The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-06 00:00:00

The Wreck of the Steamer Ceres.

The Board of Trade inquiry into the circumstances
attending the wreck of the Ceres steamer off Cam-
sore Point, on the coast of Ireland, on the evening
of the 10th November, resulting in the loss of the
lives of 29 passengers and 9 of the crew, was yester-
day concluded at the Greenwich police-court, before
Mr. Traill, police magistrate, and Captains Harris
and Baker, nautical assessors.
Mr. Hamil, barrister, was in attendance on behalf
of the Board of Trade ; and Mr. G. Gottingham,
barrister (instructed by Mr. Gellatly), attended for
Captain Pascoe, commander of the ill-fated steamer;
and Mr. Cooper (of the firm of Clarkson and Cooper,
Doctors'-commons), for the owners, Messrs. Mal-
colm on Brothers, merchants, Portlaw, Waterford.
Mr. Cottingbam, on behalf of Captain Pascoe,
handed in a statement prepared accounting for the
loss of the ship, and which was read by Mr. Boustred,
the chief clerk. It was very lengthy. After allud-
ing to the fact of having been for the last 21 years a
master mariner, and being particularly well ac-
quainted with the route from London to Dublin, hav-
ing made it over 100 voyages, the statement proceeded
as follows :—On the 10th November last I left Fal-
mouth for Dublin in the Ceres at 12.30 a.m. with pas-
sengers and the usual complement of men. The
weather was fine and wind variable. Iwas in charge
of the vessel coming out of Falmouth Harbour, the
tide being first of flood. I left the deck at half-past 2
for rest, giving orders to be called at 4 o'clock. I
was called at 4 o'clock, and resumed my duties on
deck, remaining in personal charge of the ship
until the wreck. At 6.15 a.m. we passed the Long-
ships Lighthouse, bearing east about half a mile. I
then, as was my custom, set the patent log, and
ordered the usual course, NNE, to clear the Smalls
and Tuskar. At this time the weather was fine, and
the ship under full steam, with mainsail set, run-
ning from 91 to 10 knots per hour. At about 1 p.m.
the weather became overcast with small rain, and it
began to blow from Sby W. At 4.25 I ordered
the patent log to be taken on board and registered.
It showed 103 miles, which, with an allowance of 10
per cent. always made, gave a distance run of 113 k
miles. The ship was then in the same course, and
which had not been altered. At the time of regis-
tering the log I computed that we were 14 miles
north of the Smalls. We did not sight this light,
as it was raining heavily. As the vessel griped so
much to the eastward I ordered the mainsail to be
lowered, and slowed the ship, running under steam
only. At 5.30 p.m. I ordered the mainsail to be
double-reefed and set ; and at 5.45 p.m. 1 directed
the ship's course to be altered to NE by N, and the
engines to be slowed to avoid collision, as the weather
was setting in thicker, with heavy rain. During the
whole of the day I set a double-look-out, one on the
forecastle and one on the bridge, with myself and
second mate, the lee wheelmen being at their sta-
tions. I dined on the bridge, and never left the
deck for any purpose whatever. At 6.15 p.m., I
discovered breakers ahead, and instantly ordered the
helm hard a-port, and telegraphed to stop the
engines. The orders were at once obeyed, and in
about one minute after the ship struck heavily, the
weather f.t.c the time being thick, with small rain,
and the wind S. by W. Although the weather was
thick it was not so dense but what I could see, as I
thought, about two or three miles, and this is proved
by the fact of my observing a light on shore about
two miles distant, the weather being in the same
condition as when the ship struck. I did not expect
to see the Tuskar, as from the course steered and dis-
tance run I calculated we should pass that light
ten maw to the southward and eastward. I had
frequentlp made the same pass age under precisely
similar circumstances, and never found myself half
a mile off my position. In thick weather it was
my habit to le,a.ve the lead when approaching the
land or in its neighbourhood. It was not custo
mary to take a cast of the lead in this passage un
_ _

passing the Tuskar, or nuleiis there is reason Co doubt
the position of the ship, of which I had not the
slightest suspicion on the night in question. The
moment the ship struck I ordered the engines full
speed ahead on the beach, and the ship immediately
listed off to sea heavily. The sea then made a com-
plete breach over the ship, washing some of the
cabin and deck passengers overboard, and swamp-
ing three boats away, the ship breaking in two aft,
in the engine space, thus shutting off all communi-
cation between the aft and 'rnidship part of the ship.
The starboard lifeboat was carried off the saloon
deck by a heavy sea. I then ordered the port life-
boat to be got over the side, but in doing so it was
stove in. Blue lights were then burned, and we dis-
covered the vessel was on the main rocks. Ropes
were instantly lowered to the beach, and by their
means 26 of the passengers and crew were saved. I

did all in my power to save life, and afterwards the
property in the ship. The ship struck about amile
to the westward of Cansore Point, 20 miles out of
the course steered—a distance so great that no hypo-
thesis of tide or current could possibly account fur.
T
way in which I can account for this
casualty, lyualotyn,after having given all the facts connected

with it the maturest consideration, is that the ship's
compasses must have been astray. There were two
compasses: on board ; one on the bridge the other
on the binnacle. That on the bridge was the stan-
dard compass, and on every course except that of
east and west there was half a point deviation.
Down to the time of the wreck the compasses had
given me no reason to doubt their accuracy ; that
is, I observed no variation in them from for-

mer voyages. Ido not assert that the compasses
that I cannot account
were wrong. I simply say

for the position in which the ship found herself
on the night of the 10th November on any other
supposition. It may be assumed that the ship was
set some miles to the westward of her course by the
ebb tide from the Bristol Channel, but my long ex-
perience in this trade has invariably proved to me
that the ebb tide in this part of our seas has always
been counteracted by the flood in the passage be-
tween the Longships and the Tuskar, and more es-

pecially when accompanied by a south and westerly
. _

wind, thus giving the ship her true course.

While

deeply deploring the catastrophe which has befallen
the vessel lately under my command, I cannot

charge myself with any default in her navigation.
It had been my habit at all times to use the lead

whenever I felt the slightest doubt as to my posi-
tion. Had I felt any doubt on this occasion I
would not have neglected so obvious a precaution,

and the anxiety 1 felt in the performance of my
duty, attested by my constant attendance on deck,
affords the best proof that I did all in my judgment
for the safety of the lives and property entrusted to
me.

Counsel having been heard,

The Court retired, and after an absence of up-
wards of an hour returned, when Mr. Boustred, the
chief clerk, read the judgment arrived at as follows:
—ig The Court, after an anxious consideration of
all the circumstances attending the fatal disaster of
the loss of the Ceres, feels it to be its painful duty
to pronounce Capt. Pascoe, the masterof that ship,
guilty of a default. The Ceres took her departure
from abreast of the Longships, shaping her course
NNE, to pass the Smalls. That course was expected
to carry the ship to the westward, clear of the Smalls,
and to the eastward, clear of the Tuskar. Not having
sighted the Smalls he kept that course till 5.40 p.m.,
when he hauled out a point to the eastward, upon which
course he stood till the ship went aground at 6.20p.m.
on Carnsore Point, a spot at a meridianal distance of '
20 miles from his supposed position at that time. To
account for this deviation it is surmised that there
was an error in the bridge compass by which the
ship was steered. There is, however, no evidence
of such error, and if it had existed it would, in all
probability, have been discovered in the previous
part of the voyage, when making the ports of Ports-
mouth,
Plymouth, and Falmouth, or the sighting
the Longships.
It is, indeed, possible that the ship
may have been carried westward of her course by
the tide, which was ebbing from 5.30 till past mid-
day. It is precisely to counteract the risk of acci-
dents from defects of compasses, influence of tides
or currents, or other such contingencies, that the

use of the lead is so indispensable when the weather
is so thick that objects cannot be seen ; and there-
fore, from whatever cause the deviation in this case
arose, it will not furnish an excuse for the neglect
to take soundings. The Smalls light was not
sighted, and the master ought to have known that
he was much to the westward, inasmuch as at
the time he passed that lighthouse the weather
was sufficiently clear to see a distance of some
miles. It was therefore his duty to have sounded
at all events, before running his distance so far as
the Tuskar, as in the then state of the weather he
could not have expected to sight that light at any
considerable distance. There is theiess excuse for
this neglect, as the proper channel from the Smalls
to the Tuskar is marked by a well defined line of
deep soundings. A glance at the chart would have
shown the master that if the soundings shoaled made
40 fathoms, as he proceeded he was running into
danger. llad, therefore, a cast of the lead been
taken at 5.20 p.m., when the mainsail was reefed, or
afterwards at 5.40, when the ship was hauled up a
point to the eastward, or lastly when the engines were
slowed to half speed, ten minutes or a quarter of an
hour before the ship went ashore, he would have been
warned of the danger in time to avoid it. The
Court, therefore, is compelled to come to the conclu-
sion that the loss of the ship must be attributed to thc
default of Capt. Pascoe in not using his lead, which
the circumstances imperatively demanded. The
judgment of the Court is that the certificate of Cap-
tain Pascoe be suspended, and it is hereby sus-
pended, for the period of two years from this date.
The Court would have given due weight to the high
testimonial and character of Captain Pascoe had
this been a case that would have permitted them to
do so." The proceedings then terminated.

ST. ANDREW'S DAY.

-
The 30th of November is a red-letter day with
Scotchmen, who celebrate it as their patron saint
day, wherever the adventurous spirits of that
country may be settling—and that is over the
world's wide domain. Indeed, according to an
accepted aphorism, the Geographical Society is
ignorant of the spot where a Scot is not found.
In London the occasion is taken advantage of by
the Scottish Hospital, for the augmentation of its
funds; therefore it wisely fulfils objects both of a
charitable gathering as well as a social one, and
which it has been accustomed to do for upwards of
two hundred years, it having been instituted in the
reign of the First Charles, and to which pre-
cedence it is worthily entitled, as the amount
of its usefulness in administering relief to the
Scottish poor of the metropolis and its vicinity
is incalculable, and never so apparent as since the
accession to office of the present secretary (Mr. M.
Moir), whose vigorous management, aided by in-
dustrious assistants, has had marked improvement
on the financial condition of the treasury, as also on
the discipline of the whole institution.
The income from all sources, including a balance
of £3lB from last year, and the produce of sale of
stock, amounted to £6,545, and the expenditure to
£5,627 16s. ld., leaving a balance in hand of £916
17s. 6d. The sums paid to pensioners, casual ap-
plicants for passages to Scotland, and for the edu-
cation of the children of Scotsmen resident in Lon-
don during the year amounted to £3,308 4s. Gd.
There had been a failing off in the annual subscrip-
tions of £4 Bs., and in donations of £4BO 12s. 9d.,
the figures being—annual subscriptions, 1865, £B9B
155.; ditto, 1866, £B9l 75.; donations, 1865, £1,582
125.; ditto, 1866, £l,lOl 19s. 3d. In consequence of
the commercial crisis many subscriptions and dona-
tions promised and expected have not been received.
While the fluctuating income of the year has been
diminished, it would be seen from the balance-sheet
that the expenditure had been increased. The
distress consequent on the state of trade and the
cholera combined had caused special and urgent de-
mand upon the funds. The amount given away
during the year to pensioners and casual applicants
had exceeded that of 1865 by £279 145., and of 1864
by £BB7 10s. Bd., the totals being, 1861, £2,319 Is.
3d. ; 1865, £2,925 17s. 11d. ; and 1866, £3,205 11s.
11d. One hundred and sixty-two individuals have
been added to the permanent list of these in receipt
of the benefit of the charity, whi!st upwards of 700
additional persons have received casual assistance.
On Friday night last, according to ancient cus-
tom, the subscribers and friends, to the number of
250, dined together at the Freemasons"favern,
under the presidency of Lieut.-Col. Loyd-Lindsay,
M.P., supported right and left by Lord Eieho,
Lieut.-Col. the Hon. C. Lindsay, the Hon. Joseph
Howe, Sir W. Ferguson, Charles Mackay, LL.D.,
Dr. Ramsay, Charles Macdonald, Esq., Dr. D.
Fraser, Lieut. Dalziel, Capt. Henderson, Jas. Grant,
Esq., Alex. Grant, Esq., John Grant, Esq., Dr.
Hogg, Robert Hepburn, Esq., D. W. Mackenzie,
Esq. ; and in addition to whom, and what added
much interest to this meeting, was the presence of
the gentlemen who arc Commissioners at pre-
sent to this country from British America on the
Colonial Confederation scheme, namely, the Hon.
James Home, W. Arnaud, the Hons. W. Henry, J.
Bitch, P. Mitchell, and C. Fisher.

During the evening the proceedings were agree-
ably interrupted by the arrival of telegraph mes-
sages of congratulation from various cities and
towns of both islands, while similar despatches were
transmitted to the St. Andrew Societies of Canada
and New Yolk.

The usual loyal toasts were proposed and received
with enthusiastic acclamation. Col. Lindsay, of the
St. George's Rifles, responded for the Army and
Volunteers.

The Secretary then announced the list of sub-
scriptions to amount to nearly £2,000, among the
principal subscribers to which were the Queen, 100
guineas, in addition to £2,730 previously given by
her Majesty ; the Prince of Wales, 50 guineas ; the
Duke of Buccleuch, 50 guineas, in addition to 170
guineas ; the chairman (Col. Lindsay), 50 guineas;
Lord Overstone, 20 guineas.

This announcement was received with prolonged
cheering.

Lord ELCIIO afterwards proposed, in his pecu-
liarly happy manner, "The Health of the Chair-
man," and in the course of a highly humorous
speech, that elicited frequent bursts of applause,
he referred to the " hair breadth 'stapes" and deeds
of valour of the gallant colonel ten years ago,
whereby he bud earned the Victoria Cross (the sol-
dier's ambition) with which his breast was now
adorned ; and_observed, with reference to the volun-
teers, that nothing had tended more to raise that

movement than the fact of officers of the army not
considering itbeneath their dignity to become colonels
of the volunteers. The toast was drunk in the
Scottish fashion, and with Highland honours, Mr.
Donald Mackenzie, in the voice of Stentor, giving
the accompanying honours.
Sir WILLIAM FERGUSON proposed the other Scot-
tish Societies of the metropolis, viz., the Highland
Society and the Caledonian Society—Dr. Ramsay
and Dr. Hogg replying for each respectively.
The Hon. J. Howe, and Mr. Henry, of Nova
Scotia, with Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Fisher, of New
Brunswick, in eloquent speeches expressed the plea-
sure the proceedings of that evening afforded
them, and dilated in touching terms on the enthu-

siasm, amounting even to devotion, with which
such festivals are celebrated all over their own ex-

tensive territories, where the Celtic surname of
Macdonald and Cameron " were as plenty as black-
berries."

Music there was, we might: almost say in super-
abundance, including the bands of the Scots Fusi-

liars
and Caledonian Asylum, Mr. Ross, the
Queen's piper, with Mr. Ransford and a chosen

company of vocalists, each of whom exercised the
utmost zeal to add their quota to the entertainment.

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TorEs.—Events have just occurred which will
revive the tragical story of President Lincoln's
death, and at the same time re-open questions con-
nected with that most embarrassing subject--the
extradition of suspected criminals. Among the
persons charged with complicity in the assassina-
tion was an American named Suratt, whose mother,
indeed, actually suffered the last penalty of the law
for her share in the crime. Suratt himself, how-
ever, effected his escape, and was lost sight of for
some time. It now appears that about the begin-
ning of the present year he enlisted in the Papal
army under the assumed name of Watson, and re-
mained in that service undiscovered till Midsum-
mer last. At that time he was suddenly recognised
by a countryman also serving under the Papal
colours, who presently communicated the informa-
tion to General King, the American Minister at
Rome. The General, it seems, did not venture to
act in the matter without reference to his Govern-
ment, but having at length received directions to
arrest the fugitive, he applied to Cardinal Antonelli
for the requisite authority. The Cardinal replied
that his Holiness must be consulted on such a ques-
tion, but that the Pontifical Government could have
no desire to screen a murderer from justice. A day
or two afterwards his Eminence gave orders for the
arrest of Suratt, who was actually apprehended, but
contrived to escape from his captors and to get safe
across the frontier into Neapolitan territory. On
this General King put himself in communication
with the Government of Florence, and after some
delay again obtained an order for the arrest, though
only, it is said, on condition that the life of the
prisoner should be spared. On Sunday, however,
the 18th of last month, the American Consul at
Naples received definite instructions by telegraph
to apprehend the fugitive, but it was too late.
Suratt had just left Naples by the Tripoli, a
Liverpool steamer, bound for Malta and Alex-
andria. Hereupon the telegraph was again
set at work, and the Consul-General of the United
States at Malta was directed to apprehend Suratt
while the Tripoli was in harbour. Accordingly,
this officer applied to the Maltese Government for
the necessary powers, hut was informed that there
was no sufficient authority for the suggested action.
Immediately afterwards the Tripoli left for Alex-
andria, and there, as we are now apprised, Suratt
has been actually seized and detained. In the pre-
sent state of our information on the subject it is
impossible to pass any opinion on the conduct of our
authorities at Malta, though it is obvious to con-
jecture that the conditions required by law for the
arrest and extradition of a fugitive could not have
been so completely satisfied by a telegraphic mes-
sage as to justify action at a moment's notice. If,
however, it should be anywhere assumed that we,
either through negligence or indifference, lost an
opportunity of doing what the Egyptians have clone,
the conclusion would assuredly be wrong. The law
of extradition is full of difficulties at the best, but it
is perfectly clear that the evidence and authority
required for the arrest of a fugitive would be the
same in all cases, whatever might be the nature of
the crime imputed. As good reason must be shown
for apprehending a murderer as for apprehending a
fraudulent bankrupt. We could not strain the law
in Suratt's case, whatever might be our detestation
of the crime laid to his charge. if the man has
met in Egypt the fate which he escaped in Malta,
that must be either because the Egyptian authori-
ties required less proof_ than we do, or because
greater proof was forthcoming. Not in the whole
of this kingdom would there have been any party
found to sympathise with an assassin. At the same
time it need not be disguised that certain subtle
questions might possibly have been raised if the ex-
tradition of Suratt had come in regular and formal
shape before our Government. In point of fact, it
was actually asked, in the recent debates upon the
Extradition Treaty with France,whether the murder
of President Lincoln was or was not a "political"
crime—the object of the question being to repre-
sent by such illustration the embarrassments by
which the proposed Conveation might be at-
tended. In compacts of this nature it would
be universally admitted that murder is a crime
unworthy of asylum, and yet universally re-
(piked that political refugees should be sheltered.
What, then, was to be done with a political mur-
derer ? What was to be the treatment of a man
whose offence was murder, but whose offending,
nevertheless, was in its origin and circumstances
entirely and purely political ? Nobody would deny
that the motives of Booth and his accomplices, in
concerting and perpetrating this horrible crime, were
political exclusively. The assassination was an in-
cident of the great rebellion, plotted and committed
in the cause of the Confederate insurgents, by them
regarded as patriotic, and not suggested by any of
the ordinary incentives to such atrocious deeds.
Was the crime, therefore, thus originating, a poli-
tical crime, and, as such, to be brought within the
limits of international protection ? 11'e answer,
without hesitation, that it would have deserved no
such shelter. Political offences may be clothed with
a character of their own, and yet it is certainly not
every offence which can be extenuated by a politi-
cal motive. There are things which are not to be
done in any cause, and murder is one of them.
Assassins masked as patriots have never found favour
in this country. With us murder is murder, and
cannot be mitigated by any explanatory epithet.
We have lately been discussing and analysing this
most heinous of crimes, and seem actually to have
arrived at some discriminations in the degrees of
guilt involved ; but we have never recognised such
a definition as political murder. We have always
acted, too, on the principle that a murder committed
with political views deserved hanging as much as
any other murder. For instance, the Cato-street
Conspiracy was concocted with political motives,
but the conspirators were promptly executed ; and
even in the present day, with all our leniency,
nothing woul I save such ruffians from the gallows,
except perhaps the fact that their designs were not
actually consummated by bloodshed.
PosT.—The Trades' Reform meeting which was
held in St. James's Hall on Tuesday last, professedly
for an expression of metropolitan opinion,can hardly
be considered so satisfactory for the advanced
Liberals as it was probably expected to be. Those
who were present could not fail to remark that the
prominent places were taken by Lancashire and
Ireland instead of London, and the only metropoli-
tan member who ventured to show his face was
driven away with menace and insult--an incident
which will not encourage any gentleman to make
speeches to working men, unless they are prepared
to abdicate the exercise of their own judgment and
accept without the slightest reserve the most violent
opinions of their audiences. Compliments to Lan-
cashire and to Ireland formed, indeed, a great fea-
ture of the proceedings, and were about equally
mixed with declamation about the rights of the
working man, which showed infinitely more zeal for
them than knowledge of them, and with denuncia-
tions of their opponents in which taste and the Eng-
lish language were alike violated in a remarkable
degree. It is lamentable that the working men
cannot find better leaders than the excited patriots
who mouthed and thumped at this meeting and on
the platforms at Beaufort House, for their violence
and vulgarity are calculated to throw discredit upon
the cause of which they have undertaken the con-
duct, and to lead to what, we are bound to assume,
is a very erroneous conception of the views and
objects of the working classes. Luckily, the re-
ports of the meeting occupy themselves chiefly
with the speeches made by Mr. Bright, Mr. T. B.
Potter, and Sir John Gray, which were at least
worthy of reasonable beings ; and the opinion
of the meeting and the proceedings is, there-
fore, likely to be higher among those who only
read of it than among those who actually attended
it. The Demonstration naturally came in for a
considerable share of attention. Mr. Potter judi-
ciously abstained—in the face of the reliable facts
which have been collected—from attempting to
show that the procession had come up to his pre-
vious predictions, but he took refuge in a fresh
assertion, which was, that " half a million of people
witnessed" it, and that those who did witness it
were " as much desirous of the attainment of the
object of Reformers as those who walked along."
This is rather a cool claim to set up ; and as Mr.
Potter explained that the meeting had been called
for the purpose of " argument and logic," it is to
be regretted that in seeking for the former element
he should have paid so little attention to the latter
as to infer that mere presence at a display is an evi-
dence of agreement with its object. Mr. Bright, in
a speech which formed, at any rate, a pleasing con-
trast in taste and English to those -delivered by his
associates, adverted to the advice which he gave
some eight years ago to the working classes to make
use of their trade organisations for the purpose of
political agitation, and he did not conceal his satis-
faction that his advice had been followed to an ex-
tent which has rendered those organisations sources
of something like disquiet to the advocates of law
and order. Mr. Bright knew, he says, that the re-
sults of his advice would be " of a very formidable
nature," and says, " it was precisely because it would
be of a formidable nature that I first recommended
it." This, if it signifies anything, signifies that Mr.
Bright is prepared to adopt any course, however
" formidable" it may be, in order to compass the
ends which he himself believes to be good, whatever
other people may think about them. The opinion
that is proper and justifiable for a public man to
raise up formidable bodies to overawe the Legisla-
ture of the country by an exhibition of physical
power (because that is what we are distinctly told
these things mean) into the adoption of his parti-
cular views, is one in which Mr. Bright is happily
singular ; and it is necessary to remember that, if

it be well-founded, its application may not alwiqg
be limited to the question of Reform and to
orderly processions of peaceable citizens through
the streets. It would, for instance, justify Mr*
Bright in stirring up the American Fenians to
invade Ireland, and in persuading the Iris'
themselves to rise and join them in order to promote,.
his wonderful scheme for the purchase and resale os
Irish land. As this catastrophe would perhaPs be
more imminent than that which we are told ill very
intelligible language will soon arrive for this count*
unless Mr. Bright's views on Reform are adopted:
there might be less readiness to provoke it, but
there is positively no difference in principle betwelll
..
the two things. Mr. Bright, it is true, ingenious
throws back upon his opponents the charge of being
a disturber of tranquillity and a promoter of ex;
citemeut ; but as his theory, that it is they and noel
he and his followers, who are the 4, troublesol
party in the nation," rests upon the assumption that
his opponents are wrong in seeking to withhold any
change that may be demanded, it is valueless 0
long as that assumption is questioned. The illus•
tration, too, of the dwellers in a hamlet on the slope
of Vesuvius refusing to be warned by Mr. Brig I
and being therefore responsible for the copse'
quences, will hardly be held to be a fair represents'
tion of the case by those who hold that Mr. Brighbe
is himself stirring up the crater at the very time ht
is warning others of the consequences. Mr. Brig f
trusts that those who are afraid of the cry °
" manhood suffrage" will no longer, after the orderly
display of Monday, " entertain any fear a these
,
people." Now, nobody does " entertain fear" of tu
people, if by the people is, meant such men as those
t
who mainly composed the procession; but the fact
that that is no argument for manhood suffrage is
sufficiently shown by the manner in which "the
people" were met and treated at Beaufort House
by the classes which are distinctively called " dan-
gerous," and which are as distinct asssible frl,
them in every respect, save in that po " manhood
which it is suggested should in itself constituvo
the right to vote. As Mr. Bright, however, bas
declared that he himself is not an advocate I?r
,
manhood suffrage, it was hardly fair in hiraiwo
impute fear of the people to others who may alb%
be adverse to it. Mr. Ayrton turned out to '-
rather of the nature of a wet blanket to the eothil.
siasm and unanimity of the meeting. His refereel
to her Majesty was certainly unwarrantable and in
the worst taste ; but it is most significant t'Ahl
when he made it he was cheered fully as much its
any of the most cherished opinions previously W 113,,
ciated ; and it was only when Mr. Bright rose.:7,
protest against it, and to say that he heard it wur,
" a sensation of wonder and of pain," that the meet'
ing became alive to its impropriety, and stultifieol_';,
self by cheering Mr. Bright's view of the matter
freely as it had previously cheered Mr. Ayrton s•
As the right to appropriate Hyde Park vas again
and again insisted upon, that gentleman deserves
the thanks of the public for endeavouring to sh,°"
the working men the legal state of the case, but 07.
enunciation of the undoubted truth that there. 4
" no question whatever as to the legal right of tf a
Government to take care of the public property,llo
that no set of men have a right to take the P.u,,,u it
property into their own possession, and deal Vilvil
as they pleased," was met with such a storm of auger
!,
as plainly showed that the working men will °I3
listen to opinions when they agree with their °WI'.
and the terms of opprobrium heaped upon
play
Ayrton will serve as a warning to those who Ind,
not have the advantage of holding the most a
vanced views to abstain from attending Ref°.o2
meetings.

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