POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY.
The melancholy intelligence reached town yesterday, that the Europa transport, a splendid sailing-ship, having on board a detachment of the Sixth Dragoons, bad been totally destroyed by fire at sea, in latitude 48° l' longitude 7° 30'—just opposite Brest, ninety miles distant. Last night a mass of despatches were published in the Gazette. The 'calamity was made the subject of a question in the House of Commons, by Lord Jocz- LVN ; and Sir JextEs GRAHAM gave an account of the disaster, embodying the more important facts.
"I grieve to say, that this morning I received a report from Captain Car- negie, of the Tribune, which confirms the melancholy information that the Europa has been burnt on her passage to Gibraltar. His statement in re- ference to the subject has been sent by the Admiralty to the press, so as to be communicated to the public in full detail this evening. The short statement of the facts is this. On the morning, I think, of the 1st of June, Captain Carnegie observed in the offing a smoke, which, upon further investigation, led him to believe that there was a ship on fire. He bore down immediately towards
the wreck, and found the vessel deserted and burnt to the water's-edge, and not a living person on board. Having endeavoured, by sailing round the wreck, to see if any boats could be discovered, and finding none, he came to the conclusion that the crew bad escaped, and had been taken on board some other vessel. It was with great anxiety that he left the wreck ; and in two days from that time he was boarded by another ship, which communi- cated to him the fact that, on the night preceding the morning when he had seen the fire, they had been in the immediate neighbourhood of the Eu- ropa, and that a portion of the crew had effected their escape from the burn- ing wreck to their ship, and that a portion had succeeded in reaching another ship in the offing. They also communicated the fact, that, upon the whole, out of eighty-seven—the number of persons on board, fifty of whom were soldiers and thirty-four sailors, the officers and crew of the vessel —twenty-one, unhappily, had lost their lives. The House will be grieved to hear, that among the officers who have not survived is Colonel Moore, the commanding-officer of the Enniskillens; who, in the most heroic manner, refused to leave while any one private remained on board the burning vessel. Be, unhappily, remained too late, and he lost his life. He and the veteri- nary surgeon are the only officers lost, along with six non-commissioned officers and twelve or fourteen privates. The circumstances which gave rise to the fire are still doubtful ; but an investigation respecting its cause will take place at Gibraltar. I am sorry to say—and I should be guilty of a neglect of my duty if I did not state it—that there are circumstances with respect to the conduct of the sailors on that occasion which are highly un- satisfactory. The whole of the officers of the transport and all the sailors left immediately after the commencement of the fire. I ought to make an ex- ception in favour of the master of the transport, who remained until the very last, along with the carpenter and one bailor. With this exception, I am sorry to say that the conduct of the sailors does not appear to have been satisfactory : but a strict investigation on this subject, and with respect to the cause of the fire, will be instituted at Gibraltar. This is the substance of the information which I believe will be published this evening."
In reply to Mr. OTWAY, Sir JAMES further stated, that large boats of the kind recommended by Sir Baldwin Walker, the Surveyor of the Navy, were on board the Aurora ; and that the magazine had been re- constructed at Plymouth, and safety-lamps supplied.
The chief business before the House of Commons was the Oxford Uni- versity Bill, again in Committee. Very little alteration was made in the remaining clauses. On the question being put that the new clauses be added to the bill, Mr. Hour/DELL Pandra moved a new clause, to be in- serted after clause 32, enacting that two months' notice shall be given, by the Commissioners to the Governing Body of any school or place of edu- cation whose privileges or right of preference in election to any emolu- ment either the Commissioners or any College should propose to abolish by ordinance or regulation, and also notice to the Charitable Trusts Com- missioners; and that no such ordinance or regulation should be made if within two months two-thirds of the Governing Body or the Charitable Trusts Commissioners should declare their opinion that it would be pre- judicial to the school or place of education in question. This clause Mr. Palmer supported by a speech on the great usefulness of public schools, and the injustice that would be done to them by taking away emoluments which gave them so much encouragement. Mr. Gransrorrn described the clause as impracticable ; and contended that the schools are suffi- ciently j.rotected by the right of being heard on petition before the Privy Council. Sir WILLIAM HEATHCOTE, Mr. R. PRILLIMORE, Mr. WAL- Pons, Sir TROmAS ACLAND, and other Members, supported the clause. Lord JORN Russzia. described it as a clause that would preserve all the privileges of the inferior, the bad, and the decayed schools. On a divi- sion, the clause was carried, against the Government, by 160 to 108. The Chairman was ordered to report progress, and the House resumed.
In the House of Lords, the Earl of ELLENBOROUGII, moving for returns of the Miscellaneous Estimates from 1838 to 1853, sharply commented on the enormous increase in the various items,—especially objecting to the expenditure for education, which does not improve the people, and for the promotion of science and practical art, and he insisted on the neces- sity for economy now that we are engaged in a great war. Although unprepared for such an attack, the Duke of NEwessrim, and after him the Duke of ARGYLL, ably defended the votes for educational purposes; and Lord Ititouomax showed the fallacy of concluding from criminal sta- tistics that education has worsened the people. The motion for returns was not opposed.
Previous page
