The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 19, 1863.

lIINAHAN'S LL
WHISKY V. COGNAC
BRANDY.
This celebrated Old IRISH WIIISKY rivals the finest
FRENCH BRANDY,
It i; Pure, Mild, Mellow, Delicious, and very Wholesome.
Sold in Bottles, 3s. 8d , at the Retail Houses in London ; by
the Agents in the principal towns in England ; or wholesale
at

8, GREAT WINDMILL-STREET, W.
Observe the Red Seal, Pink Label, and Cork branded
" Kinahan's LL Whisky."

TEETI-I.—Mr. ESKELL'S INVENTION in
the construction of ARTIFICIAL TEETH has the
following advantages :—A set of teeth, of excellent work-
manship and mechanism, can be made and fitted with the
most perfect accuracy and success, in a few hours, without
pain or extraction of stumps, and to answer all the purposes
of mastication and articulation. They are fitted without
wires or fastenings, and adapt themselves so perfectly to the
gums, that they ace quite immoveable, except at the option
of the wearer. Invalids or residents in the country can ad-
just these teeth to many changes of the mouth without the
aid of a dentist. They arc not so liable to injury, are always
useful, and will last a lifetime. Comfort guaranteed. Trea-
tise explaining Mr. Eskell's Patent, &c., free for 7 stamps.
Inspection of specimens and consultations tree. —B,Grosvenor-
street, Bond-street, W. ; and at 39, Bennett's-hill, Bir-
mingham.

The Relief of Distress in the Manufacturing

Districts.

The following is the report of the Central Emu-

tive Committee to the General Committee :
Town-hall, Manchester, Nov. 16.
The Central Executive Committee has to report that from
a table compiled by the honorary secretary, and appended
hereto, it ascertains that the outlay for the relief of indi-
gence caused by the distress in the 28 Unions of the cotton
districts up to Michaelmas last amounted to £1,979,369;
tho outlay of the Boards of Guardians in excess of previous
years being in this sum combined with the expenditure of

the local relief committee.
Of this total the extra charge on the parochial rates in
1862 and 1863 was £823,470, and that derived from strictly
local subscriptions to either the local or central funds
amounted to £535,898, irrespective of the large sums ex•

pended in private charity.
Notwithstanding that the diminution of the number of
persons dependent on the parochial rates has up to the time
been progressive, and amounts to 288, 551 since January
last, your committee cannot rely on the continuance of the
present amount of employment. It therefore expects to
encounter an increased outlay to meet legitimate claims from
the diminution of work, or from the inclemency of the sea-

son in some of the winter months.
Having regard to the various contingencies affecting the
urgency and the duration of the distress, your committee
has pleasure in reporting that the balance held by Messrs.
Heywood Brothers and Co. on the 14th inst. amounted to
£258,392 4s Id, by the Bridgewater House Fund £8t3,270 17s,
and by the Liverpool Committee £39,355 17s 6d, besides
subscriptions in large towns in Yorkshire and elsewhere
promised but not yet transmitted.
At the close of the year 1862 your committee reported
that it had "reached the middle of tho winter without the

outbreak of any serious epidemic, or the appearance of any
of those grave forms of disease, such as scurvy, diarrhcea,
or dysentery, which commonly follow low diet, with little
variety of food and the use of inferior kinds of aliment." In
confirmation of this statement, the medical officer of the
Privy Council, in his report presented the 31st of March,
1863, says—" It was a most satisfactory issue to the

anxieties of 1863 that typhus did not become extensively
prevalent in the cotton districts, and that, so far as the
facts are yet known, there was no other great local derange-
ment of the public health." Every month of 1863 has been
marked by the increase of employment and wages, and the
diminution of indigence. And the last report of the hon.
secretary states that " there are now 288,551 more persons
dependent on their own resources, and " 120,000 persons
more in full work," than in January, 1863.
Your committee has carefully watched for any indica-

tions which might arise in the population of the loss of
power to resist endemic or epidemic disease, and it has ea•

a mined with solicitude the quarterly reports of the Regis•
trar-Genoral, as well as those of the Local Sanitary Asso.

ciations, to ascertain whether the health and strength of

,he cotton workmen has been seriously impaired.

The subject is one to which vigilance may be so pro.

perly directed, that your committee solicits public attention
to the following extracts from the Quarterly Reports of the
Registrar-General for 1863 :
On the 30th of January, 1863, after remarking that the
North-Western Counties, Yorkshire, London, the Northern
Counties awl the West Midland aro five divisions in which

the highest rate of mortality prevails, ho states " that the
history of the distress is not written in the death registers
of the year that is closed" (1862).
On the 30th of April, 1863, occur the following remark-
able passages :—" On comparing the returns of the deaths
in the 11 divisions (of England) attention is immediately
drawn to the fact, that in all divisions, with one exception,
the deaths were more numerous last quarter than in the
March quarter of 1862—and the single exception is found

in that division where the staple industry in which half
a million of persons are dependent is overthrown, and for a
twelvemonth four-fifths of that number have sub-
sisted, unless the pittance has been added by previous earn-
ings or sale of household stock, on less than 4d a day per
head." It will be gratefully admitted that the legal pro-
vision for the distress and the spontaneous liberality of their
countrymen have hitherto sufficed to maintain the people
in health."

A paper read by Mr. Frederick Purdy, of the Statistical
Department of the Poor-law Board, before the British As-
sociation, after an elaborate compar►son of the statistics of
mortality in the distressed districts, arrived at conclusions
in harmony with those of the Registrar-General.
The Registrar-General's Report of the 30th June, 1863,
records the prevalence of measles and scarlatina iu Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire, in common with many southern coun-
ties, but remarks that " in reviewing the whole facts of the
present return they will be found to support the conclusion
which former reports tended to establish, that sickness has

not been aggravated, nor mortality increased, by the dis •
tress which has prevailed, and which, happily, to a certain
extent has now been subdued."
In the report dated the 30th of October, 1863, the Regis •
trar-General states, as to the sanitary condition of England,
that "scarlatina and diarrhea i " widely diffused over the
country, were the chief immediate causes from which the
increase of mortality, then reported 4; sprung." "The un-
favourable influences that were at work pervaded the coun-
try generally, and Lancashire did not suffer more than most
parts, but less than some." And again, "notwithstanding
the distress which still prevails" in Lancashire, " and the
greater distress it has suffered, it will be seen that in the
present returns it may be compared with Yorkshire with-
out disadvantage."

Prior to the reception of this last Quarterly Report from
the Registrar-General your committee had before it a
report, obtained by Mr. Farnall, from the medical officers
of the several Poor-law Unions of the cotton districts.
This report exhibited a remarkable concurrence of opinion
among these gentlemen that, apart from epidemic maladies
whose origin and progress have been similar to those of other
counties in which no distress exists, the health of the popu-
lation is in a satisfactory condition, there being no ascertain-
able connection between the origin, character, or spread of
these diseases and the distress.
In the Ashton-under-Lyne Union alone, in which the
duration and pressure of the distress have been exceptionally
great, did the medical officers report that the tone of the
general health retarded convalescence from exhausting dis-
eases, and the recovery of women from child-birth,
Dr. Noble, in a report to the Manchester Statistical
Society, says concerning Manchester—" I have a certain
well- grounded conviction that, within the last two years,
there has been nothing as to the mortality of the cotton
districts in any respect unusual, and assuredly nothing to
establish a relation of cause and effect between it and the
distress."

Your committee has borne in mind the " almost singular
milchiess of the winter" of 1862-3 (see " Report of Medical
Officer of Privy Council), and would call the attention of the
committees of all relief districts in which want of employ-
ment and consequent distress still prevail extensively, to the
expediency of precautions against a winter of greater seve-
rity. An allowance for fuel and the distribution of clothing
are necessary wherever the family has been long mainly de-
pendent on the relief funds, and these may be provided from
the general grants.
Having regard, also, to the more remote rather than the
immediate consequences of a prolonged period of privation,
your committee has, in the " Manual" recently published,
called the attention of the local authorities to various sani-
tary precautions, especially the immediate emptying of
cesspools and ashpits; the lime-washing of the houses ; the
removal of all nuisances; and a house to house visitation
to secure cleanliness and ventilation in the dwellings of
those in the receipt of relief, as well as to the arrangements
required to prevent the spread of infectious andicontagious
disease. Your committee has likewise informed the
various local committees that it is prepared to take into
consideration applications for clothing suitable
for the cotton operatives about to be employed on public
works.
The fluctuations of employment will require the utmost
vigilance both from your executive committee and from the
local committee of relief, in order to meet the real wants of
the unemployed, . .
Signed on behalf of the committee,
DERBY, Chairman.
JOHN WM. MACLURE, Hon Sec.

Full benefit of reduced duty obtained by pur-
chasing Horniman's pure Tea; very choice at 3s. 4d. and
4s. "High Standard" al.4s. 4d. (formerly 4s. Bd.), is the
strongest and most delicious imported. Agents in every
town supply it i. 14 Acketo4

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

A number of condemned. 32-pounder cast iron naval
guns, 8 feet in length, and weighing 42 cwt. each, 21 of
which were formerly on board her Majesty's screw steam
frigate Liverpool, 29 guns, at Devonpart, were yesterday
landed at Woolwich from the War Department vessel Alma.
Among the number was a 45-pounder Armstrong gun with
one side of the muzzle carried away.
A cargo of cast iron ordnance, weighing 50 tons, and con-
sisting of guns minus one of the trunnions, broken off during
proof, was yesterday shipped at Woolwich for transport to
Messrs. Pegg's works, at Brentford, to be broken up.
A large amount of war stores for China is now awaiting
transport at Woolwich, including 8 -inch 52 cwt. guns for
Shanghai, 20 and 21-pounder howitzers, and 20-pounder
naval guns, &c., for Hongkong.
The heavy shaft, weighing 22 tons, manufactured by
Messrs. Penn, at Greenwich, for her Majesty's iron screw
ship Minotaur, 6,621 tons, and 1,350-horse power, 110 W
building at the Thames Ironworks, at Blackwell, was yes-
terday shipped at Woolwich for conveyance to the building
yard. The Minotaur is now in a forward state for being
launched.

Instructions were yesterday received at. Woolwich to
commence stripping the paddlewheel sloop Ardent, brought
home from the South-East Coast of America, as well as the
iron steam-tug Kite, from Bermuda, in order to their being
sold by public tender. A. number of other ships at Wool-
wich known to be in a condition unfit for service are also
in progress of being stripped—namely, theßanshee, Flying
Fish, Firebrand, and Spiteful ; they will, in all probability,
likewise be ordered for sale.

The Fly, dockyard barge, having been damaged by a
collision at Woolwich, has been hauled up on the slip for
repairs, which are estimated to require an expenditure of
upwards of £l,OOO. Her timbers are quite rotten, so that
a very small portion of the old barge will be found useful
for future service.

The hired Railing transport West Derby, Capt. Sargent,
arrived at Spithead yesterday morning with the left wing
of the 31st Regiment on board, from Shanghai. She sailed
thence on the Ist of July, and called in at the Mauritius on
the 3d of September, and at St. Helena on the 7th of Octo-
ber. The names of the officers and number of men are as
follows :—Capt. Mitchell, Bayley, Pepper, and Thompson;
Lieuts. M'lntyre, Maynard, and Harrham ; Ensigns Lam-
bert, Townsend, Bateman, and Hill ; Assist.-Surg. Giraud;
19 sergeants, 5 drummers, and 282 privates. Four deaths
occurred during the voyage. The 31st are ordered into
garrison at Plymouth, and yesterday a telegram was de-
spatched there from the Admiralty, ordering the Geyser, 6,
paddle, to proceed at once round to Portsmouth, and receive
on board the left wing from the West Derby and convey it
to Plymouth.

In consequence of a large number of lads having recently
been transferred from the Wellesley, 72, training ship in
Chatham harbour, to various ships of war, there are now a
number of vacancies on board that vessel. The limit of age
at which candidates for entering the navy are taken is lb
years. They must be over 4ft Sin in height, free from phy-
sical defect, and able to read and write well. The necessary
forms of application are forwarded direct to applicants by
the commanding officer of the Wellesley,
Sir R. Mayne, Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police, accompanied by Mr. Mallalieu, principal superin-
tendent of the police forces at the Royal dockyards, visited
Chatham dockyard on Tuesday for the annual inspection of
the police at that establishment. After mustering the whole
of the officers and men who could be spared from their ordi-
nary police duties, Sir R. Mayne saw the men go through
their drill, which is now a regular part of their duty, He
also inspected their clothing and accoutrements, and after
examining the books and documents of the division, and
transacting some business with Superintendent Richardson
he left the dockyard and inspected the recently erected
quarters of the married police, the internal arrangements
and all the details connected with which he found most
satisfactory.
Orders were received yesterday at Devonport to put into
commission the screw steam frigate Aurora, 35, now in the
first class of the steam reserve in Hanioazo. She is to have
a complement of 515 men, is to be fully stored and provi-
sioned, and for the present will be attached to the Channel
squadron.
The paddlewheel steam tender, Princess Alice, M. Dyer
Master, has been placed in No. 1 dock at Devonport to have
her bottom cleaned.

The iron screw steamship Defence, 16, Capt. Augustus
Phillimore, went yesterday outside Plymouth breakwater
to make a trial of her engines at the measured mile.
The screw steam corvette Pelorus, 22, Capt. Boys, got up
steam yesterday, and went from Hamoaze into the Sound,
where ehe will receive her powder and ammunition. To-
day she will make a trial trip.
The screw steam frigate Constance, 39, was removed yes-

terday from Hamoaze into the Prince's dock, at Devonport,
to have her bottom cleaned and valves overhauled, prepara-
tory to her being placed at moorings in the first division of

,he steam reserve, in place of the Aurora.

The India Department has proposed, and the Admiralty
has approved of, an allowance of 50 rupees a month being
given for services as interpreter to one officer in each of her
Majesty's ships so long as they may remain on the East
_ . .

udia station. Any officer who may pass the Staff test in

Hindustani, or a good colloquial examination in Arabic or
Persian, will receive a sum of 180 rupees, being equivalent
to six months' allowance at 30 rupees a month, drawn by

interpreters of regiments for the entertainment of a moon-
shee, or instructor of native languages. The Government
of Bombay will communicate to the senior naval officer on
I,he East India station as to the place where the proposed
examination will be held, and the regulations under which
it will be conducted.
The following appointments were made yesterday at the
Admiralty :—Sub-Lieut. Augustus IL B. Bradshaw, to the
Wasp ; Reginald 0. B. Carey, naval cadet, to the Pelorus ;
Edward A. Amphlet, paymaster, to the Curagoa, additional,
for transport service at New Zealand ; Dr. F. B. Hurley,
assist.-surgeon, to the Warrior; and Isaac B. Liddell, in
the Shearwater, promoted to acting engineer.

Dreadful Explosion at East Greenwich.

LOSS OF LIFE AND SEVERAL PERSONS
SERIOUSLY INJURED.
The utmost excitement was occasioned yesterday through-
out the borough of Greenwich, arising from a terrible ex-
plosion by which a great amount of property was reduced
to ruin, and one man was killed, and several persons se-
riously, and, it is feared, fatally injured. The scene of this
disaster was the extensive manufactory of Mr J. Bether, of
38, King William. street, City, but whose works are
situated at East Greenwich. The premises formed nearly a
parallelogram, and were used as steam saw mills and creo-
sote and alum works. That part of the building comprised
the steam-boiler house, 70 feet by GO feet ; the engine-
house and alum stores, 50 feet by 60 feet, tapering off at the
end to only 21 feet. From the inquiries made of the offi
dais at the works, it appears that the workmen commenced
their work at the usual hour in the morning, and the steam
being up the work progressed in its usual way, and not the
least linger was apprehended of any part of the machinery
being out of working order, but all of a sudden, just as the
clock chimed half-past sevenin the morning, a fearful scene
presented itself, In the first place, a loud explosion oc-
curred, resembling the discharge of a piece of artillery,
but upon looking out of their windows the inhabitants
were convinced that a fearful occurrence had taken
place in the vicinity of Greenwich, for the frag-
ments of the boiler and engine-house, as well as the
alum stores, were falling to the ground, after having been
blown high into the air: At the same time, immense vo-
lumes of dust were hovering over the buildings, and it was
some minutes before the exact nature of the catastrophe
could be learned. A glare of light shining through the clouds
of dust showed that a fire and also an explosion had taken
place, and the neighbours and police at once rushed to the
scene. They then beheld as the dust cleared away a fearful
sight—the boiler-house and engine louse, two substantial
brick and timber buildings, hurled to pieces, theboiler blown
into a mis-shapen form, and the alum store similarly de-
stroyed. The cries of several men told at once that the work-
men had not received sufficient warning to enable them to
escape with their lives before the explosion took place.
The rubbish was removed as quickly as possible, when
one man who was eraployed o n the premises, named Anson,
35 years of age, was found frightfully burned and scalded,
The medical gentlemen of the district promptly attended,
and upon examination of the poor fellow helves pronounced
to be quite dead. The body was removed for an inquest to
be held by the coroner.
Four other workmen were next extricated, who were also
most frightfully injured, so that they were obliged to be re-
moved to the Dreadnought and Guy's Hospital, but the
nature of the burns and scalds they have received leave little
hope of their recovery. How the other persons working
near escaped appears quite a miracle.
The engines from Penn's engineering works and other
firms in the town, as well as those of the parish quickly at-
tended, and an express was sent off to London for the aid of
the brigade. Mr. Henderson, chief officer of the D district,
upon receiving the news started with a couple of engines to
the spot. A plentiful supply of water having been obtained,
the firemen and the inhabitants at once went to work, but
the stock in the open yard having become ignited, to get the
fire out was a work of difficulty. All hands, howeves, kept
to their work, and eventually they succeeded in getting the
e,
fire extinguished. The total damage is very considehrabl
and is thus officially reported by Mr. Henderson to t e
in-
surance companies forming the London Brigade:—
" Nov. 18, 1863—Called at half-past 7
aG a.m.w mtoillapfirore.
alum works,
at the promises of Mr. J. Bother, steam
st
E
prietor, and creosote and reenwich -
L engines that attended, two ca_D district an those of the

parish and private firms. Brick and timber buildings, used
as alum stores, boiler and engine houses, about 701 t by 60
and 60 by 21, severely damaged by explosion, and stock in
open yard seriously damaged by fire. W. Anson, one of
the workmen, killed, and four others severely injured and
taken to the hospitals. The property was insured in the
Leeds and Yorkshire and Northern Fire-offices."

A very searching inquiry was made during the day by the
brigade authorities for the purpose of ascertaining, if pos-
sible, how the explosion occurred, but nothing satisfactory
could be gleaned, but the prevailing opinion is that it was
caused from the anxiety of the men to generate steam.