THE ABERRATIQY PERIOD OP MIDDLE LIFE. [TO TEX EDITOR or
ran " spat-weal Si,—The interesting letter from Dr. Dabbs in the Spectator of July 7th would rather lead one to suppose that men working safely through the period described are few, and the accidents arising therefrom numerous, whereas the Slough accident appeared to eü readers as so singular that it called forth every kind of hypothesis to account for it During a long life, in which I have 'wen and heard most things notable in Pall Mall, I can only remember one case as inexplicable SA the Slough disaster, and that was the running ashore of the 'Great Eastern,' with all the thirty-six danseuses Viennoiees on board, in Dundrum Bay. It I remember right, the Captain made the mistake of thinking be saw the Isle of Man lights, which he had to pass on the left ei,de, when he had actually seen them and passed them some time previously. I 'write from memory, of what occurred nearly fifty years ago. The late Lord de Roe who was residing in the neighbourhood, described the whole thing to me, and he declared that there was no other way of accounting for this mistake but a temporary aberration. Of course it ip common enough to lose ships through drunken captains, or . officers drunk in the watch, but if my story is not an aberra- tion of my own, the mistake in the 'Great Eastern' was far more unaccountable than the Slough disaster. I think Dr. Daibs has generalised too absolutely, seeing how very few accidents for which only the period in question could be assigned as the cause have ever occurred. Napoleon at Borodino might be considered as one, but in his case he was suffering from a feverish cold, and was angry with his doctor for not having some quiek remedy to give am, Sir,
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