The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-18 00:00:00

GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION.

—- - -
Yesterday morning, about three o'clock, an accident of a
peculiar and alarming character occurred on the Eastern
Counties Railway, by the explosion of two barrels of
gunpowder, each weighing three quarters of a cwt,
Providentially, however, the accident was unattended
with loss of life. It appears that the barrels arrived at
Witham station about a quarter to three, and:were to be
dispatched one by the Maldon and the other by the
Braintree line. The porter, who also acts as night Inspector
on the up-train, went into the office to book his train,
and in a few minutes the London mail-train arrived—it
stopped short of the barrels, but on moving on again
passed immediately over them, and some sparks falling
from the fire-box the gunpowder exploded. The shock
is indescribable, and the greatest alarm prevailed. The
explosion shook the houses at Witham, which is half a
mile off, and is said to have been heard at Colchester,
fourteen miles further. In the vicinity of the station
the damage to the windows was very extensive. As
soon as the people about recovered self-possession, they
sought to discover the passengers, the carriages having
been blown off the line, but as the engine continued its
course for a short distance, it is evident that the ex-
plosion could not have taken place until the engine
itself had passed over. Dreadfully alarming as the ac-
cident was, none of the passengers, twelve in number,
received any injury. The engineer and stoker were
found to be stunned but not hurt, and the guard es-
caped with his arm being bruised. The train was de-
layed wo hours.

THE ARMY AND NAVY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—The army and navy are much praised, and
with reason, but why cannot the heads of the above
departments adopt some measure which would en-
able young men of respectability, who have not the
means or interest to get appointments, to enter, not RS
common soldiers but as second-rate officers, to rise
by their own merit ? Many young men would then
avail themselves to enter into the army who now are
precluded from doing so, not liking to associate with
the many queer characters who flock thereto.
Should this meet the eye of any of the influential
heads of the above departments it will have attained
the desired end.—l am, Sir, yours obediently,
Hull, Dec. 15, 1848. X. Y. Z.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
HUNTING APPOINTLENTS.
The Cheltenham stag hds., Wed., Beech Pike; Sat.,
sixth milestone on the Gloucester-road-12.
South Berkshire hds., Tues., Streatley; .Sat., Hair-
hatch.
Carmarthenshire hds., Tues., Bankfelin; Fri., Aberg-
with.

Sir John Cope's hds., Wed., Pinge Wood; Fri., Bull
Marsh Court.
Craven hds., Wed., Henswood; Fri., Ashdown Park;
Sat., Asheridge-10f.
Eggystord hds., Tues., Kingsympton Park; Thurs.,
Calves Bridge, Lapford; Sat., Stone Moor-11.
liambledon lids., Wed., Wickham Gate; .Fri., Al-
lington.
East Kent hds., Wed., Swipesld Park; Fri., Sweech
Gate.

Llanelly hds., Wed., Man Saut ; Fri., Mr. Barn's,
Talyclyl3.
Mr. Littleton's hds., Tues., Half-way House on the
Bodmin road; Fri., the kennel-10i.
N. F. 11. Lds., Tues., Bolderwood; Thurs., Hill Top
Gate; Sat., Earldoms—loi.
Lord Southampton's hds., Wed., Horton Inn; Fri.,
Wappenham ; Sat., Wieken Park--11.
United Pack, Thurs., Ridgeway Turnpike--9.
Vine lids., Wed., Bradley Wood; Sat., the Vine-11.
South Wilts hds., Tues., Middleton Farm; Fri., War-
dour Castle.
Baron Rothschild's stag hds., Thurs., Stewkley-11.
Mr. Lowndes's hds., Tues., Winslow; Fri., Two-mile
Ash-11.
Lord Lonsdale's harrs., Tues., Hockliffe Grange; Sat.,
Puttenham 1 2.

__-_-:
OPIUM-EATEns.—The Lancet__ states that "the Lin-
colnshire poor are so abandoned to opium eating as in
same instances to spend in the baneful drug 2s. 6d. out
of a weekly 35.!" a degree of fatuous devotion to the
Circean vice that would appal Coleridge or De Quincey
themselves. The same writer extracts a passage from
the evidence of a brother medical witness, a druggist,
that he himself sends 4004 worth a year more opium to
Ireland now than he did before; and Dr. Grindrod, the
ablest of all the temperance advocates, admits that in the
fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire a vast quantity
of opium is consumed. Vast must be the quantity con-
sumed somewhere or somehow, for, according to the re-
turns of the Board of Trade, issued on Thursday last,
there was no less than 8,000 lbs. of opium imported in
the single month of October, that being by no means a
c2omparatively large quantity, for occasionally as much as
3,000 lbs. are imputed within the same time.