The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-06 00:00:00

A GREAT THUNDER STORM.

(From Dickens's " All the rear Round.")
Long will the night between the 24th and 25th of June,
1863, be memorable among the inhabitants of the Downs
of Sussex, Oa that Wednesday night and Thursday morn-
ing, raged a thunder storm of an extraordinary kind, inte-
resting in an unusual degree to science and humanity ;
to science, because the electrical storm presented features
never recorded in England ; to humanity, from the the do-
mestic interest of the tragedies it occasioned. On that
night a tropical storm visited England, Men who have been
all round the world and seen the storms of every clime, say
they saw that night a storm of a hot country on the shore
of a temperate climate. The area of the storm was consi-
derable. I have seen accounts of it from Chichester in
Sussex, and Chesham in Buckinghamshire. On the south
coast of England its principal range Was eastward to East-
bourne beyond Beachy Head, and westward to Chichester
and Selsey Bill, and inland northward to Tunbridge Wells

and Maidstone.
My opportunities of observing it were limited to the
Downs and coast of Sussex.
There are vast differences in the storms of different climes.
The extraordinary thing respecting the storm of the 24th
of June last was, that it was a storm in a temperate climate
with many of the features of a tropical storm.
My place of observation was near the Black Windmill
on the west hill of Brighton. About half-past six o'clock
there fell some " heat drops," heralding a shower. As the
sun descended in the heavens dark bluish-gray clouds over-
cast the sky, which, after sundown, were more and more
frequently lighted up by flashes of sheet or summer light-
ning. I went out for a stroll near home, and was soon
joined by two neighbours, one of whom delights in astro-
nomy, and the other in poetry. About ten o'clock heavy
rain-drops came drumming down upon our hats like a
shower of pebbles. Driven in-don,F, I set myself to watch
the storm. The evaporation from the sea had sent up,
during many previous days, clouds of a different composb
tion from those which had been rising from the rivers, and
winds blowing from different quarters had driven them into
collision. And then began the most magnificent battle of
sea clouds with land clouds I ever beheld. The warring
clouds did not appear to be mere than a thousand feet up
whilst resting upon the land. A man who could have be-
held the whole area of the storm from a balloon at an ele-
vation of fifteen hundred or two thousand feet, would
have seen as grand a storm as the imagination can con-
ceive. He would have seen, by means of the lightning
flashes, the white-frothed sea dashing against the coast
line from Selsey Bill to Beachy }lead; with the rivers run-
ning between the round hills ; with copses, forests, fields,
cottages, mansions, hamlets, villages, towns, church towers,
cathedral spires, and windmills. There was an extraordi-
nary variety in the forms of the lightning. A flash of
chain lightning is said to have been seen; I myself noted
sheets, darts, forks, zig-zags, and fireballs. I have never
seen, heard, or read of, lightning of such various colours ;
there were flashes of red, purple, bluish-grey, grey, pale
green, milk white, and golden yellow. No human eye dare
brave the dazzling brightness of the fireballs. The un-
usually great variety of the colours shows that there was an
unusually great variety in the composition of the warring
globules, or vesicles. And the thunder was, of course, as
various as the lightning. The sheet lightnings, purple,
blu;_sh.grey, or pale green, were followed by rumbling
noises, like the sound made by heavy artillery, when heard
rolling over rough stone-paved streets at night. The darts,
forks, zig-zags, were followed by rattling peals, resembling
the reports of musketry when heard near enough for the
hissing of the bullets to be discerned in the noise. The
fireball explosions, by their thunder, recalled to mind the
simultaneous discharge of many guns of the highest calibre.
This great variety in the colours and sounds was accom-
panied by another remarkable feature—continuousness.
From half-past nine until a quarter-past one o'clock, the
lightning and thunder were without intermission. The
storm recommenced again at about half-past two, and con-
tinued until after four o'clock in the morning.
For hours the four victims of this thunder storm lay
dead or dying during that fearful night—John Dancer on
the beach under Seaford Cliff and the Wellers and Eliza-
beth Bingham on the road, under Ranscombe Brow. What
a touch of pathos is added to the terror of these storms,
when we remember their wrecked victims, the hopes they
destroyed, and the homes they desolated I How are we to
characterise the foolhardiness which neglects all the known
precautions against their dangers ?
More than three hours after the catastrophe at Rana-
combe, a Lewes tradesman was driving home in a four-
wheeled chaise. It was the darkest, eoldest, most eerie
hour in the morning, about half•qaast 2 o'clock. On the road
at Ranscombo Brow, his horse shied lie applied the whip
gently, but the horse would not advance.: His son jumped
down and tried to lead the horse, and then both father and
son tried to lead the horse ; but he would not pass some-
thing on the road. It was very dark. They could see
nothing. At last a flash of lightning showed a cart turned
on the, axle, and they discerned a woman lying close under
it. Iho woman did not answer when spoken to, and they
discovered she was dead. Another flash of lightning re-
vealed another woman rather more under the cart. After
procuring a lantern and assistance, and while drawing the
cart away from the horse, a man was seen under the wheel,
The forepart of the cart was kicked in.
These three victims of this storm were buried in the
churchyard of Glynde on the following Sunday. A long
funeral procession, with about 30 couples of mourners,
followed them from the village to the churchyard. The
coffins, according to ancient Sussex custom, were carried on
the shoulders of 16 men, attired in long white smock-frocks,
with black neckties. One large grave received all three,
and they were laid down in the order in which they tra-
velled. From 1,000 to 1,500 persons were in the church-
yard ; and a crowded congregation listened in the church,
in tears, to a discourse reminding us that in the midst of
life we are in death.

This great storm left its mark at other places. At
Maidstone and Herstmonceau, hailstones, or rather bite of
ice, of oblong shape and broad as pennypieces, fell, break-
ing skylights. A policeman on duty at East Peckham was
struck by lightning and seriously injured on the left side.
A retriever dog was killed by his master's side at Hurst •
pierpoint. A poplar was shattered into splinters in the vil-
lage of Kemeing. At Cuckfield, the lightning entered a
cottage by the chimney, burned a small hole through
the bedroom floor, passed through the sitting-room
below, and left by the door, which happened to be
open. At sea, four sailors were knocked down on
board the Britannia collier, lying off Brighton. At Wil-
mington, the Eagle beerhouse was set on fire and gutted,
the inmates escaping for their lives. At Spring Cottage,
Fount Road, Tunbridge Wells, a man and his wife were
struck in bed, the latter lying for some time insensible.
None of the furniture in the room in which they were sleep-
ing was injured, but the stone sink in the kitchen was shat-
tered to pieces. In Ely Lane, Tunbridge Wells, the light-
ning struck a cottage, breaking pictures, damaging ceiling,
and smashinq panes of glass and a chimney mirror. A
horse grazing upon the rocks at Denny Bottom either fell,
being frightened, or was knocked or swept down from the
rocks, and was fatally hurt. The lightning over the whole
range of the storm scorched flowers, corn, especially oats
and barley, although the damage was not considerable; and
it positively benefited the hop bines, by debarrassing them
of noxious insects."

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louse, where she passed as his sister.
Margaret Lacey was now recalled by the Coroner, and
she said that she had arranged that Best should meet her
in Holborn at half-past 1 o'clock on the Monday in ques-

tion. He said he would meet her there.
Cross-examined by Mr. Beard—l knew Best for seven
years, and have lived with him two or three years. I left
my husband to live with Best. It was I that stripped the
deceased. I tore the dress on the shoulder. Ido not know
that it was torn in the front and in the back. I gave it to
the washerwoman.
The dress was produced, and was found torn down the
front the whole way. It was also torn in the breast.
Witness said—The dress was not torn in that way when I
gave it to the washerwoman. I never said anything to the
woman about burning anything. I did not tell her to pledge
the things. I went to her to get the things back, but not at
Best's suggestion. Best always said deceased was his sister•
She said so herself.
Miss Emma Hobley recalled, said, in answer to Mr.
Beard, that she had seen Best go out on the Monday in
question. She always said so; she said so to the coroner
last week.
The Coroner being requested to look at his depositions,
said that he had a statement down that she had not seen
him go out.
Witness said that she heard him go out at a little before
1 o'clock. She did not know of his return until he called
out that his sister had committed suicide.
Dr. Sheehy said deceased had been dead about an hour
and a half when he saw her about 2 o'clock. Witness did
not observe spots of blood on the purse produced when he
took it from the pocket of deceased. The blood now on it
might have got on it from witness's fingers, which were
bloody.
Philip Lowther, recalled, said Best went into his own
house about a quarter to 2 o'clock on Monday. He went
in lazily, and did not seem agitated. Witness saw him go
into the house again at 2 o'clock with the doctor.
Ann Cogger, 3, Chapel-street, artificial flower maker,
produced a gown, handkerchief, and apron which she had
received from Mrs. Lacey to wash. They were wet, aif
just out of water. The gown was torn down the front and
in the breast when she received it. It was precisely as it
was at present. Last Thursday the woman Lacey came to
her and asked her had she taken the things home. Witness
said "No." She then asked witness if she wanted any
money, and upon witness saying she did not, she said
"There is my flannel petticoat ; you can pawn that if you
want money." She said nothing else about deceased's things,
Dr. Sheehy here said that the dress was not torn when
he saw deceased lying on the bed.
Edward Bramble, apprentice to Mr. Busson, who lives
next door to Mr. Best, was called by Mr. Wakelin, and said
that he saw Best speaking to deceased about 10 minutes to
1 o'clock. 'Witness went out for some beer then, and on his
return met Best in the street.
Police-constable Green, 106 H, said that on the day in
question he saw Best in Gray's-inn-lane, between 1 and 2
o'clock, at the corner of Fox-court. He was coming from
Holborn, and he nodded to witness. Witness could not
state the time within half an hour.
Mr. Busson, No. 3, Warren-cottages, said that he heard
no noise of a struggle on the day .in question. When Best
called him into the room where the deceased was the carpet
was not disarranged or tossed.
The Coroner then summed up, and said that it was appa-
rently fully proved that Best was absent from the house
during the time the deceased met with her death, if, as the
doctor stated, she had been dead an hour and a half when
he was called in by Best.
The room was then cleared, and the jury, after a long
deliberation, returned a verdict, " That deceased was found
dead in a certain room from suffocation, the result of stran-
gulation, but how the said strangulation was caused there
was no evidence to show."
The proceedings then terminated.

The Accident on the Lynn and Hunstanton

Railway,

On Tuesday afternoon Mr. E. M. Beloe, deputy-
coroner for the borough of Lynn, opened an inquest
on the body of Mr. John Dennis, who died of the
injuries he had received early on Tuesday morning.
After the jury had viewed the body they went with
the county jury to visit the place of the accident,
and upon their return the following evidence was
given :
Mr. George Billing said he went to Hunstanton
on the Monday by the 12 o'clock train. Mr. John
Dennis, the deceased, was one of his party. They
travelled third-class, and came back by the second
portion of the excursion train. When they got
past Wootton station witness noticed a vibration
of the carriage. In the compartment of the
carriage nearest the engine were Mr. Laird,
Miss Clark, Mrs. Brown, and Mrs. Laird, and
facing them were also in the same compartment
Mr. Dennis, Miss Palmer, and others. After the
vibration of the carriage had lasted a few
seconds the carriage was upset. Witness fell
to the bottom, and after clearing something from off
his feet he shoved a portion of a board down and
got out. After getting out his wife and niece, who
were with him, the first person he recognised was
Dennis (the deceased) lying on the grass. He spoke
to the deceased, who appeared to be much injured.
By the Jury—We were not travelling faster than
an ordinary train. Our carriage was somewhere
about the middle of the train. 1
Mr. T. M. Kendall, surgeon, said he was sent for
on Monday evening to go down the line. When
he arrived there he found Mr. Dennis, who said he
was much hurt. Found his leg was broken, and
ordered his removal to the carriage. Mr. Alinson,
surgeon, and his (Mr. Kendall's) assistant set the
deceased's leg. Saw the deceased again between 12
and 1, and he was then in a state of collapse, but
sensible. He died during the night of the excessive
shock to the whole system, from which he never
rallied.

After this evidence had been taken the inquest
was adjourned until Monday.
The coroner and the county and borough juries
had a special train placed at their service on Tues-
day afternoon, in order for them to visit the scene
of the fatal occurrence. With the train were also
Mr. L. Simpson and Mr. E. Self, directors of
.the
Lynn and Hunstanton Company ; Mr. Valentic7,ce,
engineer of the line ; Mr. Edwards, solicitotro,
Upon reaching the spot, Mr. Edwards stated,ve
everythe
juries that the companies were anxious .og
information
explanation in their power, and
of the accident. The juries inspectri-a,,es
before and '
which might lead to the ascertainmEnytthoef:ahrericaaguesse; ~
and the man who examined thcbcearrof
each carriage.
after a journey stated then umomposed
of the en
The train he said wit? atik - vfiarns
t)..
heonbere
Of these two were
tsheird-class. One of tilt,
rest
gine No, 115, fifteen carriacogenesd,:ds:,
class, and the .
eared in a most shat-
third-class carrie g
el.'n dati!ePd there was scarcely
tared condition;
anything except. theliron'wOrk ot it left. The special
ed at the engine-h
yrilurcturning stopp . ouse. at
station, and he examined the engine.
FtthrraoimnLYiniarlcs upon the engine it appears that, after
at the spot where the
all, the engine, must have struck the animal and
killed it. At the place where the bullock was struck
there is a four-rail fence, but
train came to a stop there is but a single rail slant-
ing feria, note much more than a foot high, and a
dike without_ water between the railway and the

WARSAW, August 1.
has already been anncunced by telegraph :
theTNheatfioolnloawl GinogveirsntmheenttextOt
" WARSAW, July 31.
" Six months ago the conspiracy (which was the
tc:ife
pt hoeli sbna nation,
proclamationw b
which
oe xu
tp raens
ys i omn
loi ft
at
rhye
rwe i
es
ohue
rs oe
ef t
bh
ue t w o
str loen ng t
ini otnb)e, wb tl
belief
of the holiness of its objects, and in the face of the
fresh projects which menaced the existence of
Poland, raised the banner of insurrection and forti-
fied it with noble zeal on the field already soaked
with the blood of so many generations. The insur-
rection expressed the will of the nation, and carried
out the principles which would lead Poland to vic-
tory. The country understood them, and, great and
powerful as it is, placed itself under the banner of
an undivided, free, and independent Poland. A
nation which began a conflict with a colossus like
Russia, and placed in the circumstances in which
Poland was placed on the 22cl of January last, had
to exert itself, not only to youthful ardour and
energy, but also to manly endurance and patience,
in order that first disasters might not discourage it,
and long waiting for triumph might not throw it
back into a state of lassitude and weakness.

" Whatever influence many failures and defeats
might have on us, it is certain that we could be
victorious and carry on the contest to this day only
by unbounded confidence in our own strength, by
unlimited sacrifices, by the courage and discipline
of our soldiers and the virtues of our citizens. In
this confidence lies the secret of the insurrection.
This confidence is security for Poland's certain
triumph, and shows to the nation her relation to
the Government and her position with regard to
Europe. Europe does not sufficiently understand
our sufferings, and does not know our zeal and the
inexhaustible means we have at our disposal.
" The National Government gives Europe free-
dom to take part in our cause agreeably to ruling
interests and political passions. But whilst she
stands at the rudder of the insurrection, and there-
fore at the head of the national idea, she must firmly
reject all that could dishonour the holy flag of in-,
dependence. She must remain deaf to all who de-
mand the cessation of hostilities before the attain-
ment of our object, namely, the re-establishment of
Poland in the limits of 1772. To accept the inde-
pendence of one Polish province, and leave the rest
as the spoil of the enemy, would be to gainsay our
historical rights—to blot out from history an ex-
istence of one thousand years, and to deny our name
by committing fratricide. No! Poland has not
risen again to be again laid in the grave by Europe.
There can be no Poland without Lithuania and all
Itcussen ;" no Poland without the kingdom 01
Poland. Their history, their political and socia
conditions are one—an indivisible trinity.

"To acknowledge the right of existence to but
one province, and to oppose it in the others, is to
kill Poland. Before you, people of Poland, lies the
battle. On the one side is slavery and shame, on

the other liberty and the welfare of future gene,
rations ! Can you hesitate and draw back ? No,
you must conquer; you must purchase liberty with
blood ; you must sacrifice a whole generation on
the altar of Poland ; God and arms will decide
your destiny.
" Citizens, let us hold fast to the love of our
country. Union and sacrifice! Let us hesitate
before no sacrifice; let us be ready at any moment
to give up life and property, house and family, for
cur country. Let us remember that from the mo-
ment the insurrection broke out nothing that we
possessed belonged to ourselves—all belonged to
our country. life are all servants of the nation—
servants of a great thought, of an all-powerful sen-
timent. In whatever situation we may be placed
in the midst of the bloody work of the nation, let
one common law guide us, one dutiful sacrifice for
the common good, one universal desire to die for
our country. As we now enter upon a new period
of the conflict, the National Government will make
every effort to arm the whole land by the means
furnished by the community, and to call as many to
arms as passible. Armed Poland is triumphant
Poland.
The principles which have hitherto guided the
insurrection, and which were expressed in the mani-
festo of the 22d January, will also be the principles
of the future action of the National Government.
No violation of them will be allowed. The idea
contained in that manifesto of equality, and of re-
ligious, political, and social liberty, is maintained in
all its force and purity, and will be developed by
corresponding institutions immediately on the ex-
pulsion of foreign domination and the organisation
of the country.
"In the spirit of these principles the National
Government will do all in its power, so that the
masses of the country people, awakened from their
sleep of 100 years, may find in it their guide tc a
new industrial and political existence. All viola:
tion of rights will be punished by the arm of over
tice. The National Government will watch o
the regular course of the administration, e and over
the discipline of the soldiers and theiroebe
autho•
odfience to
their leaders; it will punish. ever? abu well
as all
rity in the civil or military servi
per-
negligence and indifference, and wcei'll restrain
sonal ambition. the Kingdom of Poland,
" Citizens of Lithuania,
be called upon
and all ' Reussen,'—You.vtiive
ll shortly
battleae te
for the father.
for the general and already been
land. The wholeni doecni:ry
b
universal lamentation, one immense
great flame, oneu -st
be one camp, in which all—old
grave, now it
__must work for the freedom of
men and children
senis fighting
bands, others with arms in their
their country ;
contributing the sinews of war. Such
a Poland will tremble before no Power on earth I
Russian hordes!
Such a Poland will crush the
3uch a Poland must and will be master !"

WRECKS ON THE GOODWIN SANDS.—A Parlia-
mentary return states that there have been 17 ships wrecked
on the Goodwin Sands, occasioning loss of life, during the
last 12 years ending Dec., 1862.

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