The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-23 00:00:00

mencement of entirely new Harbours of Refuge,
Lord PALMERSTON prudently concurs with the
hon. gentleman the member Northumberland in ap-
plauding first and foremost the notion of improving,
and especially in this way of enlarging, certain
harbours of refuge already in existence. The ina-
dequate dimension of several of these harbours is
unhappily a matter of most painful notoriety.
Their insufficiency in almost every particular,
in size, in number, in actual convenience,
is lamentably indicated time, and again in the
stormy seasons, particularly during the terrible
periodical recurrence of the equinoctial gales, by an
appalling loss of life and by the most deplorable
destruction of property, property sunk in the deep
sea, past every chance of recovery. As to the last
mentioned class of misfortunes, the loss of
vessels and of their cargoes, that undoubtedly
is a loss (as the Prime Minister took occa-
sion to remark yesterday) falling upon indi-
viduals—those individuals having the means
of, to a certain extent, indemnifying themselves by
marine insurance and the like kind of provident
arrangements. As to the loss of life, however—
" the loss of most valuable lives, the loss of some
of the best seamen in the country"—that Lord
PALMERSTON solemnly and impressively pronounced
to be " a loss against which no insurance can be
effected, and for which no compensation can be
obtained, and which is therefore a dread calamity
to the country." Against the perpetual renewal
of that dread calamity along our coasts,
the promoters of Harbours of Refuge are
striving to guard the gallant fellows man-
ning the mercantile marine of England and
of other maritime and commercial nations
trading with our own. In that humane effort they
will now, to a certain extent at least, be assisted by
her MAJESTY'S Government. How far assisted in
this by the House of Commons there will soon be
an opportunity of judging, immediately upon the
introduction of the bill now in the hands of Mr.
MILNER GIBSON for presentation to it, a bill
(as described by Lord PALMERSTON) enabling
the Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners to
make advances both in England and Ireland
to those who are prepared to take money on cer-
tain conditions for the purpose of improving exist-
ing Harbours of Refuge. The urgency of the matter
involved in this foreshadowed ;measure of assist-
ance, has assuredly of late, as recently indeed as
within this last week or two, been illustrated very
fearfully. During the gale of the 9th, for example,
at Hull alone, by the loss of seven vessels, and the
driving of no less than forty others ashore outside
the harbour—at Whitby, again, by the drifting
ashore of six other merchantmen—at Hartlepool,
by the wreck there, within five hours, of absolutely
as many as sixty-seven vessels, " thirty of them
being totally lost, and eight foundering, with
every soul on board, in sight of thousands who
were looking on and were unable to render any
assistance." This, recollect, was on the 9th inst.
during the raging of that fearful gale at Hartle-
pool. Altogether there were there and then lost
on that single day no less than fifty lives, and,
together with those fifty lives, property to the
value, it is computed, of £150,000 sterling ! But
turn again to the record given at Lloyd's only
three days' afterwards, on the 12th inst., as the
House of Commons was reminded yesterday by the
hon. member for Northampton—" when notice of
139 losses of ships was posted up at Lloyd's,
being the largest number ever known in
a single day !" Reading this, noticing this
fearful record, it:must be obvious that it is time
indeed the Legislature and the Government bestirred
' themselves, if it is only to carry out some few of
the admirable suggestions thrown out in regard to
the development of the system of Harbours of Re-
fuge in the elaborate report upon that subject, pre-
sented to Parliament in 1858, as the result of the
anxious deliberations of the Royal Commissioners.

THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY- LAN E.—This fashion-
able place of amusement was honoured last evening by the
presence of her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge,
accompanied by the Princess Mary, Captain Cust, and
suite, to witness the performance of Mr. Charles Kean in
the play of " Louis XI."
The Earl of Winchilsea has left the St. Georgi's
Hotel.

The Prince Bariatinsky and M. and Madame
Berikoff have left the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, for
Paris.

The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort are shortly
expected at Curzon House from Badminton, Gloucester •
shire.

The Earl and Countess of Westmoreland come
to town to-day from visiting Mr. and Lady Augusta Sturt
at Critchill House, Dorset.
THE NEW PHYSICIAN TO THE QUEEN.—The
Gazette has announced thq appointment of William Jenner,
M.D., to be Physician Extraordinary to the Queen, in the
room of the.lamented Dr. Baly, F.R.S. Dr. Jenner was
educated at the University College, London, and took the
degree of M.D. in 1844, without obtaining honours. He
had been elected fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
in 1837. He is professor of pathological anatomy in Uni-
versity College, physician to the Hospital for Sick Chil-
dren, fellow of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, member
of the council of the Epidemiological, North London
Medical, and Pathological Societies, and secretary to the
fever committee of 'the Epidemiological Society. Dr.
Jenner is known as the author of " The Gulstonian
Lectures (1853) on the Acute Specific Diseases;";of a paper
" On the Specific Cause of Typhoid, Typhus, axd Relaps-
ing Fevers," printed in the Medico•-Chirurgical Society's
" Transactions" for 1850 ; of essays "On the Identity or
Non-Identity of Typhus and Typhoid Fevers" (1850) ;
" On the Diseases commonly confounded under the term
Continued Fever " (1851), and various other professional
papers. '

PEMBROKE ELECTION.—The polling for the
Pembroke Boroughs closed on Thursday evening. Sir
Hugh Owen, the Liberal Candidate, was returned by a
majority of 86.

TALBOT V. TREHERNE.—Yesterday (Friday)
evening, at six o'clock, the jury decided in this case in
favour of the plaintiff, thereby affirming the will of the
Rev. G. M. Treherne. The case occupied ten days.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ROOMS.—Wo have much
pleasure in drawing the attention of our readers to the
Annual Benefit Bal Masque of Mr. W. M. Packer, musical
director of this establishment, as advertised in our columns
for Thursday next, the 28th instant. For many years has
the efficiency of the band, aLd the excellent taste displayed
in the selection of the music, been the theme of admiration
of the visitors frequenting this fashionable and well-con-
ducted establishment. The previous entertainments of
this description have always met with a large amount of
patronage, and have been carried out with great spirit.
We are well assured, therefore, that nothing will be want-
ing, on the part of either Mr. Packer or the direction, to
render this Bal even more attrae ivo than any previously
given.—Era.

A SHIP's COMPANY POISONED.—SHIELDS, Feb.
21.—The crew of the Boxer, of Colchester, have had a
narrow escape from an awful death. The vessel is lying in
the Tyne, and the night before last a messenger was sent
hastily ashore for a medical man, as the master, mate, and
five of the crew had been seized with a serious illness. Dr.
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men were in extreme peril. The master and men, it seems,
had partaken of a pudding for dinner, and were shortly
after attacked by the dangerous symptoms. The cook who
made the pudding had taken the flour for it from a locker,
and on searching the locker, to the horror of every one, a
parcel of arsenic was discovered. It seems that the parcel
had been found in the cabin, and the mate, imagining that
it was flour, had put it into the flour locker. The cook, on
going for the flour for the pudding had thrust his scoop
into the parcel, but, not liking the contents, he had with-
drawn tho scoop, and had taken his,flour for the pudding
from the usual source. Seine particles of the arsenic had
adhered to the scoop and got mixed up with the flour, and
had occasioned all the mischief. The poison had been on
board the ship two years, and was the remaining quantity
of a parcel sent aboard to destroy worms in the ship's
bottom. The master did not know that it was in the vessel.
The advices front Paris yesterday state that M.
Marcuard, M. Blount, and another have been named
liquidators "of the estate of N,