The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-05 00:00:00

RAPID SAILING.

The trade with California' says our New York
correspondent, and the repeal of the British naviga-
tion-laws, have together effected a revolution in the
naval architecture of the United States. The ship
builders, who have always been distinguished for
consulting speed rather than capacity, are now com-
peting more eagerly than ever which shall model the
fleetest vessels. Their rivalry is stimulated by the
enterprise of the merchants, who give them a carte
blanche as to cost. Our correspondent instances an
order given by a well-known house in the China
trade, whose instructions to their builder were to fur-
nish them with a ship of 2,000 tons burden with as
little delay as possible. while the only properties sti-
pulated for were the most perfect combination of
beauty and speed consistent with strength, but with-
out any limit as to expense. Such an order, for
a vessel of such dimensions, would not be given
unless with good reasons to expect a return, for,
ardent as the Americans are, they are not less cau-
tious. It is found that vessels of known speed obtain
much higher rates than others. Where the market
is fluctuating, and where the distance is great, the
first corner reaps a harvest which leaves but little
for the rest. Speed gives a virtual monopoly ;
and when that is the prize, a race to California or
China becomes a very exciting affair. The merchants
at San Francisco require their orders to be executed
with the greatest possible dispatch, and insist on the
fleetest vessels being preferred, whatever the cost of
freight. So vessels of this class command one dollar
per cubic foot for ordinary cargo, and double that
price for fine goods, while their old-fashioned and
slower competitors take freight at half or five-eights
of a dollar. Under these circumstances it is evident
that a superiority of speed may be cheaply purchased
by a large sacrifice of capacity. The American
- liners" between this country and New York have
hitherto been considered about as fleet, as merchant
vessels, as could be constructed with profit ; but the
new class of vessels springing into existence in the
United States holds one-fifth lees than the " liners"
of the same nominal tonnage, and, as we have seen,
(flake it up in the more than proportionate value of
their freight. _ _

One vessel mentioned by our correspondent,
bound to San Francisco, thence to Canton, and
thence to this port, or direct to New York, is
likely, if all be well, to clear the whole cost to her
owners by the time she is one year old. Another
has gone twice round the world via San Francisco
Nnd Canton, performing each journey within a
twelvemonth, including detentions. The Oriental,
mother of this class instanced by our correspondent,
qas already fulfilled the expectations of her owners
by arriving in the West India Docks yesterday, in
icily 98 days from Canton. From that port to
Scilly she was only 91 days, and the sort of weather
she must have had for the latter part of her voyage
can be easily imagined. She is the first arrival at
this port from Canton since the repeal of the navi
nation laws, and the profits derived from her thus
far will be sure to lead many others in her
-rain. As our ships have precisely the same op-
portunities, and have, indeed, been even prompter to
seize them, the case of the Oriental, though it has
gained the whole of its freight at the expense of Bri-
ish vessels in the first instance, should be rather a
stimulus than a discouragement. It is simply a trial
of speed, and as such is just as open to the British as
to the American shipbuilders. The revolution de-
scribed by our New York correspondent has been
going on some years in this country. The fastest
vessels obtain their own terms for freight, and the
slow coaches" are degraded from the long voyages
to the coasting or the collier service, where there cer-
tainly is, just now, a considerable pressure on the
shipping interest. If anybody, however, can point
out or devise an improvement which does not to some
extent supersede old methods, and benefit the im-
prover at the expense of those who stand still, he will
earn the eternal thanks of the indolent and dull, and
take away the chief incentive to human improvement.
Everything now conspires to render speed as in-
dispensable to success on sea as on land. By the aid
of steam we have intelligence within two months from
every considerable port in the world, excepting only
our own Australian colonies. In the third week of
October we had Californian newspapers of September
1. Notwithstanding the immense cost of our postal
communications with the West Indies, Central Ame-
rica, and the Pacific, the Americans are able to anti-
cipate them so far, that the news brought by the
West India packets is generally some days out of
date. By the electric telegraph intelligence is con-
veyed almost instantaneously between Boston and
New o:leans, " beating time" by half-an-hour. The
completion of the continental railroads will soon
shorten the journey between London and Alexandria;
and there is at length some hope that the journey be-
tween Bombay and the two other Presidencies will be
measured by hours. But the quicker the conveyance
of intelligence and of travellers the quicker too must
be the conveyance of goods. At all events, the
more certain is the swifter conveyance to take away
all profit from the slower. Just at this time, when
Atlantic steamers are multiplying every year, railroads
increasing by a thousand miles per annum in the New ,
and the Old World, and the electric telegraph, seem
to quicken the pace and the pulse of the world, the
discovery of California drives the competition up to
fever heat, and for a time threatens to put the United
States at the head of the universal competition. There
is no doubt that it will draw into this new and almost
miraculous opening much of that enterprise which
has lately been rewarded with wonderful results
nearer home. We have several times had to direct
attention to the fresh and fresh lines of steamers on
the American rivers and lakes, to vast additional
lengths of canal, and the endless ramifications of the
railway system ; as also to the new manufactures in-
troduced wherever an opening offered. The rapid in-
crease of population in the States, augmented by an
annual immigration of near 300,000 from these isles, is
a fact that forces itself on the notice and the interest
of the most inobservant arAd incurious. All these
s
promise to develope the resources of the States to
an extent as to compel us to a competition as
difficult as it is unavoidable. We must run a race
with our gigantic and unshackled rival. We must
set our long-practised skill, our steady industry, and
youth, inge-
hwisho runs a race
nouuritydo, gagneddarddeotuerrm. inlattiiosntheagfaaitretr
with his son. A fell necessity constrains us, and we
must not be heat. Let our shipbuilders and their
employers take warning in time. There will always
be abundant supply of vessels good enough and fast
enough for short voyages. The coal trade can take
care of itself, for it will ever be a refuge for the
destitute. But we want fast vessels for the long
voyages, which otherwise will fall into American
hands. It is fortunate that the navigation-laws have
been repealed in time to destroy these false and un-
reasonable expectations, which might have lulled the
ardour of British competition. We now all start to-
gether, with a fair field and no favour. The Ame-
rican captain can call at London, and the British cap-
tain can pursue his voyage to New York. Who can
complain ? Not we. 'We trust that our country-
men willnot be beaten; but, if they should be, we
shall know,that they deserve it.— Times.

; 'NE I.Pinisli PUMP -9T0i.,1.7 .-7--T-T-4NH, -,,u-
-, ,
eruct.-•-On Supday he vill4ge:kiunpsei.!4e thq +item,
Ina Wad'toler;anti darrie'd away • the wooden casing and the
huge `ire huddle wire' fdtini' in ',
a 'Jetzt-not fat' froth the spot
11:xist.Pop°eflidilltghebmilti:ctrheeaniesit v.d•irlilibee f
jpstica, as it•was the, only pomp is the village producing
good water.— Shcrberne Journal, ~,,1,- ::;•) :, , .. 4 ~. .„
aotutnadchoedut,tandi'b'tO4sug'gh°tr'itoe.

Mr. HUME, on rising, was received with renewed
applause, which having at_ length subsided, he pro-
ceeded to thank them from'his heart for the welcome
they had that evening accorded him. He did not take
their approbation so much a compliment to himseif
personally as to those principles which he had always
been so anxious to promote. He accepted the de-
monstration of that evening as a testimony of their
sense of the vast importance of those principles,—as a
proof that they had not now to become converts to
them. He would not give a pin for any man who
came there merely to join in that evening's welcome,
who was not determined hereafter to carry out those
expressions of opinion into action, and be firm and
zealous supporters of those great reform principles
with which he was identified.—(Hear, hear, and
cheers.) It might probably be new to many present
if he stated that he was the first man in the House of
Commons who declared himself a Radical Reformer
—(Applause)—and at a time, too, when a Radical
Reformer was thought little better than a wild beast.
—(Laughter and cheers.) But he made up his
mind. He saw fearful abuses existing in our institu-
tions—he saw the necessity for reform of those
abuses—that there must be no mere patchwork—no
mending bit by bit—but that they must remove as
speedily as possible those abuses and that injustice
from which the nation was suffering. No country in
the world was richer than England. Her inhabitants
were a finer race of men than any other country could
boast of. For skill and persevering plodding industry
none could rank with Englishmen. Such were his
observations 40 years ago. The question then arose
in his mind, why there should be se much misery in a
country which possessed materials amply calculated to
make her people prosperous and happy? He believed
one great reason to be the abuses in our Constitution
—political evils—that, instead of ruling for the be.
nefit of the many, those in authority too much con-
sulted the mere interests of the few. In the abuses
in the House of Commons was the foundation of
much, if not all, the evils from which they suffered.
In his early days he attached himself to the Whigs,
because they appeared to be greater friends of
liberty than the Tories, and he had generally been
a follower of that party. He had in those
days witnessed certain members of the pre-
sent Government toast the people, whose power,
he regretted to see, they now appeared to dread.
they abused the people who had brought them into
power. He was almost daily pained to witness their
refusal to give the people those political rights and
privileges of which they were once such strong advo-
cates. Reform was in a very different position to what
it was in 1811, when he first entered Parliament.
England, limited as it was with regard to represen-
tation, was then at the,top of the tree, looking towards
Europe. Ail our institutions were representative.
The great English juriaprudist, Blackstone, declared
that by the Constitution every Englishman had a
right to he in, or to have a voice in sending represen -
tatives to, the Commons House of Parliament, to whom
was entrusted the right of levying taxes, the right of
taking out of the pockets of the people that which was
their own property, for the purposes of the State.
Government was not to be conducted solely for the
benefit of the Crown or of the aristocracy, I'ut for
the benefit of the people—of the whole, and not of a
class.—(Loud cheers.) The Crown was merely an
executive officer, to execute the laws of the people
when passed by their representatives ; and this it was
which made England to differ from continental rulers,
who acted on their own despotic authority, and took
no order from the people. In England the people had
established their right by turning out one king and
putting in another ; the Crown was elected to carry
out measures for the benefit of the community at large.
Every Englishman, therefore, had a right to a
voice in sending Members to Parliament ; but was it
so ? Out of a population of twenty millions, there
were only some 950,000 electors on the register ;
and, after deducting double and treble qualifications,
he believed the actual number of individual electors
would not exceed 800,000. Referring back to the
commencement of his career in 1811, he repeated that
he found the root of all these evils to be in the House
of Commons ; and to the work of reform, and a
change for the better, he had devoted his life.—(Loud
cheers.) He bad seen on various sides abuses in their
institutions, which he was anxious to get redressed—
monopolies to be removed—laws to be corrected—ex-
penditure to be curtailed—and all these things
brought them back to the principle, that taxation and
representation should be co-equal and co-existent, rs
all the best authorities on the British Constitution said
ought to be the case. He highly eulogized the Con-
stitution of England as comprising the three estates :
the House of Commons, as the voice of the people
the House of Lords, es the voice of the aristocracy ;
and the Crown, as a controlling power over both ;
and which only required to be properly carried out to
make it the most perfect constitution which he could
imagine. Therefore, as a Radical Reformer, he was
anxious to preserve their institutions in all their in-
tegrity, but to extirpate the abuses which impeded
their fair and legitimate working. (Mr. Hume then
passed in review the various reforms he had always
supported in the House of Commons, and the
leading political events which had characterised the
forty years that had passed since he first entered
that assembly.) The people had now the power in
their own hands to a great extent, if they chose to
accomplish it, to effect great reforms for themselves.
From the moment the rotten boroughs were abolished,
and the abuses connected therewith were rooted out,
the people possessed far greater power than before.
There was scarce a man who, by the exercise of a
little economy, could not in a short time obtain a
vote ; and the man who had not a vote was only a
political slave.—(Hear, hear.) Reforms in the law,
in Parliament, and in other matters, (to which Mr.
Hume referred at length), required immediate
attention, and with earnest action on the part of
the people they could soon be accomplished. To
these matters he had always devoted his attention,
and should it please God longer to spare his life
he should continue to do so ; and when he laid his
head on his pillow, never to rise again, he should
have the satisfaction of knowing that he had, at all
events honestly, endeavoured to do something for the
improvement of his fellow-creatures.—(Loud cheers.)
No country in the world bad more reason to be proud
of her institutions than England, if they were only
properly carried out. No man was more anxious
than he was to see the abuses which had crept into
them removed—none more anxious to preserve the
good and destroy the bad.—(Hear and cheers.) And
therefo;e ho had, in the two last sessions of Parlia-
ment, introduced a measure to give the people a re-
gistered suffrage, the ballot, the abolition of the pro-
perty qualification for Members of Parliament, equal
electoral districts, and triennial Parliaments. (On
each of which several points Mr. Hume dilated at
some length.) He had great confidence in the future,
and although he did not expect to live to see them all
carried out, he believed the day was not far distant
which would witness the advent of many great and
wise changes. He highly complimented Lord John
Russell for the services he had rendered in past days
to the cause of civil and religiousliberty ; and although
he lamented the Nob) Lord's more recent conduct on
questions of reform, he looked upon him as a victim
to the present state of things, and believed that, with
a better House of Commons, they would find Lord
John Russell a Much better man. After some further
allusions to these questions and a few complimentary
references to the conduct of the Mayor of SouthamP'
ton, who had always proved.bleaseif a trim friend of
l' the working classes, Mr. Hume proposed the " Health
'of the Mayot and Corporation of Southampton," and
sat down-amidst enth;isiastic cheering' ' -
-The toast was drunk with much applause, and
briefly responded to by the Miro.

instance, to the parties-immediately concerned. It
may be that they cannot—it may also be that they
will not—give us the information we require ; but
still common sense seems to indicate that we
are far more likely to gain a clear insight int*
the real merits of a case by appealing to
the principals themselves, than by resting contented
with an application to persons who, though wholly
disinterested, are but partially acquainted with the
circumstances in question. Something more, there-
fore, is required than the mere knowledge of he rule
of law which renders parties to the record inadmis-
sible witnesses, to induce men to act as if this rule
might one day bear upon their own interests. They
may be aware of the existence of such an abstract
doctrine—nay, they may even give to it a cold, un-
reflecting assent ; but they do not allow it practically
to influence their conduct ; and it is only when their
legal adviser has given them the fatal answer, " All
you say is no doubt true, but you have no case at
law, for your facts are incapable of legal proof," that
they become thoroughly alive to the wide distinction
which prevails on this subject between the principles
of common law and those of common sense and com-
mon justice. Let in all the light possible, is the
theory of the one—exclude all the brightest light,
lest perchance it should blind you, is the practice of
the other.

That this practice will not be permitted much
longer to stifle truth in our courts of justice, we feel
perfectly assured ; for the grounds on which it rests
are so palpably unsound that they cannot fail to be
repudiated as soon as they are understood. The only
matter for surprise is that the rule should have been
allowed to prevail thus long; and if we wanted to

illustrate the tenacity with. which the people, and
especially the lawyers, of this country, cling to old
legal abuses merely because they are old, we doubt
whether, in the whole range of our institutions, we
could furnish a more favourable instance than the
doctrine which rejects the testimony of parties. This
doctrine is founded exclusively on the twofold as-
sumption—first, that the crime of perjury would be
materially increased, and secondly, that the
jury would be frequently misled, by per-
mitting the litigants themselves to be examined
as witnesses. we beg leave to distaite
both these propositions. No doubt, a party to the
record, being interested in the result of the suit,
would have a motive for misstating or colour-
ing the facts ; but to contend that such a
motive would, in the majority of instances,
be sufficiently strong to cause the commission
of perjury, is, in our judgment, a libel upon
mankind. In the common transactions of life,
men, as an ordinary rule, are not found to lie
merely because the truth is against their interest;
and even were it otherwise, it would by no means
follow that similar motives would induce them to
commit i,erj wry, which is not only an offense of a
:ar deeper dye than simple falsehood, but which
renders the offender liable to an ignominious pu-
nishment. Moreover, the party to the record
would be fully aware that, in proportion as
his testimony came from a suspicious quar-
ter, he would be sutjected to a cross.exa-
mination more than usually severe; and thus
"bile he might be tempted to commit perjury by
his interest, he would be induced to speak the truth
through dread of detection. It must also be borne in
mind th4t persons who would not hesitate to perjure
themselves can have no squeamish scruples about com-
mitting subornation of perjury; and if the advocates
for the rule of rejection are right in contending that
men in general will commit perjury whenever it is
their interest to do so, then a litigant who cannot tes-
tify in his own cause will only have to administer a
few bribes with discretion, and he will find no diffi-
culty in getting his tale told in court by a cloud of
interested witnesses. It is true that these witnesses
will not have so large a stake at issue as the party on
whose behalf they are called; but it is a fallacy to sup-
pose that this fact can make any material difference in
the argument. The term "interest" is of necessity
a relative term ; and a small bribe to a needy witness
will he quite as cogent an inducement to perjury as
a large sum to his wealthy employer. The only
effect, therefore, of shutting the employer's mouth is
to cause two or more crimes to be committed instead
of one. _ _ _ _

But next, let us assume, for the sake of argument,
that perjury would be increased by allowing the liti-
gant parties to be examined. Is that a valid reason
for rejecting their testimony ? We think not. The
object of a trial is to ascertain the truth respecting
disputed facts; and if, as is unquestionably the case,
the statements of the litigants would, in a vast majority
of cases, throw the most important light upon the con-
troversy, is it wise or Just to refuse to hear their
statements because, forsooth, it may happen that in a
few isolated instances profligate men may be tempted
to affirm what is not true ? As well might a law be
passed to prohibit the negotiating bills of exchange,
because men are sometimes induced to forge endorse-
ments upon them. The proper and only sensible mode
of checking perjury is, not by preventing the testi-
mony of parties from being received in courts of jus-
tice, but by reforming the ridiculous rules which now
render a trial on a charge for that *rime little better
than a solemn farce. Simplify the form of the indict-
ment for perjury; abolish the rule which requires the
offence to be proved by more than the testimony of
one unshaken witness ; let a prisoner be liable to a
conviction on proof that he has wilfully sworn to two
contradictory statements, though no evidence be forth-
coming to show which of the two is false ; if these ob-
vious improvements were made in the law, men would
not be quite so ready as they now are to invoke the
Almighty to witness their deliberate falsehoods, and
little apprehension need be telt that parties to the re-
cord would be tempted to commit perjury, though a
verdict in their favour would be the inevitable conse-
quence of their crime.
The only remaining ground for rejecting the testi-
mony of parties to the record, is the assumption that
the jury would be misled by such evidence. This
argument has already, in great measure, been
answered, for we have shown that there is every rea-
son to believe that, as a general rule, parties would
tell the substantial truth ; and even in those few
cases where an attempt would be made to impose on
the credulity of a Jury, it is certainly paying them
but a poor compliment to contend that they would be
incapable of detecting the fraud. On this part of the
case we cannot do better than quote the observations
of an able writer on the law of evidence, who, while
urging the propriety of allowing parties to be ex-
amined, remarks—" The motive to deceive being at
least as apparent as it is strong, the Court and jury
will naturally sift with proportionate suspicion the
testimony of such persons, and thus, being on their
guard, will refrain from giving implicit credit to
statements which, coming from a less suspicious
quarter, would demand unhesitating belief"—
Chronielc.

A LARGE SIM' D E,ERTED.—Among the disasters
in the gale of Tuesday a large timber ship became water-
logged, and in this state was abandoned off the south-
western coast by her captain and crew, who were brought safe
into Queenstown. Their statements having led to a know-
ledge of her position, Mr. N. Seymour, jun., took a crew of
twenty men out in the Amphitrite cutter, belonging to
Messrs. Seymour and Co., and was fortunate enough to
board her and leave the men in charge. He then returned
to Queenstown, and on Wednesday morning took out the
Leeds steamer to the ship, in order to tow her into port.
The name of the vessel is the Coromandel, of Liverpool, and
we understand that her value, including the cargo, exceeds
6,0001. These become a droit of Admiralty, and will be sold
as such. it, ie'suPposed that Mr. Seymour's salvage claim,
under the circumstances, will be fully half this large sum.—
oak Reporter. •
nittE'Cireitirr.—On Sunday• last, tit All Saints
Church, at 'Wandsworth, aftet the offertory, amongst the
alms collected was found, enclosed in an envelope, a Bank
note of the value of 1001., with a wish from the benevolent
and anonymous donor, that. the gift might be applied by
the vicar and churchwardens to the relief of the temporary
wautz of the poor of the pariah of Waltd4worth."

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