The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-12 00:00:00

!the Pope and his Visitors,

Tue following letter from Bonchurch, signed
" E. V.," appeared in the 7 imes of yesterday :
Sir,—How the present Pope receives those who
have the privilege of an audience I know not, but
I do know how that genial old man, Gregory XVI.,
received me when, in the spring of 1844, I formed a
member of a somewhat large patty, including
several ladies, to whom he granted an interview in
the Vatican.

We were introduced by the late Bishop Boggs,
then Rector of the English College, and nothing could
be simpler than the reception, or more completely de-
void of state or ceremonial. Our party, all Protes-
tants, met in the Sistine Chapel, all dressed in black,
the ladies with veils, whence, after a short delay in
the Gallery of Maps (so well known to all visitors
to the Vatican), wo were ushered by a single ser-
vant dressed in crimson silk into the presence of
his Holiness. There may have been other fatten-
dants, but I do not remember them ; there were
certainly no Swiss Guards, or other officials visible.
On entering the long room, at the end of which
the Pope was standing, in his white skull-cap and
long closely-fitting garment of white cloth, lean-
ing against his writing table, we made, ac-
, cording to instructions, three genuflexions—in
simpler words, we "curtseyed" thrice. Nothing
more was required of us, even this appeared to be un-
essential. Almost as soon as we entered the room we
heard the portly old Pope's rich voice bidding us
" Come forward" and " not to be afraid." In obe-
dience to his orders we formed a semicircle round
him, he standing leaning against the table, chatting
now with one of the party, now with another,
most good-humouredly, and crocking somewhat
poor jokes, which of course we took care
to laugh at. The conversation was entirely in
Italian, for, as his Holiness told us though
ho understood French, if spoken very slowly,
he could not speak it, bat of English " not a single
word." After about a quarter of an hour spent in
free and informal conversation, during which I re-
member his Holiness rather shocked us by using a
red cotton pocket handkerchief two or three times
rather noisily, he bowed and said, " Pad/one
padrone," almost equivalent to our " Servant,
and we left the Presence Chamber much gratified
with our audience.

Such was my interview with the head of the Ro-
mig! Church; very unlike that described by the
correspondent of the Temps.

Terrible Inundation at Sheffield.

SHEFFIELD, Saturday Morning.

Shortly before 1 o'clock this morning a great
reservoir, at Bradfield, six miles from Stu:acid,
burst its embankment. The area of the reservoir
was 95 acres, and but just finished.
This enormous body of water rushed down the
valley of the Don, sweeping away all the bridges
over the river, a great number of houses on its
banks, and destroying, it is feared, scores of their
inhabitants.

The lower part of Sheffield was submerged several
feet deep, and hundreds of families driven from
their homes.

The floor' has not yet subsided, and the damage
is ineAlculable.

Boiler Explosion in Spitalfields,

Shortly before two o'clock yesterday afternoon
the district of Spitalfields was alarmed by a loud
explosion. It was found that a large boiler in the
wood-sawing and turning mill of Mr. W. Sanders
had burst just as it was about to resume working
after the dinner hour of the workmen. Mr. San
tiers' workshops were situated at the rear of 23,
Slaver-street, King•street, Bethnal-green. It

would be difficult to detail hero the amount of
ruin and destruction produced by the boiler as
it burst asunder, leaped from its place,
and stood half upright. Oa visiting the
scene of the accident, after midnight, we found
the boiler pointing skywaid, like a huge
telescope, the only object there that retained the
form in which it had been constructed. All around
was a mass of broken fragments of walls, of
machine, planks, windows, several feet deep. while
on all sides the walls of the rickety property seem
tottering to their fall. Four of the workmen are
now i❑ St. Bartholomew's and the Landon Hospi-
tals—viz., Joseph Mann, of 12, Long-buildings,
Bunhill-row, with broken leg and serious contusions
oa his head and body, and Charles Kean, of 9,
King-street, Bethnal-green, wood turners (these are
in the London Hospital); Thomas Robinson, of
6, Granby-street, Bethnal-green, sawyer, injury
on the head ; and George Hall, of 2, Little
Bacon -street, Bethnal-green, seriously injured
(both lie in St. Bartholomew's Hospital).
Edward Sparks, of 53, Gray Eagle-street, was at
the works on business at time ; he is suffering from
contusions on the back. H. Griffith, a workman in
a neighbouring yard, is injured. Several persons
sitting in their rooms in the neighbourhood of the
accident have also been hurt. A child named
Emily Reynold, and an aged woman named Rush,
with a cut face, are known to be sufferers. The
ruins are skirted on the one side by the Eastern
Counties Railway. The traveller, as he looks from
the railway on the ruins below, will scan the remains
of about the following list :—First the entire set of
buildings used by Mr. Sanders as engine-room and
sawing and turning shed (these are a crumbled
mass of fragments, with the huge boiler stand-
ing on its end among them); five houses in the
rear of Farthing-street, with their windows blown
away and the roof torn off; three houses in Patience-
street and houses in King-street, all broken and
damaged. Much of the property is so shaken that
Mr. Rees, the police surveyor, has ordered it to be
shored up to prevent sudden and further mischief.
The most extraordinary stories are told on the spot
of injuries and escapes. When we visited the ruins
as above, we found men prosecuting anxious search
for the brother of Mr. Sanders, the proprietor of
the works. This man was about the works before
the accident occurred, and has not been seen since
the untoward occurrence. Fears are therefore en-
tertained that he is now buried in the ruins,

The Murder in Birmingham,

DECISION OF THE HOME OFFICE.

We regret to have to announce that notwithstanding the
very general expression of tie public feeling in favour of
the commutation of the penalty of death, in the case of
George Hall, now under sentence of death for the murder
of his wife in Birmingham, on the 16th of last month, the
Home Secretary has decided that the law must take its
course. This decision was arrived at last evening, and is
understood to be final.

The peculiar and painful nature of the circumstances
which led Hall to take the life of his newly-married but
faithless wife caused the jury that tried him to accompany
their verdict of guilty with a strong recommendation to
mercy, and it was hoped that the recommendation, sup-
ported as it was by the prayer of innumerable memorialists
—amongst whom were the nearest relations of the murdered
woman—would have induced the authorities to remit the
capital penalty of the crime. Sir George Grey, howtver,
has declined to interfere, and Hall will, therefore, be ex-
ecuted on the date fixed when sentence was passed upon
him.

PAYMENTS FOR COTTON AND WHEAT.—The full
force of the great strain upon the monetary resources
of the Empire last year, in consequence of the immense
amount paid for raw cotton, has only become apparent from
official returns published this week. Thus, we paid away
under this head .£56,277,053 in 1863, against £31,093,045 in
1862, £38,653,398 in 1861, £35,70,889 in 1860, £34,559,636
in 1859, £30,106,963 in 185 S, £29,288,827 in 1857,
£26,418,224 in 1856, £20,818,515 in 1855, and £20,175,395
in 1851. Thus one particular industry was burdened
last year with what was virtually an extra tax of no less
than £20,000,000. The severity of this grievous impost was,
perhaps, in some degree alleviated by the diminished pay-
ments for wheat, which tell to £12,015,006 in 1863, against
£23,203,800 in 1862, £19,051,461 in 1361, £16,554,033 in
1860, £8,713,532 in 1359, £9,050,467 in 1858 £9,563,009
in 1857, £1.2,716,3.19 in 1856,
£9,679,578 in 1855, and
£11,693,737 in 1851.

lIORNCASTLE GREAT SPRING FAIR.—At this
annual fair (which was Ir2ld on Thursday) there
was a good supply of stock, the show comprising bullocks,
heifers, drapes, barren and mulch cows, &c. The demand
throughout the trade was inactive, and prices if anything
favoured buyers. Mulch cows mach £l5 to £'2o; bullocks
and heifers, £lO to £l7; barren cows, £l4 to £lB per head.
There was an immense quantity of sheep exhibited. There
was a dull feeling in the trade, and prices tended down-
wards, The best pens of hogs made 63s to 725; other
descriptions, 48s to 58s per head, Fat sheep sold at 6d to
7d per lb.