Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-24 00:00:00

THE BURNING OF THE MONTREAL.

A correspondent of the Canadian _Yews writes :—lt
is impossible to describe all the painful feelings this event
has produced, and which are continually kept alive as in-
ci ients connected with the wreck are daily unfolded. In
the coat pocket of one of the bodies found, that of William.
Donnie, aged 23, a blacksmith, from Aber&en, was found
a copy of the song—
Oh why left T my hame,
Why did I croses the deep ?
Oh why left I the land,
Where my forefathers sleep ?
I sigh for Scotia's shore,
And I gaze across the sea ;
But I cannot get a blink,
0' my ain country.
A Mrs. Bloomfield, with four children, fr,nt Ed , .nr2l3
going to join her husband A, 1,1 Luc e..'my ot
the Grand Trunk, lost two of her children, aged 11 and 5,
and saved the two others, aged I and 9 years, by clinging
to a rope, holding one child in her arms and the other in
her teeth, until two of the latter brake out from the strain
on them. Yet sae is 'a slight delicat—looking woman, bat-
yet endue 1 for the occasion, by her maternal instincts,
with a giant's strength. Two brothers, Meikle, Scotch
farmers, from Lac'nute, on the Ottawa, went down-
to Quebec to meet an aged father, approaching ninety,
whom they had not seen for twenty-five years,
and who had come out to close his days amongst
his children. It was not permitted him ; he perished
miserably in the flames, and one of the sons was drowned.
Dr. Robb, the surgeon, who came out with the emigrants,
was drowned, with his child—an only one—in his arms.
His wife einaped, and is now here a desolate widow. But
why go on narrating there things ? Painful incidents are
but too plentiful. Suffice it to say that we have parents,
sole survivors of large families ; helpless children, orphaned
and alone—bereft of every tie in one fell moment. It is
gratifying and satisfactory in the highest degree to witness
the amount of kindness and sympathy lavished on the
survivors. Everything that it was possible to do,
under the circumstances, has been done to soothe
their sufferings and alleviate their distress. The Saint
Andrew's Society were most active in their attentions, and
the St. Andrew's Home, an institution established this year
for the benefit of emigrants, was at once thrown open for
the admission of the survivors, and every attention paid to
their wants. A committee from the society, with some of
the survivors, was sent down to Quebec by rail next day,
for the purpose of identifying and claiming the dead,
and recovering any property that might be found.
The Cemetery Company immediately placed a lot in
a new cemetery at the disposal of the society for
the burial of the dead, Many of the helpless
orphar s, so sadly and suddenly deprived of their
natural guardians, have been taken charge of by some, of
our most respectable citizens. Contributions of clothing
and food were liberally rent to the home, and the subscrip-
tion lists immediately opened were sqpn filled up. The
Grand Trunk and Royal Mail Line of Steam Boats have
offered :to convey free to their destination any of the un-
fortunates. Grievous, therefore, as has been the loss of
these poor people, and sad as has been their mishap, they
do not find themselves amongst unsympathising
strangers, but are amongst friends and country
people, who feel deeply and warmly for their
misfortunes, and attest the depth of that feeling
by acts and deeds that speak stronger than words.

CRITICISM GONE MAD ! !