The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-14 00:00:00

Acclimatisation Society of Great Britain.

A special meeting of the Council was held at the office, 3,
Duke-street, Adelphi, on Wednesday last, at 3 o'clock.
Present—Messrs. W. Hawkins, J. Stone, F. Francis, J.
Bush, J. Crockford, F. Buckland, and James Lowe. Mr.
Hawkins presided.

The minutes of the previous meeting having been read
and confirmed, Mr. Francis read the follosVing memoran-
dum :
Memorandum of Propositions, &c,, with respect to the Pis-
cicultural Establishment.
Having already made a definite proposition to the society
in writing in respect to the above, and been asked to set
down the probable cost and its results, I proceed to do so.
The cost of the shed, cistern, apparatus, &c., will be, I
estimate, about £lOO. There will be also about LlO required
for nets, &c., for the purpose of taken fish.
The rate for water will be £lO a year. An attendant will
he required. In the first instance, I would propose to engage
the man only for four months, if I can obtain him upon
such terms, leaving it optional with the society whether at
the end of that time they think their prospects fair enough
to continue him on. I would propose that his wages be 255.
a week.

The chief difficulty which I have is in estimating what the
travelling expenses of the man will amount to when ho is out
collecting ova. Besides his own expenses there are keepers
and assistants to fee and feed. If I had merely a
certain amount of trout, or of trout and grayling ova to
obtain, I could, from the experience of others, give some
approximation to the sum required, because I know exactly
how far off the men would have to go, and there is compa-
ratively little difficulty in obtaining the ova—the fish being
more plentiful, and the streams they are found in smaller
and easier to net; but with the salmon ova the task is much
more difficult. We might be able to get some in Wales,
but, should heavy floods occur there, we might have to send
to Scotland, or even Ireland. With good fortune and a
good season we might get what we require perhaps for £7O
or BO ; with a bad one,
it might cost double the sum.
Having no data to go upon, I do not see how I can give a
nearer result. I can only say that whatever funds arc en-
trusted to my care will be dispensed with a due regard to
economy, and that if the society have any doubt of this, it
would be better that they should decline my offer. I offer
them my terms, I offer theta a site, and I offer them a con-
siderable and valuable connection ; and if upon this they
consent to accept my offer, they must be content to trust
me to a certain extent. They should remember that my
reputation is even more concerned in the success of the
scheme than theirs. lam induced to make these remarks
because one of the members at the last council asked what
control the society was to have in this matter. In the first
place I would point out that the society hold the purse, and
therefore have the strongest possible control in that way ;
and they have, I suppose, the power of severing our con-
nection at any time if it seems desirable to them to do so.
I would advise, however, that in order that they may be
kept au fait to what is going on, Mr. Buckland be made
a visiting inspector of the branch, and be requested to re-
port monthly to the council what progress is made in it. I
should, however, wish it to be most clearly understood that
I would object to any interference with any internal ar-
rangement which I might make for the carrying out of the
operations. As a set-off to the above expenses I may state
that I have some 4G promises of subscriptions, 43 of which
are reliable names which may be safely counted upon ; the
other three I cannot speak so confidently upon, although
they have promised me their support, and I have little
doubt when I can see them I shall obtain it. Amongst
these subscriptions are three life members at £lO 10s, and
ono donation of £5 ss, in addition to subscriptions. Thus
the first year's receipts, as far as we have them down as yet,
will stand :

Three life members and one donation £36 15 0
Forty annual subscriptions

Added to this, Lord £7B 15 0
his subscription. AVa!Bingham has promised to increase

This is the result of one month's canvassing amongst my
own friends and acquaintance. The public has as yet hardly
been touched, and this during the month from mid-August
to mid-September, when almost everybody interested in this
subject is away shooting, strikes me as a very satisfactory
result. I make no doubt but when the subject begins to
be stirred and talked of, the list will be at least doubled.
The above money will almost meet the first outlay for plant,
&e. The annual subscriptions, however, will, it must be
remembered, remain after the first year to help to meet the
current expenses, The prices at which the ova will be sold
to the subscribers will be set upon a sliding scale, so as to
cover all expenses, whatever they may
be, that the society
may incur. For example, lct us suppose that we obtain
100,000 ova (which is a very small quantity be it observed),
we calculate the entire expensea of the establishment and
sell ova so as to leave 25 or 30 per cent. profit. The value
of such ova in the market would be about £5 or £6 a thou-
sand; fry was worth £lO a:thousand. Now at £2 per thou-
sand the ova would realise £200; at £2 10s, £250; at £3,
£3OO, and so on; and anything under £3 would bo very rea
might
ion which I hero re-
peat. oanvanbil
ne . i :Vai tqhuest respectquestion
wtaos theask
asked
profit, tt,
the
last
tny councilshare
as I
to
the
profits, and I then afforded an explana
The question arose thus. When first the plan was
talked of, Mr. Lowe, in talking over the terms, &c., pro_
get up the establishment and carry it
posed that I should
out for the society, and that whatever profit arose from the
sale of the ova should be divid, d between the society and
myself. I presume that ho imagined the arrangement a
reasonable one, in consideration of my giving the site, time,
and connection, &e.
But it appeared to me that the matter
would be rather experimental for the first year; I therefore
preferred waiving the point for that first year, and leaving
it for subsequent consideration.
I think I have here explained, as
eassdfiasrasseld, or
amawblhe,inehvery
point that has been questioned n
re-
quired to be explained.
matterresTohluet
ai having beennaou s 1
y fullyag re discussed,ed tfollowing
resolution
" That Mr. Francis's memorandum be received, and the followin
wa hsuanvn
that he be authorised to erect a building and apparatus for
fecundating and hatching fish ova on his premises at
at an expense not exceeding £lOO,
Twickenham, upon the
terms mentioned in his memorandum (such apparatus to
remain the property of the society) , and that he bo autho-
rised to engage a man to assist in such operations for a
period of 16 weeks, at a salary of 255. per week; and that
he be authorised to spend £lO for the first year for the
supply of water to the apparatus, and £lO for the nets, on
behalf of the society ; and that Mr. Francis; be further
authorised to incur such expenses as to him, Mr. Hawkins,
and Mr. Bush may seem fit and proper .
, and that, in case
of difference of opinion among them as to the amount of
such expenses, the matter be referred to the council for
decision,"
Mr. Francis announced that the increase of funds which
he had already obtained for the society on account of the
projected piscicultural branch amounted already to between
£7O and LSO. This was only the result of a public meeting
held at a period of the year when most of the gentlemen
interested in sporting were out of town. Ho had no doubt
that if the piseicultural operations of the society were
vigorously prosecuted, the amount of support would be
much greater.
A letter was read from Lord Walsingham, stating that
he would i‘ be glad to increase his subscription to the society,
if, as has been proposed, they should turn their attention
to pisciculture;" and the secretaries were directed to reply
to his lordship, thanking him for his offer, and intimating
that, inasmuch as the experiment was somewhat Perilous
to the small funds of the society, any further pecuniary aid
which his lerdahip might be disposed to render would be
thankfully received, gratefully acknowledged, and prudently
expended.

Collision on the Glasgow and South-western
Railway.

On the night of Thursday a collision occurred between
two heavily-laden ltggage trains at Mauchline station,
whereby one man was killed and several others had a nar-
row escape.
.The railway between Kilmarnock and Auchin-
leek station is at intervals on a slight incline, and between
these two stations two engines are generally employed for
trains which on other parts of the line require but one. On
the night mentioned a train, consisting of above 30 trucks,
passed along, and on
coming to Auchinleck stopped to take
on more trucks. There wore two guards with this train,
one of whom was on one of the engines and the other in the
van at the end of the train. The former uncoupled some of
the waggons to admit there to be taken on, and it was the
duty of the latter to put on the break at his end of the
train. There is reason to believe, however, that he was
asleep, and on the couplings being loosened the latter part
of the train commenced to run down the incline. It ran,
gathering velocity as it went, for about four miles, and was
nearing Mauehline station, when it was met by another
train drawn by two engines.' A collision occurred, and the
van of the runaway was smashed to atoms, the guard,
whose name Was Woods, being crushed to death. The first
engine of the second train' was thrown on its side, the
nearest waggons of
tha other train being thrown over
it. Tho drivers and firemen of the engines escaped by
springing off at the moment the collision took place. One
of the latter, however, in jumping off, was struck by a fly-
ing splinter and thrown back on the tender. He was nol
injured. The guard, it is said, resided in Carlisle, and had
been at Paisley at his father's funeral, and it is probable
might have had little rest for some time, and boon unable
to resist the temptation to sleep. Besides the van, the
engine is injured, and eight or nine of the trucks and their
contents aro very Lunch damaged. The traffic was stopped
till morning, when the rubbish was removed. The railway
at the place is being relaid, and the traffic is done on the
single line system. It is providential that the second train
had reduced its speed to about four miles an hour. If it
had been moving at ordinary speed it is likely tho remits
weal L4VO been wore terrible,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY linviewe—The origin of after-dinner speak-
ing is lost in the mists of antiquity. Perhaps it may be
traced to the habits of cur Teutonic forefathers, recorded
by Tacitus, who are said to have debated every subject
both under beery and under sober influences. After a
merry banquet, they probably took a cheerful view of
things. The morrow's indigestion and headache, of
course, suggested an opposite estimate, and between the
two the right decision was bit. Our post-prandial deli-
berations follow the old type very naturally. At every
banquet the prevailing thought is, what jolly good fellows
the guests all are. Down to the smallest parish dinner,
the diners celebrate their own virtues and the surpassing
corporate excellences which they represent. The rector is
the ablest, the churchwardens arc the most conscientious,
the bell-ringers the most skilful of their species. The uni-
versal contentment which a good dinner and good digestion
spread over the company accounts for the rosy light in which
they view themselves and all human things. At the annual
Sheffield Cutlers' Feast, every provision is made for carry-
ing out to the utmost the genial character of an English
banquet. Politics are rigidly excluded; but it seems to be
generally understood that this rule is to be taken as a stimu-
lant to the ingenuity of those political celebrities who attend
the dinner for the express purpose of sailing close .hauled to
the wind, and venturing as nearly as possible on the one
prohibited topic. This adds a little spice of excitement to
what would otherwise be a very dull business; and on the
last occasion of this periodical ceremony Sir Charles Wood
and:Mr. Roebuck entered thoroughly, under Mr. Dunn's
experienced guidance, into what is understood to be the
spirit of the affair. They did not talk party politics, but
they talked and were expected to talk about politics. The
picture which the artists drew was in the best after-dinner
fashion. The whole thing took the form of a panegyric-
Pericles in Hallamshire poured forth a glowing eulogy on
the happiness and exceptional glories of Athens the Blessed.
Rule Britannia was sung in duo form, and with all the
variations which a skilled and experienced rhetoric could
introduce into the leading theme. The nations, none so
blessed as we, only exhibit various forms either of unsuc-
cessful imitation or of failure, the very contrast of which
redounds to our supremacy. France is very happy and
flourishing, but she lacks the one thing needful—which,
by the bye, she does not seem to think needful at all. As
I to Austria, she is going through a birth-pang whicb may,
after all, end in a miscarriage, while we are surrounded by
a thriving family of adult institutions, and all of them suc-
• cesses. Russia—but why mention a country in which trial
t by jury, civil and religious liberty, and Lord Somers are,
; at the best, matters of distant hope? If we cross the At-
• lantic, what do we see but the most dreadful of fraternal
• discords, a worse than civil war, of which the atrocities are
daily on the increase? But when we look at home, there
t are the Elysian Fields ; there aro the Fortunate Islands ;
we aro the blameless Ethiopians with whom Zeus and
t the Gods feast all day long, and specially feast with the
; Master Cutler at Sheffield in Hallamshire. And as it is
with our external, so is it with our internal rela-
tions. We are living in halcyon days. An unbroken
peace and unruffled calm broods over the Pacific sea of
; England. Our life is in the political Doldrums, It matters
not who is in or who is out ; political leaders all do the very
best for the country, from the purest of motives, and, at least
for the last 30 years, with the same uniformity of intention
and success. To be sure, it was a pure Whig, ono of the
select few that have had all but an unbroken monopoly of
power for those very 30 years, who now comes forward to
chronicle his own and his party's Government in these
roseate periods of congratulation. Perhaps Lord Derby
could show us the other side of the tapestry, and exhibit the
broken threads, and disjointed stitches, end confused pat-
. terns of the Whig loom. But assuming Sir Chas. Wood's
picture to be the true one, what does it amount to ? For all
. practical purposes—and the soft talk had a practical pur-
pose—it went to show that, as it does not much matter who
; holds the reins of Government. and as we have attained
that perfect peace and harmony in which any change would
most likely be for the worse, it is, all things considered, best
to leave well alone, and to let the Whigs remain in Down-
ing-street. For his part, he would promise that the past
should be a guarantee for the future ; and as Parliament
had, with immense applause, done nothing last year, so
they would be quite ready to do nothing to the end of time.
This was certainly a congenial theme for the Indian Minis-
ter; and nobody was fouud to contest the value of Sir
Charles Wood's experimental knowledge of the arc of let-
ting well alone. The evils of innovation could not be
treated by a more skilful master in the science of p Artiest
quietism. If there is a Molinism in politics, Sir Charles
Wood has a claim to be its most'sleilled expositor.
EXAMINER.—When Filch, in the " Beggar's Opera, ex-
presses his fear of being cut off in the flower of his youth,
and his consequent thoughts of taking up and going to sea,
Mrs. Peachum advises, " You should go to Hockley-in-the
Hole, and to Marybone, child, to learn valour; those are the
schools that have bred so many brave men." And in these
words the respectable Mrs. Peachum exhausted all the
arguments for prize fighting. The ring is said to be the
school in which bravo men are bred, manly habits taught by
example, and when we see all the virtues attributed to it,
we have only to wonder how the national character survived
the period of its disgrace and abeyance. For about 20 years
prize fighting was given up, not, we are sorry to confess, in
consequence of any improvement in feeling, but in conse-
quence of the rogueries, to which the name of crosses was
given, which destroyed all confidence in the reality of the
conflicts, it having been settled beforehand which man was
to win. All this is now forgotten, and the ring starts again
with a new score, and its old favour. The quarter in which
that favour lies is specially remarkable. Amongst the edu-
cated and refined may be found, here and there, apologists,
admirers, and approvers of prize fighting, but to a man the
low classes delight iu it, and the lower you go the more
prevalent and ardent is the taste, The thing may, indeed,
be represented in a diagram. The basis of a pyramid is the
taste of the dregs of the community, blackguards, ruffians,
and thieves, all for the ring; and with every grade of ascent
from this foundation, the thing narrowing and tapering,
mounts up to the point where it ceases. Out of a thousand
of the dregs of the town taken at random, not one will be
found who would not joyfully walk barefooted to a prize
fight. Out of a thousand of the educated and refined class
shall we set down 10 per cent, as approvers ? We think such
an estimate excessive. But we have this certain datum, that
, the lower the nature and habits the more decided the taste
for the ring. Every blackguard loves it, every ruffian, every
thief. They are all initiated in the mysteries. They have the
anatomy of every professed bruiser, and are critical on their
methods of attack and defence. It is the talk of the gin shop,the
ale house, the beer shop of every haunt of the low and the
vicious. In clubs and good society not a word is ever heard
about it, for though in those places the ring has its friends
hero and there, they know better than to divulge, much
less are they disposed to parade their peculiar taste. What
a curious company must have been that in the Paddington
night train, especially despatched for a breach of the law.
The pyramid was then reverted, the majority of the upper
stratum, the minority of the lowest. But between the fine
gentleman in the first-class carriage, and the rough or pick-
pocket holding on to the door, what a bond of sympathy I
the same pleasure, the same pursuit; the man of dirt and
rags and the man of professed nicety and refinement looking
forward with equal zest to the same treat. The gentleman
has the taste of the blackguard, and the blackguard has the
taste of the gentleman. That is the thing in common be-
tween them, under the unreal distinctions of broad cloth
and shoddy. Disputes about taste are proverbially idle,
but surely some suspicion of the correctness of a taste should
be raised by the stamp of its possessors. The affinity be-
tween the ring and blackguardism and vulgarity should
make repulsion for the classes who would hold themselves
clear of those reproaches. Yet men who would be ashamed
to confess the possession of anything else in common with
c)stermongers, roughs, and pickpockets, will avow their
share in the taste of seeing two men pound each other to
jelly. What the worst take to with the greatest zest, they,
the patrons of the ring, take to without seeing how it
classes them morally and intellectually. What infallibly
attracts the bad of every sort, attracts them also, arguing
something in common whore there ought to be nothing.
Old and trite is the saying, that a man is known by his
associates, and the character of his pleasures is in like man-
ner unerringly marked by the companionship of his plea-
sures. If they herd him with all the worst, the lowest, the
idle, the profligate, the criminal, the thing must be foul in
its nature to have attraction for such natures. Some of a
better order and respectable character, it is true, affect it;
but the test of the thing is its favour with all the low and
bad, and a blackguard or thief not an admirer of the
prize ring is not to be found.
LONDON REVIEW—Our daily papers are becoming very
ghastly reading, and are going far beyond the most sensa-
tional of sensation novels and dramas in the strangeness of
the incidents they disclose and the stories they suggest. A
horrible atmosphere of secret death surrounds us, and cases
of infanticide that can never be traced to their perpetrators
aro getting as common as fatal accidents from crinoline.
Every day we read of the discovery of some unfortunate
infant's body. In parcels dropped about the streets,—in
out-houses and gardens,—chance is constantly bringing to
light the shrivelled remains of children that have certainly
not always met with a natural death. A man is fitting in
an idle mood on the grass of a marshy island between the
River Lea and Bow Creek. He sees a cloud of blue bottles
buzzing round a hillock of weeds; brushes thorn aside,
parts the rank vegetation, and draws a parcel from a hole
that has been scooped out of the earth to the depth of about
a foot, if the man has any doubt as to the contents of that
parcel, some dogs that are ratting in that oozy waste have
none; for they come crowding hungrily about the spot.
An examination reveals the body of a female infant, with
evident marks of foul play; but the coroner's jury can do
nothing more than return an open verdict. The thing is
perpetually happening, and the open verdict in cases of
infanticide is becoming au institution. It has been reserved
for Whitechapel, however, to surpass all other stories of the
like kind with which the public have recently been shocked.
Few would have expected to find a secret and unhallowed
Golgotha in a church. Burial within the walls of sacred
edifices was until recently a too common practice ; but at
at any rate it was openly and legally carried on. No one
would have regarded a church as a probable place of deposit
for bodies smuggled there in an improper way, and some of
which are not without a suspicion of murder. Least of all
could any Copgregation have imagined that LW), above their

heads as they sat at worship—beneath the timbers of the roof,
and in close proximity to the bells that tell of births and
marriages and honest natural deaths—was a mass of decay-
ing humanity. We are all amistomed to the skeleton in
the house, and have got somewhat callous to his inevit-
able presence. But the skeletons in the church-roof—
no metaphors, but veritable corpses of infants, still-born"
or not, as the case may be, and parching silently in the sun
and wind from year to year—are certainly a grim novelty,
such as could hardly have been conceived even by the mor-
bid fancy of Edgar Poe. The investigation into this strange
case has not yet proceeded far enough to throw much light
on the question as to how the bodies came there ; but it has
brought out some singular and note-worthy facts. The dis-
covery was first made on Saturday, the 22d August, by some
workmen who were fixing ventilators in the roof, the need
of which, one would think, must have been very apparent
to those who frequented the church. Only one coffin was
found on that occasion. The sexton and churchwardens
were communicated with, and, on further search being
made, saulls, bones, and small coffins were found to a con-
siderable number—some of them in the belfry. Remains
of 14 bodies in all have been drawn forth from these ex-
traordinary hiding-places. Some of the corpses had evi-
dently not been there for more than two years; others
were shrivelled to parchment, and had apparently been dead
for 30 or 40 years. Seven of the skulls are said to be en-
crusted with blood. It appears to have been a work of
some trouble and no small danger to place the bodies
where they were found. Two or more persons were
manifestly concerned in the task, for the only access to
the place is by a narrow ledge of timber, and the coffins,
says the report in the daily papers, " must have been
handed up to the person above by an accomplice. The
place to catch hold of is very narrow, and if the person
clinging on had made the slightest slip, he would infallibly
have been killed by falling into the iron machinery of the
church bells." Who were the persons who ran this risk ?
Evidently people who had some legitimate business about
the church, though as yet it is impossible to say precisely
who. At the first sitting of the inquest, a woman came
forward, who turns out to be the mother of two of the in-
fants whose dead bodies were found in the belfry. She
was enabled to identify some of the wrappings, and her
evidence was not without value. Four children have been
born to this woman, of whom only one was legitimate.
Two were still-born; the other two only lived for a very
brief period. The two former, and one of those born alive,
which survived five days, were "fetched away" by an
undertaker's man, for the purpose, as it was supposed, of
being buried ; but the mother seems to have heard, at some
subsequent time, that they had not been buried, or at least
that ono had not. We do not gather from the report of her
evidence when she heard this : if it was before the dis-
covery in the roof, the fact is important, and demands
further inquiry. The sexton denies all knowledge of the
affair; and, though his excited exclamation on being sworn
—" I am innocent of this charge, so help my God I" when
no charge had been made against him—was not a good
point in his favour, it may be that he was really ignorant
of the strange uses to which the church roof and the belfry
had been put. Ile admits, however, that he formerly re-
ceived still-born children for burial in the churchyard, and
that he took no care of the certificates.

COURT JounNAL.—The friends of the South have, at
the present moment, greater cause than they ever had to
be proud of the bold, manly attitude of the Richmond Ca-
binet and the people of the Southern' States. Tho latest in-
telligence from America is equally as unexpected as it is
welcome to the heart of all true-feeling and liberty-loving
Englishmen. The one great stain upon the independent
banner of the South till the present moment was slavery,
and even the warmest sympathisers with freedom still felt
a lurking, though half-smothered, feeling of antagonism
towards the agitation for recognising the South, knowing,
as tbey did, that by so doing England was, after all, admit-
ting a slave-trading- and slave-holding country to the
community of great and free nations. The importance of
Jefferson Davis's last proclamation is, perhaps, not perfectly
understood at the present moment, but it calls for the en-
rolment of 500,000 negro soldiers, who are to have their
liberty at the end of the war. This is the first great step in
the direction of emancipation, and we have every reason to
rejoice at it, inasmuch as it holds out far greater promise of
success than the vindictive, yet hesitating, project which
originated and was addled in the brains of Northern states-
men. The negro taking up arms for the North is already
free, and has only to dread capture by fighting with any-
thing like courage; but the negro on the side of the South
knows that he is struggling for freedom, and that every in-
dividual effort will tend to bring the war still nearer to a
close, and to grant him his longed for and well-earned
liberty. All honour, say we, to the Confederate soldiers
and statesmen who have begun the work of emancipation,
and may England not be slow to recognise a nation which,
whilst struggling for its own independence, does not forget
that of the unfortunate negro—the true cause of all this
long and disastrous warfare.

ATREN2EUM.—A benevolent lady, aided by some earnest
friends, proposes to establish an Infanticide Prevention
Society. These thoughtful persons have been struck by
the frequent failure of justice in cases of child murder.
There was, for example, in a recent case some rather start-
ling elements. A woman was charged with the wilful
murder of her child. The evidence was conclusive as to
her maternity—the medical testimony was direct and clear
that the child had been born alive, and that its life had been
destroyed by drowning. It was proved that the prisoner
had provided a pan-mug of water and had thrust the child
into it. Yet the jury acquitted the prisoner. Such a mis-
carriage of justice, they urge, could only occur while the
public mind is uns.wakened to the social enormity of this
particular crime. "On this ground it will be a prominent
feature in this institution to stimulate a healthy national
sentiment on this vital question—not by exciting a maud-
lin sympathy with guilt, even under the garb of desertion
sad suffering in the hour of travail, but by boldly confront-
ing the dark crime of child murder." The evil is obvious,
the remedy not so. We wish these benevolent persons
every success in their efforts; but we may warn them that
the task of awakening the public mind is no light one. A
change of the Bastardy Law is only one branch of the
great work which stands before these new reformers.
SPECTATOR.—Herr von Bismark's tone toward the Prus-
sian people is that of the young gentleman in Punch, who,
sitting with his feet on the fender, calmly replied to the in-
furiated father who thundered at him, " It comes to this,
Frederick, am I to be master in this house or you ?" with,
" Don't excite yourself, Papa. I will, if you like." It is
believed, however, that the Prussian Premier's inconsist-
ency is not altogether voluntary. Another royal decree was
to have altered the electoral law, and enabled him to address
himself only to the reactionary classes. Where he expected
to find a reactionary electoral body sufficiently numerous
to play the part with decency remains a mystery. The
country squires who prefix " von" to their names, the offi-
cers in the army, and the higher official employes are pros
bably his only enthusiastic supporters. It has, indeed, been
suggested that ho intended to resort to universal suffrage,
and, no doubt, ho is an admirer of the Emperor of the
French. But the despotism of France is founded on the
dread with which the peasant proprietors regard social-
ism, and socialism has but few disciples among the
orderly and industrious Germans. Well-informed
people do, indeed, seem to say that the agricultural
class has as yet been apathetic in the contest between the
bourgeoisie and the Premier, but the emancipation of the
peasantry, commenced by Stein in 1807, was only completed
by Prince Hardenberg in 1821. Thirty years can scarcely
have erased the mark of his collar from the neck of the serf,
and it is permitted one to doubt whether, if he were directly
appealed to, ho would be disposed to give his vote in favour
of the domination of his former master. But it is idle to
speculate on the projects of a man who to-day advises Aus-
tria to abandon her connection with Germany, and to-morrow
openly talks of annexing Poland. No dreams are too wild
for a mind whose natural disease of arrogance has by the pos-
session of power been irritated to delirium. If, indeed, he ad-
vised his master either to restrict or enlarge the constituency
by royal decree, the King has not been able to summon
the necessary dishonesty or desperation. The Deputies are
to be chosen in the manner which the constitution directs,
Herr von Bismark may plead in favour of the dissolution
that the late Chamber was not elected under his auspices.
But tie late Premier, Von der Heydt, was only a more
prudent Bismark. His attempts at influencing the consti-
tuencies did not procure the return of a single minister,
nor, indeed, of more than a dozen ministerialists. No doubt
Herr Bismark is capable of going to any extremities either
of coercion or bribery, but surely it is more than even he
can hope—to convert a minority of a dozen into a majority.
And when he meets the Parliament, even before the budget
will arise the question of the legality of the decree gagging
the Press. If that ordinance is "not contrary to the Con-
stitution," and was issued "only when the suppression
of an extraordinary necessity urgently demanded it"
—whatever that may moan—still it must bo "submitted
forthwith to the approbation of the Chambers at
their next meeting." We cannot anticipate any result from
the assembly of the Chambers, except the continuance of
the existing deadlock. King William will then be in that
position which is the inevitable dilemma of statesmen—he
will have three courses before him. First, he can dismiss
his present advisers, select their successors from the majority
of the Chamber, withdraw the decree on the Press, popu-
larise the army, break off his relations with the junker ea-
manilla, in short, frankly accept the position of a constitu-
tional monarch. Secondly, he may abdicate. In order to
adopt the first of these resolutions, he must conquer the
obstinacy which is his leading characteristic, and although
a confirmed military martinet abjure the habits of
thought instilled into him in youth and cherished for
more than half a century. In order to adopt the second he
must relinquish that show of power to which, like all weals
men, he clings with a tenacity which is only equalled by
his irresolution. The third course is one from which his
natural honesty of temper, if not tho remonstrances of his
wife and son, will, it is to be hoped, hold him back. But,
unhappily, the man who has allowed himself to be persuaded
thus far on the road to despotism may want the courage to
confess or the brains to comprehend his error. He may
yield to the evil advisers who surround him. He may
violate his oath, abolish the Constitution by royal decree,
appeal to the army for support, and endeavour to stamp
out the opposition of his people in blood. If he succeeds,
Prussia, a straggling tract of recently united provinces,
with an army fully occupied in holding down a disaffected
people, ceases to be a great power. If he fails, the Hohen-
wile= cease to be a ruling house, 24hora spa aimo,

Alarming Occurrence on the North London,
Railway.

On Saturday morning, shortly before 11 o'clock, an accie
dent of a very alarming character occurred to a North Lon-
don Railway train within a few yards of the Fenchurch-
street etation,and which, it is almost miraculous to relate, did
not involve the destruction of a large amount of human life.
The train in question was the 10.20 from Camden-roadf
and consisted of some ten or eleven carriages, three of
which were first-class, and the remainder second-class car-
riages of the North London line. It was duo at Fenchurche
street shortly before eleven o'clock, and the pace of the
train had been slackened to run into the North London
compartment. Suddenly a very severe shock was felt
by the passengers, and many in the foremost carriages were
thrown from their seats. Great consternation was m ani fe3ted7
and it was at once discovered that the engine No. 2, of the
composite class, that is, with the boiler and tender, Ste.,
attached, and ordinarily in use on the North London line,
had left the metals and had dashed against the wall of the
viaduct, carrying a great portion of it away, and precipitat-
ing it on to some new buildings, which a large number o f
workmen were at the time engaged in erecting in Cooper's-
row, Crutched-friars, beneath. The escape of both train
and passengers was most miraculous, for, had the engine
proceeded but a foot or two further, it must have been pre-
cipated over the viaduct, and in all probability have dragged
one or two carriages over with it. The writer of this was a
passenger in one of the first-class carriages, the third or
fourth from the engine, and although the train had slackened
its speed to run into the station, the shock was so great as
to throw the passengers in that carriage from one side to the
other. The moment the driver of the engine found, from
the peculiar grating noise he heard, that his wheels had left
the metals, he shut off the steam, and after grazing the sides
of the outer wall for a distance of some 8 or 10ft, the engine
turned completely round, and rushed through the wall of the
viaduct over Cooper's-row, as before described, and became
embedded in the soil, a providential circumstance, to which
may bo attributed the stoppage of the train without going
over. As it was, the first carriage, a second-class, in which
there happened to be fortunately but seven or eight passen-
gers, was thrown up completely over the rear or tender
portion of the engine, and then fell upon its side inward
towards the rails. The third carriage, also a second-class,
must have jumped up, as the whole of the top part of the
first was completely smashed in, but it had returned after
the collision, and stood partly upon the rails. The passes'
gets were necessarily much alarmed, but although our re-
porter made every inquiry upon the spot, ho could not
ascertain that any one was injured beyond being slightly
shaken by the concussion. As soon as the passengers were
able to leave the carriages they had to walk to the platform,
which was not more than some 20 or 30 feet from the spot
where the engine was to be seen in its perilous position,
partially suspended over the outside of the viaduct. Another
providential circumstance was, that although a large num-
ber of workmen were employed on the building in course
of erection where the engine struck the wall, none of them
were in the identical spot where the brickwork was broken.
or the falling wreck would, without doubt, have proved
fatal to them.
As soon as the alarm had somewhat subsided, Mr. Wight'
man, the superintendent of the Blackwell and Eastern Conn-.
ties lines at the station, and other officials, at once tele-
graphed to North London works at Bow, and to stop the uP
Blackwell trains, as from the position in which the engine
stood, and the second-class carriage hung, not only the
North London but the Blackwell terminus metals were
completely blocked, and the passengers on both these lines
were compelled to leave the carriages at the junction, for
some distance down the line, during a great portion of the
morning, whilst the outgoing trains were desps.tched from
the platform of the Eastern Counties and the London, 111-
bury, and Thames Haven line, on the Northern side of the
station. In a short time large number of engineers and
labourers belonging to the North London Company were en
tho spot, and efforts were made to remove the carriage and
engine, which overhung the parapet, and caused large
crowds of persons to assemble in Cooper's-row during the
operations. It was not until late in the afternoon that this
was effected.
As to the causes which led to the occurrence, there is but
little doubt that it resulted from some negligence on the part
of some of the workmen employed in repairing the ractala
at the spot where the engine went off. Just at this place the
earth had been dug out, and the sleepers upon which the
metals rested were completely bare, and it is believed that
some of these not having been properly secured, the pre-
vious train from Camden Town, which arrived about 20
minutes after ten, and had shortly after gone out over the
same ground, mutt in doing so have displaced one of the
metals or chairs, and that the line was not examined by
the plate-layers between that and the arrival of the 10.20
train. The matter, however, is under investigation. The
conduct of the driver and stoker of No. 2 engine is most
praiseworthy, for it was ascertained that when they found
the engine was off the line, instead of jumping off,they shut
off the steam and stuck to their posts at the risk of their
lives, which would in all probability have been sacrificed
had the engine progressed a foot or two further over the
edge of the viaduct, where it had broken through. The oc-
currence created considerable excitement amongst the many
thousands of passengers who daily throng the Fenchurch-
street station and its vicinity, and many exaggerated ru-
mours were throughout the day in circulation.