The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-14 00:00:00

DEBATE UPON LORD SANDON'S MOTION.

It would be a dull affair to attempt to analyze this debate.
The most happy efforts on Monday night were those of Lord
Francis Egerton and Mr. W. E. Gladitone ; yet two speeches

more dissimilar in their character it is scarcely possible to
imagine. The speech of Lord Francis was one of those beau-
tiful displays of lofty principle, conveyed in fine and eloquent
language, which distinguish that amiable and talented noble-
man ; whilst that of the member for Newark, equally correct
in language and lofty in principle, addressed itself more to
the business details of the question. In the concluding sen-
tences of his speech Mr. Gladstone alluded, with happy effect,
to the position uniformly maintained upon the question of
slavery by the father of one member of the cabient—Mr.
Zachary Macauley—and contrasted it with that which his
son, the member for Edinburgh, at present occupied, as the
advocate of a measure which must inevitably tend, whatever
may be its effects upon the condition of the emancipated ne-
groes in our West Indian colonies, to aggravate the horrors
of slavery and the slave trade as carried on in other countries
—an allusion the more valuabie inasmuch as it had the effect
of placing the glib-tongued placeman—Mr. Babiugton Ma-
cauley—upon his trial, and has afforded the country an op-

portunity of ascertaining with what reasoning a professed
abolutionist can defend, upon principle,. the policy of govern-

On Tuesday night, accordingly, Mr. Macauley came down
with a set speech, which is verbatim reported, as all his pre-
pared speeches are, in the Morning Chronicle of this day.
,:` You cannot," urged Mr. Macauley, " dispense with the
use of slave-grown products. You must have slave-grown
coffee, cotton, &c. ; and why, then, your holy horror of
slave-grown sugar ?" Alas, has it come to this ? Are we to
be told now that all the speeches, written and uttered, of
Wilberforce, Buxton, Clarkson, and Macauley—that all the
diatribes of this same Thomas Babington in the pages of the
blue and yellow—all the eloquent denunciations of Chatham,
of Fox, of Brougham—all the amiable philanthropy of a Gur-
ney—have been utterly misplaced and thrown away because,
although we can do without slave-grown sugar, we cannot
yet dispense with slave-grown coffee, cotton, or tobacco?
Shame upon you, Mr. Thomas Babington Macauley—shame
upon any man whom the preservation of a seat upon the
treasury bench—whom a dirty question of salary—car► induce
to falsify the recorded opinions of a lifetime,—to unroot and
trample upon the laurel which hangs over the grave of a dead
parent ! _ _

For one candid confession, however, we must thank the
Secretary at War. We know now, ex cathedra, that in this
sugary proposition the ministry have " miscalculated"—
have committed an unfortunate error. Until the promulga-
tion of Lord Sandon's present motion the ministerial dreams
were all "coleur de rose." They confidently expected sup-
port, even from the Conservative side of the house (!) in
this endeavour to recruit their exhausted treasury at the ex-
pense of the agricultural and colonial interests of the empire.
But they know now their error ; nay, they tell us by the
mouth of Mr. Macauley that they know its consequences.
They will have very shortly—hard fate !—to occupy other
seats, from which they expect to witness the carrying out of
the very measure which they now propose,—an expectation
which we should be very glad, for my part, to allow them to

gratify, when the country shall become tired of seeing them

occupy thsoe seats,—but certainly not sooner.
Without this admission, however, it is sufficiently evident
that a grossly false move has been made by the unlucky
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The " unsettling" of the
agricultural and colonial interests—the attempt to raise a cry
of cheap sugar, cheap timber, and cheap bread, has recoiled
upon the heads of the ministry ; and, worse than all, has
placed them in a false position. They must now bid farewell
for ever to the support of the anti-slavery party in Great
Britain. They are now the avowed advocates of slavery and
the slave trade. Their press already has thrown off the
flimsy concealment, under which for a time, perhaps, this
fact might have been concealed ; the more indiscreet mem-
bers of their party in parliament have abjured the profes-
sions of humanity to the Negro race, which in past time have
formed the staple of many an eloquent diatribe—at anti-
slavery meetings, upon electioneering and other occasions ;
and full time it was that the hypocritical pretenders were
unmasked. Humanity to the enslaved African, from the
supporters of infant slavery in our factories—from the
supporters of adult slavery in our poor-law bastiles! No ;
from henceforth the people of England will look for no such
fruit upon the barren branches of the tree of Whig-
radicalism.

DISASTER IN THE CHANNEL,

PAINFULLY INTERESTING PARTICULARS.
(From our Second Edition of Tuesday, 11th inst.)

We furnished in our first edition a brief statement of th
loss of a brig, near Holyhead, on Sunday night, by being run
into by the ship Brooklyn, outward bound, to New York, and
which left this port on that day. The supposition then was,
from those on board of the Brooklyn, that the then unknown
vessel, (which was supposed to be of about 300 tons:bur.
then,) had suddenly disappeared with all thwe who were of
board of her. We are glad, however, to state, that six o
the crew were saved, and from one of them—ti,e
following particulars are derived :
The vessel was the ship Mary Scott, from Valparaiso
bound to Liverpool, with a cargo of copper ore, &c., and a
quantity of specie. She was the property of Mrs. Little,
widow of the late Mr. Little, of Liverpool. She sailed 12th
January. On Sunday night, when off Point Lynas, she
showed two lights on the starboard side for a pilot. About
ten o'clock, while she was running on, a ship, without any
lights that were seen by the Mary Scott, ran into her,
striking her between the two lights, abaft the main rigging.
The wind was blowing fresh at the time, and the topsails
of the Mary Scott had been reefed. The concussion carried
away some of the spars of the latter vessel, and by the
fall of one of them the captain had his back severely
injured, if not broken. The Brooklyn was hailed by the
Mary Scott, but, according to our informant, did not
make towards her, and they soon lost sight of her. As
it was evident that the -vessel was in a dangerous state,
the jolly-boat was lowered, and the mate told the captain that
now was the time for him to save his life. He said that if
the mate would fetch up a box of spice, he would follow him
into the boat. The mate went down and fetched up a box,
but, on his reaching the deck, he found the water up to his
waist, she being in a sinking state. An attempt was then
made to clear the long boat, so as to save all hands ; but she
was so entangled with spars and cordage, that this could not
be effected; and the mate, as the ship sunk, got into the
jolly boat, together with the carpenter, four of the crew,
and a boy,—being seven in all. He believes that all the
remainder, amounting to eight in number, (including the
captain) sunk with the vessel, of which they soon lost sight.
The boat drifted first towards Holyhead, and afterwards to-
wards the Isle of Man. Those on board had neither food
nor drink, and were, in the confusion of leaving the ship,
but scantily clothed. The weather was stormy, and they
were left at the mercy of the wind and waves. They had se-
cured the chronometer, but having nothing to bail with, had
to break out the works and use the metal case as a scoop or
ladle. After being tossed about for about twenty-four
hours they were pickd up, naturally much exhausted, by a
Manx fishing-boat. There were no passengers in the Mary
Scott. Just before they were picked up, they passed a
water cask which they recognised to be one of those belong-
ing to the Mary Scott.
In addition to these particulars, we are informed that the
vessel and her cargo were insured for £35,000—a1l in Liver-
pool. Independently of the melancholy loss of life, the de-
struction of property involved will fall heavily upon our
underwriters. As in all probability a legal investigation of
the facts, as affecting the Brooklyn, will take place, we
abstain from all remark on the fatal disaster,—the more par-
ticularly as some conflicting testimony regarding the collision
may hereafter be adduced.

;nate—the

Captain Richardson has furnished us with the following
statement of this melancholy affair :
" On the 9th inst., at sixa.m., the ship Brooklyn, under
my command, proceeded, with the assistance of a steamer,
from the river Mersey to sea. At two p.m., being seven
miles outside the Bell Buoy, discharged the steamer, and
made sail, wind light, from S.E. At H 30 p.m. saw Point
Lynas light S.W., about 8 miles distant, wind brisk, from
S.S.W. At 9 p.m. brisk breezes from S.W. by S. ; took in
the studding sails. At near 10 p.m., being on deck myself,
and having a good look-out kept by myself and men, we ob-
served a sail on our larboard bow. 1 immediately saw her,
and seeing she was steering in the opposite direction, (that
is E.S.E. and ourselves about W.N.W.) and she to wind-
ward of us ; the wind having just headed us one point, and
thus favoured the strange sail, I was induced to keep my
ship off, by putting my helm aport, which was done, and my
ship immediately swung off two points ; but on looking to
the strange sail again, to my astonishment I observed her
keeping off, which caused me to believe that as we were so
near each other we should soon come together, bow to bow,
which would have destroyed us both almost instantly. 1,
fearing so frightful a collision, thought, at the moment, that
if my helm was put down my ship might come to quick
enough to clear her ; consequently, I had my helm put to
starboard, and my ship began to come to quickly, and had
there been one or two minutes more time, the strange sail
would hive been sufficiently ahead to have cleared us, as we
struck her about the mainmast. I saw her in one minute
after she was seen by the look-out. I did not see any lights
on board of her, neither have I learnt that any on board my
ship saw any. My
ship
.lost her bowsprit, cutwater, stem
badly split, bows much injured ; and at the time of the col-
lision, and for two hours afterwards, I had strong fears of
my ship springing a large leak suddenly, as, in addition to
the injury just sustained, her bowsprit was thrashing her
bows sufficiently to cause great anxiety for the safety of 195
souls on board ' • also the foremast was much endangered by
the want of head-stays. As the strange sail passed from un-
der us after the collision, I heard dreadful shrieks and cries.
I had no doubt they were cries of distress, and I feared the
strange sail was sinking. I thought of the drowning crew,
but I had not the power of affording any relief, as my ship
was under full sail, and in an unmanageable and extremely
dangerous state ; however, in a few minutes I let my sails
and stopped the ship's way ; but
fly, backed my maintopsail,
did not, at that time or afterwards, hear or see anything of
the strange sail, her boats or men,until 1 heard of the arrival
of some of them at this place.
ABEL W. RICHARDSON,
Commander of the ship Brooklyn.
P.S. Understanding that a report has been circulated very
prejudicial to my character for humanity, to the effect that
immediately on the collision taking place I caused the hatch-
ways to be covered for the purpose of preventing the passen-
' gers from coming on deck, I beg most distinctly to deny it,
no such order having been given by me, or by any officer on
board ir.y ship ; on the contrary, to my own certain know-
ledge, I state that the hatchways were open, and that several
of my passengers were on deck at the time of the accident.

On the subject of the above remarks of Captain Richard-
son, we beg to state that one of our reporters was in the of-
fice of the consignees, Messrs. James D. Roche, Goree,
yesterday, and there saw many of the passengers by the
Brooklyn ; our reporter interrogated many of them on the
subject of the assertion that had been made respecting the
" closing of the hatches" at the time the circumstance took
place : they one and all bore testimony to Captain Richard-
son's attention and kindness to them, and the anxiety he ex-
pressed for their safety. They distinctly stated that no in-
structions were given to close the hatches by any one, on the
contrary some of the passengers were requested to 'come
upon deck and assist at the pumps. How the report origi-
or to the
nated that Captain Richardson
hatches, it is difficult to discover. gave
We have,ders however,close plea-

sure in setting the public and the friends of the passengers
right upon the subject, in denying the report which has given
Captain Richardson and the consignee of the vessel great
annoyance. Sixty-five of the pas 41'eprs from the Brooklyn
were despatched to New York yesterday, by the r.
Anderson, and the rernainin Dasstql:Lers

'lan
t by Mr

Roche's first vessel. The consignee has shown a good deal
of liberality on the occasion, having provided for the pas-
sengers, so that they should experience as little delay, in-
convenience, and loss as possible.