The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-24 00:00:00

THE DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION

We have frequently had occasion to bring this admirable
Institution before the attention of our readers, and of all the
valuable asylums for the wretched with which our town
abounds, none has greater claims upon the sympathy and
liberality of the public than the Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb. Not only are the afflicted inmates of the establish-
ment clothed and fed, but they have the advantage of re-
ceiving a sound scriptural education, the results of which are
of the most satisfactory kind. We sometime since gave se-
veral evidences of the high state of moral feeling, presented
by several of the young persons in the institution; and we
now subjoin another instance of the same kind in the shape
of reflections, written by an intelligent youth of the name of
Richard Williams, and penned, we may add, without the
slightest dictation, or any previous suggestion. We are only
able to give some extracts from the journal, but they will be
sufficient to give a tolerable conception of the bearing of the
whole. It is necessary to add that the remarks were occa-
sioned by a recent visit to the exhibition_of paintings :

" When we were just entering by the door, we gazed at the
paintings with admiration and inexpressible surprisation
(surprise) at their beatitude (beauty). We looked at them
with earnest joy, and delight, and interest. We saw the
rooms full of beautiful various paintings and portraits ; I
can mention some of them : A large elegant portrait of his
Royal Highness Prince Albert, and another of James As-
pinall, Esq., a worthy gentleman of our committee. The
Smuggler's Return. The Idler was a girl loitering lazily
about, and losing her time; she seems that she knew not
that her precious time was losing, which never returns, never
any more. For time once past never returns. Catch time,
for (lempusfiegil) time flies away swiftly. Let us not be
doing the part of au idler, time should not be lost, for it is
precious, and at length brings many to our grey hairs, and
then carries us to the peaceful grave. Tempus in agrorum
culla consuniere dulce—ldleness is the root of all evil, and a
sinful waste of our time and talents. It seems an idler ge-
nerally becomes a vagabond, and clothed with (nice) ragged
clothes. Satan always strives to empty the pockets of an
idler who is in laziness of mind and body, and he is easily and
weakly tempted, and sometimes becomes a notorious person,
and then brought to the fatal gallows to be launched into
eternity by an awful death, and to appear at the tremendous
final tribunal. But as for the industrious, Satan will flee
from thee, and cannot hurt thee ; be watchful even of him
who is very cunning. Let no man deceive thee by any means,
watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The
spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak, says the
Bible. For Satan once got hold of Judas, who betrayed our
blessed Lord. Satan prepares mischief for idlers. The
Houseless Wanderer was a woman with a babe in her arms.
What a pity it excites to look upon such a one wandering in
the open air, receiving •the cold and rain all night, and
obliged to sleep on the empty, stony, temporary bed, any
where which welcomes her ! It lets the tear drop out of my
eye, as sympathy. She seems like a poor lost wandering
sheep, with her lamb in her bosom. The Jews are a wan-
dering people !—for they are found any where about the
wide world. Perhaps they were happy when they all lived in
unity with their brethren, in the land of their forefathers,
which the Lord swear unto Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
before they were scattered abroad. But through their in-
gratitude to their Maker, and ever to-be-beloved and re-
jected King, they were given up to their enemies, who took
many of them prisoners, and many were scattered on the
face of the earth, like sheep now wandering from place to
to place without a shepherd. A picture of a Girl at a Well.
The picture represents a girl with a jug, at a well to get water
to drink to quench her thirst, or to make into any drink-
able liquors. Perhaps it may make us who look at it,
think of the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, talking with
our Saviour Jesus Christ. The few verses which I take
pleasure in expressing here, are as follows :—When Jesus
sat at the well, there came a woman of Samaria, to draw
water out of the well, and when Jesus was thirsty, he wante d
some water to quench his thirst, and said to the woman,
Give me to drink, but the woman refused, and said to him,
' How is it, that thou being a Jew, asketh drink of me which
am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans ?' and Jesus said to her, If thou
knewest the gift of God, and who is it that sayeth to thee,
give me drink, Thou wouldst have asked of him, and he
would have given thee living water.' Then the woman said
to him, sir, thou 'last nothing to draw it with, and the well
is deep ; from whence then hast thou that living water
And Jesus said, Whosoever drinketh of the water shall
thirst again ; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him, shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life;' and the woman said unto him, Sir, give
me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to
draw' " The Letter.—A letter safely arrived to a person,
and joyfully received to whom it is directed—perhaps there
is some bad or joy news in it. A letter is a writing or talk-
ing messenger, used in correspondence. The Widow—This
picture looks like a doleful and sympathising scene. The
widow was sitting on the deceased husband's tomb-stone ; I
think her husband was much endeared and affectionate to
her when alive upon earth—and what is now the widow's
hope ? Perhaps the widow's hope is of a full, desirous, and
happy expectation to meet him again above, of which, per-
haps, every pious earthly-created of mankind have a desire
when all their labour is done, to go to the land of promise
beyond the skies on high, to the Canaan of eternal sweet
rest, to dwell to all eternity with God, Jesus Christ, and the
Heavenly Host. Nobody can deliver our mortal bodies from
going down to the grave, only our Maker who created us, and
breathed the breath of life into us. As we are his property,
and He our Father, but death is the worst thing that dreads
' many, and separates every one from all the affectionate ties.
Yea, death is sweet, and life is better to the pious and re-
signing who have faith in their God : for precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. There are se-
veral verses in the Bible about widows, that God is a judge
of widows in his holy habitation, and that God said, " Leave
thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let
thy widows trust in me," &c.

FUND FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF
LIVING ARTISTS.

On Tuesday the appropriation of the above fund, accord-
ing to the usual plan, took place at the Exhibition-rooms;
when the under-mentioned persons obtained a right to the
values set opposite to their names, giving them the choice of
pictures of corresponding prices, or others of higher prices,
by paying the difference :

X s. d.
40 0 0

MEMIERISM.-CAPTAIN BROWN'S LECTURE
ON THE DISCOVERIES OF MR. BRAID, OF
MANCHESTER.

On Tuesday evening Captain Thomas Brown. M.W.S.,
late president of the Royal Physical Society, delivered a lec-
ture on the subject of mesmerism, at the Portico, Newing-
ton, before a highly respectable audience, amounting to be-
tween 130 and 150 individuals, including several ladies and
medical gentlemen of the town and neighbourhood. The
discoveries were not those of Captain Brown, but of Mr.
Braid, a surgeon, of Manchester. who, it was stated, had ex-
hibited the influence:l,f mesmerism on almost every indi-
vidual at first trial, including somnolency, insensibility to
pain, the cataleptiform state, somnambulism, sleep-talking,
dancing, and various evolutions as desired. Mr. Braid's

liyering lectures in the varions towns, t

VICwS IT

tv of his d

Lions and extracts from his lectures as were sufficient to ena-
ble Captain Brown to supply his place successfully, and to
illustrate all the effects on subjects previously tested, as well
as on others who might present themselves from.the audience.
Shortly before the commencement of the lecture Captain
Brown requested of any medical gentleman present to retire
to an anti-room, where-six of Mr. Braid's patients were in
readiness to submit to:t'he various operations, in order that
they might feel their pulses. Two medical gentlemen, Drs.
M'Culloch and Carson, accordingly retired for the purpose,
and after being absent for some minutes, the six patients, all
females, came upon the stage and took their seats. Four of
them were young women, ranging between 20 and 25 years
of age ; the fifth appeared to be about 32 or 35, and the sixth
was a grown-up kirl of about 14 or 15.
The captain, in the introductory part of his lecture, gave
an account of the mode in which Mr. Braid's attention bad
been directed to the subject from attending the lectures of M.
Lafontaine, in Manchester. Having gone through this, he
explained Mr. Braid's theory thus :
He considers that, by an individual keeping up a steady
gaze or fixed stare at an object placed in such a position as to
put the greatest number of muscles connected with that organ
and appendages into action, and which of course, requires an
abstraction of mind from other objects to enable the individual
to maintain this fixed stare without winking or moving the
eyeballs, congestion takes place in the eye, and a rapid ex-
haustion of the natural sensibility of the retina and morter
nerves of the eye and eyelids. This is reflected on the brain,
and from that to the heart and lungs, producing enervation
and consequent sinking in the force and frequency of the
heart's action.

The enervation of the brain is still farther increased by the
enfeebled action of the 4teafit, and from the same cause the
blood is sent to the extremities in diminished quantity, and
is, therefore, accumulated in the large blood vessels in the
region of the heart. The heart is now stimulated to greater
efforts, and, in order to overcome its increased labour. is com-
pelled to quicken its velocity to compensate for its lessened
power. The pulse now rises, and is followed by determina-
tion of blood to the brain, as evinced by the flushing of the
face, &c., and now succeed all the phenomena of mesmerism,
arising from congestion and irregular circulation through
that important organ the brain, and its appendage the spinal
cord.

The effects may be induced by a steady fixed stare, kept
up in any direction, together with that quiet of body and ab-
straction of mind from all other objects necessary to enable
the patient to maintain the eye and eyelids in a state of ab-
solute rest. The patient may look straightforward, upward
or downwards, to the right or to the left, or any intermediate
angle. The greater the strain on the eye, the more rapid is
the effect, and, therefore, upward and downward, so as to in-
duce an internal and upward squint, is decidedly the one to
be preferred. Looking with both eyes, so as to make and
maintain the greatest possible internal squint, is the. next
most rapid in its effects. It has not hitherto been observed
that by these two positions the pupil of the eye is powerfully
contracted, whereas, by directing the eye straight upward,
downward, to the right or to the left, it dilates irrespectively
of the intensity of the rays of light passing to the retina, so
that in one sense the iris may be called a voluntary muscle,
as it can be thus contracted or dilated at will. Nor should
the fact be overlooked of the remarkable effect produced in
the respirations by keeping up a fixed gaze, with the mind
directed to the subject in the manner referred to. There is
an instinctive tendency during such experiments to breathe
softly, or hold in the breath, which, no doubt bas considera-
ble influence in affecting the disarrangement of the circulation
in the brain, and depressing its energy by the imperfect arte-
rialisation of the blood, which takes place in consequence of
the suppressed respiration. '
The closing of the eyelids, and the inability to open them
afterwards, may be accounted for in part on the principle of
temporary paralysis of the tevator palpebrse and occipito
frontalis arising from exhaustion by long-continued exertion
in keeping the eyelids open, and on the increased energy
given to the orbicularis palpebrarum during its repose.
This muscle is possessed of the double attribute of a volun-
tary and involuntary motion; and the accumulation of tears
under the upper eyelid, and the arid state of the conjuncteval
membrane in consequence of its exposure to the air, without
being lubricated by the tears, and, as usually happens during
netation (or winking) of the eyelids, produce at length so
much irritation as to excite spasmodic action of the orbicu-
laris, and, consequently, spasmodic closure of the eyelids.
and this, by reflection, is transferred to the other muscles.

Mr. Braid considers his mode of dissipating the mesmeric
spell quite as remarkable as its production, and says, and
proves it may be accomplished, almost instantaneously (if
taken in proper time,) by any abrupt or instantaneous shock.
Thus the whole limbs may be cataleptiform, resisting the
greatest force to displace them, and yet a single abrupt puff
fro?n the lips or a pair of bellows on the eyes, into the ears
or nostrils, will instantly rouse the patient, and the rigid
limbs will become as rapidly perfectly limber. If itis wished
to demesmerise a particular part only, manipulation or fan-
ning must be directed to that particular part only, and the
patient roused gradually : but if roused abruptly, the whole
will become flaccid at once.

Mr. Braid does not deny that certain manipulations may
heighten certain effects, but he most unequivocally denies
that the will of the operator, or any emanation from his
body, produces the effects. In short, that gesture and mani-
pulations by an automaton would just have the same in-
fluence, provided the patient considered it a living being.
Having finished the lecture which was listened to with
marked attention, one of the young women was brought for-
ward to the front of the stage, and fixed her eyes steadily on
an object in the room. Capt. Brown told ber to lift her arms.
She did so. He next told her to fsAlPiv him round the stage,and
shelmmedtately obeyed the command. She was next told to
kneel down, and she knelt down accordingly. She was then told
to stand up again, and apeedily she was upon her legs. All this
time her arms were extended,and herbodyappeared as perfectly
stiff and unwieldy as though animation were altogether sus-
pended. Capt. B. remarked that it was somewhat of a remark-
able fact, that while the patients were in this particular state
they never lost their equilibrium. Dr. M'Culloch felt the
eyelids, and found that fast closed. A chair was then
brought, and she was placed 'in a sitting posture, when
Captain Brown raised both her legs, and extended them in a
horizonal position from the body—a position in which she
continued to keep them without any support. Dr. Carson
felt her pulse while in this state, and announced that it had
risen from 92 to 108. Three or four other medical gentlemen
then ascended the stage and felt her hands. Captain Brown
pricked her with a pin in the head and in the forehead, aad
she appeared insensible to pain. A bottle of ammonia was.
applied by the medical gentlemen to her nose, and it seemed
not to produce the slightest effect. After having been in the
same state for six minutes altogether, Captain Brown blew
upon her eyes and face with a small bellows, and instantly
her arms and legs fell down, he eyes opened, and after ap-
pearing at first perfectly unconscious of what had been pas-
sing, and weakened by the effect, she walked across the
stage to the chair upon which she had been sitting before
the experiment commenced.
The same patient was then placed on a chair—opposite her
sat the captain on another chair. He then held her hands
in his, while both continued for two or three minutes to look
staringly in each other's faces, during which be continued
to move his thumbs and to press them upon her fingers.
Suddenly she closed her eyes ; and immediately he released
her from his grasp and proceeded to pass his hands, in La-
fontaine's peculiar style, over her face and body. He then
went behind her, lifted her up, and placed her, in a standing
position, upon the stage. He then told her to come to him,
and she immediately followed him, at a slow and hesitating
pace, round the stage. She next knelt down and got up
again, as before, at his bidding; after which she was placed
in a chair and her legs extended. Her pulse was felt at this
period and announced to be 114. Her head then fell back-
wards, she groaned audibly, and animation was restored.
The girl, about 14 or 15 years of age, was next introduced
to the meeting. After looking intently at the ceiling for
about two minutes, her eyes closed, and the captain, after
extending both her arms, asked her several times to sing
" the Troubadore." She refused. He then asked her to
sing any song she liked ; but she still refused to comply. He
then asked whether she could waltz, and she whispered in
the affirmative. He then whistled an air, apologising for not
having a musician present, and instantly she waltzed about
the stage. He then blew upon her face with his breath,
whereupon she opened her eyes and retired to her seat.
The third patient introduced to the audience was the fe-
male which we have described as about 32 or 35 years of age.
In less than a minute after she commenced to look at an ob-
ject her eyes closed. Two or three of the medical gentlemen
then felt her bands and fingers, which had been previously
extended. They were imperceptible to touch. The bottle
of ammonia was appliad to her nasal organs without effect.
Two chairs were then hung upon her left arm, and they ap-
peared not in the least to have disturbed her equilibrium.
So unconscious did she seem to be of what was passing, that
she had to be asked three or four times in a loud tone of

voice before she complied with the request. Her pulse,
which had been previously at 105, was now announced to be
at 144. One of the medical gentlemen blew upon her face,
and after several puffs she opened her eyes, and the process
of detnesmerisation was said to have been completed.
The three remaining patients were next introduced to the
meeting. They all looked steadily towards the ceiling.
Speedily one closed her eyes, and then the second followed
her example. The third, however, kept her eyes open for a
considerably longer period; but at last she too became mes-
merised. The latter was then told to shag, a song, when she
attempted, in a very faint voice, tS sing the first verse of
"Ye banks and braes." While she was in the act of singing
it, a medical gentleman applied the ammonia to the nose of
one of the other two, and it had an immediate effect. The
patient waggled, made wry faces, opened her peepers, took
her handkerchief deliberately from her pocket and wiped
away the moisture which the ammonia had evidently brought
to her eyes, then looked apparently unconscious for a moment
and walked to where she had been previously sitting, amid a
roar of laughter from the audience.
The experiments having now been gone through upon all
the patients,
The Captain announced that he was ready to mesmerise
any gentleman in company.
Mr. GREEN accordingly leaped upon the stage, and sub-

witted to the operation, ba it failed.
Three gentlemen then submitted to the operation. We
could only learn the names of two of them—Mr. Bromwell
and Mr. George Thompson. They were put in sitting pos-
tures, with corks fastened to their foreheads. They were
directed, as in Mr. Green's case, to keep their eyes intently
fixed on the corks. They were further directed to keep their
hands loosely by their sides, the captain observing that to
keep the hands in such an attitude was a means whereby the
effect would be soonest produced.
. After the space of about four minutes, the head of one of
them fell suddenly upon his breast, which seemed to rouse
him a little, for he rubbed his eyes, raised the cork off his
forehead, stuck both his hands into the pockets of a capacious
white " down-the-road" in which he was habited, stretched
out both his legs to their fullest dimensions, and appeared as
much at home as if he were enjoying a comfortable after-
dinner nap in his arm-chair by the fireside. All eyes were
directed towards him, and the audience laughed outright at
the grotesqueness of his appearance, believing it to have
been simulated.
The two others were " wide awake" all the time, looking
intently at the corks, but insensible as to any effect. The
captain passed his wand several times over their eyes, but it
was all to no purpose
By this time the third gentleman had opened his eyes, and
in reply to the inquiries of the audience, assured them that
he had tried once or twice to get up from his seat while under
the influence, but found himself unable so to do. He tried
to hear what had been passing, but failed in this respect also.
Dr. M'Cut.Locs said that the gentleman's pulse was going
most furiously whilst he was in the state described. He
(Dr. C.) thought the case was simulated, but the patient had
declared, upon his honour as a gentleman, that the fact was
otherwise. (Hear, hear.)
In answer to further inquiries,
The GENTLEMAN declared that he was between asleep and
awake while under the influence, and that he could only bear
the audience clapping.
During this conversation the gentleman appeared awe-

what stupid, and it wa
could rise from his seat

MC 'Uinta(

Mr. ROBERTSON, of Ludlow, here presented himself at
the front of the stage, and stated that, having on the prece-
ding Saturday read Mr. Braid's first lecture in Manchester,
he fixed his eyes on an object and found that they speedily

closed. He then sat at a table, on which he placed a decan-
ter, and on the top of it a cork, and in a few minutes his
eyes again closed, and he was unable to open them. His
assistant, however, whom he had in the room, and whom he
requested to attend to him while be was making the 'experi-
ment, opened them for him. Mr. R. concluded by saying
that he should be happy to submit to Captain Brown's expe-
riments, if that gentleman had no objection, as he had previ-

ously been a disbeliever in the science- .
He then submitted to the experiment; so also did another
gentleman at the same time. They both sat upon chairs,
with the corks fastened to their foreheads. In a short time
Mr. Robertson's eyes closed, and his breast heaved intensely.
The experiment was received with loud cheers.

his eyes, and walked about the stage. Before the process
commenced, his pulse was 120; at the close it was 150.
The other gentleman who submitted to the experiment with
Mr. Robertson declared, after sitting for some minutes, that
he had not felt the slightest effect.

Mr. ROBERTSON explained the manner in which he had
felt during the process. In the first instance, he said, his
eyes were directed towards the cork, which in a short time
appeared to dance about. At last be felt some difficulty in
keeping his eyes open ; neither, after shutting them, could
he open them again. He had felt difficulty in respiration.

He linew that several gentleman were about him. be also
felt that his arm had been raised, but he did not feel any par-
ticular frigidity in it, except partially.
Captain BROWN said that the hearing became exceedingly
acute in most of the cases.

Another GENTLEMAN inquired whether it was true,
reported in a Manchester paper, that it was not necess
the patients should keep their eyes in a particular positi

in such a position
_ Captain Baow

Lafontaine's effects

asked whether the inquirer alluded to

The GENTLEMAN replied in the affirmative.
Captain BROWN said, it had certainly occurred that per-
sons had been mesmerised while keeping their heads, and

.
The GENTLEMAN next asked what was the object of
Lafontaine's passes of the baud over the patients, if, as was
_ _

stated in the lecture, the effects were prodiiced by.the efforts

of the brai

Captain BROWN Mid, that Lafontaine's passes were a
complete humbug. Ile had no hesitation in saying that they
were a complete humbug, and he added, that Mr. Braid's
system differed altogether from that of Lafontaine.
Mr. GREEN *1
that Capt,' F ----a had 'ted

sag. .am Browt. . a _
the evening fairly. openly, and far differently from Mob.
Lafontaine; for while the latter was quite reserved. tF

former gave the fullest explanations in his power. (Hear,
hear.) Under such circumstances, he thought Captain
Brown ought to be given a fair hearing, whenever be made
his appearance in Liverpool again.
Captain BROWN then promised to repeat the lecture on
some future occasion, of which due notice would be given,
and said he would endeavour to bring Mr. Braid along with
him at the same time, who was far better able to explain the
subject than he could possibly pretend to be.
The audience separated shortly before eleven o'clock.

THE WEST INDIA MAIL STATION,

We resume our remarks on the home station of the West
India mails, considered principally as a nauticaul question.
And, first, with regard to

It appe

A PORT OF CALL.
from several parts of the evidence elicited b

fore the parliamentary committee, that the government, from
the first, contemplated a port of call, or second port, as far
as possible to the west of the original port of departure, on
the supposition that the latter were selected eastward of the
coast of Cornwall. Whether Portsmouth or Southampton
(newest to the metropolis) bad been selected as the termi-
nating home port, the only ports at all likely to the westward
of either were Dartmouth, Plymouth, or Falmouth, to all of
which strong objections were stated, and particularly to the
two latter, from the difficulty, risk, or impossibility of access
at certain times. Dartmouth was considered decidedly the
best in point of safety and accommodation ; but it is the most
easterly of the three, and therefore not nearly so suitable as
Falmouth to secure the_grand desideratum (advocated by

many of the witnesses) of having the mails carried as far as
possible " on four wheels ;" and an opinion being expressed
by several of the parties examined, that there would be con-
siderable uncertainty and delay in touching at any second
port, the committee appear to have entirely abandoned the
idea, at least in considering Southampton as the station.
Captain Chappell, marine superintendent of the Royal Mail
Steam Packet Company, expressed his disapproval of any
port of call, as having hitherto been found to be impractica-
ble, and maintained his assumption (for some must call it) by
a sort of side-wind slap at the port of Liierpool. He states
that, fourteen years ago, the mail steam packets between this
port and Dublin called at Holyhead in going and returning,
and that this plan, after being persevered in at great risk and
cost, and without any adequate advantage, for some years,
was at length given up. But this illustration was most in-
applicable to the case in point. We readily admit that Ho-
lyhead is not a practicable port of call. It is, with northerly
winds beset with a heavy sea, and the bay is withal so dan-
gerous, the access so difficult, and the accommodations, both
natural and artificial, so inadequate (notwithstanding its new
pier and other improvements) that it can scarcely be called
even a port of refuge for small coasters, much less for vessels
of large burthen. Its position is good, from its being on an
apex or point of land, or rather rock, forming the extreme
southern boundary of the channel into Liverpool ; and it has
been nurtured principally as a telegraph station, and the
nearest port of North Wales to Ireland, but will never be-
come a safe or extensive port. The inference to be de-
duced from his evidence regarding it is, however, to the
uninitiated, that, because it is an unprofitable and unsafe
port of call for the Liverpool and Dublin steam mail ships,
were Liverpool selected as the station of the West India
mail ships, we could find no available port of call any more
than Southampton. But the voyage (properly a mere coast-
ing one) to Dublin has no reference to the voyage to the
West Indies, and if he had cast his eye
_upon the chart he
would have found -TharifpOrt of call from Liverpool could
have been found, much superior to Holyhead, for all the
purposes of conveying passengers and correspondence to and
from the West Indies. We allade to the south and the south
west extremity of Ireland. Why did he overlook Cork ?—one
of the finest ports in the kingdom, accessable in all weathers,
capable of accommodating the whole squadron at a time, and
which may be left in all weathers by such vessels, if we ex-
cept the rare contingency of a hurrican from the south, when
they could not leave even Southampton. Cork is moreover
in the direct course hence to the West Indies. There is,
however, another port still more applicable, and not far
distant from Cork, which he has also overlooked—namely,
BCERFIAVEN. in Bantry Bay, situated at the south west ex-
tremity of Ireland, and in every respect suitable for the
purpose, particularly when a railroad across the island is
formed, of which there is every probability. It is, besides,
in the direct course, and close to Cape Clear, the point of de-
parture of all vessels sailing from this port, or from the
north of England, or Wales, (as far south as the Bristol
Channel,) to the West India Islands. The committee were
informed of this fact. Captain George Evans, R.N., said
that he had been appointed to inspect the west coast of Ire-
land by the Post-office Enquiry Commission, and to point out
the best port for the Anieriom and West India packets. He
did so, and recommended Beerhaven, as in every respects
suitable "for the landing and embarking of all the Irish and
Scotch passengers and correspondence," as it was very little
out of the way from Brean Down, (in the Bristol Channel.)
We may add that it is not at all out of the way from Liver-
pool. Captain Evans also said that " Bantry Bay is an open
place,—Beerhaven has two entrances, and there is no wind
that a vessel would attempt to go to sea in, in which she
could not go in and out of Beerhaven." He added that
even in the night, vessels might go round Cape Clear into it,
with safety, if there was a light fixed there, which there was
not at present; and that there were two good channels, one
the eastern and the other the western, which permitted in-
gress and egress in all weathers—even in strong southerly
gales when vessels could not put out of Cork. Cape Clear,
close by, was, moreover, not only the best point of departure
for the West Indies, but the safest headland to make in com-
ing home. We need scarcely add that after making Cape
Clear, the West India mails would, in running for Liverpool,
be in the same safe position as coasters. The course up
channel is direct and well-defined all the way by headlands
and lighthouses. Beerhaven is a frequent port of refuge for
our Liverpool vessels. The letters and passengers from all
Scotland to the West Indies could, even now, (before a rail-
way is constructed,) be readily conveyed to it or to Cork, by
the mails,—through Donoughadee or Belfast ; and those of
Ireland, without a long journey from any point, and no part
of the transit by water. It is in fact in the direct and nearest
line from the north of England, from Scotland, and from
Ireland, to the West India Islands.
So much, therefore, of advantage for Liverpool over
Southampton, as regards a port of call.