The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-15 00:00:00

President—Hie Grace the Duke of BUCCLEUCH, li:G.

This Hospital, founded in the year 1828, the first to estab-
lish the principle of free admission to the tick poor, without
the delay and difficulty of Governors' orders. is wholly de-
pendent for support on voluntary contributions and gaei es .
It affords relief to a large number of in-patients, and, in
addition to this, the average number
.of attendance of the
Jestitute sick has for a oensiderable period averaged between
8,000 and 4,000 weekly.
The Committee earnestly solicit the ASSISTANCE of the
benevolent, as the premises of this Hospital are capable of
co Ltaining several hundred more beds, had the Committee
the requisite funds to maintain them.
Contributions are received by the Treasurer, hdwarct Mu .
terman, Esq., Nioholas-lane; also by Messrs. Coutts and Co.;
Drummond and Co. ; G:yn and Co.; HArries and Co. ; Ransom
Ind Co. ; Prescott, Grote, and Co.; Smith, Payne, and Co.;
Barclay and Co. ; lliarks, Deacon, and Co.; Overend, Gur-
ney, and Co.: Nisbet and Ca, Berners-street I. Barned and
Cl LiverpDol ; and at the Hospital. from 10 till 5.
spANyoul) SMITH. secretary.

TEETH AND PAINLESS DENTISTRY.
Messrs. LEWIN and SIMEON MOSELY and
SONS, Dentists,
30, Berners-street, Oxford-street, and 448, Strand,
Opposite Charing-cross Railway Station.
Their painless artificial teeth are unequalled for economy,
durability, comfort, and all purposes of articulation and mas-
tication. Operations of every kind being unnecessary, the
most nervous patient can be supplied without fear of pain or
inconvenience.
Consultation free. Teeth from ss, Sets from 5 to 25 ga.,
warranted.
For the effica,y, utility, and success of their system, vide
„ Lancet."
Daily attendant,: at 30, Berners-street, Oxford-street, and
448, Strand, London ; 15, Whitefriargata, 111111; 10, Norfolk-
street, Sheffield ; 4, East-parade, Leeds ; and 11, St. Nicholas-
street, Searbro'.
Observe—Established 1830. No connection with any of the
same name.

MISS ISA CRAIG is said to he the editor of the
new sixpenny Argosy, which is republished in New York
by the Messrs. StrakaJa.

The annual festival of this charity was held yes-
terday evening at Willis's Rooms, King-street, St.
James's, under the presidency of Charles Dickens,
Esq. Between 300 and 400 ladies and gentlemen
sat down to table. To give a list of the guests would
be to enumerate all who are most celebrated in litera-
ture, the drama, music, and the fine arts generally.
The capacity of the large room was tested to the
utmost. Indeed, the only inconvenience of the
evening was a little unpleasant crowding in the
attempt to find seats for some fifty more guests
than could be conveniently accommodated.
The CHAIRMAN, who on rising was received with
loud and long continued cheering, gave the usual
loyal toasts, which were most heartily responded to.
In proposing the toast of the evening, the CHAIR-
MAN said—Ladies, before I couple you with the
gentlemen, which will be at least proper to the in-
scription over my head (St. Valentine's Day)—before
I do so allow me, on behalf of my grateful sex here
represented, to thank you for the great pleasure and
interest with which your gracious presence at these
festivals never fails to inspire us. (Cheers.) There
is no English custom which is so manifestly a relic,
of savage life as that custom which usually excludes
you from participation in similar gatherings. (Hear.)
And although the crime carries its own heavy
punishment along with it, in respect that it divests
a public dinnq otitkniost beautiful ornament and
of its most fascinating charm, still the offence is none
the less to be severely reprehended on every possible
occasion, as outraging equally nature and art. I
believe that as little in known of the saint whose
name is written here as can well be known of any
saint or sinner. (Laughter.) We, your loyal ser-
vants, are deeply thankful to him for having some-
how gained possession of one day in the year—for
having, as no doubt be has, arranged the almanac
for 1866—expressly to delight us with the enchant-
ing fiction that we have some tender proprietorship
in you which we should scarcely dare to claim on
a less auspicious occasion. (Cheers.) Ladies,
the utmost devotion sanctioned by the saint we
beg to lay at your feet, and any little inno-
cent privileges—(laughter)—to which we may be en-
titled by the same authority we beg respectfully
but firmly to claim at your hands. (Cheers.) Now,
ladies and gentlemen, yen need no ghost to inform
you that I am going to propose " Prosperity to the
Dramatic, Musical, and Equestrian Sick Fund As-
sociation—(hear, hear,)—andfurther, that I should
be going to ask you actively to promote that pro- .
sperity by liberally contributing to its funds, if that
task were not reserved for a much more persuasive
speaker. But I rest the strong claim of the society
for its useful existence and its truly charitable
functions on a very few words, though, as well as I
can recollect, upon something like six grounds.
First, it relieves the sick; secondly, it buries the
dead; thirdly, it enables the poor members of the
profession to journey to accept new engagements
whenever they find themselves stranded in some
remote inhospitable place, or when, from other cir-
cumstances, they find themselves perfectly crippled
as to locomotion for want of money ; fourthly, it
often finds such engagements for them by acting as
their honest, disinterested agent ; fifthly, it is its
principle to act humanely upon the instant, and
never, as is too often the case within my experience,
to beat about the bush till the bush is withered and
dead—(cheers)--lastly, the society is not in the least
degree exclusive, but takes under its comprehensive
care the whole range of the theatre and the concert-
room, from the manager in his room of state, or
in his caravan, or at the drum-head--(laughter)—
down to the theatrical housekeeper, who is usually
to be found amongst the cobwebs in the flies, or
down to the hall porter, who passes his life in a
ctiurougn arztn—(laugniCr)—aria, to tne nest of my
observation, in perpetually interrupted endeavours
to eat something with a knife and fork out of a
basin, by a dusty fire, in that extraordinary little
gritty room upon which the sun never shines, and
on the portals of which arc inscribed the magic
words, " stage door." Now, ladies and gentlemen,
this society administers its benefits sometimes by
way of loan ; sometimes by way of gift ; sometimes
by way of assurance at very low premiums; some-
times to members, oftener to non-members : always
expressly, remember, through the hands of a secretary
or committee well acquainted with the wants of the
applicants, and thoroughly versed, if not by hard ex-
perience at least hy sympathy,in the calamities and un _
certainties incidental to the general calling. One
mast know something of the general calling to know
what those afflictions are. A lady who had been
upon the stage from her earliest childhood till she
was a blooming woman, and who came from a long
line of provincial actors and actresses, once said to
me when she was happily married ; when she was
rich, beloved, courted ; when she was mistress of a
fine house—once said to me at the head of her own
table, surrounded by distinguished guests of every
degree, " Oh, but I have never forgotten the hard
time when I was on the stage, and when my baby
brother died, and when my poor mother and I
brought the little baby from Ireland to England,
and acted three nights in England, as we had
acted three nights in Ireland, with the pretty
creature lying upon the only bed in our lodging
before we got the money to pay for its funeral."
Ladies and gentlemen, such things are, every day,
to this hour ; but happily at this day and in thi--
hour this association has arisen to be the timely
friend of such great distress. (Cheers.) It is not
often the fault of the sufferers that they fall into
these straits. Struggling artists must necessarily
change from place to place, and thus it frequently
happens that they beeome, as it were, strangers in
every place, and very slight circumstances—a pass-
ing illness, the sickness of the husband, wife, or
child, a serious town—(laughter)—an anathemising
expounder of the gospel of gentleness and forbear-
ance—any one of these causes may often in a few
hours wreck them upon a rock in the barren ocean ;
and then, happily, this society, with the swift alacrity
of the lifeboat, dashes to the rescue and takes them
off. (Cheers.) Looking just now over the last re-
port issued by the society, and confining my scrutiny
to the head of illness alone, I find that in one year,
I think, 672 days of sickness had been assuaged by
its means. In nine years, which formed the term
of its existence, as many as 5,500 and odd. Well,
I thought when I saw 5,500 and odd days of sick-
ness, this is a very serious sum, but add the nights!
Add the nights—those long dreary hours in the
twenty-four when the shadow of death is darkest,
when despondency is strongest, and when hope is
and before you gauge the good that
weakest, before you gauge the good that is done by
done by every shilling that you bestow
reallythis
ws t
ltlubt ieo n ,
here to-night. (Cheers.) Add, more than all, that
the improvidence, the recklessness of the general
multitude of poor members of this profession, I
should say is a cruel conventional fable. (Cheers.)
And that there is no class of society the members of
which so well help themselves or so well help each
other. (Bear, hear.) Not in the whole grand
chapters of Westminster Abbey and York Minster,
not in the wholequadrangle of the Royal Exchange,
not in the whole list of members of the Stock Ex-
change, not in the Inns of Court, not in the College
of Physicians, not in the College of Surgeons can
there possibly be found more remarkable instances
of uncomplaining poverty, of cheerful, constant
self-denial, of the generous remembrance of the
claims of kindred and professional brotherhood, than
will certainly be found in the dingiest and dirtiest
concert-room, in the least lucid theatre—even in the
raggedest tent circus that was ever stained by
weather. (Cheers.) I have been twitted in print
before now with rather flattering actors when. I
address them as one of their trustees at their General
Fund dinner. Believe me, I flatter nobody, unless
it be sometimes myself ; but, in such a company as
the present, I always feel it my manful duty to bear

my testimony to this fact—first, because it is op-
posed to a stupid, unfeeling libel ; secondly, because
my doing so may afford some slight encouragement
to the persons who are unjustly depreciated ; and
lastly, and most of all, because it is the truth.
,Cheers.) Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time
we should what we professionally call " ring down"
on these remarks. If you, such members of the
general public as are here, will only think the great
theatrical curtain has really fallen and been taken
up again for the night on that dull, dark vault
which many cf us know so well ; if you will only
think of the theatre or other place of entertainment
as empty ; if you will only think of the " float," or
other gas fittings, as extinguished ; if you will only
think of the people who have beguiled you of an
evening's 'care, whose little vanities and almost
childish foibles are engendered in their competing
face to face with you for your favour—surely it
may be said their feelings are partly of your
making, while their virtues are all their own. If
you will only do this, and follow them out of that
sham placeinto the real world, where it rains real
rain, snows real snow, and blows real wind ; where
people sustain themselves by real money, which is
much harder to get, much harder to make, and very
much harder to give away than the pieces of tobacco
pipe in property bags—(laughter)—if you will only
do this, and do it in a really kind, considerate spirit,
this society, then certain of the result of the night's
proceedings, can ask no more. I beg to propose to
you to drink " Prosperity to the Dramatic, Eques-
trian, and Musical Sick Fund Association. (Cheers.)

The toast was drunk with three times three.

The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the next toast, said
—Gentlemen, as I addressed myself to the ladies
last time, so I address you this time, and I give you
the delightful assurance that it is positively my last
appearance but one on the present occasion. A
certain Mr. Pepys, who was Secretary to the Admi-
ralty in the days of Charles 11., who kept a diary
well in shorthand, which he supposed no one could
read, and which consequently remains to this day
the most honest diary known to print—Mr. Pepys
had two special and very strong likings, the ladies
and the theatres. But Mr. Pepys, whenever he
committed any slight act or remissness or any little
peccadillo which was utterly and wholly untheatri-
cal, used to comfort his conscience by recording a
vow that he would abstain from the theatres for a
certain time. In the first part of Mr. Pepys' cha-
racter I have no doubt we fully agree with him ; in
the second I have no doubt we do not. I learn this
experience of Mr. Pepys from remembrance of a
passage in his diary that. I was reading the other
night, from which it appears that he was not only
curious in pllys, but curious in sermons ; and
that one night when he happened to be walking
past St. Dustan's Church, he turned, went in, and
heard what he calls " a very edifying discourse,"
during the delivery of which discourse he notes in
his diary "I stood by a pretty young maid, whom
I did attempt_to take by the hand." (Laughter.)
But he adds, " She would not, and I did perceive
that she had pins in her pocket with which to prick
me if I should touch her again—(laughter)—and
was glad that Ispied her design." Afterwards,about
the close of the same edifying discourse Mr. Pepys
found himself near another pretty, fair young maid,
who would seem upon the whole to have had no pins,
and to have been more impressible. Now, the moral of
this story which I wish to suggest to you is, that we
have been this evening in St. James's much more
timid than Mr. Pepys was in St. Dunstan's, and
that we have conducted ourselves very much better.
(Laughter.) As a slight recompense to us for our
highly meritorious conduct, and as a little relief to
our charged hearts, I beg to propose that we devote
this bumper to invoking a blessing on the ladies.
(Cheers.) It is the privilege of this society annually
to hear a. lady sneak for her own Re"( ((;hoore )
Who so competent to do this as Mr. Stirling ? (Re-
newed cheering). Surely one who has so gracefully
and captivatingly, with such an exquisite mixture of
art, and fancy, and fidelity represented her own sex
in innumerable charities, under an infinite variety of
phases, cannot fail to represent them well in her own
character, especially when it is, amidst her many
triumphs, the most agreeable of all. (Cheers.) I beg
to propose to you " The Ladies," and I will couple
with that toast the name of Mrs. Stirling. (Cheers.)

The toast was drunk enthusiastically. -
Mrs. STIRLING, who on rising to acknowledge the
toast was most warmly received, spoke as follows :
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—You have
thought fit to couple my name with the ladies. Now,
for that act I retort by charging you with high trea-
son to St. Valentine and his day. You are the last
man to deserve pardon for the offence, for you have
shown, by your witty aid eloquent allusions, that
you had the day and its duties fully in your mind.
It is treason, I say, to St. Valentine and his day to
couple anything with the ladies but the gentlemen.
And talking of St. Valentine—in these days of ar-
chaeology, ecclesiology, and all the other ologies—
isn't it a great reproach to our learned men that they
have not been able to discover why St. Valentine
should be selected as patron of the sweethearting
and billet-douxing which goes on to-day through the
post. I'll be bound the ladies would not have been
so long in finding the reason. Indeed, I believe the
first lady who ever tried to find it did find it, and
as Peg Woffington might say, "Sure, that's myself."
I'll tell it you. But mind, I give you all notice—
the reporters in particular—that the discovery, like
our ghosts and our sensation effects, is copyright
and patent. No ; if it was patent, anybody might
have found it out, only they havn't. Well,
this is my discovery. I made it by the help of the
old lives of the saints, called the " Golden Legend."
It told me, first, that St. Valentine was a saint and
martyr of the time of Claudius. Now, there seemed
something to the point even in that. Most young
ladies are disposed to make saints of their sweet-
hearts, and vice versa; and if valentines lead to the
Temple of Hymen, as so many of them do, not a
few wives are quite ready to make martyrs of their
husbands, and vice versa. But that didn't satisfy
me. Reading further, I found that St. Valentine's
great miracle was opening a blind young girl's eyes,
and then I felt I had it. Love is blind, they say.
I say, au contraire young ladies are blind to the
merits of the gentlemen till love opens their eyes for
them, and Cupid works quite as great miracles in
that way as ever St. Valentine did ; and that, I take
it, is the reason why St. Valentine is Cupid's father
confessor, and his day the love-letter day of the
calendar. As this is the first public dinner at which
the ladies have been invited to sit down with the
gentleman, what day can be more appropriate for
its celebration than St. Valentine's ? I hope every
gentlemen present has come prepared not only with
his subription, but with his Valentine, to slip into
the hand of the fair lady at his side. If any of you
have come unprepared with the necessary documents,
instead of a billet dour slip a billet do banque into
her hand, to be added to her subscription. I defy
you to find a better way of paying your addresses ;
for what better love letters than £ s. d., when they
go on an errand of mercy like subscriptions to this
charity? But to-day, as we have been reminded, is
Ash Wednesday as well as St. Valentine's Day.
We actors and actresses should be the last persons
to be startled by the coincidence. How many of
our days, in the earlier stages of our career at least,
are like this consecrated at once to love making in
play and in public, and to fasting in sorry earnest
at home! Our object to-day is not feasting, but
charity. If there be feeding, let it not be ours only,
but that of the hungry mouths your benevolence
will help to fill. There used to be Lenten oratorios.
Let our Lenten oratorio be the chorus of grateful
prayers that your kindness will call forth—the
songs of thankfulness from the sick and the suffer-
ing—the widow and the orphan—from those who,
but for you, might be abandoned—those whom,
Ibut for your timely aid, might sink into the sad
ranks of the forlorn and the despairing. And now,
sir, in the name of the ladies, what am I to say to

you that is at once as pretty as the faces about me
and as rgrateful as my own heart? You have
coupled my name with the ladies, but hew are the
ladies bound to couple your name with theirs, not
here only, but all the world over, as the creator of
so many pure and beautiful pictures of wotnanhood
—between whom, if zlot between you and our sex,
should be established the title of " our mutual
friend ?" Gentlemen, you have kindly drunk our
healths. Let me, for self and sisters, say to you,
in the words of Rip Van Wrinkle, " Here is your
good belt's, and your families—and may they live
long and prosper !"

Loud and long continued cheering followed the
conclusion of this lady's admirable speech, the effect
of which it is hardly necessary to say was immensely
enhanced by her charming elocution and arch grace.
The concluding toast of the evening was the
health of the Chairman, proposed in eloquent terms
by Mr. Sergeant Ballantine, and briefly acknow-
ledged by Mr. Dickens.

The speaking was judiciously abridged to give
time for the enjoyment of a varied programme of
dancing—an innovation which was fully appreciated
by the fairer portion of the guests. There was a
well-selected programme of music, performed by
Miss Rose llersce, Miss Julia Derby, Mr. Patey,
Mr. W. Harrison, Mr. Paul Bedford, and other
artistes.

Mr. J. F. Toole performed con anzorc the duties
of toastmaster.

The Loss of the Steamer London.

The official inquiry into the circumstances under
which the London foundered in the Bay of Biscay
on the 11th ult. was resumed and concluded, as far
as taking evidence was concerned, yesterday, before
Mr. Traill, the Police Magistrate, at Greenwich,
and Captain Harris and Captain Baker, as nautical
assessors.

Mr. O'Dowd, as usual, conducted the proceedings
on behalf of the Board of Board, by whose orders
the inquiry was instituted.
On the opening of the court agentlen-ian who stated
himself to be Mr. John Clare, jun., the inventor and
patentee of her Majesty's iron screw steam frigate
the Warrior, addressed the magistrate and said he
had been " allured" by some letters in the news-
papers to come forward and make a statement.
Mr. Traill said he could not be allowed to make
a statement, but if he had anything to suggest he
might confer with the gentleman who represented
the Board of Trade, and who might call him, if
necessary, as a witness.
Mr. O'Dowd, after briefly conferring with the
gentleman, declined to examine him.
Mr. Clam then attempted to address the Court,
but

Mr. Trail said that, although he was quite ready
to hear him if he had any useful suggestions to
offer, yet he could not be permitted to make a mere
statement.

Benjamin Sheals, au able seaman, on board the
London at the time she went down, was further
examined as to the course of the ship from the
Tuesday to the Thursday when the catastrophe oc-
curred, and said that while he was on deck, both on
Tuesday and Wednesday, she was always up to the
wind, and never before the wind. On Tuesday
night or early on Wednesday morning she was
brought round to the port tack, having been pre-
viously on the starboard tack. Ile repeated that on
Thursday morning he saw the skylight on the star-
board side of the ship broken all to pieces.
Mr. T. Wilson, a retired shipbroker, who was
examined on Tuesday, gave additional evidence yes-
terday, and said that if the ship, as hail been stated
in evidence, was drawing 20ft. 3in. amidships when
she left Gravesend, it was quite clear she was much
fnn bonvily lotion 7t. mils an iinpnrfstrit -rank ton,
that she had no stormsails on board. Such a ship
ought to have carried stormsails independent of any
other sails. In his opinion the main cause of the ship
foundering was her being overladen. The ship could
not rise to the sea, and consequently the sea came
over her. Looking at the section of the ship pro-
duced, he thought her load-line was too high up by
18in. She was too long and too deep for her beam.
Six times the width was quite enough for the length
of a vessel. He was aware that a different system
had prevailed within the last 10 years, so that the
London was by no means an exception, but rather
the rule, since that period. He was opposed to this
new system of building ships, and was surprised the
Messrs. Wigram should have so entirely adopted it.
Wm. Daniels, the quartermaster of the London,
was further examined as to the tack of theship, and
said that, having been put on the port tack, she
about half-pastlo onThursday morning was put on
the starboard tack again, andremained on that tack
till she went down. That was the only time she was
put before the wind. The reason for putting her on
that tack was to bring the boats to leeward. The
wind at the time was N.N.E. on the port tack .
Mr. R. Galloway, engineer surveyor to the Board
of Trade, said it did not appear to him the engineers
on board the London adopted the usual course when
water came into the engine-room ; they ought to
have changed the suction valves of the centrifugal
pump.
Mr. Traill—But the fires were out.
Mr. Galloway said he could not understand how
the fires could be put out by one sea.
Mr. Traill—But there was a succession of seas.

The, witness then qualifiedhis statement by saying
that the suction valves ought to have been changed
if it were practicable to get at them. The water in the
engine-room ought to have been run into the bilge,
and the engineers ought to have been prepared for ,
such an emergency. Mr. Galloway then expressed
a general concurrence in the views taken by Mr.
Barber, who was examined on a former day.
The Rev. Rion G. Benson, of Hope Bowdler
Rectory, Shropshire, said he had a brother, 23 years
of age, who had gone on board the ill-fated vessel,
and was lost. Witness accompanied him to Ply
mouth to see him off. The ship was within the
breakwater, and it struck him that she was very,
very low in the water, especially for a ship that had
been advertised for conveying passengers. Instead
of having to walk up the ladder to get on board,
they had to walk upon the ladder lying in a reverse
direction, and almost at a level with the deck of the
ship. She appeared to be very heavily laden, and
after he had parted from his brother he wrote home
to his father stating to him the fact of the ship being
so very low in the water.
Mr. O'Dowd having explained that he had not
been able to bring forward Captain Price, of the
Courier, said it was the wish of the friends of Capt.
Martin that some testimony should be given as to
the character he bore and the qualifications he 1)08-
sessed as a commander of a ship.
Capt. Robert Roe, of Lynmouth, North Devon,
then came forward and said that he was now al
county magistrate, but had formerly been engaged
in the merchant service, and from 1810 to 18l
had served with Capt. Martin in some of M'es6srhse.
IVigram's ships, Capt. Martin being his junior,
either as fourth, third, or second officer; and while
they were together he was alway
s very attentive to
his duty, and also an exceedin good sailor and
officer. He was a skilful and careful man,
and a
very proper man to take charge of a ship.
O'Dowd said that, in announcing to the
Court that he had no further evidence to offer, he
should say a very few words indeed. With respect
to the ship's structure and seaworthiness, her en-
gines and efficient working, her rigging, masts, &c.,
her cargo, and her having satisfied every require-
ment of the Passengers' Acts, he believed he had
produced the best possible evidence, and such as he
thought would be considered quite satisfactory.
But he was bound to say, with respect to the evi-
dence of the crew, it was by no means that which
could have been expected and desired. That, how-
ever, was clearly no fault of his ; he had had a very
limited sphere from which to select his witnesses,