The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-29 00:00:00

pilots an (Offences.

THE DowN MArr. TRAIN due at Plymouth cn
Sunday morning at 6.25 a.m. did not arrive until
half-past nine. The delay was occasioned by an ac-
cident to the luggage train, in which several carriages
were smashed, near the Dainton Tunnel, and so ob •
structing the line. No damage was done to any
person. The line is now clear.

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THE FATE OF THE City of Glasgow screw-steamer,
so long a missing ship, excites most painful attention
at Lloyd's, where anxious inquiries are made by the
relatives of the people who sailed in her, numbering
in all no fewer than 405. She sailed from Glasgow
for the United States on the Ist of last March, since
which time no tidings have been heard of her. An
impression prevails that she has been beset by the ice,
large masses of which are known to be drifting about
on the banks of Newfoundland and the coast of North
America. Several ships out from Liverpool narrowly
escaped being nipped in it. The crew and officers
numbered 75; chief cabin passengers, 50; and
steerage ditto, 280. Total on board, 405.
A Cowstox took place on the 31st of December
last on the Granton and Burntisland ferry between
the steamers Leviathan and Express, which created
much alarm among the passengers, though fortunately
no loss of life was occasioned. Blame was attributed
at the time to the parties in charge of the steamer
Express, and, after a preliminary investigation into
the circumstances, the Crown deemed it necessary to

institute a prosecution against Samuel Barker and
John M'Lellan, captain and mate of that vessel.
Their case was tried before Sheriff Monteith, at the

Sheriff Criminal Court of Cupar, on the 19th inst. The
indictment charged them with culpable and reckless
breach of duty—the former in having left the deck
without sufficient reason ; and the latter in not having
kept a better look out, and in having failed toput his
helm to starboard so as to pass the steamer Leviathan,
in consequence of all of which the two ships came in
violent collision, and injured several of the pas-
sengers. Some of the witnesses who appeared for
the prosecution alleged that the captain left the deck
in order to sell whisky to the passengers. The cap-
tain and mate got excellent characters from the ex-

395

found both panels GuiUy, but unanimously recom-
mended them to the leniency of the court- The
sheriff sentenced Captain Barker to imprisonment
for three months, and M`Lellan, the mate, to impri-
sonment for two months. The sheriff, while passing
sentence, reprobated the practice of selling whisky
on board the vessels on the ferry.
SEVERAL DESTRUCTIVE FIRES hive occurred during
the week. The premises of Mr. Davenport, a whole.
sale chemist, in Great Russell-street, near the Bri-
tish Museum, were burnt down on Monday morning,
the adjoining houses being severely damaged, and
several persons escaping after much alarm and diffi-
culty by the tire-escapes and a plank frem the first-
floor windows. On Wednesday a fire broke out at an
upholsterer's warehouse, No. 980, Tottenham Court-
road, and consumed much valuable property before
it could be mastered. On the morning of the same
day a house in Coleman-street, occupied by Messrs.
Fauntleroy, Berlin wooldyers, was destroyed, with all
its contents.
A QUANTITY OF WRECKAGE, consisting of beams,
deck plank, and casks of provisions, have been seen
off Ramsgate, floating near the Spaniard sand, sup-
posed to come from some unfortunate foreign ship
lost on the Knock, or Long Sand.
THE TRIAL OF ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM for the
murder of his wife on the 22nd of December last,
at Girvan, in Ayrshire, took place on Wednesday and
Thursday last week, before Lords Ivory and Cock-
burn, at the Ayr Circuit Court. There were sixty-
one witnesses cited in this case. The jury found the
prisoner Guilty, and Lord Cockburn sentenced him
to be hanged on the 11th of May, without holding
out to him the least hope of meiey.
A MELANCHOLY AND FATAL ACCIDENT occurred on
Tuesday night to the Rev. Dr. Claxson, incumbent of
Sandhurst, near Gloucester. The deceased was pro-
ceeding in his carriage to Sandhurst, to marry a couple,
when in descending a steep street the horse ran
away. Dr. Claxson attempted to get out of the car-
riage, and was thrown with great violence to the
ground, his head striking against the kerbstone and
fracturing his skull. He was carried home, but only
lingered a few hours.
ANOTHER FATAL COLLISION has taken place in the
Irish Channel. The American ship Gazeteer, Cap-
tain Watlington, which sailed on Monday from Liver-
pool fur New York, came in contact, off Holyhead,
with the French brig Pere °reset, from Santander,
and carried away her jibboom and chafed her bows.
The brig has been towed into dock in a sinking state.
One of the crew of the Pere Grenet was killed by the
collision, and another and a boy were drowned.
AN INuuesT was held on Monday touching the
death of Mr. R. Daly, a retired West India pro-
prietor, residing near the Gray's-inn-road, who had
committed suicide on the previous morning. The
deceased gentleman had been formerly in the receipt
of an income of 4,0001. per annum ; but, in conse-
quence of the depreciation of West India property,
had been lately in very straitened circumstances.
Verdict, " Temporary insanity."

A MEDICAL JOURNAL gives some curious details on the
losses sustained by the Russian army in the campaigrs of
1828 and 1t420 against Turkey. Out of 115,000 Russians,
who at that time crossed the Froth, only from 10,000 to,
15,000 returned to their country, the remainder having fallen
not on fields of battle, but in the hospitals, from intermit-
tent fevers, dysentery, and plague Scarcely had the Russian
soldiers in 1828 entered Bulgaria, where the temperature
between the day and night varies as much as sixteen
degrees, and where the dews fall like fine and searching
rain, than their health began to suffer; they were attacked
with a contagions fever, which the most rigid precautions
could not cheek. In less than one year the number of
patients in the hospitals and field hospitals reached to
210,108, in consequence of many having been attacked more
than once with the same disease. Many of those who re-
covered from the fever were afterwards carried off by scurvy,
which reigned amongst the troops to a frightful extent.
During the march of the army on Adrianople the soldiers
were suddenly attacked with violent fevers, prestretlon of
strength. and delirium, which carried them off in a few
days. At Adrianople more than a fourth part of the dispos-
able forces were ill. The plague carried off all the medical
men, and out of 6,000 men who were in the hospitals
5,200 died. This mortality it should be said was chiefly
due to the infamous neglect of the soldiers by their Go-
vernment and their officers. Nicholas is said to have shed
tears when he learned how horribly the troops had suffered
at Adrianople.
Tire MAIL COMMUNICATION DITIFILZM New Yong AMD
CALIFORNIA now occupies twenty-five days. It is a fort-
nightly emnniunication, and costs the American Govern-
ment about 200,000 i. a year. It has been seriously
entertained by the American House of Representatives to
offer half a million sterling a year to whatever eon=
will establish a mail between New Orleans and Ben
cisco in ten days. Of the practicability of the feat in a
short time no doubt seems to be entertained.
A VFW days since, as a train was passing on the part of
the railway from Berlin to Hamburg which runs along
the edge of the forest of Friesacker, a spark from the loco-
motive set fire to the wood. A despatch was sent of to
Berlin by electric telegraph, and in a short time twenty
firemen with engines arrived ; but, notwithstanding all their
efforts the flames maid net be got under until 400 saes
of the forest had been destroyed.

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