The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-01 00:00:00

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AMERICAN COAST DEFENCES.

During one of the wildest s'orms of the past
stormy winter an American ship, the Northern
Belle, was driven ashore and utterly wreclied upon
the coast of Kent. The hardy seafaring inhabitants
of that part of England assembled upon the shore,
not to gaze idly on the. terrible spectacle before
them, but to devise means for re-scumg an imperil-
led crew. The lifeboat was manned by v. luuteers,

boatmen of Deal, who contended with one another
in their-eagerness to rush to the relief of the help-
less strangers, through such a surf as landsmen
never dream of when' they sing the praises of the
"wet sheet and the flowing sea," aroend a cosy
supper-table. Three timesthe gallant fellows fought
their way to the ship, till, with a heroism never
surpassed before the imminent deadly breach,"
or at the "cannon's mouth," they had wrung the
victory from the waves and landed every living soul
on board that beleaguered vessel in safety on the
beach. The details of this noble achievement stir
the heart as with a trumpet ; but we have neither
time nor inclination to dwell upon them here, for
the occasion which should have been seized upon
by our own people for doing fit honour to the brave
Britons who had risked so much and wrought so
stoutly in the service of American interests
and American lives was suffered to pass us by un-
improved, and England was left to pay the weed
which we should have claimed it as our right
to bestow. We recall the story now only to bring
into vivid contrast with it that very different story
of the loss of the ship New Hampshire, on the shore
of Long Island, which was reported in our yester-
day's issue. The New Hampshire, like the Nmeh-
em Belle, was an American ship ; but it was her
more cruel fate to be cast upon her native shores,
and within sight of one of the "life stations" by
law established for the purpose, as it would appear,
of deluding mariners to their destruction. Had she
been wrecked in the neighbourhood of a mere fish-
ing village, where never a lifeboat was to be found,
We do not doubt that the generous course of the
people would have sent help to her in cockleshells
within the first hour of her 'distress. As it was,
however, she stranded within the range of official
salvation, and her crow, of course, were left to their
'own resourees. Most fortunately for them the sea,
although very heavy, did not run so high as to dash
the ship directly to pieces, or to annihilate the boat
in which they sought safety. They reached
the shore in time to see the keeper of the lifeboat
emerge from his cheerful residence, and to receive
ocular demonstration that it was his intention
to visit the ship when the surf should have gone
down sufficiently to admit of his making the
trip without any great personal inconveni-
ence. If the conduct of the Deal boatmen who
rescued the crew of the Northern Belle deserved
the recompense of oblivion and neglect, it is clear
that the course of the Long Island life-keeper, who
allowed the crew of the New Hampshire a fair
chance of going to the bottom quietly, 'ought to be
rewarded with immediate promotion and a public
dinner. The qualities which were displayed on this
occasion should commend their possessor to the sur
frages of a municipal constituency for oue of the
highest posts in our city government, and as the new
charter has made no provision for any alte rat ion in our
sanitary system, we entertain a confident hope that he
maybe called to preside over the health of the• metro-
polis, in the capacity of city inspector. Hoy much
of the dangerous and much-frequented coast of Long
Island has been confided to the protecting aegis of
this considerate guardian we do not know,. but we
cannot help thinking that the attention of the
Chamber of Commerce might be profitably turned
to the examination of the actual condition and
working of our life-station system. Millious. of pro-
perty and hundreds of human lives float yearly in
and out of our harbour, at the mercy of tt le winds
and waves," and we cannot see in whet respect the
interest of trade can be advanced by the addition to
all other nautical risks of such an inefficient lifeboat
system as is more likely to paralyse the self help-
fulness of endangered crews than to give them suc-
cour and encouragement. If the present
opportu-
nity' shall be turned to the account of a li;horough
overhauling of our "coast defences" (for such in-
deed they are, and of more importance -than our
forts), we shall not regret the words we
he ,ve spent
upon theproceedings of a functionary vtho seems to
have carefully modelled himself after the ht-ry of an
ancient and ridiculous song.—Netv York: I.smes.

A letter from St. P. teraburg says :—" The grand
Duke Constantine will next year visit the Gaucastl4'. in
order to make himaelfacquainted with tha4 country CO
important' for Russia.",