both sides, he declared that in his opinion the charge of
adultery had been substantiated, and pronounced for
the divorce.

An Action of Damages against the Eastern Counties
Railway was tried in the Bail Court on the 25th inst.
It appeared that the plaintiff, Mr. Mould, had the habit,
on holidays, of amusing himself by going into the
country and catching birds, for which purpose he took
a rather complicated machine with him, and on Easter
Monday last year he went to Stratford. On returning
in the afternoon he went to the Stratford station, and,
according to his version, one of the porters opened the
door of a dog-box and told him to put his cages in
there. While he was doing so the train went on and he
was knocked down and severely injured. He was
confined to his bed for nine weeks. His surgeon's bill was
£5 15s., and the damage done to his bird-catching
machine was £3 15s. The plaintiff was perfectly sober
at the time of the accident. Witnesses were called in
support of the plaintiff's case. The defence was, that
the accident was entirely the result of the plaintiff's own
negligence and rashness. He had opened the door of
the train whilst it was still in rapid motion, and the
train caught his machine and knocked him down
between the carriages and the platform. The judge
having summed up, the jury returned a verdict for the
plaintiff—damages, £100.

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

A fatal Railway Accident happened on the 10th inst.
on the London and North-Western line, between
Mossley and Stalybridge. The train went off the rails,
and fell across them, causing the death of Wainwright,
the driver, and serious injuries to Hellam, the stoker,
and one of the passengers named Schoeps. Wainwright
and Hellam were, after the accident, discovered under
the tender. Wainwright had some of his ribs broken
and forced into his lungs, so that he survived only a few
hours. Hellam had one leg cut entirely off, one of the
engine wheels passing over him, and he sustained a
fracture of the other. Mr. Schoeps, a German
commercial traveller, sustained a fracture of one leg,
and a dislocation of one of the hip-joints. An inquest
on Wainwright's body returned a verdict of "accidental
death."

Another fatal Accident occurred on the Manchester,
Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway on the 11th. A
heavy coal train was proceeding through Clarborough
tunnel, four miles from Retford, on its way to the south,
followed by a light goods train. The tunnel being full
of steam, the driver of the latter did not perceive the
train before him, and dashed into it. His engine, after
smashing the guard's van to atoms, mounted on the top
of the coal train, and then turned over on its side. The
driver was killed on the spot, and his body had not been
extricated on Tuesday night. The fireman was taken
up almost lifeless from the scalds and wounds he had
received. The guard whose van was smashed escaped,
he having got out to signal back the approaching train,
and sheltered himself in one of the niches in the side of
the tunnel. An inquest was held on the bodies of the
engine-driver and stoker, and a verdict of "accidentally
killed" was returned, the jury observing, however, that
it was the duty of the directors of the line to have proper
signalmen at the east end of the tunnel, where the accident
took place.

A serious Railway Accident happened on the 22nd
inst., on the Lancashire and Yorkshire line. The Barnley
branch of that line is crossed at Crigglestone, on a
dead level, by the high-road. A watchman is consequently
obliged to be located at this portion of the line in order
to keep the gates closed against the high road traffic
when any trains are due. This watchman was not at
his post, and while absent from duty, a spring cart, the
property of Mr. John Wood, butcher, of Wakefield, and
having two of his boys driving it, approached the railway
to cross the line towards Wakefield. The boys knew
the regulations of the company, having frequently
travelled on that road previously in the execution of
orders, but the absence of the watchman was to them a
sufficient guarantee that no trains were nearly due.
They therefore proceeded across the line. The spring
cart was drawn by a pony, and it had no sooner got fairly
upon the rails than a heavy luggage train dashed up,
and in a moment the pony was struck by the engine and
cut to pieces, fragments of the poor animal being dragged
some sixty yards up the line. Its harness was entirely
cut to ribands. The force of the collision was so great
as to cut the shafts clean off. The two boys were left
sitting in the body of the vehicle quite uninjured, if we
except the rough shaking they experienced from the
collision. How they escaped being thrown becomes a
matter of wonder. It is only to be accounted for on the
supposition that the train was proceeding so quickly as
to separate the horse from the vehicle at a single stroke
by cutting through the obstacle.

A Collision, with Loss of Life, has taken place in the
Channel. On the night of the 24th, the American ship
Gazeteer, Captain Watlington, off Holyhead, came in
contact with the French brig, Père Grenet, from
Santanda, and carried away her jibboom and chafed her
bows. The brig was towed into the entrance of the
Huskisson Dock in a sinking state, with loss of foremast
and other damage. One of the crew of the Père Grenet
was killed by the collision, and another and a boy were
drowned.

The Board of Trade reports of Railway Accidents in
1853, specially inquired into by the Board's own officers,
have been printed as a parliamentary paper. The number
of accidents which occurred in the United Kingdom
was 103; and of these 76 underwent special investigation.
Besides 305 persons who lost their lives, 419 were
injured. The list includes 64 passengers killed and 300
injured; and of these 36 lost their lives, and 280 were
hurt from causes beyond their control. The aim of the
official reporters is to detect the causes which led to
these results. It appears from the table of contents,
that during the year, ten investigations were called for
on the Great Northern line, eight on the London and
North-Western, six on the South-Eastern, nine on the
Midland, one on the Great-Western, one on the Eastern
Counties, two on the London and South-Western, three
on the London, Brighton, and South Coast, five on the
Lancashire and Yorkshire. Inquiries varying from one
to two occurred on other lines. The causes of the 76
accidents are ranged under different heads, but the
following is the sum—5 from purely accidental
circumstances, 11 from accidental and other causes combined,
28 from the negligence of inferior servants, 32 from
undue economy, and inefficient and defective discipline.

Seventeen reports upon accidents which have occurred
between January 1 and February 28 of the current year,
appear as a separate paper. Thirteen of the accidents
arise from collisions; and the results of the investigations
point to the same causes as those more formally
put forth in the report for 1853.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.

The thirty-ninth anniversary dinner of the Artists'
General Benevolent Institution took place on the 8th at
the Freemasons' Tavern; Mr. Benjamin Disraeli in the
chair. About one hundred and sixty gentlemen
partook of the feast; and the subscriptions of the evening,
including a legacy of £1,870. from the late Mr. J. R.
Durant, amounted to £2,392.

The annual dinner in aid of the General Theatrical
Fund was given on the 10th; Mr. Monckton Milnes in
the chair. Mr. Buckstone, Mr. T. P. Cooke, Mr.
Albert Smith, and Mr. Tom Taylor, made speeches
suitable to the occasion; and a sum of £500 was
subscribed, £100 of which came from the Queen.

An important notification by the General Board of
Health on the subject of the Cholera is published in the
London Gazette. After warning the local authorities
and the public against placing a false security in the
present apparent disappearance of this epidemic, and
urging the necessity of being prepared for its visitation,
the board proceed to specify the proper precautionary
measures to be adopted. One consequence (they say)
of the neglect of the proper period of preparation is that,