The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-28 00:00:00

DEPLORABLE''CALAIVIITY-SIX-

TEEN LIVES LOST.
At a late hour. last night. accounts reached town of the
occurrence of a calamity of the most deplorable nature, of
which, in the course. of the evening, the Royal Canal was
the theatre,
.and by which the lives of:very many otour fel-
low-creatures were, sacrificed.. It is certain that sixteen are
already dead. Qf emme the full particulars of this 'shocking
.affair are not yet fully known,"but the following facts may
be relied upon, having been communicated to us by an indi-
yidual who ar4Yed in town In the course of the night from
the scene, of the tragedy. •:'
The night boat fe Longford started yesterday at
.the usual , hour; ,two o'clock in the afternoons, There
were eight Passengers in the fore or 'principal cabin, and
;considerably. upwards
.of, , twenty in the after-cabin.. Upon
reaching the neighbourhood .of Clonsilla, the steersman went
beloW to dine,: and unhappily committed the rudder, as we
have been informed, to a _boy employed on board the boat.
Thig boy,, either., knowing nothing of the proper mode
'steering, iior not attending to the serious duty, unfortunately
and rashly committed to him, perrnitted the boat to run upon
the bank of the canal, wiligh cau.sed her immediately to cap-
srge, and speedily• to. fill, with water.- The fore-cabin passen-
gera were sawed, as tbat portion 'of the boat lay almost out of..
the water, which isof course, shallow at the bank; the
,w 1 happy after-passengers, plunged into the deepest portion of
the canal, could not extricate themselves, and as no imine-
diate, assistance was at hand;many of them have perished in
the waters. At ,the time our -correspondent left eloWsilYS'
sixteen, of the drowned already crowded the banks„ and the
drags were plying, busily.in seaich .of more: , '•
This is a horrible calamity.. It must be rigorously inquired
• into, and this frightful sacrifice of human life be excused by
evidence, or puqished by law.--Freeman's • Journal of Wed-
*ll.lY-

M.oNEY' MARKET and CITY gtVrg

CITY, THURSDAY EVENING.,
POST..-L.The public Securities rallied to-day to the extent
' of nearly lh per cent. on yesterday's • closing ,quetatiens.
This was owing ;principally perhaps exclusively—tn'the
breaking up of, the,l3enk Directors (it being the weekly
hoa,rd-day) without issuing,any fresh order resPeeting the
rate of discount. The minimum remains the same a's flir the
last three weeks, namely, 3iii per cent. In refraining 'tam
any, further, ,ac,tion • upon the currency the Bank have, we
think, acted for the best in. every respect—best for the cor-
poration and best for the public, Apart from political em-
barrassments, there is nothing whatever to create uneasiness.
The Bank have a superabundance of treasure, aod ,Ave;,no
longer hear of any pressure for money abroad, nor, with the
exchanges so high as they are, is it ;possible to believe
that . a scarcity exists. Already we find the value of
merchandise has been forced down in a serious degree
by the operations of the. Bank. parlour. ThiS' ih an
evil that requires goirection, .and, ,in the application of the
remedy—the relief of the money market-,the cases of Tani-
oos other important interests will be benefited. The fund-
holders and the holders, of all descriptions of joint-stock •pro-
perty cannot but partieipate in the cousequences of the.in-
delgence shown by the Bank, to , the trading classes in the
greater liberation of their aecemmodation, and the modera-
tion of the charge they make for it. Under thesecircum-
stances, dull es many things have been again to-day, an ini-,
orevement is thoeglit to he close, at hand. Ministers have-,
we,hear, reSolyed to. adopt , measares of some sort to prevent
the payment of deposits on railway shares from disturbing
the circulation of the kingdom. Should this prove to be the
;feet, it will. have an. ameliorating influence such as is so ge-
nerally needed..
,- , TIMES.FrPnI ,various letters, :received on the subject
there would appear to be a pretty general disposition among
those who , hey& received ,letters of allotment for shares in
railways, but who have sold those letters, to resist any, claim
now,anadeimenthein for.the,payment of the depoSit. Their
liability t 9 sucks veyment is niAilenieci, but as they conceive
that it can only, be enforced by a suit at equity, which most
of the promoters of bubbles would have, peculiar reasons for
not resorting to, they are:inclined to await the result without
-much apprehension. In' the event of such suits being insti-
tuted; it is not difficult to imagine' the perPlexity in which
some parties 'would he placed; when necessarily called upon,
as the-basis 'of their clairn upon others, to make affidavit
that they had themselves paid the deposit on their owe shares;
Such,parties, it is' obvious, could never maintain a suit in
equity, and their victims- would be in no sort Of jeopardy
from. their resistance to such a call. But in the compa-
nies of a sound and legitimate character it is equally clear
that the case weeild be materially altered, and if the concern
is proceeding with a fair prospect of ultimate success, it is
the duty, and perhaps the policy too, for every man to keep
to:. his engagements, .as he 'will frequently thus assist in
creating a value for the shares which they would not other-
wise possess, end legal proceedings would, in the end. ulti-
mately compel him to do so. The great objectionable feat] re
of the matter, as.regards the -promoters of railway projects,
' it the' lateness of: the application, ' and `the consequent short.
nets of time 'Which mppeari in many instances tq be
allowed for makingthe.payment." Had -all been fait With
'lthe directing board or committee, they would at' the &'itset
' have adopted; as a stringent rule, the' payment of the
deposit -within a , given time, and-- made it a part of-the
- original -letter "of Allotment, - which' would have made
the applicant,
•fully. aware, of Ahe liability in which
he was placed; but, during the prosperous run of
' railway ' affairs, nothing of, the sort was even .hinted
at. • They evidently held it 'to be'their policy:to say, As little
at possible that Could alarm their dupes; and the energy 'they
are now• tieing to compel payment ',of the deposits by the
parties who. originally applied-for the'shares only brute the
difficulty- into which they- themselves have now in turn justly
been.* brought'''. In almost 'every' instance, therefore, their
easewould be far from' a 'strong one, and in a great majority-.
of them' quite untenable. Much credit is-due to the Directors
of the Bank for the arrangements made to shorten theperiod'
during which 'the books aie to be closed against the transfers
'of' stock. 'Last year the shutting day was the 3d' of
`December, but the approaching shutting is" lint' 1111
the 10th of December. This ' arises ..chiefly from 7 tile.
'reduction of the 'labour required., in making out the
dividend warrants, in which, by order of the Directors, the
names of the holders of the stock are not in future to appeal. ;'
and. this is 'adbpted to answer' the &utile purpose of lessening
the period of s'hutting, and of withholding that information of
the accounts, as ' to names and amounts of stock, which: is,
capable of being turned to fraudulent uses. At all times an
additional week for public transfers is valuable, but it is most.
particularly go at present. There has not occurred fur many
'Years a period for closing the Bank books against transfers
which has been regarded with so much anxiety.
-The Directors Of the Auction Mart 'have passed a resolu-
tion that their roonis shall not be used for the sale of scrioitr
projected. undertakings not authorised by Act of Parliament.:.
HERALD.,-Another weekly, meeting of the Bank Direc-
tors. has passed off to-day without prliducing any :further
' change in the minimum rate of interest by that establishment.
This fact will be, anything but gratifying to the alarmist's,
some of whom predicted that, ere this, the minimum rate of
interest would be not less than fiveper cent. The foundatiop
bed is, however, even more fragile than that of some-of the
bases upon which they have,relied for support, , The fall- in
the pricesof railway shares has not made , money fess fibun7
1. dent, but, on the contrary,, 14 restricting the field Melts etn-
-1 ployment, it is iapidlyfaccemillating in the ' hands'. of the
London bankers, and by necessary sequence tending to reduce
its Value, ! The distrust which has been created continues to .
impede discount tranaactions, and to some extent has enhanced.
the terms ;-but, as we have often had weasion to remark, there
was:no speculation in commercial commoilities,and the busi-
• 'less-of the countxy, being amid at the core, the effect of the
'reaction in; railways will be but partial in extent, and
comparatively temporary in : duration. , Already . the,
bankers and other capitalists are getting tired of keeping
large sums of money unemployed in their tills, They have
not, however, got entirely rid of the apprehension created
that money will be more in request towards the end of the -
year, and shortdated paper is, therefere, discouoted at rates
considerably lower than the difference of time compared with
long dated bills. A. preference is given to lending money re-
, turnable on call, from. tke same apprehension, and it can be
;obtained in abueden9o bY the discount houses on these termi
.at the rate of three per cent. per annum. Whilst this,gtate
of things lasts, it is not to be presumed that the Bank of.
England will increase their present sate as the inevitable re=
sult would be the loss of, much of' their discount And loan
business. As no valid reason can be given for the expeeta-.
. tion that money will be scarcer and dearer at the end 9f
December than it is now, within the hist two or three AP '
sew of the, shrewder bankers have become less Aernptilon#
with thefedliCotints, - Fiddle sect rities have been relief
;.firmer to-day, and the speculaters for the decline have lost
confidence to carry their, operations further. One of the re-'
sults,,indeed, of, injuring commercial credit, is to send mere
money to the public securities
.for investment, and of this
the eTperiefteefl speculators are so viell aware that they hesi-
tide about tinting their ftef,01444 and proceeding for the ,nti
/MUM - • . : . '