The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-04 00:00:00

au these occasions the consumption of liquor was awful,
and the amount of fun very great. It is true we had somo
little difficulty in teaching the amateurs their verses, and
-the piquancy of soma of the puns was not appreciable
"by the unscholarly of them. One gentleman insisted, on
: riding his donkey —trained for the occasion—across the
stage iu his character of the galloping sno'.,. • The-animal
behaved well enough when his turn came, but before that..
t 'me he grew impatient, brayed audibly, and was ouly re-
s trained from "coming on" by being foreib:y held 1,,a;.* by
t:-..te tail. I knew it would be-so. The idea of having a
live jackass on the stage! But 1 shouldn't have minded
Wat so much if the Dragon's head hadn't come off, and if
tiie tttufortunat) amateur who personated that fabulous
nets.-;ter had no boea left to do battle with St. George with
leis own heal, and with a tail manufactured iu London.
Nobody liked to undertake the Dragon, and here
was the good-natured volunteer fur the character
tposel to the full ridicule of the house, after being
w ellnigh suffwate.l, au 1 without ti o satisfaction of seeing
lx s name in the bills.

Then the prompter's box fell down, and I had to take
An a position wherefrom I c)uld b 3 heard all over the
lio use. Then a stage war horse became ungovernable,
Oita is to say, the m•ichinery which attached him to his
human partner in centaurship became disordered, the
head got awry, and the sham legs came off. These lament-
able disasters were caused by the too vigorous-onslaught
of a warrior, armed with a stick and bladder, who, under
tb.e combined influence of bright eyes, bright gaslight, and
p erhaps bright champagne, laid about him to such a tune
that we hal some difficulty in restraining his worsted
antagonist from "walking into him" after they came off
the stage.

The Mayor was so pleased at my allusion to him that
he rob') in his boa and bowed graciously—mayors do not
as a rub bow gracefully—but an uncomplimentary men-
tion of another respectable tradesman met with a declara-
tion on his part that he would punch my head whenever
he should catch me, a gratification in which it is needless
perhaps to say I did not indulge him.

The members, although patrons, did noteattend, though
they would have heard nothing to their disparagement.
It was not my business thOt one had been once ousted for
bribery, and that "the free and independent electors"—
whom one and all I held up as models of electoral morality
—had once suffered temporary disfranchisement for their
scandalous corruptibility. I gave them the credit of hav-
ing seen the error of their ways, or at least of believing
in the inexhaustibility of members' purses, and they re-
warded "the poor players" handsomely enough by render-
ing our performance a great success. —Racing Times and
Amateur Dramatic Chronicle.

LOSS OF THE CHICAGO.

OFFICIAL REPORT.

To the Right Hon. the Lords of Committee of Privy

Council for Trade.

My Lords,—l have the honour to report that
I have held the inquiry ordered by your Lord-
ships into the loss of the Chicago (screw steamer)
off the coast of Cork, on the 12th of January
last, in which inquiry I have been assisted by
Captains Harris and Baker, as nautical assessors.
The Chicago was built of iron at Jarrow in 1866.
Her gross tonnage was 2,912 tons, and she was re-
gistered at Liverpool of the burthen of 1,980 tons.
She was 332 feet in length, her main breadth was
42 feet, and her depth was 27 feet from her
upper deck. She was owned by Messrs. Ste-
phen Barker Guion, of Liverpool, merchant,
and Charles Mark Palmer, Of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
shipbuilder, and she was commanded by Mr. Wil-
liam M'Nay, who holds a certificate of competency,
and had a crew of 96 hands all told. She was valued
at £60,000, and had a general cargo valued at
£llO,OOO, and she carried 54 passengers. The
Chicago sailed from New York on the 2d January,
and after a favourable passage across the Atlantic
she passed the Old Head of Kinsale about 20 p.m.
on Sunday, the 12th, when a course was shaped
E. by N. N. till 410 p.m., when she was hauled
up to E N.E. till 4 20 p.m., when the engines
were reluced to half speed, then N.E. till
4 50 p.m., when the engines were stopped.
The weather, which had been hazy during the
afternoon, now settled into a very dense fog,
which prevented them seeing more than half their
own length. At 5 p.m. soundings were taken with
a patent deep sea lead by the chief mate, the index
showing 15 fathoms. This he duly reported to the
captain, and they both went below to consult the
chart, the result of which was that they decided to
stand in quite slow, till they got 11 fathoms, when
they purposed to round her to, with her head off
shore, till the fog cleared. Accordingly, at 5.10
p.m. the engines were started quite slow, and a
quartermaster was ordered to get the hand lead and
go into the chains. Before they could get a cast
the ship had taken the ground, the man being about
to heave it when the 100k-out reported " breakers
ahead," upon which orders were instantly given
to reverse at full speed, but before her way was
stopped the ship struck at 5.20 p.m. Attempts
were made to back her off, but they were un-
successful, and the fires were speedily put out by
the water, which rushed into the stoke-hole and en-
gine-room. The boats were at once lowered, and all
the passengers were safely conveyed to land. The
master, his chief and third officers, and some of the
crew, remained by the ship till 11 p.m., when the wind
and sea getting up they thought it unsafe to remain,
and they also went on shore. The following day the
specie and the passengers' luggage were safely
brought away. Very efficient assistance was ren-
dered by the Coastguard, the constabulary, and all
the authorities, and Lord Fermoy (the Lord-Lieu-
tenant of the county of Cork) kindly and hospitably
aided in the general efforts made for the comfort
and convenience of the passengers and crew. Part
of the cargo subsequently washed ashore, and on the
16th the vessel had broken up. In reviewing the
facts of the case, the Court felt bound to observe
that the master displayed a certain degree of care
and caution in the navigation of his vessel, which
took this disaster out of the category of those reck-
less losses which have too frequently formed
the subjects of its inquiry. But one prominent
feature in this case could not be overlooked. The
master, to whose care was entrusted this valuable
ship and cargo, thought fit to proceed, in a very
dense fog, towards land, alter obtaining soundings
in 15 fathoms. Even admitting that he was in
the position in which he supposed himself to
be, and as, according to the courses said
to be run, he might fairly have so con-
cluded, he must be allowed the benefit of the
admission. Still the Court held that he com-
mitted a default in proceeding further in-shore
in such weather and still more in doing so
without first verifying his assumed position by
another cast of the lead. A prudent commander,
in such circumstances, would undoubtedly have
kept his ship's head off shore till the weather cleared
up. For this default the court felt bound to sus-
pend the master's certificate; but, havingh.reii
gard to certain extenuating circumstances w ic
presented themselves in this case, as already de-
tailed in the brief narrative of the voyage previous
to the disaster, it adjudged a sentence of suspen-
sion for the brief period of six calendar months. In
the course of the inquiry, some evidence was offered
tending to show that deeper water could be found
on this part of the coast, and nearer the land, than
appears by the Admiralty Chart ; but as it did
not affect this case, it is only necessary thus briefly
to allude to it.—l remain, &c.,
T. S. RAFFLES, Stipendiary Magistrate.
Liverpool, Jan. 27, 1868.
iVe concur in this report.
Ilv. Haßets, .
Nautical Assessors.
It. B. BAKER,

THE PLOUGII FIELD.—On Thursday last the
annual ploughing match of the Bywoll Society took place
at Nafferton, Northumberland. Upwards of 60 plough-
men competed for the prizes, and as the soil in that neigh-
bourhood is a rich stiff clay, an opportunity was afforded
of showing the very highest class of work under the most
favourable circumstances. The finest ploughing was
that of the champion class, in which all the prizes, in-
cluding a five guinealover watch, were won with Messrs.
Ransome's ploughs. In the boys' class some excellent
work was done by the 15 competitors, considering that
they Were restricted to the use of 3 ft. mould-boards, and
here again the first prize, a silver watch, was won with one
Qf the Ooze implemento.