The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-23 00:00:00

Vtirb

SUN-OFFICE, Seven o Clock.

CALAMITOUS EXPLOSION OF A
STEAM BOILER—SLXTEEN LIVES LOST.
(From the Glasgow Courier, of Tuesday.)
The readers of our paper are aware that a tine fast
sailing steamer, named the Telegraph, was lately
built for the river trade for the purpOse of competing
with the railway. She has been plying for some time
back, and being on the high pressure principle, has bete
the swiftest steamers in the passage to Oreenoek. Yester-
day, about half-past twelve o'clock, the people on the steam
boat quay, Greenock, heard a report as if a battery 01
cannon had been discharged at Helensburgh (a distance
of four miles). A smoke was seen to arise, and tele-
scopes being procured, the explosion of the Telegraph
was immediately discovered. Two of the tug steamers
lying at Greenock quay, got the steam up, and sailed
fur Helensburgh, to render whatever assistance they
could. On arriving at Helensburgh they found that
the Telegraph's boiler had exploded, and that the
hull of the vessel was a total wreck, and literally
floating away in pieces. At ,the time our informant
left it had been ascertained that thirteen had been killed
outright, but as strangers were on board, it was impos-
sible to arrive at a true statement of the casualties. A
number 'of individuals were seriously wounded, some of
whom are not expected to recover, and among the latter
we are sorry to say is Captain Eying, late of the Kilmun
steamer, who Was just alive when our despatches were
sent oti. It appears that the passengers for Helensburgh
had all landed, and that the boat was about to proceed on
her passage up the Gairloch when the explosion took
place. Something connected with the management of
the valves is supposed to have caused the accident. We
have heard.that four of the dead belong to Glasgow,
and formed part of a company of eight painters, who had
gone down to paint the ,Precursor steamer, at present
lying in the Gairloch. Mr. Hedderwick, of the late firm
of Hedderwick and Ranken, shipbuilders, is dead.
Since the above was put in type, an acquaintance has
furnished us with a few additional particulars in rela-
tion to this most appalling catastrophe. It is im-
possible adequately to describe the scene at the moment
the explosion occurred. The vessel itself burst like a
bomb she;], and momentarily became a total wreck—so
much so, that not a single part of the vessel remained to-
gether afloat. In every direction could be Observed, scat-
tered about, the mutilated limbs of the unfortunate. pas-
sengers, and the water was literally tinged with teeir
blood. The boiler in the explosion was bhiwn com-
pletely ashore, to us to convey to the spectator the idea
of the disappearance of the steamer altogether. When
our informant left, he saw fifteen bodies in the Tontine
Hotel, Ifelensburgh' which he recognised. Two of the
painters' bodies had not been recovered. At half past
four, the steamer Royal Tar sailed from Helensburgh
with a number of the wounded on board. Of these !ex
were landed at Greenock, where the Provost had a num-
ber of biers ready to remove the sufferers that arrived to
the infirmary. Two of the painters mentioned awe,
who were not so severely wounded as the rest, proceeded
to Glasgow in the steamer, as well as a lady and gentle-
man, who were slightly wounded while standing upon
Helensburgh Quay, witnessing the departure of the Tele-
graph.
(From the Second Edition of the " Glasgow Chronicle.")
This, we regret to say, has been one of the most fright-
ful catastrophes we have ever been called upon to record.
The vessel itself, we learn, is literally shivered into
spars, and the force of the explosion was so tremendous
that the engine was blown to a distance of twenty yards.
The dead bodies ' present a shocking spectacle, one of
them being completely decapitated, and others so dread-
fully bruised and turned, that they hardly present one
vestige of humanity.
The list of the killed and wounded, so fur as can yet
be ascertained, is as follows :
Killed—Captain Ewing, of the Telegraph ; W. Ban-
natyne, engineer of ditto ; Mr. Hedderwick, of the
firm of Hedderwick and Rankine ; Mrs. How, of
Greenock ; Miss Keith, sister to Mrs. Dow ;
John M'Diarmid, pilot ;
M'Auslan, one of the crew ; Robert Cadenhead, carpen-
ter, Govan ' - Peter M`Linteck and Thomas M'Queen,
painters—bodies not found; Daniel Sinclair, fireman ;
a pilot, name unknown ; two men, supposed to be tailors
—names not known ; James Johnston, late of the Wa-
terloo House, Greenock e another man, name not known.
WOUNDED.—Mis. Keith, Greenock, much hurt, but
able to walk, mother of the two ladies killed ; John
M'Neil, bruised ; 'Richard Anderson, foreman to
Hedderwick and Rankine, - dangerously wounded ;
James Stenhouse, carpenter, severely wounded ; Miss
M'Kellor, Greenock, hurt, but not dangerously ;
Charles `Quarrey, painter, badly wounded ; George
Leek, do., leg broke in two places, and otherwise
hurt ; Dugald Cameron, deck hand, slightly wounded ;
Duncan Kennedy, do. •, Lauchlan Cameron, severely
wounded. This list, although not altogether complete,
contains nearly the whole of the casualties.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

GLOBE.---The announced intention of Opposition to
oppose the income tax at every stage is abused, as an
unheard-of piece of factious obstruction, by every goose-
quill and ass jaw in the service of Ministers. The propriety
or impropriety of the most determined opposition to this
impost must depend (in public opinion) on the view taken
of its real nature. We do not hesitate to say that we regard
it as a measure of confiscation of the property of some
classes, for the supposed ease and advantage of others. Now
if the measure is of this nature, it is one against which the
classes aggrieved by it have the clearest right to be heard
by petition, or counsel at the bar of the House, before
that House commits itself to a single step in'the course
of iniquity. "Obstruction" to the recognition. by Par-
:liament of a wrong principle, till those who will be
wronged by acting on that principle can make themselves
heard, is simply obstruction to taking classes by surprise
in order to pick their pockets. And what are those
classes ? Precisely those which landed legislation already
impoverishes. Precisely those which the long-predicted
effects of monopoly, aided by the seasons, already
disable from aiding so effectively as they have hitherto
done to keep up our commercial and consumptive powers
under our burdens. The revenue fails, because the
fiscal system is already disadvantageous to commerce ;
and the remedy proposed is not to remove the principal
disadvantages, but to leave them (with one exception,
timber) almost as heavy as ever—to make a splutter with
minutim, which will have no effect worth calculating, but
that of throwing many of our labourers out of work—and
to add to every existing disath antage the monster
grievance of an nnequal and inquisitorial impost on
commercial capital, struggling for existence. If
this is not a measure to be " obstructed" from its
first stage to its last—if this is not a measure against
which time should be gained for those classes by whom
its immediate injury will be felt, to petition for justice—
then we admit that the course of Opposition deserves all
the names bestowed on it. But what name shall we give
to the conduct of Government in pushing such a measure
without the slightest attempt to amend, or defend, its
obnoxious features ? We are told that Opposition should
wait for its details, before denouncing it. We say that
the Minister should have stated details (if he had such to
state), capable of reconciling the public mind to a tax
known and abhorred.

STANDARD.—Parliament has been sitting about
seven weeks—or about one-fourth of an average session
—and what has been done? The period is, perhaps,
one which allows of an easy and slow progress of affairs.
We are involved in a war with more than three
hundred millions of peo le—an insignificant war with
only three hundred millions We are involved in a war
in central. Asia, in which an army has been cut off
in the defence of the gate of our vast Indian empire—
that gate by [which every conqueror since Alexan-
ders's time has advanced to his conquest. Another
insignificant war, in the authoritave opinion of Mr.
Benjamin Hawes. The state of our relations with
the continent of Europe and with the North Ame-
rican republic is, to say the least of it, anxious ;
and at home the people are suffering so severely;
that seven months ago it was made a subject of
bitter complaint, that a single hour should be lost in
taking measures for their relief ; add to this, we -hare a
deficient revenue, with a deficit constantly augmenting. ,
Such was our condition at the meeting of Parlia-,.
ment, and such . is our condition at the end of
seven weeks of the Parliamentary Session. Ought
Parliament to have thus slumbered in such circum-
stances ? Is there in our history, or in the history
of the world, and example of like folly and crime on
the: part of the legislature of a great and free people ?
Here are we, then, at the end of seven weeks. in a crisis
of unexampled delicacy, with absolutely nothing dciie
for the public service. Well, but our I,r6speets
are better—•something will at length be -done. The
Haweses and the Wards, the Brottertons and the
Cobdens have had their sp-:;eches, the mass of
obstructive rubbish has been cleared away, and the busi-
ness of the country is now about to be commenced in good
earnest. No—new, at the end of seven weeks, we have,
instead of a, promise or a hope that the public service
shall at length be prosecuted, au impudent avowal of
an organised factious opposition prepared to impede
that service. The system of obstruction, factiously
and successfully prosecuted hitherto, is now openly de-
clared. Nothing has been done, and it is . now threat-
ened nothing shall be done, that factious opposition can
prevent or retard ! How long will the • country endure
this wanton and wicked outrage upon its best interests,
this calumny upon representative government, which
is almost enough .to make thinking men fly from a form
of Government that may be so odiously and so mischiev-
ously abused, even to despotism itself? • What is the Vie-
d a Parliathent if it is only to exhibit itself thus as the
instrument. of obitruction to whatever is required for We
general safety and the general happiness?

ELECTION COMMITTEES.
(THIS DAY.)
(Continued from nor Afternoon Edition.)
GREAT MARLOW.
John Smith, one of the overseers of the parish, having pro-
duced a printed copy of the list of objections, Mr. Cockburn
objected to its production, on the ground that the original list
should be produced, or that it should be proved to have been
destroyed.
After a loag argument among Counsel, it was decided that
the duplicate copy was sufficient.
John Smith was then recalled, and stated that the vote under
discussion before the Committee, had been objected to before
the Revising Barrister, but that he had decided that he could
not entertain the objection in =sequence of an informality in
serving it.
Mr. CocK BURN contended that the Committee alto could
not enter into the objection, for the same reason ; and the ar-
guments upon this point were not concluded at the rising of
the Committee.

WEYMOUTH.
It am eart Imwc% er, ran a more critic:4 lhat
the name of the son was expunged', whilethat of the father, Sir
John Meade, was retained.