The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-26 00:00:00

DREADFUL ACCIDENT ON THE

DUNDEE AND PER'T'H RAILWAY.

The town has been thrown into a state of painful ex-
citement, in consequence of intelligence received about
three o'clock this afternoon, that a serious accident had
occurred on the Dundee and Perth railway, to the train
that left Perth at half- past ten o'clockt his morning.
The following particulars have been. earned from a
Glasgow gentleman who was in one of the second class
carriages, and who fortunately escaped with a few slight
contusions upon one of his legs. As the train was pro-
ceeding at what was considered about its usual speed,
and when taking a sharp curve upon the line, before
coming to Kingoodie Quarry, near Invergowrie, the
engine ran off the rails into a field of beans on the side of
the railway, dragging the whole of the carriages after it.
The trAo consisted of a luggage-van next the engine,
two third-class carriages, one first-class, two second-
class, and another third-class. This was the order in
which they stood in the train, and the whole of the ca-
sualties have been confined to the two third class
carriages which were behind the luggage-van.
These two carriages have been smashed to pieces.
Their fragments were heaped in a mass above the
luggage vin; and, considering the number of passengers
in them, which could not be less than from forty to
fifty, it is a wonder that more damage has not been
done. Only one life has yet been lost, but it is feared
that another person, at least, is in such a state that his
recovery is very doubtful. The man who was killed was
in a carriage open at the top, and it is not yet properly
ascertained whether his death was caused by injuries re-
ceived from the broken wood of the carriage, or by con-
cussion of the brain from his having been thrown to
some distance, and then falling upon his head. He was
only seen to move his band to his head after falling.
His name is not known, but he had upon him a watch
and St or 9L The person who has suffered most is Mr.
Scobie, cabinet-maker, Stanly. Hts injuries are of such
a nature that he cannot be removed, and is at present
lying in a house near the place where the accident hap
pened. Mr. NM-Mahan, of the firm of M'Lachlan and
Stewart, booksellers, Edinburgh, had one of his legs
broken, and, at his own request, was brought up to
Perth, and carded to the infirmary. Another man had
his collar-bone broken, and a great many more have re-
ceived contusions to a greater or less extent.
It is rather remarkable that no individual in any of
the other carriages received any injury, with the excep-
tion
of the concussion which, in such an accident, almost
all must sustain. Sheriff Barclay and his family were in
the first-class carriage immediately behind the two that
were smashed, but none of them were hurt, and the ex-
ertions of the Sheriff in rescuing the sufferers from the
ruins of the two carriages, are described as being beyond
all praise. Soon after the accident an engine, that was
taking some empty waggons along the line, was dis-
patched to Dundee, and speedily returned with a sur-
geon, who attended to the disabled in the best way he
could. They were quickly forwarded to Dundee, with
the two exceptions stated above.
It would be wrong, perhaps, at present, to hazard a
decided opinion as to the cause of this deplorable oc-
currence, which will likely be investigated without delay
by competent individuals ; but it may be stated, that an
impression prevails that one of the rails had been dis-
placed from its seat upon the chain, by the pressure of
the wheel of the engine in taking the curve, and that the
engine was thus thrown off the rail. The rail must be
rendered useless for a day or two, until the proposed
repairs have been made upon it, and the traffic, for a
portion of the railway, must, in the meantime, be carried
.et upon the single line of rails, to which the trains can be
turned off and on by means of switches.
The gentleman killed is stated to be a native of Ar-
broath, and has a farm near Newcastle.

PENNY RECEIPT STAMPS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin,—Sir Charles Wood's reply to the proposal to
have a uniform receipt stamp of one penny-, " that he
will give the subject his best consideration, but he fears
the state of the exchequer will not admit of it," is tole-
rably conclusive that Ministers do not intend to make
Ireland pay the income-tax nor the assessed taxes, from
which ehe is exempt at present. The silence of the
Ministerial candidates on Irish affairs is also ominous.
We sadly want an English O'Connell, who would agitate
for justice for England. If the abominable window-tax
had been extended to Ireland it would have been re-
pealed long ago. Should the English electors neglect to
exercise the greatest discretion in selecting the Members
of the ensuing Parliament, this country will have to give
the Iri-h landlords the whole of the nine millions, for it
is clear that the latter are dissatisfied with the gift of
one-half. which I consider Ministers were not jugified
in making. If the tax-payers of England and Scotland
are to continue to be the slaves of the Irish landlords,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer might place himself in
a position to meet our wishes in regard to the penny
recipt stamp by lessening the differential duties on Bri-
tish and foreign spirits, which are a loss to the revenue
of between nine and ten millions annually.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN ENGLISH ELECTOR.

THE MURDEROUS ATTACK ON A LETTER CAR-
RlER.—Bradley, the letter-carrier, who was so inhu-
manly attacked in Mitre-court, Wood-street, is not
likely to recover his reasoning faculties from the effects
of the blow he received upon his head. He was led
down to the Post-office on Saturday, and had an inter-
view with Mr. Peacock, the solicitor, when he appeared
to be labouring under complete unconsciousness. The
opinion of the Post-office authorities is, that a discarded
Bank clef K. or Post-office clerk, was privy to the evi-
dently preconcerted attack upon Bradley, from the fact
that no other person could have known the contents of
the bag Bradley carried. The key with which the
highwaymen locked the gate consists of the rusty pipe
of an old street-door key, to which is soldered a skeleton
end, quite new, and seemingly made expressly for the
lock. Inspector Shackell, Serjeant Brennan, and a
number of the detective torce, have been throughout the
week in pursuit of three men, whose description they
have received, but they have hitherto eluded detection.
Up to Saturday the police had got no clue as to where
the life• preserver was purchased or the key made.
Neither of the instruments bear any distinctive marks.
SAYINGS' BANKS.—According to a House of Com-
mons' paper just printed, it is stated that the number
of individual depositors, charitable institutions, and
friendly Societies, depositing their funds in savings'
bank was, on the 20th November last, 1,108,025. The
individual depositors were 1,085,383; and there were
12,168 charitable institutions, and 10,474 friendly so-
cieties. The amount of deposits (including interest)
was altogether 31,743,2501. The total amount received
from and of interest credited to the trustees of savings'
banks and of friendly societies, including interest (from
1817 to May, 1847) has been 55,475,731/. The amount
(with interest) paid to the trustees has been 22,132,5901.
The amount of money (with interest) due to the trus-
tees by the Commissioners of the National Debt was
33,343,1411. The value of the securities held by the
above-mentioned Commissioners in May last, at the
prices of the day, to provide the amount due by the
Commissioners on 20th of that month, for principal and
interest, was 28,887,9781.
RAILWAY ACCIDENT.--MIRACULOUS ESCAPE: On
Tuesday afternoon last an accident occurred to one of
the Manchester and Leeds trains, which might have been
attended with frightful loss of life. The 4h. 20m. train
from Leeds left that station at the usual time, with about
40 passengers, and had proceeded as far as where the
line crosses the Doncaster road, about three miles from
Leeds, when a cloud of dust and the shaking of the
carriages, with a sudden application of the break ,gave
until intimation to the passengers that all was not right, butwas
their real danger was not known unt he train
.topped. On getting out of the trainikntewta s found
utt
hthreaet
the first axle of the engine had broken
inches from the showder, and that five ofh hurt.
whTeheels
off the rails. Fortunately no tmtehwe train
e
was on a high embankment, and wonderas. isdtihsatatnictewas
t
not dashed to pieces,
made in the earth by
ler, on measuring the
was ascertained, from the marks
the wheels, that the axles had broken upwards of 250
d. Another engine was
yards before the train,
Leeds,
w aands-torhP: passengers forwarded,
obtained from Lee,
after a. delay of about an hour and a half.—Doncaster

aim-tick. -
Lora Robert Grosvenor haying resigned the trea-
surership of her Majesty's household, is succeeded by
Lord Marcus Hill, whose office of comptroller is filled up
by the appointment of the Hon. W. Lascelles. Mr.
Lasodies (Low
Right Hon.) was sworn one of her Ma-
j•sty's Privy Council, on Friday. Heis the son of the
Earl of Harewood, and is married to a sister of Lord
Morpeth, the Duchess of Sutherland, &C. He was the
late Member for Wakefield, Yorkshire, and is now a
candidate, with every prospect of success, for Eneres•
borough, in the same county, lately represented by Mr.
Ferranti.