178 
STORM WARNINGS, 
Mr. Baxendell, in reply to a question from Mr. 
Brothers, F.R.A.S., Instated that General Sabine had not 
yet offered any reply to the letter he had addressed to 
him on the 26th March commenting upon the proceedings 
of the President and Council of the Boyal Society in 
reference to the Meteorological Department of the Board 
of Trade and the suspension of storm warnings. It was 
evident that these proceedings would not bear examina- 
tion and discussion, and as a consequence, no confidence 
could now be placed in the so-called “ Scientific Committee/’ 
which had been appointed by the President and Council, to 
superintend the Meteorological Department. This com- 
mittee had shown itself to be utterly regardless of public 
opinion and feeling, and quite unfitted to carry out 
efficiently the duties which had been so ably and so 
usefully discharged by the late Admiral Fitzroy and his 
assistant Mr. Babington; and in the interests of science, 
commerce, and humanity it was to be hoped that the Board 
of Trade would again take the management of the Meteoro- 
logical Department into their own hands, and appoint Mr. 
Babington, or some other competent and responsible person, 
to resume and carry on the system of storm warnings. 
As an illustration of the lamentable consequences of the 
suspension of storm signals it might be stated that among 
the wrecks caused by the unusually heavy gale of the 10th 
of April there were four vessels which had sailed from Liver- 
pool just before the commencement of the storm. Three of 
these vessels had been thrown on the Lancashire coast and 
totally lost, and the lives of three of the crew of one vessel 
had been sacrificed. The fourth vessel had foundered in 
the Irish Sea and all hands were lost. Now the meteorolo- 
gical phenomena immediately preceding the occurrence of 
this storm were of such a nature that there could have 
been no difficulty in giving notice of its approach in ample 
