The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-27 00:00:00

CLOSE OF THE POLL.

DURHAM, SATURI,AIe EVT.NI%.,
The polling commenced here this Inornineg
eight. The polling-booths were in the Town-heti,
Market-place ; and the liberals, with unwonted Eller.,
made a good start. At nine o'cicck the poll etoitt—
Douglas (liberal)
Mowbray (tory)
Ten o'clock.

Douglas
o 4
Mew bray
ddl
At this time the voters from the Marquis of Lond,,.
decry's collieries (the "serfs," as they are called) CIIIIIE 4
and at eleven o'clock the poll stood.—
blowbray
Douglas 357
And from this time until the close of the pi.il the lel
kept mending his position, and at tour cieloek, tic clrAtq
the poll, from the declaration made by the Moyer, it
thus:

Mowbray
Douglas

527
444

Majority
The declaration of the poll took place at 5 o'clock, vi!:
the Mayor declared the numbers given above.
Mowbray Essayed to address the crowd, but sole,
roarious were the drunken fellows wearing his colours, %,4
so much danger did there appear of a riot from theca.
duct of the tories, that the Mayor dissuleEd the meeting.
Sir Charles Douglas has set a noble example to whoett
may contest Durham on the liberal side upon any fats.
occasion. His committee meetings have been held sor,
from public houses; not a farthing has been spout
drink, ribbands, flags, or bands; and public opiaisa
dr
been strongly influenced by meetings which hare 14en104
almost nightly. Give Durham the ballot, and no tOty
ps
didate cau have a chance of success.

PETERBOROUGH ELECTION.
CLOSE OF THE POLL.
SAITHDAY FVENIN,,
Whalley
Hawkey 2lu

Majority

THE INDIA BILL.

(From the Spectator.)

Seldom perhaps have the opposition or. indepesdez
members of parliament bestowed su much pains on gett,..ge
up the discussion of a public question, with so little etk;
as on the Government of India Bill. There have been ps,
liminary discussions of a public kind, in the provinces as 4
in the East India House ; but the di bates in Leadeohn.
street, although more elaborate than usual, have sewed
little purpose, except to give an opportunity for the nun.
festoes of individual speakers. The deludes in the provisu,
have contributed, so far as they go, to strengthen the radios
reformers; but by accepting a post subordinate to a Nig
of the opposition, the Indian reformer, leave permitted tla
debate on Indian affiirs to become a tool for party purpose,.
and not a proceeding conducive to the object professedly is
view—lndian reform. The opposition, however, has ski
contributed its share of failure,. Lord Stanley, whilm
played volunteer for the Indian reformers, was also patrol.
iced by the paternal party; the Earl of Derby went so tst
as to summon a meeting of his own supportcriort
an eye to sustaining the position of his son ; but
although the special organ of his party describes lite
meeting as "numerous," more specific accounts
us that not more than half the ordinary party matte
responded to the summons of the chivalrous Earl. Ens
that gathering, however, was iMMCIIIf ly greater than tit
am..ant of following which made its appearance wheal:tit;
Stanley rose upon his legs to resist the seci.nd reading ut ce
Government Bill, with the vague amendment which se
have already described, and which was framed to cat,;
votes. Of the hundred, about five members surrouncel
the noble cadet; of the Manchester party, it is said sett:
made their appearance at that time. Of course Miai,tin
were charged with the duty of " keeping a House," St!
the Opposition is so far demoralized that it did not cue
to take the trouble of ket.ping up appearances for the
sake of Lord Stanley end his fathi,r. The debate what
the young lord began was as unfolding of arguments ts.
miliar to the public, and unfolded rather to justify the
absorption of so much time, and to get up the rhetoried
semblance of aw imtortant" debate, than really to ad-
vance the question beyond where it stood before; and
Lord Stanley attained to the honour of an adjournment, k
was a success in form rather than in substance.

FIRE AND LOSS OF LIFE IN HATTON.

GARDE'.

A fire, attended with a serious loss of propery
and fatal results to two or three persons, broke out between
the hours of seven and eight on Saturday evening, in the
premises occupied conjointly by Mr. George Ross, an orre
shoe and India rubber maker, Messrs. Pakeman, export
tailors, Mr. Curti', a clothier. nod se,eral other person.
situate at No. 107, Hatton-garden. The premises in ques-
tion were of great altitude, there being several floors in the
structure.

Mrs. Curtis, who occupied the top part of the house, It
the time of the disaster occurring was cleaning the stun.
and was all of a sudden alarmed by a de nee body of smoke
issuing from the lower part of the building. She at occe
gave an alarm, and had barely sufficient time to reach the
street door when she saw the flames breaking through the
doors and windows of the ground floor. This part of the
property was well stored with articles made of India rubber,
gutta perch', and other substances quite as infiammab:e,
which proved such assistance to the flames that they tre
veiled with almost electric rapidity, thereby cutting off
means of escape of three persons, who bad not been she to
run down stairs during the brief interval that had elapsed.
The scene at that time, not more than five minutes after
the fire was discovered, was painful in the extreme.
young female named Cur:is, who was in the upper pan of
the house, became surrounded with flame, and unions-
nately she was quickly burnt almost to a cinder. A wonn
named Stephens, who also lived in the upper part of tte
house, after making several futile attempts to reach the
street, was obliged to make for the front window, co clou'::
expecting to find the escapes of the Royal Society there, to
_ _

unfortunately the hour for the conductor to come on (Intl
had not arrived, and the poor creature an the last medal
jumped out of window ; she fell in the first instance elm

some iron spikes that surrounded the area, and as ore of tir
neighbours was hastening to liberate her, she fell upon its
stone flags with violence. She was instantly removed to
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but owing to the serious ir;c
ries she bas received, and the loss of blood from the waged!,
very little hopes can be entertained of her recovery.
The engines of the London Brigade from Farringdot•
street, Holborn, Watling-street, and Chandos-street wire
remarkably early in arriving, as well as the West of Eog•
land engine and firemen, &c. A plentiful supply of wan
was procured from the mains of the New River Company,
from which the firemen, under the direction of Mr. Super
intendent Braidwood, Mr. Golf, the foreman of the B see•
tion of brigade, and Mr. Connorten, of the West of Eng.
land-office, went to work, but the flames continued to
progress, and in a space of time comparatively brief its
lofty structure, with the exception of one or two rooms, ifw
completely wrapped in flames.

The firemen, to save the adjoining premises, mounted the
roofs, and, by conveying the hose along the parapets, they
were enabled to distribute the water in such direction 51
to confine the destructive element principally to the wart-
homes in which it began. The poor girl Curtis was found
in the ruins by one of the brigade, burnt quite black ; and
during the morning of yesterday the body of a man named
Stephens was also found, dreadfully disfigured by the st-
tien of the fire and quite dead. The two bodies, or, more
correctly speaking, the remains, have been removed :o tte
dead-house to await an inquest, which, in all prolvibd:•V
will be held to-day (Monday).
The origin of the misfortune is enveloped in ohscur4
and it is feared that none of the sufferers were insured.

AN EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND.—An interesting
expedition is now being fitted out at Portsmouth for tc
purpose of proceeding to Greenland with several scientine
men, whose object will be on arrival there to test with car
the mineral resources of that country. Extensive disc,
varies of copper, tie, silver, and lead mines are understood
to have been recently made by Mr. Lundt, a Danish tr:.-
yeller, to whom the King of Denmark has granted cams
rights. The vessel engaged for the purposes of the expedi-
tion is the Dolphin, of 217 tons, a fine craft, and at one
time a crack schooner yacht. She also affords an oppen
tunity for the despatch of letters for the ships now in thc.
Arctic Region on their way home, and which she'.
carry to Disco or Upernavic, in Batfin's-bay. Saturday.
the 251 h instant, was the last day such letters were to halc
been sent to Queenstown, Cork, where the Dolphin *
call ; but as she will not leave Portsmouth until ahou
Wednesday next, letters sent to Queenstown a few dal,
later than the 25th may probably be in time.
TILE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT.—It is expected tha:
steps will be taken by the Commissioners of Devonport. •st'
have the charge of the drainage and streets of the town,.
put the provisions of the Ilea:th of Towns Act iu °Pent'
in that borough. The operations of the Commissional
Sanitary Purposes are too much circumscribed by the
limited power conferred by the act under which the co s-
sn'ssion exists.

THE WAGES MOVEMENT.

LONDON.

sf he dispute remains moth in the same state as it
List we. k. Mewers. Brase's men are still out, and the
tam et making arrangements to obtain others from the
country. Mr. Wales, on the part of the Builders' SocWy, '
,oninunietited to the carpenters and joiners, who met at the
National 11411, the determination arrived at by the mas.ers„
sad stated in our last nurser. ln return the following
letter si.; forwarded to him, s:/neel "On behalf of the
Committse !laving received your reply in answer to
the cionsmanication requesting an interview of delegates
with the master builder., which states that they cannot re-
ceive any deputation while partial stsikes are going on, we
1:440s say, for your intuerstation, that having publicly de-
clared that we have always opposed, directly or indirectly,
partial strikes, we conceive that you cannot connect us as a
body in any strikes that have recently taken place. We
therefore honestly and firmly inform you that if the request
505.: ted is not conceded to in seven days from this, We shall
ourselves Justified in adopting any other measures we
may dein' ads i•ible to secure our legitimate claim." The
master builders had a numerous and important meeting
again 03 Thursday night (the 23rd), and decided that they
could •.c Ill) reason to alter their determination, cummuni-
e.,ted by Mr. Wales on the 16th inst. The threat cintained
in the last douse of the reply on behalf of the workmen
wan considered very offensive, and there is reason to fear
may wolen the breach.—The Builder.