The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-21 00:00:00

4 feet 1 foot

for 3d class.. 2
From 400 to to 600
yards inclusive or
for 2d class 3
From 600 to 900
yards inclusive, or
for Ist class 4
File and volley
firing
Skirmishing 1 .. •• 1,, 2 „
"2. Shots hitting the targets to to valued for all classes
as follows :—Bull's-eyes, 4 points--centres, 3—outers, 2.
All shots hitting the horizontal black lii-e, in file, volley,
and skirmishing practices, to count 4.
" 3. The points to be obtained as a qualification to pass
into a higher class, and establish a claim for extra pay as
' marksman,' are to be as follows :—Number of points to be
obtained with Enfield rifle, in 3d class to pass into 2d class,
30, with small bore, 40—in 2d class to pass into Ist, Enfield,
30—with small bore, 40—in Ist class to be marksmen, En-
field, 20, with small bore, 32.
" 4. In executing the volley practice a man whose rifle
misses fire in the volley is not to be allowed to fire at the
target singly, but his round is to be counted as having been
expended.

4 „

2 feet

4 ft

2 feet.

_ .
"5. The order of merit regulating the issue of extra pay
to men who become marksmen to be determined by the
greatest number of points obtained in shooting in the Ist
and 2d classes—i. e., 40 rounds.
"6. The best shot of the battalion will be that man who,
having obtained in the lst class upwards of 20 points with
the Enfield rifle, or 32 points with the small bore, scores
the highest number of points in the Ist and 2d classes—i.e.,
40 rounds, and is in the first class judging distance at the
final classification."

Alarming Occurrence at the Midland
Railway Works,

Yesterday morning, a few minutes after 10 o'clock, an
accident of a most alarming and serious character, involv-
ing the immediate death of six valuable horses, the destrac-
tilon of a considerable amount of property, and the narrow

escape of a number of workmen, took place at the stupen-
dous works and excavations now progressing for stores and
warehouses connected with the goods depot of the Midland

Railway at Agar Town.
That portion of the works where this catastrophe took
place is abutting on the excavations which are being made
for a coffer dam and docks to be constructed under stores

which are to be erected for Messrs Allsopp and Co. and
Messrs. Bass and Co., the pale ale brewers of Burton-on-
Trent. This excavation is situate between the western side
of the Regent's-canal and the King's-road, Camden Town,
and some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the work,
when it is stated that the entire contract will reach little
short of £300,000. On the south-western side of the excava-
tion there was, up to yesterday morning, existing a series of
exceedingly large arches forming the viaduct by which
means the old road from the King's road to the upper part

of Agar Town was carried up to the level of the iron bridge
over the canal, constructed some 10 or 12 years since by the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners on coming into possession of

that portion of the Agar estate. These arches and the bridge
were the property of the Midland Company, but by agree-
ment ith Mr. W. Winn, contractor for the earthworks for
the stores, &c., he was permitted to occupy them as stabling
for the horses. The building contractors were Messrs. Smith
and Co., of Leicester, who had sublet their contract for pull-
ing down these arches, &c., to Mr. Lawrence, a builder, of
Hackney. Cracks had been observed in the arches for some
time, but it is stated not to such an extent as to cause danger
to be apprehended. Mr. Winn employed in his excavation 48
horses and somewhere about 100 men, but at the time of the
occurrence the whole of the horses were out at work, except-

ing 10, which, in consequence of the wetness of the morn-
ing, were not employed, but were left in the stabling under
the arches. The operation of commencing to pull down the
arches it appears was begun by Mr. Lawrence's men on
Tuesday morning at the third, or smaller of the three arches,
in which there were no horses, hnd were pursuing their
labours, at the time specified, yesterday morning, when, the
cracking of the brickwork gave intimation that something
was wrong, and the men at once succeeded in making their
escape, but had scarcely done so when the whole of the
arches gave way with a tremendous crash, crushing Ihe poor
horses beneath to death by their ponderous weight, being
eight or nine bricks thick.
The consternation at the moment, and for some time after
the occurrence, was very great, and this was heightened by
__ _ .

an extensively circulated rumour that several of Mr. Winn's
workmen were missing, and were also buried in the ruins,
and that some had been known to be in the stabling at the
time. In order to allay anxiety upon this point Mr Winn
immediately had a call of his eluployees, and found they were
all safe. A boy named White was knocked down by some
of the falling brickwork, but was only slightly contused.
As soon as the confusion had somewhat subsided, the
navvies were set to work to rescue the horses which might
have escaped injury, and singular to relate, out of tho 10
poor animals four were rescued apparently unhurt, but six
were dug out in the course of the afternoon dead. Three of
these had cost not long since 55 guineas each, and the other
three were valued at about £3O each. As the arches were
the property of the Midland Company a telegram was
im-
mediately forwarded to Mr. Crossley, the engineer of the
Midland Company, at Derby, and from subsequent investi-
gation it has been ascertained that the workmen were abso-
lutely in the employ of the building contractors, Messrs.
Smith, but were wok king under Mr. Lawrence's superin-
tendence ; that requiring the bricks as rapidly as possible
fir their uolr works the men, instead of picking out the
work by piecemeal, had actually removed the key ring of
the arch on which they commenced, which, on giving way,
caused the other at cies to follow.
The news of the occurrence spread rapidly with plenty of
exaggerations throughout the district, and during the after-
noon hundreds of persons congregated around the scene of
the disaster, and would not believe but that there were
human beings as well as horses buried in the ruins, but
which we are happy to state is not the fact.
A question will arise as to who is responsible for the loss
sustained, the Midland Company, the building contractor, or
Mr. Winn, the contractor for the earthworks, In the first
place the arches were known to be cracked months ago, when
Mr. Win, Jay, the contractor, occupied them as stabling ;
secondly, whether the building contractor had any right to
commence the work of demolition without giving notice and
seeing that the horses of the earthworks contractor were re •
moved--or whether he had any business to move them at all,
it being stated to be usual, unless specially agreed to the
contrary, that all obstructions in excavating become the pro-
perty of the excavating contraetor. The average depth of
the excavation for the dock, which is to be supplied with
water from the Regent's Canal, was 30 feet. From 70,000
to 80,000 cubic yards of earth had been dug out, cud there
is about a similar quantity to be removed—so that this por-
tion of the work may be said to be half finished.

ANOTHER NEW STREET IN SOLITHWARK.—A
new street, extending from Crucifix-lane, Bermond-
sey-street, to the east end of St. Thomas-street, High-street,
Southwark, is in the course of formation. The northern side
of the street is bounded by the wall that encloses tha termi-
nus at London-bridge and the new south line of the London,
Brighton and South Coast Railway. Traffic to the Lower-
road, Deptford, and jalaccs to which it leads, by taking the
new route, will avoid the overcrowded thoroughfares of
Tooley-street and Dockhead, as the street will pass along
Crucifix-lane, pass St. Joha's Church, Horselydown, into
Freeschool -street, and thence to the Lower-road. One-half
of the main sewer has been constructed, the pavement or the
carriage and footways laid down, and the side arches con-
structed. The works of the remainder are far advanced, and
In March,
it is expected that the street will be opened early

An old man, named Johu Dolan, the keeper of a
provision shop in the village of Primatestown,
county of Meath, has been made the victim of a
moot extrordinary hoax, by which he has lost a sum
of £llO, all the cash he possessed in the world. A.
man, who gave his name as Morgan, and who was
known is the rural districts as a watchmaker, had
for some eight months past been carrying messages
between Dolan, who had the reputation of being
wealthy, and a young woman styling herself Miss
Reilly, who, Morgan stated, lived at Donore, where
she had eight or ten acres of land, which she was
about to sell, and reside with an aunt at Ardee, in
_c saiAt ago Morgan
informed the old man that Mies Reilly had sold the
farm, for which she had received £2OO, and had
already gone to Ardee, after depositing the mon ay
in the bank; that she wanted a steady, staid man,
and having heard that he (Dolan) was a good
dealer, she believed they would act a wise part in
putting their money and themselves together, and
opening a shop in Ardee, On Tuesday week Mor-
gan again paid Dolan a visit, and brought him the
happy tidings that Miss Reilly had consented to
meet him next day at Drogheda, when all matters
connected with the marriage were to be arranged.
Miss Reilly had also requested that Dolan should,
bring all his money with him on the occasion.
On Wednesday morning the old man harnessed
the horse, and proceeded with Morgan on the car to
Drogheda, taking with him £llO and two days'
provender for the horse. At Drogheda they met
Miss Reilly, in company of a young man who was
understood to be a relative, and who on a previous
occasion had paid a visit to Dolan at Primatestown..
The meeting appeared to be a very joyous one, slot
least on the part of Dolan, as the female was a
bouncing and rather handsome girl of 20 years of
age. It would appear that several half pints .of
whisky were consumed in the course of a few hours
conversation ; and, so fascinated had old Dolan he-
come with Miss Reilly's appearance and agreeable
conversation, that he took out all the cash, in not es
and gold, threw it into her lap, and desired her to
take care of it. Some time afterwards Dolan pro-
ceeded to prepare the horse and car for the journey
to Ardee; but when he returned he found that the
party had decamped except Morgan, who seemed
to commiserate Dolan's position very much, and
assisted him in making search for them about the
place. Giving up all hopes of tracing the youi
couple, he returned to his home, and gave inform a-
tion of the circumstances to the constabulary. No
such person as Miss Reilly or her aunt was known
at Ardee, and all the tales previously told to Dolan
turned out to be fabrications.—Freeman's Joungal.