The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-06 00:00:00

£17,174

E 19,823

Exees3 of Expenditure in three yesre £2,649
The third return in this Parliamentary paper, ex-
hibits the public expenditure in the settlement of
Sierra Leone, from 1825 to 1842, thus distinguished
and arranged, namely : _ _

TOTAL OF EXPENDITURE, 1825 TO 1842, FROM
PARLIAMENTARY GRANTS.

£194,274
116,850
12,434
3,878

liberated Africans
Civil Establishments
Public Works
Colonial Contingencies

£327,436
EXPENDITURE FROM CLERICAL REVENUES.

Under same beads and in same interval £164,676

Grand total..

£492,112

HARRIS'S LIGHTNING CON-
DUCTORS.

" H.M.S. Mrsuurs.—We have been favoured with
a copy of a letter from the Minden (hospital-ship at
Hong-Kong, China), from which we extract the fol-
lowing :—"Che lightning last night (July 30) was
heavier than I ever saw it before ; two flashes struck
the Minden, and played about Harris's conductors for
some seconds, conveying a stream of fire through the
ship awful to behold; a frizzing noise was distinctly
heard, and I have no doubt but that we should have
received serious injury had we not been furnished
with these conductors. We are now lying with the
fore-yards and top-masts struck, and have just had
orders to receive on board fifty more of the worst
cases out of the 55th Regiment : we have the sick on
two decks at present. I have just been informed that
the lightning last night also struck some merchant
vessels, killed four men, and wounded some others,
Dr. Morrison, the chief interpreter, is dead, after hav-
ing been nearly all his life in China. Lieutenant
Ralph Milbanke, of the Childers, is also dead, and
Mr. Forbes, mate of that ship, has been promoted to
the vacancy. Dr. Rae, assistant-surgeon, is appointed
to the Minden.' "
It appears from the above which we extract from
the Devonport Independent of last week, that the most
complete protection has been afforded by Harris's
lightning conductors to one of her Majesty's ships
employed in a service of great consequence to the
country—and that, too, under very trying circum-
stances, and when other vessels near, and exposed to
the same storm of lightning, evidently suffered con-
siderably.
It has always been Our object, as impartial jour-
nalists, to afford due and fair consideration to any
question of practical science affecting the public in-
terests, and we cannot, therefore, but admit that this
result of the action of Mr. Harris's system of pro-
tection from lightning is most important, and quite
conclusive of the truth of the principles for which he
has so long contended.
Without any undue bias in favour of our towns-
man, or the least wish to treat lightly the opinions of
those who have expressed themselves as adverse to the
general employment of his conductors in our navy,
we are at a loss to understand upon what ground
they insist on their danger ; seeing that they have
been now employed in her Majesty's navy for up-
wards of fourteen years, and that the ships fitted on
his plan have been exposed to the effects of lightning
under various circumstances in every climate,—yet
rot a single instance has ever been adduced in which
they have failed to afford protection, or in which any
injurious consequence has resulted. Had the views
which have been lately pressed upon the public mind
through the pages of a most respectable and valuable
journal, the Hampshire Telegraph, been founded on
truth, then we most unhesitatingly insist upon the
fact, that such a case as that we have just quoted of
her Majesty's ship Minden could not possibly have oc-
curred. Now, one fact is worth a thousand theories.
In the Nautical Magazine, for December last,
ratilAo-ne
find an equally important illustration of theo
of these conductors. It appears by the official,jour-
nal of the sloop Scylla, signed by Captain Sharpe
and transmitted to the Lords Commissioners ofa the
Admiralty, that on the 6th of Angust, 1843, in lit.
24 3 N., long. 96 13 W., the ship having shortened
sail to a squall from the N,W., was at this instant
struck by a terrible shock of lightning, which burst
on the main• mast, and was instantly carried clear out
of the ship, so that within half-an-hour. the vessel
had again made all sail, as if nothing had happened.
The electrical discharge is said, in a private letter, to
have passed down the masts and by the lower eck
into the sea, attended by a rattling peal of thunder.
The force of the shock was so great as to start some
of the fixings of the copper plates in the royal pole ;
yet not the least damage was done, or any inconve-
nience felt in the ship.
With such facts before us, we cannot but hope that
the Editor of the paper to which we have alluded
will see the necessity of revising the disparaging
statements which he has allowed to appear in his
pages, relative to these conductors. It can never be
for the interest of the press to deal narrowly, and
through the prejudiced opinions of others, with any
question in any way affecting the national interest.
'to rescue our shipping generally from the terrible
consequences of so destructive an agency as light-