The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-17 00:00:00

Attihnts imb Chas.

A FIRE broke out on Wednesday morning in the
Barley-mow public-house, Salisbury-square, Fleet-
street, and, although the fire-escape belonging to the
Bridge street station was quickly brought to the spot,
unfortunately the maid-servant of the establishment
was suffocated. Engines were in instant attendance,
and the adjoining houses were saved, with great
damage.
LAwr YEAR was singularly unfortunate for the
trans-atlantic steamers. The Collins' steainer

Arctic was run down, the lerankiin was lust, tho

Humboldt nas wrecked, the City of Glasgow has
disappeared, and the City of Philadelphia is also
lost. The Hermann and Washington, 01 the Bremen

line, are laid up, and so are two other steamers be-
longing to another company on the same station.
ON Saturday an explosion took place at the gun-
powder manufactories of Messrs. l'igou and Wilk.,
situate close to the town of Dartford. The mills in
which the accident occurred were termed "incor-
porating," and they adjoined each other. Both were
levelled with the ground, and the entire stock of
powder contained in them destroyed. A man named
Millar bad his clothes set on fire, but had the pre
sence of mind to jump into the mill-pond, and
thereby extinguished the flames. He was, never-
theless fearfully burned. The works of Messrs.
Pigou and Wilks are very extensive, and the manu-
facture of gunpowder has been for some time carried
on with great activity at their establishment for the
purposes of the war.
A SINKER, NAMED THOMAS DANIEL, residing at
Llanelly, deposited a 561 b. cask of blesting•powder
on a table in his residence. Shortly afterwards, hie
own children, accompanied by some of the neigh-
bours, assembled around it, and during his tempo-
rary absence from the house one of the children,
eleven years of age, heated the poker in the fire and
pushed it into the cask through the cork-hole. The
powder exploded, blowing the loft and the roof clear
off, besides doing great damage to the furniture and
walls of the house. Two out of the six children pre-
sent have died, and very slight hopes are entertained
of the recovery of the others.
A TERRIBLE FIRE broke out on Thursday morning
in an extensive granary and wharf belonging to Mr.
Olendinning. termed Lucas's Wharf, anti upon the
rope and ship's sail works belonging to Mr. Hall.
both being situated on Ilennondsey• wall, and occupy-
ing there a large space of ground. Other premises
in the neighbourhood, containing flammable mate-
rials, were also involved in the flames, which ex-
tended very rapidly, and, in spite of the efforts made
to arrest their progress, the damage done has been
estimated to exceed 15,0001.
A MOST HORRIBLE ACCIDENThaS occurred at Sacra-
mento by the blowing up of ono of the river steamers
plying between Marysville and that city, in conse-
quence of her racing against an opposition boat. An
English gentleman, a Mr. Nicholson, from Matches
ter, lately arrived in this country, is among the
sufferers. He has had his leg broken in three places.
In noticing the accident, the California Chronicle
says :—" A keen competition has for some time been
conducted on our interior waters between the Cali-
fornia Steam Navigation Company and various inde-
pendent companies. Running between the vessels
of the rival lines naturally ensued, and the steamers
have been driven to excessive speed. The press
predicted that some dreadful calamity would soon
result from such culpable management, and the
public awaited the issue in fear and trembling. It
has come at last. On the 27th instant the steamer
Pearl, belonging to the Californian Steam Naviga-
tion Company, and plying between Marysville and
Sacramento, was blown to pieces by an explosion of
her boiler. There were one hundred and twenty-
two persons on board at the time, including the crew ;
of these nearly sixty are known to have been killed
by the explosion, or drowned by being thrown into
the water. Nearly thirty more have been wounded,
some very severely. Only twenty have escaped un-
injured. The remainder are missing, and it is feared
that most of them have been killed. The scene at
Sacramento, where the dead bodies, many of them in
fragments, were laid out in the hospital, was of the
most hortible character. The engineer of the
vessel, who escaped uninjured, has been appre-
hended. The captain and mate were both killed."

THE CONSERVATIVE LAND SOCIETY.—The tenth
quarterly general meeting of the members of this
society was held at Exeter-hall, on Wednesday, Vis-
count Ranelagh in the chair. The report Wednesday[
the
committee contained proofs of the progressive opera-
tions of the society. The gross receipts up to the date of
the last report were 16:1,5091. 19s. ; less withdrawals,
152,7301. 6s. 4d. The whole number of shares up to
March 10th was 10,729. The returns of the sale of
land showed the following results :—From Michael-
ma-s to Christmas, 1854, 2,9851; Christmas to March
10, 1855, 7,8921. 10s.—Total, in less than six months,
10,8771. 10s. The total sold during thoowttiog.
the society amounted to 102,4 t.