The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-29 00:00:00

TERRIFIC EXPLOSIO,

Yesterday ••
exelo n tookvesinoing, between tux , Lui •
a terrible pplace in
hood of Church-street, Shoreditch.
During the excitement which necessarily ensued
upon such a fearful event it was with a consider-
able difficulty that anything like full particulars
could bo obtained, but the following may
be relied
upon as being tolerably correct :
It appears that for some time past men have been
employed constructing the main drainage sewer in
Church-street, and between the corner of Brick-lane
and Club row, in the same street, the roadway had
been taken up, and the heavy stones taken there-
from piled upon the footpath and the edf•e of tie
carriage roadway. Immediately under those por-
tions of the thoroughfare are the mains used
supplying the by-streets and shops with gas, while
a little further is a powerful steam-engine, used for
drawing up the earth and lowering bricks as the
soil beneath was being excavated. Owing to the
weight of the superincumbent mass the stones fell
through, and, coming in contact with the piping,
wed it
out
with
one
tht
alooufdthneoijsoeinotns,dafluedwtltihenroutghhe gasthe
bsnleapp
open
of h
ground,t
the
alongeng tuhe. A number the sewer,nu untilr of m
it reached
eni
n
the
furnace the
employ of the contractor, working in the cutting,
were instantly prostrated. A woman, named Jane
Smith, who was passing along the pavement, was
knocked down, and her clothing set on fire. The
house of Mr. J. Hayes, boot and shoemaker, 151,
Church-street, was blown to the ground, as if struck
by a shell from tt mortar, and the fragments falling
upon the poor woman she was held fast in the midst
of the flaming mass until extricated by the firemen.
She was then found to be much burnt, and was im •
Ind upon being extricated, removed to the
London
Hospital, but not the least hopes can be
eiatel y ,
entertained of her recovery. The fronts of the
houses from 1.4.1 to 155, making nine houses, had
their fronts blown out, the window glass
demolished, and the furniture broken. The house
belonging to Mr. J. E. Mannings, haberdasher,
No. 150, Church-street, was nearly riddled by the
force of the explosion. How any of the inmates
escaped alive appears to have been a perfect miracle,
but the only injary they sustained was a severe
shaking and a few bruises. Mr. Mannings was
insured in the Sun Fire-office. The gas next filled
the premises of Mr. W. Gerrard, tobacconist, No.
52 in the same thoroughfare, and blew up the
greater portion of the building. Strange as it may
appear, no one was materially injured in this house.
Mr. Gerrard was insured in the,Union Fire-office.
The gas then appears to have passed in a dense
current across the roadway, and to have entered
every house on the opposite side of the street from
Nos. 44 to 52 inclusive, blowing out the windows
and window-frames. Nearly a dozen other houses
in the rear were similarly injured.
Thousands of persons flocked to the scene of the
catastrophe, and it required the assistance of a
strong body of police, under Mr. Superintendent
White and Inspector Broad, to keep the crowd out
of danger.
Mr. Hayes, who is the most serious loser, was
insured in the Scottish Provincial Fire-office.
The gas directors gave immediate orders for
" bladder stoppers" to be inserted in the mains,
and that having been done the gas was prevented
from again passing through that portion of them.
No further mischief, need, therefore, be appro.
hended.

EIGHTH REPOR7 OF THE POSTMAS•

TER-GENERAL.

The report of the Postmaster-General for 1861
was issued yesterday :
By substitution of road letter boxes, the number
of post-offices last year was diminished by 36,mak-
ing the whole present number 11,405 ; of which
813 are head offices, and 10,592 sub-offices. On
the other hand, the number of road letter boxes
was increased by 476. Thus the whole number
of public receptacles for letters is now 14,354,
as compared with 13,914 last year, and with little
more than 4,500 before the establishment of
penny postage. During the last year 45 places
were provided with day mails to or from the
metropolis of one or other of the three parts of the
United Kingdom, and some of them with mails in both
directions ; the additional mail being in several in-
stances the third during the 24 hours.

The following table shows the number of letters
delivered in the United Kingdom during the last
year, with the rate of increase, and the proportion
of letters to population:—

Number of Increase Proportion of
Letters in on eNumberent. Letters
1862. in 1860. to Population.
England 487 millions About 5} 24 to each person.
Ireland 5O 3t 9to each person.
„ Scotland
United Kingdom 693 „ „ 51 ;20 to each person.

As compare

with 1860, the total shows an in-

.. ,
crease of 29 millions ; and as contrasted with the
year previous to the introduction of penny postage
(1839), an increase (omitting franks) of 517 mil.;
lions; making the present number of letters nearly
eight-fold the number in 1839. Less than one per
cent. of letters posted in the United Kingdom were
charged additional postage on account of their not
having been prepaid. Nevertheless, at the chief office
in London, including the small offices in the eastern
central district, as much as £35,000 was received last
year for unpaid postage. The number of registered
letters last year was about 1,550,000, or one regis-
tered letter to about 380 ordinary letters. For the
future in the London office, all unregistered letters
additional
which unquestionably contain coin will be selected.
from the mass, treated as registered letters, and
fee is is about to be
newspapers
eeo:dp
at
po
ear 4:sl own
ebrl
ee rig
de ilsi t:eartei
do n
last
ae
set.
reduced from 6d. to 4d. Upwards
encouragement to registration, the
of 72,300,000
yesaralland nearly
12,300,000i11i0n and
booka half packetso f n;e
newspapers
sbeingpap
and half aan increase ofabout
a n 1
mil-
lion of book packets. The increase of newspapers
was
in the London die tri t ers c
again much above the
average.

Duringanthaelloasit year,
Ireland,
offices were opened in England and Wales, 16 in
closed for wantnS
113 additional money order
cootflabnudsin;
elBls., however, having
number of money order offices in the been Thus whole
whole Kin-
gdom is now 2,722. We also exchange money orders
with Canada, Victoria, Western Australia, Gibraltar,
and Malta ; and we shall soon do so with New
Zealand, Queensland, and the Cape of Good Hope.
The increase in the number of money orders last
year was about 350,000 ; which is about 90,000
more than the increase in the previous year. The
increase applied to each part of the kingdom. The
greatest number of orders ever paid in England
and Wales in one day was on the 24th December
last, viz., upwards of 41,000. The money orders
issued on account of the Committee of Council on
Education amounted last year to nearly £530,000.

Imperial
FOREIGNERS IN RIISSIA.—Even the
very
soldier
family are foreigners rather than Russians.
been sure of a
who had a brave heart and a stout arm
right royal welcome here. To the art
admiration, respect, wealth;
science, Russia has awarded
hebas
given that which
to the mechanic or the labourer,
she
ever have hoped
has raised him far higher than.ehethe
policy to which t-
rice Eng in other countries.
This
eir commercial prosperty, but
thanaad to the man of
land owes, not only much of
anus.
The gain of Russia has
much of her fame in
The
against the united strength of four
the walls of Sebastopeo_
man
aretsbaravest of the brave chiefs who kept
also. The first ambassador
A sent to the court of Russia was an Eng-
whom England
gbreeeante: laatilolnytlarwgaes.
()re
lishman who had won renown and fortune in the Russian
service. Some of her largest landowners are French, but
one of the finest estates in the south was given to a General
Cobley, an Englishman, and has now passed by inheritance
to an Italian. The docks at Sebastopol were built by an
Englishman. The lucrative wool trade of the south is
chiefly in the hands of Frenchmen. The largest mercantile
house in the Azoff is English. The corn trade is in the
hands of the Greeks. The chief bankers in Russia are
Jews. The retail shopkeepers are chiefly French and Ger-
mans ; but the best retail trade in Russia has been for
many years the property of an English firm, Messrs;
Nicholls and Plinkie. I live in one of a row of fourteen o
the stateliest palaces in Europe : four belong to I.tali,oann:
four belong to Jews, two belong to Frenchmen, obn:cal.,. e_.
to a German, and the remaining three are. puabilitywa
In no country has even second and thirtrarde„,pickens's
so handsomely and universally itolawwiu"g
"4dl the Year Bound."