If, in the present day, a distinguished British Admiral, returning at the head of his fleet from foreign service, were to be ship-wrecked on English shores with the total loss of several of his ships and upwards of two thousand of his crews, the whole kingdom would be horror-struck at the accounts of the catastrophe with which the daily papers would be filled the next morning; scores of special correspondents would hunt up and report every detail, and in twenty-four hours the dreadful news would be telegraphed to every part of the civilised world.