The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-30 00:00:00

. - ------- - 14}..1i/SPAPER
THE UNPORTUNATI? SHIP •:( ' —
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,%..i!,A: -‘41,40.
,utes.) 3,w .-Let,,,
(Front, the rtnta azia• tir' q 4
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It seems that in our military and . cit-T>ltekar •;,/.,p,c4T
meet the thhig that has. been Shal ee:""ati-ltitt,
years the s:orM roused by the Intaaomm incip , s
East has raged, and,the public might be excuee or .
thinking that it had swept away the evils which .
•brought on such great 'calamities. -Of -late the
.•
world in general, and we with the rest of the worid.; '-
had begun t. think that enough had been se'-L'
Let the Crimean delinquents and the Scutari delie-
quents return to the obscarty from whieli they
had emerged to an unhappy no:oriety. The cause •
had :seen won, the pr tper eff,ct had be-n produce 1,
• and no future war in our time would exhibi tbe
incapacity and perverseues.s of 1354. A Lucan (tr. ,
an . Airey would be imposibie with'n the next
quarter of a century. But we hate been deceived. •
Here it is all over again. The spirit of our late • •
heroes of misrule 5...i1l animates their successors who
are t r carry on tee Chinese war. If the "insolent .
bit-Lariat" himself were represented at the Ad-'
miralty we could no:; have proceedings less celcitt-
latel to insure the spee ly ctiastisetnent of oar
enemies. We will say no-.hing at present about
the delay in seedily?: out the steamer% and gun-
boate in default o: all:eh Sir Hicha• 1 Seyittotir' is
lying on the defensive at the mouth of the Canton
River. But the Transit has mined up again. Oa
the 19th of this mouth she was in Corunna ha- hour,
where '5llO hed put in "in deep distress." Ta 0
days of ale Bay of B'scay had sent her in to be
fresh rigged. A writer on board tells us what all -
acquainted with the vereel knew before :—" You
never saw a worse seat oat in your life—crank, top-
heavy, and everything thlt is bad." .• . . " Such
an old tub you never saw ; the rig.;ing never set up
or anything sr cured ; we had bard work to keep
the masts from going over the side." . . . "I
am certain," he adds, she will never weather the
Cape, or she will tieceive all on board, both
soldiers and blue jackets." .- . . "You Emil •
think what she must be when I tell you for a
truth that there are no-t• a dozem, rilen (troops) tn. ~.,--3
board with a dr' ,' • el, 4,(ick,. •,- I.:tee:: •ete •, in hie ''''..• rti
de !lc httiug in watee '' Such is We candition cf '
"kirexe ii.,went„yeesel ee:th $ troaps on bo •rd ' est a
'
_rn--
-,clart3:.LlEjt:4tuae I or voyage of 16;00.6 teill-eTS-. - e
riot snal an incident as this sufficient toeiti'itify the
unceasing vigilance aed the unsparing language of %...
the press ? Here is a vessel which has been proved
over • and over again -unfit for the conveyance of )
troops, and wlfice broke down w•th the Howe of
Lords a year ago in a tr:p. OE a few hoar, and now
we have it sleeted by tee -authorities fo perform a ' . '
voyage of itnnynse length surd difficulty with rte
entire regiment of BEttsh troops on board. 011icial
indifference to advioe. 'and criticism has been dis-•
',played in the Mos,: prevoki •?g manner in the whole
affair.. Toe surprise of naval men, the remon-
strances‘of the press, and,evee the warning of thus : .
7actuident at the Needles, have been alike disre _ferried, -
and the miserable craft, wite its doomed frieght,
has been sent off, perhaps to des,aucton,--certatnly •
to disasier and danger. What a thing it is for Veit.
great nation, with. its abundant resource-'; and its
boundless liberality, to reelect upon, that the men
who are sent .-ottt; 'too fight its baatles afe ,snake I
threugli nightly whenever there us any see, and
that they are calmly specula'in.g on the probability
of all going to the bottom together I
The Transit embarked the 90th Pegirnent nearly
a month ago, _anti. she is p obeb'y by this time,
hardly out of Corunna. So, if even she manages to
prosecute her voyage withoa.; any fatal mishap, we ,
may form some idea of its duration. The unfor-
tunate 800 will, of course, make a coasting voyage
'after the antique fashion, stopping at every point
in the way to refit. after continually recurrent
breakdowns. - Time end of this 'modern Odyssey it
is impossible to predict. The 90th way arrive in
China old men with sooty beards, to tell the sad
experience of long years of wandering. As their
spectral craft enters Hong Koag harb mr-- of eourse
breaking down once wore in the attempt—they
may find teemselves in the midst of a new civilise- "
tion, among vessels propelled by electricity, an t
aerial renchimeS in the place of carts. - As to their
arriving in,tiiiie to take any part in toe toperadons
of the present stuntner,ethat is, of course, out of
tl,o,,question. 'However-; we have doue star part in ~ „'
.: fet'
eexpesiug the -fully and yeeklessriess of employing,
~... ee'
such a vessel on.such a 'service, and fur the,rewt tlI..;"
Admiralty moat reckon a ith tee net'o, otrid with,
a new Parliarrieet, which n
will not, ykre heWe so
tolerant of flippant 'replies and ehaaw ,ear' es as
the old. ' e
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