thrown over, and crushing the first and second-class
cars into mere splinters, demolishing the next and
making a wreck of the third car, and driving in
the end of the fourth. The passengers in the last
cars escaped unhurt or with slight bruises. Almost
all the people in the second-class cars were killed or
wounded, some cut completely in two, others with
mangled heads and bodies, and without limbs. Heaps
of the dead and wounded were found in the ruins,
piled together in mangled shapes. One poor man
was cut out of the express car, his limbs hanging out of
the side fifteen feet from the ground. Fifty were killed
outright, and many of the wounded must die. The
passengers were 32 miles from Detroit, and 13 from
Chatham, the surrounding country for miles a vast
swamp, and no aid or physicians at hand, which, with
the denseness of the fog, and frightful screams of
the wounded for help and water, rendered it the
most appalling scene imaginable. One man had six
friends, all killed. Whole families perished.

The inquiry into the dreadful Fire and Explosion
at Newcastle and Gateshead terminated on the 2nd
instant in the following verdict. "We are of opinion
that the death of Thomas Scott and others was
occasioned by the accidental explosion of a quantity
of nitrate of soda and sulphur, contained in a warehouse
in Hillgate, commonly known as Bertram's warehouse.
The immediate cause of the explosion was a fire, (the
origin of which, owing to conflicting evidence, we have
not been able to discover, although there would appear
to have been a want of caution displayed), which broke
out in the adjacent worsted mill belonging to Messrs.
Wilson, and communicated to the warehouse alluded
to; but in what way the two substances, nitrate of
soda and sulphur, which in our opinion caused the
explosion, acted and reacted, chemically or mechanically,
we are unable to decide. At the same time, we think
it our duty earnestly to recommend the proper authorities
to prevent by every means in their power such
substances as sulphur, and any nitrates which, under
certain conditions, we consider to be of the most
dangerous and destructive character, from being stored
or deposited near to each other. We are perfectly
satisfied that there is a complete want of evidence
of the presence of gunpowder in the warehouse which
exploded."

On Monday morning, the 6th inst., five persons
perished by a Firework Explosion in Coleman-street.
A milkman named Watson was in the habit of making
fireworks for sale on Guy Fawkes Day. During Sunday
night, he, his wife, and a daughter, were at work;
Watson left the house for a few minutes; he heard a
cry of "Fire!" explosions followed, and the house was
quickly filled with fire and smoke. A sweep who was
passing got Mrs. Watson and an infant out of the house
—both so badly burnt that they died during the day.
Watson tried to ascend the stairs to rescue three
children, but he failed; and all three were burnt to
death. At the coroner's inquest, it appeared that a
young woman named Elizabeth Ford was employed by
Watson in making fireworks; that she snuffed a candle
with her fingers, dropped the burning wick on an
unfinished cracker, and in a moment the fireworks around
were blazing and exploding. The girl herself was very
badly burnt; she was taken to the London Hospital in
a dangerous state. The coroner explained to the Jury,
that Watson was the person primarily liable—he had
unlawfully made fireworks, and death had resulted.
The Jury returned a verdict of "Manslaughter" against
Watson.

At a meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers, on the
7th inst., a fine of £100 was inflicted on Mr. Hart, of
the Pig Hill distillery, Battersea, for Illegally Unstopping
a Drain which had been stopped by order of the
Commissioners; and the officers were directed to stop it
up again. It appears that a noisome wash is discharged
into the public drain from Mr. Hart's premises; the
people in the neighbourhood complained, and the
Commissioners stopped up the outlet; but Mr. Hart
reopened it.

A fatal Shipwreck took place off the mouth of
Sunderland harbour, during the night of the 22nd inst.
The bark, Mary Graham, of that port, was about to sail
with coals for Bombay. The principal part of her crew
were on shore for amusement, and the master and mate
remained behind to look after them and get them
aboard, sending the vessel out into the roads in charge
of a North Sea pilot, and several riggers and men
employed at daywork. The rigging was loose, and
under such circumstances the vessel was in a very
disorderly state when she went out; and it appears that
while the vessel was riding with two anchors out, a
tremendous gale came on from the east, blowing straight
on to the shore. About two o'clock in the morning the
vessel drifted on to the "stone heads" lying between
the south pier and the beacon, and within an hour she
had gone to pieces, and every one on board of her had
perished, with the exception of a seaman named Edward
Downs, who drifted ashore in one of the long-boats.
The following are the names of some of the sufferers:—
Mr. Elliott, clerk with Mr. Thompson, the owner;
Hodgson, the North Sea pilot; Mr. Hunter, a master of
a vessel; William Reed, Charles Scott, George
Wearmouth, William Willie,—Follett, and John Stroud,
riggers; Peter Campbell, aged 26, carpenter, Sunderland;
Alonzo Warner, aged 26, seaman, London;
Thomas Clark, aged 50, steward, Perth; Robert
Harling, aged 34, cook and seaman, Sunderland: John
Rushton, aged 23, seaman, Haselden, Lancashire;
Robert Cooney, aged 22, seaman, Dublin; Robert
Shawl, aged 46, seaman, Wells, Norfolk. There were
four apprentices belonging to the vessel, but one of
them, David Barry, of Limerick, was on shore. The
names of the three lost are Michael Walsh, Cork;
James M'Donald, also from Ireland; and William
Farrow belonging to some port in the south of England.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.

"An institution, called the Working Men's College,
has been established in Red Lion Square. On the 30th
ult., at St. Martin's Hall, the Reverend F. D. Maurice
delivered to a numerous audience, in which every class
of society was represented, an inaugural lecture on the
opening of this institution. The lecture consisted, first,
of a review of the difficulties of the working man in his
endeavour to get at knowledge, restricted as he is in the
time that he can devote to study. The second part of
the lecture consisted of an explanation of the method to
be attempted by the gentlemen instituting the new
College, for adapting the collegiate system to the
peculiar circumstances of the working class. Mr.
Maurice adverted to some of the various suggestions for
bringing about education to the working man, and to
the proposal that the universities should be thrown open
to students of the working class. Such a measure, he
observed, might have merit in itself, but the only result
would be to transfer some few men from the working
class to the professional class, leaving the body of the
working men exactly where they were. Lectures had
been opened to the working classes, but the working
men made little use of them, because they are desultory,
and are unconnected with their own pursuits. The idea
of the College had originated with the experiments that
Mr. Maurice and his friends are carrying on in
workshops established on associative principles, and with the
want of education declared by working men themselves.
Those experiments, the experiences of the middle ages,
and even of the learned universities, had suggested the
collegiate plan as the best; and the working men of
Sheffield had already indicated both the name and the
idea, in their own establishment of the People's College.
The desire was, that the working men should be made to
feel not only that they require certain kinds of
knowledge, but that they are a fraternity of scholars, under
the influence of the spirit of scholarship as much when
they are working in the shop as when they are attending
the College. In order to give that continuity without
which there can be no accretion of knowledge, the
lectures would be arranged as much as possible to make
each one an introduction for the next; and it was
intended to make the applied sciences bear upon the business
of the working men, or upon subjects with which