The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-15 00:00:00

COMMON PLEAS.-(THIS DAY,

BLYTHE V. SMITH.
This was an action against the owners of the ship
Rapid, in the eastern trade, brought under the fol-
lowing circumstances :—lt appeared that the vessel
was chartered for the Mauritius and back s by the
plaintiffs, who, not obtaining a freight in that settle,
ment, on their own account took in a cargo of sugar-
amounting to 4,000 hogsheads, and consigned to
Messrs. Gower and Co., London. On the voyage
home, some bad weather was encountered, and it was
deemed necessary to throw overboard a large part of
the cargo—nearly one fourth (900 hogsheads)—in
order to lighten the vessel. Upon the examination of
the ship on her return, it seems that the oakum in
the caulking was found to be in a state of mud, and
the vessel had been much strained, and had taken in a
good deal of water.

The consignees of the sugar, Messrs. Gower,
brought an action in the Secondaries' Court
ag.linst Blythe on the charterparty, and obtained a
verdict, on the ground that the vessel was not sea-
worthy at the time of taking in the cargo and sailing
from the Mauritius.
The present action, therefore, is brought by
Bythe to recover from the owners the damages and
costs which he has incurred through their alleged lathes.
The evidence, which applied chiefly to the question of
what seaworthiness, under the circumstances, might
consist in, occupied the Court and a Special Jury two
day, and was not concluded until five o'clock this
evening, when the Jury, after a short deliberation,
found a verdict for the plaintiff.
The case for the plaintiff was conducted by Sir 11.
Wilde, with whom was Mr. Beawell, and the Solicitor-
General, with Mr. Sergeant Channel], and another
appeared for the defendant.

NA VAL INTELLIGENCE.
PouTs.mouTir, DEC. 14.—After an ineffectual at-
tempt to get up Channel, the Cambridge, 78, Captain
Barnard, returned to her anchorage at Spithead yes-
terday, and this morning was brought into harbour
and safely moored. It will be recollected that
she bias on board about 80 tons of valuable
marbles, which were shipped in the Mediter-
ranean, with which she was ordered to proceed
to one of the 'Eastern ports.. The Commander-
in-Chief, however, has, upon his own responsibility,
directed her being placed here ; and, considering the
advanced season of the year, and the difficulty as
well as risk in navigating so large a ship into the
Medway, it cannot be doubted that he has evinced a
sound discretion, which may also in its results have
a beneficial effect on the interests of this port—so
much neglected and so severely made to suffer by the
present Conservative Administration. Of late almost
every ship and vessel, upon arrival from foreign ser-
vice, has been ordered away, either to Plymouth or
to the Eastward, for the purpose of being dismantled
and paid off.
As the Cambridge has been very nearly her three
years in commission, there seems every probability
of her active services being no longer in requisi-
tion ; in which case the inhabitants of Portsmouth
will have a fair turn, for which they will entirely have to thank the present gallant and highly dis-
tinguished Admiral, Sir Edward Codrington—per-
haps the last act of generous consideration which he
may have the opportunity of showing them.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC URNALS.
FROM THB EVENING PAPERS OF'
THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—Some speculation has been excited by
the Memorial of the East India Association of Glas-
gow, recommending to Government the encourage-
ment of a legitimate commerce with China by means
of the reduction of the tea duties, and the sup-
pression of the opium trade. With regard to the
latter, we are fully of opinion that whatever en-
couragement or compulsion our Indian Government
has administered to the culture of the poppy,
or to the opium trade for our own territory,
ought to be discontinued. But when people talk
of the suppression of the opium trade, do they mean
that we are to send a preventive squadron to the
coast of China against the opium trade, as we have
done to the coast of Africa against the slave trade,
with such signal ineffectiveness, except in the sacri-
fice of British lives and treasure, and the in-
crease of the miseries and mortality of slave-
transportation? Do they mean this, or what do
-*ley mean, or do they ever trouble their heads
to think what ? Opium is amongst the most port-
able as man amongst the least portable, of com-
modities. We have proved, at vast cost, our in-
ability° hinder the traffic in man. Are we to prove,
rat vas cost, our inability, more utter, if possible,
to prevent that in opium ? Will the Chinese de-
mand for the drug cease ? Will they cease, singly
among Eastern populations, to consume it'? Are
we to undertake to stop the production and export of
Malwa opium ? Before 1830, the Bombay Go-
vernment attempted (not to stop but) to monopolise
the sale of the opium exported from the ports under
that presidency. What was the consequence ?
Merely that two-thirds of the Malwa produce were
carried to the Portuguese settlement of Damaun, and
elsewhere, to be exported. We repeat that we'have
no partiality for the traffic in opium, and every wish
to see it superseded, as a staple of our trade, by more wholesome products. We would have our Indian Go-
vernment withdraw whatever encourag rnent has been
given to it. Neither have we any partiality for the gin
trade in London ; nor even for the tobacco and snuff
trade. Excess in stimulants and narcotics stares us in
the face, and stinks in our nostrils. Are we to stop the
production and importation of the materials ofexcess?—
renounce the revenue derived from them ? On ne
s'arrete pas dans un si beau chemin. It is really the
toss up of a halfpenny to what object ignorant enthu-
siasm shall direct itself. Were " Temperance" a
little more rampant here, we might have more than
Mr. Knight
plate- Bruce's chivalry displayed against all the
glass windows of all the gin-palaces. Those
who craved stimulants, or opiates, might have
been driven by a home-crusade against pipes and
pots to opium pills. But " total abstinence"
from opium seems the easier of the two to
dictate at a distance.
It is suos John
Chinaman can have no such
attachment p
top hised opium-
pipe as John Bull fo his "clay," or cigar. Omne
2gnotem pro mirifico. We can do a great stroke of
trade against opium-trading. Gin and tobacco trad-
ing (and revenue) for the present we leave un-
&ached. When three hundred million Chinese have
brought fairly to forswear opium, and "lie
cleanly, as gentlemen should do," we shall, perhaps v,
have time to think of the gin-palaces. In the mean.