The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-20 00:00:00

DEATH OF JAMES IiARMER., ESQ.

( From, the Weekly Dispatch.)

The notice of Mr. Harmer's career, which we feel it
our duty, not only to ourselves, but to our readers, to
publish, will afford, we are sure, its own vindication in
the importance of the many public affairs with which
our deceased friend was intimately and influentially con-
cerned, and should possess that interest, as a picture of
an English citizen's career, which would make it a con-
tribution to the history of the manners of the time. Our
regret is not for the acts we have to commemorate.

Mr. Harmer was identified in his fortunes with the
Dispatch, and he scorned, at the time when the chief
honour of his ambition was in his view, to accept that
as the price of severing himself from the cause of this
paper, while he accepted its emoluments. We know
how this assertion will be received by those who opposed
him in his candidature for the office of Mayor of London.
It is true, nevertheless. The cause he maintained was
that right of conscientious public discussion, by those
engaged on the press, and charged with the considera-
tion of public affairs, which ho felt that a proprietor had
no right to override. All his conduct, before and since,
was of a piece with this conviction, that men who
had seriously devoted themselves to the study of public
affairs, who were capable of expressing their views to
the public, and were accepted. by the public as teachers,
could not be justly diverted from their path, or biassed
in their conduct, by others who had a pecuniary right to
their services, but had not bought their convictions. The
opinions advocated in this paper, which were made, by
the bigots of the time, the weapons of offence against the
public representative of a liberal and progressive journal,
might or might not be founded in justice, but we know
them to have been conscientious. It is but just to say
that the writer who was mainly answerable for them died,
as he lived, in the pursuasion of their truth and value,
and that, calmly upon his death-bed, aware of his dan-
ger, he declared he had written nothing which he did not
then believe, and which he would not willingly repeat.
In this we have no desire whatever to re-open what has
been disposed of, but let those who make a great parade
of death-bed opinions, and who look upon them as the
seals, not only of conscientious judgment, but of abstract
truth, learn a little charity, as well as other wisdom,
from this fact, and believe that ideas totally opposed to
any that they can conceiv9 may be entertained upon con-
viction, and honestly promulgated as a duty. Let ano-
ther matter be remembered, that if the assaults upon
pretence and hypocrisy have since been tempered, the
offences themselves have grown less open and less rampant,
and have provoked contempt rather than scorn in those
who had to reprove them. The warfare has become
more civilised, and the need for demanding a fair hearing
even for the most extreme opinions, which was the offence
of the Dispatch in the eyes of its remarkably intelligent
civic critics, was occasioned by the arrogant inquisi-
torial bitterness with which the orthodox asserted their
right, not merely to damn hereafter, but to be exclu-
sively heard here. It was the battle of religious free-
dom of speech which Mr. Harmer became identified
with, and in which he and his allies have at least so far
triumphed, that there exists not the power in England
that dares condemn any man for entertaining and de-
claring any opinion, : provided it be conscientiously
adopted and asserted without unnecessary offence to
others. This is a result worth having lived and borne
somewhat for. It is our privilege also to record that he
never used the journal as an instrument of private pre-
ference or public influence; that he never had the re-
motest idea of interfering with the scrupulous judgment
of its editor or contributors; that, in taking pleasure
in its successes, he gave evident tokens of preferring those
which redounded to its credit to those which merely added
to his profits. He sometimes, indeed, while he remained in
public life shared most worthily in its labours. He contribu-
ted most valuable exposures of the infamous conduct, the
daring perjuries, of common informers, and such writings
mainly assisted in procuring the amendment of the law,
by which a magistrate has the option of awarding a shil-
ling only of the penalty to the party who lays a success-
ful information. Nor did the black sheep of the law "
escape from his effectual lash. But the main aim of him-
self and of his co-proprietor was always to sustain those
really responsible for the conduct of the paper in the
fearless and conscientious discharge of their duties. At
the dinner given to the proprietors by the medical pro-
fession—in recognition of the efforts of the journal to
put down the nuisanoe of advertising quackery, Dr.
Birkbeck filling the chair—Mr. Harmer, in returning
thanks for the complimentary proceedings of the occa-
sion, limited his merit and that of his associate to their
readiness to encounter all pecuniary risks in holding up
to public detection and shame the evils which concern
the public. His words are worthy of remembrance :
"They bad at all times instructed the editor of their
journal to avoid private slander, but at the same
time boldly and fearlessly to attack all public abuses
whenever they were known to him to exist, and he
believed the editor had on all occasions fulfilled
those instructions to the very letter." We can bear tes-
timony how cheerfully the consequences of this deter-
mination have at all times been met. His words were
no empty professions. And in the social circle, in which
every year every member of the establishment, from the
highest to the lowest, was invited to partake of that din-
ner and holiday of the " office" at which he presided, on
a thorough equality with his humblest dependents, it
was well to remark the interest he took in the fortunes
of all connected with him, the desire that they should
thrive in his prosperity. He was one of the few masters
worth serving ; for he was a true man who might be
trusted to appreciate service.
It is the fate of prosperity always to be conservative ;
and of wealth always to be cowardly. So long as a news-
paper has its way to make in the world, nothing is too
bold or fearless for its proprietors. They demand spirit,
life, " slashing composition," at any cost or any hazard.
But whenever the circulation becomes large, and the ad-
vertisements become numerous, proprietors tremble for
their property; become timid in reference to every article
and writer; interfere in everything, permit nothing to be
inserted of the exact safety or effect of which they'are
not fully assured. To award him his due share of a praise
which is not his alone, it showed at once Mr. Harmer's
astuteness, knowledge of mankind, and philosophical cou-
rage that he saw the prosperity of the paper could best be
expected to continue by holding on in the same course
in which it first earned its name and influence ; that if
men be earnest and true in their thought and utterance,
they may perfectly rely on the sympathy of mankind,
even to "a setter forth of strange doctrines," if these
be sound and real ; and that the composition which will
infallibly meet with the surest acceptance from the
public is that which proceeds from the man who speaks
from the truth and conviction that are in him—not from
the text that is set to him by a proprietor. It was his
sterling good sense and high-minded respect for the
truthfulness of public instructors, which made the con.
tributors to this journal feel that it was not the proprie-
tors, but the writers, who were responsible for its pro.
sperity.

He addressed with a simple eloquence the friends who
assembled to present him with a valuable testimonial of
their regard, when he was defeated in his hopes of
the Mayoralty, the not unworthy prize of one who had
been identified in fortunes and friendships with the City
of London. He told them that he was the son of
a Spitalfields weaver, left an orphan at 10 years of age.
He spoke of his father as a kind man, though a poor one ;
and he must have been a kind man, in such circumstances
to have left such an impression. The young James
Harmer knew little, of course, but he worked. He
learned to write a good hand—a clear, manly one it was
to the last. At that time, 1792, there were, fortunately
for him, no stamps upon attornies' articles, and he was
articled to an attorney. And now comes a bit of ro-
mance worthy of Dickens. The poor Spitalfields lad fell
in love, and, though he was turned out of his employer's
office .for his folly, he conquered circumstances, and
married the lady he was attached to. He had his ar-
ticles transferred to Messrs. Fletcher and Wright, of
Bloomsbury, one of whom, some fifty years afterwards,
was obliged unwillingly to forego the pleasure and
honour of standing by his side, when his friends met to
vindicate his claim to the honour he had been refused.
Much of his great practice as an attorney was in the
Criminal Court. In that be evinced a sagacity and wis-
dom which, had they been exerted in another rank,
would, beyond all doubt, have raised him to the Bench.
For it would, indeed, be injustice to estimate Mr.
Harmer as a lawyer, as a mere successful deviser or
refuter of quibbles, or an arranger of evidence. He
was born for his work, and he did it. In the days in
which he practised, the law was the wholesale murderer.
The entire sympathies of society were, by a most
righteous instinct, identified with those who sought to
save even criminals from most wickedly disproportionate
punishment. When Judge Heath thought it a mercy to
hang a man for cutting down a young tree, because he
thought society would make the poor wretch a Pariah—
when Fleet-street shopkeepers insisted upon executions
for the security of the goods exposed at their door—when
the Bank made capital punishment and its notes one
idea—when decent firms, however they might incur the
abhorrence.of their brothers in trade, prosecuted to death
the youths who, as clerks, robbed them of a few pounds,
there need some ingenuity on the other side which
should now and then baffle the legal Moloch of a victim.
And what Mr. Harmer witnessed as a legal practitioner
he made tell upon the public opinion and Parliamentary

decision ; for Sir James Mackintosh was among his eulo-
gists, and declared that his evidence before the committee
for the reformation of the criminal law was unequalled in
its effect. Let us still remember the time when a Recor-
der could take means to threaten a jury who petitioned
for the respite of Eliza Fen ning, and then we may estimate
Mr. Harmer's courage, when he braved the avowed dan-
ger of being struck off the Rolls for exposing the delin-
quency of the witnesses, and the mode in which the con-
viction had been obtained in the case of Holloway and
Haggerty. The part he took in the abolition of the hor-
rible blood-money ought never to be forgotten. Indeed,
his well-earned fame assured his being retained in every
remarkable trial. The night as well as the day was
often devoted to the concerns of his clients, for his exer-
tions were unsparing and untiring, while his perfect
frankness and good temper secured him always the kind-
est attention of all concerned in the administration of
justice. He was the legal avenger of the victims of
Peterloo, and if he did not do more for the punishment
of their butchers, it was because the tyranny of the age
defeated him. On the death of Mr. Waithman he was
unanimously elected Alderman of the ward of Farringdon
Without, and his services in that office, and as Sheriff,
are such as might be expected from one of his experience
as well as capacity ; he was humane, merciful, and just.
He had learned to look upon life in all its aspects,
and he brought the benefit of his knowledge to the
exercise of his functions. The practice he relinquished
on accepting the rank of Alderman was worth no less
than 4,0001. a-year. As Sheriff, he acted in troublous
times, and even offered to collect taxes, which were re-
sisted in person, which had the effect of averting a dan-
gerous sedition. On that, as on all other occasions, he
showed himself a loyal man, a friend indeed of freedom
to the height, but a lover of order, and a respecter and
supporter of all its representatives. His charities, pub-
lic and private, belong to a more sacred record : but it
is fit to note, on account of the results, that he took a
leading part in establishing the Royal Free Hospital in
Greville-street, which set the example of receiving all
applicants without a governor's order, a course now
most happily imitated at other great charitable institu-
tions of the like description. We have alluded to the
opposition raised against his natural succession to the
Mayoralty. It must not be supposed that those who had
without any kind of solicitation from himself, elected him
a Common Councilman and an Alderman with unanimity,
suffered him to be defeated without a struggle which should
at least confer the honour of a victory. On the show of
hands, he was chosen by a large majority; on the poll,
he received the votes of a greater number of liverymen
than had voted for the whole four Reform candidates at
the previous election. We believe that, whatever tem-
porary mortification he-might have endured, the circum-
stance really released him to the life he most coveted.
All right-minded men desire an old age in the peace of
the country. It was granted to him. Without sever-
ing himself from many objects of most active interest,
with which, indeed, his large property kept him con-
nected, he entered upon a life of peaceful gentlemanlike
retirement at Ingress Abbey, such as might be the choice
of any wise ambition. His farms, his house estate in
Gravesend, his shares in the boat company, not only
gave him occupation, but a territorial authority. Many
a petty German Sovereign might envy his condition,
commanding all he could require without one item
of needless ostentation. When the band of one of
his own steam-boats, played the " Fine Old English
Gentleman," on his stepping ashore at his own pier at
Greenhithe, after an anniversary rejoicing with his
establishment of the Dispatch at his own Hotel, part of
his estate at Gravesend, there was more in the com-
pleteness of his influence than in the poor means of the
homage, and James Harmer, the weaver's orphan,
might be acknowledged a magnate in his land. To the
last he enjoyed his position, sometimes entertaining,
sometimes entertained by, his civic friends, a welcome
guest at their festivals, and even just before the illness
which terminated in his death, he presided over a large
and happy company at the festival trip of a new steam-
boat, the Mars ; so that, to the last, lie enjoyed his
honours and felt the use of his wealth and station. We
might say more, but enough for those who did not know
him ; for those who did, they might themselves, say
more and better. Let his example remain for those
who adopt his motto : " Labore et Honore."

FEVER IN THE HOUSE OF CORRECTION. —Typhus fever,
of an alarmingtype and malignant character, has broken
out amongst the prisoners confined in the Middlesex
House of Correction, Clerkenwell, and several deaths
have occurred. It would appear that the outbreak of
fever in this densely crowded prison is, in a main degree,
attributable to the magistrates committing parties affected
with illness, and even with fever, as was instanced in the
last fatal case in the prison, when the deceased, a mendi-
cant, was sentenced by the magistrate, and conveyed,
while suffering from fever, in the van with the other pri-
soners to the house of correction, where immediately upon
his admission, he was sent to the infirmary. Mr. Wakley,
the coroner, and the juries that sat upon the bodies of
the persons who died of fever, and Dr. Wakefield, the
surgeon of the prison, blamed the magistrates for send-
ing prisoners suffering from disease and fever to a place
where, from its crowded state, its inmates were more or
less susceptible of an epidemic ; and they also expressed
a hope that in future no prisoners suspected of suffering
from disease would be sent there before the divisional
surgeon certified that it was neither infectious or conta-
gious. This precaution is essentially necessary, as the
prisoners in the house of correction generally average
1,200. Dr. Wakefield and his coadjutor, Dr. Smyles,
have constantly complained of wretched vagrants having
been sent to the prison, who were more suited for the
workhouse infirmary than a gaol.
EXTRAORDINARY DEATH.-Mr. IV. Baker held an
inquest on Saturday, at the Cannon Tavern, Cannon-
street, St. George's in the East, respecting the death of
Elizabeth Amy Kemble, aged 32 years, who, it was
stated, was a descendant of the late John Philip Kemble
the tragedian, and lived with her sister, a sempstress, at
No. 2, Green-bank, Wapping. On Sunday night she
went into the shop of Mr. Solomon, in the Back-road,
and was taken very ill. After remaining there nearly
two hours, the servant asked if a surgeon should be
sent for. The deceased said, "Oh no, fetch Joe Bray,
. for lam dying." The young man Bray, who worked in
a stable opposite, was called, and the deceased was taken
home in a cab. The deceased had cohabited with Bray,
but through his ill usage she had left him for some time.
Dr. Henry Letheby made' a post 211071 CM, examination.
On opening the abdomen about half a pail of blood
escaped, and upon seeking for the cause he found that
the deceased had died from internal hemorrhage. Wit-
ness found that the deceased was eight weeks advanced
in pregnancy, but it was a false conception, which,
through the increase in the size of the child, had burst,
breaking the blood-vessels and causing her to bleed to
death. The jury concurring, returned a verdict of Natu-
ral Death.

THE NATIONAL LAND COMPANY.—MASTER'S OFFICE,
CH/NCERY-LANE, SATURDAY.—A fresh and important
step in the slow process of winding up this scheme was
taken on Saturday, at the meeting before Master
Richards, at which Mr. Roxburgh, Mr. Pratt (counsel),
the official manager, and other parties, were present.
The allottees had elected to prepare their own con-
veyances of their respective allottments from the official
manager and trustees to themselves, at their own ex-
pense, and the question settled was, the form of such
conveyance, subject to the rent-charge. Considerable
discussion ensued as to the rights to be conferred on the
official manager of distress and re-entry, or in default of
payment, and the costs of the deeds. Ultimately the
blaster approved of a form, and expressed his hope that
the three trustees named by Mr. O'Connor, namely, Mr.
T. S. Buncombe, M.P., Mr. Searll, and Mr. Ernest
Jones, who were formal parties, would concur without
delay, and expedite the winding-up. When these con-
veyances are completed the company and the allottees
will have legal titles, and be able to dispose of their
respective interests. Already has 10,0001. been bor-
rowed by the official manager on security of the pro-
perty unallotted, and the rent charges, and the sale of
all the interest, will enable a wind-up to be accom-
plished by payment of the expenses and a dividend to
the shareholders. Complaints prevail of the snail-like
progress of this case, whose wind-up has occupied about
four years already.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE NEAR BIRMINGHAM. —At mil-
night on Saturday a fire was discovered, and a few
minutes afterwards it burst forth and spread with extra-
ordinary rapidity, on the works of Messrs. J. H. Porter
and Son, situate beyond Spring-hill, near the Heath, a
short distance from Birmingham. The buildings, which
were still far from completed, extended over a very large
area, and had been recently erected by Messrs. Porter
for purposes connected with the galvanised iron manu-
facture, and especially for the construction of iron
buildings for California and Australia. The demand
for this novel description of building has within the last
few months, become so enormous, that Messrs. Porter
have been compelled to hurry on the manufacture
before the works were thoroughly completed, so that
in addition to the extensive ranges of shedding on the
premises there was a very large quantity of timber for
future use. Up to a very late hour at night everything
was apparently safe at the works ; they were so seen
within a quarter of an hour of the fire bursting forth
with the violence above described, when flames suddenly
shot out and spread instantaneously from shed to shed
with so much fury, that in a few minutes the whole
range of building was wrapped in one huge volume of
flame, so great that the valley on one side and table land
on the other, for a mile round, was lit up with a terrible
grandeur. The effect was increased, too, by the exces-
sive darkness of the night, and although the rain poured
down in torrents, for the first quarter of an hour, the
fire increased so prodigiously, that there was little
hope of saving any portion of the premises. The
population turned out in thousands, and expresses
having been dispatched to Birmingham,
in a very short
time the engines from the various fire-offices were on
the spot, and in full work ; but in the meantime the
fire had gained ground so rapidly that for some time
little progress was made in checking the progress of de-
struction, the huge sheets of flame, which the piles of
burning timber sent forth, being but slightly diminished
by the streams of water poured upon them. No precise
information is known as to the cause of this occurrence,
but there seems good reason to believe that it was en-
, tirely accidental,

nip
4-
(Front the _
It is now manifest th 2 •
plated, and carefully p
she is urging for the oVrtlir*.ef:-,734 . an
Empire. The craft of her4itioniaciOi' secl
—unsparing even of her own. 'sever
allies and to blind Europe. The resftrdes of her
empire have been matured and concentrated, so
that she has treasure and armies readily available.
And, whilst preparing materials for action, and
subtly concealing her designs from the great, she
has quietly worked on the bigotry of her people,
and incited their religious enthusiasm, by circula-
ting such fanatical productions as the prophecy of
the monk Agath Angelos, professedly written in
the year 1275, and predicting most clearly the fall
of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, and its resto-
ration after the lapse of four hundred years,
Of this prophecy, thousands of copies have also
been printed at Athens, Smyrna, and other places,
and distributed, chiefly by Russian agency, in Con-
stantinople itself, and in the Danubian provinces,
as well as in Thessaly and Albania, and generally
throughout the East.
The blow is now to be struck. Prince Gort-
chakoff left St. Petersburgh on the 11th instant to
assume the command-in-chief of the army which is
about to invade Moldavia. Intelligence of the
orders sent to the fleets of England and France to
sail for the Dardanelles must, however, have
reached the Emperor before the 11th ; and as we
are informed that " his language continued to be
full of menaces;" and as Prince Gortchakoff has
started for the banks of Pruth, to put those menaces
into execution, we may look unon the resolution
of the Emperor as still unchanged, and on the in-
vasion of the Principalities as inevitable.
The instructions of Prince Gortchakoff are, to
await at head-quarters the return, of the courier
from Constantinople, and, in the event of his
bringing the Turk's refusal of the ultimatum, of
which he was bearer, at once to invade Moldavia,
without waiting for further orders.
We learn by telegraph, from Constantinople,
dated the 10th inst., that the courier in question had
arrived on the 9th, within a few hours of the
arrival of the messenger charged to announce
to the Ambassadors and the Sutan the approach
of the combined fleets. Of the rejection of
the ultimatum there was no doubt. The Turks
were full of confidence and enthusiasm, and
preparations for war were carried on with the
greatest vigour. As the ultimatum, would be at
once rejected, and as Prince Gortchakoff left St.
Petersburgh on .the 11th, it is probable that he
would meet the courier at Odessa somewhere about
the 17th ; and consequently there is every reason
to believe that whilst we write the Russian forces
are effecting the passage of the Pruth.
It is of the greatest importance that the conse-
quences of this act should thoroughly be under-
stood. Russia--who, we are sorry to say it, has
throughout this affair neglected no artifice, and dis-
dained no intrigue, however base—is again endea-
vouring to cast dust in the eyes of Europe by pre-
tending that the occupation of the Danubian Prin-
cipalities is not war with Turkey, but "an endea-
vour to obtain from her by force that which she
will not yield spontaneously." Now, this is both
deceit and robbery of the worst description. Rob-
bery, in that Russia endeavours to obtain by force
that to which she has no claim ; deceit, in that she
endeavours to shuffle off the responsibility of a war
which, abrogating existing treaties, disentitles
Russia from any further advantage in favour of
them, and confers upon Turkey the full benefits of
the assistance of her allies.

THE ROBBE

" War," says Vatel, "is that state in which we
prosecute our rights by force." And, further, the
same authority defines offensive war thus :—" We
attack a nation with a view either to obtain some-
thing to which we claim, to punish her for an in-
jury which she has done us, or to prevent one
which she is preparing to do." Now, we have
demonstrated plainly on previous occasions that,
according to the treaty of Balta Liman, Russia
has no right to occupy the Principalities. She
therefore, by crossing the Pruth, commits an act
of offensive war, according to the above definition,
because she " attacks a nation to obtain something
to which she lays claim."
But, as we have constantly shown, Russia has
no claim, founded upon a shadow of justice, against
Turkey ; and thus, indeed, her aggression may
escape Vatel's definition of war ; for he classes such
deeds as hers under a worse category, saying, " I
do not therefore, among the objects of offensive
war, set down conquest, or the desire of invading
the property of others : Views of that nature,
destitute even of any reasonable pretext to coun-
tenance them, do not constitute the object of regular
warfare, but of robbery." • And—as robbery—
affording, according to the law of nations, ample
cases belli, the aggression of Russia on the integrity
of Turkey, by the invasion of the Principalities, is
regarded by the Governments of England and
France.

The objects of Russia in trying to avoid pro3la-
illation of war are twofold. Firstly, when Turkey
is at war, the Dardanelles are open ; therefore, by
avoiding the the term " war," Russia hopes to de-
prive the Porte of the assistance of her allies, who
cannot- enter the Dardanelles so long as she is at
peace. Secondly, war is held to abrogate all
treaties ; therefore, by proclamation of war, Russia
would destroy existing advantages which she pos-
sesses by treaty—advantages which will never be
renewed so long as England and France have any
voice in the matter.

It is humiliating to attempt subterfuge, so easily
seen through. Such pretences as that put forth by
Russia will be of no avail. The moment she
crosses the Pruth war or rather " robbery" will be
proclaimed, if not by her, then by Turkey ; and our
fleet, with that of France, will be at the disposal of
our ally to defend Constantinople, or to operate as
ho may wish in the Black Sea. We repeat again
our statement, that England will not declare war
with Russia. Even though we burn her fleets at
Sebastopol, we have a right to do so in the cause of
our ally : the position of England and France, in re-
lation to Russia, falling under \raters definition of
"those nations which assist my enemy in defensive
war :" of whom he says, " I cannot con siderthem as his
associates. If I am entitled to complain of their
furnishing him with succours, this is a new ground
of quarrel between me and them. I may expostu-
late with them, and, on not receiving satisfaction,
prosecute my right and make war on them." This
Russia may do if she choose.
The course of Prussia and Austria, especially that
of the latter, is not in this matter so forcible as
their true interests should lead them to make it.
They certainly diplomatically discountenance the
pretensions of Russia, but that is all ; and they
waver when any definite course of action is laid
before them. Austria, indeed, constantly offers
" her good offices" to as constant rejection, but
she should understand that in a firm and bold.
course alone there is safety. To say nothing of the
disastrous effect upon her commercial and political
influences which would be the result of the triumph
of Russia in acquiring European Turkey, Austria
should not blind herself to the fact that her very
existence is menaced by the consequences which
may arise from the present state of affairs ; for it is
not war that is merely to be dreaded—it is revo-
lution. If there be war, the Poles and Hungarians
will flock to the standards of Turkey, and will stir
up those flames which wait but the opportunity to
break forth. If Austria be not with Turkey, she
must side with Russia, and insurrections in Hun-
guary, Poland, and Italy would soon convert the
hostilities, originating in an attempt to overthrow
Turkey, into a struggle for existence on the part
of the despotic powers, attacked with overpowering
might by the victims of their oppression. Good
might possibly result, but the means would be ter-
rible ; and it is sincerely to be hoped that the
nineteenth century may be spared the horrors of
fresh revolutions. If the despotic
powers do not
provoke their downfall, and rush upon, perhaps an
inevitable fate, we may yet see progress make good
the path of civilisation by peaceful means—the only
safe road to permanent liberty.

DREADFUL ACCIDENT AND Loss OF LIFE.—PRESTON,
vwounded;eral
more
town, by which the life of one man was sacrificed on the
aStATtuhßeDfaAcirt.o—ryTohfis3mfro.rGeni nogrgae shockingsmith,3arcocoidr-elnatnhe,apinpetnheicle
two others mortally, lsye,
were placed in imminent peril, by the falling down of a
wall which had been undermined. Three labourers,
spot
asecwonedrewmaosrseerOrouleslsys'inifjumretdm;
Birnes, Parsons, and Murray, were engaged on the
waste-room side of the wall, and the two first-named
were completely buried in the ruins. Murray, who was
dressing bricks nearer the end of the wall, had his legs
covered by the wreck, but was able to extricate himself,
his injuries not being of a fatal character. A man named
Swindlehurst, who was in what proved to be a safer
position, merely sustained a few contusions and abrasions.
Three other men, who were excavating in the passage,
only a few feet from the wall, escaped without injury,
the brickwork falling in a mass in the opposite direction.
Active measures were, of course, promptly taken for the
extrication of Birnes and Parsons, and in about five
minutes they were removed from the debris. Birnes
expired immediately, having sustained a fearful fracture
of the skull, besides other mutilations ; Parsons, whose
limbs were broken, chest crushed, &c., and presented
shocking spectacle, was conveyed to the hospital, where
he still survived when this account was written. The,
deceased has left a widow and one child. The inquest
will be held to-day.

• THE SANITARY IMPROVEMENT OP WOOLWICH,—Mr.
,
Edmund Smith, the contractor for numerous Govern,
iment works, and for the defence of the Isle of Wight,-
has entered into a contract with the Woolwich Local
IBoard of Health, to drain thoroughly the town for about
8,0001.