The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-06 00:00:00

No. 58.]

tlvity on the part of government and of private individuals,
and, it is to be hoped, a favourable change of weather, will
speedily remove the heaviest of these as there can be
no doubt that, for months to come, Waterloo Bay will be
dapplissinal, station in that part of the world, the troops
and frontier inhabitants depending upon it almost for their
entire subsistence. Nor will money employed in erecting
substantial buildings be exposed to any risk of eventual loss,
as the district of which it is the natural port must,
at all events, remain annexed to the colony. Some
fears have been expressed for the safety of the goods, from
the want, it is alleged, of a sufficient guard ; but as
there is now so great a force in the immediate neighbour-
hood, and a. not only the property of individuals, but the
existence of the army, clearly depend on the security of the
stores, this must have been duly attended to already. Along
the whole of the frontier the drought threatens to prove
more destructive to the inhabitants than the enemy has
been. For hundreds of mires not a blade of grams or a green
thing is to be seen ; the fields are bare and as hard as a
beaten highway. A private letter from Graham's-town
states that " 30/. or 401. would be readily paid fur a waggon
to Fort Beaufort, where the distress it truly great. They
write to us (Beard of Relief), that the goods we sent to
' Fort Beaufort, for the Hat River, cannot possibly be for-
warded." For the present, the distributing machineryof the
country is arrested, and thousands of people in the interior,
about Kat River and Somerset, are on the verge, or actually
in the gulf of famine, while vast quantities aft ur, rice, and
other articles of first necessay are heaped up at Port Eliza-
beth and other points on the coast. Even if fbrage could be
found for the draught cattle, there is no water, GO that imme-
diate relief seems almost hopeless; yet there meet be relief
soon, or there will be a frighful mortality. One piece of news
is of a favourable character. The Chief Stock has " come in,"
or surrendered himself, with some forty of his people. This
unfortunate man has professed from the beginning his ab-
horrence of the war, and, from his condect in the early part
of the outbreak, it is probable that he has been throughout
perfectly sincere.

DREADFUL FIRE AND Loss OF LlFE.—This morn-
ing between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock, the neighbourhood
of Boswell-street, Clerkenwell, and its vicinity, was thrown
into a state of the greatest excitement, by the sudden out-
break of a serious fire, in the private dwelling-house of Mr.
H. Shank, situate at IS, Powell-street, East, King-square,
Clerkenwell, which, besides destroying a deal of property, was
attended with fatal consequences to a young man, aged 21.
a clerk in a mercantile house in the city. From inquiries
made on ,he spot, it was ascertained that the first floor was
occupied by a young man, named Henry Rigdon, who it
appears returned home between 1 and 2 o'clock this morn-
ing, and retired to bed. Nothing more was heard of the
party until 6 o'clock, at which hour Mr. Shank left home to
go to the city. i revions to leaving, he states that he distinctly
heard Mr. Rigdon coughing, and there can be little
doubt from what has since transpired that the unfortunate
man was then in the agonies of death. The proprietor of
the house not knowing that anything had happened went
away and left his wife and family asleep in the upper floor of
the house. About half-past 8 o'clock some of the neigh-
bours perceived flames issuing from the first fluor hack room,
in which the young man was sleeping. An instant cry of
" Fire!" was raised, but such a strung hold had the flames
already obtained, that they had broken through the door
and were ascending up the staircase with such fury, that
Mrs. Shank and her family had the greatest difficulty in
effecting an escape. The engines of the London Brigade,
with Mr. Bmidwood, the superintendent, were soon at the
spot, and also the parish one, and that of the West of
England Company, with Mr. Connorton. Without delay
the engine from Whitecrow-street Brigade Station and the
parish one were set to work, and plenty of water being
obtained, a copious stream was discharged into the
blazing premises, but the fire was not got out
until it had destroyed the top part of the build-
ing and consumed a deal of furniture. rpoo making
an inspection of the premises, as soon as the fire was
got down, a most awful spectacle presented itself. In the
first floor back room, lying on the remains of a bed, was per-
ceived the body of the unfortunate young man Rigdon, burnt
almost ax black as a coal. The feet were entirely burnt
away, and the bones of the lei"; wc re protruding through the
end of the bed. The other parts of the body were burnt in
a most dreadful manner. The remains were placed in a
shell and conveyed to the workhouse, where they remain
, until the inquest shall be held. To state how the fire oritri•
' noted would be impossible, but it is the prevailing opinion
that it was caused from a spark having fallen from the
deceased's candle into his bed.