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Leader (1850-1860), 30th August 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16

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      Notes For An Italian. We Commend To The ...

      the Orleans family . The case may be referred to the ZTnione and other liberal journals .

      832 The Leader. [No. 336, Saturday,

      832 THE LEADER . [ No . 336 , Saturday ,

      Yachting. Otfb Old Shipmate The Examiner...

      YACHTING . OtfB old shipmate the Examiner , who , all professional jealousy apart , is as good company ( in smooth water ) as one could desire , fas given some very sensible advice to yachtsmen , and particularly to racing yachtsmen . There is not one , we are persuaded , of our friends afloat who will not have listened to the counsels of our genial contemporary with all respect . His experience as an able theoretical seaman is of old date . He has a proper seamanlike objection to piny with bad weather ; he is most solicitous that our pleasure-navy should not be prejudiced in the public mind by recklessness , while he is careful to express his sympathy for " the

      most manly and useful of national sports . This is well and truly said , and heartily do ¦\ ve concur in the spirit of the commendation . If , as Captain Mabbyat asserted , the honour and safety of our country are concerned in every Englishman being more or less a sailor , how shall we exaggerate the importance of that essentially national propensity which maintains a fleet of hundreds of the finest craft , and supplies a nursery for thousands of the smartest seamen in the

      world ? If the 'Turf could be redeemed from the low vices which disgrace its spirit and degrade its life , who , out of the conventicle of fanatics to whom dancing is a deadly sin , and every form of wordly amusement anoutrage , an abomination , —who would gainsay the advantage of a sport , to which we owe our pre-eminence in horses , as in ships ? It is characteristic of ± he healthfulness of

      yachting that it remains untainted by the low X > ractices and evil associations of the racecourse . And it is one of the most encouraging aspects of an aristocracy such as ours that it should brace its energies in contests of skill and hardihood by field and flood . Such a squadron of yachts as might have been seen a few weeks ago at the anchorage in Cowes Roads is , we say , a spectacle scarcely less grand than the array at Spithead last

      April . The one was unequalled , the other is absolutely unparalleled . But we were going to assure our contemporary , that in the word or two we are about to venture upon his aquatic comments of last week , we write less in a spirit of criticism than of collaboration . Entirely agreeing iu the general purport , differing on one or two points only , we think something reinams to be added , and some exception to be taken to them .

      Our contemporary takes his text on the ' present vice of yachting '—" carrying on " —from an incident in tho match between the Arrow and tho Musquito cutters on last Monday week , the first day of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club Regatta . The course was in all some fifty miles ; it was blowing about half a gale of wind from the N . N . E . Five yachts wero entered , but only two sailed .

      In rounding tho Nab Light Ship , tho Arrow carried away her inaBt clean by tho board , and she -would have been in serious jeopard 3 ' if tho Musquito ( a much smaller vessel , of about half her rival ' s tonnage ) had not taken lier in tow ; no very pleasant office on the sea that w « a running . Now there are a few mistakes here . It

      was not in rounding tho Nub Light Ship that the Arrow * a mast went by the board , and it is important to note this , as our contemporary directly infers . that " The Arrow tried to beat her competitor by n , press of sail qreater titan she could bear in the act of wearing . " The truth is , that the Arrow had rounded the Nab about four minuteB ahead of tho Muaquito , had wore round tho light ship , had jibed , without any dumago at all : and it was

      in running back , with one reef in her mainsail , that her mast suddenly snapped short , from a very simple and sufficient cause , the tveatJier chain-plates having given way . Such , at least , is the official version by no less an authority than JBelVs Life . Carrying away a mast is undoubtedly one of the ugliest of casualties , but we do not see why yachts should be exempt from these mishaps : still less can we understand how

      yachting should be prejudiced by them any more than the noble science of fox-hunting can be prejudiced by half the field sustaining a ' cropper , ' or horse-racing by an occasional concussion of the brain . Nor can we fully realize the very ' serious jeopardy' of a yacht dismasted in a sailing match within the "Wight , other yachts attending . In the present instance , reports our undeniable friend Bell ' s Life , —

      The Musquito took the Arrow in tow with a long scope , and was running away with her as a cat would a mouse : although the Arrow was double the tonnage of the Mosquito , yet the latter appeared to labour under no difficulty whatever . This is easily explained . The Musquito is called 50 tons , and the old Arrow , originally 84 , now , after lengthening , 102 ; but the Musquito is a cutter of immense length for her tonnage , little short , we should almost say , of the keel of the Arrow . According to the present systems of measurement , nothing is more deceptive than to judge of the power of a racing yacht by her ' tonnage . '

      A question was raised ( continues the Examiner ) whether the match was won , or whether there should be another race to decide the matter ; and we are surprised to see that the Commodore of the Club had such doubts upon the point that he declined settling it upon his own responsibility . It seems to us a clear case that the Musquito was the winner . We beg to dissent in some degree from this doctrine : we think the question was raised not unfairly , and the doubts of the Commodore not unreasonable , although we fully concur in the decision of the committee that bestowed the prize on the gallant and

      chivalrous Musquito . The Arrow was clearly winning when her weather chain-plates gave way and carried away her mast , and the contest being one of superiority in sailing , it was fairly a question whether the winner , by an accident only , should be declared to win absolutely . The analogy of a jockey throwing his horse down is inappropriate , since it does not appear that the Arrow carried her mast out of her by sheer ' carrying on' ( she had a reef down ) or by carelessness in jibing . Very probably , however , the stick was already sprung , or the chain-plates started .

      And this leads us to a general proposition of our contemporary which deserves to be impressed upon all yachtsmen : — Carrying on is tho present vice of yachting . Vessels are overmasted , oversparrcd , overdone in every way , and in a breeze are driven through the water on their aides , upon which they certainly wero never built to sail . The thing is not scamanliko , and the consequence is that the yachts of tho racing class are only fit to nail about inside of tho Isle of Wight , and can hardly show their noses outside in n breeze without being in distress or meeting with somo misfortune .

      There is some exaggeration in this : a yacht in distress is a tolerably rare occurrence , and the yachts that have been lost in tho last twenty or thirty years may bo counted on your fingers ; auch craft are for tho most part for too well built , rigged , and handled not to make good weather of it when they do get caught at soa in a breeze . Still

      carrying on is the prosent vice of yachting , and it arises partly from tho ignorant notion that tho greater tho displacement of water tho greater tho speed , instead of tho roverso ; and partly from tho unwholesome practice oi stripping racing vessels , and shifting ballast . Tho result is that tho racing craft are a distinct class of vcmiols from sea-going yachts . Would it not bo an improvement to make

      sailing matches at once a test of speed and of sea-going qualities by making the yachts sail in sea-going trim , with boats , anchors spare spars and sails , water , eoals ^ and stores onboard ? The last sentence of our contemporary ' s article we confess ourselves a little at a loss to appreciate : — " And this brings us to the question whether thesa matches should be sailed in bad weather , especially with craft as overdone as racing yachts now are . To us , we confess , it seenis unseamanlike to play with bad weather and when vessels would not go out for business none should go out for mere sport .

      In the annals of regattas , we fear it will be found that a very large proportion of the matches have been drifting matches , when vessels would certainly not have gone out ' for business . ' Bad weather matches have been the exceptions : but it is one thing to go to sea in bad weather , and quite another to sail a match within the "Wi ght . The finest matches ever sailed have been sailed in strong

      weather , and it is not by light winds and smooth water that the ' vice of carrying on ' will be cured . Surely our contemporary has not forgotten the match for a thousand guineas between the Corsair and the Talisman cutters from Cowes round the Eddystone and back . They started in half a gale of wind , rounded the [ Lighthouse in something like a whole gale , and the match was only won by four minutes . The Corsair knew how to show

      her nose outside in a breeze without being in distress ; and since then she has found her way to Australia . We make no apology to our readers for drawing their attention in this holiday time to the noblest of our national sports , in which everyone who studies the sources of our maritime strength should feel an interest . We are glad to be encouraged by the high authority and example of our contemporary , and we shall be glad to sail in company with , him at all timesyever ready to take him in tow it he should take to ' playing with bad weather , ' or to ' carrying on . '

      Chartist Meeting On Heyheajd-Green, Todm...

      Chartist Meeting on Heyheajd-green , Todmorden . —A large meeting was held on Sunday afternoon , on Hey head-green , above Todmorden , for the purpose of congratulating Mr . John Frost on his arrival home , and of presenting an address to him . About one hundred and fifty yards from the road which skirts the common , a cart was placed for the speakers , and the number of people who assembled round it was variously estimated at from 15 , 000 to 25 , 000 . Mr . Joseph Alderson was called to tho chair , and opened the meeting by giving out a hymn , commencing " Clrcat God , is this the patriot ' s doom !" A Mr . Snowdon , of Halifax , then presented to Mr . Frost , in the name of 25 , 000 of the people of Lancashire anil Yorkshire , an address of congratulation . Mr . Frost , in

      returning thanks , asserted that ho was still devoted to the obtaining of radical reform in the House of Commons . Ho observed that tho address stated that ho was partially acquainted with the state of public feeling i " England in 1818 , but that it was not tho fears nor hostility of tho middle classes that destroyed their movement at that time , but , as in 1839 , the unseemly differences and angry squabbles of those who should have been unanimous and devoted to tho people they professed , to load , which broke thorn up and retarded the triumph of the Chartist cause . A motion in favour of tho Charter was proposed by Mr . Hoostan , of Manchester , seconded by Mr . Krnest . Tones , and carriod . The ^ proceeding * closed with a collection , which amounted to 11 . 10 s .

      " Town CJiiano . "— Mr . II . G . AVhitlield , Resident Medical Officer of St . Thomas ' s Hospital , writes thus in tho Times : — "Tho dust of our streets and tho exhalations from tho sewors , not forgetting tho dustbins , every day insidiously spreading disease and death aroiiiu us , and wowing the seeds of premature decay in tho rising generation , whilo tho loss of tho mnnuro to tho land is incatyplublo . Tlio fertilizing qualities of tho street sweepings and the night soil , when converted into guano , arc truly surprising both at Antwerp and Paris , and i » rc , commercially , n very lucrative speculation . 1 » * arlH lust year , I wutohed tho growth of grass seed sown upon earth prepared with tho town guano' fc > r a lawn nt tiu . Duchess D'Alba ' s j on tho eighth day it was mown i At Milan , whoro tho ayntom Iiub boon extensively adopted , and tho town produce for yoars hns boon converted to u legitimate use , tho land yields eight crops of gr «» a " year ! "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30081856/page/16/