The Express.
London, England, 1866-06-07 00:00:00

SECTARIAN RIOTS AT PLYMOUTH.

(NEUTER'S ZIPPERS.)
PLYMOUTH, JUNE 7.
Last night a serious controversial riot took place
at St. George's-hall, Stonehonee.

Lectures had been in course of delivery there during
the last week, by Mr. Murphy, agent of the Lon-
don Protestant Electoral Union, on the doctrines
and practices of the Roman catholic church. Last
evening the closing lecture was on the infallibility
of the church of Rome and the worship of the cross.
Shortly after it commenced 110 Irish people, male and
female, some armed with shillelahs, made a concerted
attack on the protestants. Near the platform serious con-
sequences would have ensued but for the conduct of some
marines present. They promptly organised under the con-
duct of some of the non-commissioned officers, drove the
rioters out of the building, ►nd escorted the lecturer home,
the meeting being closed.

A letter from Rome of the 31st says :—" The
great precession of Corpus Domi•ii took place this morning
around the colonnade of St. Peter's with the usual splen-
dour and order, bi 4 Holiness looking in very good health
on the occasion. On Tuesday morning the Pope was pre-
sent at the annual funeral obsequies of his predecessor,
Gregory XVI., and, after mass, performed the rite of ab-
solution over the pontifical catafalque."
The Italian ram vessel Affondatore has left Mill-
wall, hang been completed for sea. She is now at Green-
hithe, it is stated, swinging for the adjustment of her
compasses, and her convoy, the Principessa Clotilda, has
gone down from Woolwich to Gravesend to await her
arrival there, in readiness to proceed to Naples, their pre-
sent destination.

9i- LlOO
SR 'NO

HAMPTON RACES (THIS DAT).—Hampton races,
a favourite recreation of Londoners, commenced this morn-
ing, and large numbers of carriages and other vehicles
passed through the Strand on their way thither at an
early hour. To-day the principal race is the Surrey and
Middlesex Stakes (Handicap) for 100 sovereigns. The
principal raves to-morrow will be the Wolsey Plate (Han-
dicap) for 100 sovereigns, and the Visitors' Plate, 50
sovereigns. The Earl of Sefton, the Earl of Uxbridge, and
Mr. H. Savile are the stewards; Mr. Clark, of Newmarket,
judge ; Mr. M'George, 'tauter ; Messrs. Weatherly, han-
dicappers ; Mr. C. J. Langlands, clerk of the course.
DEATH OF MIL hi'DOUOALL STUART, THE
AUSTRALIAN ETNA/KER.—The death is announced this
morning of Mr. John M`Dougall Stuart, the well-known
explorer of the interior of Australia. Mr. Stuart was of
Scottish extraction, and was born in 1818. In early life
he was engaged in business, but having determined to emi-
grate, he proceeded to Australia, where he settled, but
was not successful in the pursuit of agriculture, to which
he devoted himself. In 1857 he made an effort to explore
the range of country westward of Lake Torrens, a salt lake,
or marsh, of South Australia, bending in a semi-circular
form round an arid and mountainous peninsula. In ISSB be
made a second attempt, and was more fortunate. He suffered
great hardships in this exploration, but he succeeded in
opening up a large tract of country before unknown, and
Lake Torrens has now been traced for 400 miles. For
these services the Colonial Legislature of Adelaide re-
warded him with a fourteen years lease of 1,000 square
miles of land. In 1860 Mr. Stuart successfully effected
the journey across the interior of Australia from south to
north. He was an honorary fellow of the Royal Geo-
graphical Society of London and Berlin, marks of dis-
tinction which were conferred upon him in acknowledgment
of his contributions to geographical science by his explo-
rations.
READING FOR SEAMEN.—The New York Port
Society has recently adopted the plan of lending libraries
to vessels leaving that port, the books to be exchanged on
the return of the vessel—a movement which will do much
to relieve the monotony of a sea voyage.
THE ACCIDENT AT GUILDHALL.—Yesterday Mr.
Foster White, the treasurer of St. Bartholomew's Hospi-
tal, called upon the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion House,
and reported that the men who sustained injuries on
Tuesday evening by the fall of a scaffold at Guildhall were
all doing well, more ore less, and that none of them were
understood to be in danger. He also stated, as a circum-
stance creditable to all concerned, that within half an hour
after the accident, the whole 13 men had been comfort-
ably placed in bed in the hospital, and were receiving the
necessary attentions of the surgeons of the establishment.
SINGULAR ESCAPE. —During a violent thun-
derstorm which passed over North Staffordshire early
on Tuesday morrow, a gardener in the employ of Messrs.
Burgess and Kent, nurserymen, of Peak ull, near New-
castle, had a remarkable escape from in all probability
instant death. At the height of the storm he left his bud
to give shelter to some choice plants, which it occurred to
him he had left in a rather exposed situation. Having
done so, he returned to his house and found that during
his brief absence it had been struck by lightning, which
had burnt the bed on which he had been sleeping, and had
shattered his bedroom chimney-piece to atoms.