belonging to the Gartsherrie Iron Works by an equal recklessness. They refused to wait until report had been made that the works were safe, and entering a foul working, their lamps ignited the foul air, and they were killed.

9. GREAT ROBBERY AND PROMPT CAPTURE.-Between 11 and 12 o'clock on the night of the 9th November, watches and jewellery to the value of about 10007. were stolen from the shop of Mr. Cohen, watchmaker and jeweller, Highstreet, Sheffield, and a few hours later the robbers were cleverly apprehended and the whole of the booty recovered. Mr. Cohen has a house in the outskirts of the town, where his family reside. His custom is to sleep on the premises in High-street. About 11 o'clock ou Friday night he went home to supper, securing the back-door of the High-street premises with an ordinary lock. On his return, about an hour afterwards, he found that the lock had been picked, and a large quantity of watches and jewelry had been taken from the shop. The thieves had evidently conducted their operations with great haste, and on leaving had tried to set fire to the shop, and thus conceal the robbery. In this object, however, they had not succeeded. Information of the robbery was conveyed to the police, and detective officers, Airey aud Brayshaw, went into a populous part of the town and apprehended two workmen known to be notorious thieves.

On one of the men a key was found which fitted the lock of Mr. Cohen's back-door. From the direction in which the thieves were walking when they were apprehended, one of the detectives conjectured where the booty had been

concealed; they proceeded to the residence of the mother of one of the thieves, and with another key, also found about the prisoners, let themselves in, and after a minute search discovered thirty-four gold watches, forty-one silver watches, and about a hundred other articles in gold and silver.

11. DESTRUCTION OF THE KILDARE STREET CLUB HOUSE.-Three Lives Lost.-The famous Kildare Street Club-house, Dublin, has been totally destroyed by fire. The fire broke out about 4 o'clock in the morning, and although numerous engines were promptly in attendance, there being a great deficiency of water, the whole interior of the building, with the valuable furniture, pictures, and library of 15,000 volumes, fell a prey to the flames. The plate was conveyed away in safety, and the winecellar was beyond the reach of the conflagration. Three of the female servants perished in the flames. The clerk of the club saved himself and two females by heroic exertions in the sight of the excited crowd, who were unable to offer the slightest assistance.

AT

16. RAILWAY DISASTER ATHERSTONE. -The second great railway disaster of the season has occurred at Atherstone, on the London and North-Western line.

On the night between Thursday and Friday, the 15th and 16th instant, two trains were performing their respective journeys on the Trent Valley section of the London and North-Western Railway. One was a cattle-train, and a heavy train too. It had thirtyone carriages, of which twenty-six were trucks laden with cattle, three trucks carrying goods, and two carriages specially appropriated, one to the guards and the other to the

drovers in charge of the cattle. The goods trucks were placed next to the engine, then followed the cattle, then the drovers' carriage, and last of all the guards' van. This train had started from Holyrood the previous morning. The other train was that known as the "limited mail" train, also from Edinburgh, driven with far greater speed than the other, so that at some one point on the road it was necessary that the cattle-train should be "shunted" off the line in order to let the mail train pass it. At 1.25 on Friday morning the cattle train arrived at Tamworth and stopped there about ten minutes; so that it started again at 1.35. The mail-train was due at Tamworth at 1.56, and was allowed three minutes' stoppage, so that there would be about twentyfour minutes between the two trains at this point. From Tamworth the line runs by the successive stations of Polesworth, Atherstone, and Nuneaton, and at one of these it was evidently indispensable that the cattle-train should get out of the way. It attempted to do so at Atherstone, but was a moment too late. Part of the train had got on to another line, but the guards' van, the drovers' van, and one, or perhaps two, of the cattletrucks were still in the way, when the mail-train came up at full speed and caught them. The result is expressively given in the evidence of the driver who survived to tell the story. The engine," says he, "went over the guards' van, and a second-class carriage containing the drovers, and one cattle-truck." Of course, every one of these unfortunate drovers was killed; the fireman of the mail-engine was found, with one of the bullocks, dead and charred under the fur

nace of the locomotive; and the only wonder is, that the havoc under such frightful circumstances was not more extensive still.

The scene of the disaster presented a terrible spectacle. Four of the hind carriages of the cattletrain were shivered to pieces, and the fragments scattered over the line in every direction. The engine and tender of the mail-train were also completely smashed, and were thrown over into the ditch, the massive coupling chains being snapped asunder as though they were slight wires. The cattle in the trucks were scattered, killed, or maimed, over the line.

On searching the fragments of the carriages and breaks, the bodies of nine drovers, who accompanied the cattle, were found frightfully mutilated and crushed

some of them were already quite dead; others showed some signs of animation for a short space, and then they also expired; one only had sufficient life left to him to be taken to a neighbouring house, where he also died shortly. These nine men were all the passengers conveyed by this train, and were all in one carriage; they were all, probably, asleep, and were crushed to death in that state of insensibility.

The fireman of the engine of the mail train, the only servant of the company who lost his life, was at first supposed to have escaped; but, as he was not to be found, a further search was instituted, and the body was eventually got out from under the engine and tender, together with the carcass of a bullock, both bodies being nearly roasted by the fire of the engine, and dreadfully scalded by the hot water.

The officials and passengers of

the mail-train (with the exception of the unfortunate fireman) escaped with comparatively slight injuries. The engine-driver was thrown over with his engine, but was not much hurt. The Postoffice clerks at work in their van, were very much shaken, and the few passengers, among whom was the Duchess of Montrose, only received a shock, and were not at first aware that anything serious had occurred.

This fatal collision belongs. plainly to the class of preventible accidents. It arose simply from the inexcusable practice of cutting the time "too close." The cattle train was a "special train," and therefore had no place in the regular time-tables; nor was it limited in its particular progress to any particular times or stoppages; and in consequence there was no fixable moment when, or place where, the mail-train should overtake and pass it: though the engine-driver did know by the time-table at what time the mailtrain was due at any given spot. The cattle-train might have stopped either at Tamworth, or at Polesworth, or at Atherstone, or at Nuneaton, and allowed the mail-train to rush by; but if he pulled up at the first some twenty minutes would have been lost-if at the second, ten minutes-if at the third he could just do it. At Tamworth there was twenty-four minutes to spare; and this, as the cattle-train travelled at two-thirds of the speed of the mail-train, would be equal to an interval of thirty-six minutes. The stationmaster at Tamworth directed the driver of the cattle-train to go on to Nuneaton, a distance of thirteen miles he must therefore have calculated very closely, if he sup

posed that the train could arrive there before the mail. The driver obeyed orders and proceeded. It was a slippery night, and the train lost time. The driver could not "shunt" at Polesworth, because the siding is not of sufficient length for such a train-and had no appropriate signals-he therefore run on to Atherstone, at which place he arrived in twenty-five minutes, instead of twenty; thus losing five minutes. The driver, whose sole orders were "to make the best of his way," was now aware that the mail could not be far off, and he therefore resolved to shunt at Atherstone, where there was a sufficient siding. It was very true that the 'mail-train was not far off; it had left Tamworth one minute before its appointed time; the engine-driver and guard, who had learnt by their time-table that there was no regular train before them, and who were not told by the station-master at Tamworth of this special train, were making the best of their way; and before the operation of shunting had been completed, drove their train upon the rearmost of the cattle-train with the terrible results above recorded.

21. PRIVATE VISIT OF THE EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH.-The health and spirits of the Empress Eugènie had suffered so much from sorrow for the death of her sister, the Duchess of Alba, that some total relaxation from Court state and complete change of scene were recommended. Her Majesty, with the promptitude that distinguished her earlier days, decided on a visit, of the most unceremonious character, to England and Scotland. Her Majesty therefore crossed the Channel on the 21st in the ordinary packet-boat, at

tended by the Marquess of La Grange and two ladies in wait ing; and took first-class tickets for London. Arrived at London Bridge, the party engaged the ordinary street cabs, and drove to Claridge's hotel, where they were fortunate enough to find apartments disengaged. So privately had the whole journey been managed, that Her Majesty had been some time at the hotel before her rank was known. The Empress, on the following day, paid a visit to the Crystal Palace, and then went by railway to Edinburgh. It was found impossible to preserve altogether the strict privacy designed; for the Scotch claim the Empress as a countrywoman, a Kilpatrick; and the people assembled at all points of the journey to welcome her arrival with acclamations: and at Edinburgh and Glasgow the Lord ProVosts were permitted to offer addresses of congratulation. After a rapid tour from Edinburgh to Dunkeld, Taymouth Castle, Stirling and Glasgow, Hamilton Pa lace, and the far-famed scenery of Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond, the Empress returned to London by way of Manchester and Lea mington. On the 4th December, the Empress was received by Her Majesty at Windsor Castle, and returned to London the same day. Her Majesty returned to Paris on the 13th, in greatly-improved health.

22. FIRE AT THE HOUSE OF CORRECTION, CLERKENWEIL.-A fire broke out in the Clerkenwell Prison, which was attended by a very singular consequence. The building destroved contained, a mong others, the room in which the dresses of the prisoners are deposited, when they are stripped

and clothed with the prison dress; and in which they are required to re-clothe themselves on release. As these depôts were totally destroyed, some 1400 prisoners will receive a new outfit on their discharge.

24. STATUE TO THE MARQUESS OF ANGLESEY-ENGINEFRING FEAT. A bronze statue of the Marquess of Anglesey, who commanded the cavalry at Waterloo, was erected by subscription of the inhabitants of Anglesey and its neighbourhood. At the Anglesey end of the railway tube, which spans the Menai Straits, is an elevated plateau of rock on which a handsome fluted Dorie column of grey marble was erected in 1816, to commemorate the military achievements of the Marquess. It forms a conspicuous object for miles round. Upon the summit of this column the statue has been placed. It is the work of the sculp tor Noble, who has produced a very fine work of art. The statue is 12 ft. 4 in. high, in the full costume of the hussar of the beginning of the century, and is a striking likeness, in face, figure, and mien, of the noble Marquess. The statue was elevated to its position by a somewhat ingenious process. The rock on which the column stands, presents a surface too small for the erection of the usual system of scaffolds, &c. It was therefore necessary to adopt some other plan. Two scaffoldpoles were erected parallel to the column, resembling a double mast, which carried a topmast, rising about 20 feet higher than the column. On the capital itself was raised a short mast to the same height. Transverse beams, on which a travelling truck worked, joined these by the head: this

slight structure was made as secure as possible by bolts and shrouds. The hoisting was performed by a tackle-fall, working on rollers in the travelling truck. The statue, which weighed 23 tons, was successfully raised about 70 feet, when the tackle-ropes twisted, and brought the process to a stand, and the figure remained suspended in the air for half-an-hour, until the ropes could be untwisted. The rest of the ascent was accomplished without difficulty, and the apparatus being racked along the transverse beams, the statue was poised over its intended position on the capital, gently lowered, and fixed.

28. THE HACKNEY CHILD MURDER. At the Central Criminal Court, Anne, otherwise Emma Padfield, was indicted for the wilful murder of her male illegitimate child, William Augustus Padfield or Bryant.

The prisoner, who was a goodlooking young woman, had been seduced and then abandoned by her young master. At the time of her apprehension and during her trial, she had been in a most distressing condition; and her case excited much commiseration.

The prisoner had been delivered of this child at a house at Lea Bridge, where she lodged, on the 27th June, and remained there until the 27th August. On that day she went out with the child saying she was about to take it to the Paddington station, where her sister would receive the child, take it into the country and bring it up. The child was then in perfect health. She returned between 11 and 12 o'clock the same night, and told her landlady that she had met her sister, who had taken the child. She cried very much when she said this. The

next morning she showed the landlady a small basket, and said that she was going to send some things down to her sister-in-law for the child. In the evening she left the house, saying she was going out to service. She had always manifested the greatest fondness for her baby, and had taken the greatest care of it.

On the 19th September the landlady found in the privy at the bottom of her garden, the body of a male child. It was of course much decomposed; but it was also shockingly mutilated. The arm had been taken off close to the shoulder boue, there were several cuts upon the chest, and the lips, nose, and ears were much compressed. It was the opinion of the surgeons that the child had been suffocated, and that then attempts had been made to cut the body to pieces. The body was identified with the child of Anne Padfield, by certain marks which appeared to be sufficiently distinct to secure against error.

In the meanwhile the poor mother had been in a condition of great misery. She had obtained a situation, but the consciousness of her deed haunted her. Her nature was clearly not hardened or reckless; and in her replies to occasional questions respecting her child, she spoke like a person of weak mind. When arrested, she made little attempt at denial, and said, "I have been in great distress. I have even wanted bread; but I did not do it myself." It was no doubt true that she had suffered great privation.

She was of course found Guilty. When sentence of death was pronounced, she uttered a piercing shriek, and poured forth supplications for mercy, with heart-rending