The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-13 00:00:00

CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.—
• OPEN EVERY EVENING.—The following Company
et Vocalists are engaged for the performance of Selections
from all the popular OPERAS, MADRIGALS, CHORUSES,
GLEES, DNETS, &c., viz.:—Miss Russell, Mrs. Badsey,
Miss Brunel], Miss Ray, Madame Bartoletti, Miss Montague,
M7s. 'Lawrence, and Mrs. Anderson; Herr F. Jonghmans,
Mr. Renshaw, S Jones, J. Barker, W. Melling, Senor Antonio,
E. L Hime, Mr. Badsey, Senor Tiroli, Mr. Cozens, Mr. Bell,
Mr. Barnard, and Mr. St. Albyn. Mr. John G. Forde and E.
W. Mackney. Pianoforte, Mr. Cecil Hicks—Harmonium,
Mr. Courtnay—Director, Herr F. Jonghmans. Commence at
7 precisely. Suppers, &c., until 12 o'clock.
NOTICE.—The Proprietor begs respectfully to announce
that in the present month

A FINE ARTS GALLERY,
UONV in course of construction, will be thrown open in eon
flexion with the above Hall.

THE WEATHER.-SuN OFFICE, OCT, 13.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
56—highest since noon yesterday.
56—lowest this morning and during the night.
61—this day at noon.

Bello)!Erma-30.03.
Wni-r, South-West ; light, with dull weather, and
slight rain,

THE SUN.

WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 13, 1858.

Another of her MAJESTY'S Ministers has broken
the silence of the long -vacation. Lord JOHN MAN-
NERS has scarcely had time to explain his adhesion
to fox-hunting, when another of his colleagues
" follows suit" with a tribute to the genius of Lord
BROUGHAM. Meanwhile the great Questions of
the Day are left altogether in nubibus. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer avoids the
chance of letting his constituents into any of
the Cabinet secrets. The Colonial Secretary
evades any similar danger down in Hertfordshire.
It is true that the President of the Council upon
this very occasion escaped from by the Right Hon.
Baronet, was compelled to speak not once, but
several times during the course of the evening,
having assumed the convivial and necessarily
loquacious part of chairman. But Lord SALISBURY
displayed at the time a sagacious and dexterous
power of reticence eminently creditable in one
having the responsibility of presiding over the
councils of the Administration. True, again, that
the Right Hon. Gentleman the President of the
Board of Trade twice indulged in discourses of a
public and political character ; but Mr. HENLEY,
in neither instance, did more than comment upon
upon the abstract merits at one time of
Progress, and at another of Conservatism.
More recently, as we have said, the Com-
missioner of Parks and Palaces has for a brief
Interval had the ear of the country—only, however,
as recently observed, to evidence his loyalty to his
own chivalrous and • genial aspirations those
having, as their cherished aim and object,
the exhilaration of the toil-worn multitude.
And now the First Lord of the Admiralty has, in
his turn, been upon his legs in the presence of
a numerous and intelligent audience at Liverpool.
As ill luck would have it, however, Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON rises merely to second the resolution
proposed by the Earl of SIIAFTESBURY, to the effect
That the thanks of the National Association
for the Promotion of Social Science be given to the
Right Hon. Lord BROUGHAM for his services as
Founder and President of the Association."
iTherefore—trne to his text, the Right Hon.
Baronet, while referring pointedly by name to—
il the most important public interests," to social eco-
nomy, to the amendment of the law, to the treatment
of crime, to the improvement of public health by sani-
tary measures, to the advancement and extension of
education, and so forth—allows us really to see not one
inch further into the future—permits us to have
Lot a momentary glimmer of the light reserved for
the session of 1859—dooms the country upon all these
vital points to wait still baffled and disappointed.
Instead of uttering a syllable capable of encouraging
a single hope, Sir Rani restricts his remarks
entirely to comments upon the career and achieve-
ments of the Noble and Learned Lord, the founder
and first president of the Association. In every
expression of his admiration for Lord BitotrGßAm
sympathise —especially
'We do most cordially
'when he observes that " the illustrious life
of Lord BROUGHAM had been devoted to objects of
public interest, and to advancing the interests of
all classes of the people ; and" that " he never had
given, or rarely given, a more remarkable proof
of that, or one which would be longer remem-
bered, than by the part he had taken in the foun-
dation and in the support
of this institution."
Yet more cordially, if possible, do we sympathise
pith the words immediately following, when Sir
J. PAKINGTON remarked (somewhat after date, it
true) how " all men had recently read a most
striking proof that the great intellect of HENRY
Dammam was still bright and unclouded",_
adding, amidst the cheers of the assembly, " Long
might it continue so ! Long might he (Lord
BROUGHAM) enjoy from the people of this country
feelings of well-merited gratitude." Nevertheless,
while delighting to read the genial tribute of the
First Lord of the Admiralty to the truly noble and
learned ex-Chancellor, we finish the kindly speech
of Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, as we finished that of
Lor4 J-4,111‘r M'INNLIts) 48 we previously finished

those of Mr. HENLEY and Lord SALISBURY—
frankIy we acknowledge as much—with disap-
pointment. After this we really don't see much
room to regret the absence of this Minister
of the Crown, that Minister of the Crown,
and the other, from provincial, mostly
agricultural, meetings, attended by their, eager
and curious constituents. If noble lords and
right honourable gentlemen went there we
should probably have merely vague gene-
ralities. Altogether, perhaps it is just as well that
it should be so : for while the country learns a
lesson of patience, Ministers have leisure (we trust
they are now profiting by) for serious and whole-
some deliberation.

The Government is manifestly determined to
shake off the red-tape trammels by which every
preceding one has been fettered and restrained.
It profits by the fearful calamities that, unfortu-
nately, are of too frequent occurrence. It looks to
the causes of the awful catastrophe, and endeavours
to adopt adequate means to meet a similar danger
on another occasion.
The awful destruction of the Austria has thus
been turned to advantage. That magnificent
vessel, 2,500 tons burden, had only recently been
completed. She was, in fact, little more than
twelve months old. She left Hamburg on the 2d,
and Southampton on the 4th of last month, with
425 passengers, and 103 seamen, engineers, and boys,
as crew. She was provided with every modern im-
provement ; and, with ordinary care and ordinary
courage, every one of those on board the doomed
vessel, passengers as well as crew women,
children, and all, might have been saved.
The cause of the conflagration has been accurately
ascertained. Indeed, there was not a moment's
doubt or difficulty on that part of the case. It was
intended to fumigate the steerage of the ill-fated
ship, and for that purpose the end of an iron chain
was made red-hot and was plunged into a bucket of
tar. A single man was employed in this delicate
and difficult operation. He found the chain too hot,
dropped it into the basket, which was very natu-
rally upset, and the blazing tar speedily set fire to
the cabin, and the ship, with its valuable cargo, and
far more valuable human freight, was speedily in
flames.

Discipline tind courage might have done much

in this trying emergency. The captain lost heart,
and the crew followed his example. By cool de-
termination the fire might have been extinguished,
and even the ship and the bulk of the cargo saved.
Nay, even if these were irretrievably lost, the far
more valuable lives of the hecatombs of victims
might have been saved. There were nume-
rous boats, which could have taken off every
passenger and every seaman and boy on board the
ill-fated ship. Unfortunately, nothing was done
right. The screw, which remained working to the
last, the steam never having been turned off,
crushed several of the boats, and drew others
into the vortex which it occasioned ; while
many were swamped by the terror-stricken pas-
sengers, who, in their temporary madness, destroyed
their last hope of safety, and sealed their own
doom, as certainly as though it were produced by
their own hands.

At last, 400 out of the 471 lives that

were forfeited might have been saved. The fire
might easily have been suppressed at its first ap-
pearance. The very steam itself, the, article so
readily available, would have combated the fire—
and conquered. This principle has long been re-
cognised, but has only been recently beneficially
adopted. The household experience of every-day
life convinces us that steam not only sub-
dues flame, but extinguishes fire. The

child is more potent than its parent. The

aged Saturn must yield to the infant Jupi-
ter. There was, however, neither the know-
lodge nor the machinery to render this valuable
auxiliary available. The fire gained the ascendancy,
and the first act of the terrible tragedy was com-
pleted.

The following paragraph, which appeared in our
impression of yesterday, will properly apply to that
portion of the case. We have it on high authority,
that in consequence of the lamentable destruction by
fire of the steamer Austria, the Admiralty have
directed their attention to the necessity of using
every precaution to prevent the possibility of so
fearful a calamity occurring on board any of her
Majesty's steam-ships, and yesterday orders were
issued for experiments to be made with HORSEY'S
patent, which consists of a steam cock at the top of
the boiler, from which pipes extend all over. the ship,
so that on fire occur ring in any part of a vessel it may,
by simply turning the cock, be deluged with steani.
and extinguished. Had this simple, easy, and cheap
precaution been taken the Austria would have been
saved, and the valuable cargo would not have been
destroyed.

But, even failing that, the invaluable lives
might have been rescued. There are means by
which boats, even fully laden, may be safely
lowered. One only, out of many, accomplished the
feat, and that saved 23 human beings ; all the others
shared the fate of the parent, and that through
the incapacity and timidity of the captain and
his followers, who were infected by his fears. We
trust that something will, even at the eleventh
hour, be attempted to lessen these evils, if they
cannot altogether be got rid of. The Government
are doing their part by the experiments which
they have directed, and which, we hope, will to a
certain extent at least get rid of the danger, which
is now truly formidable.

His Royal Highness the Count of Flanders,
accompanied by Capt. Burnell, returned to Grillion's Hotel
yesterday morning, from Balmoral.

The Prince and Princess Gagarine have lefi
Fenton's Hotel for tho Continent.

His Excellency the Prussian Minister and the
Countess Bernstorff returned to Prussia House yesterday
from Brighton. Their infant son, we are glad to learn, is
progressing favourably towards recovery,

The Countess de Paiva has arrived at Fenton's
Hotel from Brighton.

Mr. H. Arbuthnot and Lady Charlotte Arbuth-
not have left the Queen's Hotel, Upper Norwood, for town.
A despatch from Tetuan, Morocco, states that
the Vice-Consuls of England and France have been
assassinated. No particulars are communicated.

The following regiments are ordered home from
India, viz., 10th, 32nd Light Infantry) Nth Highlanders,
and 84th.

The Lord Chancellor has presented the Hon, and
Rev. Frank Sugden, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge,
domestic chaplain to Lord St. Leonardo, to the vicars of
Great Hale, near. Sleaford, Lincolnshire, rendered Vatant
the death of the Rev. Richard Bingham, MA. The bene;
fice is worth about £l,OOO a year. Mr. Sugden's appoint;
ment to Great Hale renders vacant the vicarage of Brignall,
near Greta-bridge, Yorkshire, which is the gift of the Lord
Chancellor, and worth £350 a year.
FALMOUTH.—His Royal Highness the Count de
Paris, accompanied by the Duke de Winiembergi, the
Marquis de Beauvoir, and th.e Baronvon Guttenbort,attiVed
at the Greenbank Hotel, in Pahnouth, front tour to the
Land's End, on Saturday, and soon after embarked in the
Hind, gunboat, tender to the Ritssell, 60, for Porthgwidden,
up the river Fal, the seat of the Rev. Thomas Philpotts,
where the party would dine, and then leave for Truro, en
route to Plymouth. Capt. Story, of the Russell, was in at-
tendance on the prince, and accompanied him in the tender.
SIR A. BANNERMAN, GOVERNOR OF NEWFOUND-
LAND.—Our readers have had some samples of the enthu-
siastic manner in which the news of the completion of the
Atlantic telegraph was received by our American cousins.
Among other memorials of the great event, Harper's New
York Illustrated Weekly devoted nearly the whole of its
pages for one issue to views of the principal points of
interest, and portraits and memoirs of men directly or
indirectly connected with the undertaking. Our worthy
townsman, Sir A. Bannerman, as governor of the province
which the Transatlantic end of the line reaches, comes in
for a fair share of notice. " Harper's" contains an admir-
able likeness of him from a photograph, and a brief memoir.
—4benton lierakf,

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