The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

_ io . - all of which the prisoner confessed to have taken, and pleaded that it was distress for money, owing to 11:1; wife's failura iu a business she carried on sepa rately, that had induced him to rob his employers. Many articles of jewellery were traced to different pawnbrokers, and another man named Jones was brought up at the same time, charged with having been the person by whom they were actually pledged, and, as it was presumed, with a guilty knowledge of the source whence they were derived. Both prisoners were committed for trial. UNDER SOME APPARENT DELUSION, Mr. W. P. Hunter has been exhibiting placards before the window of Mr. Rice, a stationer, in Charles-street, Haymarket. Though a perfect stranger, he had often previously given annosance, by entering the shop and accusing Mr. Rice of harbouring Lady De Canning and detaining her jewels. Mr. Rice vainly assured him that he knew nothing of the lady or the jewels ; and his persecutor then took to parading placards before his shop, which contained offensive matter and interrupted business ; consequently Mr. Hunter was given in charge, and afterwards examined at Marl borough-street : When called upon for an answer to the complaint., the de fendant made a rambling statement to the effect that somebody had told him Lady De Canning and her jewels were forcibly de tained by Mr. Rice, and lie therefore conceived he had a right to Interpose his good offices to arrange matters. He did not think any one could take offence at the placards he had affixed to Mr. Rice's premises. In reply to other questions, lie said he had been for some years foreign correspondent to the Times. He had also been the Syrian correspondent of the Morning Cho. Nick, and had published a work on Syria. It appearing that the defendant laboured under some kind of delusion, Mr. Hardwick ordered him to tlnd sureties to keep the peace for a month, as this course would give time to communicate with his friends. Pibtnts anb . Offences. Futts.—Owing, doubtless, to the violent measure rendered necessary to correct by artificial heat the inclemency of the natural season, the past week has produced its daily record of conflagrations, resulting in a series of disasters from that cause of almost un precedented extent. The frost has at the same time delayed the passage of the engines through the streets, interfered with the flow of water, and almost paralysed the muscles of the firemen. Thus, the fires have not only been more frequent, but far wider in their spread and the tithedestrucn they oc• casioned, than at any period recorded annals of the brigade. The first and most disastrous con flagration which we have to relate during the se'nnight broke out late in the evening of Saturday last in a block of lofty and richly-stored warehouses situated between Friday-street and Bread-street, Cheapside. The buildings were many stories in height, their several floors being chiefly occupied by different firms engaged in the silk and carpet trades, and were crowded with costly articles of those descriptions. After business hours these ware houses aro mostly locked up and left tenantless, and such was the case this day week about eight o'clock, when the whole place seemed in perfect security. Two hours afterwards, however, flames were seen issuing from the lower rooms of No. 5, Bread street, used as a hat manufactury ; and before any thing could be done to check them they had ex tended through the whole length and breadth of the building, had ascended to the upper floors, and forced their way into the adjoining houses. At mid night, while bells in the adjacent steeples were ring ing the new year in, the fire was at its height, nor could it be subdued until the morning was con siderably advanced, some burning relics, indeed, continuing unextinguished even as late as the fol lowing Monday. In the end it was found that Nos. 4,5, and tie, in Bread-street, extending far back in the rear towards Friday-street, were burnt to the shell; No. 0 had the top floors almost entirely con sumed, the two houses further on were considerably injured, and the buildings on the opposite side of the narrow street sustained a severe scorching, and were saved from a worse fate by great exertion. Lord Mayor Sidney was early on the spot, and did good service in taking the command and disciplining the crowd of eager but somewhat confused assistants, by whose means these last-mentioned buildings were rescued from their imminent danger. For this ser vice his lordship has received the public thanks of the tenants, whose property would otherwise have fallen a sacrifice. The total loss of the numerous sufferers has been roughly estimated to exceed 80,000/., but the insurances are heavy, and will cover the whole damage to some of the more fortunate tenants. An inquest has been held to trace, if pos • Bible, the origin of the catastrophe, but the jury found no evidence on which to arrive at a verdict. Several fires of comparatively trifling extent hav i occurred in the interval, three conflagrations broke out almost simultaneously on Wednesday morning. The worst, of these destroyed a large public-house, the 1 otnsd iwne Anns, in Paradise-street, Xalington, which we bunt down, with all its con- iii.... THE PRESS. tents. Some of the inmates had a narrow escape from the flames and the adjoining buildings were much injured. In the other cases, the residence of Lord Normanton, in Seamore place, Curzon-street , and Messrs. Hobbs' patent-lock warehouse, iu Cheap side, were discovered to be on fire, but the destructive element was arrested with some considerable damage to the furniture and contents of the respective premises. Doctors' Commons, on the following day, *as the scene of a fire, w hich consumed all that was com bustible in the house of Mr. Coombes, a carpenter and builder, s ituated on St. Bennett's - hill. No thing but the bare walls was left standing when the flames were mastered. Two extensive fires in the provinces have been reported since our last number. In Bradford, York shire, on Thursday night last week, some large and newly-erected buildings, forming a range of ware houses, and occupied by several firms, as stores for stuff goods, &c., were more than half destroyed by a conflagration. Some portions of the range were entirely consumed, and the loss on the building and at cks burnt or damaged by water and hasty removal is stated to exceed 50,000/. A worse catastrophe happened at Rochdale on Tuesday last, when two women perished, and many operatives sustained broken limbs and severe bruises, at a fire which almost totally consumed an extensive factory be longing to Messrs. Kelsall. The building was filled with machinery for making flannels, and the fire originated through a gaslight catching some " floss " thrown off from the " devil," in which the fibres of the wool are loosened and separated. About 150 workpeople were in the factory at the time, many of whom, in their terror at the rapid advance of the flames, leaped from the upper floors, and thus encountered the injuries which, as we have stated, proved fatal to two out of the number. The damage from this fire is estimated at 12,0001. A Szitrors ACCIDENT occurred on Monday to Thomas Morton at the new Houses of Parliament. He was engaged outside the building, when he slipped on some snow, and fell through a skylight a depth of twenty feet. He was conveyed to West minster Hospital, but with no hopes of recovery. MORE than usual carelessness seems to have been exhibited by the employis on the Midland line in a case which resulted on Monday in a serious though fortunately not fatal collision between an express and luggage train near Rugby. A passenger train was behind time, being nearly disabled, and the luggage train that followed was consequently obliged to wait on the rails. An hour afterwards the express train was due, but during that interval nothing was done to communicate the fact of this stoppage and the blockade of the line, except that a guard put down a fog signal. This signal exploded properly and gave the driver of the express train warning to reduce his speed, but before he could pull up alto gether his engine dashed into the hindermost luggage waggon and brought the express train to a sudden stop, fracturing several of the carriages and throw ing about the passengers inside them with much violence. Fright and severe bruises constituted, however, the worst injuries sustained, and the train, after a considerable delay, proceeded to London. Two DEATHS have occurred from suffocation in Chester Union Workhouse. One of the apartments of the house was warmed by a stove in which char• coal was burnt, owing to some difficulty in obtaining coke as usual. The consequence was to produce a degree of asphyxia, from which two children of ten and seven years old perished, and all the inmates of the room would have shared their fate if the door had not been timely opened from without. An in quest has been held, but the jury found no reason to deviate from the customary verdict of " Accidental death." A PAINFUL ACCIDENT occurred on Christmas-day to Mr. Headlam, M.P. for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who is staying with his father, Archdeacon Headlam, at Wycliffe rectory. The lion. gentleman was going down stairs, when his foot caught some obstruction and he lost his balance : in struggling to recover it lie snapped the tendons of the kneecaps of both legs. It is expected that no permanent bad effects will ensue, though Mr. Headlam will, probably, be confined to his room for several weeks. A CrTTER BOAT was swamped in the pool last week by the swell of a passing steamer, and a young man named Gianatti, son of the proprietor of the Warwick Hotel in Warwick street, was drowned. At the inquest held on Saturday last an important ques tion arose as to the speed which steamers could legally employ when passing through the pool and other crowded parts of the Thames. Witnesses differed much as to the rate at which the steamer, a large Hamburg boat, was proceeding at the time, their estimates ranging between four miles and eight per hour. Almost equal divergence was shown in the opinion of the persons who ought to have known the fact correctly as to the rate which acts of SATURDAY, Parliament ' permitted under such circumstances. Ultimately the jury found that death had been caused " Accidentally," and the friends of the deceased de clared their intention to obtain a more satisfactory decision from some other tribunal. MUCH interest was excited at the Cambridge Borough Sessions, holden on Monday morning, by a charge of assault preferred by Mr. Foster, one of the most eminent solicitors in the town, against an under graduate of Christ's College, the son of Mr. Deighton, the well-known bookseller of Trinity street. The defendant is a slim youth of about twenty years of age, and far inferior is physical power to his complaining opponent. The quarrel between them arose it appears out of some misun derstood expressions used by Mr. Foster in the course of a case which he was conducting in the county court ; and the assault specified by the complainant was that Mr. Deighton, jun., had met him in the street, called him a liar, and struck him in the face. He did not wish, he said, to have a " set to," but told the defendant he should hear from him, a promise which be kept by the present action. The defendant was fined 201., and ordered to find recog nisances for peaceable behaviour in future. GIGANTIC " SHEARS," as they are called, were erected a few years since at Southampton. dock for the purpose of lifting into the mail-packet steamers their boilers and massive machinery. These shears were seventy feet high, weighed fifty tons, and could lift seventy. On Monday morning many yards of the dock wall, forming the foundation for the machine, gave way, and the shears fell to the ground, occasioning a wreck altogether which will cost it is calculated 15,0001. to repair. The Madrid steam ship was lying immediately alongside at the time, waiting to have some machinery hoisted in, but the shears fortunately fell inland, and the steamer es caped the destruction which was otherwise unavoid able. THE CONFESSION OF A MURDER has been volun tarily made by a private soldier of the 50th Regiment, named Benjamin M'Donnal, who stated to the chief warder of the Devonport Military Prison that he had a short time since murdered a young woman, named Theresa Rundle, a native of Lancashire. His sup posed victim had accompanied the regiment on its removal from Preston to Plymouth. M'Donnal re peated his confession to the superintendent, and described the place where he had buried the body of the unfortunate woman. Owing to the intense frost no accurate search could be made, and the body has consequently not been found. Meantime it is hoped that the singular statement has arisen only in some mental hallucination on the part of M'Donnal. THE HOME- OFFICE, acting upon the suggestion of Mr. Wakley and the coroner's jury, in the case of the recently-discovered murder at Acton, have issued placards to the effect that a reward of 1001. would be paid, 501. to the discoverer of the man who drove the cart, and 501. to the discoverer of the person who placed the body in the ditch. bituar SIGNOR GAETANO POLIDORI, the translator of Milton and Lucan into Italian, and well known to his countrymen as one of the veterans of their litera ture, died recently at his house in London, at the great age of ninety-four. A life more consistently and tranquilly devoted to letters and poetry could not easily be found among the records of the learned ; and many associations are called up by the mention of the name of a man who for some time was secre tary to Alfieri, and who was the father of that Pr. Polidori, author of "The Vampire," whose name is so familiar to the readers of Byron. Signor Polidori was a Tuscan by birth, and studied in the University of Pisa. He became attached to the person of Alfieri, as his secretary, in 1783. Of the great and eccentric count he tells some anecdotes in a volume of his collected poems published in London ten years ago. There the reader may see how much hatred of " tyranny " was compatible with habits of private despotism of the most extraordinary kind—with other contradictions—all on the great scale of a man of genius and a patrician ; and yet learn, on the authority of the secretary's four years' experience, that the count, though " superb° al part del Satanno di Milton," had qualities which made one who was exposed to all his humours yet esteem and love him. Polidori nursed him in a dangerous illness in 1787, on which occasion, in the face of death, the count expressed his resignation to that event, only regret ting to leave uncompleted the edition of his tragedies which had been commenced at the celebrated Paris press of Pidot ! Signor Polidori accompanied the count to Paris, and was there when the revolution broke out; soon after which he came to London, to instruct the youth of this country in the Italian literature and language. Among other letters of recommendation, Alfieri gave 'inn one to Paoli, whose familiar friend he became and remained so till the death of that remarkable man in 1807. Paoli ho _ neared him with a bequest in his will. Alfieri was