The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-23 00:00:00

CHARGE OF DROWNING AN INFANT.

On Monday afternoon an inquest was held before
Mr. Rutter, county coroner, at Newton-heath, near Man-
chester, on the body of a child, ainteea months old, which
was drowned in the canal, near Ten Acre-bridge, on the
previous evening. The child belonged to a woman named
Eau Walker, end a man named John Chandler had ac-
knowledged himself to be its father. He, however, resisted
en
attempt made by the mother to affiliate it upon him
about twelve months ego, and the summons was dismissed
for want of the necessary legal proof. On Sunday after-
noon Chandler called upon Walker at her lodgings, in
Manchester, and induced her to leave the house and take a
walk with him. She carried the child with her. The man
wu then observed to be intoxicated. Some men wbo met
them shortly afterwards heard them diepteing, apparently
about the child. The woman was speaking very crossly.
Subsequently they were seen by some boys in the fields near
the canal bank. One of the boys, named Daniel Cameron,
said he first saw Chandler leaning over the palings. He
looked angry at witness, and the boys watched him, when
he returned into the field beside the woman. She was
seated on the ground at the hedge side, and the child was
io I.er arms, her back being to the canal. Chandler no-
ticed the boys watching him, went towards them a little
way, and then turned back again. He then took the child,
as witness thought, in a passion from the woman.
Ile carried it walking hawkweeds towards the canal, and
rolled down the bank, letting the child go as he approached
the water. Witness thought it had not fallen by accident,
bat that the man had done it purpcsely. Tim woman
*creamed on seeing the child in the water. The men was
verry neer the edge, and the chili gradually floated into the
undille,hut ho might easily have recovered it at first. The man
wanted to go away when he got out, but both the man and
woman were apprehended. Several persons were infected
to the spot by the screams of the woman, but the child was
allowed to sink, and the body was not recovered till half an
hour afterwards, when it was quite dead. When spoken
to about drowning the child, at the police station, the male
prisoner said, " drowned
wish I had dwned myself, too."
The coroner stated his conviction that the evidence went
no further than to show that the death of the child had
arisen from accident, the result of the brutal state of in-
toxication in which Chandler was.
The jury returned a verdict to the came alert.

GUN ACCIDENT.—On Saturday evening se'nnight,
two yound men, living at Saltto.d, were walking by the
side of the river looking out for rats. One of them had
gun which ht carried with the murals pointed behind him.
Turning soddenly round, the trigger Caine in contact with
some pan elide sineek-froek, the gun instantly went aff,
and digs bismonion near the The whole of
the in the neck, dividing the carotid artery
end==lostantaneous result.—Dant and Chelten-
ham Gasolb.

BALLOONING.
"IN THE CLOUDS:" OR SOME ACCOUNT OF A
BALLOON TRIP WITH MR. ORRIS.

BY HINIIIT KILTRZW.
(From the ',Mango, hoodoo News of liaturday lost)
I am naturally a coward—constitutionally and
habitually timid—l do not hesitate to confess it. The lite-
nry temperament and sedentary pursuits are, I believe,
seldom associated with physical courage. Fear, or the ideal
Presence of prospective injury, is necessarily an act of the
imagination ; and the sense of dagger, therefore, closely
connected with a sense of the beautiful and the se.theue
faculties la general. Your human bull dogs are mostly de-
ficient in mental refinement, and perhaps if there be a elms
of characters more faneyless than the rest of the world,
they are them who are said to belong to the " fancy." Jily
'weed is that all imaginative men are cowards ; and that I
am one I have at least moral courage and honesty enough
to acknowledge
Then why go up in a balloon?
Yes, why ? These are times when men'. principles of
action are sure to be canvassed; so, to prevent the impute-
Lion of any (also motives, I will make a clean tartan Of it,
and confess that it was merely "idle curiosity," as the world
calls it, that took me into the sir.
I had seen the great metropolis under almost every as-
pact. I had divert into holes and cortices hidden trout the I
honest and well-to do-portima of the cockney community.
I had visited Jacob's Island (the plague spot) in the height
of the cholera' when to Whale the very air of the place
was almost to breathe the breath of death. I had sought
out the haunts of beggars and thieves, and passed hours
communing with them as to their histories habits, natures,
end impulses. I had seen the world of London below the
surface, es it were, and I had a crating to contemplate it
far above it—to behold the immense MISS of vice and ava-
rice and cunning, of noble aspirations and humble heroism,
blent into one black spot; to t:.ke, as it were., an angel's
view of that huge city where, perhaps', there is more virtue
and more iniquity, snore wealth and more want huddled'
together in one vast heap than in any other part of the
earth ; to look down upon the strange incongruous clump
of palaces sod workhouses, of factory chiuineys and church
steeples, of banks and prisons, of docks and hasp:fah, of
parka and squares, of courts and alleys—to look down upon
thee* as the birds of tl:e air look down upon them,
and see the whole dwindle into a heap of rubbish
on the green-award, a human ant-hitt, as it were ;
to hear the hubbub of the restless sea of life below, and
hear it like the ocean in a shell, whispering to you of the
incessant struggling, and chafing., of tho distant tide—to
swims in the air far above all the petty jealousies and
heart-burnings, and small ambitions stud vain parader, and
' feel for once tranquil as a babe in a cut—that you were
hardly of the earth earthy; and to find, as you drank in
the pure thin air above you, the blood dancing and tingling
I joyously through your veins and your whole spirit becom
tog etherealised as, Jacob like, you mounted the aerial
ladder, and beheld the would beneath you fade and fade
from your sight like a mirage in the desert; to fuel your-
self really, as you had ideally in your dreams, fleeting
through the endless realms of space, aailir.g among the stars
free as "the lark at heaven's gate ;" and to enjoy fur a
brief half-hour at least a foretaste of that elysiau destiny
which is the hope of all To see, to think, and to feel thus
was surely worth some little risk, and this it was that led
me to peril my bones in the car of a balloon.
It is true that the aeriel bulls and ponies of late had taken
nearly all poetry from the skies, reducing the ancient myths
to the mere mega trickeries of an ethereal Aoki's—true
that the depraved rage for excitement—that species of men-
tal dram-drinking which ever demands some brutal stimu-
lant—had given a most vulgar, prosaic character to a voyage
which, when stripped of its peril, is perhaps one of the
purest and most dignified delights that the mind is capable
of enjoying; still, quickened with a love of my own art, and
heedless of any silly imputations of rivalry with quadrupeds
and mountebanks, I gladly availed myself of a stet in the
car which Mr. Green had u-tt aside for me.

At about a quarter to teven six of us and the
"veteran aeronaut" took our places in the large deep
wicker buck basket of a car attached to the lloyal Nassau
Balloon, while two gentlemen were seated immediately
above our beads, with their backs resting against the netting
and their legs stretched across the hoop to which the curd.
of the net-work aro hitt ned, sod from which depends the
car. There were altogether nine of us—a complete art of
human pins for the air to play at skittles with—and the
majority, myself above the number, no sylphs iii weight.
Above us reeled the great gas bag like a monster peg-top,
and all around the can were groups of men holding to the
aides of the basket, while the huge iron weights were
handed out and replaced by large squabby bags of sand.
In the course of about ten minutes all the arrangements
for starting were complete; the grapnel, looking like a
bundle of large iron fish-hooks welded together, was hang-
ing over the side of the car. The guide-rope, longer than
St. Paul's u high, and done up in a causes bag, with only
the end hanging out, was dangling beside the grapnel,
and we were raised some do feet in the air to try the ascen-
sive pow, rof the machine that was to bear us through the
clouds. Then, having been duly dragged down, the sigma
was at length given to fire the cannons, anti Mr. Green loosen-
ing the only rope that bound us to the gardens, we shm into
the air—or rather the earth seemed to sick suddenly down,
as if the spot of ground, with all the spectators on it, and
on which we ourselves bad been lately standing, bed been
constructed on the same principle as the Adelphi stage, and
admitted of being lowered at a moment's notice. The last
thing that I remember to have seen distinctly was the dash
of tho guns, and instantaneouslysehere appeared a multi-
tude of upturned faces in the gardens below, the greater
part with their mouths wide open, and a Mew= de fruc of
hands eetended above them all signalling farewell to us.
Then, u we swept rapidly above the trees, 1 could see the
roadway immediately outside the garden., stuck all over
with rows of tiny people, looking like so many black pins
on a cushion, and the hubbub of the voices below was like
the mound of a distant school let loose.

___
And hero began that peculiar panoramic effect which is
the distinguishing feature of a view from • balloon, and
which arises from the utter ebonies of all sense of motion
in the machine itself. The earth appeared literally to con-
sist of a long series of scenes, which were being continually
drawn along under you, as if it were • diorama beheld flat
upon the ground, and gam ono almost the notion that the
world was an endless landscape stretched upon rollers,
, which some invisible sprites were revolving for yuur especial
enjoyment.
Then, as we struck towards the fields of Surrey, and I
looked over the edge of the car in which I was standing,
holding on tight to the thick rope descending from the
hoop above, and with the rim of the wicker-work reash-
ing up to my breast, the Wed was the mat exquisite de-
light I ever ezperienced. The houses below looked like
the tiny wooden things out of • child's box of toys, and the
streets like ruts. To peer straight down gave yea an
awful sense of the height to which the balloon had al-
ready risen, and yet there was no idea of danger, for the
mind was too much occupied with the grandeur and no-
velty of the scene all around to feel the least alarm. As
the balloon kept on amending, the lines of buildings
grew smaller and smaller, till in a few minutes the pro-
intim seemed very much like the prominences on the
little coloured plaster models of countries. Then we
could see the gas lights along the different lines of road
start into light one after another all over the earth,
and presently the ground seemed to he covered with little
miniature illumination lamps such as may beaten resting
on the grate at the edge of the gravel-walks in suburban
gardens of amusement. The river we mold see winding
tar away, undulating, as it stratuasd ales& like a man-oi-
war's penitent, sad glittering hem sad Uwe in the dusk
like grey steel. All round the barium ware thick slate-
coloured clone, edged with the amigo e( the departed
sun ; and with Astor of rheas we seemed to be on a level.
So deep was the disk is the dieing*, that it was difilcult
to tell where the earth ended sad the sky began ; and in
trying to make oat the /Weeds afar 43, it seemed to be as
if you were looking through as musk crape. The roads
below were now like surety light-brown ribbons, and the
bridges serum the Thum almost like planks ; while the
tiny black barges, as they floated up the river, appeased
no bigger than insects. The large green fields had dwindled
down to about the size of kettle holders, and the hedges
were like strips of chenille.
When we were about a mile above the ground some of Its
threw pieced of paper into the grey air, and these, as we
rose and left them below, fluttered about like butterflies as
they fell. Then some of the more noisy of the crew struck
up a song, while I heard • dyepeptie gentleman imme-
diately behind me, as I was kneeling down (for there Wee
but one seat), andstretching my head over the side of the
ear contemplating the world of wonder below, confess to
fooling a little norvom,eaying that he was a man of natural
morel satrap, but his body overcame it, as he was subject
to fits of iodisation, and as a preventive to extreme ner-
vousness had taken nothing but vegetables for dinner that
day. And I mast confess myself that, poised up high in
the air as we were, with but a few slender cords to support
us, I could not help thinking of the awful havoc there
would be if the twigs of the wicker car were to break, and
the bottom to give way.
On what sharp church steeple, thought I, should I be
spitted, and as necked down, the beauty of the scene one*
more took all sense of fear from my mind, for the earth now
appeared eOl2OllO with the height, and seemed like a huge
bid,* bowl—as if it were the sky of the nether regions. The
lights of the villages muttered ever the scene were like
clusters of glow-worms, from the midst of which you could '
here and there distinguish the minima speck of soma rail-
way lamp.
• There, I've thrown over a letter directed to my house,"
said one et the passengers," telling 'em we're all safe up
here "—and as I stretched over the car, I saw the little
white fluttering thing go zigzagging down the air, while we
still mounted the sky.
Then some of the passengers, who had supplied them-
selves with an extraordinary stock of courage previous to
starting, by means of sundry bottles of " sparkling cham-
pagne," which had the effect of tasking them more noisy
than agreeable in such a situation, mast seeds begin quar-
relling with a rosewater captain in the hoop as to whether
they belonged to the t. anoboeraey" or the " noboeracy,"
and at one time their words were literally so high that
could the pair have got to elm quarters the dispute would
certainly have imagined a more serious eharaeter, for,
jammed tight together as we were in the car, the least at-
tempt at violence would certainly have ended in discharg-
ing the whole human cargo into the railway station below.
But as it was, it certainly did appear most ludicrous that
two rational beings must choose that place of all others
for engaging in some, paltry squabble as to the vulgar divi-
sion of the human family into t. nob." and " mobs."
Silence, however, was soon restored by Mr. Omen re-
minding the disputants that we were descending at a rapid
rate, and it was time they began to look out for their safety.
The dyspeptic passenger, who during the dispute had
evidently bean suffering from another attack of nervous-
.nees, was St length terrified beyond human enduranee by
the gentleman who was rather the worm for champagne

indulging la even unmoor language thaa bad yet (inns
nest to.

For mercy's sake don't swear up here, my Mel man,"
shivered out the pcor inland." " Wait, till you get down
below if you must swear. We are always in the hands of
Providence ; but up here, it strikes me that our lives are
literally banging by a thread."
The eellaprlng of the bottom part of the balloon, to
which Mr. Green here drew our attention as an evidence of
the rate at which we were descending, soon restored order,
and made every one anxious to attend to the directions of
the aeronaut. We could now hear the sound of "oh
hal-loon " again rising from the ground aid following in
our wake, telling us that at the small Tillages on oar way
the people were anxiously looking for our dearest. A bag
of ballast was entrusted to one of the passengers to let fall
at a given signal, while Green himself stood with the grap-
nel ready to loose immediately he came to a fitting spot.
Presently the signal for the descent of the bal-
last was given, and as it dropped it was curious
to watch it fall ; the earth had seemed . almost
at our feet es the ear swept over the fields.
but so long was the heavy bag in getting to the ground,
that as the eye watched it fell and fall, the mind was filled
I with amazement at the height the balloon still was in the '
air. Suddenly the sound as of a gun announced that the
bag had struck the soil, and then we were told to sit low
down in the car, and hold fast. Scarcely had we obeyed
the orders given, than the car wee suddenly and fiercely
jerked half round, and all within it thrown one top of
sneaker; immediately after this, bump went the bottom of
the ear on the ground, giTing us so violent a shake that it
seemed WI if every limb in the bogy had been simul-
taneously dislocated. Now the balloon pitched on to its
side, and lay on the ground struggling with the wind, and
rolling about, heaving like a huge whale in the agonies of
death.

"For hear/en's sake! hold fast," shouted Mr. Groftn, as
we were da•hcd up and delta in the car, all rolling one on
the other, with each fresh lurch of the giant•machine
stretched on the ground before us, and from which we
could hear the gas roaring from the valve, like the blest
to a furnace.

" Sit still, all of you, I say," roared our pilot, as he saw
some ono endeavouring to leave the car.
Again we were pitched right on end, and the bottom of
the car shifted into a ditch, the water of which bubbled up
through the wicker work of the car, and I, unlucky wight,
who was seated In that part to which the concussions were
mostly eontined, soon began to feel that I was quietly
sitting in a pool of water.
To move, however, was evidently to peril not only one's
own life, but that of all the other passengers; but still no
one came to us, for we had fallen in a swamp, which we
efterwarils found out was Pirbright-common, situate scme
halt dozen miles from Ouildford.

Presently, however, to our great delight, some hundred
drabamocked countrymen appeared, almost as if by magic,
around the edges of the car ; (or some little time they were
afraid to touch, but at last they got a firm hold of it, and
we were one after another extricated from our seats.
To tell the remainder of the adventure would be tame
and dull. Suffice it, after some two hours' labour the
aerial machine, car, grapnels, and all,was rolled and packed
up in a cart. and thus transported, an hour after midnight,
to Guildford—the voyagers Journeying to the same town in
a tilted cart, delighted with their trip, and listening to the
many curious adventures of the veteran aeronaut who had
successfully piloted them and some hundred others through
the air; and who—now that the responsibility of their
lives rested no longer in his hands—seemed a thoroughly
different man. Before ho was taciturn, and almost irrit.
able when spoken to; and now he was garrulous, and de
lighting all with hit intelligence, his enterprise, his en-
thusiasm, and his courtesy. Indeed, long shall we all
remember the pleasant night we passed with the old
ethereal pilot on his 300th ascent with the Royal Nassau
Balloon.