The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-19 00:00:00

morning of the launch, that the people were pouring 1
ilea the twin,. in carriages and on foot. in all directions--
tooaequently, many have not yet heard of the calami-
twos Oki,. Everybody is praising the courage of young
Henry Paine, son of the late Mr. John Paine, who
happened to be at the end of the bridge. No sooner 1
Was the commotion of the eater subsided, sufficient fur
a body to rise to the surface, than he plunged into the
leeik, amidst :he wreck of the gates and timbers,
and brought out a Mrs. Mitchell, a stout heavy woman,
illid ultimately saved her from drowning. It is doubtful if
she will tinally cecover from hor many bruises. At the
511ne moment, a Lieutenant of the Navy, and two sailors
who were with him, dashed in, and dived about and
brought up the other six. Nobody but those who were
there can adequately judge of the exertions of these kind-
hearted men. Notwithstanding the blows and cuts they
received still they kept *hying, until they were prevented
by the fookerseon, who, seeing how much they were ex-
heusted, would not suffer them to go down after any more.
Tile two sailors ought to have some pecuniary reward; the
tither two are in circumstances beyond this mode of public
bation, and no doubt ICC pleased at being enabled, by
ilirt
power of swimming, and by their being on the spot
e it at the time they eould render a fellow-creature timely
eusistance, toeave their livea. One of the ladies had risen
is the surface, and laid hold of a log, a piece of timber beat
her hands off, and she was going down, when one of the!
Ileitement leid hold of her tine head of hair, which was
aisible to all, and by great and unusual labour got her to
"the brink of the dock: others got hold, and when she was
beieg dragged up, the gentleman whose arm she held when
f essii:g the bridge, by some chance laid hold at her pelisse,
and he was also got out ; and when, by proper application,
the was enabled to walk, she was taken home. The last
body taken up was that of a midshipman, a distant relation
of Sir George Grey, Commissioner of this dock-yard. Sir
George Grey, and all the officers and mechanics, have done
all that perseverance could do in this melancholy business
of extricating the sufferers.
" It appears the ('omber cannot be laid dry without an
Admiralty order; this is not yet received. Mr. Cohen,
isrgeon of the yard, bad completely exhausted all his
mewled' in the various exertions he made to re-animate tbe,
several bottles lust taken out, and Alr.Alartell, with the at-
, e
toast promptitude, rendered his able assistance. It. is well
ter about 40 shipwrights who were in this very dock half,
'au leer before the accident, which took place at ten
ee:rtutes to twea le o'clock, that it was no sooner. An!
officer of the yard told me, there were in the do:k only
two days before, upwards of four hundred artisans, besides
labourers and convict prisoners, all busily employed to
lin ish a small vessel therein, and clear away for the launch;
.itad the title been as high, the same weight of water against
the flood-gates must have had the urne effect, and the
as hole must have perished. The two uprights, or what in
incesiaeically tailed the hers, are left.standieg, or fastened'
err each aide the mouth of the dock ; into these hers, the
c-ol; r.br., or timbers of the gates were tenoned. It ap-
emery rb sae ail the tenons into the line between wiud and;
sever are quite rotten, arid thus giving way, soon blew up I
cite whele fabric."

COSONE WS INQUEST.
- On Thursday and Ftiday four inquisitions were held before F.
klo•ve. Esq. Coroner for the borcigh of Portsmouth, at the
N.oy I avow' in the pariah of POTtl.ell, on the bodies of 15 per.
'atr• drowned in the Call-place Dock, by the melancholy °cent-
re• c• of 11,e.!”esday last.
A :hough tour itqcisitions were taken, in consequence of the re.
.more: of the bodies of the deceased by their friends, the same evi.
..nu. was g;ven in each, with the exception of that fir idcatilica-
ti..n uy t.:c:r several surviving flieuds.
is the tkpositim of the only, witness to the facts
ad •;:ccd a. the tousle es (teeth
. . .

C-fargt 11 steer, of Church.road, near Kingston Church, in the
sorofgh of ParAcpow!:, deposed that he is a messenger to the sue.
,grry v, the boch.yard. Ou Wednesday, the 14th inst. the launch,
•cf ;Le. Princess Char;tile, a large ship of war, had been appointed
'to ttl:e place. An immense concourse et people had assembled to
'trio tax the eight. In passing throuo the dock-yard, they had to
-von ern several litidg,a of the cock-locks, in ord4 to get near
ate tl.ip &bald to be launched. These bridges, which arc M a
*,p: rary coaehtettoo. were formed of fbue planks, sepPorted by
OtiMlb 1001, fixed on the top of the flood-gates, which are
;it tle,ed by thirorce of the body of water on the convex sides.
- At iooue five minutes before noon on that day, the bridge, con-
atacted ri before described, over the entrance of the Call-place
;Wes, was thronged by those hurrying over towards the launch.
'Sr.4 water in the basin was very high, in consequence of the
inpfmg-!tdes, and witness conceived that the immense pressure of
'water upon the gates witliciat the support of a counterbalance on
Itt.e other side (the dock having been pumped dry for the purpose
gilt receiving the launch), the lock-gates were suddenly burst, and
.*e bridge with those on it at the same instant carried into the
_abyss below. The bridge gave way first—the centre, which be
t..ought had allowed those on either cnd to get away. He thought
that altogether there might have been 30 persona on the bridge. Ile
sass standing a: the doom ea of Intl yards at the period to which he
had bean alluding. Every assistance was immediately procured,
411.-d twenty-three were got not of the deck. 01 these seven had
recovered, but the deceased were not found until life bad been some
time extinc'.
- Time Coroner observed, that the unhappy notoriety of the circutn-
etadces connected with the death of these unfortunate beings ren.
. tiered it tutneeessary for him to occupy their time beyond the re.
-Iraqis Val no blame appeared to a:tech to any individual, and
. from the evidence they hail heard he could not doubt their speedy
return of an unanimous verdict.
The Jury, In all the cases, returned a verdict of " Accidental
Death." _ . _

_
?tete remains one body (that of Jemitna Frnggett), for the ln-
curaition of the Co.inty Coroner. by reason of the removal of her re.
amine beyond the litnita of the borough.
• The gates of the Call-place Dock were constructed twenty-four
fiats since, upon a r:an deviqed by General Bentham, but strongly
' Opposed at that time by all t'..e mechanics of the dock. yard,
'Four docks open M.o the hastr.. The gates of another (Barfieur
'deck) is of the Iltliihsin construction, and by a strange coincidence
. ars point of to gave six inches tram the acuteness of its angular
-centre. it was hamediately shored up on the dock side, and is now
• considered seam.

SUDDEN TERMINATION Or • BATTI.E.—Abort eight
o'olock on Tuesday night last, as two men were fighting
ir. Market-street, nearly opposite the end of New Cannon-
' street, they both fell into a bole in which some lime had
recently been :,haled, Ind fixated a soft bed about three
feet deep. Of course this put a complete stop to the
further prosecution of hostilities,and one of the combatants
was so much injured by the caustic effects of the lime that
it was found neesesary to convey him to the in,firinary.—
Ilfeediester Purr.
A youth of fifteen, and a promising son of Mr. Gilbert',
French, of Coombe-row, King's-road, Chelsea, was,
drowned early yesterday morning while bathing with some,
racboolfellows above Battersea-bridge. He had swam away
frous his companioha to the middle of the river, when be
suddenly disappeared, and was not seen to rise again.
0:: Saturday last, as the workmen who are employed
• 1e making a culvert in St. Aldate's, in this city, were dig-
.l
rt#
near Christ Church& they found a York penny of
ard I. • on the obst is a full-faced head, crowned
. y, and contained withhi the inner circle of the coin;
- n ar reverse is a cross pstei running through the legen-
dary arele to the edge. with a small rose in its centre ; in
eacb quarter of the cross are three pellets ; the epigraphe
as nearly obliterated on each side. The same day they
also found a jeton or abbey token, in a very high state of
preservation : on the obverse side isa rude head, and " eve
:Maria Gratis rent f' and on the iiitertie 7s I idol fie-10y,
With a sinallffee-de-lit in hscentrP.--Ozford Herald.
A trotting match ertinft time t IA place on the Lodilon-
bridge-road, mar Reading, on datetrilay. Mr. B. %Vel-
lum: undertook to ride his Chantey galloway, Trim,
three miles in eleven minutes, for a bet of 100 so-
, vereigns. lie troted the first mile in three minutes and
tweety-five seconds ; the second, in three minutes and
tiorty-live seconds ; and the third in three minutes and
forty-two seconds—winning the match cleverly with 18
. monde to 'pre.
ParscurioN Of • POOR LAW'S WARRANT IN Ina-
Lansi.-011 Monday, Mr. Henry Cox, of the Head Police
ffiffscr, accompanied by au English police officer, took into
custody an English tradesman, charged with having de-
, Netted his wife and family, which, by the English poor
laws, it a crime piinishable with three months imprison-
ment. The warrant on which the man was taken was
from a Sheffield Magistrate, backed by one of the Magis-
trates of the head pollee office. We know that a I)ublial
Maxistrate, distinguished for his legal knowledge and ac-
quirements, refused to back this wet rant, because be con-
sidered the Ad of Parliament that made the man's offence
a crime, was merely local, and one of rhich they had no
cogrrizance in Ireland ; Nest, that the instrument which
the officer presented him to back cculd not be properly
considered a warrant, but a summons to appear before a
Sheffield Magistrate; and that even if be did back the
warrant, and the man were taken intoeustody, and ten-
dered bell, be could not take it • foe these rett.4olls, he
Mimed to back the warrant.--public 21fursaing Pod.