, H.E.1.C.5., and As-
sistant-Surgeon Forrest, R.N., nobl7 emulated
each other in striving who could be kindest to us,
and best minister to us in our all but destitute con-
dition. When we learnt that British officers were
on board, we felt assured that by them we would
be well treated with the sympathy to which in
some measure our misfortunes entitled us ; but we
were quite unprepared for the generous kindness,
displayed in such a feeling and considerate manner
which we have experienced during our voyage on
board the Merchantman.
" I cannot speak too highly of Capt. Johnstone's
conduct, and lam sure every one who was board
the unfortunate Eastern City will agree with me.
He did all for our safety and the safety of his ves-
sel that man could do, and by his calm courage
of
animated us all; while by the ability his ar-
rangements everything was conducted in an
orderly and systematic manner at a
been time when
with
theh
slightest confusion must have attended
the most disastrous consequences.
"As the fire originated in the forehold, with
which there was no communication from the fore-
castle and foresteerage, and as the forehatch had.
been battened down for four days, it must have been
caused by spontaneous combustion, or the friction
of badly stowed packages, during the previous day,
when the vessel rolled so heavily in the high sea:
I cannot close my communication without bear-
ing testimony to the calm behaviour of the female
passengers. After the first half-hour they never
complained, and it 'was only when the vessel took
a more than usually heavy roll that sothe of the
more timid uttered a few screams. Poor things,
they were many of them resigned to their sad fate.
The purser's wife, in particular, astonished me by
her calmness throughout.
" The vessel, cargo, and property belonging to
the passengers cannot have been worth less than
£90,000 to £lOO,OOO, bid vessel and cargo are sup-
posed to have been insured."

DEATH OF A TRAFALGAR HERO.--We announce
with deep regret the death of that gallant and distinguished
officer, Captain Robertson Walker R.N., which took place
at his seat of Gilgarran, near Whitehaven, on the 25th ult.
He entered the navy on the 6th April, 1801, and was ap-
pointed midshipman on board the Princess Charlotte. He
fought on board the Victory, as forecastle mate, in the battle
of Trafalgar, and served with the most distinguished cou-
rage during the whole of the war. In 1814 he was engaged
in the American war upon the Lakes, where he defended
the Confiance against a vastly superior force, and did not
yield until all his crew were either killed or wounded. On
the 20th August, 1815, he at last obtained his captaincy ;
but all his efforts to procure further employment were un-
t wailing, although his gallantry had been recorded in the
despatches on many_ occasions.—NavalondMilitary Herald.
ATTEMPTED ROBBERY ON A POSTMAN.—A des-
perate attempt at highway robbery was made on a postman,
in Hampshire, on Thursday night. The Hamble post-letter
carrier, in going from Ramble to Woolstone, has to pass a
very solitary place between the seat of the Earl of Hard-
wicke and the military hospital building at Netley. About
half-past six o'clock on the evening in question the post-
man was passing the spot referred to, which is in a hollow,
and overhung with trees, having his bag of letters slung
to his back with leathern straps, when a fellow suddenly
sprung upon him and cut one of the straps. The postman,
although much frightened, immediately faced about, and
hid the presence of mind to threaten to shoot his as-
sailant, at the same time thrusting his hand into his pocket
as if to draw out a pistol. The would-be robber on this
quickly made off through trees, and was not seen after-
wards. The large number of navvies working at the Net-
ley Hospital makes it dangerous toiwalk in the neighbour-
hood after nightfall.

On the passengers landing at Table Bay, they
presented letters to Capt. Dawson and Capt. Brown,
expressing their, gratitude to them for their noble
conduct in rescuing them from a terrible death, and
for their subsequent kind and generous treatment.
The Government emigration agent took charge
of them and the barque Caroline Elizabeth had
been chartered to take them on to Melbourne. A
subscription had been started at Cape Town to re-
lieve their temporary want.