The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-19 00:00:00

The Shipwrecked Mariners' Society.

The 27th annual meeting of this benevolent so-
ciety was held yesterday at the United Service In-
stitution ; Admiral the Earl of Shrewsbury and
Talbot presided. The objects of the society are to
board, lodge, clothe, and forward to their homes or
to their nearest consuls, if foreigners, all wrecked
sailors, soldiers, or other poor persons of all nations
cast destitute upon the coast; to assist seamen and
others, subscribers to the society, to replace their
losses by storm or other accident of the sea, and to
relieve their widows (after their own decease), or-
phans, and aged parents ; and to give medals and
other rewards for endeavours to save life from ship-
wreck. The report, read by the secretary, stated
that the terrible storms of the past winter, with
their awful consequences—made more striking by
such catastrophes as the loss of the London, with
270 souls, and several other fine vessels of equal
size, in addition to the fearful disaster at Torbay,
where eight vessels went down at their anchors with
all their crews, and where 50 others were driven on
o f tnumbershe pe
to
orisahiedd
t—hehasode stirred
up ot ive
tbheea
hc he
aarnt cFI3
°f rabenevolenten
their Christian labour. Her
Majesty, besides her
donation of 100 guineas, had added an annual sub-
scription of £25 ; the Princess of Wales had ex-
pressed her sympathy by a donation of £5O ; and a
large number of additional donations had been re-
ceived, so that, notwithstanding the heavy demands
on the resources of the society, the need had been
met without trenching on its small invested pro-
perty. The gross income for the year ending the 31st
of December, 1865, amounted to ,
116 060 4s. 3d.,
and the total outlay to £15,964 7s. Bd. The number
of donors and subscribers was 22,200, and of
mariners and fishermen (subscribing 3s. each),
49,704. The number of vessels wrecked was
between 4,000 and 5,000 annually. During
the past year 5,348 shipwrecked persons had
been relieved and forwarded to their homes, in-
cluding crews of vessels belonging to America, Aus-
tria, Belgium, British American Colonies, France,
Hamburg, Hanover, Holland, Italy, Prussia, Russia,
Spain, and Turkey. Relief had been given to 3,806
widows, orphans, and aged t paren s. The 'whole number of persons relieved in 186—
was 9,154, mak-
ing a total of 148,718 since
the formation of the
society in 1839 go ,• 33 gold and
178 silver medals, and
a sum of £896, had been awarded for assisting at
g of 5
the savin
,4-0 persons since 1851. The chair-
man regarded the report as being highly satisfac-
tory, but said }le
could not help expressing his re-
gret at the very thin attendance of members on that
occasion. In a great maritime country like this,
Ivilosr-t commercial relations extended throughout
the world, and to whose mercantile marine, there-
fore, it Was obvious an increasing number of acci-
dents, as its population increased, must happen,
such a society was a necessity, and required a pro-
portionate development. No charity in the coun-
try was more entitled to the support of the public
in conjunction with the
National Life
boat
same objects in
tion, which had pretty nearly the
view. The report was then received and adopted,
and the meeting was afterwards Mr. addressed by
G. A. Brograve, General Sir Edward Cust, near-
Admiral
Buckle, C. 8., Mr. T. A. Fieldwiek, Cap
t.
Liebenrood, R.N., Rear. Admiral Boultbee, and
others, and a vote of thanks to the chairman closed
the proceedings.

THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET.-
Sole Lessee and Mansger, Mr. Buckstone.
THIS EVENING, THE B LANCE OF COMFORT :
Messrs. Howe, Rogers. Braid, Weallicrsby, &z.; Mesdames
Cavendish, Wright, Lovell, &e.
Alter T FAVOURITE OF FO TUNE
Mesdames : Messrs.
Fo!hern, I;uckstone, Chippeale, Rogers,R ,irc.
Chippendale, Saville, Moore, Fitnvilliam, 1111 i, Lindley, &c.
Concluding- With SHOC JUNG- EVEN IS : Mr. Chipi cn-
dale, Mr. Compton ; Miss Lovell, cte.
Commence at Seven.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S TIIEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr. Geo. Vining.
TI: is EVENING, A LUCKY lIIT. Messrs. J. G. Shore,
11. Mellon. and Mh,s K. Rodgers.
After which. at Eight, LOUIS XI. Louis, Mr. Charles
Kean ; Mar;ll,, Mrs. Cli,cles Kean.
Concluding with QUIET LODGINGS.

ROYAL LYCEUM TREATItE.
Under the ,ole Mauari-etnent (of Mr. Fechter.
'.i. HIS EVI;;NING. a new petite Conird y*, , nt,itled I .ocTo it
DAVE Y. Ga.rick (the Ac or , Mr. H. Vezio ; 3lesars. Evans,
kitanl y, 473 ; Al) s. Ho small and Miss lieurade.
Alter which. TEI E CO flr: IC .. N B Ro'r a E'' s• Yr.
Fe.hter ; Messrs. Jord,n, r in2ry.
V. zin, li.,d:raoynh,u Fstitrz;-
klitrrnica'n.-, 13' (I);_srs.mritoi,rEsmv aanns, ..1103; p
• sel'uu.dt'ciii,llSliss-Luvcvnti, anci
Miss Henrade.
I. conclude with a farcical sketch. Ur IN THE WORLD.
Mr. 11. Widdicomne; ISltssrs. Evans, r.tzpAti h.k, &C. ; Miss
Horsman, Mrs. C. llorsman•
Box Office open daily from Eleven till Five.

JW THEATRE-ROYAL ADELPHI
NSole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
Tins EVENING. at 7 precisely. THE FAST FAMILY:
BICSSri. Billing-ton, J. L. Toole, Paul Bedford, It Phillips,
A„Ailey. Eburne; Mrs. Alired Mellon (Miss Woolg-ae, Miss
If, Simms, Miss Furtado, Miss Smith, Miss Seaman, Mies
Goda3ll, and Mrs H. Lewis.
After which (Sib time`, an Anduluslan Ballet Dlverisse-
men'. cwiled LA FLOE DE S:,NILLA, by the celebrated
Spanish Dancers, El Senora Campubi, El Senor Alicia iny,
and La Senorita Elvira, from the Teatro Real, Madrid.
To conclude with THE STEEPLECHASE. Messrs. J.
L. Toole, P. Bedford, Billington, and Miss Kate Kelly.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. Swanborough.
THIS .EVENING, THE SERIOUS FAMILY.
After which, will be produced the grand Easier Burlesque,
PARIS ; or, Vive Lempiere : Mes,rs. Stoyle, thorne, Jame-,
Fenton esdams A. Swanborough, Raynham, Simpson,
JohnstaneM, lianoee, and Holt,
To conclude with JACK'S DELIGH C.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1866.

Distractingly vexatious, disheartening even,
though it is, that again the popular hope for Re-
form should be doomed to disappointment, it seems

like Poetical Justice that the mover of those Ab-
stract Resolutions of 1859, by which the Country
was " dodged" out of a Reform Bill that conic/
have been passed, and was thus dodged simply for
the furtherance of the compartively petty and paltry
interests of the Whig Party, should now find him-
self imminently threatened with being ousted from
office, from power, and all its perquisites, upon
that very same question, by an Avenging Opposition.
The division of last night or rather of this morning
thus looked at, appears in the light of a NEMESIS.
Sir HUGH CAIRNS spoke, it will be observed,
shortly before the division, and he was the one who
dubbed the " resolutions" of Lord JOINT RUSSELL
(idiomatically dubbed them) a "dodge !" The Noble
Earl may possibly himself we presume, act hence-
forth upon his own axiom—resting, that is, for the
remainder of his days and being thankful ! Sir
ROBERT PEEL, again, has had his revenge ! Raving
been ehasseed out of office immediately upon
the death of Lord PALMERSTON, the wound
thereby inflicted upon his amour propre was sup-
posed by some to have been bound up, if not healed
altogether, by the comforting bandage of the Red
Ribbon of the Bath. All this while, however,
under the Red Ribbon, that galling wound has been
rankling. Driven out of office by his colleagues,
he has done his best towards dragging them after
him, and that almost as summarily. So confidently
have Ministers counted upon carrying everything
before them, oven their two one-legged Reform
Bills rolled into one, a measure that could only
at the best have been a deformity, that Her Majesty
has by this time flitted far away from the regions
of Government to her Highland home at Bal-
moral. The result of this last sitting in
the House of Commons—the sitting of the
18th of June, the Waterloo of the Conserva-

tive Opposition—may now necessitate the return
of the QUEEN to Windsor or the Isle of Wight. A
Ministerial Crisis can hardly be carried to a satis-
factory termination in the middle of June, with the
Budget not yet passed, while the SOVEREIGN
and her Statesmen are separated from one
another by the whole length of the island.
The probabilities, however, of the political
situation will be shadowed forth, we presume, in
some faint degree at least, by the explanation
to be vouchsafed by Mr. GLADSTONE to the House
of Commons this evening, shortly after our first
impression for to-day shall have made its
appearance. To that explanation of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer's, may be referred not
only our curiosity and solicitude as to the intentions
of her Majesty's Ministers, consequent upon the
division of the House on Lord D UNKELLIN'S amend-
ment, but, together with our curiosity and solicitude,
our numerous, and some few of them at least highly
probable, conjectures and anticipations.

The excitement of the political world during the
Session of 1866 yesterday reached its climax. All
through the past week it was known that the dis-
cussion of the question of rating versus rental, as the
qualification for the borough franchise, would bring
on a trial of strength ; and after the division on Mr.
HUNT'S amendment, rejected only by a majority of
seven, it became evident that the contest would be
a close one. Some friends of the Ministry advised
them to adapt themselves to circumstances, to
withdraw or modify some of their clauses,
or by other means to avoid coming to an open
battle with the enemy. This, however, they could
not or would not do. The question of a rating
qualification is not in itself so important ; the rival
merits of rateable value and clear yearly value is a
matter upon which genuine Reformers may very
well agree to differ. But the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in a few words before the division of
last night, explained distinctly his views on the
matter. He said, as we remember, on the
introduction of the Bill, that by it the
Government intended to stand or fall ; that is
to say, by its main provisions or vital prin-
ciples, since no man would be unreasonable enough
to expect them to make a Government question of
every single clause. These chief features Mr.
GLADSTONE considers the £l4 franchise in counties
and the £7 in boroughs, and he has never failed
throughout the course of an unusually trying and
tedious progress to uphold them unflinchingly. Last
night he reiterated the substance of what he had
previously said, denying that the Government had
in any degree shrunk from fulfilling their words,
but showing that he had endeavoured, so far as
possible, to separate what he called the political
from the practical part of the bill. He has made
concessions on minor points, and every one
knows that very few
sa meßiallss
they
ye
went
tt
in,of
Committee just
go that to submit to alteration, amendment, and
modification is no discredit to the most uncompro-
mising Minister. But to the £l4 and £7 fran-
chise Mr. GLADSTONE stood firm, and to any cur-
tailment of ,this moderate enfranchisement the
Government, he says, cannot be brought. He de-
clared, therefore, last evening, that looking to the
effect of the amendment, he considered that it
would strike at the plan of enfranchisement pro_
posed by the Government. "So viewing it," he
added, " I cannot enter into any engagement that
we will accept an adverse vote, or regard it as
incompatible with the progress of the bill." After
these closing words from the leader of .the house
there was immediately evident the excitement of a
great political struggle. There have been many
close divisions, many struggles when the fate of the
Ministry and the Bill trembled in the balance, but
it has been reserved for Lord D UNKELLIN'S amend-
ment to strike the final blow. In the midst of a
scene
em of
excitement such as the House of Commons
el
offers the numbers were declared, and in a
house of 619 members a majority of 11 was declared
against
To-nightthe G‘ao,everanre to
ot
learn the course which the
Government intend to pursue. Speculations of all
kinds are of course rife, but the main question at issue
is whether the sacrifice to be made will be of
the Government or the bill. It would be easy to
find precedents and arguments in favour of either