The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-09 00:00:00

DREADFUL LOSS OF LIFE AT

NOTTINGHAM.

NOTTINGIUM, AUG. B.—Yesterday evening the
Coroner (C. Swain, Esq.), and a most respectable
jury, sat on view of the bodies of the persons killed
by the pressure of the crowd at the execution of the
murderer Saville ; and the inquiry was postponed
until Friday, August 9, to give time for further in-
vestigation, after the evidence had been taken as to the
identity of the bodies.
-- •

THE LONG RANGE.
(From the Examiner.)
Captain Warner's inventions are an invisible shell
with marvellous explosive power; and the long range
of which he gives this account—
" I can project (he said) 100 shells of most destruc-
tive power, and I can repeat the operation with rapidity.
If I threw them into Gibraltar, in a few hours not a man
would be left alive in the place.—(Laughter.) This I
can accomplish at almost any distance. By means of my
long range I could bombard a fortress, and, with a single
vessel, could cut out a fleet in defence of the garrison.
—(Hear, hear.) I could have demolished Algiers, instead
of merely damaging it, as was done by Lord Exmouth
with his splendid fleet.—(Cheers and laughter.) After
that I could, with a comparatively small refit, undertake
to destroy Toulon."
The invisible shell, the experiment of which was
so unsatisfactorily made at Brighton, professional
men think little of; but they rate the long range, with
the newspaper qualification, as important, if true.
Yet it seems that Mr. Warner is infinitely more dis-
posed to exhibit the powers of his invisible shell than
his long range. lie is like Boniface with his bill of
fare, who after all comes to the one thing only that
he can give you.
We have heard of many invisible things in our
time—lnvisible girls, Invisible boys, &.c.—and the in-
visible shell is the new wonder of the class, and the
inventor complains that fur the requital of it there is
also an invisible reward.
As for the long range, there appears to us to be a
good deal of it in the accounts of the shell, from
which it is said to be quite distinct, and the very name
of it is unfortunately associated with the ideas of
a proverbial archery in which truth is somewhat
overshot.
Until Sir Robert Peel mentioned the fact, we were
not aware that Mr. Warner had tried his inventions
against an enemy. The account is highly curious.
" The Commissioners asked him: How long is it
since you satisfied yourself on the powers of your long
range and invisible shell?' Captain Warner answered:
Twelve years as to the long range, and twenty-seven
years as to the invisible shell. I sunk two French pri-
vateers at the end of the war, one off Folkestone and the
other off St. Vallery's Bay.' When asked what vessel he
was in at the time, his reply was that it was called the
sloop Nautilus, that it was a King's vessel, and that it
was commanded by his father, William Warner. The
next inquiry was, Whether such an extraordinary cir-
cumstance as the sinking of two privateers in this way
had not of course been reported to the Admiralty:—
No (was the answer), we were not under the Ad-
miralty, for the vessel was employed by the Secretary of
State and Lard Castlereagh in landing spies.'— Then
was the destruction of the privateers reported to the
Secretary of State?'—' I do not know; it might have
been.'—' Were the facts recorded in the log of the
Nautilus?'—' We did not keep a log.'—' Did you receive
head money for the destruction of the privateers?'—' No;
it was not claimed.'—' Were any of the crews saved?'
—No, none; and the facts were only known to myself
and another r—Such were the assertions of Captain
Warner, and the Commissioners sent first to the Ad-
miralty, to learn if there was any record there of the
destruction cf two privateers, and the answer was, that
not a vestige of such information could be found. They
then resorted to the Foreign•office, because the vessel
was said to have been employed by it, but there was no
trace there of anything of the kind. Thus, according
to Captain Warner, the vessels and their whole crews
were sent to destruction without any reward, and with-
out any record in any department."
The powers of the invention were so great, that it
not only blew the privateers to atoms, but also all
record of the fact, not a vestige of which could be
found, as Sir Robert Peel remarked. It is unfortu-
nate that Mr. Warner at that time hid his lights
under a bushel ; especially as it was in the war when
the long range and invisible shell might have been so
patriotically employed. But he blew up French pri-
vateers as good Christians perform acts of charity,
without letting his right hand know the deed of his left.
We wonder whether those two privateers were
ever missed in France. The explosion was perhaps
so great that it blotted from the memory of men all
recollection of the existence of the vessels and their
crews. With the long range this may happen.
It is possible, however, that Mr. 'Warner blew up
the Flying Dutchman with his invisible shell, mis-
taking that once common phenomenon for an enemy;
and this would account for its non-appearance of late
years, the phantom ship having found its match in the
invisible shell and the long range. As Lord Inges-
trie says, we "challenge any man to prove the con-
trary." We defy any one to prove that Mr. 'Varner
did not blow up the Flying Dutchman.
Sir Robert Peel has acted very judiciously and
fairly in this affair of Mr. Warner's invention. lie
would not make a blind bargain, he would not buy a
pig in a poke. The reasonable conditions required on
the part of the Commissioners were these—
" They shall not require the disclosure of your
secret ; they shall only witness its operation, in order
that they may be perfectly satisfied that all that has been
promised can be done. They shall make their report to
the Government, or to me individually, if you prefer it,
in order that it may not go farther. If they first take
the invisible shell, they will have to see that it can be
applied under adverse circumstances of wind or tide.
Then they must be assured of the safety of those who use
this power ; and thirdly, they must have an understand-
ing how long the Government shall be in possession of
the secret after they have purchased it. I reserved to
myself the entire power of determining how much it was
worth ; and I wanted, moreover, to be assured that when
we had obtained the secret, by paying for it, we should
have the exclusive use of it. I felt that we ought to have
the security that we could ourselves manufacture the
same explosive materials, and that we ought to know
how long we could retain the secret ; on the first failure,
for aught we knew, it might be picked up by our enemies
and made use of against ourselves. I will not, said I,
enter into any such blind bargain as that, supposing you
blow up a ship you shall receive a certain sum. . .
What was required was, that they should witness the de-
struction of a vessel, and should accompany Capt. War-
ner on board the steam-boat that was to be employed on
the occasion. Captain Warner, in reply, said, I posi-
tively object to your being present, and upon those terms
I will not try my experiment: We said, 'lf the expe-
rimentalists are not to be on board the steam-boat, let
us waive the objection,' and we called upon Mr. Warner
to state an estimate of his experiment. I said again, that
I would not enter into a blind pledge to pay 100,0001. in
the event of a certain contingency, but I will appoint two
gentlemen to consider the experiment, and to make a re-
port to the Government ; we promised to pay the expense
but I wished him to make an estimate of the expense ;
and before I could consent to incur an unlimited amount,
I wanted to see Mr. Warner's estimate of the expense of
the materials. I confess that I was startled at the esti-
mate of the expense. Many projectors are content to
receive 2,000/. or 3,000/. for their whole reward ; but Mr.
Warner required 2,7001. for his experiment with the in-
visible shell, and 2,470/. for his experiment with the long
range, making in the whole 5,170/. as the expense of try-
ing the experiments. My answer was again, that the
experiment we desired to see was that with the long
range, that we might therefore spare the expense of the
experiment with the invisible shell, and proceed with
that which we deemed the more valuable ; and seeing
what had been done at Folkstone, in St. Vallery, and in
the Forest of Ilainault, I thought 2,5001. a very large
sum. I offered to place 500/. under the control of the
Commissioners as:a beginning ; they would then watch
the experiment, and the result should show how much
further it should be carried. Mr. Warner for a long
time objected to this proposal, but at last, though he said
the experiment would cost more than the 500/., he did
consent to try the long range, and he said he would try
and get his friends to advance the remainder of the
money, intimating pretty clearly that he would have no
difficulty in finding such friends. But after a certain
period, Mr. Warner informed us that it would be impos
sible for him to make the experiment, as he could not
find friends to advance the difference.
In the war, blowing up privateers was very cheap ;
it could be done for nothing, for an old song, and Mr.
Warner did not think it worth while to say a word
about the matter; he made no more of it than if he
he had shot a sea-gull. lie did not vouchsafe to
claim reward, or head money, or honour, nor even to
mention the exploit. But now times are changed,
and it costs a good deal to get a ship to blow up; so
true is the good old proverb of him " who will not
when be may."
Sir 11. Douglas's account of the method of applying
the invisible shell, confirms all our distrust of the
Brighton experiment—
" The Commissioners considered all Captain Warner's
powers as he had specified them. First, the closing up
of a roadstead, so that no fleet could go out or enter ;
secondly, the invisible shell, flung from the sternheof_ea
vessel chased, by which the chasing vessel wouilldad
codn:
stroyed ; and thirdly, the long range.
stubletreed
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t up t?o Hope's
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andas clear,ln e s
connecting then, that
them,
theremu
so that if a vessel struck the line or the shell it
would
be destroyed. How was Captain Warner to lay
out these lines ? He did not pretend to be invisible, and
he must face the enemy. • Oh,' said Captain Warner,
I will do it by cutters, schooners, and boats. But
how was he to buoy up a passage three miles wide
by cutters, schooners, and boats, in a strong tide ?
—Why, he would:get a steamer. Then there' would
be the noise of the paddle-wheel ; that he would
obviate by using a screw, and the result was, that he
would have to come in the face of a British fleet with
his cutters, schooners, and steamer, to buoy up the
passage.' Such was the admirable application of his
discovery of the power of explosion : it was worse than
the attempt to lay salt on the sparrow's tail.—(Laughter.)
—How was he to place his invisible shells ?—They
were to be anchored.—What depth would he have
to go ?—He would ascertain that.—Then he would have
?—Yes.—ThentoescounhdNud steady
ol as theto
theh s
sw
byw a stay.
o ul d t
afft im ?_ue v
anchor. So that lie would have to sound, and to anchor,
and to place his line, and to pass his steamer in front of
the fleet. Then, with respect to his power against a
vessel chasing—the experiment seen at Brighton. This
experiment was of the same class as the punt in the
fishpond, which was towed by the horse. It was only
some experiment on a larger scale. There was a large
vessel instead of the punt, and a steamer to tow instead
of a team of horses, or one old horse, The vessel was
dragged in the wakel of the steamer. There was one
shell on each side.; the force of the vessel caused these

two to collapse, and thus it was destroyed. He was not
a,seaman, but he was sure it was not the rule of seamen
to chase in the wake ; it was the rule to attack in the
wake. It was clear that a vessel in the exact wake
might be caught, but if either steered athwart the tide
the shell would be missed. The invention, therefore,
never would be used to a great extent there."

Sir H. Douglas talks of Hope's Nose in Torbay.
Why was this ? Was he fearful of alarming Sir Ro-
bert Peel by the mention of Bob's Nose as the point
to which the line of explosion was to be conducted ?
Sir Charles Napier gave a most amusing account of
the various explosive inventions which were to blow
up navies in his time, and of the great unpleasantness
of having to do with such contrivances, so much more
perilous to those who use them than to those against
whom they are to be used. In the handsomest way
he offered to blow up Lord Ingestre, without any
charge whatever, and without the generous aid of
Mr. Soames. •
" Now, the Noble Lord had talked about blowing up ;
' why, if he will sit quiet and allow me to put a few ounces
of detonating powder under his bottom, I'll blow him up
to his heart's content.—(Loud laughter.) A few years
ago Captain Warner showed me a picture of a whole
fleet blowing up with his apparatus. I said, I don't care
two straws about your shells, I want you to give me
your long range, and tell me you can blow up a ship
seven miles off.—(Hear, hear.) But Captain Warner
said he would blow up all the ships in Portsmouth Har-
bour from the back of the Isle of Wight. I said to him,
if you will prove to the Government that you can blow
up a ship six or seven miles off, I will stand up in my
place in Parliament and say I have seen you perform
this extraordinary operation.—(Hear, hear.)' Throw
aside your invisible shell altogether, and use your pro-
jectile ; but he always returned to his invisible shell,
and always shied off the six miles.—(Laughter.)"
In our last number we observed on the rashness
with which Mr. Warner's advocate, Lord Ingestre,
vouched for the destruction of the barque off Brighton
by projectiles • but now we find him distinguishing
the invisible ;hell, used on that occasion, from pro-
jectiles
" Although he had an array of officers telling him
that the invisible shells were worth nothing, he had no
hesitation in telling the House and the country that they
were worth all they had been stated by Captain Warner
to be ; and if a ship could be destroyed by the invisible
shell, why should they adopt the other method ? If they
accomplished everything they wanted without a pro-
jectile, why use it ?"
How then is the statement in the certificate to be
reconciled with this distinction ? If the invisible
shell is not a projectile, how was it that his Lordship
vouched for the destruction of the John o' Gaunt by
" certain projectiles ?"
It is very strange that Mr. Warner and his friends
are all for giving the invisible shell instead of the long
range. We can, however, thoroughly understand the
professional preference of the more comprehensive
engine of destruction. We would say to Mr. War-
ner, as little Acres says to his second, "If you love
me, Sir Lucias, let me bring him down at a long
shot." Six miles is a most convenient and eligible
distance for opening a battery. It is incomparably
preferable to the scope of a tow rope.
And the long range may be so improved that, in
the event of war, we may batter the French coast
from the English, the sights of the guns being fitted
with powerful telescopes. Dover would make short
work with Calais, Folkestone would duel it with
Boulogne, in a fashion that little Acres himself would
approve.
When the aerial machine, as yet as invisible as Mr.
Warner's shell, is ready for flight, it may be fitted
' with the long range, so as to be able to pour down a
' fire upon any place in the world, from any elevation.
The fortifications of Paris would look rather foolish •

under that sort of attack which would bring bomb-
proof parasols and umbrellas into vogue.
Absurd, however, as the whole thing appears, Mr.
Warner should have a fair trial; and it is satisfactory
to us to see that our notion of what is necessary to a
fair experiment is borne out by the stipulations of the
Commissioners thus stated by Sir 11. Douglas :
" The Commissioners proposed to proceed with these
experiments, but they were called upon by Captain
Warner to allow him to provide two vessels.. The Com.:
missioners replied that they had provided two, and that
providing the vessels was no part of his destructive
power. They had. settled among themselves that he
should never see these vessels,:stilllessgo on boardeither
of them, till they were conducted to the bay or roadstead
where the Commissioners had fixed, and then that ho
should be told to commence, and even then that he should
not be allowed to appear nearer to the vessels than the
certain distance, which he was to carry. They would
have taken care to keep the vessel out of his personal
charge, and not allowed any one to come near it. They
did not mean this as anything hostile to Captain Warner,
but to protect the public against even the suspicion of
collusion. Therefore they would not allow him to be
nearer than the person using his means of destruction
at his stated distance would require to be."

INTERESTING TO OMNIBUS PRO-
PRIETORS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—You will render a most important service to
the inhabitants of Brixton and its vicinity, as well as
to a large portion of the public, if you will, through
the powerful influence of your paper, make known to
omnibus proprietors that a large field of profit now
lies before them, and from which they may reap a
plentiful harvest, and that is, by running omnibuses
on the Brixton-road, where they will be sure of cer-
tain support.
On the Brixton-road the present fares are—
To the three-milestone Gd.
To Brixton Church .. 9d.
And beyond that
These rates of charge are greater than on any other
road of equal distance from London. Now, Sir, what
I would propose is, that several proprietors agree
together to run their carriages every quarter of an
hour, charging Gd. each passenger ; it would be quite
out of the question for one proprietor to attempt it
by himself, as he would be soon run off the road.
One of the Brixton proprietors, a very worthy, in-
dustrious man, attempted to charge Gd., but a levia-
than opponent insisted on his raising the price to the
old charge, and he was obliged to submit; thus you
see how we are situated. What can be done to re-
medy it ?
Let the inhabitants of Brixton arouse themselves
from their lethargy, and not suffer this state of things
any longer to exist, for it is no unusual thing in the
middle of the day to be one hour, and even sometimes
longer,", going from Gracechurch-street to Brixton
Church, four miles, and if you remonstrate with the
conductors upon loitering at the Elephant and Castle
as well as on the road, you generally get impertinence
for your reply.
I would further propose that the inhabitants make
a subscription among themselves of a few shillings
each, and circulate bills all over London, inviting
omnibus proprietors to put their conveyances imme-
diately on a road where they are sure of success.—
; I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
A CONSTANT READER.

SOUTHWARK LITERARY
INSTITUTION.

Mr. C. Mackie delivered a lecture on the character
of Shakespere, yesterday evening, to a highly re-
spectable and numerous audience. In his introduc-
tion he traced the origin of the drama from a very
remote period. Comedy was first performed at
Athens, on a scaffold, by Susarion and Dolon, 562
years before Christ, and the comedies of Terence
were first acted 154 years before Christ. Tragedy
was first acted at Athens, on a waggon, by Thespis,
535 years before Christ, and during a period of
wo thousand years tragedy and comedy were
held quite distinct. It was only after that
period that Shakespere made this appearance
in the world, and by the mighty music of his
pen broke down the ancient line of demarcation.
This division was held to be inviolable, but
Shakespere, who did not perceive the necessity of
such a distinction, made no more scruple of breaking
through that than through the unities upon which it
seemed to be founded.
The lecture would have told much better if Mr.
Mackie had been in his wonted health, but he had a
rfa, lueen great. applause.
paeursfe. Aedtorm,
bad cold, and:spoke with evident fatigue.
The Amateur Music Class, under Mr. Westlake,
theb by
their performances,
ce
Saves elicited
the ite &
r conclusionperfo
and sung by the audience.