The following day the men in the boat were picked up
by a schooner.

Mr. Frederick Robert Bolton, a Custom-house officer,
whose duty it was to "test" imported spirits, &c., has
been Poisoned by tasting tincture of aconite. A case of
medicated spirits was received from Scotland; one
bottle was wrapped in paper, with no label or writing
on this covering. Mr. Bennett, a gauger, poured a
small quantity into a glass, dipped a pen-holder into it,
and drew it across his lips. Mr. Bolton was sitting by,
and Bennett asked his opinion about the stuff. Mr.
Bolton took the bottle into his hand, said he believed
it was a "bitter," and returned it to Bennett. Bolton
must have tasted the liquid from the glass or the bottle.
A superior officer tore the paper from the bottle, and
then a label was visible—"Fleming's tincture of
aconite: poison." Mr. Bolton said, he did not believe
that he had swallowed any of the poison, and it does
not appear to have taken any effect on him while at the
office; Mr. Bennett went to a chemist's and got some
medicine, but had a burning sensation in his throat all
the evening. During the evening Mr. Bolton was
conveyed to a surgeon's by two persons; he was much
exhausted, but perfectly sensible. He said he believed
that he had swallowed a teaspoonful of the tincture—
enough to kill five persons. The surgeon saw that the
case was hopeless, but gave what medicines might
afford relief; the unfortunate officer soon expired. At
the inquest, Mr. Brain, the chief in the deceased's
department, stated that Mr. Bolton and Mr. Bennett
had not been long employed in that department, and
were not well acquainted with the various compounds;
the unfortunate accident arose from the outer covering
not having been removed. The jury gave a verdict that
the death was accidental; but suggested to the
Commissioners of Inland Revenue, "that when any article
of a poisonous character is imported, the permit should
bear the word 'poison,' as well as the nature of the
article itself."

The accounts from the Ionian Islands mention a
Shocking Accident which has occurred at Zante. A house
having caught fire, the Major of the 41st Regiment
turned out with a party of soldiers to assist, when an
explosion of two barrels of gunpowder kept in the
premises took place, by which eleven men were killed on
the spot, and many more, among them the Major
himself, and no less than 150 of the inhabitants, were
grievously wounded.

Another dreadful Coal-pit Accident has occurred by
the breaking of a rope, whereby three lives have been
sacrificed. It happened on the 1st inst., at Welton old
coal-pit, near Midsummer Norton, Somerset. The men
were being let down into the pit by hooks attached to
the rope, and when they had reached to within 150 feet
of the bottom, the rope parted, and they were dashed to
pieces. One of the sufferers has left a widow and a child.

A Whirlwind passed through part of the city of
Limerick on the afternoon of Sunday, the 5th inst. The
course it followed was narrow in width, but its violence
was extraordinary. Trees were torn up, whirled through
the air, and deposited at some distance; planks and
timber whistled through the air; shop-fronts and
windows of houses were blown in, the fragments of the
windows being lost from their minuteness. Several
persons were hurt. Some were cut by fragments of
glass; and Lord George Quin, while sitting in his hotel,
was wounded in the thigh by a slate which was dashed
through the window. Two men were lifted thirty feet
into the air; and one of them, Thomas Ryan, was
dashed against a wall with such force that he received a
concussion of the brain, his arm was fractured, and
several ribs were broken: he has expired in the hospital;
while the other sufferer is in a precarious state. Three
persons are missing; two of them were milkwomen, who
are supposed to have been blown into the water. A man
relates that he was carried by the wind across the river
at a point where it is a quarter of a mile broad, and
deposited on the other side unhurt. Large planks were
blown to a distance of half a mile. When the whirlwind
struck the water, it is said to have raised it fifty yards.
The phenomenon appears to have been quite unparalleled
in the locality, and excited some superstitious feelings
among the people.

Mr. Mackenzie, a farmer of Fodderty, in Strathpeffer,
has been Killed by a Bull, which assailed him on his
letting it out of a shed. Mrs. Mackenzie missed her
husband for a long time, and went in search of him;
she found him yet alive, but he died the following day.

Thomas Gowland, a guard on the York and North
Midland Railway, was Killed on the 3rd inst. near the
Burton Salmon Station. He was the guard of a coke
train which was on its way from York, when it was
overtaken by a short goods train from Milford Junction.
The driver and guard of the latter train were aware of
its proximity to the coke train, and both trains were
nearly at a standstill, when the goods train went slowly
up to the other, with the intention of assisting to give it
a start from the station. The coke train being, however,
the more heavily laden of the two, and all the buffers
being closed up, the engine of the goods train ran into
the last carriage of the coke train, and caused it to bounce
up, forcing it into the guard's van. Gowland fell out of
the van with his face downwards across the rails. He
was conveyed to the station, and medical assistance was
procured, but he died about two hours after the accident,
one of his arms and his body having been dreadfully
crushed. The jury returned a verdict of "accidental
death," but blamed the driver of the engine of the second
train for not sounding his whistle on approaching the
coke train.

A fine boy, son of Mr. Benedict, the eminent
composer, was Killed on the 4th inst. on board a steam-boat
on the Rhone. Passing under a bridge, the crew
neglected to lower the chimney, which struck the arch,
and fell among a number of the passengers, striking the
unfortunate boy. He was landed at Avignon, but died
the same evening.

At Kiveton Park station, near Sheffield, on the 8th
inst., a boy about fourteen years of age lost his life in a
Frightful Manner. He was playing with two other boys
on the line, where there is a curve. A great Northern
train, travelling at great velocity, was passing along the
curve, and got within about a hundred and fifty yards
before the boy was aware of it. In a moment he became
quite paralysed, and fixing a fascinated stare upon the
horrifying engine, there he stood till he was caught
up and almost dashed to pieces against a heavy
gatepost.

On the 8th inst. a man named Buffen was cleaning the
second-floor window of a house in Torrington square,
when the iron rail in front of the window gave way, and
he fell backward on to the balcony railings of the first-
floor, breaking them to atoms. From these he fell on to
the railing in front of the house, which, breaking short
off, threw him with great force on his head in the gutter.
He died shortly afterwards.

On the 16th inst. Dr. George Hindes was Accidentally
Shot by John Baker, Esq., of Ashgrove, at Ramfield,
near Killeshandra, the residence of Dr. Hindes's brother.
The deceased, who resided in England, was on a visit to
his brother, Dr. Hindes; and Mr. Baker, having dined
there, after dinner, took down a blunderbuss from the
gun-rack over the mantelpiece of the room in which
they were sitting, and playfully presented the butt-end
of it to the breast of Mr. Baker, and said he would shoot
him. Mr. Baker struck aside the weapon with a cane
which he had in his hand, and in so doing touched the
trigger, when the gun, which unfortunately was charged,
exploded, and the contents lodged in the chest of the
unfortunate gentleman, who almost instantly expired.

On the evening of the 17th, an Explosion took place at
the works of the Phœnix Gas Company, Bankside,
Southwark. It appears that the various retorts, as
usual, were being turned into the hydraulic mains, when
by some means one of the mains became surcharged, the
consequence of which was that the seat of it was broken,
and the consequent escape of gas coming in contact with
the light in the engine-house produced the explosion.
The engine-house was considerably injured, the walls
scorched, windows and doors blown out, and some
damage done to the machinery, not sufficient, however,
to prevent the company from pursuing their business as
usual. The engineer was dreadfully scorched about the
face and hands, and three other men were considerably
injured, two of them to such an extent that they were
immediately removed to St. Thomas's and Guy's hospitals.