The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-14 00:00:00

LETTER FROU THE PRINCE OF WALES.

The following letter was received by the Lord
Mayor of London from the Prince of Wales :

"Marlborough House, Pall Mall, September 6.

"My Lord,—l am directed by the Prince and Princess of
Wales to enclose your lordship a cheque for fifty guineas in
aid of the fund now being raised under your auspices for
the relief of the sufferers from the late terrible calamity in
the Thames, caused by the running down of the Princess
Alice steamer on the evening of the 3rd inst. I am at the same
time desired to make it known through you and the medium
of the Press the feelings of sorrow their Royal Highnesses
experienced on hearing of this dreadful accident, and on
learning that so many of their fellow-creatures had been
suddenly hurried into eternity. Their Royal High
nesses feel the deepest sympathy for the relatives of those
who were drowned en this melancholy occasion, and con-
dole with them most sincerely in the gild and distress
they must suffer from the loss they have sustained under
such terrible circumstances.—l have the honour to be, my
lord, your lordship's most obedient servant, "D. M. PROBYN,
Lient-General, Comptroller and Treasurer to his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales."

The Hon. and Rev. A. Anson, rector of Woolwich, who
took part in the work at the waterside on the night of
the wreck, preached a sermon on the subject on Sunday
evening, at the parish church. He selected for his text
the words of the burial service, "in the midst of life we
are in death," remarking that those words had probably
never had such a vivid and appalling realisation as during
the past week, when the angel of death outspread his
wings on Tuesday night. The shadow had fallen with an
awful darkness upon this locality, and throughout the
land in every household the gloom had fallen, awakening
bitter sorrow and tender sympathy. They had but just
before read in the newspapers of an accidert to an excursion
train, and mourned for the five deaths and the forty injured,
little surmising that in a few brief hours a calamity the most
awful that living man had known was to occur at their very
doors. Who should tell the agony of that Tuesday night,
when they heard that the well-known steamer in which so
many now present had spent happy holidays- was suddenly
sunk so near them, with eight or nine hundred precious
souls on board? It seemed incredible, and yet accidents
on the water highway were as probable as on land, and
necessarily more fatal. Soon the first fruits of the wreck
arrived, and they learned that of all the people on board
scarcely 150 had escaped The anguish of that night, the agony
of suspense endured by the families waiting for daylight. and
hoping against hope, the anxiety of those who came with the
morning to seek for their relatives and friends, and finding
them not, these were too heartrending to describe. There
had been terrible accidents in mines, on the surface of the
land, and at yea; but in no case, not even when the Eurydice
sank with all her complement but two, had there been an
accident which like this had caused such utter desolation to
families. It was hard to part with those we loved even after
sickness; but here in a few filaments hundreds of loved ones
had been, without warning or preparation, torn• from their
friends, creating a multitude of sorrows in which individual
griefs appeared as nothing, but which had no consolation
to the hearts of the bereaved. He prayed that God
would bind up the hearts that bled; human conso-
lation was out of place in presence of such over-
whelming sorrow, and they could but point to the
Almighty hand which doeth what seemed to Him good. He
would not picture the awful scenes of the past few days; they
were too sacred for words even in that place. He asked his
hearers how it would have been with them, and after en-
larging upon this theme said that without inquiring into the
spiritual condition of the departed they would commit their
bodies to the earth in the charitable spirit of a Church which
believed all things, hc,pad all things, without presuming to
judge of what man could not know. At the conclusion of
the service the hymn for the burial of the dead was sung, the
"Dead March' in Saul was played on the organ, and a
muffled peal was tolled from the belfry.

At the English Presbyterian Church, New-road, Wool-
wich, Dr. BAIR preached a powerful sermon from Mark xiii.
83, "Take ye heed, watch, and pray, for ye know not when
the hour is." He disclaimed any idea of presenting a sensa-
tional picture of the late catastrophe, but so many of their
Immediate neighbourhoods had been involved in the sudden
loss that he felt constrained to speak of the absorbing sub-
ject. He contrasted in forcible language the pleasant voyage
and its lamentable end, and, while he hoped that those who
were gone had been prepared for eternity, he urged those who
remained to be ready also, for they knew not the hour when
they too should be called to eternity. In concluding his dis-
course, which was marked with much pathos and rhetorical
power, the rev, gentleman said: "Let all inhabitants uncover
their heads as these funerals pass through our streets, put up
the shutters, and hang out the signals of mourning and of
woe."

The Rev. James Turner, whose name has several times
been mentioned in the events of the week, preached at
Parson's-hill Chapel, from Ecclesiastes xii. 5, " The
mourners go about the streets." He said that not only the
town, but the whole nation, had been plunged in an ocean
of sorrow, and he specially pleaded for kindness and assist-
ance to the friends who were searching for and carrying
away their dead.

A large congregation assembled on Sunday morning in St
Alphage parish church, Greenwich, when a sermon was
preached by the Rev, J. P. Hobson, M.A., Oxon, senior
curate. Selecting as his text (Proverbs 27, 1 v.), "Boast not
thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may
bring forth," the rev, gentleman remarked that during the
past six months accidents had been unusually numerous.
On March 24, three hundred lives perished in the
Eurydice; on May 31, by another terrible catastrophe,
the same number of human souls were launched into eternity.
Again, on June 7, by a colliery accident, another 250 lives
were sacrificed; then on the 21st of last month society was
once more startled by the terrible disclosures of the Sitting-
bourne railway accident. But only last week, here in our
midst, nay, even at our very doors, had gone forth from
many a heart the bitter cry of desolation, bereavement and
woe. By the loss of the Princess Alice 600 souls had passed
through the "dark valley of the shadow of death," and no
sooner were the facts of the awful disaster published by the
Press than all England stood aghast. He (the preacher) had
no desire to refer to the details, for such had been fully
given elsewhere. His sole desire, however feebly, was to im-
press on those who heard him a few practical lessons. All
who were travelling would do well never to rest satisfied
until their journey was ended ; to be eager to escape the
danger of sin, and to ask why God, havitg taken so many,
had spared them. It was that they might have longer time
for repentance Might those then present in that church
who were out of Christ resolve at once to cast all their sins
on IBM who, in His good time, would lead them to the de-
sired haven, even where they would be.

At the Ritualistic Church of St. Mary Magdalen, at Brad-
ford, on Tuesday, intercession was offered for the souls of
those who had perished in the Princess Alice.

At church parade of the troops, on Sunday, at Woolwich,
the Royal Artillery band played Beethoven's Dead March.

The Bywell Castle arrived in Shields Harbour on Saturday
evening from London, and proceeded to the Howdon Docks
to take in cargo. Her arrival occasioned great interest, a
large number of people gathering on the banks to watch her
progress up the river.

The funeral of the wife and three children of Mr. W. W.
Towse took place on Baturday at Norwood, and was attended
by a large number ot the company's officers and several
of the directors, by whom Mr. Town is held in the highest
esteem, and the greatest sympathy is expressed for him.

Mrs. Flatman, of Newmarket, who is the widow of the late
Mr. John Flatman, the once famous jockey, now mourns the
loss of five relatives, viz., her married daughter, Nancy
Mouflet, aged 33, her son-in-law, and the hubband of her
eldest daughter, Mr. Louis Alex Mout'let, aged 42; their two
children, Alexander and Annie, aged, the termer seven, the
latter live years; and an unmarried daughter, Thins Sarah
Flatman, aged 29.