shall have expired. It is Lord Hardinge's determination
to take this course in every similar case that may
not appear to require a still more severe proceeding.——
In regard to the case which occurred at Canterbury,
the Commander-in-Chief's decision is, that Cornet
Evans, of the 6th Inniskillings, is to be cashiered; that
Lieutenant Webster, of the 1st Royals, is to retire from
the service by the sale of his commission; that
Lieutenant Hartopp is most severely reprimanded, and his
conduct is to be reported every three months by his
commanding officer, for the information of the
Commander-in-Chief. Lord Hardinge considers Sergeant
Brodie's conduct in preventing the duel most praiseworthy,
but it would have been better if he had reported
his apprehensions to his commanding officer the previous
night. Cornet Baumgarten is directed to be more on
his guard for the future, and his attention is called to
certain sections in the Articles of War. Captain
Fitzwygram's name is not mentioned.

Messrs. Strahan, Paul, and Bates, a very ancient
banking firm near Temple Bar, stopped payment on the
11th inst. At first their liabilities were rated at
£350,000; but it since appears they more probably
amount to from £500,000 to £700,000. The suspension
was attributed originally to imprudent advances on
shares and to contractors of the Lucca and Pistoja
Railway; but more searching inquiries place the matter
in a worse light: it is believed that the firm have long
been insolvent, and that the speculation in Italian
railways was merely a desperate effort to retrieve their
position. The chief customers were the nobility and
gentry of the West-end: it is reported that one nobleman
will be a loser to the extent of £40,000, which was
the balance of his account,—for the assets are looked
upon as trifling, or nil. Messrs. Strahan and Co. also
carried on business in Norfolk Street as navy agents,
under the title of "Halford and Co.;" and their
suspension will be a blow to many naval officers.—A
meeting of the creditors was held on the 19th inst., for
the choice of assignees. It was stated that the bankers
knew of their insolvent condition for six years past;
and the fact of some customers having drawn out about
£20,000 on the Saturday, the last day the firm carried
on business, was adverted to. When the bank closed
there was but £2000 in the coffers, and this was seized
for the Crown on the 18th. On the day the meeting
was held, warrants were issued for the apprehension of
the three partners, Strahan, Paul, and Bates, to answer
criminal charges preferred by Dr. Griffith. The charge
is, that the firm had unlawfully disposed of £22,000
worth of securities deposited at the bank—an offence
punishable by transportation. Mr. Bates was
apprehended in Norfolk Street. Mr. Strahan could not be
found. Sir John Dean Paul was arrested at his house
at Nutfield, near Reigate. As the officers with the
prisoner were getting into the railway carriage, the
train began to move. Sir John was already in his place,
in a second-class carriage, and the officers were about to
follow him into the same carriage, when a railway
porter pulled them back, exclaiming, "The train is in
motion, and you can't get in." The officers replied,
"We are police-constables: he is our prisoner, and we
must accompany him: resist us at your peril." To this
the porters merely rejoined that they were only carrying
out their orders, "to prevent any one entering a
carriage while the train was in motion;" and having
closed the carriage-door against the officers, the train
went off without them. The constables begged in vain
that the train might be stopped. A telegraph message
was sent to the London station; but as the station-
master did not know Sir John, that proved useless, and
Sir John was not retaken.—Mr. Bates was produced at
Bow Street on the 20th; but the solicitor for the
prosecution did not arrive until the prisoner had been
remanded, and the case was not gone into. Mr. Ballantine,
counsel for Mr. Bates, said he should be able to
show that his client knew nothing of the transaction;
indeed, that he was abroad at the time of the alleged
negotiation.—On Wednesday evening the 20th, Mr.
Strahan was apprehended at a friend's house in
Grosvenor Square; and he was carried on Thursday to
Bow Street. There Dr. Griffith appeared against him,
and showed that property intrusted to the bank, chiefly
securities, worth £22,000, had been pledged or sold
without his authority. Mr. Ballantine stated that Mr.
Strahan did not wish to evade the charge. Had he not
been arrested, he would have surrendered. On Thursday
night the 21st, Sir John Paul surrendered, stating that
he had had no intention of evading the officers.—On
the 22nd the three prisoners were placed in the felon's
dock at Bow Street, charged with having fraudulently
disposed of certain securities to the value of £22,000
which had been intrusted to them, for safe custody, by
the Reverend John Griffith, D.D., Prebendary of
Rochester Cathedral. The court was crowded to excess.
Mr. Bodkin appeared for the prosecution, Mr. Ballantine
for Paul and Strahan, and Mr. Parry for Bates.
Dr. Griffith, in the course of his evidence, described
how Mr. Strahan had called on him on Wednesday,
and had begged him not to prosecute, as he would not
benefit himself and would injure the other creditors.
Mr. Strahan likewise stated that securities worth
£100,000, including Dr. Griffith's, had been disposed of
by himself and Sir John Paul about six weeks ago. No
defence was offered: the defendants, through their
counsel, expressed penitence, and promised a full
disclosure. They were remanded.

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

A Fire, attended with the Death of Three young
Children, took place on Saturday morning, the 9th inst.,
in a house in the Hackney-road, occupied by a man
named Graham. About nine o'clock flames were
observed issuing from the first-floor windows of the house,
and loud shrieks of children were heard by some of the
neighbours. Assistance was obtained immediately, but
all attempts to get to the first floor were unavailing, the
fire having taken such a firm hold of the interior. The
flames were not extinguished until the upper part of the
house was nearly burned out. A shocking sight then
presented itself. Under the remains of a bedstead, in
one of the upper rooms, were discovered the bodies of
the three children of Graham, one a fine girl seven years
of age, and two younger children, boys. They were
crouched together in a heap, burned dreadfully. It is
presumed that one of them had been playing with lucifer
matches, and had set fire to the bed. There was no
escape for the poor little creatures. The mother, who
had gone on an errand, had, in order to keep them out
of the streets, locked the room door. The anguish of
the parents, on becoming acquainted with the melancholy
fate of their children, was very great.

A fatal Accident happened in the City on the morning
of the 16th inst. While the numerous workmen engaged
in rebuilding the premises of Messrs. Munt and Wood,
straw-bonnet makers, Wood-street, Cheapside, were at
breakfast, the newly-placed coping on the sixth and top
floor fell into the street. Happily no one was passing
at the time; but a poor carman belonging to Mr. Lucas,
the builder, who was with his horse and cart at the time
opposite the warehouses, was instantly felled to the
ground and killed, one of the large pieces of stone
having fallen on him.

Mr. George Curzon, heir-presumptive to the barony
of Scarsdale, and cousin to Earl Howe, was Killed by
a fall from his horse, riding in Hyde Park on Saturday
evening, the 16th. He was taken to St. George's Hospital:
Mrs. Curzon, his mother, arrived from Derby in
obedience to a telegraphic message, in time to see him
die: but he never recovered consciousness.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.

The corporation of Dublin have taken a step in the
Tenant-Right Movement. On the 2nd inst. they waited
upon the lord-lieutenant with an address, begging him
to use his influence with the government in order that
the subject may be settled in such a manner as "to
give agricultural industry the same legal protection that