The Express.
London, England, 1864-10-03 00:00:00

HA Y MiRK ET.

. .
Ten EVVITNO. BACCHUS AND ARLADNE.—MADEMOISELLE
DE HELLEINLE Moues Howe and larren ; Mesdames Beatrice
and Angel.—And THE CASTLE OF ANDALUsLa. Messrs.
WeLss, nuckstone: Compton : Atlas Keefe) and Madame Weiss.

PRI

Errsrso, BORN TO GiioD LUCK. Mr. D. Murray.
And THL sTREY.IB OP LoNDoN. Krum. Vining, J. W. Ray,
D. Fisher, D. Murray, J. Nelson, B. furrester, and H. Mellon;
Mn. H. Marston, Mimes Barnet/ and Gwynn*.

LYCEUM.
Ow °sr • Anil% Oct. 22, A NEW MLA VA, In which W.
Fechter will sustain the principal character.

BRITLN :f I A..

Tins EreSMO. TOM EFfilid:ZilEE. Messrs. Cranford.
Drum:non' . Miss S. Mlles. - bulging by Messrs G. leder, Loots
Lindsay. and Del (ger ; Madame ?Isom —And TUE lEl=
LIVE't. Mesdames Yarnold, Cranford, and Scott.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON-lIIUDOL

TRU -Alt.;;Toon7 3h. shra.
lo.linanJW Morning, 3h. 4410.. .Afternoon, O. lm.

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 3.

THE fearful explosion which on Saturday morn-
ing instantaneously wrecked every building in its
immediate vicinity, startled the slumbering metro-,
polis with its mysterious shock, and was sensibly
felt throughout a circuit of more than twenty miles,
is far more like one of the terrible convulsions of
nature than any of the accidents which usually
result from mere human contrivance. Familiar
as we are with the sudden devastation pro-
duced by the violent escape of steam,
gas, gunpowder, and other expansive forces,
from safe mechanical control, there has been no
explosion in recent years which can at all compare
in magnitude and extent with this catastrophe at
the Erith powder magazines. The powder mills at
Hounslow, for example, have more than once been
laid in ruins, but in these cases the destructive
effects were confined to a comparatively limited
area, little serious damage being done beyond the
limits of the works themselves. And the other day
the explosion of • powder-laden vessel in
the Mersey shook the walls and shattered the
glass in half the houses and public buildings of
Liverpool; but in this case no lives were lost, and
very little property was destroyed. It is, however,
at present impossible to estimate the destructive
effect of the Erith calamity in both these respects.
At present it is known that twelve persons have
been killed and about twenty injured. The
damage done to property in the neighbourhood
may be estimated by the fact that at more than •
mile from the spot shutters and window-frames
were not only smashed in, but houses partially
destroyed, the injury done to one residence alone
being estimated at a thousand pounds. Great
as was the injury thus done to property in the
neighbourhood, it would have been far greater
but for the extraordinary, but happily successful,
efforts made to repair the serious damage done to
the river embankment before the return of the
tide. The explosion had destroyed fifty yards of
the embankment, and if this had not been effectu-
ally repaired, in the course of • few hours the
whole of the Erith and Belvedere district,
which has latterly become very populous,
would have been laid under water, and
the local devastation already produced by the
most destructive discovery of human art, have been
rapidly completed by one of the most overwhelm-
ing forces of nature.
In its mere physical aspects and sensuous im-
pressions, not only to the eye and ear, but to the
whole nervous and muscular system, nothing could
well be conceived more sublime and terrible than
that awful convulsion which, in the silence and
mellowed sunlight of an autumn morning, gathered
with • voice of thunder the solid materials of the
earth's surface, as a mighty waterspout sweeps the
yielding wave, into a dense column of flame
and smoke reaching to the clouds. Probably
few spectators actually witnessed it, but the
account given by cue who saw it some miles off is
evidently truthful, and may in part enable us to
appreciate the exceptional grandeur of the sight.
A watchman on the pier at Graveeend, who heard
an awful explosion and felt the sudden shock,
says, "On turning round I saw as it were a pillar
" of fire rising to the clouds, which it appeared to
" strike, and then spread out like a huge fan, pre-
" senting • most beautiful and grand spec-
" tacle." The most extensive artificial explo-
sions we can recal, whether made in the
interests of peace or war, will scarcely parallel
the unexpected volcano which, from the dead level
of the Erith marshes, poured its volume of
flame to the sky and fell in ruin on the districts
round. Some of our great engineering blasts in
this country may have approached in force such an
explosion, but the gigantic mine recently sprung
by General GRANT in front of Petersburg is per-
haps the closest modern parallel of an artificial kind.
In that case the effect was volcanic, a mountain of
upheaved earth with a yawning chasm of crater
in the centre being the result. Something of the
same kind is now to be seen on the level sweep of
the Erith marshes. AU that now remains of the
extensive and orderly buildings that lately covered
some acres are heaps of tumbled earth and bricks,
and massive fragments of timber, beams of half a
ton weight, have been hurled like stars across
the adjacent fields. For any sufficient parallel
to the destructive effects of the explosion
we must look to some of the great convul-
sions of nature. In many of its incident' it
undoubtedly resembled a severe shock of earth-
quake, and it is not surprising that for • distance
of from ten to twenty miles on either aide of the
river, the inh►bitants should have attributed the
sudden concussion which shook every door and
window in their houses, and produced an inde-
finable sense of alarm, to this cause.