The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-26 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.—BIRMINGEIAM, Sept. 25.
The preliminary meeting of the ironmasters of South Staf-
fordshire and East Worcestershire was held at the Hen and
Chink Ana Hotel here to-day—Mr. Philip Williams in the
chair. The reports were concurrent as to the fact of the
trade being in a mush more healthy state than it has for a
long time been. There is an increasing demand for all de •
scriptions of finished iron, bars especially; and the prices
of makers who usually undersell are coming nearer to the
upper class of makers. In these circumstances an advance
in the price of iron generally might have been ventured
upon; it would not, however, have been quite prudent to do
so, and a resolution was unanimously passed to adhere to
the old scale of prices. Pig-iron is half-a-crown a ton
higher than it was three months ago. There was a nume-
rous attendance of the members of the trade to-day, and the
tone was cheerful, from the conviction that the improve-
ment which has taken place is the result of a legitimate
and not speculative demand for manufactured iron. The
North Staffordshire makers are full of orders, and are ready
to advance prices, but will not do so except in concert with
their brethren in the south. There is a scarcity of labour
of the unskilled class in this district. If there are any
stout fellows in Lancashire out of employment, and willing
to labour, they may find it at some of the works on the
Wolverhampton side of this district, and possibly in other
quarters in the neighbourhood.
THE GRAIN TRADE AT LIVERPOOL.—The Mersey
Docks and Harbour Board at its meeting yesterday agreed
to erect very extensive warehouses on both the Liverpool
and Birkenhead side of the river for the accommodation of
the corn trade of the port. A special committee of the

board had been considering the subject for some time; and
the recommendations of that committee were yesterday
adopted—namely, to erect warehouses, fitted up with all
the requisite appliances, upon the Birkenhead side of the
Mersey, at an estimated cost of £169,486, £lOB,OOO of which
sum appertain exclusively to the buildings ; and to con-
struct warehouses on the Liverpool side for similar purposes
at an estimated cost of £291,671, £131,000 of which amount
will be expended upon the warehouses exclusively, and the
balance will be applied for affecting alterations in the
Prince's Basin, for machinery, and other purposes con-
nected with the efficient working of the workhouses.

A soiree was given two evenings back by the
Literary and Artistic Association of Brussels to the Mem-
bers of the Social Science Congress now sitting in that
city. The Duke de Brabant and the Count de Flandre
were present, and conversed with several foreigners of dis-
tinction who were presented to them by the President of
the Association.

The steam-frigate Christophe Colomb has just
arrived at Toulon from Algiers and Ajaccio, bringing 100
cavalry horses from Algeria and a battalion of the 87th
Regiment from the latter place. This vessel is to return
to Algeria immediately, to again remain at the orders of the
Governor-General. The steam-transport La Seine is also
at Toulon under orders to leave on the Ist October for
Alexandria, first calling at Algiers to take on board 200
Turcos to fill up the ranks of that corps in Cochin-China.
The Ocean of Brest mentions a melancholy acci-
dent which has just occurred in the pond of Moulin-a-
Poudre, situated near the military port. Twelve children
were amusing themselves on a raft which was fastened to
the bank. After playing on it for some time they unfas-
tened the rope which held it and pushed it off into the
middle of the pond, where some irregular movement on
their part capsized it, and all of them were precipitated into
the water which was 15ft. deep. Four of them were rescued,
though with great difficulty, by two persons who happened
to witness the accident, and the other two by a lad named
Sparfel, who had been on the raft, and who was afterwards
drowned in attempting to save a third. The eight others
were drowned, life being quite extinct when the bodies
were recovered.

EXTRAORDINARY FEAT.—Mr. Samuel Harris,
landlord of the Fox and Crane, Bristol, accompanied by his
brother, adopted a novel mode of visiting the International
Exhibition. Having seated themselves on a velocipede
(which had previously been constructed by Mr. Harris), off
they started, and arrived in London (a distance of 108 miles)
on Monday, at mid-day, the journey having occupied exactly
211 hours. After spending three days in the metropolis
the return journey was comfortably performed in 18 hours.
neither of the travellers feeling any fatigue.— Wester--
Daily Press. rt

EXTRAORDINARY
imrtcr OF A FIRE.—On Mon-
day afternoon a fire broke out in a newly erected block of
buildings belonging to Mr. Ridley, consisting of four re-
cently erected houses on the road leading to the Wyche,
about a mile from Malvern. An engine was soon on the
spot, but before the flames were arrested two of the houses
were completely gutted. Mrs. Thomas, the occupant of
the house in which the fire originated, in a moment of ex-
citement at the discovery of the mishap, cut her throat.
She remains in a very precarious state, and not in a condi-
tion to furnish any information as to her motive.--Bir-
veingham Daily Gazette.
STATION, BirtmizronA.m.—The inquest was
THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT TILE NEW-STREET
resumed on
Tuesday afternoon before Dr. B. Davis, and a great deal of
additional evidence was taken. Amongst other witnesses
Mr. Graham Holmes, who erected the scaffold, was exa-
mined, but the inquiry was adjourned.