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Leader (1850-1860), 10th September 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1026, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      1026 THE LEADER . [ No . 494 . Sept . 10 * 1859

      Untitled Article

      THE GREAT EASTERN . This magnificent production' of' the science and mechanical skill of the nineteenth century no longer remains one of the exhibitions of the metropolis . She has made her first voyage to Purflcet and thence to the Nore , in perfect * safety , and in speed and equability of motion has fully answered the expectations of her constructors . On Tuesday night Mr . Atkinson , the pilot , to whose well-known ( . -are and skill this noble vessel was entrusted , came on board soon after dawn on Wednesday , and the preparations for getting under weigh were made . Several powerful tugs were in attendance , and mooring after mooring was then slipped off . Captain ILirrison and the pilot took their places on the starboard paddle

      box . Mr . Scott Russell remained on the bridge to direct the action of the engines , both of . which ( screw and paddle ) were under steam . Captain Comstock , one of the ablest American navigators , ¦ who brought the General-Admiral over to this country , stood aft to transmit directions to the men at the wheel , as Mr . Larigley ' s new steering apparatus was not completely fitted . Mr . Prouse , the chief officer , took charge of the fore part of the ship , and to all the other . ' ' officers were allotted stations , either to transmit directions or signals to the tugs . Precisely at a quarter past seven the last moorings were let go , but as at this time the sweep of the tide had turned the great ship bows in , so as to point rather in shore of the Seamen ' s Hospital

      ship , it was necessary to turn her slowly astern to get sufficient room to round the very sharp curve of the river below Greenwich . The screw engines started first , working beautifully , without noise , heat , or even apparent vibration , and when the paddle machinery came into play , a few revolutions sufficed to get her head round to the point required . Then was the order . given to go ahead slowly , and for the first time the Great Eastern started into motion , and with the slow majestic beat of her huge paddles moved grandly down the river . The very fl rst turn at Greenwich showed Captain Harrison and all the officers of the vessel that the great ship was as thoroughly under command as a river steamboat .

      At Woolwich there was of course a tremendous concourse of spectators . Every spot which could , aud doubtless many which could not , command a view : of the ship , were , thronged . The Dockyard , the Arsenal , every place was covered . The Fisgard had her men in the shrouds , who welcomed the safe arrival of the vessel with a regular " three times three , " which was echoed back from both sides of the river by an almost countless multitude . It is very probable that another such ship may pass down the Thames , but it seems not possible that the same amount of interest can be manifested in any other vessel again , no matter what her size .

      Once past Woolwich , all the difficulties were over . The tugs continued their assistance , but the vessel was so perfectly under control that while the tide was against her their assistance might have been easily dispensed with , It was determined to anchor off Purfleet till Thursday morning . A single one of Trotman ' s anchors was let go at the bows , and the course of the ship , which it was said no anchors could ever hold , was at ; once checked ; and the Great Eastern actually began to swing round in the Thames as much under qommnnd as a cutter . For the single instant during which she swung and remained broadside to the stream she seemed literally to bridge across the river . There was room enough for her to swing , but not a foot to

      spare . The vessel oame round to . the full force of the tide , and her chain cable taughtened up out of the water for a moment like an iron bar , but the single anchor never yielded ah inch from the spot ¦ where it was first dropped . She ngajn started from her moorings at a quarter past eight on Thursday morning 1 , closely attended by her four tiny satellites , and soon commenced encouraging them in their praiseworthy attempts to get her along by sundry slow and measured revolutions of hor huge screw and enormous paddlewheels . Tho acclamations . of tho people with which the shores wero lined—those shores which under ordinary circumstances have all the appearance of

      an uninhabited island—were tremendous , and it was in a moment seen that tho tromondous floating castle was as much in tho hands of tho pilot as if she had beoh only a outtor . Tho noble vessel now seemed to be instinct with life . Sho had cast off her littlo encumbrances , and was gradually putting forth her own powora in cleaving tho water . Tho screw now worked thirty revolutions a minute , and tho paddle * nine aud a half , tho force usod being about two-thirds of her maximum power . Under those circumstances sho gave thirteen and a-half knots , so that , talcing into consideration hov insufficient immersion , and thocona 6 quont lmnorfoct working of tho paddle and screw , hor maximum speed may bo calculated at ninotoon Knots or twonty-throe measured rollos an hour ,

      being double the average of any of the subsidised steamers . The working of the machinery was perfect , and entirely to the satisfaction of Mr . Scdtt Russell , and so still was the ship on deck while going at this speed , that a pail of water that stood on one of the paddle-boxes did not show the slightest symptoms of vibration . The Great Eastern arrived at the Nore at a quarter past 12 , and it was arranged that it should leave at 7 o ' clock yesterday , and steam away easily to sea . It is probable , if the weather permits , that she ma 3 ' swing at the Foreland to adjust compasses , but Mr . Gray has already effected so much towards rectifying their slight deviation that it is scarcely necessary for the run round to Portland . As matters are arranged at present , it is expected that the Great Eastern will enter Portland harbour between 7 and 8 o ' clock this morning .

      Untitled Article

      LAW , POLICE , AND CASUALTIES . Mr . Nicol , of Lombard-street , has been re-examined at the Mansion House on a charge of having eonverted to his own use a bill of lading which had been entrusted to him . The defendant indignantly repudiated the charge of fraudulent design , and stated that he had acted under the advice of his solicitor in retaining the document . It was determined , however , that the case should be sent for trial , and defendant ' s own recognisance in 1 , 0 . 007 , was accepted . The man Royal , who stands committed on the coroner ' s verdict , for the murder of his wife by poison , has been examined at the Thames Police court , before Mr . Selfe , and remanded till this day .

      Alfred Stringer , a middle-aged man , was this week charged before the Liverpool magistrates with robbing his employers of large quantities of valuable lace . Information had been given by the pawnbroker with whom the prisoner had pledged the lace . The prisoner said he had been tempted to take the goods in order to pay debts which he had incurred when out of a situation , and that he intended ultimately to redeem the articles . He was committed for trial . A man of the name of Normington has been apprehended on suspicion of being the perpetrator of the murder at Leeds . Very suspicious circumstances have already appeared against , him .

      On Tuesday , shortly , after the men had entered the dockyard at . Chatham for their daily work , a labourer , named Johnson , was detected by a warder in giving tobacco to William Lemon Oliver , formerly a stockbroker in the city of London , but tried and sentenced to 20 years' penal servitude for forgery and misappropriation of certain shares . Johnson was taken before the magistrates at Rochester , and fined 3 / ., and in default one month ' s imprisonment ; in addition to which he loses his situation in the dockyard , which he has held for several years . A number of prisoners have been tried at the Middlesex Sessions , and found guilty of various offences . The most remarkable case was that of

      Elizabeth Newman , who pleaded guilty to stealing a fowl , the property of Thomas Gunston . When asked what she had to ^ ay in her defence she replied , " that as long as she had a hand to use she did not mean to want in a country where there was plenty . " She had often been convicted of robberies of poultry before . The Assistant Judge facetjously observed that it was evident she had a predilection for poultry , which she would hot be able to indulge in for some time , as he must sentence her to twelve months' hard labour .

      At tho Middlesex sessions , Henry Jones , Thomas Gallagher , and Samuel Harmer were convicted of stealing in tho dwelling-house of Charles Walker , a cashr-box , containing , £ 25 , his property . Tho prisoners were each sentenced to three years' penal servitude After tho sentence was pronounced , Jones declared his innocence of tho crime laid to his charge , and said ho was in Birmingham at the time of its commission . Both tho other prisoners corroborated tho statomont of Jones . When tho trial was- over an offlcor said Jones was wanted on two charges at Birmingham , and ho would have been taken on those charges had ho boon now acquitted . On Sunday the counting-house at Messrs . It . and W . Johnson , at Bradford , near Manchester , was broken into by * thieves , who pulled down an iron safe and blow open the door Avith gunpowder . They only succeeded in finding £ 4 or £ 5 , which they took away . Messrs . Johnson employ a watchman , but the thioves eluded his vigilance .

      It was rumoured this week that the metropolitan pollco had received information of tho arrival in London of an official of tho Spanish Government , with cash plundered from tho treasury of Spain amounting to 30 , 000 /; It is stated that tho fugitive oame to Southampton in tho Peninsular Company ' s stoamor , having tho troasuro with him In several boxes , and took tho train for tho metropolis , A somewhat extonslve seizure of counterfeit coin has . boon made atf tho White Ilorso public-house

      Baldwins-gardens . The landlady of the house Mrs . Jane Hatton , was charged with the possession of the spuripus money , before Mr . Tyrwhitt , at Clerkenwell Police-court , and after some evidence had been taken was remanded till" Wednesday next . Bail was accepted to the amount of 400 / . At the Southwark Police-court an example has been made of a labourer named Collins , , who was convicted of a cowardly and unprovoked assault on a non-society man , employed in Tooley-street . The assault was committed solely on the ground that the man assailed had not joined the strike . Collins was sentenced to pay a fine of three pounds , or two months' imprisonment with hard labour , and then to find sureties for three months .

      Last Saturday Mr . Mark Lemon , at Guildhall Police-court , produced two letters which ' had been left at the Punch office , in one of which the writer had enclosed a Crimean medal and 30 s . to be placed to the account of Punch , as a journal ho much admired . He had determined to end his life . This led to a visit from the police to the address in the letters , where , in an upper room , the constable found a man in bed in a very exhausted state , and on the floor a recently discharged pistol . He had wounded himself severely , and lies at Guy ' s Hospital in a precarious state . . An inquest has been hold before the coroner for Dorset , at Weymouth , on the body of Thomas Fletcher , seaman , who was killed by a cannon-bail fired from , her Majesty ' s ship Blenheim , during gunnery practice . The jury found a verdict of " Excusable homicide , " but expressed a strong sense of the carelessness of the officers of . the ship .

      A fire in the metropolis on Wednesday morning ended most disastrously , as three individuals lost their lives . The fire was in the Waterloo-road , and was of an ordinary description , but the firemen did not reach the spot sufficiently soon to save those-who were lost , not , as we may "well imagine , from any want of alacrity on then * part , but because they had not received timely notice of the fire . It must have been a melancholy sight to see two of the deceased individuals endeavouring to make their escape by climbing the slate roof of the house that was in flames . No fire-escape arrived until too late : There are some suspicious circumstances connected with the fire . . ¦

      According to a private letter , received at Liverpool from Bombay , no less that forty-six vessels were lost in the cyclone in the river Hooghly on the 26 th of July , The Peninsular and Oriental Company ' s steamer Northam , on the 20 th ult ., ran upon a reef in the Red Sea . She was very much knocked about , and at one time it was thought she must , go to pieces ; the mails and passengers were therefore landed on the island of Meyer . Afterwards , assistance having arrived , she was got clear off at three a . m . on the 25 th of August , and arrived at Suez on the 28 th , with all the mails and passengers ; damage not so serious as reported . She started for' Bombay on the 31 st ult .

      Untitled Article

      THE CASE OF DR . SMETI 1 UKST . TO THE ED 1 TOU OV " TltK Ui . VI > Kll . " Sm , —Without discussing the evidence of Dr . Taylor in tho late trial of Dr . Smethurst , in thu slightest degree , or expressing any opinion rohttivo to if , it appears to mo that the evidence stood in need ot being corroborated . We ^ see , from what tho chemists ihcms . clvos tell us , that for the purpose of analysis , quantities of extraordinary minuteness will suffice With this fact before me I havo to ^ cmnvk thnt in

      no future case of a like nature to that which Ims recently agitated tho public mind , flhoulil tho whole of any suspected substance bo handed over to one man , however eminent he may be . Ami I In 3 l 01 ' three reasons : — 1 . An aecidont in Uiu process of Uio analysis might opcur . 2 . Illness might ovevlnko tho analyst . 3 , Tho scientific gentleman who has been selected might , from a long courrn . <>! ' i > raftlco in this particular branch of knowledge , mviuire hiimts of . ovor-confldonco in his own methods of manipulation , and undue regard for his own theories . Thousandths of a crrain would scorn to bo quan it es

      sufficiently appreciable to chemical nnnlysls . \> Jiy should not any suspected substance bo dividou nno portions sufficient to onabla many mou of sclonco o oporato upon it , instead of submitting the whojoio one , thus driving tho othors to experiment upon dogs and rabbits , and so acquire ovldcnci ' , depending upon analogy , and but too often of n nniuro very much opposed to i , hat given by tho selected experimentalist . . , lc Chomistry is an exact scienco -, and I nny , fl » '""; any matter suspocted Of containing poison , P | "*> out men belonging to different schools of lutuimui »¦ tlon ( for such would appear to bo the fact lr ° M' ™ medical evidence given at tho Into tria l" ) , and howem much tlioy might dlilbr In their inodu of nun >» ?' thoy miiBt , in obedience to tho laws of tho scion"

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1859, page 1026, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2311/page/6/