The Bridgetown Emigrant-ship was Wrecked on the
4th of August, by going upon a rock while off the Banks
of Newfoundland. She had on board 300 emigrants
from Liverpool to America. The vessel was got off and
run ashore between Cape Ballard and Cape Race. The
female emigrants were got into boats, and these having
been safely put ashore, the boats returned, and eventually,
after considerable exertion, the whole of the
remainder were saved, excepting three children, who
were lost in the confusion, and were supposed to have
perished in the ship, which shortly foundered in five
fathoms of water, and was a total loss. The poor emigrants
lost everything they possessed; many reached
the shore with nothing on their persons but their night-clothes.
There were several cabin passengers; among
them was an episcopal clergyman, who lost property to
the amount of £1,000. Amidst their misfortunes, a gang
of desperate wreckers visited the spot, and carried off
the little property that was cast up from the wreck and
washed ashore; everything, in fact, they laid their hands
upon they decamped with. The loss of the ship is
ascribed, not only to the dense fog and darkness of the
night, but in a great measure to the variableness and
uncertainty of the currents, together with the force and
strength with which they set in towards Cape Race.
The vessel was but partially insured.

A Shocking Death at Hastings Castle took place
on the evening of the 27th of August. A party of
young men and women were amusing themselves
with the game of "whoop-hide" within the walls.
On the south side of the garden, within the old
ruins, there is a fence about three feet high, and a
hedge growing outside of it, which serves as a protection
from the bow of the cliff, which rises perpendicularly
above St. Mary's Chapel, in Pelham Crescent, about
200 feet. In the heat of the chase, and to avoid being
caught, a young man named Joseph Beck leaped over
the fence, believing that there was a footing on the outside,
and fell upon the roof of the chapel, where his
body was found frightfully mangled. He was a respectable
young man, who supported his widowed
mother.

Several serious Railway Accidents have occurred this
Month. A roadway crosses the line of the Eastern
Counties railway through the fields of a farm on
each side, near Colchester. On the 31st August,
a waggon with three horses and the driver were
engaged carting barley, and were in the act of crossing
over for another load, when the railway train
dashed into them, smashing the waggon to pieces and
dreadfully mutilating the horses. Most providentially
the driver, who was riding at the time, just before the
engine struck the team had the presence of mind to
spring to the ground, but in so doing barely escaped
with his life, the engine in his perilous descent catching
the flaps of his coat and completely tearing them off.
One of the horses was found under the engine, and the
others lay helpless on the ground. The passengers in
the train were alarmed, and rushed shrieking to the
windows, but it does not appear that any were injured.

Another accident occurred on the South Western Railway
on the evening of the 3rd. inst. Between Esher and
Weybridge, the engine-driver espied some-moving objects
on the line; he therefore shut off the steam and signalled
to the guards to apply the breaks; but before they had
sufficient time to do so, the engine came in contact with
the obstruction in front, which was dashed to pieces,
and in an instant portions of flesh and blood were
scattered over the driver and stoker, as well as over
several of the carriages. It was then ascertained that
a great number of sheep had strolled upon the line from
one of the adjoining meadows; but owing to the train
not being impeded in its progress, the driver proceeded
on his journey. Next morning it was ascertained that
from twenty to twenty-five sheep had been cut to pieces.
The animals, it seems, had obtained an entrance upon
the line owing to some defect in palings which surround
the meadow where they were at pasture.

Mr. Robert Middleton, a commercial traveller from
Manchester, was Killed on the East Lancashire Railway
on the 5th, while travelling from Burnley to Colne.
The train came into collision with a truck, while the
gate-keeper at a crossing near the station, Hannay, was
attempting to move it out of the way. Considerable
damage was done to the carriages, and Mr. Middleton
was killed on the spot. It appeared, from the evidence
at the inquest, that Hannay was an old man, unfit for
his duties, whose wages were only 5s. a week, and that
when the train approached, no signal had been made to
warn the engine-driver that there was danger. The
Jury found a verdict of "manslaughter" against Hannay;
recommended an improvement on the line at the
crossing, and stated their opinion that the gate-keeper
and porter were not sufficiently paid to secure the
protection of the public.

On the morning of the 9th, the Dead Body of a
respectably-dressed man was found on the Liverpool
branch of the London and North-Western Railway,
between Eccles and Patricroft. Both his legs had been
cut off by a train passing over him; but, whether he was
a person who had been crossing the line, or had thrown
himself in the way of a train, with a view of suicide,
could not be ascertained. There were no papers in his
pocket which could lead to a discovery of who he was,
nor has he been identified by his friends.

Lieutenant Gale, the Aeronaut, was Killed on the 9th
in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. He ascended on
horseback in his balloon from that place, and reached
the ground safely between Merignac and Cestas. He
was engaged in exhausting the balloon of the remaining
gas, when the peasantry who assisted him succeeded
earlier than he seemed to expect in removing his horse.
The balloon, disencumbered of the horse's weight, instantly
soared aloft, snapping in two a young fir-tree
which held the grapnel. Mr. Gale was not in the car,
but was lifted up entangled by the ropes, and was presently
too far aloft to let go. He held by the ropes
while the balloon floated nearly two miles, and dropped
either with it or just before it fell: his body was found
in a tree, and the collapsed balloon in an adjacent wood.
He has left eight children.

A captain of the National Guard of St. Pierre les
Calais, named Millien, now on a visit to this country,
has been instrumental in Saving the Lives of two children,
who would inevitably have been lost but for his
timely and humane conduct. On the morning of the
14th, M. Millien was passing over the Kingsland bridge,
and hearing cries for help hastened in the direction
whence they proceeded. Finding that some one was at
the bottom of the canal, he immediately plunged in and
brought up the body of a child, and hearing that there
was another, he made another plunge, and another was
saved, in the presence of a great number of spectators,
amongst whom was Dr. L. Burchell, of Kingsland Road,
whose exertions soon restored the children. It has been
the good fortune of M. Million to have saved twenty-two
persons under similar circumstances, and to have been
rewarded with the gold and silver medals of the institutions
of his country, as the reward of courage and
humanity.

A destructive Firework Explosion occurred in Spitalfields
on the 16th. Mr. Clithero, of Weaver street, had
an extensive factory at the rear of his house; the place
was divided into compartments—the mixing-house, the
filling-room, and the store-house. Mr. Clithero was
employed with a workman in the mixing-house, when,
by some means unknown, the combustibles took fire;
there was a violent explosion, and the two men were
blown out of the building into the yard, terribly burnt.
Presently there was a second explosion, the fire having
reached the filling-room; and after that the store-house
exploded, with a crash and concussion far surpassing the
preceding shocks. Houses in every direction were more
or less shattered—windows and roofs driven in, and the
furniture greatly damaged. The personal casualties
were less serious than might have been expected, consisting
only of bruises and slight cuts from broken glass.
The Fire Brigade report mentions thirty-eight houses
speciflcally, as having suffered; All Saints Church and
National School had nearly all the windows smashed;
and the greater portion of the large sheets of plate glass
in the goods-depot of the Eastern Counties Railway, a
long distance off, were demolished. The firemen prevented
the flames from spreading beyond the ruins of
the factory. While one of the engines was hastening to