The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-29 00:00:00


SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

o'clock the following were announced as the successful
candidates :—J. S. Beresford, J. Haward, J. L. Kirk,
W. J. Parker, and 0. T. Woollard.
The meeting was exceedingly well attended, and there
were several ladies present, who seemed to take a great
interest in the proceedings. The most sanguine friend
of the Society could not have hoped for a more grati-
fying, or a more promising commencement.
Among those present we observed :—the Right Hon.
the Lord Mayor, Rev. Andrew Reed, D.D., J. Wilkes.
Esq., David Salamons, Esq., Joseph Litton, Esq.,
J. Prior, Esq., D. W. Wire, Esq., R. Gamman, Esq.,
and W. Thornborrow, Esq.

FROH THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GL0l3E.—There are two things which we consider
Goverivent bound to secure to the inhabitants of our
towns. -These two things are air and water. There
are alminclAnce of other things which we consider them
. in no manner bound to secure. It is natural that
those other "things (including swarms of functionaries,
with concomitant swarms of fees, besides 1,0001. a
year salaries) •should be the things provided by the
Metropolitan Einildings Bill now passing through Par-
liament ; and that air and water aforesaid should
be the two little things not provided. These, we presume
are amongst the hopes which the Duke of Buccleuch
holds out for next session. Air and water are beggarly
elements ; salaries and fees are much more substantial
objects to a practical government—they are the manna
in the wilderness which the "hungry Jews" of their ma-
jority have yet to traverse; and if, as Coningsby
tells us, no business is done on a grand
scale but Jews have' a finger in it—the more
Jews are in requisition„ the more manna must be
so too. We cannot, however, help thinking that the
art of carving fees and salaries out of all human con-
cerns is -one which requires a tact more delicate than
this Government seems to exercise. It is needful, no
doubt, that fees and salaries should be multiplied—to
conserve Conservative majorities. The old way of doing
this was to create salaries without functions, and con-
fer pensions without (published) claims. But sinecures
bave lost the odour of sanctity ; and pensions have
become restricted, and raisounies. What was to
be done ? What remained but to evoke the foreign
genius of functionarism? Sydney Smith enumerated
the acts of life (and death) subjecting Britons to be
taxed. If we do not look better out, we shall soon have
every act liable to be regulated. Now it is a matter of
taste ; but we, for our part, had infinitely rather
be taxed simply than taxed and, teased too. Such,
however, is the tendency of things, in this day of
cant and twaddling. Our laissez-faire principle--our
premiere amours, and to which we are faithful still—is
unanimously doomed by the senate of beasts of prey,
as the jackass that drew the judgment down. That is,
at all events, to be an instant victim—and sacrificing
priests are to be instituted, at 1,000/. a•year salaries,
with lots of other pickings, in the shape of fees.
Air and water !—give us air and water, because
public regulation alone can do it—air, meaning thereby
pure air, and not sulphuretted hydrogen—water,
cleaning thereby pure water, and not the rinsings of
the' gas-works and the choked church-yards. These
thing.; authority can do, and alone can do—and there-
fore is bound
.to dd. A variety of other things it can-
not make people do—because they involve dispropor-
tionate cost to the object:. We, for our part, should
like to see the work-people housed in Palladian palaces.
It would improve their taste, and elevate their views of
art. When the Jacobins took Lyons, they set the work-
people to live in some of the fine houses, and pull down
the rest. They were more at home in their work, though
a work of stupid destruction, than in tteir residences.
Taut most assuredly we grudge the worling classes no
leaknrovement of their houses that can be effected.
Adore all things, we demand, for their sake and the pub-
lic, the t air and water shall be secured to their dwellings
by act pf authority. The former may be done by pre-
scribing conditions of space between rows of town-build-
ings. This is tinquestionabir within the competence of
the public adminis-ation. The latter may be done by
public machinery likewise, where necessary. Such pre •
pL"ations as we see making for two ornamental
fouitains may be made as easily fer the per-
pose of supplying whole districts with, a necessary of
life ; and it would only be necessary, per h' for authe-
"icy to set up a standard by example in one or two
places, to spur private companies into efficiency end
ch,,apness. Mr. klawkesley's evidence, quoted by bird
Not i-eanby last Friday, affords an instance of how much
may ix' sometimes dune by a joint-stuck-company, in the
case of the 1.,17Ast waterworks, for the supply of the town
of Nottinirliam. The line we should dr,tw for public
agency and regulatten in such matters is the distinct one
of universal seri evbleet public objects. It is a public
object, paramount !o al! private proprietary interests, that
buildings should not be huddled tegother in large towns
in such a manner as to realer voetilation and drainage
'enpossible. Attention to these ihoubl be imposed in
all • buildings. But it is not a putelic object to secure an
„bi,....ary degree of solidity to private dwellings, n:'r to
prescrt•'ae the dimensions of their. apartments. Thee
matters it appears to we ba left to be regulated
by the meat 'a of the parties, or their expectations of
turn fur their "Putla.Y. If the erectinn of houses of b ss
than rescriber..
solidity or dimensions is prohibited, and
if the number houses erected is thereby limited,
what is gained, exeslit the crowding of the labourieg
people more densely in those existing ? In there
natters there is great
,virtue in active txamplei, and
accomplished results. If building speculators take
:tort-sighted views of their owsT: interests, and source
at' profits—if they build ' in sue:: a manner as to
sacrifice the security of their owe tenements and
rants, and to diminish the prospects of the solvency of
their tenants by impairing their health and charactt r —
there is an easy way of teaching them " philosophy by
egaivple." In this point of view, we agree with Lord
l'ii;rnumby with regard to the benefits which may
be looked for from the sort of normal school of
bus; drys, which is commencing its operations. " There
Was society," observed the Noble .I1Iarquis, "going
on, sanctioned by the Government, and to which
,he was a subscriber, formed for the purpose of furnish •
at least specimens of better buildings for the poor.
tie trusted that when this society had erected houses for
ilt,e use of the working class, with the requisite sanatory
conditions, the demonstration would be afforded that
, residence in such wretched dwellings as are now occu-
pied by the poor was no necessary and inevitable con-
diton of poverty."
STANDARD.—We cannot envy the feeling of the
litical Dissenters, when they come to reflect seriously
nix, a the influence of their proceedings upon the general
lutes vets of religion. Let us, however, here make a neces-
sary c ifs,tinction ; in the class of Dissenters—whether po-
litical t ir peaceable— we do not include Romanists or Soci-
niani, a`hese sects are Dissenters, no doubt, but they are
something' nsore ; they are enemies, not merely to the
constitution and the forms of the Established Church,
but to the Christian. doctrine itself as we receive it, the
first having a quasi polytheist religion of their own, the
latter denying the fundamental truth of Christianity.
These sects must therefore contemplate, not with
indifference, but with high gratification, what-
ever of evil is inflicted by angry schism upon
that religious faith which we and the ortho-
dox Dissenters hold in common. We must,
:ihowever, repeat it, that the feelings with which a
sincere Christian must observe the influence upon the
vneral interests of religion of the course taken by many
orthodox Dissenters, aided by Romanists and Socininas
(and surely such aid ought to have been a warn-
ing), cannot be enviable. Nothing, indeed, except
the words of the apostle, can place in a more striking
light the guilt of schism than what we have lately
witnessed. The poor are deprived in youth of
the blessings of religions education—why? - Because
the Dissenters will be contented with no national
:scheme of instruction, by which the Church shall not
.compromise its character and its usefulness. Why are
tao many of the poor confined in union workhouses
deprived of the consolations of religion? Because, not-
withstanding the earnest admonitions of the Govern-
fent, the Dissenters of the guardian boards in the
withhold
to which tese workhouse belong, sernl
withhold the consola these workhouses belong, sternly
withhold the consolations of which surely none standy
more itt need than the destitute and miserable poor.
This is .the effect of schism, the young are left in ignor-
ance and sin, the old are condemned to close their days
in sorrow and in darkness, because Dissenters hate an
Established Church. We are sorry to be obliged to use
so harsh a word as hate, but we cannot help seeing that the
feeling of the political Dissenters goes far beyond mere
alienation. Compare the sluggish, lukewarm opposition
offered by Dissenters to the late Bill for wresting from
them even their own chapels and charitable foundations,
to be applied to unchristian uses—compare this slow
and feeble resistance with the zeal, that we may not
041 it fury, with which they oppose every effort
to 'extend the blessings of religion through the agency
of the Church ; and it is impossible to doubt that
to those inspired by such zeal or fary the Church
is an object of implacable and rancorous hatred.
There are some, we know, who rejoice at this mani-
festation of sectarian bitterness and folly, and point
ovith exultation to its effect in rapidly thinning the
rvnks of Dissent ; but we cannot sympathise
wish their joy. We wish as much as any can to see all
classes return within the fold of the Church; but we
,cannot be gratified by the improvement of one class
which is made at the expense and by the deterioration of
another. We do not wish that some Dissenters should
esthibit unchristian bitterness 'and irrational extrava-
geneee in order that other Dissenters may become
Churehrnetn Quite the reverse; let Dissenters be like
Bastes and Calamy, Watts and Dodd di e, and they can
:bard,'" Veto* numerous, for there is
. still unhappily a large
tfund in the indifferent from which they may largely
-augment their number without any encroachment urn
she Church. The misfortune, however, is that in our
day Dissenters do not seek to raise the irreligious and
indifferent and heretical to the level of orthodox Chris-
tianity, in order to recruit their number they descend
into the mire of these miserableto court alli-
ances and to swell their forces against classes,the Church
=twist, Socinian, Socialist, Atheist, any one is welcomedit°-
,stith the right hand of fellowship, if onlyhee will declare
Est the Christian establishment.

STEAM-BOAT ACCIDENT.
SEVENTY LIVES LOST.

The following melancholy account is extracted from
the Rio de Janeiro papers:—
" At five o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th instant
(May), about 200 persons had taken their passage in the
Especuladora steam-boat, which plies between this city
and Nitheropy (a pleasant village on the opposite side
of the. harbour.) The next day being Whit Sunday,
and this the last boat for that evening, was crowded by
respectable persons and parties intent on and anticipat-
ing a day's pleasure on the sorrow, consequently were
full of mirth, and good humour.
" The clock had just struck five, and the captain given
the order to ' cast off ;' but the moment the paddle-
wheels began to move round, a terrible hissing noise
was heard, the precursor of several explosions, which
succeeded each other like flashes of lightning and
claps of thunder—the boiler had burst : at first no-
thing could be seen for a dense cloud of steam that
covered the vessel, from whence issued the most dread,
ful groans and piercing cries. On the steam clearing
off, a most horror-striking sight presented itself to
view ; the middle part of the deck had been blown away,
and a great number of human beings were discovered—
men, women, children, old and young, blacks and whites,
struggling in the hold, amidst the boiling water from the
exploded boiler.
" Some died instantaneously, and these were, perhaps,
the most fortunate ; others, in their endeavours to
extricate themselves from the horrid cauldron, caught
hold of the hot bars and fragment ; but, obliged
to let go their hold, fell backwards into it again.
No words can describe accurately the horrifying
scene of desolation. Blacks became white, and white
people red. Amidst the uproar, one was calling out
for a father, another for a brother, a third for a
husband or wife, and a fourth for a son or daughter ;
the sea was covered with the, dead and dying, or those
endeavouring to escape from the devouring elements ;
a few were so fortunate as to reach the shore, and
many were picked up by the boats, which promptly
rendered every assistance ; but notwithstanding all
exertions to save them, several were drowned. Ah !
who can describe the agonies or imagine the pangs of
so many unfortunate fellow creatures, boiled, as it
were, alive ; with pieces of flesh hanging from their
bodies, literally scalded from head to foot—surviving
a few hours in this state, and suffering the most ex-
cruciating torments !
" Soon after the explosion the chimney and main-
mast fell on the awning, and buried beneath it a num-
ber •of the passengers, who were thus placed in the
greatest jeopardy, as the boiling liquid was fast ap-
proaching them ; but they were rescued by great ex-
ertions made—knives, razors, swords, were instantly
used to extricate them. No praise can be considered
too great for the assistance so promptly rendered. The
Ministers of Justice and of the War Department, with
the tiead of the police, and a great many medical men,
immediately repaired to the hospital, where forty-one
sufferers had been taken, and were indefatigable in
rendering them assistance and alleviation."
The number of victims could not be ascertained, but
from more recent information the deaths exceeded
seventy, and several of the thirty wounded were still in
a very dangerous state.

The cause of the explosion had not been exactly as-
certained. From the report, however, of the engineers
who examined the machinery after the accident, it
clearly appears that great neglect must have occurred
with re: pact to the safety valve, the wire of which was
so corro ied that the pressure must have been 1001bs. to
the scpmre inch when the explosion took place—it ought
not to Lave exceeded 5Ibs.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.
ROYAL COMMISION.

The Usher of the Black Rod summoned the House of
Commons to their Lordships' bar to hear the o.) al com-
mission read for giving the royal assent to several Bills.
The Lords Commissioners %titre, the Lord Chancellor,
the Duke of Buccleuch, and the Earl of Shaftesbury.
'I he following Bills received- the royal assent :—The
Assessed Taxes Composition Bill, Detached Parts of'
Counties Bill, District Prisons and Courts Bill, Marriages
(Ireland) Bill, Soap Allowances Bill, Sudbury Disfran-
chisement Bill, Actions for Gaming Discontinuance Bill,
Parish Clerks Bill, Parish Constables Bill, Butter and
Cheese Bill, Western 'Australian Bill, Loan Societies
Bill, Colonial Postage Bill, Linen Manufactures (Ireland)
Bill, Gaspe Fisheries Bill, Brighton, Lewes, and
Hastings Railway Bill, Croydon and Epsom Railway
Bill, Wells Harbour Bill,' Wells Improvement Bill,
Lindon Gas Bill, Mariners Life Assurance Company's
Bill, Mackenzie's Estate Bill, and Archbutt's Divorce Bill.
Their Lordships resumed.
The Land Tax Commissioners Names Bill passed
through Committee.
Lord HAWARDEN presented a petition from the
Hull and Selby Railway Company against certain clauses
in the Railways Act.
GRAND JURIES (IRELAND) BILL. _ . .

Lord GLENG ALL moved the sceondreading of this
Bill.

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said he would not
oppose the Bill. But most certainly if the Bill had been
brought on at an earlier part of the session, he would have
moved the insertion of some new clauses and the omission
of others. The Bill consisted of 157 clauses, and their
Lordships would see the necessity of its being printed
before they came to be considered in Committee.
The Bill was then read a second time, and ordered to
be printed.
DEBTORS AND CREDITORS BILL.

On the motion of Lord BROUGHAM this Bill was
read a third time anti passed.
JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES REGISTRATION
BILL.

Lord DALHOUSIE moved the second reading of
this Bill, observing that he could not ask their Lordships
to proceed further with it in that stage at present, as it
had only just been printed.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE—COMMITTEES.
Lord REDESDALE said that it would not be neces-
sary for him to press the motion of which he had given
notice for the suspension of the standing orders fur the
purpose of enabling Committees to proceed with the
presence of only three peers. The notice which had been
taken of the inconvenience, had drawn the attention of
Noble Lords to the subject, and the full number of peers
had undertaken to attend to the Committees to the end of
the session. One Noble Lord had written to him (Lord
Redesdale), to say that he would, if his attendance
would be useful, come up from a distant part of the
country to give his services on Committees.—(Name,
name.) It was Lord Byron.—(Hear, hear.)
After a few words from the Earl of Wicklow, Lord
Brougham, and other Peers, the notice was withdrawn.
The Transfer of Property Bill was read a thircl time
and passed.
Messengers from the Commons brought up the Con-
troverted Elections Bill, and various other Bills, which
were severally read a first time.
THE UNLAWFUL OATHS BILL (IRELAND).
Lord WHARNCLIFFE moved the third reading of
this Bill.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said that he and
some noble friends of his were much dissatisfied with
the present aspect of affairs in Ireland, and they were un-
willing that the session should close without their having
an opportunity of expressing their views on that subject.
He thought that no measure could better afford that op-
portunity than the present Bill. It was not desirable
that the Bill should pass before it was known what the
Government intended to do in respect to the late trials,
upon which it appeared that policemen acted as spies,
upon the old system.—(Hear, hear.) One clause of the
Act rendered any person liable to transportation if any
unlawful "pass-word" were found upon him, and 'it ap-
peared 'on the trials, that persons connected
with the police concealed such papers in the
houses of innocent people, and afterwards prosecuted
them. He hoped, therefore, that this Bill would be de-
layed until next week for the attendance of Irish noble-
men, who would necessarily be absent for the remainder
of this week.
Lord BROUGHAM said that he thought he had
as good a right to press the Bill on now for his con-
venience, as they had to keep him in town next week
and the week after, upon an Irish question.
After a few words from the Marquis of CLAN-
RICARDE,
Lord WHARNCLIFFE postponed the third reading
till Friday next.
The Party Processions Bill (Ireland) was read a third
time and passed.
Earl FORTESCUE gave notice that on Thursday he
would present a petition from the trustees of the Tiver-
ton turnpike, complaining of certain Post-office regula-
tions respecting the mails.
The Duchy of Cornwall Lands Bill was read a second
time, and ordered to be committed on Thursday.
The Turnpike Trusts Bill (South Wales) was read a
second time, and ordered to be committed on Thursday.
Lord BEAUMONT postponed till to-morrow, the
motion of which he had given notice respecting the re-
W ASYLUM for INFANT port on the Catholic Penal Acts Repeal Bill.
CMPHANS—('r HIS DAY), METROPOLITAN BUILDINGS BILL.
..,election of children to the new Asylum for The Duke of BUCCLEUCII moved the second re!td-
This first's pp took place this morning at the I g
'n of the Metropolitan Buildings Regulation Bill. '1 he
Infant Orpl reet. The proceedingscorn- principle of the Bill had been already assented to by
Commerce, ,i'lreadneedle-st
Wilkes, Esq., was i the house in a former session. It was rendered neces-
calledmenced at el, evett o'clock, when John
by the imperfection of the Act of 1776, which
upon to tstice the chair, in the absence of the I sary
wtoas now in force, but which was quito inadequate
Lord Mayor. Mr. Wilkes, in a neat and appropriate
its Carprori:i .out its own enactments. In some cases
address d • og the course of which he was much
and in
were too harshly and oppressively en-
cheered, expl. tined tize objects of this most excellent I forced,
i The present Bill
in others they w ere too much relaxed.
institution. 'I 'he Right Hon. the Lord Mayor arrived
of str eets, alleys, apor v idtd
courts, for
for tie
the pireoiu3erer
wi
shortly afterwt trds, when Mr. Wilkes vacated the chair, r
log of houses, fur the constru n of drains.d' fur every
build
which was asst. tmed by his Lordship, who expressed his
house, for ventilation, the hei hcttioof rooms,, ,. the spaces
gratification in .having been called on to preside over the I
between the rear of houses. glt provii.ed also measures
Amieting that dia. and his high approbation of the ob-for preventing the erection of houses in the uetropulis
jee'ts of the char ity. A communication was read from
i unfit for human habitation. All surveyors under
1010 Dudley Cosutts Stuart, expressing his approval of
this Act would be required to pass an qx-
the in''stitution, and his intention of b7coming
aminatioo as to their qualifications. This was a
costr;Outor to its funds. It was also announced ton':
Mr. p, a to, the eminent builder, had sent a donation of , wry desirable provisibn, for, under the 'existing
twenty, guineas to the institution by the hands of Mr. i
system persons ere appointed, who,
Thornb• 'rr"' and that Mr. Richards, of Lloyd
's, had I - however respecta-
ble in other respects, were wholly ignorant of the busi-
seat a d c,snation of ten guineas.
ness of a surveyor. referees, was proposed to appoint with
The / calling commenced shortly after eleven o'clock ffi 1 wl•hld (determine
an certain o cla iic sheu determine
and close vl at two o'clock ; and shortly I- oc, r^ :ice all disputes under the Act. There would also be a

registrar, to whom the surveyors would be required to re-
port their proceedings once a month. In the present system
-it frequently occurred that a surveyor surveyed his own
buildings.. The surveyor was frequently a builder, and
it was obvious that persons having houses to build
within his district had a strong inducement to employ
him as their builder. This Bill required that
when a surveyor was employed to build houses
in his own district, the official referee should
appoint another surveyor to surrey such buildings. The
Act now in force was very unequal in the extent
of its application. For instance, part of Chelsea was
included, and the whole of Kensington was ex-
cluded from it. He thought that the present Bill
would best be discussed in Committee, and all he
would now say was, that it would introduce
great uniformity into the law, and would be simple
and intelligible, and in many respects less stringent than
the present law. He only asked their Lordships to read
it now for the second time.

Lord CAMPBELL objected to the passing of this Bill
at so late a period of the session. It had only come
up from the other House on the 22d of July,
yet it was as long as the code Napoleon.
—(Hear, and laughter.) It contained one hundred and
eighteen clauses—(Hear, hear)—and was it to be ex-
peeted that their Lordships should sit down to examine
these clauses at this season, to tho entire ne-
glect of every thing else. In fact, the Bill
could not go through Committee in less than a
month or five weeks, unless the committal were a
mere farce. Yet, it was important that the Bill should
be thoroughly examined as it would affect property and
existing interests in the metropolis to a vast extent. As
far as he had examined the Bill, be found it imperfect,
in several respects, objectionable. Of course, he approved
of the principle, but he entirely disapproved of
the machinery. It was proposed to appoint a registrar,
and three official referees, with salaries of 1,0001. a year,
to be paid out of the county-rates. Again, whilst he
admitted that it was right to interfere with
property when the public health or safety re-
quired it, but not otherwise. But the official referees
would have a power which had been taken out of the
hands of the Crown, to withhold the operation
of a prohibitory law, and to say Non obstat. The re-
ferees would have the power of withholding at their dis-
cretion the operation of the 118 clauses of which this Bill
consisted. It was quite clear that there would not bf.
time to- discuss the Bill adequately, and he should,
therefore, move, as an amendment, that the Bill be read
a third time this day three months.

'OAF? SITTING

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
MERCHANT SEAMEN'S BILL.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
The remaining clauses of the Bill were then agreed
to, the House resumed, and the report was ordered to be
brought up to-morrow.