The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-29 00:00:00

LITE_RATUR.E.

English Phraseology : A Series of Practical Exer-
cises to be Translated' into French. By F. L

Wattez. Parker, West

This volume undertakes to supply a deficiency
which has long existed in educational works treat-
ing of the correct translation of our idiomatic ex-
pressions into the French language.
Pupas who
have studiously laboured to acquire
a thorough
knowledge of French, whose grammar is tolerably
correct and compositions highly creditable, are still
awkwardly ignorant of its idiomatic construction,
and frequently commit blunders of an absurd cha-
racter. For instance, it would puzzle one, though
tolerably well up in the language, to rightly settle
the form of words fitting to convey the different
idiomatic meanings which we give to the ad-
jective " cracked. We say a china basin is
cracked, a walnut is cracked, a post-boys
whip is cracked, a joke is cracked, and a
Prime Minister is cracked. In these pages such
difficulties are explained and obviated, and upwards
of four thousand English idiomatic words and
phrases are given for exercises, though these by no
means contain the whole list of our idioms. The
book will be of infinite service to those who wish
to attain a finished and elegant conversational pro-
ficiency in the French language, an reflects the
highest credit on the compiler.

The Graduated Series of Reading Lesson Books.
Longman and Co.
This is the fourth book of a series of five volumed
intended for all classes of English Schools, con-
taining well selected portions of sound literature,
and embracing a variety of subjects calculated to
elevate the taste while increasing the knowledge o. f
the pupil. Most of our "reading books" abound in
abstract essays, rhetorical or poetical common-
places, technical outlines of some of the branches of
science, or enquiries into the construction and
phenomena of the material universe, and frequently
in such form as to lie beyond the sphere of the
reader's sympathy and comprehension. It Is a
point of cardinal importance that youth
should
• read" that which healthily excites the feelings
and awakens the interest. The element of attrac-
tiveness is indispensable, and these judiciously
compiled volumes are most desirable for both
teacher and scholar, being fitted to stimulate a
wholesome love of acquirement, and facilitatein-
tellectual development.

How to Brew Good Beer, By John Pitt. Long-

man.
We may consider the firm of Barclay and
Perkins as being among our national institutions,
and every man who seeks to improve the worldly
condition of Sir John Barleycorn as a social
patriot. Mr. John Pitt stands out conspicuously
in the latter character, and has entered heart and
soul into his subject. The fullest practical details
of the whole process connected with brewing are
lucidly given, together with valuable information
respecting brewhouses, cellars, and apparatus,
with various diagrams and measure tables, consti-
tuting a perfect " handbook" in this popular de-
partment, and affording valuable assistance in pre-
venting our favourite beverage becoming " bard,
cloudy, or sour," which, if prevalent in our beer,
may extend to our temper, by the natural influence
of indigestible effects.

Ifarmonious Colouring as applied to Photographs.
By an Artist Photographer. Newman, 20,
Soho-square.
Photography is now an important feature
.of
pictorial art, and the great advance lately made 111
it by the addition of colouring has rendered it still
more prominent and far more pleasing in its effects.
This little book contains a store of information on
the subject, which will doubtless give it permanent
value in the hands of professors and amateurs.

Blackwood's Shilling Scribbling Diary for 1860.
James Blackwood, Paternoster-row.
This is among the numerous cheap and useful
annuals which greet us at this season, containing
an almanac for the year, a postal district map, and
copious lined pages for diary notes, interleaved
with blotting-paper, and altogether neatly and well
got up.

LOSS OF THE _ROYAL NAIL STEAM-

SHIP PARAJTATTA.

Yesterday the Board of Trade issued the report
of Mr. Trail, the Greenwich police magistrate, who,
with Capt. Harris, as nautical assessor, held the
recent inquiry into the circumstances attending the
wreck of the Boy-al Mail Company's steam-ship
Paramatta, which was wrecked on the Horse-shoe
Reef of the Anegada, near St. Thomas's, on her
first voyage.
The Paramatta was an iron paddle-wheel steamer,
of 2,166 tons, commanded by Capt. E. J. Baynton,
an old officer in the company's service, and the
report, which is of some length, after notic-
ing the equipment of the ship and her course on ap-
proaching the Sombrero Channel, thus proceeds :
—" It appears by the evidence that the outward
bound ships of the Royal Mail Company always
take the Sombrero Channel when bound for St.
Thomas. This channel lies between the Island of
Sombrero to the east and Virgin Gorda to the
west, and is about 40 miles in width. The Horse-
shoe Reef, on which the ship was wrecked, lies
nearly west from Sombrero about 40 miles. Som-
brero is a low island of about one and a-half miles
in length; Virgin Gorda is high land; and the
Horse-shoe is a dangerous reef, level, or nearly so,
with the water's edge. On the night of the 30th
June, Captain Baynton states that Sombrero
might have been seen six miles off, and Vir-
gin Gorda, 18 or 20 miles. In passing through
the Sombrero Channel, if not absolutely necessary,
it is at least most desirable to sight the island of
Sombrero, if only for the purpose of verifying the
longitude of the ship before entering a channel
where currents are known to exist. A current is
supposed to run at about the rate of one mile an
hour, in a westerly or north-westerly direction,
but the exact direction or strength is dependent on
the wind, and is not always known with certainty.
To avoid any risk from this or other possible causes
of deviation, those best acquainted with the lo-
cality consider it prudent, when Sombrero has not
been sighted, to steer a course S. by W., or S.S.W.,
till as far to the southward, probably as the lati-
tude of Virgin Gorda, in 18 30 N., and to go at
moderate speed till land is sighted. By steering
a southerly course, a ship gets into an open sea,
away from the dangerous reefs and shoals in
the neighbourhood of Anegada, and by slowing
her engines she can stop to take soundings, in time
to escape danger, should she, as was the case with
the Paramatta, have run much further to the west-
ward than appeared by the reckoning. These pre-
cautions, however, were wholly neglected by Capt.
Baynton, and the reason he gives for neglecting
them was that he had full confidence in his obser-
vations. There does not, however, appear to have
been any good reason for such confidence; for having
been disappointed in confident expectation of sight-
ing Sombrero at 6.50 p.m., when he had run his
distance, he ought to have suspected the accuracy
of his observations, and having no certainty as to
his longitude, lie should have kept on his course of
S. by W. for another hour at least, which would,
have brought him clear of the danger, or even bad
he put the ship on the S.W. course at 6.50, instead
of at 9.15 p.m., and had slowed his engines, so
on
to have been able to stop the ship immediately.
the appearance of danger, he might have avoided
the loss. His not taking these proper precautions,
therefore, but proceeding at a speed of 12i knots
an hour on a course which w"mld only have beep
safe after having sighted Sombrero, was a great
default, and was the cause of the loss of the ship.
There was the less excuse for this want of pro-
per caution, that Capt. Baynton was not pressed
for time, and acted in utter disregard of the,
printed instructions issued by the company-,
The instructions are then set forth, and
the report, after adverting to the high charac-
ter of Capt. Baynton, concludes:—" The
circumstances of this case, and of many of a simi-
lar nature within a short period, lead one to sup-
pose that the desire to make rapid voyages is gra-
dually supplanting the proper caution which ought
to be observed by shipmasters. This is a natural
effect of tho general use of steam at sea, and the,
great improvement so far as sailing is concerned in •
the construction of the ships. Unless, therefore,
care be taken to keep this desire within bounds, it
may in time create the impression in the minds of
seamen that their first duty is to regard not the
safety of the ship, but the quickness of the passage.
Your lordships wili observe that strong opinions
were expressed by many of the witnesses as to the
absolute necessity of a light for this channel. There
is no doubt that the want of a light to guide ships
through this dangerous channel has been the cause.
of much loss of property, and that the Paramatta
would, in all probability,: have been saved by a

light on Sombrero."
Captain Harris having expressed his concurrence
in the report, the Lards' Committee of Privy Coun-
cil for Trade have directed that Captain Baynton's
certificate, of competency be suspended for twelvo
months, and have intimated that the suggestion as
to placing a light in the Sombrero Channel will
receive attention.

THE GREAT EASTERN AT A " DEAD-LOCK."—Tlie
expenses on board have been reduced to the smallest pos-
sible amount, and, pending the inquiry geinr,r' on before the
arbitrators between the company and Mr. Scott Russell,
no works other than those which are absolutely necessary
are being carried on.