The Express.
London, England, 1857-03-02 00:00:00

BCENE AT A FIRE.-(THIS DAY.)

This morning, between the hours of four and Ave
o'clock, a destructive fire attended with great loos of pro-
perty and danger to life, broke out on the prennees Wong-
mg to -In.. C. De Caux, proprietress of the Pa-
eel Tavern, High-Meet, Aldgate. A police-constable
observing susske to issue through the bar shutters, alarmed
the inmates, who attempted to deerciel by the staircase, bit
on reaming the see. nd-Moor landing the smoke was so dense en
I to overcome Mrs. De Caux, who is very corpulent. Her Wady
being unable to lift bee, commenced screaming meet pite-
ously, and at the same time vats of spirits exploded with
noise like the discharge of firearms. At this juncture
George Hannswotth orris ed with the Aldgate escape
and raceteded in ascending and bringing down In
safety the son and daughter of the landlady, and the bar-
maid and barman, being informed that the proprietreen
was lying insensible upon the landing, this man, with
the greatest coolness, again ascended and entered the second-
floor window, while the smoke wee issuing ball across the
street. The crowd called loudly to Lim to come down, but
be proceeded to crawl along the flooring and to reach Mrs.
De Caux, whom he found quite insensible. 'laving raised
her on his back, he carried her through the smoke, and
pushed Let safely down the aware, +mid the enthusiantio
greetings of the spectators. The tire was not extinguished
until considerable damage was done to the upper part of the
house, and the bar end its contents utterly destroyed.

rintendent
dca.7...:c.:llool7.l:lfsyterNthasTie:atito.Et
Ri,..eibeistToEtrhc;.H...fp:if appointments
of,Government
t :t
have been made in the colonies t —Witham Thema. Marcy,
o the
ast ~leneea,
by
ev. J.
Esq., to be Clerk of the Supreme Court at Jamaica ; Richard
Schools at Mauritiaut The Queen has appointed the Roe.
On Thursday
evening, between eight end nine o'clock . a young woman,
, the domestic of a lady living on the outAutte of Wakefield,
' at St. John's-terrace, on her way to town, was solicited foe
alms by two powerfully-built men, and, on her saying that
she heel nothing for them, one uncorked a phial, and while
his companion held the girl he poured its lipaid contents
down Ler throat. Some persons appnewhing, the fellows ran
o 5 and the young woman wan found in a state of stupefac-
tion. She was Win eyed to her mietress's house, where she
lies in a dangerous state, her throat being severely burned
by the liquid. The police are on the track of the fellows.—
sllandiester Guardian.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE BRISTOL. AND EXETER
RAILWAY.—One of the most fearful accidents of recent
occurrence happened the night before het on the Bristol
and Exeter railway, neer Higlihridge. The man who un-
happily loot his life was one of the cemixuay's guards, named
Turner, end his death is the more to be lamented so it was
canoed by a courageoux endeavour to avert an accident to the
train he had under his charge. Turner was in charge of the
down loggav-tens, and, upon its neariug the Ilighbridge
'oration, be observed that a truck had been left on the line.
Notwithstanding that tho train was in motion, ho made an
attempt to deeeend, in order to remise the truck out of the
way but unfortunately in so doing he missed his footing,
anti being thrown by the impetws across the rails,the
wheels of some of the luggage vitas pureed over him. The
artremai were gathered and rew an adjacent inn to
await ronet's inquest. The deeeosed was a remarrelytotti
steady, well-conducted man, and great confident was
in hue. lie heat left a widow to Latent his loss.
niE STRIKE AT TIIE BIRKENIIE %I) DOCK WORKS.
—A company of the 25th Regiment arrived at Birkenhead
'on Saturday' morning at half-past 3 o'clock, by special train
from Manchester, the caters in command beiug Captain
Gildare and Lieutenants Pierce and Goodall. They pro-
ceeded at ow eto the Town-hall, where they remained until
about half-past 12 this afternoon. It was then decided that
they should march to the works, that the new wen should
proceed with the operation!, and that extreme measures
should be adopted if it were found necaweary. Mr. Harden,
judge of the Birkenhead County Court, and Mr. Balms,
magistrate' se-empanied the troops. The particular work
consists in deepening the great float, in which trabie
progress has already been made. It may be stated that the
real cause of the strike is a question who. are of wage
at present paid
s to the class of
labourers teemed ~weewoners,"
2s. 9d. a day. They reitiend that this is lower than the
price paid elsewhere , and that now the long hours are
setting they ought to receive 3a. a day. The presence of
the military cher, lied all dispoeit ion to violenee.
TIIE PIER AT CALAIn.—The passengers were land-
ing from the r. bet on the pier at Calais.
the A lode w-lying
outplaeo
and a low-spirited piece Calais was, with ti ebbang
towards low watermark. There Lad been no more water on
the bar than had outfaced to float the packet ; and now the
bar itself, with a shallow break of eta over it, tanked like a
lazy
indistinctly
monster just risen to the *milts, whose form
was ahown ea it lay asleep. The meagre light-
house all in white, baunting the scabaanl, as if it were the
ghost of an edifice that had once had colour and rotundity,
dripped melancholy tears after ita late buffeting by the waves.
The King yowl, of gaunt black piles., filmy and wet and
weather-worn, with funeral garlands sera weed, twisted
about them Ly the late tide, might Wive represented an un-
sightly marine cemetery. Every waveAseLed, storm-beaten
object, was is low and se little, under the broad grey sky, in
the melee of the wind and sea, and before the curling lines ot
ear!, melds at A ferociously, that the wonder as that there
waa say Caleba left, and that its low gate, ant]low wall and
low roofs and low ditchee and low sand-hills and low ram-
parts and tat streets, had not yielded long ago to the under-
mining and buieging sea, like the fortifications children make
on the eta-share:Latte !Writ. New number.

THE OVERLAND MAIL•

We have received our despatches from India,
China, and Persia, by the Overland Mail ens Mar-
seilles. Their date. are :—Bombay, Feb. 2nd;
(hdentta, Jan. 24th; Hong Hong, Jan. 15th; and
Bushier, Jan. 17th.

CHINA.

The fortnight covered by the present advices from
Hong Kong has for its principal feature a well-
planned and bold, but unsuccesdal, attempt by the
Chinese to retake the fort defending Macso
Pass. We hear of no farther operations against
Canton, but on the other hand of much apprehen-
sion on the part of the European residents at Hong
Kong. caused by the exasperated temper of the indi-
genous population. On the 6th of January Sir John
Bowring issued an ordinance declaring the necessity
of taking immediate and special means for preserving
the peace of the colony, and enacting that any China-
man found at Imp in Hang Kong, elsewhere than
in his own habitation, between the hours of eight in
the evening and sunrise, sad witheat a pollee plus,
shall be liable to a fine, to imprisonment with hard
kbuar, to whipping, or to the stocks. By another
section of the same ordinance : "Every person law-
fully acting se a sentry or patrol at any time be-
tween the hoar of eight in the evening and sunrise
is hereby authorised wiulet so acting to Sr. span,
with intent or effoct to kill, any Chinaman whom ha
shall meet with or dissever shad and whom he
shall have reasonable ground to asiqiect of befog so
abroad for as improper parpose, and who being
challenged by him shall seglect or refire to make
proper answer to his challesge." His Exesilesey
also assumes power to deport all perm= cemidsreel
dangerous to the pence and good order of the
colons.
The Oreriavd Priam, qf China, which had bees
calling for this ordinance three weeks before it wee
issued, mays, in its imam published on the day the
steamer left :—"W• mast look to our own protec-
tion, and until we have more fame, we my, ' Leave '
Canton alone ; let the paeans that would be aroma'
by farther conflagration quietly sleep till we hem
the power to meet it ; hold what we have, and
attempt no more.' Hong Kong and Macao regales
all our attention--all oar mean We speak et
Homo in this connexion because we would not have
Admiral Seymour forget that there is mach British
property and many raked Belli* lives there; and
thesigh we know the governor af that settlement
has the will to protect, we also knew he has set the
availeble means, and should the Chinese come down
overland in force, the consequences would be serious.
Not a moment should be lost, to our thinking, is
entrenching the Wanghia extremity of the pmtln-
Pula, and, until completed, a man-of-war or two
should be anchored off the Barrier rains. We may
not forget that it is not Yeh bat the people with
whom we are now dealing."
The journal just quoted has instituted a column
specially for "Chinese atrocities," with the remark
—0 We shall always be able to fill this chapter."
We dad in its number for January 16 the following
mummery entries, without further specification of
patieular. :
r Yet—Attack by day armed boats an the river
allassasr Plasm, whoa WS semi Ike Oak; mew with the
Mimatarial damps at sled shst ambasims.
Isadsy Mee —Dr. Rydet's thap-bags at Whampoa, •
imprint of the same d Bak% mumbradi is his bad—
Masi and hair is the dick abamted wires he had boa
.dampilMab—hissid to the past sill idissalsig bow the batty
- seas disponi 8E

Troloy End od Co.'s maw Ilsoitior
eoliwwl Ity two swamis boob sear Baca Dor, owl boo
wow MI to mom

lima Noss bra—Cestars of ma with jars of gvassee-
• dm. ilbsselig, by do ?mob aeries at kw as at Sal
Pelst, for with are hal so Nowa Teepoilry atigebia-
tics shin sr tiros Europium, Bier imblir soap, believed se
bats la plea fa It. Dismay of • hams body is the
Wciagaratam valley. Meg of nee mat sheds aathe
Itemises el N. Crosby, jun., to.
We have received a proclamation issued by
Haou, acting magistrate of Iletiag-shun, in which
that official informs his people that the English
have attacked the chief city of the parrinoe, and
enjoins them therefore to have no commercial inter-
course with Hong Kong, av " it in necessary to stop
all communication and trade." All persona engaged

in such tintSe, sr sagloyed in barbsrim mini, are
to return to their ham "Goods ore ales ihriiiisa
to be taken to Wasso,lest frees that gime Hoag
Kong should get bre supplies. Therekm oil Val-
ve's that proceed to Masao, Tandird. and Wag
Kong, are ordered In stop from gain. This mat-
ter has been insioted on is the districts of
Tungkwan and Sin-gan. Supplies are cut off in
,thaw districts." A furiom and infuriating
:addrem has been circulating man the Chinese
loth at Hong Kong sad Mama It pur-
ports to have beau honed b Commiesioner Yeh, and
calls apse all the soisatial peopis to site for a war
of extermination. The ln-imd d Claim expresses

(fan. 15) its °envisage that " Ych is not the asst
to put forth such s ihrtessewt." It states also that
several attempts had been nob eidur the first
week of the new year tout hfaaa IS be. The Sin-
gapore Straits Times of Jan. 22 nags the following

"O the morning of the lath January—the
Madras mail steamer left at two p.m.—the greater
part of the European residents at Hoag Kong were
attempted to be barbaromly murdered by arsenic
put into bread, but happily the ill-judged quantity
caused its rejection by the etonsaelt t but the effects of
vomiting were widely and severely kit, and some

patients where in a delieate Mate when the mail left.
Hoag Yong was literally seder martial law. Wham.
yea had been abandoned by all foreign skipping."

H.N.B. Calcutta had taken up a station to the
westward of Hong Ken, and sent eat a guard every
eight. The Bittern bad been rearmed with 32-
poandeirs. and was to be anchored off the Naval
Steen. The Eaglet, a well-armed steamer, had
been ebertered by the government, and placed under
charge of Mr. Beery T. Ellis, Alamter, R.N., of her
llejesty's ship Minden ; she is to have a crew of 40
men-of-war's men. Besides the harbour-police, boats
trim the United States ships-of•war San Jacinto and
Portsmouth row guard all night; and all Chinese
hosts are kept at a distance of 300 yards from the
shore from mote to sunrise: so little fear of an

attack span the town, it was thought, need be en-
tertained.

The following Britbdt "ships of war were in the
Chinos' waters :-1n the Canton river: H.ll S.
Aram, 12; &remount (it.), 6; Comm (at.), 14;
Coromandel (et.), S; Encounter (et.); Hornet (st.),
17; Sybil* 44. At Hong Kong: H. 21.8. Alligator;
Calembk, 80; !ferrules (hospital ship), Minden,
cad dampen (st.), G. The Mirage (tender) was at
Whautpea; the Nankin (60). at the Bogue ; the
ligus (36), at Slanghae ; and the Racehorse (14),
Palt-Osau.

The East India Company's steamer Auckland re-
.tend to Biagapore frees Pinang, as we laarn from
She &mita rirmo. en the 16th Jan.. taking on tor
ionise I. Cldna abed 160 tons of shot, shell, and
ammrsedmea. The Anskland carried she from
tithe Mewing ollicers and troops for service
Maier Caaalet, 20th M.N.1.; Captain