The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

gtrtibtnts nub Offtnas.

A TERRIFIC POWDER-MILL EXPLOSION occurred on
Thursday morning last week at the Government
powder•mills at Herodsfoot, Cornwall, whereby up-
wards of five tons of gunpowder were destroyed, and
damage done the amount of about 2,0001. The ex-
plosion is said to have originated from one of the
men walking carelessly into the drying-house with
his trousers on fire, caused by a spark from the fire-

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place. The man first discovered his peflous situa-
tion from the ignition of some loose powder on the
floor of the drying house, which, serving as a sort of
train to the bulk of the powder then in process of
drying, allowed him time to run for his life. With
great presence of mind he leapt into a deep trench
a short distance off, where he escaped with only a
few bruises from stones which reached him. The
drying and packing houses were entirely blown up ;
the dressing-house was unroofed ; the glass of the
windows in the manager's house shivered to atoms,
and the windows of the houses in the village adjoin-
ing very much injured. The magazine, which is
situated a quarter of a mile from the mill, was
shaken to the foundation by the force of the explosion.
Happily, no personal injury was sustained.
ANOTHER RAILWAY ACCIDENT, caused by the repre-
hensible practice of running heavy goods trains
close after and before passenger ones, happened late
on Monday night, on the North London (Camden
town) Railway, which resulted in the death of an
engine-driver, and serious, if not fatal, injury to one
or two more of the company's servants, and the
mutilation of a number of the passengers. The
train was drawn by two engines of too slight power,
and, after coming to a standstill near the summit of
an incline, a short distance from Highbury station,
ran back down the descent while the guard was em-
ployed in laying down fog signals to warn approach-
ing trains. Unfortunately, the next passenger train
was too close behind to stop, and much less to turn
back, when the luggage convoy was seen retrograding
down the incline, and a fearful collision was the
inevitable consequence. Allen, the driver of the
passenger train, was killed, and two guards of the
goods train terribly crushed. Nearly thirty passengers
are stated to have received injuries from the shook.
An inquiry being instituted as to the cause of the
luggage train returning down the incline, it appeared
that the drivers of the two engines, finding that
they could not get the steam up in sufficient power
to bring up the train, improperly unhooked the
engines from the train, for the purpose of setting
the pumps at work so as to throw water into the
boilers. There was also only one break in the whole
train, placed in the hindmost waggon, and it was
while working at this break that the two guards were
buried in the shock of the collision.
AT an early hour on Thursday morning an exten-
sive fire broke out upon the premises of Messrs.
Cubitt, the builders, at Pimlico. The flames spread
to a lofty row of workshops, and continued raging
furiously for some hours. Among the valuable con-
tents of the workshop were some drilling, planing,
and moulding machinery, which cost 30,000/. ; also
some prepared work of immense value, including the
ornamental flooring for Buckingham Palace, which
had taken upwards of a year to finish, and the costly
fitting for Albert-house, Hyde park. The total loss
is estimated at 100,0001., of which only 10,0001. is
covered by the insurances. From five to six hundred
men will also be thrown out of work, besides suffering
the loss of their tools, which have been almost
entirely consumed.
ON Monday evening the much-respected mayor of
Gloucester, W. Washbourne, Esq., who has served
the office for two years, died suddenly on his journey
from London to Gloucester by an excursion train.
An inquest was held next day, when a verdict of
death from apoplexy was returned.
MR. A. COMM, brother of the proprietor of Astley's
Amphitheatre, was taken ill while in &railway carriage
between Margate and London on Monday night,
and, though prompt remedies were administered
immediately on his arrival in the metropolis, he died
in the course of a few hours from Asiatic cholera.
He was thirty-five years of age. Mr. Rubbach,
brother•in-law of Mr. Myers, the well-known builder
in the York-road, died on Monday morning also
from cholera, having been apparently quite well cn
the previous evening.

THE mortality amongst the convicts in Millbank
Prison has assumed a character so alarming that
the prison authorities, under the direction of the
Home-office, have ordered the removal of 700 of the
prisoners to Dorchester, with a view to prevent, if
possible, the further ravages of cholera in the estab-
lishment.
A VERY MYSTERIOUS CASE OF POisoNiNo
ARSENIC occupied the magistrates and coroner of
the Chipping Barnet district on Saturday last. The
victim of this murder was a boy named William
Newton, eight years of age, and the party suspected
of having administered the poison is his mother,
Sarah Newton, a widow, aged apparently about thirty-
five. Considerable evidence was adduced, and the
inquiries both before the coroner and the magistrates
resulted in her being committed on a charge of
wilful murder. The woman's husband, an agricul-
tural labourer, hbd died shortly before, and his
widow received 101. from a burial society for the
funeral expenses. She seems to have expected
more money from the same society upon the death
of her child, and this was, in all appearance, her
motive for committing the crime.