The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-04 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 4

SECON 1) ED IT

LAW INTELLIGENCE,- THIS DAY.)

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
kliefore Mr. ('ommiasioner Winslow.)
IN RE NAIIIAEL HIVALOO.
I,,,ukrupt, described as a shipping agent and bill
W. St. Semi's-place. firacechurch-street, and
, • Live' pool. was also consul for Bolivia. He was made
;:mknirt upon the adjudication of a rep.,+trar. and has
.11 Bb.l any accounts.
Mr. Al fridge appernal for the official ssaiguee.
the caw beihg called, the bankrupt did not
and the sitting for examination and discharge
ens ad roiled sine die.
'N XL ALEXANDER HOLLIS NOTTRAM.
sitting for examination and discharge. The
kinkrun! was a wine merchant, of Mortimer-atroet,
cc. previously of Jewry-street, Aldgate,
and Ifelits secured and unsecured, 4.089 f.;
ty held by creditors, I.BIW. doubtful
i,ble'2:;'
The 1, ..ikrupt stated that he had been two years in
•,„..iness lie commenced with a capital of 1,0007.,
borrow c 1 from his father. Had been a month in
rt.,011.
Mr. March reported that the Iwinkrupt had fur-
his a cash account, and his transactions were disclosed
hooka
is Honour granted the order.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.
(THIN DAY.)

(Before Mr. Serjeant Coe.)
• VIOLENT 817201 AR.
Jaws tilatiß, 21, labourer, was indicted for breaking
entering the dwelling-house of J. H. Cowie, and
.;.,ding two watches and other articles, value his
mpert.
The facia of this case were clear and short. The pri-
! was seen on the roof of the house by a boy, and
me of the property was found in his possession.
The jury immediately found the prisoner Guilty.
Mr. Serjeant Cox asked if the prisoner was known.
Mr. Oeorge Lockyer, the Sessions House officer, said he
.m well known. He had 18 months' at the Old Bailey
burglary. and two years at these sessions for house.
t •. aking.
the learned Judge said he would put a slot, to the
r.,rrer of the prisoner. The sentence of the court was
:!at he be imprizioded and kept in penal servitude for the
are of 7 years.
As the prisoner was leaving the dock he struck one of
:!, witnesses, the boy who was the principal evidence
:mind him, a violent blow on the head.
Mr. IJOI ordered the boy to stand forward, and said his
',duct throughout the affair was very commendable, and
ordered him to be paid IL ls. as a gratuity.

LATEST SP( nal Nl: INTMLLICI

(sr 114,talura.)
ssIDATDN MEETINTI. -(TtIIS DAY.)

HHISTI)I. PLATE. Otw mile.

Aenhter. kicymetai. Mu. Nalter. Tetly I,..uh-
iv% and Fuvann an• here
NE MARI PLATE. T. y.e.
- • -

Lily. Vietreia, President Lincoln. Boienietiere. .1 ai
King Manua are hen..
CORPOItA'fION STAKES. 'l'. Y.O.

Queen Father, The Baroness, Soladiu, item rut.), The
Ranger 1, Vauxhall. Young Fenton, F•ineae, Burford.
I oily Lavender. and Indemnity f am hero.

SOUTIIDOWN STAKES. T.Y.C.
Mary Ann c, Red Ribbon, Ettrick, Envelope, Fortress,
Cork Jacket, Saturnalia, and Sir Oliver are here.
BRIOTITON STAKES. One mile and three-quarters.
Blueskin, Pits Ivan, Makeshift c, and Wellow are here.
NEWCASTLE STAKES. Five furlongs.
Six to Veda, Pastime 1, Chiron, Orand Turk, Sting,
and Ring Richard are here.

CHAMPAGNE STAKES. One mile.

Veepssiau and Speculum are here.
ARSITISIL—Vixen g. Lady Lambton, Bohn Leech,
Herennianua, Seringapatam, Profemer Anderson, Scout,
and llogula.

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE OP A MASTER
JEWELLER 111 THE PARRINGDON-ROAD.

INQUEST.-(TH18 DAY.)

This afternoon, Mr. Ps e, coroner, hold an
inquest at the West London Union touching the death of
Mr. Thomas Edward Higgs, aged 30 years.
Mr. Wm. Groves, Belgrove-street, Birmingham, brother-
in-law of the deceased, said that the deceased had been
a very eccentric man for the last three years. Re had
lost a great deal of property, and he used to
drink, when he became excited. In a wild freak
he had gone on with some of his pranks at an
hotel, and the people there turned him out. He
then lost a box containing a large quantity of
jewelry. That excited him still more and then despon-
dency set in. The letter produced was in his handwriting.
It ran as follows :—" I am in such an awful position
that I fear I shall do something desperate. If
anything should happen to me will you see that my
property is given to my mother. I have been mad these
two years, and all the mistakes that have been made by
me are due to insanity. Good bye."
Elizabeth Cooper said that the deceased on Friday
evening fell on the floor of his room and died. A bottle
was lying by his side. Re lived at 1, Thavies-inn.
Dr. Mumford said that the deceased bad poisoned him-
self with prussic acid.
The Coroner having summed up, the jury returned a
verdict of " Temporary insanity.'

PA Fin* oFTWribmg
Nil d [

'1 l reeorit deplorable catastrophe at Venetic der
has naturally tended to revive the old discussion
Man% e to the various means of egress possessed
by ce:r theistree, music-halls, and other popular
plains of entertainment, especially those fre-
quented by the labouring classes, where the
largest and most crowded assemblages are gene-
rally to be found. So far as the theatres over
which the Lord Chamberlain exercises jurisdiction
are concerned, great improvements have been
effected during late years in the different modes of
egress. The London theatres are officially
inspected once in each year, usually about the end
of August or the beginning of September, in
order that on the annual licensing day, generally
the 29th of September, the licensee may be
refused if necessary, or only granted for a short
period, so as to allow time for effecting the illy
provements ordered by the inspector of theatres.
The more important points to which the attention
of the inspector is specially directed are, the doors
shall swing both ways, and that there shall be no
unnecessary barrier put up, so that in ease of any I
rush from the building there may be no obstruc-
tion to the free passage of the crowd. The in-
opeotor is also charged with the duty of asoertain-
ing that each theatre possesses a sufficient number
of exits. A license for theatrical performances
was refused to St. James's-hall, because it was con-
sidered
that while the means of exit pro-
vided therein were sufficient for a concert-
room, they were not sufficient for a theatre.
The audiences in each case are not, it is
asserted, precisely the same ; hence the
seeming paradox. The class of visitors frequent-
ing the cheaper portions of St. James's-WI are
invariably more quiet and orderly than are the
mass of spectators found in the pit and gallery of a
popular theatre ; consequently there is less fear of
a sudden rush or panic. When the Holborn
Theatre was erected, the proprietor was compelled
to construct separate entranoes to the pit, gallery,
and boxes. The entrances to the two former are
in Brownlow-street, the approach to the latter
being in Holborn. This precaution has rendered
the Holborn Theatre one of the safest, considering
its size, of metropolitan places of amusement ;
the amount of danger arising from a sudden rush
from the interior of the building having become
reduced to a minimum. With respect to most of
the other London theatres it is generally
admitted that they do not poems sufficient
means of egress. In some, the passages are wide
enough, but they are choked by narrow doorways.
In the older buildings these deficiencies are diffi-
cult to remedy, but in all new structures the Lord
Chamberlain very properly insists that a sufficiency
of means of egress shall be provided. So far as
the lower portion of the building is concerned,
the official mandate is properly attended to, but
the provision of one staircase only for the gallery,
very often the most spacious portion of the audi-
torium, frequently neutralises the good effects
secured by the other arrangements. It is in the
approaches to the theatre-galleries that the
greatest liability to accident exists, and it is in
these that the fewest improvements have been
effected.

Especially is this the case in the cheaper kind of
theatres. Most of these are of large size. Amongst
them are to be found the Standard, Britannia,
Surrey, Beat London, Pavilion, Astley's, Maryle-
bone, Victoria, and Grecian theatres. The five
former have been recently rebuilt on an enlarged
scale, and, with the others also mentioned, afford
accommodation for nearly 30,000 spectators nightly.
The largest portion of the audience is to be found
in the pit and stalls—the smallest in the galleries ;
but what the latter lack in numbers they make
up in noise and rough behaviour. Of all
present they are the most turbulent and liable
to panic. The means of egress possessed
by these theatres are sufficient for all ordi-
nary purposes. At the Britannia, Pavilion,
and East London theatres the pit, stalls,
and boxes can be almost instantaneously cleared.
At the Standard, the pit can belemptied in three or
four minutes. But, as before mentioned, the gallery
arrangements in each theatre are the least satisfac-
tory. The great height to which the galleries are
carried in such places as the Standard constitutes
an additional danger. There is a great difference
between a sudden rush on a level floor, and down
a steep and narrow flight of stairs. In the latter
case a catastrophe such as that at Manchester is
almost inevitable. Hence, in all theatres where
the gallery is constructed to hold more than 500
or 600 occupants, there should be provided more
than one staircase leading thereto. If space is an
object, two or three well-staircases, like that at
the Holborn Amphitheatre might be employed.
Compared with the means of egress found in
the majority of metropolitan music-halls, those
possessed by the theatres seem almost perfect.
Most of the largest and most popular music-halls
have been erected in the rear of public-houses,
and possess no separate entrance, except a narrow
some four or five feet wide. The Raglan
lia
Music-hall, capable of holding 1,500 persons, and
possessing a pit and gallery, is approached by a
passage not wider than that at the Manchester
Victoria Music-hall. The Apollo Music-hall, in
Bethnal-green, largely frequented by weavers and
bird &mere, and capable of holding 600 persons,
is reached by passing through a small public-
house. The Middlesex, Sun, Rodney's Head,
Woodman, and other minor halls are also
very deficient in the means of egress. Some
of the larger halls are little better. This is
the more serious, because a music-hall audience,
excited by drink, is far more liable to fits of
panic than the more sober audience of a theatre.
The licensing magistrates are supposed to exercise
some authority in causing proper approaches to
be made to the various places licensed by them.
Mr. W. H. Bodkin states that the magistrates
make it a positive condition that they shall be
satisfied by competent witnesses that each build-
ing licensed by them is secure, and possesses suffi-
cient means of ingress and egress ; but, on the
other hand, Mr. Pownall, late chairman of the
Middlesex bench of magistrates, says that there is
no vigilant superintendence with regard to the
approaches to music-halls and similar places,
because the magistrates have no officer whom
they could employ for such a purpose,
and also because the county would object to
any expenses incurred by a proper survey of such
places. Practically there is no supervision at all.
Were it otherwise we should not have so many
public-house concerts and dancing-rooms, capable
of holding from 300 to 600 persons each, where
not only are the approaches miserably deficient,
but where, also, the premises are by no means of
the securest character. The Cambridge Music-
hall, in Commercial-street, Shoreditch, affords, in
some respects, a good example of what the ap-
proaches to a place of public entertainment ought
to be. The hall accommodates about 1,000 per-
sons in the pit, another 1,000 finding sitting room
in the large and spacious gallery running
round three sides of the building, the stage
being so arranged that the performers can
easily seen by all present. The entrance from the
street consists of a broad and lengthy lobby
capable of holding 350 or 400 persons. Passing
through a large doorway a couple of wide steps
are ascended, and then a broad stone staircase, of
easy elevation, is reached. Here five or six persons
can walk abreast, a few steps leading them to a
spacious landing place, where is the entrance to
the pit, and where the gallery staircase commences.
This latter is as commodious as that leading to the
pit. The result of these arrangements is that
although for several years the Cambridge Music
Hall has been nightly crowded with an audience
not always of the most refined character, the
scene at the termination of the entertainments has
invariably been of a most quiet and orderly
character. The Regent, South London, and
Canterbury Music Halls are similarly provided
with a sufficiency of means of egress.
There is, however, another class of ptices of
amusement which, being scarcely recognised by
law, are subjected to no supervision whatever.
These are the " penny gaffs" and children's magic
halls. There are several of these in east an'l south
London. In Shoreditch there are two such places,

F. Ala for #o4lo44dairelative
r wits!He)bitiulte cbtaidsi. The tioximmd-
rico; provided or the audience, gr ner boy*
and girls, is execrable; the means bf egress are
even worse. In each, a couple of narrow pas-
sages, each some three or four feet wide, afford
the only means of egress for the excited
and shooting horde of youngsters ; and one
of these passages, leading to a narrow, and at
all times crowded, thoroughfare, is often blocked
up by the dense stream of passing traffic. The
wonder is that hitherto no calamity has occurred,
especially at holiday tune, when the " gaffs" are
pricked from door to ceiling with their eager
child-audiences. Like their elders, the children
love a crowd, but they are even more liable to be
overtaken by panic. The Manchester music-hall
tragedy affords sufficient proof of this. If we
wish to prevent the occurrence of a similar scene
in the metropolis, steps must be taken to bring
mimic halls and other places of entertainment
under proper and efficient supervision.—Daily
New..