The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-06 00:00:00

Vrobintia

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ♦ PROTESTANT ASSOCIA-
nor; AT LEWES was considered last week, and a
public meeting was held in the Corn Exchange,
Lewes. Paul Foskett, Esq., W. H. Peters, Esq.,
Bev. J. Dunlop, and other gentlemen spoke, and a
committee was appointed to carry out the object of
the meeting.
A SAD ACCIDENT occurred to three miners, at the
Northumberland pit in New Backworth, last week.
They had been coming up the shaft in a corf with
another workman from their work, and had got to the
pit's mouth, when, upon their companion stepping
out of the corf on to the platform, the hook of the
corf, which bad not been properly fastened to the
rope that had hauled them up, slipped, and the three
poor fellows were precipitated some hundreds of feet
down the pit and literally dashed to pieces.
A PETITION TO PARLIAMENT against the bill
now before the house for consolidating the
docks at Liverpool and Birkenhead into one estate,
and praying for the abolition of the " town dues"
altogether, if they are not required for the mainte-
nance of the docks and the conservancy of the river
Mersey, was agreed upon last Saturday, at the
weekly meeting of the Leeds Town Council.
A GREAT Loss OF LIFE took place on the
Lancaster and Ulverstone Sands during Friday night
or early on Saturday morning last. A party of more
than a dozen persons, who had been living in service
at Poulton, Heysham, and other places on the Ulver-
stone end of the sands, left Kent's-bank on Friday
night, intending to be present at the Whitsuntide
hirings at Lancaster on Saturday. Their route was
along the swirls by the edge of the bay, being the
same that is taken by the over-sands coach between
Ulverstone and Lancaster. The party spent some
time drinking at Willcock's Kent's-bank Hotel, and
they started in two light one-horse carts. According
to the tide-table it was high water at Ulverstone on
Saturday morning at ten minutes past four o'clock,
and in order to cross the sands in safety and avoid
the tide the journey should have been commenced at
either end at forty-one minutes past nine o'clock on
Friday night; but this party, besides being intoxi-
cated, are understood to have started later by an
hour or more. Some who intended to have crossed
with them declined to do so because of the time they
started, and so saved their lives. Nothing more is li
known of the party until the bodies of some of them
were washed ashore the next day. Two conjectures
are hazarded as to the way in which the accident
may have occurred, which no one is left alive to
explain. One supposition is that the carts were
floated at one of the streams that have to be forded
Another conjecture is that the whole party had fallen
asleep, that the horses had been left to take their
own course, and that they actually followed the tide
until the sleepy occupants of the carts were fatally
immersed. The appearance of some of the bodies
has led to the supposition that suffocation took place
during sleep. It is more probable that the whole
party were very drunk, and attempted a short cut
across the sands to make up for lost time.
THE CRUMLIN VIADUCT, one of the great triumphs
of modern engineering skill, was formally opened to
railway traffic on Monday, in the presence of many
of the principal engineers in the country, and a vast
number of spectators.
THE NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL just built

outside the town of Plymouth, fell in on Wednesday
afternoon. The accident is attributed to the defects

of the Bath-stone used in building, which, proving
too weak for the weight it had to sustain, split in
several places, and before the defect could be reme-
died, the four southern arches with the great eastern
arch tell in together, Fortumitely the workmea had

THE PRESS.

time to escape, and no lives were lost. The cost of
repair is estimated at little less than 1,0001.

THE FOURTH OF JUNE, on Thursday, was kept with
all the accustomed honours at Eton. His Royal
highness the Prince of Wales, with a brilliant and
distinguished company of visitors, were present in
the school, and after the delivery of the speeches
assembled at the Brocas to witness the regatta. The
boats were soon manned, and in fine style pulled up
to the Cobbler, and then, leaving Windsor for Old
Surley, passed the Brocas. On arriving at Staley-
hall, the crews partook of an al fresco repast, to
which they did ample justice, nor forgetting to drink
their loyal and collegiate toasts. The boats returned
at nine p.m., and the day's amusements closed by a
brilliant display of fireworks.