The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

p G6O hall utter an interval of only five minutes, and were conducted up the central aisle by the president, chairmen, and members of the executive committee, to the dais in the transept. Her Majesty having taken her seat, with the Prince Consort, the Princess Alice, the Prince of Wales, and Prince Alfred s. ated on her left, a id the Prince of Prussia, the Prit,c ,ss Royal, and Sir George Grey on her right, the rzhestra pealed forth the National Anthem, Madame Clara Novello singing the solos, and filling with her rich clear voice the entire building. At the conclusion of the National Anthem, Mr. Fairbeirn, the chairman, and other members of the executive committee, and Mr. Deane advanced to the front of the dais, and Mr. Fairttairn read au address to the Queen. Her Aikjesty received the address most graciously, and, having handed it to Sir George Grey, said : The splendid spectacle presented to my view on this occasion affords a gratifying proof both of the generous munificence with which the possessors of valuable works of art in this country have responded to your desires, and encouraged your efforts in the attainment of thirf great result, and also of the enlightened taste and judgment which have guided you in the arrangement of the treasures placed at your disposal. The members of the executive committee were then severally prevented by Sir George Grey, and had the honour of kissing her Majesty's hand. The corporation a Manchester, headed by the mayor, Mr. James Watts, next advanced to the throne, and the Recorder of the City of Manchester, Mr. Armstrong, Q.C., read an address, to which her Majesty graciously replied I thank you sincerely for the warm interest which you have expressed in all that concerns my own welfare and that of my family, and for your congratulations on the ap proaching union of my eldest daughter with the Prince of an illustrious house, which, while it affords to them, under God's blessing, the best prospect of happiness, will, I trust, also be conducive to the interests of this kingdom. I have the greatest pleasure in again visiting Manches ter, not only because it enables me to mark my cordial approval of the valuable and interesting exhibition which has been opened with so much success within these walls, but also because it has given me another opportunity of witn. ssing the gratitying proofs of the ardent loyalty and attachment of the inhabitants of this great seat of manu facturing industry. Yon may be assured that there is no object nearer to my heart than to advance the hest interests and permanent welfare of my loyal and faithful people. At the conclusion of the reply Mr. James Watts, the mayor, advanced, and kneeling at the foot of the dais, her Majesty received a straight, cross-handled sword from the Prince Consort, which she gracefully laid on the shoulder of Mr. Watts, who by the act was knighted. and rose up Sir James. The honour was so quietly and so instantly conferred that it seemed to take the audience by surprise for an instant, when prolonged cheering arose from all parts of the building. The same honour had, we are informed, been previously offered to Mr. Thomas Fairbairn and Mr. Heelis, the Mayor of Salford, but was most respectfully declined by those gentlemen. The Mayor and Corporation of the borough of Salford then presented the third and last address, her Majesty returning a suitable reply. During the whole of the time that this ceremonial was enacting the rain fell in torrents, and pattered on the roof so as almost to drown all other sounds. Her Majesty then proceeded to examine the galleries devoted to the works of the ancient and modern masters. This inspection was of the most strictly private character, and none but the royal party accompanied the Queen. After the inspection of the Ancient Gallery her Majesty proceeded to the recep tion.room, where a most sumptuous luncheon, served on gold plate, had been prepared for the royal party by Mr. Donald, the euterprking restorateur to the Exhibition. Having partaken of this repast, the inspection of the Gallery of Modern Masters was proceeded with. This did not terminate till past two o'clock, when her Majesty again returned to the central hall, and amid the same enthusiastic de monstrations of affectionate loyalty was conducted down to the reception•room, and took her departure with the same ceremonies and royal salutes as had welcomed her arrival. The royal party returned to Worsley•hall by the same route through Manchester, but at a very rapid rate. On Wednesday her Majesty left Worsley about ten o'clock, and made her second and final visit to the Art Treasures Exhibition, at Old Trafford, accompanied by the Prince Consort, the Prince of Prus•ie, the Princess Royal, Princess Alice, the Prince of Wales, Prince Alfred, Sir George Grey, the Duchess of Sutherland, and the Earl of Elles mere. They arrived at the Palace about halt' past eleven o'clock, and remained in the building until a little after two o'clock in the afternoon. The visit was strictly private. On the Queen's return to Worsley, in passing thro.igh Worsley, she paid a visit to Peel-park, to see the marble statue of her Majesty, which was raised to commemorate her visit to the park in 1851, when she was received by from 70,000 to 80,000 hL THE PlitSB, JULY 4, 1857. Sunday scholars and teachers. It was inaugurated, as will be recollected, by the Prince Consort, on the 6th May lost, the day after the opening of the Art Treasures Exhibition by his Royal Highness. Many thousands of people had assembled in front of the park gates, and several hundreds of the leading inhabitants, including many ladies, were admitted into the park. The royal carriage stopped only fur a minute or two in front of the statue, where the Queen, who d►d not alight, exchanged a few words with the Mayor of Salford, and seemed very' muci► pleased with the memorial, which is the ,vork of Mr. Noble, and was erected by subscriptions raised partly by the authorities and partly by the teachers and scholars in the Sunday-schools of Manchester and Salford. Her Majesty returned to Worsley, where she remained until Thursday morning, departing for London at half-past nine o'clock. The royal train arrived at Euston-square at three o'clock. His Royal Highness the Prince of Prussia did not return direct to Worsley, but, accompanied by their Highnesses the Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales, and Prince Alfred, and attended by the Prussian Minister, Count Moltke, and several members of the suite, proceeded to the Town hall for the purpose of receiving a congratulatory address from the Mayor and Corporation of the City of Manchester. On entering the hall, the audience rose in a body and received their Royal Highnesses with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of applause, which were again and again renewed. Prince Frederick seemed both surprised and moved at his reception, and con tinued to bow his acknowledgments till silence was gradually restored. Sir James Watts then advanced at the head of the aldermen and members of the Town Council, and Mr. Heron, the town-clerk, read the address, as follows : We rejoice that the occasion of the visit of your Royal Highness to this city, with her Most Gracious Majesty, has afforded us the opportunity of thus publicly presenting our wariu and hearty congratulations to your Royal High ness upon the intended alliance between your Royal High- ness and the Princess Royal of England. We offer these congratulations in the full and confident belief that by such auspicious union the happiness of the Princess Royal will be secured, and the fondest wishes of our beloved Queen in her behalf be realised, while the friendly feeling which has happily so long subsisted between England and Prussia will be thereby strengthened and per petuated, and as the consequence great advantages will result to the people of both countries. His Royal Highness, receiving his reply from Count Moltke, read it in a clear and very loud tone of voice, so as to be distinctly audible to every person throughout the hall. His Royal Highness spoke with only a slight German accent. On that part of his reply which referred to his intention to do all in his power to secure the happiness of the Princess Royal he laid marked and emphatic stress, and eli cited applause which lasted some time. His reply was as follows : It is with the greatest satisfaction that I receive the expressions of sincere and cordial welcome which the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of the city of Manchester have addressed me on the occasion of this my first visit to this town. I am happy to be able to gratify on this occasion the desire which I have long felt to visit in person a town and district which is of such great importance to this land, and the influence of which on the progress of industry is as well known and appreciated in my own country as in England. I beg now to thank you for the hearty congratulations you express to me upon my intended alliance with her Royal Highness the Princess Royal. I hope that God's blessing may rest upon this union, in which to secure the happiness of the Princess Royal will be the dearest duty of my life. I sincerely rejoice with you in the prospect of this union drawing still closer for the future the ties of friendship happily existing between Prussia and this great nation. Immediately after the reply was delivered to Sir James Watts their Royal Highnesses quitted the hall, the whole proceedings having lasted less than ten minutes. A rcagnificEnt collation was prepared in the Mayor's parlour, of which their Royal Highnesses partook, and took their departure from the Town hall at half-past three precisely. On Thursday, at half. past eight a.m., her Majesty and the royal party left Worsley, on their return to Buckingham Palace, where they arrived safely in the course of the afternoon. RAILWAY ACCIDENTS. THE railway season appears to have set in with ifs usual severity. The North Kent lina commenced business on Sunday evening last, when the 9.13 p.m. up train from Strood , which reached Blackheath in safety at 10.3:2, fifteen minutes after time, on arriving at Lewisham, was there brought to a stand by the "danger" signal about 200 yards from the Lewisham station. Suddenly the shrill whistle of the up train from the Beckenham branch line was) heard. The guard of the'Lewisham train, who had got out on the bank, ran down towards the coming train, waving his lantern and shouting. He was seen, but it was too late, —the train passed him "at twenty miles an hour." The choked whistle and the grating sound of the breaks were heard by the affrighted passengers of the Lewis ham train, who leaped right and left out of the windows ; in another instant the last carriages were dashed into with frightful violence, crushed up like hat-boxes, and some dozen people hurled into eternity. The scene of course at such a moment is only to be sketched by an eye-witness : Such scenes as followed the collision ( writes one), I could hardly have imagined. Those passengers who were able quitted their seats, and ran back to ascertain the ex tent of the mischief; but it was dark, and many minutes elapsed before lights could to procured. When torches were forthcoming, it was bound that the hi'id carriages were crushed beneath the tender, and it was only with the aid of saws and other carpenter's tools that the killed and wounded could be extracted. The shrieks and noise of the affrig iced crowd who had jumped headlong, as it were, from the carriages, added to the confusion, and upwards of two hours elapsed before all the sufferers were got front beneath the ruins. The horrible nature of such an accident, the fright ful wounds inflicted, and the want of remedies which are of course never at hand, are noticed more in detail by a correspondent, " F.," of the Times, who writes : The confusion from first to last was frightful, and the delay in procuring the mechanical contrivances which alone could have brought relief to the sufferers was surely needlessly prolonged. Nothing could be done to extract the bodies of some of the sufferers without jacks and powerful pulleys, and levers—for the mass of one carriage had been hurled upon another, and had crushed and buried the wretched travellers in the lower carriage in the most complicated and hideous and apparently inextricable manner. To all our applications to the railway people for j.tcks we had for a reply that they had been sent for. Consider what the exigency was. There was one poor lady whose leg was jammed between the wheel of the upper carriage and the iron and woodwork of the lower, who was beseeching us to raise it only a little and she could be saved. I saw her thus fixed for more than an hour with an impending mass of splintered beams and ironwork threatening to crush her every moment. Close by her was a poor fellow whose body hung down through the bottom of the carriage, but whose left leg was likewise in a vice by which he alone was supported, except when some of us were ab,e by turns to hold up his bead by creeping under the carriages. One great evil which we encountered in our efforts to extricate the sufferers was the thronging of the mob and the absence of control snd organisation. No doubt we received assist ance from the police in certain respects, for they brought more lamps—a thing of material importance, as there seemed at one time a chance of the medley of broken woodwork which inclosed the poor creatures being set on fire by the torches which were improvised. I can speak personally as to the use on this occasion of a little organisation. I found on running up to the place where the screams and groans of agony were issuing two young men already at work. At the risk of being crushed and mangled by the dislocated heaps of iron, wood, and glass, they had crawled under the broken carriages, which were pressing alike ou the dying and the dead, and with indotuitalle courage, energy, and skill gave direction to one or two who could help how to apply our force. One of these, whose face I could not see, adopted the plan of communicating to the stranger who assisted him by a number. He had found a young woman but little hurt, but almost hopelessly buried, and transfixed by her clothes in a most frightful position. By giving directions, and by the help of a clasp-knife, and by literally cutting and tearing her out of her clothes, we were able to extricate her from being crushed and suffocated—a fate which befel a poor woman next to her. 1 believe it was this latter who whispered to me as I supported her head, " Shall we be saved?" I begged her to keep up her courage, and assured her she would be saved —for I then thought that in a few more minutes we should have had the screws and tackle which might have availed—but this was not to be. Just before the carriage was thrown over on its side, which wits the only mode at our command of getting at three people, jammed in a hopeless condition, I saw her dead and cold, her face quite black. Eleven persona were killed, all of whom were in the last carriage ; and upwards of forty more or less severely wounded. An official inquiry and an inquest is being held. At the inquiry, before Mr. Trail at Greenwich, the guard of the Beckenham train ad mitted that he saw the distant signal at "danger " just after they had passed Blackheath. " If a proper look out had been kept," he added, " these lights ought to have been seen long before by the driver and fire man." The station•master at Blackheath swore that his signalman, at the moment of the Beckenham train leaving Blackheath, at 10.34, said, " All clear up, sir," and that when he examined his signal-book immediately afterwards, the signal "All clear up, 10.48," was entered. He admitted that when he ex amined the indicator it showed 46 Stop all up," and