The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 8, 1866.

it to apply to male passengers, as the crew were on
deck. It was ordered that all the sails be put up,
and they were engaged about two hours in putting
them up. Previously all the mattresses and beds
available were procured and stuffed in the hatch-
way. The captain said the only chance for the ship
was by shutting up the hatchway. He and other
passengers remained at the pumps from Thursday
morning at daylight until the donkey-engine was
set to work between nine and ten o'clock. At 1
p.m. on Thursday he met the captain, and said,
" Captain, is there any use in bailing ?" Captain
Martin looked into the engine-room, and said,
" You may, but I think there is no use." Shortly
afterwards he saw there was no chance for the ship,
and he got ready on deck to avail himself of the
first chance for an escape from the vessel.
In reply to Mr. Traill,
Mr. Wilson said he saw the skylight on the lee
side of the ship on Thursday morning, and, without
a minute inspection, he thought it looked whole—at
least, it was so far as the framework was concerned.

This concluded Mr. Wilson's examination, and
the court adjourned.

Yesterday, shortly after the sitting of the court,
John Munro, one of the three surviving passengers,
was examined. He detailed the events which took
place after the ship's departure from Plymouth as
previously narrated by the other witnesses. He said
that while he was working at the pumps on the
night prior to the disaster attention was called to the
absence of several of the crew from the pumps, and
it was ascertained that2l sailors were ill, orreported
as such by the boatswain. Before the London left
Gravesend he noticed that she lay very deep in the
water, and as she proceeded on her voyage he ob-
served an utter absence of buoyancy, as well as the
stability necessary in rough weather, which he had
observed in other ships.
In reply to Mr. Traill, the witness said he had
been brought up to the sea, but had abandoned it
as a profession in 1857. Ho had been connected
with the China and India trade.

David Goran Main, another passenger of the Lon-
don, was 'text produced. He said that when he got
on board at Gravesend he was impressed with the
ship's incapacity for a Melbourne voyage. The
'tween decks were never dry at any period after the
departure from Gravesend. The hatchways were
not such as any passenger ship should have, as they
could not be battoned down, to prevent the ingress
of water, without shutting out air from the passen-
gers, and persons requiring to get on deck would be
subjected to a great deal of inconvenience, inasmuch
as they should crawl on their hands and knees over
a lot of freight to gain a passage to the after-cabin,
and from thence to the poop on to the deck. On
Wednesday morning witness knew the ship would
never reach land, and, as he felt exhausted, he went
to change his clothes and to go to sleep, as he thought
it was better to go down when asleep than in any
other manner. (Laughter.)

Mr. Traill remarked that it must have been next
to an impossibility to have thought of sleep at such
a time ?

Witness—Well, all I know is, that I never had
such a comfortable sleep in all my life. (Laughter.)
The witness, in continuation, observed that many of
the sailors were foreigners, and did not understand
the orders given them.

Mr. O'Dowd, addressing the court, said he found
that the inquiry had lasted nine days, and that no
fewer than 30 witnesses had been examined under
the various heads into which the proceeding had
been divided. After an investigation of such length,
and the examination of so many witnesses, it might
appear unreasonable on his part to ask the court for
a further adjournment ; but notwithstanding all the
exertions in his power to complete the evidence that
day, he still found there were many material points
of the inquiry respecting which it was absolutely ne-
cessary to adduce some supplementary testimony.
He should endeavour to have that evidence in ac-
cordance with what had fallen from the court, and
confined to the strict issues which they were to in-
quire into and adjudicate upon. Some of the wit-
nesses resided at a distant part of the kingdom, and
he would ask the court to adjourn the proceedings
to Monday next, when everything would have been
gone into to snti.,:fy thn Dnhlin. who ha(l looked iiDon
everything that had been said in that court with a
very deep interest.
Mr. Traill said the court would of course accede
to the adjournment, and give every opportunity for
an entire elucidation of the melancholy circumstances
of the wreck. lle thought it would be desirable to
have the captain of the vessel which passed the Lon-
don in the afternoon of Wednesday, so that they
might ascertain the course of the ship at the time.

Mr. O'llowd said he had ascertained that the ves-
sel which had passed the London before the disaster,
as stated by one of the witnesses (the midshipman),
was the brigantine Courier, from Newport, South
Wales, to Plymouth. The captain's name was Price,
and the ship arrived at Plymouth on Jan. 23, to
discharge cargo, and if the captain were in the coun-
try, he would have him produced for examination.
The court then adjourned to Monday next, at
12 o'clock.

Society of Arts.

At the ordinary weekly meeting last evening,
John Hawkshaw, Esq., C.E., the chairman of the
council, presiding, the diseussion was resumed upon
the paper brought before the society on the Ist of
December last by Mr. Hawes, " On the proposal
that the railways should be purchased by Govern-
ment."

The a paper by Mr. Edwin
Chadwick, subject
c . wasß. opened
who
took by
strong
rong
views as to the
advantages he considered would be derived from
Government management—views to which the
meeting generally appeared to be adverse. He said
—A system may be correctly judged by its out-
come. The general promise to original shareholders
by railway directors has been 10 per cent. The
actual traffic has generally been vastly beyond all
previous estimates, yet the return has averaged little
more than 3 per cent. They would consequently
have benefited if they had kept their money in the
public funds. Any government which had presented
such a failure, such a contract of performance with
promise as has been done by the majority of the
railway directors, must have been irretrievably
driven from power amidst general indignation.
Wfiilst such has been the outcome of the manage-
ment of the boards to the shareholders, the out-
come of servants, officers, and leading private en-
terprises in public functions, is in frequent princely
fortunes, displayed in estates, like those of peers,
bespread over the country. Mr. Hawes, in ad-
vancing the position that our Government, as it
exists, is incapable of doing what is done by the
constitutional governments of Belgium, Wurtem-
burg, the Swiss Republic, not to speak of what is
done by France, Austria, and Germany, would, if
he succeeded, establish the conclusion that ours is a
Government which, as an obstacle to the most im-
portant progress and freedom of trade, it behoves
us to change. He repudiated any intention of such
direct government management. When discussing
the subject with public officers as a legislative and
administrative question, about the time of the com-
pletion of the first main lines, he then proposed
that the Government, on proper consultation, should
mark out the main lines of communication, raise
' money on the public security, and let out thoselines
to be farmed, and lease them to be worked on con-
tract by the best bidders, as was afterwards donein
France and Belgium, where, be it known, the cost
of construction, as stated in official returns, was
£16,000 per mile in Belgium, in France £25,000
per mile, against £39,000 per mile in England ;
with railway fares, for the like quality of carriages,
nearly one-third less to the public ; with dividends
in Belgium of about 54- per Cent., and in France
nearly 7 per cent., as against little more than 3 per
cent. to original shareholders in England. He then
instanced four presidents of the Institute of Civil
Engineers, Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. Locke, Mr.
Bidder, and Mr. M'Clean, as being in favour of Go-
vernment management. He continued, that it was a
surprising delusion in which a claim is set up on be-
half of the railway directorates of serving the post,
by an average exaction of 4s. 10d. per mile for the
conveyance of mails by railways, as against an ave-
rage of 25., for which the service is rendered by mail
coaches ; that is to say, as was proved, the mouopo-