The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

" THE LONDON REVIEW" ON THE FATAL COL-
LISION OFF DOVER.—The Board of Trade inquiry
into the collision between the mail packet Samphire
and the American barque Fanny Buck has termi-
nated in a manner satisfactory to Captain Bennett,
the commander of the Samphire, and to the com-
pany he serves, but hardly to the public. On the
night of the 13th ult. the Samphire left Dover for
Calais with the mails, 78 passengers, and a crew of
18 men. When about five miles from Dover har-
bour the Fanny Buck ran into her, and had it not
been that she was built in compartments, many
lives might have been lost ; for the American
barque did not stay to render assistance to the
Samphire, but held on her course with characteristic
Yankee indifference to any interests but her own.
It seems very doubtful whether the barque was sail-
ing with her proper lights, and, at at all events, it
would appear from the witnesses in her behalf, that
the night was clear enough to enable the crew of
the Samphire—and consequently the crew of the
Fanny Buck—to see half a mile off. Upon this
question, taking all the evidence, it appears to be
doubtful to what distance the crew of either ship
could see before them, If the night was clear
enough to see as far as the barque's witnesses
state, it is inconceivable how, with a proper look
out, the collision could have occurred. If, on the
other hand, it was so dark that a ship sailing with-
out lights could not be seen at more than 60 or
100 yards off, it becomes a most material question
whether the American barque displayed her proper
lights. If she did not, and the evidence leans strongly
in this direction, great blame will attach to her cap-
tain or to the mate—who, by the way, was a Dutch-
man—who commanded for him, he being ill in his
cabin. Indeed, whether we are to believe the case
for the Samphire or the case for the Fanny Buck,
the American bark was to blame, if it be true that
she sailed with insufficient lights. And even if she
can be excused upon this ground, there was a ras-
cally cowardice, an abominable callousness, in her
desertion of the ship which, through her act, was
apparently sinking, that nothing can excuse. The
scene on board the Samphire after the collision
seems to have been somewhat disgraceful. There is
too much reason to believe that the crew did not
behave with the unselfishness we are taught to ex-
pect from Ilrit;.l. ssailvAes , ..a ....-o rc". wu Lut.oe.t go
further and admit the probable truthfulness of the
statement that they positively deserted the ship.
The position of the Samphire was, it must be ad-
mitted. alarming. A sailing vessel had cut her
down to the water's edge, and had then, with the
ruthless indifference to life which, we sincerely re-
gret to say, is one of the most repulsive features of
American "morality," held on her course. Ina very
short time, in fact almost immediately, the head of
the Samphire went under water, so that her rudder
was lifted clean out of the water, while the sea
was washing forwards up to her funnel. This
position of affairs, perilous as it was, does not,
however, excuse the crew, who, possibly in-
fected by the Yankee example which had just been
set them, thought only of themselves. But if the
crew, with a very few exceptions, surrendered them-
selves to the panic, Captain Bennett maintained to
the full the honour of the British seaman. We are
glad to make this acknowledgment, because his
conduct in other respects is open to rebuke. If the
Yankee skipper or his, Dutch mate sinned against
the humanities of navigation, Captain Bennett
sinned against its prudence, and consequently
against its humanities too. His misconduct, in this
respect, comes so home to us, that we can hardly
afford to consider the great guilt of the people on
board the barque. The late civil war has given us
such repeated instances of the lofty indifference of
the American mind to human suffering that the
coolness with which the Fanny Buck left the Sam-
phire and her living freight—for all she knew or
cared—to sink, shocks, but does not in the least sur-
prise us. We have a right to judge English cap-
tains by a different and higher standard. By such
a standard Captain Bennett's navigation of his ship
on the night of his collision must be condemned. ,
It is the main point of his defence that the night
was so dark that the utmost caution was necessary,
and yet he was sailing his ship at its ordinary speed
—a very high speed. We take it that the inquiry
which has been held at Dover has not resulted
unjustly in the decision of the magistrates and
the nautical assessors, " that the captain of the
Samphire, who is solely responsible for the con-
duct and management of his vessel, is culpable
for having driven his vessel at so great a speed
across one of the most frequented narrow seas
in the world, on so dark and hazy a night
as that of the 13th of December." It is
true, they go on to say, that the attendant circum-
stances, and the default of the barque in not exhibit-
ing a sufficient light from her lamps, " to some
extent contributed to the damage and loss of life ;"
but it is really impossible to see how the imprudence
of a Yankee skipper can so excuse the imprudence
of the captain of an English mail packet as to free
him from any severer penalty than a mild reprimand,
qualified by an emphatic and glowing compliment.
Capt.. Bennett's judges have seen no reason why his
certificate should even be suspended.. And yet, in
despite of the most ordinary prudence, he was sailing
his ship on the night in question at a dangerous
speed—for what? To earn his employers a pre-
mium of £5 ! His defence is, that the night was a
dark and hazy night ; yet he was driving his vessel
at full speed. He had, himself included, almost a
hundred souls on board the Samphire, and to earn
£5 for the company, he risked their safety ; practi-
cally estimating them at something less than a shill-
ing per life. And this, we beg our readers to
observe, is the system on which the mail-packet
service between Dover and Calais is conducted. If
the ships keep their time, the company receives £5
premium for each voyage ; if they exceed it, it for-
feits £5. But so well do these captains serve it,
that the company, according to one good authority,
gains between three and four thousand a year by
premiums upon rapid and often unsafe voyages.
And if they aro to be complimented by their judges,
and have their certificates returned to them when
they have brought their ships to grief, and have lost
the lives of some at least of their passengers, we do
not see what control we can exert over them, or
how those who sail with them can be secured the
ordinary chances of escape from the dangers of the
deep.
THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE GOVERN-
MENT.—In general, a Government that is thought
weak is weak, because the expectation that it will
not succeed relaxes the energies of its supporters and
gives courage to its enemies ; and no one can deny
that the present Government is thought weak, and
that very confident prophecies are hazarded that it
will not last through the next session. Probably
these anticipations are in some measure due to the
time of year at which they are made. When
nothing of any moment is happening, political gos-
sips like to spend their time in forecasting the
future, and find it easier and pleasanter to see a
gloomy than to see a bright prospect before them.
Still, the Government has obviously its weak points
as well as its strong ones, and it may be worth while

to attempt an estimate of the chief elements both of
its strength and its weakness. The most conspicu-
ous element of its weakness is the personal element.
Except Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone, none of its
members occupy a first-rate Parliamentary position,
and its two leaders have personal disqualifications
which it is expected will tell against then. Lord
Russell has many virtues, and combines aristocratic
and democratic tastes in a manner that suits a large
portion of his countrymen ; but he was never a
good leader of a party, and is now likely to be
a v orse leader than he was formerly. He
has long lived a secluded life, takes little inte-
rest in what is said and written by the
outside world, and has perhaps less knowlege of the
general public, and of the men who most influence
their fellows, than any political leader has had dur-
ing the present century. Lord Palmerston was the
popular man of the party, and Lord Russell for
many years has been content to be practically un-
known to all the world, except a small clique of
intimate friends. He has, too, the reputation of
continually making small mistakes, and of giving
perpetual offence almost without meaning it, or sus-
pecting that any one could object: In all probabi-
lity the great objections to bestowing a peerage on
Sir John Romilly never occurred to Lord Russell,
simply because Lord Russell knew nothing about
the bar, or the courts, or legal opinion. Judges, he
may have thought, are often made. peers, and why
should not the one judge he knew be made a peer'?
There is, too, a great difficulty in filling up the
vacant places in the Ministry, partly because the
Liberal leaders have never tried to provide for the
future of their party further than by securing a
certain proportion of seats for ineffectual Russells,
Bynas, and Cavendishes ; and still more because
the luck of life has been against the party, and death
has happened to carry off eminent Liberals, and
has spared eminent Conservatives. Had the Duke
of Newcastle, Lord Herbert, and Sir Come-
wall Lewis been alive, there could have been
no difficulty in making up a Cabinet that
would have been much stronger than any Cabinet
selected from the ranks of the Opposition. The
great diversity of opinion that prevails among
Liberals as to a Reform Bill deprives Lord Russell
of the co-operation of Mr. Horsman and Mr. Lowe,
and it has thus become a very hard matter even to
find a Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster. A
Ministry that cannot fill up the Duchy is in a very
odd position. It excites a feeling of the ridiculous,
and it is dangerous to be laughed at. It was regarded
as q'iite natural that Lord Russell should have been
unable to think of anything else than
.to make Mr.
Goschen Chancellor. Had a seat in the Cabinet
been originally offered to Mr. Goschen, this would
not have been taken as an indication of weakness,
for Lord Russell might have thought the Cabinet
would have gained by admitting into it a young,
energetic, and courageous politician. But to have
offered a minor place in the first instance, and then
to have, offered a seat in the Cabinet, would not
have shown how highly Lord Russell thought of
Mr. Goschen, but how very limited the range
of choice of the Government really was.
The Government is also thought weak, and in
some degree deservedly, because it must bring in
a Reform Bill; and because, if it does bring
in a Reform Bill, it cannot avoid associating
itself with Mr. Bright. Whether it is or is not
true that office was offered to Mr. Bright, he is at
any rate in relations of great confidence with the
Cabinet on the subject of Reform. He lets it be
understood that he knows the decisions at which
the Cabinet is likely to arrive, and that these deci-
sions are in a large measure determined by him.
And he evidently knows so much, and influences
the Cabinet so powerfully, that colour is given to a
very exaggerated estimate of the pressure he exer-
cises on the Cabinet ; and their counsels are thought
to be affected by him more than it is at all probable
they really are. There can be no question that it
is dangerous to the Government that it should be
considered to be merely doing what Mr. Bright tells
it to do, and that it seems to make itself a party to
all his vague and vast schemes of political change.
If the Ministry could simply say that the working
men ought to be allowed to vote, and that they
proposed a measure which would give working men
a fair proportion of political power and no more,
there ought to be no great difficulty in getting a
Reform Bill through the House. But when Mr.
Bright guides the Ministry, or is supposed to guide
it—and when he says plainly that the use of the
proposed Reform Bill is to prepare the way for
giving the working man a very different political
position from that created for him by the Bill—the
Bill assumes a new and not very inviting cha-
racter.

THE " EXAMINER" ON THE MOST DREADED PUN-
ISHMENT.--The advocates of the total abolition of
capital punishment contend that death is not the
greatest punishment, and that there would be more
dread of perpetual imprisonment, and therefore
more deterring effect. But if, as they aver, death
is not the greatest punishment, how can they justify
cliwr culucavours on all occasions to obtain a
commutation of the capital punishment for the
secondary ? What right have they to use all their
influence to get the convict subjected to a severer
punishment than justice has awarded ? This is a
question they can never answer. It is quite true
that the fear of death is overcome by many tempta-
tions and evil passions—cupidity, revenge, hatred
—but this is true also of all punishments, for the
most they can do is to check crime and keep it
within bounds, complete prevention being clearly
an impossibility. We believe, however, that there
never yet was a criminal sentenced to death
who would not gladly exchange it for a
secondary punishment, nor one sentenced to
imprisonment for life who would really prefer
death. Eli Sykes, condemned to death for the
murder of his sweetheart, who has just died
in his prison in consequence of a fall, presents, an
example of the paramount terror of death, and also
of the baneful effect of any tampering with justice.
But for Townley's escape from the gallows this man
might not have been a murderer, and he cherished
hopes to the last of a commutation of punishment,
and would have rejoiced in twenty years of penal
servitude. A witness who had charge of him in his
prison states :—" He asked when hanging day was,
but witness told him he knew nothing about it, and
the best thing he could do was to make his peace
with God. Ever since this fall he appeared to be
sensible and of perfectly sane mind. Witness saw him
five or six times every day. He spoke a good deal
on religion. After being sentenced prisoner took
his own clothes off, and he said he should like them
to be sent to his parents. lie had a suit of plain
prison uniform put upon him, and he said, Here
goes for twenty years.' Witness said, ' Nay, Sykes,
I think you'll wear them till you depart this life ;'
and Sykes replied, While there's life there's hope.
My case is not as bad as Townley's—Townley's
case was worse than mine, and if I get off with
twenty years I shall be thankful.' At another time
he said he hoped the Queen would take his case into
consideration and let him off with penal servitude.
Witness told him his case was a very bad one, and
there was no hope for him.
THE " ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES" ON A NATION
REDEEMED.—A few short years sufficto to carry us
back to a period when nothing was deemed
more chimerical than the schemes of the hand-
ful of anti-slavery men then to be found in
England and America. They were branded as
abolitionists and fanatics, and treated at all times
with discourtesy, and sometimes with violence.
Abolitionism, however, has triumphed, its early
leaders have become heroes, and its adversary
is numbered with the dead barbarisms of the
past. It is a wonderful chapter in the history of
the world—that which records the struggle between
Radical freedom and slavery in the United States, and
no higher evidence of the energy of the American cha-
racter could be given than the rapidity with which the,
problem of the supremacy of free or slave insti-
tutions in that country has been solved. Other
countries and other times would have taken
centuries to work out such a reform. The
announcement by the Secretary of State that a
sufficient, number of States have ratified the
Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery to
make it the law of the land, proclaims the most
important fact connected with the struggle which
has so long convulsed and divided the American
people. This is what makes the victory complete.
The contest which has been going on was not so
much a war between the people of the North and
the people of the South, or the Secessionists and
the Unionists, as between conflicting systems of
government. The people of the North naturally
favored free institutions and free society, while
the people of the South, under the domineering
influence of slavery, concluded that their interests
demanded a condition of social aristocracy and
institutions founded upon the idea of classes and
castes holding toward each other the relations of
masters and slaves. Hence the disagreement, lead-
ing first to controversy and wrangling, and afterwards
to war. The war was a necessity—occasioned by the
existence of slavery. From the very nature of
that institution it was impossible for it to exist in
peace in a country governed upon the idea of social
and political equality. It was an antagonistic ele-
ment, and its presence became a constant source of
irritation and disturbance. Such has been the his-
tory of slavery in America from the first organisa-
tion of the Government. The result was a grow-
ineconflict between the principles of the Government
and those of slavery, until the dispute, in the ordi-
nary course of things, ripened into an issue of
arms. Either the principles of the Government had
to be subverted, or slavery had to perish. The case
was precisely analogous to such as often occur in
the physical systems of men, when foreign and un-
friendly substances are by violence introuced into
them. Inflammations and sever result, and the

uncongenial thing is expelled, or the member which
is the sufferer, if not the entire body, perishes in
the conflict. Slavery was a thing foreign and
hostile to a Republican system of government—.
its presence produced irritation and pain, and
conflict arose, which could only be terminated
by the expulsion of slavery or the overthrow of
the entire system and policy upon which the
Government was constructed. Hence it was
that slavery rebelled against the Government and
attempted its destruction. The two things could
not exist in harmony together, and slavery.
chose to
be the aggressor in declaring war upon the other.
The contest, once begun, was to be a life-struggle,
and happily for the interests of humanity, free
' ,
go-
vernment proved to be the stronger of the two, all
slavery went to the wall and was crushed. 113"
the United States been a monarchy, or even an aris-
tocracy after the fashion of the more liberal Go-
vernments of Europe, it is possible that slavery'
might have existed in the country for many years
without leading to war, or if war had resulted the
principle of freedom woul J probably have been too
weak successfully to cope with it, and the end would
have been very different from the issue of the con-
flict through which the Americans have just passed.
As it is, there can be but one opinion intelligently
entertained of the outcome of the struggle and its
value to the country. In the death of slavery the
Americans are far more than compensated for
all the losses and sufferings they have experienced
from the war. Their losses have been tem-
porary, and are generally such as time will,
speedily repair, while their gain in the removal
of an enemy which was constantly menacing the
integrity of their entire system of government
will be permanent and constantly increasing. To
determine the importance of that consummation
which has been reached, we have only to reflect
upon what would have been the consequence had
the principle of free government been crushed in
the struggle, and an organisation founded upon the
principle of slavery been established in its place.
Happily the danger is past, the victory wog-
The enemy which sought to overrun the land and
blight its promise has been trampled under foot,
and the youthful nation stands like a second Her-
cules after one of his tremendous encounters, worn
with the trial of strength, but effulgent in the glovr
of victory, and conscious of a power of which before.
he had never dreamed. To say that the American
Government is to-day stronger than when the war
of the rebellion began is asserting an acknow-
ledged fact. It is stronger because the element
which produced dissension and weakness among its
members is removed. It has been made a unit by
the expulsion of slavery, while time will soon heal
the wounds inflicted in the course of that battle
through which this great achievement was accom-
plished.

COUNTRY MARKETS

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NORWICH-SATURDAY.

The damp state of the weather having affected the con-
dition of the wheats, the trade to-day was slow at the rates
of this day week. Barley small, malting and grinding Soria
at former prices.
White wheat (weighing 631 b to 641 b), 50s to 54s ; re
a
ditto (weighing 631 b to 651 b), 48s to 50s; best malting
barley (weighing 551 b to 561 b), 34s to 36s ; runs ditto
(weighing 541 b to 551 b), 28s to 30s ; distilling ditto (weigh:
ing 521 b to 531 b), 25s to 27s ; oats, 24s to 26s ; beans, 3, s
to 89s ; peas (maple), 86s to 38s per qr; flour, 33s to ---S
Od per sack.