'The loss of the "Royal Charter" is an awful illustration of that solemn text, the vanity of all human expectations. It preaches the humiliating lesson which divines and moralists are ever urging with an impressiveness which must make its way to the dullest and most callous mind. When the poet or preacher of old drew his illustration of mundane instability from the perils of the sea, and bade men look how "a dark night and an ill guide, a boisterous sea, and a broken cable, a hard rock and a rough wind, dashed in pieces the fortune of a whole family," his imagination fell far short of the fearful fact we now deplore. A noble vessel, which had sailed round the world in safety, has been totally destroyed within a few miles of its port; and nearly four hundred human beings, whose eyes had already been gladdened by a glimpse of their native land, have found a fearful death on the morning of that day whose evening should have made that land again their home.... 'We hardly know whether to note with satisfaction or sorrow that, so far as can be gathered at present, this melancholy catastrophe was not the result of negligence and overconfidence on the part of any one. Whilst it is most gratifying to think that no prudence could have averted the disaster, and that no blame attaches to the memory of a man who perished as Captain Taylor did, at his post, it is lamentable to reflect that no application of human ingenuity is able to withstand the elemental rage. Here was a large stout ship, one of the kind and size which assumed to enjoy an immunity from the power of the tempest--left to work its will on small craft and old crazy tubs--well manned, well commanded, nothing neglected that art or experience could suggest, offering as useless a resistance to the storm as the worn-out hulls in which greedy owners were wont to convey poor Irish emigrants. A blunder on the part of some one would have allowed us to cherish the idea that security is possible, and may be guaranteed, to stout material and good seamanship; but the new ship, the "Royal Charter," completely destroyed within sight of port, with the loss of 400 lives, although it may read a useful lesson of humility, and warn men against too great an assumption of victory over natural forces, is a terrible blow to that confidence which the past immunity of ocean steam navigation had fostered.' Thus--judicially--the _Morning Post_:--