windows. The neighbours around and people passing, treated this as a practical joke, and the fun continued all the forenoon. At length the discomfited bailiff, procuring advice and assistance, attempted to break-in the door, using for that purpose, and with much violence, a piece of short, stout planking. With this he stove in two of the panels, and effected an entrance. The nephew of the widow Clayton, rather than allow his and her furniture to be retaken for rent which they conceived they did not owe, began pitching chairs and tables out of the windows into the street. Of course, a scene like that in a great public thoroughfare, attracted the notice of every one passing, and a crowd collected in front of the house. Most of them unhappily-men, women, and children-stood upon an iron grating, about six or eight feet square, near the adjoining shop. In an instant this grating gave way, and some 25 or 30 of the unfortunate people fell pellmell into the area beneath, a depth of about 35 or 40 feet, shrieking terribly. Several others were caught by bystanders as they were falling with the rest, and rescued. After the iron grating had given way, it hung by the edge for a moment or two, and then fell with a fearful crash, carrying some of the flagstones with it, upon the people who had just been precipitated into the area below, and also upon two children who were playing there. The greatest consternation prevailed above and below. The people in the street rushed down to the Belvidere Road, which is on a level with the bottom of the area, to render assistance. A yawning gulf appeared in the street above.

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By degrees, the people who had fallen were got out through an adjoining house on the lower level. They were in many cases shockingly injured. Some had both their legs broken; others their skulls fractured; all were more or less wounded. The sufferers were conveyed as speedily as possible in cabs to the nearest hospitals, except a few who lived near and were removed to their own homes. One of the sufferers, named James Robbins, a carver and gilder by trade, sank a day or two after, from the effect of the injuries he had suffered. In a few days there was a further fall of the footway, when the massive stone slabs with the iron gratings in front of three other houses, without the slightest warning, snapped in the centre, and fell into the area beneath. Several persons were passing, and some were within a few inches of the spot. Providentially, however, no one was injured.

FALL OF HOUSES AT HACKNEY, AND LOSS OF LIFE.-Two days afterwards an accident of a somewhat similar kind occurred in the Amherst Road, Hackney. On the south side of the road a range of houses, three stories in height and having shop-fronts, the rear abutting on the North-London Railway, were in course of construction. The roofs had been covered in, and the carpenters were busily engaged in laying the floors, and plasterers and labourers were occupied on the front scaffolding in cementing the coping and upper cornices, when a sharp, loud, rattling noise was heard; and the next instant the front walls and the roofs and the whole of the floors of the second and third houses from the Hackney end of the road fell with a great crash, dragging with them a

portion of the end or corner building. The unfortunate men at work fitting up the interior of the houses fell with the floors, and were buried beneath the mass of ruins. The plasterers and labourers who were on the front scaffold fared but little better. The front wall in falling carried away the scaffolding, and the men who were on it came to the ground on the shattered brickwork. The workpeople from the adjacent premises and a body of police soon arrived, and prompt measures were taken to rescue the sufferers. After great exertion 12 persons were got out, of whom two were quite dead, a third died immediately after, and at least one other appeared to have received mortal hurts. The accident appears to have originated in bad materials, bad supervision, wet weather, and constant jarring by the passage of trains upon the railway.

11. FATAL FLOODING OF A LEAD MINE.-Sixteen Persons drowned. -On the morning of Tuesday, the 11th instant, the water in the disused Hendre Mines, near Mold, Flintshire, broke into the adjoining Bryn Gwiog Lead Mines, and drowned 16 miners, only one of the whole number in the pit making his escape.

The mines are near the high road connecting Mold and Denbigh, and four miles from the former town. The old Hendre Mines, which were formerly very productive, had not been worked for some years; and, as the country is hilly, and there are many streams in the neighbourhood, these mines have been filled with water for a long time. About two years ago a new company was formed, called the Bryn Gwiog Company, for the purpose of working the same bed

of lead ore higher up the mountain than the Hendre Mines. On Tuesday morning 17 men descended the mine, and, after working for some time, they penetrated the wall dividing the new workings from the Hendre levels. The water rushed through the aperture, and the men had no chance of escape. One alone got to the shaft, the water being up to his chin, and there he seized a rope which was hanging down from the mouth of the pit. By means of the rope he reached the top, passing several times through torrents of water on his way. When nearly at the top he became quite exhausted, and was only saved by being dragged up by the hair. He states that he fancies he heard some one else climbing up the rope after him; he was the only one, however, that arrived at the top. As the water in the mine was 240 feet deep, and would be constantly supplied by the floods from the adjacent mines and springs, it was stated that a very considerable time must elapse before the mine could be so cleared as to allow of search for the unfortunate sufferers. Some days after the accident the engine had reduced the water in the shaft, and one corpse had been re covered.

A DERELICT SHIP-THE "SULINA."-A strange story of the abandonment and recovery of a valuable merchant ship is told. The Sulina was a fine iron barque, of 228 tons register, the property of a firm at Liverpool. On the 5th January she sailed from that port for Vera Cruz, with a cargo of coals. The ship encountered heavy weather at starting, and the master reported badly of her qualities as a sea-boat. On the

26th February, the master and crew abandoned her in mid-ocean, alleging that she was unsafe, although at that time she had suffered no injury beyond the loss of a top-mast and some sails. The crew got on board a passing vessel. How little occasion there was for this shameful desertion may be seen from the fact that the abandoned vessel drifted about the ocean, without injury to her hull and little to her spars or rigging, for nearly three weeks. She was then descried by a colonial barque, whose commander put on board her a mate and four seamen; by whom she was brought in safety into the harbour of Kinsale.

FIRES IN LONDON IN 1861.— A return has been made of the fires which occurred in Loudon in the year 1861. In the whole year there were 1183 such mishaps. Of these, 53 resulted in the total destruction of the buildings in which they broke out, 332 caused considerable damage, and 798 were of slight importance. Four were proved, and 14 were suspected, to be wilful. The firebrigade, which is maintained at the expense of the insurance companies, costs no more than 25,000l. a-year; and excepting the useless parish engines, is the only body to which the safety of this vast metropolis, its millions of inhabitants, and fabulous wealth, is entrusted.

19. FEARFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION NEAR MERTHYR. - A month only had passed since the terrible accident at the Hartley Colliery, and the 204 corpses had hardly been withdrawn from the depths of the mine, when the public feelings were again lacerated by the intelligence of an

other colliery disaster which, but for the overwhelming horror of that event, would have seemed frightful indeed.

The Cethin Colliery is situated about two miles from Merthyr Tydvil. It is the property of Messrs. Crawshay, and, like all the undertakings of that great firm, is conducted with the utmost care. The shaft is 126 yards in depth, and the works extend underground for a mile and a-half in the furthest direction. They are so subdivided, and the arrangements are so excellent, that, in the event of an explosion, it would be confined to the place in which it originated. The supply of air was also arranged on so ample a scale, that the miners sometimes complained of the cold. These precautions had proved so effectual that, although the pit was subject to great effusion of gases, only one considerable explosion had happened, about 10 years since, and then no one perished.

It is supposed that on Wednesday the 19th inst., about 250 men were employed in the different workings. Between 1 and 2 P.M. a loud explosion, followed by several smaller reports, was heard by the men engaged at the mouth of the pit, and almost immediately a body of smoke and flame issued forth from the shaft. As it was at once apparent that a great disaster had occurred, the miners assembled from every side, and some experienced men heroically descended the shaft. But the insidious choke-damp and the noisome smell of singed bodies and burnt horses overpowered them, and they were with difficulty withdrawn alive. By forcing down quantities of water the air was at

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length so much cleared that the rescuers could penetrate the workings. The explosion had taken place in the "four-foot seam." When they reached this spot] the spectacle presented was most harrowing. In every direction corpses were seen in every conceivable posture of death. Some lay as in tranquil sleep; others were frightfully burned and battered; but the most terrible spectacle was that presented by many poor fellows who had been at their dinner when they were slain, for their food was still in their mouths. Some of these had died from the effect of the after-damp," and exhibited no sign of suffering. With much difficulty and danger the bodies were collected and brought to the mouth of the shaft -47 dead men, who had descended that morning into the bowels of the earth to earn the means of living. Their lifeless remains were conveyed to Merthyr by the railway. The scenes to which these dreadful calamities give rise in the surrounding country have been often described. As each batch of corpses was brought to the surface, the trams were eagerly surrounded by frantic women and children, who sought to recognize the features of fathers, husbands, or brothers. The whole country was agitated by wailing and woe, and in the villages and on mountain sides were to be seen groups of miners' families repeating the tragic tale with the violence and pathos of Welsh eloquence. The interment of the sufferers in the cemetery of Cefn was a wild and mournful spectacle. Merthyr and the great iron works of Cyfartha poured forth their thousands; the miners left their mountain cottages and poured down the glens.

Each coffin had its hundreds of mourners, who, as they wound their way from the dwellings of the deceased to the various spots chosen by their families for their last resting-places, sang, according to an impressive Welsh custom, mournful funeral hymns. When the inner portions of the works had been searched, two more corpses were found, making the whole number who had perished in this disaster 49.

24. THE DURRAN HILL MURDER.-At the Carlisle Assizes, William Charlton, engine-driver, was indicted for the wilful murder of Jane Emmerson, at Durran Hill, on the 21st of November last. The deceased, Jane Emmerson, lived at a cottage close by the side of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, at a place called Durran Hill, about three-quarters of a mile from Carlisle. At this place the highway crosses the railroad on a level, and it was the duty of the deceased to look after the gates at the crossing, and to keep the lamps lighted at night which were used as signals. She was an old woman of 72, somewhat peculiar in her habits, and was supposed to have some money laid by. It was her duty, after the last train at night had passed, to open the gates across the highway and close them across the railway. On the night of the murder, the 21st of November last, the last engine passed the Durran Hill crossing at about a quarter to 10 o'clock, P.M., and the engine-driver saw the usual signal light burning, close by a small cabin which is on the side of the railway, opposite to the cottage where the deceased lived. A person who passed near the crossing about half past 10 observed no light. The crime with which the

prisoner was now charged was, therefore, in all probability, committed after a quarter to 10 o'clock and before half-past 10. The first train in the morning leaves Carlisle at 4.15, and on the morning after the murder the engine-driver of that train observed that the gate was not shut across the line. A man named Hind, who passed over the line about 20 minutes to 12 at night, observed that one of the gates was shut across the line. Some one, therefore, must have put back this gate between that time and the time of the approach of the early train. About half-past 5 o'clock on the morning of the 22nd November, a plate-layer, named Blaylock, found the deceased lying dead in a pool of blood a few yards from her cottage. The body was warm, but the blood about was coagulated, and the extremities were cold. There was a wound on the cheek-bone, one on the eye, one on the right side of the head, a star-shaped wound on the crown of the head, and other wounds. These were such as would bleed slowly. The murdered woman must have lived a considerable time after she had been wounded, or so large a quantity would not have flowed. On examination, the police found near the body a number of footprints. The footprints commenced at a spot on the road at the side of the railway opposite to the cottage. They were then tracked across the line to the cottage, and back again across the railway. The footsteps going from the cottage appeared to have been made by a man running or taking very long strides. It appeared as if the murderer had gone up to the cottage in order to ascertain that the old woman was alone, had then crossed the railway again, and

waited there till she had come out of her cottage to close the gates for the night. The signal lamps were found close by the body, as if the old woman had been attacked while going to close the gates with the lamps in her hand. A large stone and a large iron pin used for fastening the gates were found lying near the body, and with these the deceased appears to have been first assailed. In the garden a bill or slasher was found which belonged to the deceased, with blood on the handle. There were a number of bloody footmarks about the body, and footmarks leading to a garden at the back of the house where the deceased kept a pickaxe. The deceased was in the habit, when she went out of her cottage at night to close the gates, of fastening the cottage door after her. The door of her cottage had been broken open, apparently with the pickaxe, for it was found to fit into the marks which were made on the panel of the door. panel of the door. The pickaxe was found under the bed, and had marks of blood on the handle. At the bottom of the door there was the mark where a man's foot had been pressed flat against it, as if to force it open. The drawers in the cottage were broken open, evidently with the same pickaxe which had been used to force the door. Some sheets, three spoons, a ring, and about 77. in money were missing. Besides the footsteps already described, there was one footstep in the coagulated blood round the body. This imprint must have been made some time after the blood had flowed, because, had the blood not been coagulated, it would not have retained the impression of the foot. It was suggested, on the part of the prosecution, that after the murderer had committed the