The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-09 00:00:00

TILE LA7 E KERN AT AL VAINCHAM.

An inquest was held yesterday at Altrincham, Che-
shire, before Mr. Roscoe, the coroner for the district, on
the bodies of the three sufferers who met their death by
the fire which took place there on Sunday night last. The
names of the deceased are William and Nathaniel Howard,
the children of Samuel Howard, who kept the Orange
Tree public.house, which was burnt down, and John
Scragg, the servant boy, aged about 17. It appeared
from the evidence that the family retired to bed about 11
o'clock or shortly before that, on Sunday night, and
were first alarmed about half-past one o'clock on Mon-
day morning by a watchman named Solomon Sheldon,
who perceived smoke issuing from the roof, and on pro-
ceeding to the back of the premises found flames com-
ing out of the windows of the bar parlour and a room
above, making a great noise. He sprang his rattlean d
ran up the street immediately, calling for assistance,o
and also called up the deputy constable, Mr.so Cooper,
zary
who had charge of one of the fire engines.
was experienced in getting a horse which ban:last:. bteedsehayt
for, and, in fact, Sheldon and another ma, is
the
engine themselves to the Orange Tree,_
time before the horse
others who joined them as they proceeded, ddriasgtsgoe(oie
of
about a quarter of a mile, some
some time after-
was ready. Another engine
was got played upon the
the fire was extinguished
flames for several hours before
had been rescued, except
wards, and both this and the first one
All the inmates of the houseo
parlour at the NW of the
parlour at
children being at
thelon gth deceased,
discoveredth e
in bodiesh o
barf
were
wbhunr burnt
livesto death.next
I never awakened, on the
door,Mr
t_ het
rsoe.rvaabn_yt boy in his bed in an upper
house,room wanhdertehhaet ohfadp
rob
. man, first supposed
night of the fire.
a hisPor and at
was alarmed y
as confined to his o
All
three
butcher,
own cellar, ,where he
Richard Tottihe_,
servant
that the fire w
first perceived '
it, and which is under past of Howard's
house.
He afterwards discovered that the brick-
workhis kitchen ash-place rested on a wooden
„ of
in the wall of Howard's b l
bebeamar-par our. It
apPeared plain that the fire originated in that room,
,the
ashes from Tottie's kitchen grate having probably ig-
nited the beam by falling through crevices in the brick-
work,:and possibly the fire bad
been smouldering nearly
the whole of Sunday, as the beam was found to be corn-
Fletely charred. The •
neighbours appear to have Ten-
dered the very best assistance they were able, and Mr.
Cooper and other officers to have exerted themselves in
a most praiseworthy manner, but the fire had attained
to great power before it was discovered, and from the
combustible nature of the premises all efforts to save
them from destruction were vain. The jury found a
verdict of "Accidental death."

SUBDIVISION OF THE LAND IN FRANCE.—The OM-
StitittiOnmel, quoting a fresh volume on the statistics of
France, by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce,
uwler the direction of M. Legoyt, now the chief of the
s'atistical bureau, observes that, "France is, par aced•
lence, the country of middling and small properties. The
cvlat,tre shows us the soil split into 126,000 parcels,
belonging to 11,053,000 proprietors. This refers, as we
have said before, t ) the mean year 1827. It results from
the examination of the roles of the land taken more re-
cently, that the number of land portions was 11,511,000
in 1842, and that it has successively mounted to
13,122,000 in 1854. The proportion of increase would
consequently be upon 1827, on a yearly average, am"
thin 1$ per mitt 18114