The Tamworth Examiner and Working Men's Journal. — 1875-07-31 (Tamworth, Staffordshire, England)

APOLOGY FOR MR. PLIMSOLL,  THE O'CONNELL CENTENARY. .The Dail y Nett. says :—" It ought to be .remembered  that the spokesmen of the fish national party, whether orators or singers, have at all times themselves insisted that the cause of Ireland was the cause of Protestant and Catholic alike. It is, indeed, not probable that they would teach any other doctrine, and thereby deny to the national cause the honour and the influence of some of the brilliant 11U111. which Protestantism lent to it  Mr. Edward Baines, ex-M.P. for Leeds, sends to the Leech Mercury the following letter, received from Mr. Plimsoll some time ago, as a means of showing the engrossing and exciting characteristics of the work that is being carried out by the hon. member for Derby : " 35, Victoria street, S.W., March 13, 1875. "Dear Mr. Baines.—l am in receipt of your kind letter, but I really can't—every day brings one so many, many letters about ships and seamen, that with all the help I can get, my life is almost a burden to me. "Only last night, for instance, I reached home from the House soon after midnight, and when I went to bed, there was a telegram came from a seaman, saying, • For God's sake do your utmost immediately, they are sending us to sea with only three inches of side below the main deck.' I dressed myself and drove to Whitehall, and rang up the porter. He gave me the private address of the Marine Secretary, four miles off. I drove there, but could not find the house, so knocked up first one sleeping household, then another, then a third, for which I got anything but a kind reception • then tried the nearest inn, but could not rouse them ; then returncd to Whitehall and rang up the porter again, and took him with me and found the house—this brought us to near four o'clock am.—rang up the secretary, and got authority to stop the ship. "He then opened a telegram which had reached Whitehall before my second visit, and exclaimed, Why here's another.' Then he opened two others which the porter had brought with him, and they, too, were both of them caries of gross overloading. So he wrote telegrams to stop all four; and having overcome his natural disgust at being roused out of bed, he told me, in reply to my expressions of regret at being obliged to get him up, that a case had just occurred where the owners of a ship, loaded with maize in bulk, had discharged the captain for insisting upon shifting boards to keep the cargo from shifting, and engaged another, and forced the vessel to sea; that the discharged captain's warning had been vindicated by the vessel turning over and drowning the crew—seven men. "These things are happening every night, and nobody cares, nobody takes it to heart: and brave and hardy men are going to almost certain death every night, while we all lie soft and warm.  "What can I du? Can you speak a word for me to Mr. ; you know him; he might possibly be induced to help me. "It was piercingly cold coming home, for I had forgotten my overcoat, but we had the telegrams which would save four crews from almost certain death, and that made up for all. It was after five o'clock this morning before I got home and to bed, well satisfied with the  "Can you help me with Mr. ? I have thought much lately how greatly a man of his powerful influence could assist in putting a stop to this wholesale murder. _ . .  .. "I am, my dear sir, yours very truly, " SAMUEL Primsor.r..  MR.