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, which consumed all that was com-
bustible in the house of Mr. Coombes, a carpenter
and builder, situated 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.