The Express.
London, England, 1864-10-05 00:00:00

[Stamped, ld. Additional.)

THE EXPLOSION AT ERITH,.

Now that all the main facts respecting the ter-
Able catastrophe at Erith are biome, and so many thousand.
of persons have visited the same of the disaster, public
cariosity appears to be in some degree sated upon this
subject, and notwithstanding that the official investigation
commenced yesterday, comparatively few persons visited
the scene of the disaster. Quite sufficient, how•
ever, remains upon the ground to show the enormous ex-
tent of the devastation caused by this terrific explosion,
but we are happy to say that, notwithstanding the exagge-
rated amounts which have appeared in several of our con-
temporaries, the injury to property (always excepting the
entire destruction of the magazines themselves) is., although
very wide-spread, more apparent than real, and consists
chiefly in the breakage of the windows of houses within
a circuit of some two or three miles of the eases of the
explosion. In the immediate neighbourhood of where the
magazines formerly stood, the ground is, of course. covered
with dibris, bat of the houses themselves scarcely a trace
remeies. The excitement and beetle occasioned by the
visit of thonmeds of people to the spoil's' now entirely
embed, and the ground between the village of Belvedere sad
the river has resumed its usual dreary and deserted aspect.
A few canons in batches of five or six were to be seen yes-
terday w►ndering over the manhole, looking with assiess
curiosity at the various remains which are everywhere scat-
tered about, hut the number who were present in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of the Belvedere Hotel while the
inquiry was going on did not probably exceed a honked, in-
cluding all those who were pecunierily or otherwise in-
terested is the inquiry. The panic, however, occasioned
in the neighbourhood by the explosion has been excessive,
and all yesterday and the day before van loads of furniture,
which had been removed from houses even some miles dis-
tant from the scene of the catastrophe, were to be seen in
the roads. The circumstance that almost all the windows
of the houses !rooting the river have been blows out has
brought down from London an army of glances, who are to
be met with at every turn of the road with their packs at
their backs main for a job. Yesterday we witnessed the
unloading of several large crates of glum lent down by
London tradesmen employed to repair the damage. The
wind blew furiously from the out, and judging from the
inoonveniwce experienced at , the Belvedere denim
the short sitting of the coroner's jury in the
large room of the hotel which had all the
windows destroyed, the sufferings endured by such
of the inhabitants of the surrounding district au
bad the courage to remain in possession of their dwellings,
must have been very great. Very little additional informa-
tion of real vales has been obtained beyond that which we
have already_pablialied, but of course numerous isolated
incidents aoemected with the extent of the explosion and
its effect in various places continue to crop up. The pro.
ceedings at the inquest yesterday were of the most formal
character, and were merely intended, according to the
coroner's own statement, to clear the way for the fuller
investigation of the mum of the catastrophe. Such as they
were, however, we report below.
Up to yesterday morning the police continued to tied
portions of human frames about the locality, sod these have
been pot together se well as possible so as to give some
chance of identification. One of the men on board the barges
at the time of the explosion has thus been recognised ; there
is no moral doubt he must have been killed Melanie-
measly. York and Wright were the names of the men
employed inside the mammies', and of these there is hardly
a clams of identification. The two bargee were the Good
Design, William Jemmen, master, end Luke Barber, mate;
and the Harriet, John Disdain, master, and Daniel We.,
mete. The Harriet is said to have bad 170 barrels on
board, 000 of the barges, it is now amerced, was loading
while the other was being unladen.
We contiencto receive from numberless localities withia
a radius of 50 miles of Loudon, accounts of the shoekicaused '
by the explosion. Even at Bedford, to take one instance,
the midgets were awoke by the force of the commence ;
and Bedford cannot be less than 50 nines from !kith. In
London more damage has bees dose than was at first be-
lime& lir lugmesehlisimmili Mom% -Mom. a& 4104

comer of the Mambo and Aid's* salted severely.
Several of the /am and AIM plates of glees in their
windows were shivered, and even some of the shut-
ters were famed from their frames and thrown
upon the pavement. At the Crystal Palace the
shock was distinctly felt. Om of the siding
doom on the garden side of the Palace was forced
Out of its bearings and blown inwards ; other doors were
also forced. Alarm was felt by some workmen on the roof,
and by the gardeners who were watering the plants inside
the neve from the girders of the first stage. Fortunately,
however, a minute exam/patios of the fabric by Mr. Rove,
the company's clerk of works, shows that ao perceptible
injury has been sustained. The smoke of the explosion was
plainly to be men from the palace, rising over Shooter's.
hill, is the form of a gigantic maahroom.
Several windows and a mirror half an inch thick, in the
Rauger's home, Greenwich, the seat of his Royal High.
nem Prince Arthur, were broken. At the =melon of Vis-
count Sydney, Frognal, Sideup, a distance of 15 miles from
the scene of the explosion, windows were broken and
vases thrown down. At rhariton.park, the residence of
Sir T. M. Willem, Bast, the damage to plebe•ems windows,
conservatories, do., was very extensive. Large numbers of
windows were also broken at Greenwich Hospital, Norden
College, Blackheath, Herbert Hospital, Shooter's-hill,
Deptford Dockyard, and Farnborough, Lewisham, and
Greenwich union workhouses.

The inquest, which was yesterday formally *petted, was
bold upon the dead bodice of three persons which lay
comparatively entire on the ground in the coach-hove' In
the hotel yard. The remains of Mr. George Rayner,
aged 40 years, the foreman to Moen. Hall, lay on •
mattress, covered up with his owe coat. Next him lay
those of Thames Hubbard, aged 52, aod John York*,
• boy of only 13. Numbers of ghastly parcels wen
deposited en the floor of the outhouse, end their blood.
stilted appearance gave • sickening indication of their
contents. In them were collected different portion of
human bodies, supposed to be the sole remain of the men
Wright and Yost., who were known to have been at work
in the magazise at the time of the explosion. In addition
to the men whose lives are thew known to be lost, we
may state that on board the berg. Harriett, belonging to
Messrs. Moak and Co., were known to have hese John Dad-
son, Captain Daniel Wise (mate), sad William Decline, eon
of the captain. On board the bergs Good Demise, belong-
ing to Messrs. Hall, were William Jemmett (captain),
and Luke Berber (mate). All these human beim@ com-
pletely disappeared along with the barges, and
not • trace of them bases yet been found. Thescath of the
explosion au be viewed from the Belvedere. 300 marines
are rein actively at work strengthening the temporary em-
bankment, for the wind from the north-east was high and
threatening. All apprehension of the giving way of the
barrier is now however laid, and the measures still is pro-
gress ere designed to render &moraine doubly sure.
As there are so many coot int* statements put
forth (respecting the accident, the following particulars,
gathered from authentic sources, will be read with interest.
The magazine of Merin. Hall at Belvedere wee • substantial
building, about 50 feet square, and cossisted of
two stories. The erection oath 3,11001. It had only
been built five or six years, and was surrounded
with eighteen Dares of land to effect its isolation.
The magazines stood behind the embankment, and had a
wooden jetty projecting into the river to facilitate the load-
* and unloading of gunpowder. It must be distinctly
understood that the magazines were solely for the storage
of gunpowder, and not for its manufacture. Mesas. Hall
bare • large factory at Faversham. The only points of in-
terest which remits for sight-seen are the sites of the
booths lately occupied by Mr. Rayner (now dead), swede.
toodent of the stores of the MINIM Hall, and Mr. Silver,
the manager of the magazines of the Elterwater and
Lowater Gunpowder Company, who so fortunately escaped
with only • slight injury. The wall of Silver's hones
amid the porch of Rayner's alone remained upright,
and they served as landmarks to guide numbers on
their way to the locality. All the rest are reduced
to • shapeless roue of ruin, in which are to be seen
jumbled up the planks of floors, pieces of bedstead'.
&Wrens' toys, smashed kitchen and other grate., glam
bottles (some of which were, Anne to say, unbroken),
crockery, sea bricks. The shrubs and the smaller trees is
the gardens retained their roothed, but were completely
stripped of their foliage. The *logs around the garden

(TWOPENCE

of Rayner's house have been swept away, and only a wiclet
gate left standing apart in the field directed attention to the
fact that a paling had ever existed on the spot. In the same
garden there wee a considerable quantity of potatoes black-
ened and half routed, but whether by the dame of the
explosion or by a fun, which may bars taken place amongst
the debris of the house, it is not possible to say.

GUNPOWDER. AT POET/MO/TH.—The dockyard
at Portsmouth and the town of Portaea are joined to
the town of Portsmouth by the Ordnance-wharf and
Amami Inside the walla of this establishment stand
four large magazines, which at present, in addition to
a large assortment of rockets and other missiles of
war, contain upwards of 8.000 filled, or as they are
expressively named in technical language, " live "shells, the
majority of which are for B.inch guns. When these maga-
, sines were firet erected they were, no doubt, constructed
with all possible care, and were hedged from all other
buildings the companionship of which might be dangerous.
Within the past 18 months, however. a change has taken
place. The magazines sow stand within • few yards of
the roaring furnaces of the boiler-home of • newly-erected
royal factory for the repair of Armstrong guns and their
carriages—a Woolwich on a diminutive scale. A narrow
j cart-read and some 20 or 80 feet of this new factory only
separate its boiler-house foresees from the four loaded maga-
zines. The only sane course to follow under such circum-
stances would be to remove the magazines and their &eget-
ous meting to some more mate and Isolated locality.
Scou.sx's RAcz POE £so.—Onc of the most ex-
citing races ever seen came off yesterday from Putney to
MotUde, the competitors beim Frederick Russell, of Mill-
stairs, Bermondsey, sod David Wallmier,
_of Fountain-
stairs, same place. Neither man has achieved Any reputa-
tion save at local regattas, and therefore it was an entirely
open question who would win. Russell being made the
favourite at 5 to 4on board citizen 111, Captain Whanslaw,
which acompauied the race with • large party on board.
The match was in old-fothioned boats, for 251. a side, and
both man had trained well for the event. Rummell at Barnes
and Wallmier at Wandsworth. They went to station soon
after 8 o'clock, Russell having die best side, soil the water
being very lumpy, owing to the east wind which was pre-
vailing. In a few minutes they were off, Wallmier having
a long start, and leading by two lengths at Simmons's. His
style, however. was very faults, while there was more dash
in his opposent's,who, notwithstanding thedieadvantagee he
laboured under rapidly made headway, and at the London
Rowing Club boathouse had nearly come up. Wallmier,
however, get away again, and led by half • length at the
Bishop's Creek, making this into a {meth further on ; but
Russell gave him no rest, and at the Point Dearly fouled
him. Wallmier then got away again to the Craven, where
he messed his man, and again they were nearly in collision,
• splendid sees going on. At Craven Cottage Wallmier had
again placed a gap between himself and opponent, but Rus-
sell went wide to avoid a foul, and at the Club Tree was
half over him, and so they oestieued to roe, Reiman creep-
ing op. till at the Soapworks he was level with his antagon-
ist, and immediately afterwards passed him, going through
Hammersmith-bridge jest leading. From here to the middle
of Carney Reach Russell just kept in front, bet after that
be took a stronger lead, and, passing through Barnes-bridge
leading by three lengths, won heals lengths. Time, 25miu.
30sec. David Casabas, the sou of the late ex-champion,
woe referee.

--TR-Z6SM SERVICE COINAOL —What should we
my if in order came forth from the Waster of the Mint, or
some such competent authority, " That all the copper coin-
age of the country should be submitted toe most searching
test to ascertain its purity—that pennypieces and balfpaou.es
were no longer to pass current without a new eertfficate of
their portiere's, while gold aid silver were to circulate as
usual—all warranty of their unadulterated value being
deemed needless"! I mak, would not the common wine
reading of such is edict be, that it was exceedingly absurd
and ridiculous? Would not men of ordinary intelligence
say, " It is not of very great moment to me that I am now
and thew imposed on by a ' rep halfpenny ' lan sustain
tholes. with composure, sod bear it without fretting ; but
if I constantly find a number of bad shillings in my change,
and if oonesionally I detect some gloriosa sovereigns in my
pone, the 'Nair is more serious, and lam certainly disposed
to regent it?" This is precisely what our government is at
this moment enacting in England with respect to Civil Ser-
vice employment. The men who are to 11l all the inferior
offices of the Mate are to be rigidly and severely *gambit ii,
while all those who succeed to the higher employments are
to enter uposi them untried, maenad, aid unproven. To
bee gauger, yen mask be • historian, a geographer, en arith-
meticius, and a naturalist. To be the govercioe of a colony,
you may be a "Cretin." To ems., a despatch across
Europe yeas mush prove your efficiency in French and deci-
mel fasonioes, end such ether keowledge I to be the writer
oat?
dierildespatthumole=theigamWiou._
_Tbe.
The writer nay—end very aim dom liew—earvel le all the
uerestrained freedom of bed grammar. Perhaps you will
my that the system is progressive, sod that, these initial
tells see. submitted to, the man proves hie !Items for the
highest office. To this I simply say,—When did you ever
hear of a peony-piece growing mto a crown ; or have you any
experience of a farthing that became a sovereign ? No ; the
whole system is based on this great principle, Take are of
the pesos, the pounds will she ammo( themselves ; sad cer-
tain] so they have dons.—Blorkwoosta Magazine for
__ • _

A Morin "TRANSPORT CORPS" IN New ZEALAND.
—Two beats started at the mme mosteat ; maimed by
the Water Transport Corps, here familiarly known an
" Water Nokia ;' the other by sailors from the Curacao.
As the day admitted the heat became excessive, and the
Water Mokes began to search for something to quench
their thirst. We most draw the veil of secrecy over the
rest; we did net nersorietrate„ became our remonstrances
would have bees I. rah. The Water Yokes are is the
habit of levying a son of black mail oe all the property that
palm throneb their hands, but strong !ignore are their
miscialite. We did not par • single 'tattoo without hear-
ing complaint. of their pilferieg propensities. Ooe officer
had ordered three dozen of sherry from Auckland. Tiny
arrived, apparently all safe ; hut judge of his indignation
when on opening them he found three full of wise sod the
rest of water. All were carefully corked, so that it was
impenrible to detect the imposture on delivery. Another
had ordered six dozen of beer; when the mak reached his
bands it enetaieed exactly these bottles and a half ! The
Water Mokes had consumed the rest. One of the coin-
stimariat had to mosey a hug. pueehisoe of rum to head-
quarters. He received medial orders ee leaving Auckland
never to loft sight of it by day or by night. He adhered
to the very letter of his instroctioes, sitting upon it by day
and aleepiog beside it at eight. Whea the ark reached its
destination it was found that me-half of Its content. were
goes. An ingenious Water Make had stretched himself out
beneath the cask, in the bottom of the boat, sad by meme
of a gimlet and a paneikki had supplied himself and his
comrades with liquor while the officer was quietly smoking
his cigar, suspecting no evil. Stringent orders have been
Mooed against malpractices, which have • ckimoralisieg in-
flames on officers a well as on men ; but all has lima is
vain. The Water Mokes are too ingenious in evil to be
many caught ; and velem the mend hang or shoot a few
of them no property will be safe in their —Fraser's
Maoa:ine for October.

A CRIMINAL LrNATIC AS TEI FIRM LIMON ASYLUM.
—Aa the doctor soaks, the man advanced towards us with
an Wolin% defiant look, hat without a trace of iemaity.
Whim km was sufficieutly close to speak, be waked melt I wee
in the magistracy, and I informed him I was not. "Are
you connected with government, sir?' "No, not in
any way." "Are you acquainted with any one that is!
If you ere, pray stand my frieod, for I am treated here is
the most infamous manner. lam oo more mad, sir, than
you are, and yet this doctor, for lose own profit, keeps me
here." " But you know," said the doctor, " that you are
a prisoner, aid I haw' no voice in the matter. The govern-
meet sent you here, and without their order you know
perfectly well I cannot rate's. you." " But you know,"
said the man, " that if you only told the truth, and said I
wee not mad. I should be allowed Woo at ogee." " Not as
all; you would only bosons to scene prism. Besides, you bare
I applied to the commissioners, and they refuse to ioterf.r•
in your behalf." "Because they go snack. with you, IW-
I have," said the convict. "Well, then, this votlernan,"said
the doctor, " is a stranger to me, and is connected with the
law, and can doubtlessly bring forward your mat if be thinks
proper." "It would be • charity if you would, sir, for you may
Issagnie what a terrible thing it is for a sane man to psi.
his life with the horrible madmen you see hers." " Tell
the gentleman your own case," said the doctor, "and thou
be can judge for himself." " I will tell you everything,
sir," he rid. " and as true as the Gospel ; for I am not at
all afraid of letting my. rasa be known. I was formerly a
respectable tradesman in the North of England. One day a
tax-gathecor called ou me tied mid be had a claim against
me for 14.5. I asked him what for ? Ile said I bad been
keeping a dog which I had mad, no return of, and for the
matter of that it was perfectly true. ' WO, then,' said
he, ' you must pay the tax for it.' ' I shall de nothing of
the kind ; no man ought to pay a tax for keeping a dog.'
• Now be reasonable.' he said, ' and pay it, for you ceo ; if
you don't I must summon you, and Ido not want to do
that to you or any man.' Take my advice,' said I, ' and
don't try it.' • I must,' said be, and be left me. A few
days afterwards be celled with the summon*, and I took
up a knife sad I killed Mu." " You did a very infamous
.ictiou, then," I answered, astonished at the fellow's recital.
" A short time shies a awn was hueg for killing a broker
who seised his goods for rent, and I do sot goo much
difference between his cue sad yours." " And be really
deserved It," said the maniac ; "but my summons visa for
a dog." "No matter ; you are booed to pay the tax for
• dog as well as a house," I replied, totally forgetting I
was mooning with a manioc. • Is that really your
ophdoe rhe said, getting greatly excited. " Cortsinly."
" Very well, I shell know yea whomever I see you agaio,
and if ever I get from here, I will rip you up as I did the
tax•gatherer !" I devoutly hoped, as l turned from him,
that it would be some time before be hit the asylum.
CorriMaZ Naposine foe October.

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