The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-01 00:00:00

FATAL ACCIDENTS IN THE RECENT FOG.

INQUEST.—(THIS DAY.)
This forenoon Mr. Richards, deputy coroner,
held an inquest at the Mitford Arms Tavern, Hackney-
wick, touching the death of Mr. Josiah Gleason, aged 49,
who lest his life through the fog on last Wednesday even-

N. J. Glaseon, 56, Frances-terrace, Victoria-park, said
that the deceased was an iron barge builder and boiler
sager. Witness last saw him alive on Wednesday even-
iaif between 5 and 6 o'clock. He was quite sober and in
good health.
It appeared that on the evening in question a dense fog
Tendered it very difficult to see even the distance of a few
feet. The deceased went out to make some arrangements
with regard to the completion or launching of a screw
barge, and while going along the banks of the Sir George
Duckett's Canal, he, without doubt, walked into the
water near the lower luck. The next morning his body
was found in the canal.
The jury returned a verdict of " Found drowned in the
Sir George Duckett's Canal."
Two other fatal accidents of similar character are re-
ported to have taken place during the fog of Wednes-
day last.

WILAORDINARY CASE IN FINSBURY.-SEDUC-
TION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

Mr. Richards, deputy-coroner, held an inquiry
st the City of London Union-home ast evening touching
the death of the illegitimate male child of a young woman
tamed Rhoda Dash, who was confined on the shop floor
of Mr. Schacht, at No. 6, Finsbury-place, under the fol-
lowing circumstances.
Mrs. Typhena Goodenough, superintendent of the in-
&Mari of the City of London Union, said that in con-
sequence of • telegram received on Monday last at a
to 3 o'clock a cab was despatched to No. 6, Finsbury-
=and It returned at a quarter to 5 with a young
woman named Rhoda Dash, who stated her age to be 16,
and a baby wrapped in wool and flannel. The child was
quite dead ; the mouth was filled with blood, and there were
bruises on the body. The mother said that the child never
cried. She stated afterwards that she lived with sister at an
address (which she gave) in Chelsea, and she said that
basing gone to Anerloy tea-gardens with • gentleman,
who was in business in the City, she was seduced.
She now stated that she was 18 years old.
Dr. A. Basch, 7, Smith-street, Finsbury, said that on
last Monday, at a quarter to 2 o'clock, he was called into
the shop of Mr. Schacht, chemist, at No. 6, Finsbury-
place, and there he found Rhoda Dash on the floor. The
child was just born and was alive. It appeared that
the young woman had conic into the shop for some medi-
cine, as she felt ill and was then and there taken in la-
bour. While the child was being born, she denied being
in the family way ; oho said that she had no knowledge of
anything of the sort. She told witness that she was 18, but
be said that he did not believe her, for she only looked 11.
Afterwards, however, she showed that she was 18. She
and the child lay on the floor for two hours. Witness did
what he could for her, but there was no proper place to
which to send her. He asked the police, but they said
they could not interfere, unless she was turned out of the
shop, then they would take her up, and remove her to the
station. At length he wrote to the parish functionaries,
and a telegram was sent to the workhouse in the Bow-
road, stating that the life of the young woman, as well as
that of the child, were " in instant danger if not removed,
to some proper place." About a quarter to 4
o'clock a cab came, and they were removed to
the workhouse. The child was then dead an hour. It
died from syncope from wait of power. It was not
a full-timed child, and it might not have lived in any
event, but of course the cold of the shop must have dimi-
nished its chances. The bruises mentioned by the first
witness were caused accidentally. Mr. Schacht, the
chemist, did what he could, and so did witness, but, of
course' a chemist's shop was not adapted for such an un-
expected event. In witness's opinion there ought to be
some place to which, in cases of emergency like the pre.
sent, a woman could be promptly removed.
The Coroner, having summed up, told the jury that
they had nothing to do with any question of concealment
of birth (if such there could be said to have beau) that
might hereinafter arise,
The jury returned a verdict " That the deceased child
died, in a certain shop, from the mortal effects of syncope,
caused by want of power."

St. Andrew's Convalescent Hospital, at Clcwer,
near Windier, was opened yesterday by the Bishop of

Ozford. _
His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, presi-
dent, will preach in behalf of the Royal Asylum of St.
Ann's Society, at Beffilington Church, on Sunday, 9th inst.
THE REPRESENTATION OF ARMAGH.—There is to
be, if there is not already, a vacancy in the representation
of Armagh. Mr. Stearns Ball Miller, after having once or
twice had his claims passed over by his friends. is, it seems,
now to have a judicial appointment. Such a rich
harvest of official promotion as has recently fallen to
the Tory lawyers to reap is almost anprecedented.
For many years they have been waiting and waiting
almost in despair, seeing their liberal rivals promoted over
their heads, and hungerin.c after what others were per-
mitted to enjoy. It pleased, however, Mr. Gladstone and
his colleagues to resign, and Lord Derby to accept office,
expressly, as he said, to give his supporters an opportu-
nity of enjoying the honours and emoluments of which
they had so long been deprived by the unkind fates.
—Northern Whi9.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND THE CONGRESS.—If

-
the President will consent to retrace his steps a little, and
totake counsel of the convictions he claimed before his
unfortunate rupture with Congress, it will not be difficult
for him to present a plan which will command the respect
—we believe also the sanction—of the great majority of the
American people. Ho has in other circumstances de-
finitely committed himself to impartial suffrage,
sad to the revision of the bases of representation
and taxation. Why not renew propositions which in
divers shapes he has, at one time or another, authorita-
tively made? A plan embracing qualified negro suffrage,
with intelligence or property as the test to be applied—
federal representation based on voters—federal taxation
based on property—the extinction of the rebel debt—the
inviolability of the union debt, and whatever mea-
sures may be necessary to secure to the freedmen the full
fruits of emancipation—would be a substitute which
Andrew Johnson slight offer with perfect consistency, and
with a certainty of securing friendly consideration in both
sections. To these features might be added a qualified
amnesty, limiting the disabilities imposed by the
third section of the present amendment to the small
class of Southern politicians who were the actual,
official, anti recognised promoters of the rebellion.
Such aplan presented by the President in his coming nice-
/age would do mach toward softening prevailing asperi-
ties, and favourably influencing the temper and action of
Congress. It would he a wise and not ungraceful recogni-
tion of the determination avowed by the people of the
North, and an ultimatum which he might with propriety
urge upon the people of the South.—. New York Tines,
Nov. 19.

•••
A CLERICAL COMPROMISE.—We remember wel

(we are really not drawing from our imagination for our
has) a clergyman of the strongest evangelical views who
was very fond of shooting—and an excellent shot he was.
It seemed to have been borne in upon him l-y some ob-
liquity of conscience, not uncommon in a narrow-minded
school, that the sinfulness of such pursuits lay not in the
act but in the costume ; so, instead of the ordinary shoot-
log-coat and gaiters, he took the field in solemn state in a
full-dress black suit, low shoes and white stockings, and a
white tie with very long ends—for all the world as if he
were going to preach to the birds instead of to shoot
them. To see that black swallow-tail go through a brambly
cover (for the country was wild, and the chief sport it
afforded was cock-shooting) was, 1%/1 our American
friend would say, " a caution." The sepulchral
tones in which he gave the warning, " Down charge,
l'onto-o ring in our ears at this moment, though
it is long years since we heard him. But stranger
still was the defensive argument of his church-
warden—a solemn farmer who sometimes beat for him,and
shared his theological views. There had been some un-
charitable scandal raised against two or three younger
brethren of the cloth who had set up a cricket-club in the
neighbourhood. Amongst those who were shocked by it
was this same churchwarden ; and when the question was
put to him, in what respect a cricket-bat was a lees saintly
weapon than the gun which his own particular parson
earned, his answer was, " Ah ! but you see there's some
purpose in the shooting !" An occasional hare had no
doubt found its way to his flesh-pots when the day's walk
was over ; and if the results of cricket could have been in
any such way utilised, it would plainly have removed his
objealion.—Blockwooci's Magazine for Deoember.