The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-21 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVENING,

beard sts vesesl. There were no psreons ili, and all went
on estinfott:bly until we -struck. I then Isaye out of
say hsrtli and ran on deck. I thoweit theta had been
ecilialon with another veeeel. When I looked WicL" Lhe
starboard quarter I saw large detached masses of what
I conceived at first to be the fragments of a vessel
which we had run down, standing up out of the water;
but on a closer examination, I felt convinced they were
rocks, and I saw the shore, boldly and clearly defined,
rising at about four hundred yards distance. The vessel
drifted in a little after striking. When we struck we
were about six hundred yards beyond the Portpetrick
Lighthouse. There was no rebound after the vessel
struck; it was a cutting, crushing sound, as if from the
speed at which she was going and the sharpness of the
shock she was incapable of offering resistance, and the
water rushed iu. The engines ceased immediately;
they did not even make a Laltturn after the shock. In
a moment or two after the shock it was visible the
vessel was going down bead-foremost, and when the
water got into the engine room and quenched the fires
the deck was enveloped in steam. At this juncture the
boat on the starboard quarter was taken possession of
by a crowd of pessengers, but in consequence of the
fore tackle being uadone before the after gear,
all in her, with the exception of three, who clang
to the seats were thrown into the sea, and many of them
were drowned. The aft r tackle was subsequently let
go, bat this boat never righted. I then turned my at-
tention to the boat un the larboard quarter; a large
number of passengers was gathering about her. Tee
vessel at this time was fist settling down, and perhaps
five minutes had elapsed from the time of striking when
fir the first time I saw the captain. He stoo lup on one
of the seats of the quarter-deck and requested the whole
of the passengers to remain quiet; there was no danger
to be apprehended, arid only those who left the vessel
wore sure to be 1 est. The vessel swamped in four or
five minutes afterwards; but before she did so she struck
heavily on her starboard quarter and the passengers
gathered about the second boat lost their footing, and
were thrown into the scruppers, the water washing over
them. Many found a grave on the deck of the Orion.
The large lifeboat was with much difficulty got out just
as the vessel was going down, Myself, my wife, and
daughter, whom I found on deck, jumped into her off
the Wired, which at this time, owing to the vessel's
lurch, was a height of 20 feet. We were only slightly
bruised. There were 28 saved in this lifeboat, and out of
that number there was but one seatnan. To the best of
my knowledge, I never saw a sailor during the whole
time of the catastrophe. The largest proportion of the
passengers were ladies. The boats from the shore did
good service after the vessel sank. There was great
quietness amongst the passengers, and no screaming.
Two-thirds at least of the passengers were on deck when
the vessel went down, but I thiuk a number must have
been drowned in the cabins." Mr. Anderson bears high
testimony to the kindness he experienced in Portpatriuk.
LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY, 1 1
- • O'CLOCK, P.M.
The following list of passengers lost and saved was
received in Liverpool to-night from Portpatrick direct:—
NAMES OF PERSONS KNOWN TO BE DROWNED.—Mrs.
Platt and two daughters, Mrs. Marchba.nke, of Glasgow;
Mr. Bennett, of Chester; two children, named Frazer,
of New Brighton; Mr. Probe, of Malvern; Mr. Jago,
of Liverpool; Mr. John Pierce, of Liverpool; Mrs.
MeNeile, of Jurd, and two daughters; Captain McNeil;
Harriet McKennia Pugh, daughter of the Rev. Mr.
Pugh, of Paisley; Professor Burns, of Glasgow; Miss
Morris, Doctor Burns' niece; Master James Martin, of
Liverpool; Mr. and Mrs. Scott, of Montreal; two
children of Mrs. Gladstone, of Clifton; Park, of Birken-
head; Mr, Graham, steward; Mr. Walker, carpenter;
Dunn, an apprentice boy; and the stewardess of the
Orion, also drowned.
KNOWN TO BE SAVED. —Lieutenant Maurice, R.N.;
John M. Jones, Edward Alfred Marshall Wallingford,
Mayor of Man; Richard Price, Master Darnoeh, of
Greenock; Thomas Kitson, Mr., Mrs., and Miss Ander-
son, S. 11. Napier, W. J.Walleer, J. Nichols, M. 1)., Mr.
and Miss Nichol, Peter M'Clellan, Mr. Wight, John
Roberts, Dugald Cameron, Glasgow; Lawrence Banner,
Montreal; Robert Buchanan, Glasgow; Mrs. R. Ididchsin,
Glasgow; Miss Sutter, governess, from America; Mr.
Sueder, Perth; Mr. and Mrs. Roby, Malvern, Worcester-
shire; William Anderson; Glasgow; William Priest, Li-
verpool; James Holt, R.N.; Mrs. Williams, Liverpool;
John anti William Archibald, Moe; George and Henry
Lumb, Liverpool; John Bred= William Gardener, 17,
Turner's-court, Glasgow, and Mrs. Gardener; the Rev.
Mr. Clarke, Manchester; Mr. James Walker, Glasgow;
John Oldham, Shepton Mallet; Woodfield, Glasgow;
Magnus Tait, John Walker, John Mills, Liverpool;
Henry Thompson, Liverpool; Andrew Forbes, Stirling;
Robert 8011, Truro; William Kelly, Dartmouth; James
Payne, Dartmouth; John Merrilles, Paisley; Duncan
Campbell, Glasgow; Peter Ramsay, Liverpool; Wil-
liam Merrilles, Mrs. Merrilles, Mr. and Mrs. Thomp-
son, Glasgow; Margaret O'Brien, John O'Doherty,
Mrs. and Miss Hurst; Mrs., Miss, and Hannah White-
head Jameson, Glasgow; Isabella Duncan, Liverpool;
James Gibbons, Glasgow; Thomas Delvin, ditto; John
J. Rennie' Aberdeen; Miss-Owner, ditto; John Weal!,
e Glasow; James and Alexander Gyall, ditto; Mr. Wil-
liam'lM`Rennie, jun., Liverpdol; Mr. R. Moss, ditto;
Mr. Richard Spencer, ditto; Mr. John Pearce; Captain
and Mrs. M•Kechie, Greenock; Miss Parkinson, Pais-
ley•, Mr. James Connell, New York; Mr. and Mrs.

Lawrence Gladstone, Liverpool; Mrs. Thomas; Wil-
liam Masters; John C. and Alexander M'Neill, jun.;
Mrs. White; Caroline Sorley; Mary E. Nichol, S 2,
Rodney-street; John Seward, Glasgow; Archibald
Oughterson, Dalkeith-house; Caroline Marsden and
Miss E. Hurst, Saddleworth; William Drew and Elijah
Pinkers, Liverpool; William Clinton, Berth; Walter
Ewing, Liverpool; Mr. Boud, Glasgow; Caroline Mar-
tin; Mrs. limiter, port Glasgow; Elizabeth Coldhoun;
Joseph A. Pritchard, Liverpool; Philip M'Ulstott, Ar-
gyle-street, Glasgow ; Patrielc Mann, Staffordshire;
John Biggan.

In addition to tho above there are 10 or 15 persons
saved, whose names are not kuown, who wont per
Fem.lla steamer t) Ardrussan oa Tuesday.
The number of persons supposed to be on board is—
Cabin passengers, 115; steerage, 45; crew, 40. Total,
200; of whom about 157 are saved and 43 drowned.

Divers who left Liverpool in the steam-tug Defiance
had bon able to penetra'e into the fore cabi❑ of the

Orion, and had succeeded in recovering a large quantity
of luggage and upwards of 1001. in gold. There,were no
bedie:a in the cabin.

CHANGES IN THE POST-OFFICE.

Yesterday a meeting of the proprietors and represen-
tatives of various London newspapers took place at
Peele's Coffee-house, Fleet-street, for the purpose of
taking into consideration the best means of inducing
Parliament to retrace their steps as regards the altera-
tions which have just been made in the transmission of
letters and newspapers through the Post-office on Sun-
day. Mr. Ingram, of the Illustrated London News, took
the chair.

Mr. SERLE, of the Weekly Dispatch, moved the first
resolution, and in doing so observed that this alteration
would have met with a more strenuous opposition if
those who were connected with the press looked more
closely to the matter, and came to understand how
closely it affected them. In no other country under
the sun, in which the people enjoyed anything like a
constitutional form of government, and in which the
press exercised something like its natural influence,
could any such insult be offered by a Government as
so suddenly to stop the transmission of a very large
majority of the newspapers through the Post-
office on one day iu the week. The fact of
the Government having the power to insult them in
such a manner arose from their not acting in a body.
In the resolution which he had the honour to propose,
he had endeavoured to embrace—first, a censure on the
Ministry, for abrogating its functions at the beck of a
few Members of the House of Commons; and for not
daring to say at (the moment what they thought right
and wrong; therefore suffering the wrong to be done,
and allowing the opposing parties to fight it out as best
they might, having in the first instance given the wrong
party the advantage by carrying out their wishes. It
was by these means the Government set at variance two
parties without injuring or offending the Sabbatarians,
who were headed by Lord Ashley,—(llear, hear.) The
second point to which he would ask their attention was
that the stamp duty was supposed to carry their news-
papers free of postage from one end of the kingdom to
another. If it did that for one portion of the press, he
could not see why it should not do it for the other.—

(Hear, hear.) It was as gross an injustice as could be
inflicted. He thought that they ought at once to ap-
point a committee, formed by members of the pr. as,
which should from that day forth be ready to act on
all such occasions. They were not prepared for such
a sudden step as had been taken by the Government,
and it was only that day.that Mr. Ingram mated whether
newspapers were included in the notice given by the
Government. He was of opinion that if they acted in
concert In this matter, they would compel the Prime
Minister to acknowledge that he was wrong in passing
an insult on the press by giving them such a short no-
tice of the steps which he was about to adopt. If ho
could believe that their meeting that night could lead to
the formation of such a committee as ho had mentioned,
and which would be determined to do justice to their
great and noble calling, and to the many interests which
were concerned in matters of this kind, and would put a
stop to the constant annoyance given by any bigoted
Member of Parliament who wished to bring in a Sunday
Trading Bill, ho would be much gratified with the alter-
ations which the Government had been pleased to make.
After observing that the press of this country would ex-
ercise greater power than the press on the continent pos-
sessed, with much less ability, if they only acted with
unanimity, Mr. Serle proposed a resolution to the effect,
" That the meeting conceived that the Ministry, in
stopping the use of the post by the weekly newspapers,
in an address moved by only 95 Members of the House
of Commons, had shrunk from its duty as a Govern-
ment."

Mr. Cox, of the Law 7'irnes, seconded the resolution,
and stated that he could not but share the general feel-
ing that a monstrous injustice had been attempted to be
practised on them on this occasion. The regulation
which had been sanctioned by the Government would
compel the publishers of weekly newspapers to have
them posted on Friday to enable their readers in the
country to receive them by Sund4y. It would, therefore,
produce an immense decline in the circulation of the
weekly newspapers which came out on Saturday, as they
could not be received by their subscribers until Monday.
Their subscribers finding that they had to wait twenty-
four hours for their newspapers would very soon begin
to drop their subscriptions. It was a matter therefore of
great pecuniary interest to the proprietors of weekly
newspapers that such a system should immediately be
put a stop to. He thought that it was a monstrous thing
that it should be in the power of a portion of one branch
of the L,gislature, without taking the full sense of the
Howe of Commons, and without obtaining the sanction
of the House of Lords, to pass a regulation affecting
to such an extent the property of so many iudivi-
viduals, and interfering with the convenience and
accommodation of the whole country. If they had the
power of stopping the transmission of letters and news-