The Express.
London, England, 1856-11-27 00:00:00

STEAMBOAT EXPLOSION AND LOSS OF

LIFE.

SOUTHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY.

About five o'clock this afternoon a tremendous ez.
plosion took place in the docks her:. Th. repirt was heard
in the direction of the entrance of the deck, and it wee soon
as wrta‘ced that it arose from the bur,ting of the boilers of
one of the royal mail steamers, the Porans. The Parana
was preparing to take out the West India mail os the tad
proximo, and, accordieg to the usual prac ice, tae engineers
were tryieg the engines. Everything was is gear and the
steamer was up to the fall power, when all at once the top
of the boiler was blown off with a sound like the discharge
of a heavy gun. The engine department was filed imme-
diately with steam, and shrieks and groans were heard. As
soon se possible assiatance was pro:ured. and four poor
fellows belonging to the fire department were takec out of
the stoke hole scalded to death. Their names were Brown,
Pothreary, Knowtor, and Rigors. nee otters were
seriously injured: two of them were ble:srs. JJCIII and
Mason. The fourth and fifth engineers were badly scalded
in the arms. The four deed bodies were taken to the dead-
house in the dr.cits. The Plata will take out the tent West
India mail instead of the Parana.

THE FATAL EXPLOSION AT RHODES.

RHODES, Nov. 8.

A new catastrophe has just befallen the city of
Rhodes, sfflieted Si it was already by the ear,hquake of the
12th of last October.

Oa the 6th of November, at 4 in the afternoon, during a
storm, a &soh of lightning set fire to tl.e powder msgariae,
situa.ed at the upper end of the town, and cl: to to the
church of St. John. The shock fern: the explosion was
terrific; St. John's church, that ancient relic of the knights,
and the buildings of the whole adjoining quarter, wars
thrown down, and their unfortunate inhabitants buried be-
neath the rains. The number of the hou'es and pub.ee dwell-
ings entirely destroyed may be retimatrd at 200, without
reckoning en almost equal number of edifices half de-
stroyed.

The amount of the dead, which exotica be exactly ascer-
tained to-day, is at least from 250 to 300. In the Undies
borne alone 25 persons have perished, of whom 16 beleng to
his own family. The damage would hem) been yet more
considerable if the magazine bad act been quite in the
upper part of the 'own, on a plateau chi, fly occupied by the
churches of St. John and St. Pthl, the palace of the old
Grand Masters, and fcrtiticatious with large open spaces
between them. The explosion pealed over tt • lower
quarters of the town, which have escaped, though the doors
and windows were driven in, mid some stuns* kcocked off
the wal:s even there.

The Diet of Fru:Wort has extended the roter'ion
gives to the works of Sdhiller against piracy to the end of
ISG7.
A letter from Warsaw says :—" Althouet the sine
ter has mutely yet commenced, and but very :it•le snow
has fallen, wolves have left their haunts in nurnbere, sad
epproached the villages. A few d.iys sir ce an enormous
one entered, in the open dny, the of Szymatow,
seized on a child six years of ace, and cutlets it ,_d to the
neighbouring (nest. Altbeu„sh the whole population of
the village were in pursuit of the animal, nothieg could be
found, after several hours' search, but the hall-c aten re-
mains of the poor child."
INTERESTING SCIENTIFIC' 2 X iimrioN.—The
Times of the 18th nye The G Jr.e .n, steam frigate,
lately arrived here from Englaiii, on her way to the Levant,
hes, we undetiusad, been espr.ssly sent nut by tit. Adolf-
raPy on a scientific expedition to the Plead of C.a. It
would app. sr that the British vice-consul of that islattl he.
discover, d the remains of whet is tionsit teed to be an an.
cleat Greek city; and that he applied to the home govern-
ment for the means of prosecuting researches, which pro-
Mitt to be very in' leg. The o.rgen has on board im-
plements for escontiag, ant PCiebtifiC illSlT‘lllente to (mi-
litia • the work. A good c mere obscure anti photographic
chemicals have al.o been supplied,ae that any intaiption or
statuary which may be brought to light wilt he photo-
graphed on the spat. The work will, wa are informed, be
carried on under the superintendence of the vies cosset.
The expedition, if it realise the nommen)°, formed con-
certing it, will probably throw eonsiderable light on some
portion of the history of ancient Greece. Coe is me of the
islands of the Aschipelsg', situated at no great distant*
from the coast of Asia Minor. The G :rgon left on the 13th
for Smyrna."
BIRTHS AND DEATHS IN LONDaN.—The reteros
for the week that ended on Bentaley exhibit a decided in-
ertly" of the deaths i.e London. The (teethe, which at the
bitinaing of this month were about a thoueend in a week,
and were afterwards 1,090, rose last week to 1,261. In the
tea weeks corresponding to bet week of the yearn IS4ti 55
the ge number was 1,072; and the same rate of mor-
tality in the present increased popelatton would have pro-
duced 1,179 death.. There was therefore last week as
eat's, of 82 above the corrected ge. The ineream oft
the previous weeks of this month mime almost wisely from
distaste of the respiratory organ. Last week the bathe of
811 boys and 767 girls, in all 1,578 children, were registered
in Landoll. In the ten corresponding weeks of the rare
184845 the ge number was 1,440.