The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-26 00:00:00

SHOCKING DEATHS OP TWO GIRLS BY FIRE•

INQUESTS.—(THIS DAY.) St
This morning Mr. John Humphreys, Middlesex fis•
coroner, held an inquiry at the London Hospital, touching It:
the death by fire of Catherine Hennessey, aged 14 years. st.
The deceased girl lived with her parents, at No. 1, St.
Elizabeth-gardens, Stratford. On Monday morning, St.
after getting her father's breakfast, she sat down St.
by the fire, and fell asleep. She was awoke by Si.
finding herself on fire, and she rushed out to the door, t.
when the draught caused her clothes to blaze up. Her St
shrieks brought a man named John Crawley to her assist- gs,
ance, and he cut the clothes off her, but not before she St.
' had been frightfully buret over the whole body, and be St.
himself was also burnt. She was taken to the hospital where tt,.•"
she died on Wednesday.
SL
The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death from It
fire."
The same coroner held a second inquest at the hospital 10
on view of the body of Sophia Bridger, aged S years, who
100
100
was likewise burnt to death. 10
The deceased was the daughter of a boot maker
sc
living at 6, Ada-place, Hackney-road, and while stand- 9
ing on the fender in the parlour to arrange her it.
hair at the glass, her dress caught fire. She rushed, 25
screaming, into the back yard, where the neighours seeing St.
her in ileums went to her assistance. With some difficulty n•
the fire was put out, but she had been so severely burnt ;.;'
that she died in the hospitaL At.
The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death by st.
fire." st.
25

A new work, by M. Guizot,entitled " Meditations -
on the Present State of the Christian Religion " is on the 11.3
eve of publication in Paris. The DOults, having obtained St
an early copy, gives long extracts from the work. After a r
resume of the principal transactions which have taken k
place in France during the course of the present century, M.
Guizot says :—" In the midst of the obstacles, oscillations,
deviations, and faults which may be observed, there is an
evident Christian awakening in catholic France. Under
the action of the causes which I have pointed out there has
been evidently progress in Christian faith, progress in
Christian science, progress in Christian works, progress in
Christian strength—progress incomplete and insufficient it
may be, but still real and fruitful—the symptoms of a
powerful vitality and of a hopeful future. Lct not the
enemies of Christianity deceive themselves; they are waging
a war to the death, but it is not a dying foe they have to
deal with." With regard to Protestant France, DI. Guizot
comes to a like conclusion. At the same time he admits that
rationalism, positivaism, pantheism, materialism, and
scepticism, are spreading like imperceptible and impal-
pable miasmata and affecting classes of the population to
whom the very meaning of the words is unknown.
"Impiety," he says, "carelessness, and religious per-
plexity, are evident and widespread amongst us. With
regard to impiety this is especially true of the working
classes and the young generation of the middle class who
are intended for tho liberal professions." But religious
indifference is even more wide-spread than impiety. "It
is like a Dead Sea where no being lives —a sterile desert
where no plant grows. If not the most shocking, it is
the most serious moral evil of our time. It is against
this evil that Christians must especially direct their
efforts. Here there is an entire world and whole popula-
tions to be conquered." M. Guizot believes iu tho final
victory of Chrlatianity.
" In the French Senate," says a Paris letter in
the Journal du Havre, " the question of abolishing the
punishment of death, which is shortly coming on fur con-
sideration, will be the object of a very profound discussion.
Several members of that high assembly are expected to
speak in favour of the abolition. In order to give more
importance to the examination of this mutter,
which encloses a great social interest, the go-
vernment has procured from London and distributed to
the senators the report of the English commission on the
subject. That inquiry includes the criminal statistics of
all the countries in Europe, and is the most complete work
ever drawn up on the matter."
AMERICAN SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FENIANS.—If it
be only a grand display and noise to amuse the Irish
people, to gratify their sentiment of love for the old
country, and to work up their enthusiasm by way of
amusement, and they are willing to pay for that as
they pay for being amused at the theatre, all very
well. There is no particular objection to that, so that
nobody he hurt, and the United States government be
not put to expense to maintain the neutrality laws. But
if the movement be a serious one ou the part of the
leaders, a few pertinent questions might be asked.
How many ships would it take to carry an invading
army across the Atlantic--such an army as would
not be gobbled up piecemeal by the British men-of
war and redcoats? How many? A hundred? Fifty?
Twenty? How much money would it cost? A hundred
millions? Or fifty millions? And where is this money
to come from? Then bow are these ships to be ob-
tained, and how get away from our shores? Can one,
can a schooner, be permitted to break the neu-
trality laws and escape the vigilance of our govern-
ment ? But some say the colonies are to be taken
first and made the point d'appui of operations for the
liberation of Ireland. How absurd ! Would not this
be filibustering —piracy ? There are some Irishmen
in the colonies, but there are more of others
who do not want to be conquered and governed
by a few Irish filibusters. The colonies are
not Ireland. And would the United States per-
mit the invasion of a friendly territory? Gene-
ral Meade's presence on the border and the United States
navy on the coast are a sufficient answer to the question
as to what our government would be bound to
do. It is not a question of sympathy with Irish-
men—here or in Ireland—in their generous desires and
aspirations. That they have, probably, from both our
government and people ; but it is one of law, of inter-
national obligations and prudence, that must govern
us in this case. In whatever way we look at the
visionary scheme to establish an Irish republic we
see it is utterly impracticable. Worse than that ; the Irish
people are not only deluded, but the leaders are putting
this generous country, which some of them have adopted,
to great expense and trouble. They have no right
to do this under any circumstances, but under the
present impracticable and absurd movement they
are entirely inexcusable. Perhaps the voice of reason
may not be listened to just now, and our Irish fellow
citizens may feel it necessary to excite themselves and have
a grand sensation, as Head Centre Stephens has arrived,
but the time must soon come when the whole affair will
collapse and reason regain its sway.—New York Herald,
Mai 12.
THE RlNG.—Bell's Life of to-day says it must be
obvious to the veriest tyro, that the exhibition of Thurs-
day "was never, from the moment the men put their
hands up, intended to come to a fight We do not mean
to say we believe they had come to an arrangement be-
tween themselves, but we do say emphatically that any
small amount of courage either of them might have
screwed up before the day did not adhere to the stick-
ing point, but oozed out at their fingers' ends directly
they caught eight of one another. To see two powerful
flea. neither of them dunces, stand up, point at one
another, and each at the slightest intimation of danger
start back like a timid hare, was a farce of too di sting a
nature to be tolerated, and we only wonder that the spec-
tators, among whom were many foreigners, who had come
out of curiosity to witness one of our celebrated boxing-
matches for the championship, did not hoot them out of
the ring." Bell's Life adds that Mace must return the
belt at once, and that a resolution from the subscribers to
it prohibits either Mace or Goss from ever again contend-
ing for that trophy. Our contemporary severely condemns
the resistance to the police on the occasion of the second
fight and hopes the actors in it will be punished.
' Courage, manliness, and skill, the upholding of fair
play, and the non-resistance to the authorities have been
the leading features upon which we have relied for sup-
porting the practice of pugilism ; and now that, by these
crowning acts of cowardice and violence on Thursday last,
all these reasons are scattered to the wind, and when we
are asked where are our vaunted justifications for the so-
called old English art of self-defeace, what answer an we
make? Nene."