The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PVBLIC JOURNALS.

As, from the report which will be seen in an-
other column, we consider the trial of Captain
Dickenson virtually terminated, we beg to make
a few observations upon it, which, whatever may
be the state of the proceedings, cannot tend to
prejudice the defendant, or to affect the decision
of his judges. It does not appear to us that a
judicial proceeding forms in general the fittest
subject of discussion for newspaper articles. So
many things are, and must be, taken for granted
with regard to the administration of public jus-
tice, and so very rare are the deviations from
those strict rules of law, which in a manner, by
their precision and their copiousness, preclude all
exercise of discretion in the several parties, that
all room for commentary by spectators appears to
he equally closed up. When an individual is
once put upon his trial, and the operation of law
begins, there is seldom much anxiety felt that
justice will not be fully and fairly administereds
nor is the accused, the prosecutor, the Court,
the evidence, or the sentence, in nine cases out
of ten, made a topic of any earnest conversation,
still less of reflections addressed to society at
large. It requires one or more peculiarities of
circumstance to invite and justify a voluntary al-
lusion by the press, to matters so formal and so
rigidly provided for as the proceedings of our
national tribunals ; yet such peculiarity will some-
times arise. The rank of the parties or their
profession, the nature of the charge, of the evi-
dence, of the sentence, the time or motives of ..
the prosecution, or its possible consequences to
the public interest, do constitute occasionally,
each and all of them, sufficient ground for direct
observation or inquiry. Professional trials, above
most others, may be classed among the curious
and interesting varieties of judicial topic. A
clergyman prosecuted for any heinous depravity,
—a lawyer for fraud,—a physician for murder.—
or a military or naval officer for misconduct be,
fore an enemy, is sure to draw more than com-
mon attention from his countrymen, perhaps
from there being in all such cases a wrong al-
leged to be done to every individual in the
state by the imputed breach of that public
iciolteifiadoeinwcealkuionfl e r w
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z
and abuse his especial prerogatives and powers..
These remarks have occurred to us on hearing
and reading so much, for some weeks past, of
the trial of Captain Dickenson on certain charges
connected with the battle of Navarin, where he
was Commander of the Genoa line-of-bathe
ship, Captain Bathurst, the principal officer,
having been mortally wounded early in the en-
gagement, and having died in the ensuing nights
We refer our readers to the proceedings of this
Court-martial, which have appeared already hi
our pages, as they were reported on the spot.
The charges or the evidence we shall not attempt
to recapitulate, but confine ourselves to a very
few observations on the facts which characterize
this trial of Captain Dickenson, as one poses,
sing not only a singular, but, in some respects,
a painful interest. Sir Edward Codrington,
who as Commander-in-Chief at Navarin disc
played skill and courage in an eminent dcgree
was called upon in the course of the present yea?
for a certificate in favour of Captain Dickenson,
avowedly as a requisite towards enabling that
officer to obtain the Royal assent to his wearing
a Russian order, conferred upon him some
months before for his gallant behaviour in the
action. It is stated by Sir Edward Codrington,
that this was the second RusSian order bestored
upon Captain Dickenson for his conduct on
that day, and that it must have been sent by mis-
take, because other Captains of the same rank
as Captain Dickenson had received but a single
order. Now it will be acknowledged by mosy
people, that if the gallant Admiral had mere!
said, " I must protest against Captain Dickens°
receiving two orders, because it would be a. (f.'s
paragement of the services of other officers
whose conduct was wholly unexceptionable, and
who have received but one,"—it will be allowed,
we say, that nothing could have been more rea-
sonable, and the common sense of the thing
would have been so manifest, that neither the
Admiralty could have had field for repreliensiosi
nor Captain Dickenson himself for complaint.
' But Sir E. Codrington did not confine his reply
to the Admiralty within such unassailable limits.
He refused the certificate, not on negative
grounds, as " that Captain Dickenson had be-
haved no better than his neighbours ;" but on
the dangerous one, that " he had behaved posi-
tively worse." The instances brought forward
by the gallant Admiral of misbehaviour, Which
justified his refusal of the certificate to Captain
Dickenson, were such as appeared to the Admi-
ralty serious enough to call for confirmation by
the sentence of a court-martial, or for an acquit-
tal, which might vindicate his character. Sir
Edward Codrington strenuously and repeatedly
protested against this course. He declared that
he had not volunteered his opinion upon the
comparative merits of Captain Dickenson, but
had been applied to formally by the Admiralty
itself, for the purpose ; and that he had no in-
tention of proposing a court-martial on the Cap-
tain, but, on the contrary, an extreme repugnance
to the institution of any such measure. Here,
then, the question assumes a complicated form.
We do not know the ordinary laws and usages
by which naval officers commanding-in-chief
are governed, with respect to their reports
to the Admiralty. In the army it is' a
standing regulation, that an Inspecting-Ge-
neral, and indeed that every Lieutenant-Co•
lone} commanding a regiment, shall make perio-
dically, confidential communications to the
Horse Guards upon the merits, the habits, the
degree of proficiency in his profession, the man-
ner (good or bad) of performing his duty, and
so forth, of every officer under him, it being
considered essential to the well-being of the ser-
vice that the personal character and conduct of
every officer bearing the King's commission
should be conveyed to head-quarters, and there
understood. Undoubtedly this system vests in
officers commanding regiments and districts an
enormous discretionary power, namely, that of
whispering away the reputation of men who have
no means of defence against caprice or calumny,
and who thus may be secretly ruined in the opi-
nion of those on whom their fortune depends,
without their guessing at the hidden cause of
their exclusion from every mark of favour. A
heavy responsibility indeed rests upon the pos-
sessors of such tremendous means of mischief,
and, if detected in foul play, they will be ruined.
nßottit,kiaswwwheowhavfae already
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be
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complaint
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e vital

appear to us that such
to be magnified into sub-
ial, or that an Admiral
n every instance to prove
of his opinions or asser-
_, they were not given with a view to
public exposure : but there our admission ends.
Sir Edward Codrington might, for aught we
know, have been correct in making confidential
statements to the Admiralty of the f'dative
merits of the officers employed under him ; and,
if it was his duty, he ought to have made such
statements at the time. If he thought the slow-
ness or slovenliness of Captain Dickenson defi-
ciencies so slight as not to be worth mentioning,
when they were most vividly impressed on his
mind, he ought not to have magnified them
into delinquencies two years afterwards
left the Admiralty to chew the cud upon them
to Captain Dickenson's detriment—and then
endeavour to 'relieve himself from the business,
by exc!aiming—" My Lords, you are to look
these accusations of mine as just important
enough to destroy Captain Dickenson in your
esteem ; but as not of importance enough to
deserve an inquiry into their truth or their
fallacy, before a competent tribunal." Sir Ed-
ward Codrington's repugnance to a court-mar-
tial, after having done Captain Dickenson all
the mischief that an unfavourable sentence by a
court-martial would have inflicted on him, is one
among the circumstances least easy of explana-
tion to be found throughout this proceeding. So
with regard to the " round robin," which has
been dwelt upon.. It is more than probable that
a punctilitts, reflecting, or high minded man,
might have felt at once the impropriety of such
an application in his own favour ; and, in truth,
an old officer of the rank of master saw clearly
that it would get Capt. Dickenson into trouble—
on opinion in which several post-captains of the
squadron concurred. But Sir Edward Codring-
ton had effaced at the time every record of the
inconsiderate action,—had distine4 forgiven it,
ought to have expunged it from his memory,
and !surely ought not to have raised it again from
oblivion, to aggravate the pressure of other
charges, not themselves of sufficient weight for
the purpose entertained by the Vice-Admiral.
On the whole, we deeply regret this business
from beginning to end. Under the wing of one
formal prosecution, it brought into question the
personal merits of more than the party against
whom it was ostensibly directed. It has turned
an unfortunate coolness between the Admiralty
and Sir Edward Codrington to evil account, by
sending forth shameless and iniquitous rumours
of a design on the part of the Board to gratify
their resentment against the gallant Admiral by
forcing him into a position from which he could
not be honourably extricated. If Sir Edward
Codrington has any thing to be sorry for in this
court-martial, we are bound to say—and we do
so with great respect for him, but with a still
greater for the cause of truth and justice—that
he has his own want of calm foresight and con-
sideration to thank for it.—Times.
There is a good deal of truth in what the
Standard of last night says, on the subject of
prosecutions for libel The people of this
country have been long aware that libel prosecu-
tions have no relation whatever to the truth or
falsehood of the matter prosecuted. They are
aware that so wide is the field of writing, over
which what is called the law of libel' extends,
that the most harmless or laudable writing may
be brought within its penalties : while this law,
o omnipotent for evil, is so powerless for any
good purpose, that the most atrocious charges
may be made, by a crafty writer, in a way not
to be misunderstood, against the most upright
man in society, and with perfect impunity."—
We confess that we are not a little surprised that
the Duke of 'Wellington should have thought of
entering a Court of Law against a newspaper—
not for the purpose of meeting certain specific
charges, as was the case with the Lard Chan-
cellor, but to punish a writer for giving him a
character which he thinks he does not deserve.
We are far from approving of the articles se-
lected for prosecution ; but there are many other
things in this best of all worlds of which we do
not approve, but which we bear as well as we
can. It is an inveterate custom with English-
men to abuse their opponents : we are essen-
tially an ill-bred people. The draymen who
at the corner of a street apply to each
other for a quarter of an hour all the reproach-
ful terms that their knowledge of the English
language, which is peculiarly rich in them,
suggests to them, and yet part without injuring
each other either in body or mind, are typical
of the nation. Our Divines of all sects, abuse
lustily all who differ in any respect from them.
Doctors very soon drop their breeding when dis-
cussing the merits of their brethren.. The
Editors of Newspapers are Englishmen, writing
for Englishmen ; and knowing the inclination of
their countrymen to have everything very good
or very bad, now that we have no national
enemy—the French being our best friends—and
that Buonaparte is removed to a better w'Brld,
the occasion of so much powerful composition
while he lived ; and knowing, also, that it is use-
less to abuse Ferdinand or Don Miguel, as no
one concerns himself about them—they must
have angels and devils at home. The English,
ever since they had a free press, have had the
satisfaction of hearing all the Ministers repre-
sented as little better than fiends in human shape.
As any one who loves to hear the Old Lady at
Rome well scolded may be gratified by the Rev.
Edward Irving, so any one who likes to hear a
Premier set down in good stile knows also where
he can be gratified. We are astonished that the
Duke of Wellington should have wished to de-
prive the lovers of strong language of the satis-
faction which his predecessors have been the
means of furnishing to a portion of his Majesty's
subjects. He has been called dishonest. We
have often admired the temper of the lower or-
ders under reproaches. When a strong term
has been applied, the answer often is—" you can-
not prove me so." The Duke ought to have
known that calling is not proving; and that he is
just as honest and patriotic, and kind and benevo-
lent, and what not, after the use of the terms
applied to him as he was before. But mark the
logical inconsistency in which he involves him-
self. He either supposes that the opinion ex-
pressed of him has made an impression, or it
has not. If it has not made any impression,
why trouble himself about it ? If it has made
an impression, will that impression be counter-
acted because a few Jurymen have pronounced
the articles to be libels ? Are the opinions of a
few Jurors worth more than the opinions
of the people of England ? It is unworthy of
a great man to indulge in a vindictive feeling on
account of injuries. We had an idea, which we
are unwilling to renounce, that the Duke was
proof against attacks of .this nature. But hOw-
ever this be, even if he be sensitive, it is bad po-
bey to display it by prosecution. Nothing in-
vites so much to attack as the discovery of sen-

sitiveness. We remember when at school, the
great point in selecting objects for mischievous
annoyance was their possessing a bad temper.
A person who had so much command of him-
self as to conceal his emotions, was passed care-
fully by. The Duke of Wellington may be assured
that men and boys have many points in com-
mon ; and that as he cannot put down the Press,
he is only bringing a hornets' nest about him-
self, by the injudicious course he is pursuing.—
Morning Chronicle.
We have copied from the Dublin Evening
Post a long article on the subject of the Tip-
perary Meeting ; and agree with our contempo-
rary in several of his opinions. He is well
aware of the causes now in operation in Tip-
perary, as well as in other parts of Ireland, and
of the difficulties which must be encountered in
any serious attempt to remedy the evils of that
country. The article of our contemporary was
followed by an extract from the Chronicle of
Wednesday last, after which he made the fol-
lowing observations:—
" We have left ourselves without space to animad-
vert on this extraordinary piece of declamation. We
shall only say, that had it been delivered viva voce
in the close meeting at Thurles, it would have been
received with unbounded plaudits by the collective
wisdom of Tipperary. Had it appeared in the
Morning Journal, or the Standard, or the Dublin
Evening Mail, we own we should not have been
much surprised, but we confess we are not a little
startled with the disingenuousness of our contem-
porary, not only in misrepresenting our statements,
but in joining the High Tories in running down the
native aborigines.' We congratulate the latter on
the able and learned advocate they have acquired in
the Morning Chronicle, and must content ourselves
for the present with promising, in the newspaper
phrase, that we shall, as in truth we are imperatively
eilled upon, resume this subject with our learned
friend in our next."
We really do not see how we can be consi-
dered as joining the High Tories in running
down the native aborigines, because we advo-
cated the necessity of supporting the Police in
the discharge of their duty, and contended that
the riotous habits of the peasantry must be
restrained. The best friends of the aborigines
must wish some essential changes in their cha-
racter. It is for the ultimate good of the abo-
rigines themselves, that the present state of
things should be succeeded by another, as soon
as possible. Our contemporary, like ourselves,
is aware of the necessity of a Poors' Rate in
Ireland. We find the measure enforced in an
able article on the book of Mr. Sadler on Ire-
land, in the forthcoming Edinburgh Review,
with an early copy of which we have been fur-
nished.—" So long," says the Edinburgh Re-
viewer, "as the poor are left to depend on the
unconstrained bounties of others for a resource
in periods of exigency, the landlords take com-
paratively little interest in their situation, in the

increase of their numbers, or in the administra

Lion of the provision made for them. But the
moment the poor acquire a legal claim upon
land and other tangible property for support,
it becomes the interest of every individual pos-
sessing property to see that the funds destined
for the support of the poor are properly ad-
ministered, and to exert himself to prevent
their undue influence. It may at present
seem immaterial, perhaps, to an Irish land-
lord whether he allow a parcel of mud-huts
to be erected on some neglected portion of his
estate, for he may imagine that in the event of
his afterwards wishing to pull down these huts,
lie has only to order their occupiers to quit. But
if the mere existence of such persons on his
estate for a limited period gave them and their
families a legal claim for support in all time to
come, the landlord would, in order to protect
himself frOm this indefinite responsibility, refuse
to allow the huts to be erected or the occupiers
to acquire a settlement. To suppose that he
should act otherwise, would be to suppose that
the protection of his property was indifferent to
him.

We showed in an article (No. 94) the
owerful influence that this principle has had in
-England ; and we have not the least doubt, that
had a system of Poor Laws, similar to that
which has been established for the same period
in England, been established for the same period
in Ireland, it would, by giving the landlords and
gentry of the country a deep pecuniary interest in
the repression of the numbers of the poor, have
powerfully tended to prevent that splitting of
farms, and excessive increase of the population,
that are the prime causes ofall the evils of Ireland.
At the same time, it must be acknowledged
that the question as to the expediency of introduc-
ing Poor Laws in the present situation of Ire-
land, when it is so overrun with an unemployed
and beggarly population, is very different from
the question as to the probable operation of those
laws, had they been introduced when the popu-
lation was comparatively thin. However, we
shall still be inclined to think, for the reasons
now stated, that their introduction would be ad-
vantageous, provided there be in Ireland the
means of administering them, so that they may
be made productive of those restraining_ effects,
in which, as it appears to us, their advantage
mainly lies; and hence the primary question is,
do means exist in Ireland, or can they be de-
vised, for administering a system of compulsory
provision for the poor, so that it could be pre-
vented from becoming a fresh source of impro-
vidence and idleness?

it is not at all likely that such means could be
long wanting. The landowners of the country
would immediately perceive that the preservation
of their property depended on their being able
to devise checks to arrest the torrent of pauperism.
Every landlord would then, in pursuing his own
obvious interest, set about adopting the most
vigorous measures for lessening the present
population on his estates, and for preventing its
undue extension in future : and he would of
course be inclined to join with his neighbours
in any scheme that might seem best calculated to
forward that object. We do not, we confess,
think that it is possible otherwise to root out the
inveterate habit of splitting land, or to impress
the gentlemen of that country with a sufficiently
strong sense of the mischievous consequences
resulting from that practice, and from the two
great multiplication of cottagers and occupants."
—lbid.

An extraordinary charge is made against Go-
vernment by those Dublin newspapers which
are served with notice of ex officio informations,
in consequence of attempting to intimidate the
Court and Jury, by threats of popular venge-
ance, during the late trials of the policemen at
Clonmel. '['he charge imputes the base sin of
ingratitude to Government, for enforcing the
laws of the land against their own staunch and
zealous supporters. This accusation on the
part of the " liberal,, papers is equivalent to an
avowal, that they expect to receive, as a reward
for their obtrusive flattery to certain Members
of the Irish Goi ernment, a complete impunity
as to their own violations of the law ! If the
Irish Government had entered into any such
compact with the " oracles of Liberalism," or

with any party whatever, they would deserve the
chastisement and scorn of public opinion.
-Such conduct would betray the last degree of
criminal weakness, and show they were utterly
unfit for any thing but to make the " majesty
of the laws" ridiculous and despised. Let us
for an instant suppose the persons on trial for
their lives had been Roman Catholics, and the
Protestant press, before and during their trial,
abounded with outcries for their blood, declaring
that the Orangemen would inevitably take up
arms in the event of their acquittal, and thus
endeavour to intimidate the Court and Jury by
threats of insurrection. Let us suppose this for
an instant, and would not the Popish papers
have reason to describe such conduct as most
flagitious, and treat it as a most impudent
and absurd thing for the Protestant jour-
nalists to say that they had a right to
do all this, because they had long been the
admirers and flatterers of the persons composing
his Majesty's Government? It is a new thing
for " Liberalism" to avow that it expected a li.
cense to trample on the laws and degrade the
sanctity of Justice, as a return for acts of syco-
phancy to some functionaries of State. When
the Popish Papers put forth such a claim on the
gratitude of the Irish Executive, they would do
well to recollect that, great as their zeal may
have been to recommend themselves to the atten-
tion of the Vice-Regal Court, an injudicious ad-
vocacy may be worse than the most direct hosti-
lity. There is a sarcastic truth which tells us
"no enemy match a friend," and perhaps the
Duke of Northumberland and Lord Leveson
Gower may not be sorry for an opportunity to
disencumber themselves of the suspicious friend-
ship and ominous praises of the journals in ques-
tion. At all events, in the very heyday of their
popularity they only came in for a share of the
leavings from the rich banquet of flattery laid out
for Mr. O'Connell. As the latter has with-
drawn his protection from the Duke of North-
umberland's Government, and greatly delighted
his " liberal" audience, at a late meeting in Cork,
by comparing his Grace to the sign of the " hog
in armour," we may presume his followers will
understand that to offer any more adulation in
that quarter would be to " throw pearls before
swine." We do not advocate the prosecutions
which Government has commenced, but we can-
not let the mischievous doctrine pass unnoticed,
that the services of flattery performed to the '
officers of Government ought to indemnify a fac-
tion for the most dangerous attempts upon the
integrity of the administration of justice.—Morn-
ing Herald.

We wonder what some of our fair actresses
and singers would think, if the laws of England
were to visit their occasional, but somewhat too

frequent capricious absences from their engage-
ments with the same severity that those of France
appear to do. There, it would seem, that a fair
enchantress of the sock or buskin, or a hired de-
votee of the song or dance, has only to absent
herself from engagement without leave, and she
is instantly visited with some heavy legal pro-
ceeding, which lays the dancer by the heels, and
makes the songstress attune her notes to no very
harmonious strain. There are other parts of the
Continent in which the mode of treating public
performers, even of the fair sex, is more sum-
mary and severe even than in France. In England
we seem to suffer matters to run into the other
extreme. Here an audience hardly know when
they enter a theatre or a concert room, whether
they have any chance of hearing the singer, the
actor, or the actress, to witness whose celebrity
they have left their firesides and parted with
their money. They certainly, in the language of
Sterne, " manage these mattersbetter in France,"
and we cannot help thinking that if a little of
what may be styled summary alarm were held
out here, some of our public performers, both
male and female, would be shyer than they are
of subjecting the public to disappointments
which they at present, for want of some such
control, so often experience.—/bid.

All the accounts which we receive from Ire-
land testify, in the most unequivocal manner,
the deplorable state of anarchy and insubordi-
nation to which the country has been reduced,
and the utter inefficiency of the healing measure
of Emancipation to root out the deadly feuds
and animosities which exist between the Ca-

tholics and the Protestants, on the one hand,
and between the different clans of Catholics,
on the other. Murders, robberies, and breaches
of the law of every species and kind continue to
be perpetrated, with a perseverance which shows
that, while strong measures must be resorted to
for the preservation of life and property, time
alone, and a great enlightenment of the people,
can effect a radical cure. The law and its officers,

instead of being feared and respected, are looked
upon as enemies, which must be put down for
the better and more complete gratification of
individual or party revenge ; and hence, when
the agents of the Government interfere to
prevent the shedding of blood, the con-
tending parties, instead of obeying their man-
date by dispersing, rush upon the unoffending
individuals, and are well satisfied provided they
can wreak on them the vengeance which they
had intended for their original opponents. Such
a state of society is as unknown any where but in
Ireland as it is truly deplorable, and can only be
accounted for by the immeasurable tyranny which
has been exercised towards the people of that
fertile island, in the name and under the cover of

law ; for all have an interest in obeying the law
where it is impartially executed, except those
who are stronger than the law ; and had there not
existed in that miserable country a party which
made the law what it pleased, and administered
it how it pleased, it may be safely enough
averred that the people of Ireland would have
been as much characterised by regard to it as
they are now notorious for breaking through all
its sanctions. But what is to be done ?
We answer, repress by force what the fear
of the law cannot accomplish ; and superadd. to
this unpleasant, but necessary, means, all the
moral force which can be brought to bear
upon the people. Correct the real grievances of
the people—dismiss from the justiciary the petty
tyrants who delight in trampling upon them—
above all, provide employment, and provide edu-
cation, for the people, and the disturbances
which now strike at the roots of the prosperity
of the country, will become as disgraceful in the
estimation of the people of Ireland, as they are
now common and unthought of. These are
some of the means and time only, it is evident,
can give them effect ; but in the meantime, out-
rage must be regressed by force, and violence
checked by armed interference. No other doc-
trine will produce any impression upon a
people who have been accustomed to live in utter
disregard of the law, and nine-tenths of whom
have apparently about as much idea of the neces-
sity of conforming their conduct to it, as an
English poacher of the righteousness of the law
which interdicts him from shooting hares and
partridges.—Morning Advertiser.

LOSS OF THE BIRMINGHAM AND

LIVERPOOL MAIL.

(Further particulars from the Liverpool Albion.)
The non-arrival of the mail from Birmingham, at
the usual hour (half-past seven) on Friday morning,
gave rise to apprehension for its safety from the
floods, which it was expected would have been
caused by the almost incessant heavy ra n which fell
during the preceding twenty-four hours. The fears
thus awakened, increasing with each successive hour
of delay, had spread throughout the town, and
reached a pitch of intense anxiety among those
whose expected friends were supposed likely to have
been travelling by that conveyance, when the Rocket
Post Coach, which leaves Birmingham some hours
after the mail, arrived about noon, bringing the ac-
count of the melancholy disaster, of which the fol-
lowing particulars have been communicated to us :
In the parish of Smallwood, about three miles on
this side of Lawton Gate, in Cheshire, the road
crosses a hollow by a small bridge,called Smallwood
Bridge, under which passes a narrow but somewhat
rapid stream. When the mail coach arrived at this
spot, it was found that the stream, swollen by the
rains, which were still falling heavily, had overflowed
its banks and flooded the road, and the waters con-
tinuing to rise very fast, washed away the bridge at
the moment when the coach was crossing, which
was thereby precipitated into the stream. The
coachman (hall), falling from his seat, after much
difliculty, and having sustained very considerable
iujury from the kicks of the affrighted horses, suc-
ceeded in reaching the opposite bank. The guard
(T. Moreton), was carried down by the impetuosity
of the stream a considerable distance. At length
he caught hold of a tree, on which he hung for about
an hour, when, it having been discovered where
he was, a rope was thrown to him, and he
was rescued almost as much dead as alive. Of
the horses, one was drowned, and two others are
stated to have been so much injured as to render it
improbable that they can ever be worked again.
We now come to the tragical part of the event.
There were but three passengers, and those were
inside, of whom one, a slight made active young
man, forcing himself through the window of the
coach, was extricated from his perilous situation by
the persons whom the accident had drawn to the
spot; the other two being too lusty to pass through
the aperture by which the former attained safety,
unfortunately perished ere the utmost efforts of the
active and humane people of the vicinity for their
relief could avail them. The body of one of them
was found.in the coach when the latter was got out
of the water, after having been immersed in it for
seven or eight hours ; but that of the other had not
been recovered at the time to which our accounts
extend. Their names, as entered in the way-bill,
are Trueman and Bennett. The latter was, we un-
derstand, a resident of Liverpool. The coach,
with all the mail bags, parcels, and luggage, re-
mained under water, persons being stationed to
watch it until the subsiding of the waters admitted
of its being recovered. This was effected in the
course of Friday forenoon, and the guard reached
the Liverpool Post-office, with the letter-bag, at
four o'clock in the afternoon. Great alarm pre-
vailed, during a considerable period of the forenoon
of Friday, for the safety of the London mail, which
left this town on Thursday night, its ordinary route
being by the same bridge; but it was at length
happily dissipated by the arrival of information,
that, hearing of the waters being ou t in that direc-
tion, the guard had taken the precaution of going
by another road, through Sandbach,and thus avoided
the danger.

(LATEST PARTICULARS.)
By subsequent accounts it appears, that both of
the bodies had been found, and a Coroner's Inquest
was held over them on Saturday, at Smallwood.
Mr. Newman, one of the gentlemen who was
drowned, was a resident of Walsall. Who the
young man is who escaped through the coach win-
dow is not known; but to his exertions the coach-
man is mainly indebted for the saving of his life, for
he was sinking in the stream, when the young man,
who had got upon one of the wheels, pulled him
back by the capes; and to him the passengers in
the London mail, from Liverpool, are indebted for
their lives, for, had he not walked along the road,
stopped the mail, arid informed the driver of the
bridge being carried away, that coach would, in all
probability, have followed the other into the watery
abyss. The coach is broken to pieces.

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