The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1844.

The Lords did not sit yesterday.
The Commons met at twelve o'clock, and went into
Committee on the Turnpike Trusts Bill. Sir J.
GahmAm, on the first clause being proposed, said, it
was not the intention of the Government to continue
the Turnpike Trusts Committee beyond the 29th of
September, 1845. The Bill went through Committee,
and the report was ordered to be brought up this day
Mr. MACKINNON gave notice that, on the 30th of
July, he would call the attention of the House to the
report of the Committee on the health of towns.

A brief discussion took place relative to printing
more copies of the report on the Custom House
frauds, when Mr. T. DuricomuE announced that on
the House going into Committee of Ways and
Means, the Chancellor of the Exchequer should go a
tep further and allow the whole evidence to be pub-
lished. But of what use is evidence taken with
closed doors ? If the evidence taken under such cir-
eumstances is so bad that Mr. GouLnuitiv is afraid
to publish it, what disclosures would have been
made if the investigation had been conducted in an
open and manly manner ? The Committee, no doubt,
is composed of honourable men ; but if they wish the
public to give credit to their honour, why should they
adopt a course which the public believe is only in.
tended to screen the guilty, the sleepy Commissioners,
and the protegees of Whigs and Tories, who have
robbed this country to an incalculable amount ? It
matters not, however. The 658 copies which are to be
printed will spread over every county in the United
Kingdom.
The Horse Slaughtering Bill went through Com-
mittee, and the report was ordered to be received on
Friday.
On the report of the Poor-law Amendment Bill
being brought up, Mr. P. BORTHWICK moved the in-
troduction of four clauses, the object of which was to
allow husband and wife above sixty years of age to
reside together in the workhouse, and to provide that
children under seven years of age shall not be sepa-
rated from their mothers..

Sir JAMES GRAHAM resisted the amendments, on
t' c ground that the law provided paupers above sixty
vk out-door relief, and that there was already an

order of the Poor-law Commissioners, sanctioned by
the Secretary of State, that children under seven
years of age should not be separated from their
mothers.

After considerable discussion the amendments were
rejected. The report will be brought up to-day at
twelve o'clock.

The House having resumed, disposed of the other
business on the paper, and adjourned at One o'Clock.

Upwards of half a century has now elapsed since
the death of BURNS, and so far is the poet's fame from
having been in the slightest degree dimmed by age,
that every year it seems to have acquired additional
lustre. While the sardonic school of BYRON, the
chivalrous and picturesque school of SCOTT, the me-
taphysical school of COLERIDGE and SHELLEY, the
milk-and-water school of HAYLEY, and the ultra-
pastoral school of the Cockney THEOCRITUSES ;
while all these various schools of poetry have risen,
flourished, and in a great degree passed away, BURNS,
like those "dead and sceptred sovereigns," of whom
MANFRED speaks, still continues to " rule our spirits
from his urn." The cause of this potent spell which
he exerts alike over our reason and our sensibi-
lity is obvious enough, and may be ex-
plained in a few words. He was a profound
and impassioned student in the school of Nature.
He was not influenced by nice rules and regulations,
nor carried away by subtle theories. He had no
faith in the pedantic dogmas of scholars and critics,
but looked to his own heart as his surest and safest
guide, and drew thence his inspiration. In all the
poems of BURNS we see how exclusively he consulted
his own ardent impulses, and what entire and noble
confidence he had in them. Whether frolicking with
his strapping " queens" among the barley-rigs;
giving utterance to devotional sentiments in his
,‘ Cotter's Saturday Night," or to patriotic sentiments
in his "Scots wha hae ;" conjuring up alternately
images of ghastly horror, wonder, and broad humour,
in his unequalled " Tam O'Shanter ;" or pouring
forth touching and mournful ideas in his " Lament
for Glencairn "—no matter what the theme on which
BURNS expatiates, still we find Nature his sole
prompter, and his own manly heart his sole inspira-
tion. Perhaps of no other poet in the language can
it be said with so much truth as of BURNS, that there
is net one false, or maudlin, or unhealthy sentiment
in his works. We allude here exclusively to his
poems, for hls prose letters, in the midst of many
beauties, contain passages of dreary bombast and
tinsel sensibility. But regarded solely as a poet, he
stands forward in our literature, the best because
the truest intepreter of Nature we have had since the
days of SHAKSPEARE. Hence the emotions which he
pourtrays find an echo in the hearts of universal
humanity ; and it is the surest proof we know of, of a
man's healthy condition of intellect, that he is able
fully to appreciate the works of BURNS. We have
been led to these reflections by the public announce-
ment in The Sun of this day, of a grand festival
" in honour of the genius of the poet," which is to be
given " on the Banks of the Doon" on the 6th of August
next. At this festival, which will of course be attended
by immense numbers of BURNS' admirers, the Earl
of EGLINTON will take the chair, and Professor Win•
SON—of whom, in his own peculiar walk of intellect,
Scotland has quite as much reason to be proud as of
BURNS—will officiate as Vice-Chairman. We can
imagine the high and pure gratification that will be
felt by all who are present at this festival, and the
delight and admiration with which they will listen to
the copious eloquence of CHRISTOPHER NORTH
poured forth by the banks of that stream which
BURNS has rendered immortal. It is the first time
we believe, since his death, that a public compliment
on so magnificent a scale, has been offered to the
memory of the author of " Tarn o' Shanter,"—that
bold, warm-hearted, strong-minded Ayrshire peasant,
whose independent spirit poverty could not crush,
and whose frank, cordial nature the world's neglect
could not chill nor pervert—and we take for granted,
therefore, that the festival will be attended by all classes
of his countrymen, and that the Scottish peasantry
will have their representatives at this national gather-
ing, as well as the aristocracy and the gentry.

The result of the experiment with Captain Wart-
SER'S destructive invention for extirpating ships (any
other phrase would but inadequately express the
completeness of its terrible operation) came off on
Saturday afternoon last, at Brighton. Of the con-
duct and value of this experiment our readers will be
enabled to form their own conclusions from the ac-
counts we have published of the transaction. As to
the satisfactory nature of this test, we cannot imagine
that there can now be much difference of opinion.
The certificate or report, signed by Captains Lord
INGESTRE, HENDERSON, and DICKINSON (all of the
Royal Navy), who had the control and direction of
the affair, demonstrates, we think, that there can
have been nothing like collusion—no clandestine in-
troduction of combustible or explosive materials into
the hold or stowage of the ship to be experimented on.
These gallant officers declare that it was impossible
for Captain WARNER to know beforehand when they
would give the signal for him to set his invention in
motion; that when they did make their signal, it was
answered with the one agreed upon, by Captain
WARNER, who was at that time in a steamer three
hundred yards distant from the John o'Gaunt (the
"doomed vessel"). It is also clear that on this re-
, turn signal (the hauling down of the union jack on
board the steamer), Captain WARNER commenced
immediate preparations for this memorable experi-
ment. With all perfect respect for that gallant and
able officer, we take leave to have our own opinions as
to the motives which induced him to send all hands
below from the deck of his tug, with the solitary
exception of the mate. We are also free to confess
that we consider that motive to have been perfectly
justifiable, if there be any foundation in fact for the
conjecture we are about to hazard as to the tre-
tnendous power actually employed by Captain \VAR-
NER. We do not believe, with some of our Contem-
poraries, that such an effect at such a distance could
have been produced by the discharge of a voltaic or
electrical battery, the shock of which must have commu-
nicated by wires within the strands of a cable stretched
from the tug to the John o'Gaunt beneath the surface
of the sea. The notion of the line and trigger, we
should reject as equally unfounded. The difficulty
remains to account for any projectile, sufficient to
have caused such instantaneous and absolute destruc-
tion, having been discharged at so short a distance
from the shore, without any flame being visible, or
any report being audible from the steam-tug. Taking
the report of the naval officers, in conjunction with
the accounts given by the reporters for the public
press and other eye-witnesses, and with the important
averment in the communication of Mr. WALESBY,
the barrister, to the Morning Post, to the effect that
" Ca:,tain WeaNza was never once on hoard the John
o'Gaunt from the time of her having left Gravesend
ten days before the experiment came off;" we are in-
clined to dismiss all suspicions of pre-arrangement
or technical preparation on board the craft itself, for
the purpose of this experiment. We look, therefore,
at a few of the facts which immediately preceded the
phenomena of annihilation. We find that a little be-
fore 6 P.m., the towing tug-steamer, having Captain
WARNER on board, on her passage from Shoreham,
suddenly put about, and for a few seconds hove to
close to the John o'Gaunt. Then she resumed her
former situation, and brought up between one and
two miles off the shore, almost opposite the Old Ship
Tavern, but in such a position as to present, it would
seem, her broadside to the tug, which took up her
station at about three hundred yards' distance. One
account says—" The moment after Captain WARNER
had answered the signal from the battery"—another
" with a lapse of exactly five minutes after that
action," the various heralds of the lightning-like de-
struction which had enveloped the John o'Gaunt
were perceived from the shore.

Now, it strikes us, that the sudden return of the
tug (the Sir William Wallace) to almost alongside of
the craft, was perfectly compatible with a desire, on
the part of Captain WARNER, to take a last glance at
her hull, or sheer, with a view to detect the most
advantageous position for striking her; and that her
being brought up in so favourable a position to be hit
from the Sir William Wallace, was in furtherance of
this design. But what, if any, were the projectiles
employed which could thus rend, break up, scatter to
the winds of heaven, and remove almost every frag-
ment and vestige of a strong-built and powerful ship,
with all her rigging and masts, upwards of more than
300 tons burthen ? And how happened it that the
explosion was heard anterior to the low, booming,
submarine dull murmur that arose from the destroyed
craft herself? The absence of any fluh—the absence

of any sound from the steamer—these are two pheno, •
mena which it seems to us difficult to account for, ex-
cept on one hypothesis; namely, that the projectile
was a condensed or concentrated preparation of ar-
gentum fulmirians, or even of fulminating gold ; the
explosion of which, by concussion with any solid sub-
stance, is known to be followed by all the tremen-
dous effects that arise from the expansive energy
of the electric fluid. This hypothesis is not the less
probable when considered in connection with recent
experiments on some of the larger shells of the same
gentleman's invention, at Woolwich 'Warren. If we
suppose the machine of projection to have been an air
gun of capacity or calibre sufficient for so small a
ball or shell as would suffice, fraught with this terri-
ble material, for such a work of extirpation, we shall
perhaps be not very far from an approximation to the
solution of this curious enigma. Then, again, the
appearances described as accompanying the annihila-
tion of the ship; the column of water forced upwards
and forwards through her hull and decks ; the pro-
jection of part of her masts and spars into the air ;
the tenuity of the white smoke that suddenly enve-
loped and as suddenly dispersed from the wreck; the
extraordinary area of the explosion, tearing away her
bulwarks fore and aft, and breaching her solid ribs,
snapping off mizen and mainmast, and leaving the
hull so dismantled and dissevered that she filled in
two minutes and went down head over, with only her
foremast standing ;—these are, all of them, compatible
with the employment of the most tremendous natural
agent which scientific chemistry has yet subjected to
her astonishing empire and irresistible control, and, we
are almost tempted to add, with no other known
force, under parallel circumstances. In any case,
the experiment reflects great honour on the sagacity
and skill of Captain WARNER, the spirit of Mr SOME:4
the shipowner, who supplied the ship, and the Jibe-
. rality of the other gallant friends who provided the
means for testing this marvellous invention. The
Government ought not to lose a day, unnecessarily,
in satisfying themselves, one way or the other, as to
the merits and feasibility of the plan ; and if satisfied
on these points, they will be greatly wanting in their
duty to the country if they do not instantly secure
for it the unfettered benefit and advantage, on almost
any terms, of so effective and tremendous an inven-
tion, provided they be satisfied that the elements of
its construction and application can be kept a secret,
patent only to such high State authorities as the Le-
gislature may think fit to nominate for its inviolable
depository.

Madrid journals of the 17th have been received.
Great preparations are in progress for the general
election.

The Globo states that a grand electoral meeting of
the partisans of the Government had just been held,
at which a Central Committee of thirty-one was ap-
pointed. Among their names are those of M.M. DE
SOMORUELOS, GARELI, ISTURIZ, LARAGOSAL, BRAVO
MURILLO, CASA IRUJO, SALAMANCA, CARRIGUIRI,
CASTRO Y OROSCO, TASARA, PENOFIELD, SABATER,
BURGOS, FONTAOS, JUAN SAN MIGUEL, LOPEZ,
BALESTERO, &C.

The Progressistas were equally active, and have de-
termined t 9 contest the principal cities, among others
Madrid, Cadiz, Saragossa, Barcelona, Corunna,
Malaga, Seville, Burgos, Valladolid, Caenca, and
Carthagena.
Accounts had been received from Havannah of
fresh disturbances at Matazens. In one of the letters
it is absurdly stated that Mr TURNBULL appeared to
be the instigator of those conspiracies, and that he
had reserved fur himself the situation of chief of the
black republic.
On the Madrid 133urse the Three per Cents were
quoted at 26i, at sixty days; and the Fives at 20i,
for cash.

A report prevailed at Paris on Tuesday that the
Government had received accounts of the bombard-
ment of Algiers, and that fresh troops had been or-
dered for the coast of Morocco. Towards the even-
ing, however, it was ascertained that no intelligence
of the kind had reached the French Government.
According to the latest accounts from Morocco, the
13ritish Consul was still with the EMPEROR, and was
using his influence for an amicable arrangement of
the differences between the two countries. We find
the following article in the Courrier Fiancais, the
first part of which we believe to be perfectly true,
and the other a tissue of wicked falsehoods:—
" The letters of our correspondent at Gibraltar announce
to us a pretty sharp disappointment occasioned to the Go-
vernor, Sir R. Wilson, by dispatches brought by a courier,
who came from Madrid to Gibraltar in 45 hours, a thing
never before accomplished. These dispatches, sent by the
English Ambassador in Spain, are relative to the affairs of
Morocco, and our correspondent, who is perfectly well placed
to receive good intelligence, assures us that they enjoin Sir
R. Wilson to use all his influence to determine the Emperor
Abderrhaman to subscribe to such conditions as shall be de-
manded by the French Government. No person at Gibraltar
for a moment doubts that Sir Robert Wilson has been the
instigator of the foolish manifestations of Morocco against
France. It is to him that belongs the honour of having raised
this grave question, for Abd-el-Kader would not have suf-
ficed. In the space of two months he has on four occasions
quitted the seat of his government to repair to various points
of the Moorish territory—Tetuan, Malilia, Tangiers, and El-
Araich. He had caused himself to be openly accompanied in
these excursions by the Consul of Morocco and the principal
Moorish merchants established at Gibraltar. Everywhere
he set himself up as the protector of the Emperor and the
enemy of France. lie lavished his British shakes-of-the-
hand on the Arabs, and cordially sympathised with their
audacity and their hopes. It was in English that the first
preaching up of the holy war against the Christians of France
began in Morocco."

This journal adds, that the conduct of Sir ROBERT
WILSON in this affair is in conformity with all his
previous proceedings, and then goes into a long his.
tory of his political and military life, every act of
which is represented as being characterised by hosti-
lity to France.

According to the Presse, the French Consul at
Mogadore was lately obliged, in consequence of the
public excitement, to remain a whole week shut up
in his house, without daring to venture out. A body
of 15,000 Kabyles entered the place, and went to
inscribe their names with the Kaid as being ready to
defend the town in case of its being attacked. They
wished immediately to take possession of the town,
and in that case the Europeans would have been all
lost. The Kaid, however, had sufficient address and
influence to induce them to withdraw, on his promise
to call upon them at the first moment of danger.
The French Funds fell considerably on Tuesday,
owing partly to the reports respecting Tangiers and
to extensive purchases by a large capitalist. The
Three per Cents. closed at 81f. 70c., and the Fives
at 121 f. 70c.

The following are additional extracts from the
papers :
" The principal merchants and traders of the city of Paris
met on Monday in one of the halls of the Tribunal of Com-
merce, to arrange the preliminaries for the annual election of
judges. The Prefect of the Seine, having taken the chair,
addressed the meeting in a long and able speech on the busi-
ness of the tribunal, and on the general state of the com-
merce of Paris. The number of causes decided by the Tri-
bunal, said the Prefect, from the Ist July, 1843, to the same
date in 1844, was 43,104. The number of failures within the
jurisprudence of the tribunal was 630 within the same
period. The Prefect then noticed, in terms of warm
encomium, the efforts made by the manufacturers of the 1
department of the Seine to enrich the Exhibition of
National Industry with products of a nature to ex-
cite public admiration. He went so far as to say that
Paris is to be regarded as the first manufacturing town in
the world; for if, said he ' London finds in its port and its
position a commercial superiority, Paris, by the variety of
its products, their amount of value, and the importance of
the exports to the whole of Europe, and, indeed, the whole
of the world, may claim the first rank. The Prefect took
occasion, when alluding to the national exhibition, to correct
a very exaggerated statement as to the number of strangers
who were attracted by it to Paris. Several of the Parisjour-
nals had given the number of visitors at 300,000. The Pre-
fect declared, from the police returns, that the number had
not at any time exceeded 70,000, and that the average num-
ber of visitors is 40,000. In the course of his speech the Pre-
fect gave an account of the finances of the city of Paris. He
stated that there had been a considerable falling off from the
revenue of the octroi duty. The speech concluded with an
enumeration of the many improvements and embellishments
of the city, effected by the municipality, and, as the head of
it, the Prefect took a just pride in pointing out these changes
to the public."
The Observateur de Trieste gives intelligence from
Greece, to July 6. The elections were to commence
next day at Athens. The Trieste paper states that
the Duchess DE PLAISANCE was spending large
sums of money, in order to have Opposition
Members elected. It is supposed that the Ministry
will have some difficulty in securing a majority in
the Chambers. Fresh troubles were spoken of in
Acarnania, hut no details are given.
A letter from Rome, July 11, in the Augsburg
Gazette, says :
" The conduct of Lord Seaton, Lord High Commissioner
of the lonian Islands, as well as of the military commander,
Major Frazer, during the expedition of the Italian refugees,
has given rise to numerous communications between the
Italian Government and the Court of St. James's, it being
supposed that they might have prevented the expedition.
The greater discontent is felt here at what has passed, because
the Cabinet of London had solicited the intervention of the
Pope, to calm the agitation of men's minds in Ireland. The
agent of the refugees at Corfu is an ex-Dominican, who has
betrayed the order to which he belonged ; he lends his
house to the refugees, who hold meetings there. The Am-