with respect to them. The learned Judge having summed up the evidence in a very impressive manner, the jury returned a verdict of Guilty against the male prisoner, and of Not Guilty as against the woman. Taylor was executed according to his sentence. To the last he was inconvincible that he had committed any crime in murdering his victim; and he left a letter indicating in a remarkable manner the excitement of his mind.

21. FATAL FIRE IN CRIPPLEGATE-FOUR LIVES LOST.-About 2 o'clock in the morning a disastrous fire broke out in the premises of Mr. J. A. Joel, stationer, 42, Fore Street, Cripplegate.

There were in the house at that time Mrs. Joel, the wife of the proprietor, Henry, Samuel, and Annetta Joel, full-grown persons, and a servant named Hannah Johnson. The eldest son Henry was the first to be aroused by the alarm. He hastily put on his clothes and went into his mother's room, and as he supposed awoke her, and then rushed downstairs, opened the street-door, and made his escape unhurt. His precipitancy completed the catastrophe, for he left the street-door open, and the draught of air thus occasioned speedily fanned the fire into a fierce conflagration. The unhappy inmates were cut off from flight, and could be heard screaming from the upper floors. The engines and the fire-escape were speedily at hand; the latter was placed against the front of the house, and the conductor, Briggs, who seems to have behaved with exemplary courage, ascended to the second floor. Here he heard faint cries of "Help!" proceeding from the third floor, and threw up his

"fly-ladder"; he had succeeded in getting hold of the young woman Annette and was dragging her out of the window, when the poor girl, in her terror, made such struggles, that she overpowered the conductor, and fell from his arms onto the stone-flags below. She was greatly injured by the fall, and was much burned by the fire, so that she died shortly after her admission into the hospital. The conductor also narrowly escaped; in falling he managed to seize a round of the ladder, and hung for some time with his head downwards. In the meanwhile the other unfortunates were perishing by the most horrible of deaths. When the fire had been extinguished and the firemen were able to search the premises, the remains of Mrs. Joel and the servant were found on the third floor, terribly burnt; and the body of Samuel Joel at the bottom of the stairs, also burnt.

of

22. THE LUDGATE HILL TRAGEDY.-Scarcely had the public mind recovered from the excitement produced by the intelligence of the Manchester tragedy, before the feeling was doomed to be intensified by the report of a similar horror perpetrated on Ludgatehill, in the establishment Mr. Vyse, for many years the proprietor of an extensive straw hat and millinery business conducted by his wife, by whose insane act her two children met their deaths from poison administered to them; after effecting which the unhappy mother made an attempt upon her own life with a razor, and with such a determined purpose, that for many days no expectations were entertained that that attempt had failed of success. The particulars of this shocking

case were as follows:-In the afternoon of the day in question, Mrs. Vyse, having previously made personal application at a neighbouring chemist's for some powders, which she alleged she required for the destruction of mice on her premises, sent her servant-maid for a further supply. On her return with the powders, the girl went upstairs to her mistress's room, which was upon the first floor; but on knocking at the door was answered that she could not come in. Apprehending that something was wrong, she became excited, and without attempting to enter the room, hurried downstairs, and intimated to Mrs. Vyse's sister the nature of her suspicions. When the room door, which although shut, did not prove to be barred or fastened, was opened, a frightful sight met their view. There sat Mrs. Vyse in a chair, an open and blood-stained razor in her right hand, her head bent forward, and a torrent of blood gushing from a broad cut in her throat into a basin placed beneath it. The two women, with rare presence of mind, at once stopped the hæmorrhage; when the unfortunate victim of her own morbidity, finding herself interrupted in the consummation of self-murder, and pointing to another room, feebly uttered the words, "Go there-go there; there are my children." Shocked by the weight which these broken but suggestive phrases added to the misery of the scene, one of the women hastened to the place indicated, and there found the dead bodies of two of Mrs. Vyse's children-little girls, one six and the other seven years of age. Upon their persons there was no mark of violence, and as they had but half-an-hour before VOL. CIV.

been seen full of life and animation, there could be no other opinion with respect to their sudden dissolution than that it had been occasioned by poison. The women at once alarmed the rest of the establishment, when further efforts were made to secure the wound in Mrs. Vyse's throat until the arrival of some surgeon, in search of whom a messenger was at once despatched; at the same time that an intimation of the horrible scene which had just taken place was forwarded to the Inspector of the City Police, at Fleetstreet station, and to the summoning officer for the ward of Farringdon Within. A surgeon was soon found, but his services were, as regards the children, of no avail, as they had been some time dead; in the case of their unhappy mother, however, his professional skill was of the greatest advantage, as he bound up her wound and effectually stayed the hemorrhage. On the trial, which took place at the Central Criminal Court, evidence was given that the powders administered to the children were known as "Battle's Vermin Powders," containing a large portion of strychnia, one quarter of a grain of which would have been sufficient to destroy the life of children of such tender years, the elder child being only seven and the younger six years of age. It was proved that the mother, who was 33 years of age, was of an extremely affectionate disposition to all her children, accustomed to dress and undress them night and morning, and that the children were much attached to her. Much stress was laid upon the fact of a letter being delivered by the prisoner to her sister, which was not forthcoming at the trial, and therefore II

animadverted upon by the prosecuting counsel as containing evidence likely to elucidate the case for the Crown; but the sister of the unhappy lady declared she had destroyed it, without reading it, and was therefore quite unable to testify to the contents. Evidence was then offered on behalf of the prisoner, who was defended by Mr. Serjeant Ballantine, to show that the relations of Mrs. Vyse in several instances had been confined for insanity-one of them having committed suicide. Mr. Justice Wightman, who presided at the trial, having summed up the case, the jury, after deliberating a short time, returned their verdict of Not Guilty, on the ground of insanity; whereupon the prisoner was ordered to be detained in safe custody during Her Majesty's plea

sure.

24. OPENING OF THE NEW WESTMINSTER Bridge. After many disappointments and great delays the new bridge, the handsome and convenient substitute for the ugly and dangerous old structure at Westminster, erected in 1739-51 by Labelye, a Swiss engineer, was thrown open to the public. Under any circumstances the erection of the new bridge across the Thames would have been a work of time, for it was an essential part of the design that the traffic between Westminster and Lambeth should not be interrupted even for a day. For this purpose the passage was continued in its usual course, while the southern half of the new bridge was built; the traffic from the centre was then diverted into the new roadway, and the old arches removed; then the northern half was erected, and when it had been joined on to the southern portion,

the whole roadway was thrown open in a straight line, and the remainder of the old bridge was removed. The designs of Mr. Page for the new structure having been accepted, the works were commenced in May, 1854; but the contractors failed soon after, and it was not until 1859 that the operations were pushed on with vigour. As the works by which the piers of the old bridge of Labelye were fixed in the bed of the river were thought a miracle of engineering invention, so these of Mr. Page were novel and ingenious. No coffer-dams or caissons were used. Elm piles were driven far below the river bed into the London clay. Round these were forced in massive iron circular piles, grooved at the edges, so as to admit of great sheets of cast-iron being slid down like shutters between them. The gravel, mud, and stones within the spaces thus enclosed were dredged out, and the void filled up with concrete to low-water mark. Upon this concrete the masonry — enormous slabs of granite, weighing from 8 to 12 tons-was fixed for the piers, and on these were raised the massive stone piers themselves. The arches of the bridge are seven in number, each formed of seven ribs, which are of cast-iron nearly up to the crown, where, to avoid danger from the concussion of heavy loads, they are of wrought metal. The arches vary in span from the smallest, of 96 ft., to the largest in the centre, of 120 ft., and from a height above high-water level of from 16 ft., to 20 ft. The materials used in the construction of the whole bridge have been 4200 tons of cast and 1400 tons of wrought iron, 30,000 cubic yards of concrete, 21,000 cubic yards of brickwork set in

and when at length she was extricated by the firemen, she was found to be so frightfully injured that she died in the London Hospital. Other houses into which the gas had penetrated were blown up and much injured by the fire and explosion; the shop fronts of nine contiguous houses were blown in, and others more remote were injured. Altogether thirty houses suffered to a greater or less extent. Five persons were so much injured that they were taken to the hospital.

JUNE.

THE JAPANESE AMBASSADORS.The opening of the Japan Islands to Western trade and civilization has produced many remarkable phenomena. Among these may be noticed the complete reversal of ideas respecting diplomatic intercourse. A few years since, the despots of China and Japan looked upon an embassy from European Powers as a token of subjection, their complimentary presents as tribute, and a treaty of commerce as a gracious concession to the necessities of the Barbarians. The Japanese statesmen seem to have caught the moral of the new relations between the East and West far more early and completely than the Chinese. An Embassy has been sent to Europe, to visit all the European Courts, and learn their power, commerce, and requirement. The constitution of the Embassy corresponded to the strange polity of these strange people. As the Government of Japan is double, so the Embassy was sent in duplicate. There were two ambassadors, two secretaries,

and doubles of every kind of official, some of whose duties are not understood. The Embassy came to Europe by way of the Red Sea, and first visited Paris. The Emperor of the French, of course, treated these representatives of empire with all the courtesy due to their office, and with the politic splendour calculated to impress the strangers with the power of his Empire. By French society they seemed to have been considered objects of curiosity rather than admiration. From France they came to England, and lauded at Dover on the 30th April, and on the following day were present at the opening of the International Exhibition; where their strange features, complexion, and dress, made them objects of great curiosity. The Embassy consists of thirty-six individuals, of whom two were Ambassadors Plenipotentiary, men of very high rank in their own country; a third Ambassador held a lower rank, and may perhaps be termed Under-Ambassador. These illustrious strangers, who were lodged at Claridge's Hotel, were men of small stature, of deep bronze complexion, with very intelligent countenances. Their attire was conspicuous for its sombreness of tint, and the absence of sartorial art. The most distinguishing part of the costume of the men of rank was the double armament of two swords, which they wore upon all occasions. When the first curiosity had subsided, the Ambassadors attracted very little notice; they were, in fact, not a very interesting party. They were, however, indefatigable in visiting all objects of interest; and it is much to the credit of their sense that those sights which attracted their most diligent atten