The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-31 00:00:00

THE SHEPPIELD CATASTROPHE.

The following correspondence has passed between
Sir Georp Gre the Secretary for Home Affairs, and the
directors of the Sheffield Waterworks :
Whitehall, Marsh 28, 1864.
Sir,—l am directed by Suretary Sr George Grey to
transmit to you a copy of a letter which be has this day re-
°Dived from Hz. Rawlinam, C.E., and to runindis yon of tl
very merlons resposeibility which the Sheffield Waterwooka
Company will tour, if, after the failure of the Bradfield
reservoir, and with a knowledge of the opinion exposed by
eminent engiueers, as well as by the caronsee jury, am to
the errors committed in its construction, the company coo-
tam to construct the reservoir at the Agden embankment
on the same plan. and without adopting proper measures
for preventing similar consequences to those which are
alleged to have produced the catastrophe at the Bradfield
reservoir, attended by such a fearful loss of life as well as
destruction of property.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
H. WADMIGTOS.
To the Chairman of the Sheffield Waterworks

Company, 131m8ald.

To the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, Bart., M.P.. her
Majesty's Priseipal BesreSary of State for Home Affairs.

sir,-0► the ifith inekeet I visited and inspected the
works in presume at the And, embankment now in course
of construction nem to the site of Bradfield failure. All
that is objection►ble in subsoil, is design, in material, and
in execution ►t Bradfield is squally objectionable at the
Agden embankment, bat, notentlietending the verdict of
the jury on the 24th, the works were being actively prose-
cuted on the 25th instant I beg to recommend that the
attention of the Sheffield Waterworks Company be officially
directed to the opinion of the jury, namely :—" That is
our opinion there bee sot been that engineering
skill and attention in the construction of the works
which their magnitude and importance dem►hded."
Cast-non pipes are laid through and beneath the made por-
tion of the embankment at its deepest part. These pipes
ought to be removed and placed in a tunnel or culvert
formed securely on one side of the reservoir in solid ground.
The material now put into the embankment is largely mixed
with rubble atoms, so as to make the mass of the embank-
meat porous. The stratified and open-jointed seams of rocks
within the water area of the reservoir are being bared, ►nd,
in fact, everything objectionable at the Bradfield embank-
ment, which has failed, is now in coins* of repetition at the
Agden embankment I beg to recommend that these tuts
and opinions be officially laid before the company and the
local municipal authorities of Shalield.—l have, he.,
(Signed) ROUST RAWLENISON.
London, BArch 1864.

To the Right Honourable Sir Gems Grey, Bert., M.P.,
her Majesty's Principal Secretary of Mato for Homo
Affairs.

Sir,—l have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your communication of the 2iltb instant, enclosing a copy of
a report from Mr. Rawßuxom. which I have ha bean the
board of directory of the Sheffield Waterworks. I have to
isiform you t►at the verdict of the curator's jury on some of
the sufferers from the late disaster at Sheffield wee delivered
is Thursday erecting, the 24th instant. The following day
being Good Friday the board did not meet. Os Saturday,
the 2tith iestiust, the board mat, and their first business was
to give instructions to atop the work at hew, to which
your letter refers, and it will not be proceeded with until
the directors have the beet pomade advice se to the future
construction of the reaervow.—l have the honour to remain,
sir, your most obedient servant, W . SNITS, Chairman of
the Wateworks Company.
Waterworks Office, Sheffield, March 29, 1964.

Tux Farrar' LEGAL Rums.—Yesterday, on the
termination of the Faster legal reams, the several offices of
the Common Law Owns were re-opened.
CHILD MURDER AT HALETRAD.—At the Hal-
, stead police-court on Tuesday Earns Howard, elicit Pod-
' eery, a single woman, seed 23, was charged with having
murdered owe of her illegitimate children. Haunah
Howard, mother of the prisoner, said—The prisoner liven
with me, and her two chi dreg, Henry, aged four, and the
dereawd, aged ow and a half year. After dining with me
on Monday my daughter went out, taking with her the two
children, and saying that abe intended to go to the retitle*
officer for so order of ad,niuioa to the workhouse, became
she was unable to earn 'sough to support them.
In about an hour she returned without the chil-
dren • and when I inquired when they were eh*
"In Heaves, I hops. flame thrown them into
the river." She mid she didn't know why she did it.
Previous to this she had been is • low way, in consequssos
of bee " cane " from the factory being a bad one. A police-
constable of the Err: fora stated -- I was entering
Halstead, from Hediagluun. when I heard cries 'sweetly
from a child. I went to the river bank, and found prt-
ewer's eldest boy hanging from the branch of a tree in the
river, We water wearing him up to his neck ; floating in
the middle of the river was the body of another child. I
got them out, and took them without delay to the police-
station, but the younger child was quits deed. The pri-
soner, when apprehended. acknowledged that she bad
committed the murder. The magistrates committed the
prisoner to take her trial foe wilful murder at the next
Essex wares.
C4ILD KILLED BY FALLING FROM • FOURTH
Stoat—Yesterday forenoon a child named Christina Moir,
about three and • half yews old, daughter of a piano:
maker, fell from the window of a house in Na 3, South
Ricbmood-strest, said was so severely injured that she died
shortly after the accident. The unfortunate child bad en-
tered a neighbour. house while the inmates were aliment,
and, banes climbed uy into the window, which bad been
left open, she overbalanced herself and fell. A number
of persons observed the poor little thing grappling with the
side of the window. and trying to save -lherself. A feeling
of honor pervaded the spectators on observing the perilous
position in which the child was pleated, and a cry wee raised
"Catch the bairn!" Several iadiriduals stood below is
order to try to break the tall ; but the child on descending
struck the overhanging hoot of a shop, end fell with great
force on her aide on the pavement. She was immediately
carried to Dr. Middleton • shop, West Adam-street, but
died • few roundel after being conveyed thither.—Edin.
ouTh Correct.
THE "GHOST" IN THE ASSIZE COURT& —At
the Liverpool Amami on Tuesday, Yr. Davis, Irene of the
Newcastle Theatre, brought an &clew spinet the Lan-
caehire and Yorkshire Railway Company for the deetructios
of a large sheet of glass sad other wowsty, by which he
bad sustained great low as the glass sad other articles
were required for the effective productiai of the " Ghost "
at his theatre. He bad been obliged to substitute an infe-
rior sheet of glass, and to delay his " Ghost" paw, so that
a rival exhibition had taken the wind completely oat of his
sails. The jury thought that 30f., which the defesidants
had paid into coon, was amply sufficient, as the company
could sot be expected to pay for vaguely probable profits
which Mr. Davis might or not have realised.
LIVERPOOL AND THE RAILWAY COMPANIES.—
Tim people of Liverpool have for many years pest 011 ill •
paired that the railway companies treat them wry unfairly
in the matter of charges for carrying goods, and recently
_the
corn trade have taken up the question in earnest. On Wed-
oesday the pnecipal members of the trade met the directors
and chief officials of the Loedoe and North Western Cant-
way, the laticashire and Yorkshire Company, the Man-
cheater, Sheffield, and Linooloshire Company, and the
Bridgewater Trustees, at the Lime-street Station, where the
subject was discussed at full length, and, it was undesiably
proved that the railway charges to and from Liverpool are
greatly in exams of the charges to and from other seaport
and manufacturing towns in the kingdom. Mr. Moon, of
the Loudon aed North Western Company, said that the
subject bad been frequently under the consideration of him-
self and other directors, sad that they would take another
fortnight to try and came to some arrangement.
GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY.—It seems that the
harbour at Harwich is as length to be turned to wine useful
purpose, if we may judge from the activity exhibited by the
Great Easters Railway Company in preparing its steam fleet
for the Rotterdam and Antwerp Wallow. On Saturday last
the well.kcowo iron abip-building yard of the Messrs. J.
sad W. Dodgem, at Cubit: Town, was all activity in pre-
pense for the launch of the Avalon, the pioneer of the
steam filet this firm is oosetroeting for the company. 'The
breech was admirably effected in the presence of a large
party of ladle, and gentlemen. Mrs. James °wane. the
wife of the chairman of the Greet Eastern Railway Coot-
way,
officiated at the occasion,&shin the bottle against
the ohip's bows with perfect swam no Avalon ia a fine
paddle steamboat of 800 tone burden, and named after the
yacht belonging to the eheirmeo. After the teasel the
party adjourned to the offices of the firm and partook of a
sumptuous larteltere.
HoaNixaa's Tea is choice and strong, moderate
to poise. and Wholesome to use. The,, sdesatages bare seettmet
for tb4 tea • general preterstme. It Is sold In packets by IMO
sgents.—f•drertnerorroli