The Press. — London, England, 1858-09-11 00:00:00

-- - V - - -- .- V. - - - V_VVV V VV - VV• V_V_V___-V_ V'--- V-VV_V THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 11, 1858. After this the unfortunate woman sank rapidly , and Aft medical man, Dr. Girdwood, sen., was sent for, but before he arrived she was dead. On the following day a postmortem examination of the body was made by Dr. Forrest, Stirling ; Dr. Hamilton, Falkirk ; and Dr. Myrtle, Polmont. The report made by these gentlemen, and which is in the hands of the authorities, has of course been kept private; but we understand that it was to the effect that the uterus was found to have ben pierced in two places, one on ea ch side, by some© nstrument, and that death had been caused by the excessive hemorrhage produced by these wounds. The deceased was about twenty three years of age. We now come to the second part of this shocking case—the suicide of Dr. Girdwood, jun., the son of Dr. Girdwood who was called in to attend the woman Taylor. The news of Ann Taylor's death, it was observed, threw young Girdwood into a state of great excitement. He went into the publiahouse in High•street, Falkirk, occupied by Mr. M`Naughton, and called for writing materials, stating that he had a letter to write, and giving orders that it was not to be posted before eleven o'clock next day (Tuesday). At the same time he sent out to Mr. Cochrane's, druggist, for four ounces of laudanum, and when the messenger returned with the laudanum, he said he had to go to Linlithgow, and requested Mr. NPNaughton to go to the Red Lion for the purpose of hiring a machine. Mr. Scott refused the machine, but one was got from Mr. Hutton, of the Railway Hotel. Having requested M'Naughton to accompany him, the party proceeded in the direction of Lin lithgow. On the journey, the deceased was heard to moan very much, and seemed asleep. When near the Free Church at Linlithgow, about twelve p.m., Mr. 31.Naughton proposed to the driver that Mr. Gird wood should be aroused. This was attempted, but without success ; and as he seemed much excited and not well, it was resolved to return to Falkirk, which was accordingly done. On arrival, deceased was taken into M‘Naughton's, and laid upon a sofa, while the machine was despatched to Grahamston for his father. Before that gentleman arrived, how ever, his son was dead. The letter written by the deceased Mr. Girdwood was found by his father in one of his pockets, but its contents have not been disclosed. Immediately on discovering what had been done to Ann Taylor, Dr. Myrtle gave notice to the police authorities, and suspicion falling on Reid as being concerned in the affair, a warrant was a once issued for his apprehension. Raid, it will be re membered, was tried along with a fellow-clerk named Gentles and convicted at the Stirling Circuit in 1857 of having abetted Mr. Henry Salmon in his plun • dering of the Commercial Bank at Falkirk, of which he was agent, of money to the amount of upwards of JOAN. Strong representations, however, were made to Government in favour of Reid and Gentles, as being merely the dupes of Salmon, and they were liberated some months since. Salmon, it will be re membered, hanged himself at Conway, in Wales. A FEARFUL EXPLOSION at the Haggerstone Gas Works took place on Thursday morning. A number of persons were greatly injured, five of whom are dreadfully burnt. The scene of the misfortune was the Independent Gas Factory, situate at Hagger stone. The premises were of great extent. Whilst a number of men were at work in different parts of the building an escape of gas took place from one of the great mains in the valve, or regulating shed, and before any attempt could be made to stop the defect in the pipe the gas rushed out in such quantities that it entered the smith's shop, and reaching the furnace, it ignited and exploded with a noise re sembling the discharge of a piece of ordnance, and the two shops presented a sheet of flame. A most searching investigation will be made by the directors of the Independent Gas Company as to the origin of the calamity. A FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT has occurred on the Aberdeen and Inverness Junction Railway, opened to the public about three weeks ago. On Satur day afternoon an engine and tender were taken by its driver, without orders, to the Orton Junction. Four or five other men went with him. He had to pass the Mulben Junction, but the rails here not being prepared the engine was turned into a siding, and struck against the fixed buffers with so great a force that the tender, which was first, was fairly lifted up and tumbled on the engine. Three of the Party, who were on the engine, met a most shocking fate. They were crushed so against the fire plate and box, by the overtopping tender, that one of them may be said to have been literally roasted to death. All three poor fellows only lived a very short time. The engiue-driver and fireman, who had jumped off, were not seen for the night, but the next day both were apprehended and lodged in the gaol at Elgin. AN INCOME•TAX COLLECTOR, named Burbridge, was examined before the Richmond bench of magistrates, on Saturday, charged with having embezzled a large amount of public money, and also with having col- Lseted taxes after his dismissal from his situation. The prisouer was committed for trial. A MELANCHOLY AFFAIR occurred et Manchester on Wednesday. John Griffith, a working collier, of good character, had a daughter, named Emma, aged fifteen, in service at a neighbouring beerahop, kept by a man named William Trunter. On Sunday fore noon, some men in the house heard the poor girl call for help, and there appears no doubt that he shamefully abused her. The girl, on escaping from him, went home, told something of what had occurred to her mother and female relatives, but appeared in great dread of the truth being told to her father, and on a man not of the family appearing she ran affrighted in another room. On Tuesday, her father went to the magistrates' office, to apply for a warrant against Trunter, desiring his daughter to follow him. Still her fear and shame withheld her, and she did not go. Her father upbraided her for this, and, some additional facts having transpired, he told her that next morning she must go to a surgery for examination. On Wednesday morning, when the time came, it was found that the poor girl had left the house. The father sought her, and learnt at her grandmother's that she had been there, and said she would never again return home. On prosecuting his search further, he caught sight of the poor girl, who, on seeing him, ran off down a by-road in the direction of the coalpits at Blaken-hall. Her father followed slowly, till, seeing that she got near an old coalpit shaft, he called to some men to stop her. The girl then ran into the " field," up the bank which surrounded the shaft, and had thrust herself between the aper tures of the.planks which formed the protection to the shaft. Her father, seeing his worst fears about to be realized, shouted with much feeling, " Don't do that, my wench !" but the girl was too determined or too pauicstruck to heed him. Dragging through the rest of her body, she rolled herself into the pit. By this time her terror-stricken father had ap proached near enough to her to imagine that he could yet arrest the dreadful act. He clutched at her, but she had fallen too far. The shaft was known to be a deep one, and to have lain unworked for six years; if, therefore, she had escaped being dashed to pieces, there was yet no hops for her life, as the foul air towards the bottom of the pit must be fatal to her. Nevertheless, active efforts were at once commenced to recover the body. A brave fellow named Elwell, an engine•driver at a neighbouring pit, volunteered his services. He commenced de scending, amid the hearty though stifled cheering of some hundreds of anxious spectators. He had not gone down far, however, before he was beaten back by the carbonic acid gas. Other attempts followed, but they were unsuccessful, until some air-troughs were procured from Messrs. Aston and Corns, the proprietors of the colliery. By these the shaft was cleared to within nine yards of the scaffold, which ran across the shaft at a distance of sixty-nine yards from the month, and upon which it was known that the body of the girl must be lying. Elwell thrust himself through that, and hastily groped for the body in the dark. His hand first reached the foot of the corpse, end he speedily drew it up to the safe air. Upon the corpse reaching the bank, it was found that there was a bruise upon the face, upon the left elbow, a cut upon the knee, and blood was oozing through her clothes from her back. She had then been in the shaft about seven hours—from 10.30 a.m. till about 5.30 p.m. THE DUDLEY RAILWAY CATASTROPHE, arising from the collision on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolver hampton Railway, on the night of the 23rd ultimo, was further investigated on Tuesday, at the Bell Inn, Brierley.hill, before Mr. T. M. Phillips, the coroner, and the jury already empanelled. Previous to the inquiry being gone into it was announced that another death had taken place—Mrs. Rogers, of Princes'-end, having succumbed to the severe injuries she had sus tained. Mr. Fenton, the chairman of the company, and several of the directors and officers, attended by Mr. King, their solicitor, were present. As on the previous occasions, Mr. Burbury, Mr. Round, Mr. Herapath, and other legal gentlemen, attended on behalf of the relatives of some of the deceased. John Cording, the assistant guard of the excursion train on the 23rd ult. ; Joseph Williams, a boatman, residing at Worcester, who rode in the break-van with the guard of the excursion train on the night of the accident; and Frederick Cook, the chief guard in charge of the excursion train, were examined ; after which Mr. King intimated that the company proposed to call Mr. M'Connell, locomotive superintendent of the London and North Western Railway, and Mr. Craig, of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire line, to give evideqee of a scientific character. The Coroner said ho would leave it to the company to produce such evidence as would be likely to elucidate the causes which led to this sad calamity ; and the inquiry was further adjourned for a week. A SINGULAR ACCIDENT, attended with fatal conse quences, occurred last week to a young gentleman, named Dickens, while bathing at Tynemouth. He had been taken a short distance into the sea in a machine, and, after undressing, instead of dropping from the ladder into the water, he . had sprung from the floor. Finding that he was a lighting m shallow 8M water, he had put out his hands to prevent falling on his face. At the moment he alighted on the ground he gave his head a sudden jerk back, which caused the accident terminating in his death. THREE ILLUSTRIOUS CONVICTS, Redpath, Burgess, and Tester, were despatched to the Australian con vict settlements last week, in the Edwin Fox. ltedpath, a few days before his embarkation, had a farewell interview with his wife, and their parting is described as being very affecting. Owing to his feeble , constitution, which had suffered considerably from the confinement of a prison, he was incapable of enduring the severe labour of the quarries, in which most of the convicts at Portland are employed, and he was consequently put to work in the " drying room," where he had the light but undignified occu pation of hanging up linen. THE FUNERAL of the six children of Mr. William Smith, and the three children of Mr. George Torr, of Greenwich, who were drowned by the swamping of a pleasure.boat, at Worthing, took place, on Saturday, at the Nunhead Cemetery. As the mournful procession of hearses and coaches pro ceeded on its route the shops of the tradesmen at Greenwich and Deptford were closed as a mark of syinnathy to the parents of the deceased. Disallaittotts. THE TAY SALMON FISHINGS, belonging to the city of Perth, have been let by public roan, on a lease of three years, at the annual rent of 1,3901. The rent paid for the fishings last year was only 8701., making thus a rise upon the rental for three years to come of 526/. THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY'S SHOW, which commenced at Aberdeen on Monday week, terminated on the Friday, and is pronounced to have been most suc cessful. The only drawback had been the unfavour ableness of the weather, several of the days having been rainy. ALEXIS SOYER, the well-known chef de cuisine, has, it is stated, bequeathed six pictures by Mine. Soper to the trustees of the National Gallery. STATISTICS OF RAILWAY ACCIDENTS in the five countries which possess the most extensive systems of railways—England, United States, Prussia, France, and Belgium—comparing the number of passengers with the number of those who suffered death from railway accidents, and the number seriously wounded, give the following result :—There was one person injured in the United States out of 188,459 passen gers ; in England out of :311,345 ; in France out of 375,092 ; in Belgium out of 1,611,237 ; in Prussia out of 3,294,075. This calculation is contained in a report drawn up by a commission appointed for the purpose by the French Government. THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH is at fault from a defect hitherto undiscovered, and there have been no intelligible signals from Newfoundland since the 3rd inst. The directors are now at Valentin, and, aided by various scientific and practical electricians, are investigating the cause of the stoppage, with a view to remedy the existing difficulty. Under these cir cumstances no time can at present be named for opening the wire to the public. CRINOLINE AND COMBUSTION are evils which Mr. James Wylde, in a letter to a contemporay, proposes to remedy. He says:—" By adding to the starch used in preparing these dresses a table spoonful of com mon alum in a powdered state, the starch makes the dress far stiffer, and prevents its bursting into flame when placed in contact with any burning substance." THE LEGION OF Hosona, at the close of the reign of Napoleon 1., consisted of 9,000 members. Great progress has been made since then. There are now 272,000 members. THE VINTAGE in the district round Paris, as well as throughout the whole of France, presents the most favourable appearance, and there is every reason to expect that the year 1858 will stand forth among the most favoured ones, both for quantity and quality. THE BRITISH SALT MANUFACTURERS, through the Salt Chamber of Commerce, have addressed a memorial to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on the subject of the salt trade, as an article worthy of con sideration, in concluding a treaty with China. THE WRECKS reported during the month of January were 154, in February 162, in March 179, in April 142, in May 128, in June 102, in July 101, and in August 112—making a total during the past eight months of 1,080. THE COMET detected by Dr. Donati on the 2nd of June has, during the last few days, rapidly increased in brightness, and on Sunday evening, when the sky was very clear, was fully as conspicuous to the naked . eye as a star of the fourth magnitude. The tail very distinct, forming, with the somewhat brilliant nucleus, a pretty telescopic object. The brightness of the comet will be constantly on the increase during the present month. It will be found about 10 degrees above the north-west hods= at eight o'clock in the