The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-29 00:00:00

Merchant Seamen's Orphan Asylum.

The pleasant little village of Snaresbrook was en
fete yesterday afternoon, in consequence of the
visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales, on the
occasion of laying the foundation stone of a new
dining-hall at the above asylum. Occasion was
also taken to hold the anniversary festival previous
to the ceremony, the dejedner taking place in a
tent adjacent to the building. There were between
500 and GOO guests present, and the weather being
extremely fine, all the approaches to the asylum
were crowded with carriages filled with ladies in
most elegant costumes. It was, in fact, one of the
gayest and most fashionable gatherings which has
taken place in the neighbourhood since the late
Prince Consort visited the spot end laid the founda-
tion of the handsome building which has been erected,
and which is a lasting memorial of the large bene-
volence of our great shipowners and merchants.
Between 200 and 300 orphan children are comfort-
ably supported in this noble establishment, and at
suitable ages sent out into the world under circum-
stances of very great advantage, considering their
station in life. During the whole•of the day some
hundreds of people perambulated the establishment
from top to bottom, and greatly admired the ex-
treme neatness and cleanliness of every department
of the establishment, and all belonging to it, while
the healthy appearance of the inmates, and their
quiet and orderly demeanour, bore ample testimony
to the care, both moral and physical, which they
received at the hands of those entrusted with the
onerous task of management. The general proceeds
of the festival exceeded £2,000, and it is gratifying
to find that some of the outports are coining for-
ward and recognising the benefits conferred by the
asylum by giving their cordial support. The
ports of Whitby, Brixham, Aberdeen, Sunder-
land, and Dartmouth are particularly prominent in
this respect. In consequence of his royal highness
having first visited the Worcester merchant seamen's
training school, off Erith the Royal party did
not arrive all together, but shortly after 2 p.m.
the Princess of Wales, who was attended by the
Countess of Macclesfield and Lady. Sunderland,
drove up in a carriage, and was received, amidst the
cheers of the spectators, by the lady visitors of the
asylum, Mrs. H. Green, Mrs. J. Gurney Fry, Mrs.
T. F. Buxton, Mrs. Ximenses, and Mrs. Burners,
and was by them conducted into a very pretty little
extemporised boudoir to await the arrival of the
Prince, her husband. His royal highness, who was
attended by Gen. Knollys, Lord Harris, and the
Hon. Col. Keppel, arrived about half-past 2 p.m.,
and was received by Lord A. Paget and the com-
mittee of management. His royal highness was
cordially cheered on passing through the crowded
thoroughfares leading up to the asylum gates. Both
their royal highnesses looked in excellent health and
spirits. The Prince having joined her royal highness
the august party proceeded to the ptblic reception
room, where they both recorded their names as
visiting the institution, after which they were con-
ducted to a spacious marquee, where an elegant de-
jeuner was served. In the absence of Lord Russell
the chair was filled by Lord A. Paget ; and after
the toast of the Queen had been loyally responded
to by the company, the noble chairman gave the
health of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the
rest of the royal family, The toast was received
with perfect enthusiasm.

The Prince of WALES, on rising to respond, was
met with defeaning cheers. His royal highness said
—My lords, ladies, and gentlemen, I am indeed
deeply sensible of, and grateful for, th 3 exceedingly
kind manner in which our noble chairman has pro-
posed my health and that of her Royal Highness
the Princess of Wales ; and I am as deeply grateful
to you for the excessively kind manne'.. in which
you have been pleased to receive the toast. Our
presence here to-day affords us great satisfac-
tion, as we have come to assist in a work
which to me is of particular interest, inasmuch
as the first foundation stone of this asylum
was laid by my lamented father in the year 1861
Under any circumstances it would be a pleasure and
an opportunity of which I should feel proud to take
part in such an occasion as the present. (Cheers.)
We must all remember what an important part the
mercantile marine of the United Kingdom play at
this moment, and how important therefore that we
should provide for the orphans of those brave men
who are exposed to many dangers. (Prolonged
cheers.) As you are well aware, a year after the
foundation stone was laid—in the year 1862—this
asylum was inhabited, and I believe I am correct in
saying that its inmates ntmber now over 180 boys
and girls. This, lam sure, must be exceedingly
gratifying to the friends of the institution. (Cheers.)
I feel for my part very pleased on this occasion to
lay the foundation stone of an additional wing to
the building. I understand it was for the purpose
of a dining hall, without which the original plan of
the building would not be complete. (Hear, hear.)
Let me now thank you once more for the reception
you have accorded to us. I am sure that nobody
feels more pleasure than the Princess in being pre-
sent on this occasion, or takes more interest in the
'work we have undertaken to perform. (Loud
cheers.)

Ilis Royal highness subsequently proposed " The
health of Lord A. Paget," who briefly acknowledged
the toast.

Their royal highnesses were then conducted
through the building to the chapel, and thence to
the tent, where the stone was laid of the new din-
ing-hall, with the usual ceremonies, the choir of
the Forst school, under the direction of the Rev.
H. J. Wardell, together with the children com-
posing the full choir. The band of the Royal Ar-
tillery accompanied some of the psalms, and played
during the dejeuner. The 3d Essex Volunteer
men, and a guard of
honour composed of 100 men of the corps,were pre-
corps, numbering about 250
pre-
sent. Purses were laid en the stone after the cere-
mony, and a considerable amount raised ; and alto-
gether the proceedings passed off with very great
eclat.

(From the _Morning Herald.)
To the complaint usually made regarding the
inefficiency of the police—that when their services
are required they are never to be found—may
now be added another—that when present at
what may fairly be considered breaches of the public
peace they decline to act in their repression. Since
Mr. Bright's demand for the muster of a mob in
Parliament-street, sufficiently numerous to obstruct
the way, and sufficiently boisterous to frighten
timid members and influence the action of the
house of Commons, the vacant space in front of
Westminster Hall has been occupied on every
occasion when a debate of importance connected
with the passage of the Reform Bill was likely to
arise by a crowd of disorderly and disreputable-
looking persons, whose conduct towards the political
leaders whose opinions happen to be at variance
with their own, has been most disgraceful, without
causing any interference whatever in behalf of the
outraged on the part of the police, who stand passive
spectators of the riotous proceedings. We can
well comprehend that Lord Elcho should be sur-

rounded and hustled in St. James's Park by the
unwashed claimants for the franchise ; because it
is probable that the guardians of public tranquillity
were not, as is their wont, present where their duty
should have brought them ; but we cannot under-
stand by whose orders a mob of insolents
are permitted with impunity to 'pour fourth
their disgusting Billingsgate and imperil the
personal safety of such men as Sir John Pakington
and Mr. Lowe, by frightening the horses they ride
or drive with their ruffian hooting, under the
very noses of officials, who are always but too
ready to arrest a child selling matches to gain a
livelihood, or to take into custody any half-drunken
sot who might in his cups offer insult to the sacred
blue. It is true that one of the mob of Tuesday
night, named O'Connor, was brought before the
magistrate at Westminster and fined, but he was
made amenable to justice not because he had hooted
and yelled at the members of the Conservative party
as they came from the House—an amusement he
might have indulged in as long as he pleased with
impunity—but beeause, in reply to a request that
he should leave the way unobstructed, he had punched
the head of his captor while in the discharge of his
daty. It is all very well to allow Mr.
Gladstone's " lambs" to follow him through the
street and cheer him with their melodious
voices, or even to permit them to offer an ovation
to the ladies of his family. Such silly dis-
plays of sympathy from his own " flesh and
blood" may be as gratifying to him as they are
harmless to the community ; but it is quite a
different matter when those entrusted with the pre-
servation of the peace tolerate the hostility of those
same persons towards others until it culminates in
the perpetration of acts of personal violence.
Nor is this neglect of duty in the want of the
protection which should be afforded to the Con-
servative members of Parliament the only one
which may be justly brought against Sir Richard
Mayne. The misconduct of some of the members
of the force under his command has been lately,

on more than one occasion, atrocious, and
although most strongly commented upon by the
magistrates before whom the culprits were brought,
and reported to his superiors by the superintendent,
the offenders have been permitted still to con-

tinue in their employment to the manifest danger of
society at large. On Wednesday Edwin Nesbitt,
No. 341 S, was charged at Marylebone office on a
warrant with assaulting a person named Paine, of
Chapel-street, Camden Town. Tho complainant

had seen him strike, and almost choke, his son of
ten years old, who had been sent of an errand.

On remonstrating against such unprovoked and

cruel conduct he was himself instantly seized by the
throat and nearly strangled. A neighbour named

Lang, who interfered in his behalf, and who

besought the policeman to spare him, as he was
suffering under great affliction, having only just
buried his wife, fared still worse ; he was knocked
down, and pursued to his lodging, where, in a
struggle to arrest him, both his arms were broken.
Meantime Paine, when released, ran to the police-
station for protection, and during his absence Nes-
bitt forced the door of his room, and smashed all his
furniture to. pieces. All those facts were clearly

proved by respectable witnesses, who fully corrobo-

rated the statements of the complainant ; and an-
other constable, who attempted to remove the

ruffian from the spot, had his thumb smashed
by a blow of his truncheon. About a fortnight
before this same policeman had, at the same court,
charged three young men with being drunk
and assaulting him. lie and a brother constable
who gave evidence contradicted themselves in so

marked a manner that Mr. Mansfield dismissed

the prisoners, saying " that it was palpable to
every one who heard the case that the prose-
cutors were a pair of rascals." It was no
wonder, then, on Nesbitt's appearance again
before him in uniform that the worthy magistrate
should express his astonishment that after his

ormer denunciation of his conduct he should be

still permitted to remain in the force, or that he

should declare " that he considers Sir Richard

Mayne and the other commissioners responsible for
this piece of ruffianism." Mr. Lewis applied for a
remand, in order that Nesbitt and his confederate
might be charged with perjury committed on the
last occasion alluded to. He said that he had
been in communication with the commissioners
on the subject, but that they regarded the affair
as merely a quarrel between the parties, and he
produced a letter received from them, on
reading which, Mr. Mansfield said--" I think
it wrong when a magistrate expresses himself so
strongly as I have done that the commissioners
should treat the matter so lightly, for it is upon the
good conduct and discipline of the police that the
public safety depends. I cannot understand why
they have overlooked this case." A very well-me-
rited censure this on those who, admitting men into
the force without sufficient vouchers for their good
conduct, allow them to continue in it after their un-
fitness for the position they fill has been discovered.
Tolerating the presence of such fellows amongst a
body of men upon whose good behaviour so much
depends is criminal in the extreme in their chiefs,
and may entail endless misery on innocent persons.