The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-25 00:00:00

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TILE GREAT EASTERN.

The inipresion ll]

.ampton has ben fixed.

on as the port of ai rival and departure for this Yes-
sel is incorrect. During the past week Mr. James
Poole, Mayor of Bristol, has been in communication
with the directors of the company, and has laid be-
fore them resolutions passed by the Docks Commit-
tee and by the Society of Merchant Venturers, offer-
ing to forego their dues in the event of the Great
Eastern coming to that port. Almost simultane-
ously a joint deputation, consisting of Mr. C.
J. Thomas and Mr. Charles Nash, town-coun-
cillors, Mr. James Bush, senior warden of the
Society of Merchant Venturers, and Mr. G. E.
Bevan, Mr. Mark IVhitwell, and Mr. Leonard
Bruton, of the Chamber of Commerce, had an
interview on Friday last with Mr. Campbell, Chair!
man of the Great Eastern Company, and Messrs,
IL P. Berkeley, and Ma.gnua, directors.
It was stated that a sub-committee, called. the Har-
bour Committee, consisting of Mess-,:s. Berkeley,
Magnus, and Cargill, has been alipointed for the
purpose of receiving informati
the respective advantages °Ai and investigating
r...nd facilities offered by
the different principal Thirts for the accommodation
of the Great Eastern
,s
At this interview the chair-
man particularly wished the deputation to under-
stand that th
directors deprecated the idea of en-
couragine",„ :the notion which had got abroad that the
Great 'astern was to be taken from port to port
kr the purposes of exhibition. They had been
labouring fcr seven years to prove her success as a
commercial undertaking, and it they had wished
merely to make an exhibition of the Great Eastern
she might have been kept moored in the Thames,
where they might have netted £GO,OOO by her with-
out trouble and almost without expense. In taking
the Great Eastern to Portland,the directors had con-
sidered, under all circumstances, that that place was
the most convenient for the arrangements which
had to be made ; and on her removal to Holyhead they
had viewed that port as the most direct for a
voyage to Portland, United States, and had not sent
the Great Eastern there with any idea of her being
made an exhibition. They had, perhaps, been too
anxious to get her to sea, and to that anxiety the
present delay might possibly be attributed. The
consequence was that, after due inquiry, the com-
pany found that the Great Eastern was not now fit
to go to sea, and they also found that Holyhead was
not conveniently situated for making the necessary
alterations. The people of Southampton, who
possessed great facilities, had liberally offered
to afford them to the company, and the intention
now was to remove the Great Eastern to
Southampton, and when she was ready for sea to
send her on a trip in the Mediterranean. The
question of the port to which she would return
would depend entirely upon the resnit of inquiries
as to their relative advantages in the meantime.
Prom the fast of the number of shareholders
in Bristol and that district, and the exceedingly
favourable report which bad been made of the
accommodation which could be provided at that
port, the chairman assured the deputation that the
Board would be most happy to take the Great
Eastern to Bristol on her first return voyage, if, in
the meantime, they received 'satisfactory evidence
that Bristol could offer a harbour where she could
.go with safety, and where she would find those
facilities which such a vessel would require. In
reference to this subject, Mr. Bruton, Secretary of
the British Chamber of Commerce received the fol-
lowing letter on Saturday :—.

" The Great Ship Company (Limited), 11, King
William-street, London, E.C., Oct. 21.

" Sir,—You will be pleased to in form the Mayor
that the Harbour Committee of this company are
ready to receive and consider the request made
on behalf of Bristol,, if you will give them all the
official information in your power as to the capabili-
ties and conveniences of your port to receive the
Great Eastern, so as to enable the Chairman to
reply to the letter of his Worship, a copy of which
I shall be happo to receive with other documents.
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" J. 11. YATES, Seererary.
" To Leonard Bruton, Esq., Chamber of Commerce,
Commercial Rooms, Bristol."
Steps are being taken by joint sub-committees of
the Docks Committee, of the Town Council, the
Society of Merchant Venturers, and the Bristol
Chamber of Commerce, for supplying the desired
information. It was stated by the deputation, in
reply to the observations of Mr. Campbell at the
above interview, that their immediate object -in
making the application was not to ascertain whether
the Great Eastern would make a temporary visit
to Bristol, but whether she was likely to make it
the permanent port of arrival and departure. Ex-
tensive improvements were now in contemplation
at the mouth of the river for the accommodation of
ocean steamers, and it would be material
to ascertain whether this extension should
embrace capacity for affording dry-deck room and
other facilities to the Great Eastern if she sailed
permanently from this port. Mr. Campbell stated
that no decision could be arrived at until the faci-
lities offered by all the principal ports in the king-
dom had been duly weighed and determined, but
that the claims of Bristol should be entez tained in
an impartial spirit. The Bristol people are san-
guine that their port will become the ultimate des-
tination of the Great Eastern, the ground of their
hopes being the superior anchorage of Kingzoad,
and the proximity to the coal fields, by which it is
asserted that a saving equal to 10s. per ton might
be effected on the enormous consumption of the
Great Eastern.

TREASURE-TROVE IN IRELAND.

Mr. E. Clibborn, curate of the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy, writes as follows to the
theneeum:—

" DUBLIN, Oct. 7.

" Having been informed within a few days, by a
visitor to this museum, whose statement appeared
to me to be reliable, as its details were all consis-
tent with each other, and corroborated by other
facts which my informant could not know, that a
large quantity of ancient gold articles, found re-
cently in Ireland, are weekly finding their way to
the melting-pot in London, I would beg, through
your columns, to call the attention of the parties
who are purchasing this gold, to the great injury
they are . inflicting on archaeology by the course
they are adopting„ unless, indeed, they are making
drawings and analysis of the various articles, par-
ticularly the larger ones, which are being destroyed.
" As the chief executioner of these ancient re-
liques is said to be a member of several antiquarian
societies in England, it may be hoped this sugges-
tion may be late, as he may have adopted the hint
here proposed already; but if he has not, I would,
on the part of persons taking an interest in Irish
archaeology, entreat of him to make such memoranda
of the things already destroyed, the things passing
through his hands, and the things he expects to get
from the same party from whom he has got so much
already, that hereafter, when the law of treasure-
trove is repealed in Ireland and England, we may
have a sufficient record of this great find.
" It is really too bad that the law of the land is
such that it fails altogether to save to the Crown or
the finder the value of the treasure-trove found in
Ireland, while it almost of necessity insures the
destruction of things found, provided their quan-
tity is considerable. In the present case, the find
appears to have been very large, and the care of the
party finding it most judicious in keeping his
secret; but, generally, the secret is kept so well as
to the locality that those who look to these finds
only as archaeological facts may seldom get at the
real truth of their discovery.
" I may mention one example of this kind—the
great gold-find in the neighbourhood of Athlone,
which realised over £27,000, as appeared from the
several sums of money paid by different goldsmiths
in Dublin, who, within a period of six months, ad-
mitted to Dr. Petrie that they had-made purchases
of this gold to that amount. Dr. Petrie and others
have for years back endeavoured to ascertain the
locality of this find, and were disposed to place it
on an island in the Shannon ; but from other evi-
dence, obtained by accident, it would appear now
that the discovery was not made within seven miles
of the place to which attention had been directed.
" This great find was lost to science, and I fear the
one now following on the course of so many others
will also be lost, if the parties interested in utilising
this gold keep no memorial of its specialities. One
point I would insist on is the preservation of actual
impressions of any designs or inscriptions which
may be on these gold articles, for either or both
may solve the question as to the nationality and
antiquity of the gold articles found in Irelonl.
" I have good reason to believe that a large gold
breast-plate, with inscriptions on it, has ken found
lately in Ireland, and it•may be a part of this find ;
if so, it is to be hoped that this notice may save its
inscriptions from loss. We want Irish gold anti-
quities with genuine inscriptions on them.
" I may venture to add to this letter that the
facts above referred to lead to the conclusion that
the true course to be taken by the Government and
the public, to insure the preservation of gold anti-
quities and treasure-trove generally, is to allow
perfect freedom of trade in these things, as if they
were modern, except in the Hall mark, which should
not be impressed on anything said to be ancient,
save on the declAration of the licensed *gold or silver-
smith owning it, and that such shoul:i not be
allowed to deal in treasure-trove, except it were
stamped as such, unless the things were very small,
• or would be spoiled in the operation."