The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 14, 1867.

MRS. DUFFUS TIARDY'S NEW NOVEL,
Now ready, at all the Libraries, in 3 vols.,

AHERW -0 R K
By MPS, DIIFFUS HARDY. •
Hurst and Blackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

Now ready, in 2 vols., Bvo., with Portrait, 305.,
THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF

THOMAS SLINGSBY DUNCOMBE
Late M.P. for Finsbury.

By HIS SON, THOMAS H. DiJNCOMBE.

"These volumes contain much racy anecdote and some startling
disclosures which will ruffle politicians. Mr. Duncombe's singu-
lar career is ably handled by his only child."—Atheneum.
Hurst and Blacken, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

UNDER THE ESPECIAL PATRONAGE OF HER MAJESTY.
Now ready, 37th Edition, in 1 vol., royal Bvo., with the Arms
beautifully engraved, 31s. Gd., bound, gilt edges, .
LODGE S PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE
FOR 1868.

[Corrected by the Nobility.]
• •
" A work of great value.' It is the most faithful record we
possess of the aristocracy of the day."—Post.

Hurst and Blackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

Now ready, price Fourpence,
THE EXTRA CHRISTMAS NUMBER
OF
ALL THE YEAR ROUND,

ENTITLED
NO THORO UG H FARE.
BY
CHARLES DICKENS AND WILKIE COLLINS.

CONTENTS.

The Overture.

ACT IL
Vendale makes Love.
Vendale makes Mischief.
ACT I. ACT 111.
The Curtain Rises. In the Valley.
Enter the Housekeeper. On the Mountain.
The Housekeeper Speaks. ACT IV.
New Characters on the Scene. The Clock-Lock.
Exit Wilding. Ohenreizer's Victory.
The Curtain Falls.

In the NtUnber of ALL THE YEAR ROUND for January 4,
will be commenced, •

THE MOONSTONE,
A NEW SERIAL STORY,
BY WILKIE COLLINS.

London: 26, Wellington-street, Strand, W.C.; and Chapman
and Hall, 193, Piccadilly, W.

This day, No. 31, price Sixpence, of
L'CHOES FROM THE CLUBS!
A Weekly Record of Political Topics, Fashionable Life,
and Social Amenities.

Sold by all Booksellers and Newsagent;.

THE CHRISTMAS BOOK FOR TOWN AND COUNTRY
SOCIETY.
Just published, Vol. 1., price 155., of
ECHOES FROM THE CLUBS!

CONTENTS :—Ecboes of Political and Fashionable Life; Club
Sayings and Doings; London Echoes; Echoes from Foreign
Capitals; Echoes from British and Foreign Watering-Places;
Club Essays, Ethics, and Lyrics; Echoes from the Turf, the
Moors, the Stubble, the Copse, and the Cover-side; Operatic and
Theatrical Echoes ; Echoes Par Ci and Par La.

Offices: 19, Catherine-street, Strand, London;
And at all Booksellers, Libraries, and Railway Stations.

Just Published, price Is. Cd., by post, le. Bd., the Second Edition,
with Adden la, containing additional Facts and Cases, in illus-
tration of the nefarious proceedings of the Advertising Quacks.
REVELATIONS OF QUACKS AND
QUACKERY. By DETECTOR. Reprinted from the
"Medical Circular."

London: Ti. Balliere, 219, Regent-street.
The numerous reviews of this startling work by the Saturday
Review, Punch, Weekly Despatch, Public Opinion, and other
journals, recommending its universal perusal are reprinted with
this edition

'IVALKER'S CRYSTAL ,CASE WATCHES
are Superseding all others. Prize medals, London,
1862; Paris, 1567. Gold from £l5 155.. silver from .£6
Cornhill, and 230, Regent-street.

DUNVILLE'S V.R. OLD IRISH WHISKY,
BELFAST,
Is regularly supplied to the. House of Lords.
" V.R." IRISH WHISKY.

DUNVILLE and CO.'S- " V.R." OLD IRISH
WHISKY, BELFAST.
London Offices and Stores,
4, BEAUFORT-BUILDINGS, STRAND, W.C.
Established 1808. Quotations on application.

PERIODICAL SALES (Established 1843) of
absolute and contingent Reversions to Futided and other
property, Life Interests, Annuities, Policies of Assurance, Ad-
TOWSOYIA, Next Presentations, Manorial Rights, Rent Charges,
Post Obit Binds, Debentures, Shares in Docks, Canals, Mines,
Rail s, Insurafice Companies, and other public undertakings.
Mr. MARSirts to rcaub anc-. that his PEIIIODrCAL SALES
(established in 1843) for the disposal of every description of the
above-mentioned property takes place on the

First THURSDAY in each month.

Auction. Land. and Estate Agency Moos. 54, Cannon-street,
London. E.C.

CITOOPING HABITS, ROUND SHOULDERS,
PIGEON CHESTS, and other Deformities, are prevented
and cured by wearing CHANDLER'S IMPROVED HYGIENIC CHEST-
EXPANDING BRACE, for both sexes of all ages. It strengthens
the voice and lungs, relieves indigestion, pains in the chest and
back, and is especially recommended to children for assist-
the growth, promoting health and symmetry of figure, super-
eaing the use of braces and stays. Price from 108. 6d. each.
Butters-street, Oxford-street, W. Illustrated circulars for-
warded.

3JUDIE'S SELECT LIBRARY.
NEW AND CHOICE BOOKS.
TICE.—AII the BEST BOOKS of the SEASON are is

circulation at
NUMB'S SELECT LIBRARY,
Aucumay be obtained with the least possible delay by 411
Subscribers of
ONE GUINEA PER ANNUM.
Book Societies supplied on liberal terms.
Prospectuses on application.
lIIUDIE'S SELECT LIBRARY (Limited).
NEW OXFORD-STREET.
City Office, 4, King-street, Cheapside.

(WIDLES.—If you do not want your candles
exclusively for show, but with pleasantness of appearance
require excellence of burning, buy "PRICE'S GOLD MEDAL
PALMITINE," or their " SHERWOOD PALMITINE," or their
good old-fashioned "BELMONT SPERM," or "BELMONT
WAX,"gor their "BEST," "No. 2," " N 0.3," or "BATTERSEA"
COMPOSITE, in preference to the finest and most transparent
Paraffin candles. But if you must have the extreme trans-
parency of pure Paraffine, "PRICE'S PARAFFINE" or their
" BELMONTINE" will give it to you in perfection, and at a more
moderate price than is usually charged for any other really first-
class Paraffine Candles.

The new toilet soap "PRICE'S SOLIDIFIED GLYCERINE,"
containing half its weight of their concentrated distilled Glyce-
rine, should be in general use in every house before the winter
comes on, because of its admirable effects in preventing chap-
ping of the hands and face. In every house there ought also to
be one of the sealed bottles of their concentrated Distilled Gly-
cerine, known everywhere as "PRICE'S GLYCERINE," and
prescribed by the most eminent medical men abroad as well as at
home, as the one only Glycerine for medicinal use whether ex-
ternally or internally.
PRICE'S FANCY SOAPS of the different sorts usually made
are excellent, and command a constantly increasing sale. The
" Solidified Glycerine" spoken of above is, however, the one fancy
soap to use.
"PRICES NEW PATENT NIGHT LIGHTS," for burning
in the wide glasses are believed to be the very best Night Lights
made. "PRICE'S CHILDS' NIGHT LIGHTS," for burning
without glasses, and their different sorts of "CHAMBER CAN -
DLES " are so well known, and so generally used and appre-
ciated, as not to need any special notice here.

T.AMBERTS ASTHMATIC BALSAM. -AN
EFFECTUAL REMEDY, without confining the bowels or
affecting the head, truly efficacious and pleasant, is admitted to
be the best medicine fer immediately relieving coughs, colds,
confirmed cases of asthma, and incipient consumption. It fre-
quently cures persons whom the faculty pronounce incurable,
and admirably allays the tickling which provokes frequent
coughing. In approaching consumption its effects are truly be-
neficial. Persons deprived of sleep, or even lying down for fear
of suffocation, may depend on relief in a few minutes after tak-
ingit. Prepared only and sold by W. LAMBERT, Chemist,
8, King William-street, Charing-cross, London, and by all drug-
gists, in bottles, 131 d., and three quantities in one, 2s. 9d. eaoh.
Be particular, and•ask for Lambert's Asthmatic Bahian) The
name and add' ess are engraved on the stamp.

THE BEST REMEDY FOR INDIGESTION.
NORTON'S CAMOMILE PILLS are confi-
dently recommended as a simple but certain Remedy for
Indigestion, which is the cause of nearly all the diseases to
which we are subject, being a medicine so uniformly grateful
and beneficial that it is with justice called the " Natural
Strengthener of the Human Stomach." "Norton's Pills" act as a
powerful tonic and gentle aperient; are mild in their operation,
safe under any circumstances, and tbousands of persons can now
bear testimony to the benefits to be derived from their use, as
they have been a never-failing Family Friend for upwards of 20
years,
Sold in bottlos at Is. 111, 2s. 9d., and lie. each, in every town
in the kingdom.

Be suro to ask for "NORTON'SCAUTION PILLS," and do not be per-
suaded to purchase any of the various imitations which have
sprunPprills."
sg up in consequenco of the success of " Norton's Camomile
g

DOWELL'S BALSAM OF ANISEED,
A_ for COUGHS COLDS, ASTHMA, TIRONCHITLS, Sore
Throat, Difficulty of Breathing, and all similar affections of the
litsopfratory ()ramp.
id by emists and Medicine Vendoro throughout the World.
In
nearly half a Century.

FURNISHED HOUSES, from £2 2s. to £2O
per Week.—D. S. HUMPHRIES h to at all Uwe a
number of leiraf-class RESID4 CES to be LET. furnished
or ulifurnisbed, or bold, more I artieu!arly in the nelAbour-
hoods of Sydenbam. Upper Norwood. Purest-hill, and vici-
nity.—Particulars may be had at the Office, Printing House-
square.

HOUSES and APARr MEN rs WASTED. and to be LET

or SOLD, RUSITI4.ISSI4 to; DISPOSAL, (to.
PROPERTY, FREEHOLD or LEASEHOLD.
D. T. HUHPIIIII le.S has continual applications for
all descriptions of PROPERTY which will pay z.ood interest
for °Why. Houses out of repair not objected to. T. D.
Humphries can at all times find customers for ali desatip-
tions of businesses. Hotels, public hous s, ttc , sold and
transferred. Apply, D. T. Humphries, Estate Agent, Print
ing Home-aquare.

NOTICE.

C. F. HANCOCK, SON, &

JEWELLERS AND SILVERSMITHS TO THE QUEEN ArD

PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES,

And by Special Appointment. to the principal Sovereigns

and Courts of Europe, -
Beg respectfully to state that their only Address is
33 & 39, BRUFON-STREBT,
CORNER OP BOND-5 ThEET.

AWARDED TO C. F. HANCOCK .
Great Exhibition, 1851—Council Medal for Originality and
Taste. Paris Exh ibition,lBss —Gold Med ail lo d'llonne ur.
International Exhibition, 1862—Prize . Medal, for great
Excellence of Design and Manufacture. Paris Universal
Exhibition, 1867—Gold Medal.
MANUEACTuItERs OF TILE VicToRLI CROSS.

n 0 MPAGNIE . GENE RALE TR AN SATLAN-
‘../ TiQuE, 8, Place Vendome, Paris.— NEW YORK, via
HAVRE and BREST. —The underraeutinied STEAMERS will
sail every 14 days, as follows:
From Havre-19th December, 1887.
From Brest-21st December, 1867.
Napoleon 111., paddle
Yille do Paris, screw 1,400-horse power.
Pereire, screw 1;0,9i1-horsepower.
St. Laurent, screw 1,090-h orse power.
Europe, paddle.... 9OO-horse power.
Rates of passage, Havre or Brest to New York—First class,
£33; second class, £l7; third class, £ll.

•
EUROPEAN ASSVAA4y4
Empowered by Special Act 'vt
Life Assurance—Annuities-.-Guarantee
Policies payable during Life—lndisputable—Not liable to
Forfeiture.
Chairman— General Sir FREDERIC RMITII, K.H., F.R.S.
The ROYAL, NAVAL, MILITARY, and EAST INDIA LIFE DE-
PARTMENT, affording Peculiar Advantages to Officers and others
in the Navy and Army, is under the especial Patronage of
Her Most Gracious MAJESTY the QUEEN.
New Premium Income in 1858, 1859, 1860 £76,000
1861, 1862, 1862 117,000
44 1861, 1865, 1866 171,000
The EUROPEAN is specially authorised by the Imperial Par-
liament to Guarantee the Fidelity of Government Officials.
Full particulars of the popular principles of this Society will he
found in the Prospectus, which will be forwarded to applicants
post free.
Chief Offices, 316, Regent-street, and 17, Waterloo-place,
Pall-mall.
HENRY LAKE, General Manager.

1./ANFIELD'S PATENT PICKLES are per
fectly pure and uncoloured. To be had of all dealers,
and wholesale of JOHN BURGESS and SON, 107, Strand (cornor
of Savoy-steps), London.

C 0 D

LIVERT'OIL
FOR DEBILITY. -

C O D

LIVE RH
PALE NEWFOUNDLAND.

O I L

Testimonials as to the purity and genuineness have been re
ee:ved from the following eminent physicians :
Professor TAYLOR, M.D., &c.. &c.
Dr. SCOTT, M.D., L.R.C.P., &C.
Dr. EDWIN PAYNE, M.D., L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., &e., &c.
Just imported by
KEATING & CO., 79, St. Paul's Churchyard.
In Imperial half pints Is. 6d., pints 2s. 9d., quarts 55., five
pints Hs.

It h h
E6-LOADER 8 . _
B Tho FINEST ASSORTMENT IN LONDON,
from which purchasers may select the best systems and superior
workmanship, at moderate prices.
Direct-action, central-fire Breech-loaders, the perfection of this
excellent principle, possess groat shooting powers, facility of
loading, and durability.
Cartridges, loading instruments, belts, pouches, and every MO-
cull novelty.

R M. REILLY AND 00,
NEW OXFORD-STR3E ; ALSO '''SE.“ REGENT-CIRGI7B.

DEAFNESS.--The Spiral Ear Tube, for the
Relief of Deafness, fits spirally round the ear so close,
and being enamelled flesh-colour, is uuBeen. Every other kind
of powerful ordinary hearing Instrameuts, such as Conversational
Tubes, Cornets, Trumpets, &e.—SOLOMONS, 39 Albemarle-street,

Tho AuIIIIOMATIC and TINTED SPECTACLES, registered
oy S. and B. SOLOMONS, can only be obtained at their establish-
ment, :30, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly. Copies of Tostimmials
from tho Ophthalmia Hospital.

PAINLESS DENTISTRY.
m , o
ESS RS. GABRIEL,pENTISTS (Established
Lon don f.3, Harley-street, Cavendish-t.cluare,
GI, Ludgate-Hill, E.C.,
Liverpool 34, Duke-street, and
,Brighton
hsvo just published a N' lW TAVPULET:.splaining their Pain-
less System of Dentistry, and self-adhesive Teeth w:tliout
springs, at MonGILLTS CHAII,GX4 which may be had frac by post
for four stamps.

PHOTOGRAPHY OJV PORCELAIN OR
GLASS.

The following curious method of transporting
photographs on ceramic surfaces has just been
patented by M. Gruue. The first operation con-
sists in obtaining by the usual methods a negative
on glass of the subjects to be reproduced. This
done, the negative is coated with a fusible glass by
the heat of a common cupelling furnace, and the
image is thus rendered unassailable by any sub-
stance which glass can resist. The second ope-
ration consists in getting positives from the
negative thus prepared. This is done by collo-
dionising the image side iu a dark room with
iodised collodion, sensitising it in a nitrate of
silver bath, then putting it into a printing-
frame with the uncoated side exposed to the
light, while the coated side is protected from the
action of light by a black surface not in contact
with it. In this state the printing-frame is ex-
posed to light for two or three minutes ; then taken
again into the dark room, where the collodionised
plate is immersed in a revealing bath of sulphate of
iron and sulphuric acid, then well washed and fixed
in hyposulphite of soda. The image now appears in
reducel silver ; before the collodionised surface is
quite dry, a sharp point of a needle is run all along
the borders, the plate is then immersed in water
containing five per cent, of glycerine, and the film
of collodion will soon be seen floating on the
liquid. The negative is then washed, wiped,
and dried, and put by until again required. The
film, which may be kept indefinitely in the
glycerinised water without spoiling, is taken out
when wanted, and its silver surface changed to gold
by chloride of gold, or to the appearance of steel by
chloride of platinum, &c., after which it is dipped
into a solution of metallic salts, which, by the action
of fire, will yield certain colours according to the
operator's wish. The film is now carefully laid on
the porcelain or glass to be adorned ; it will stick by
means of diluted glycerine and a soft brush. It is
then coated with a vitreous flux, and becomes per-
manently fixed in the furnace.

MATCHES.—We glean the following curious par-
ticulars concerning matches from a paper lately read
to the Societe des Ingenieurs-Uivils, by M. Peligot.
It has been calculated that the number of matches
consumed in France is about six per head per
day ; it is eight in England; and nine in Belgium.
Taking the French average as a basis, the num-
ber of matches consumed all over Europe in a day
is about 2,000 millions, representing upwards of
6001bs. of wood. The kinds of wood chiefly em-
ployed in manufacturing them, viz., aspen and
poplar, are sold by the cubic metre (35 cubic feet) ;
allowing for maste, this quantity does not weigh
more than 5001 b., so that in Europe alone the num-
ber of cubic metres of wood thus burnt amounts to
400,000, being equivalent to 14 millions of cubic
feet English measure. To this quantity should be
added that of the stearine mateheS, commonly called
Vestas, the consumption of which has of late in-
creased very considerably. The weight varies be-
tween 3,200 and 4,000 per lb. in France. The
quantity of phosphorus used in the manufac-
ture of matches is about 420,0001 b., exclusive
of chlorate of potash, sulphur, minium, sulphu-
ret of antimony, gum, and glue. There are in
Austria manufactories employing 5,000 hands,
and the aggregate value of matches produced is 250
millions of francs. The invention of friction
matches only dates from 1832. In 1835 chlorate of
potash was partially replaced by minium and per-
oxide of manganese, and phosphorus by sulphuret of
antimony. In 1837 chlorate of potash was com-
pletely abandoned for bi-oxide of lead, and then for
the nitrate of that metal, and also by nitrate of
potash. 111 France chlorate of potash continued to
be in use till 1847 ; at present it is only used for
Vestas. It is a very dangerous substance, since it.
will explode by mere friction in the mortar.

M. Schneider, President of the Legislative Body,
gave his first grand dinner of the session last even-
ing to a number of Deputies.

IaTEMPT TO BLOW ITP THE,IIOIISB

Or DETENTION.

DIABOLICAL FENIAN OUTRAGE.

Yesterday London was made the scene of a Fenian
outrage exceeding in enormity anything even they have
yet attempted. It had for its object the liberation of the
prisoners Burke and Casey, who have been for some time
confined in the Clerkenwell House of Detention. With
a reckless disregard for life, a gang of conspirators
attempted to accomplish this purpose by blowing in a wall
of the prison. Happily the attempt was frustrated. It
could hardly by any possibility have succeeded, but in its
failure it involved immediately the lives of three persons
and injuries to forty or fifty others, some of which are
almost certain to prove fatal, and in addition to this loss
of life_ a destruction of a large number of houses and their
contents.

The scene of the explosion is Cerporation-lane, which
runs parallel with the prison wall on its northern side,
and censisted of houses three stories high—some of them
let out in tenements and others used for various manufac-
turing purposes. The prison is surrounded on the northern
side by Corporation-lane, on the east by Woodbridge-
street, and on the west by Rosoman-street. Corporation-
lane is a narrow street, having the prison wall on one side
and a row of eight or ten three-storey tenements on the
other. Opposite the centre of the wall is a narrow court,
called St. James's-passage, miming into a street called
St. James's-place, which is parallel to Corporation-lane.
St. James's-place runs into Rosoman-street. Rosoman-
street is the best of the streets referred to. It is composed
Almost - gold,- of private houses, in4abited chiefly by
working jewellers and lapidaries, who carry on their
trade, which is indigenous to Clerkenwell, with pretty
fair success.
The explosion, which sounded like a discharge of artil-
lery, occurred at exactly a quarter to four o'clock in the
afternoon, when there is still daylight even in these short
days, and it was heard for miles round. In the immediate
neighbourhood it produced the greatest consternation, for
it blew down houses and shattered the windows of others
in all directions. The windows of the prison itself, of
coarse glass more than a quarter of an inch thick, were to
a large extent broken, and.the side of the building imme-
diately facing the outer wall in which the breach was
made, and about 150 feet from it, bears the marks of the
bricks which were hurled against it by the explosion.
The wall surrounding the prison is about 25ft. high, 2ft.
3in. thick at the bottom, and about 14in. thick at the
top.

In order to understand the events in the order in which

they occurred, we must go back a little. The police,
warned of the desperate character of the Fenians by the
outrage at Manchester, appear to have suspected that
some such attempt might be made, and therefore, ever
since Burke and Casey were first remanded, the exterior
of the House, of Detention has been watched by detective
police. A house close to the north-western boundary
of the prison has been suspected of being a
Fenian rendezvous. There have never been less
than three detectives on the watch ; but up to
yesterday they failed to discover anything positively
suspicious. Yesterday morning three officers, named
Sutton, Ranger, and Knowles, went on duty, and about
twelve o'clock they noticed three mess and a woman of
suspicious appearance and still more suspicious behaviour.
For some time the officers watched them unobserved, and
saw that they appeared to be reconnoitring the prison
walls and the surrounding streets and courts. The
close scrutiny of the constables made the Fenians, for
such they were, suspect that they were under surveil.
lance, and there then followed a series of ma-
noeuvres on both sides, one party being anxious to
throw the other off the scent, and the other just as
determined to keep their game in view. The Fenians
separated and went different ways, an example which was
promptly followed by the officers. Then they harked
back, and again congregated in the vicinity of the prison,
where, being again alarmed, one of the men, who is
I known, and who has for some time past been sus-
pected; though no positive proof could be obtained
against him, drove off in a cab, while the others
again separated, each dogged by, an officer. At
about half-past Olive o'clock, immediately before the
explosion, the detectives had watched the party of Fenians
into St. James's-place, and saw them turn into St. James's-
' passage. The officers were then in R,osonsan-street, and,
' -of course, all that was necessary to prevent the Fenians
getting out of sight, was to watch the end of St. James's-
place and Corporation-lane. After a brief parley to
arrange the plan of operations, Ranger and Knowles went
up St. James's-place to reach the end of St. James's-
passage, and Sutton went down Rosoman-street to guard
the end of Corporation-lane. Just as Ranger and
Knowles reached the end of the passage they met two of
the men and the woman running at full speed up the
passage, in a direction away from the prison wall, with
such an expression of anxiety and alarm that the officers
were satisfied that something had been done, and at once
stopped and arrested them. Scarcely had they seized
their prisoners when a tremendous explosion took place,
which almost prostrated the struggling group, followed by
a shower of dust, the crash of falling houses, and, after a
moment's deathly silence, the shrieks and wails of wounded
men, women, and children. Sutton had just reached the
corner of Corporation-lane, when he saw one of the
Fenians—a man of the true Irish-Yankee type, with red
hair, and that peculiarly American hirsute ornament on
the chin, known as a "goatee "—running close alongside
the prison wall and just turning the corner into
Rosoman-street, to go in the direction of Cler-
kenwell-green. Sutton, having the same suspicion as his
brother officers, at once started in pursuit, but just as he
reached the middle of Corporation-lane the explosion took
place, and he was prostrated and partially stunned.
Rising as rapidly as possible, he saw the Fenian, who had
been protected by the south-west wall of the prison, turn-
ing the corner of a street in the distance, whence he was
lost to view and effected his escape. There is some satis-
faction in knowing that this scoundrel, who seems to have
been the most active agent in the outrage, is the man who
was known as a suspicious character to the police, and
whose appearance with his companions yesterday first
excited the grave suspicions of the detectives. It is to be
hoped, therefore, that very few hours will elapse before ho
is in custody.

The way in which the explosion was brought about is
pretty fully known. The wretches placed a barrel of
gunpowder against the prison wall, lighted a fuse, and
then ran—like cowards as they were.

It is stated with confidence that more than one person
witnessed the two men carrying the keg of powder
from the corner of St. James's-passage to the opposite
side of Corporation-lane, and place it there against the
wall, and that another man was seen to place the
lighted fuse at the top of it. The effect of such
an explosion would be threefold. First, there would be
the outward explosion, carrying everything away before
it. In fact, it carried away a street and a half. Next
would be the lateral explosion—the expansive destruction
from side to side. The result of this was shewn in havoc
and ruin for many hundreds of yards to the right
and the left hand. Thirdly would come the recoil. It
was this recoil which knocked a hole in the wall.
The entire roadway in Corporation-lane was covered with
bricks. It was all bricks. It seemed as though some mon-
strous volcano had suddenly emitted a shower of bricks.
The house immediately facing the place where the barrel
had been fired was blown clean out ; that is to
say, where twenty-four hours ago stood a human
habitation there was only now a hole. The
report of the explosion was like the simultaneous roar
of field-pieces and the rattle of musketry. In the midst
of the smoke, now a sickly blue, partially cleared away, a
perfect shower of glass could be seen, and floating—as if
glass Fad lost its specific gravity—in such a fashion as
paper torn into little atoms by children, and thrown from
a window, is wont to do. But it was when the
smoke was lifted from the street that the worst result
of the catastrophe could be realised, Out of sashless win-
dow. 4 were women suspended, supporting themselves by
clinging to the window sills. From every window came
screams for help ; and fine, strong mothers, who in the
impulse of the moment appeared about to leap to the
pavement, disappeared only to return with the child or the
children they had in the love of life but momentarily for-
gotten. The dense smoke had been driven into the rooms, and
half-stifled girls, boys, men, and women tried to make
themselves heard by the few who were in the lane, for
fear of danger had driven almost every one out of it.
From a second floor a little girl screamed out, "Oh !

mother's killed mother's killed ;" and in the

top window of the next house a strong man
im-
plored some one to go up and help him "to save
the children." Help was not long in coming, and
dead, dying, maimed, and disfigured people were being
carried from the houses. In most cases the poor little
children appeared to be the greatest sufferers. Their
mothers carried them bleeding through the streets, rushing
frantically to wherever they thought a surgeon could be
found. Other women fainted and lay upon the heaps of
dirt until restored by the attentions of those around them.
The report and concussion of the air alarmed every one
half a mile round, and within a radius of half that dis-

,'

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~~.~ ~~S

ritICE.... id.
STAMPED sd.

tance thi inhabitants appear as by one impulse to have
rushed frantically into the streets.
The police were surnmoied to the spot by the admirable
telegraph system in force between the various stations
and Scotland-yard.
The first effect of the explosion was to clear the streets,
the next to fill them. While friendly hands were removing
those who had been injured, others were surveying the
devastation. It soon became apparent that the injury
done to property was not confined to Corporation-lane,
but extended to Coburg-street, Rosornan-street, Wood-
bridge-street, Short's-buildings, Seckforde-street, St.
James's-walk, Plumber-place, St. James's-buildings. In
all these streets, and in the lanes abutting on them, the
windows were broken, and the houses shaken as if by an
earthquake. St. James's-buildings are a range of houses
immediately .behind Corporation-lane, and it suffered
hardly less than the houses in the front.
A vigorous search was now in progress among the ddbris.
A bricklayer's labourer, named Brasney, observed a hand
projecting from the ruins of the fallen house in front of
him. At a great risk to his own life, he extricated in
succession an old woman, a man, and a young woman.
The rooms of the houses had been cleared. Cabs were
promptly procured, and the injured persons brought in
them to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal Free
Hospital, Gray's-inn-road, while the children whose
parents were injured were taken to the Clerkenwell
Workhouse.
When every person was removed from the houses the
condition of the latter could be better ascertained. The
sight was deplorable indeed. Not a window was to be
seen in any of the ten or eleven houses, while there was
not a trace of furniture to be found in any of the rooms,
as if it had been all swept clean away, or had crumbled
into dust. In some cases portions of furniture had, by
force of the concussion, been shot out of the back windows,
but, generally speaking, it was only to be found in heaps
of atoms in corners of the rooms. No. lA. in
Corporation-lane was occupied by a Mrs. Harvey,
who supported herself by a toy shop. All
her stock, furniture, clothes, .and other pro-
perty were destroyed. In No. 2e Mr. Spiers kept a
lodging-house, and here several children were much
injured ; the house is gutted, and the furniture ruined.
No. 3e was rented by a prison warder (Mr. Tinuock),
and his wife and two children hare been severely cut
about the face. All his property is lost. No. 1
comes next, and this is the best house in Corporation-
lane. Mr. Jones, a vestryman of Clerkenwell, is
owner, and occupied the premises. Mrs. Jones
received serious injuries, but is stated not to be
in any immediate danger. Seen from the street, the par-
lour of this house presented an extraordinary appearance.
A very fine chimney-glass was shaken by the concussion
off one of the nails which held it, and remained sus-
pended by the other at the side of the mantel-piece. A
chair, which it is supposed had been standing at
a window when the explosion took place, was forced
across the room and landed on top of a sideboard.
In the kitchen the candles, which were being prepared
for parlour or drawing-room, stood lighted on the kitchen
table, not having been blown out,, strange to say, by the

concussion. In No. 2 Mr. Moseley kept a lodging-house. His

son, Charles Moseley, sustained a bad cut. The lane—St.
James's-place—separates Mr. Jones's house from that of
Mr. Moseley, and the latter house is opposite the spot
where the barrel of gunpowder exploded ; consequently it
suffered the greatest amount of violence,and is accordingly
a complete wreck. The roof, floors, and -side 'walls are
gone. No. 3 is also terribly shattered. It was rented
by a Mr. Thompson, a lodging-house keeper, and
everything in it has been irreparably damaged. Mrs.
Sampson occupied No. 4, which was her own property ;
No. 5 was rented by Mr. Young, a telegraph case maker;
and No. 6 was a lodging-house. The three houses are in
a wrecked condition. Mr. Bennett's house, No. 7, where
he carried on the business of a working jeweller, has not
suffered very seriously ; but opposite to it, in No. 11, Mr.
Waters has had a good deal of his furniture smashed, and
all his windows broken.

The houses in Corporation-lane were occupied chiefly by
artificers and warders of the prison. The top front room
of one of these houses had been unoccupied for some time,
but shortly before the explosion one of the warders of the
prison called the attention of an officer of the prison
named Moore to a circumstance which he considered aus-
picious. The room commanded a full view of the prison-
yard, and from its opened window was leaning a woman
with a jug in her hand, and behind her were four or five
men, all straining to be as near the window as they could,
with the object apparently of seeing something that was
taking place in the street below. It was five minutes
after this circumstance that the explosion occurred.

We have several accounts of the explosion by eye-
witnesses. One of them was an intelligent little boy
named John Abbott, 13 years of age, who happened to be
an eye-witness, and who now lies at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, but, happily, not much injured. The boy lived
with his parents at 5, Corporation-lane, and we cannot,
perhaps, do better than give his statement in his own
words.

About a quarter to four o'clock, he says, he ts as stand-
ing at Mr. Young's door, No. 5, when he saw a large
barrel close to the wall of the prison, and a man leave the
barrel and cross the road. Shortly afterwards the man
returned with a long squib in each hand. One of these he
gave to some boys who were playing in the street, and the
other he thrust into the barrel. One of the boys was
smoking, and he handed the man a light, which the
man applied to the squib. The man stayed a short One
until he saw the squib begin to burn, and then he
ran away. A policeman ran after him, and when the
policeman "arrived opposite No. 5 " the thing went off."
The boy saw no more after that, as he himself was covered
with bricks and mortar. The man, he says, was dressed
something like a gentleman. He had on a brown over-
coat and black hat, and had light hair and whiskers. He
should know him again if he saw him. There was a
white cloth over the barrel, which was black, and
when the man returned the squib he partly uncovered
the barrel, but did not wholly remove the cloth. There
were several men and women in the street at the time, and
children playing. Three little boys were standing near
the barrel all the time. Some of the people ran after the
man who lighted the squib.

Mrs. Holder, a widow, living at 4, Corporation-lane,
and now in St. Bartholomew's, says, about half-past three
a man knocked at her door, and, upon her son answering,
the man asked to be allowed to go the top storey of the
house to be enabled to see his cousin and speak to him
when exercising in the yard of the House of Detention.
His application was refused, and he went away. About
ten minutes afterwards the explosion occurred. It is
understood that her son will be able to identify the man.
A little girl, who was an invalid, and had been removed
from her bed to the window in one of the houses over-
looking the prison-yard, says she saw the cask, and
thought it was treacle. She expressed herself to that
effect to some person in the room, who simply said,
" Nonsense." " But lam sure it's treacle, Polly," said
the girl. On that she saw a man who was near the cask
stoop down, and then the explosion occurred.

A boy named Charles Young, who is much injured, and
who is also in the hospital, is said to have been in the
company of the men and woman who are implicated as
the authors of the explosion. One of the residents of the
locality stated that it was well known and talked about in
the neighbourhood, even by some of the warders of the
prison, the night before, that the authorities had an inti-
mation tha tan attack upon the prison was apprehended,
and precautions were taken to have extra officers on night
duty.

One of the men in custody gives the name Timothy
Desmond, and describes himself as 46 years of age,
and a tailor by trade ; the other, Jeremiah Allen,
is 36, and a bootmaker. The woman, whose name
is Ann Justice, is about 30 years of age. Late at night
she made a determined attempt to strangle herself in a
cell in which she was confined in the House of Detention,
but it was frustrated. She has been in the frequent habit
of visiting the prisoner Casey while he has been confined
there. She did so on the morning before the explosion.

At two o'clock, after I,iie had left the prison, one of the
officers on duty outside the prison, inquired of Mr.
Moore, one of the prison officials, her address, and at the
same time made a communication to Mr. Moore, the
effect of which was that he had seen her conversing with
a fellow who had for days been hanging about the
prison. The constable said it was impossible to
get the man away, he persisting in staying about
the place. Mr. Moore immediately spoke to the
governor, Captain Codd, on the subject, and two or
three officers were distributed about in order to give an
alarm if anything occurred. Shortly afterwards one of
the warders called Mr. Moorc's attention to a man an-
swering the description given of the one who had been seen
by the constable loitering about being on the top of a
house overlooking the prison yard. When Mr. Moore got
to the window at which the warder was watching, the man
had vanished. But shortly afterwards the same man, ac-
cording to the description, was with the woman near the
front gates of the prison, :Ind presently they were joined
by a second man. The incident we have recorded above:.

-

ill lookinb 6'Q of the winnow, fo~lowed slgig
afterwards, and then the explosion.
It is understood that m Thursday eveninc• Mr. Henry
Powna4l, the chairman ,f the county magistrates, in cor.'
sequence of informatiAi he had received, paid a visit to
the prison and directed the governor, Captain Codd, not
to exercise the prisoners in the ordinary way yesterday,
either as to time or place. The wall which has been blown
down enclosed a large open space in which the prisoners
were accustomed to take exercise. The governor, there-
fore, had them exercised between nine and ten yesterday
morning, instead of the usual time, which was between
three and half - past four in the afternoon, and
to this pr caution it is probably owing that the
diabolical . attempt of yesterday was unsuccessful. , The
governor is also understood to have put himself in com-
munication with the police authorities, and they had
undertaken to keep a large body of the force outside the
walls, perambulating the immediate neighbourhood of the
prison. That, we believe, was not a special precaution,
for it is said to have been observed during the time the
man Groves was under remand on suspicion cf being con-
cerned in the murder of the bandsman.- Six warders from
the House of Correction were sent to the prison cn Thurs-
day to act as a night-guard,' but the governor, not think-
ing they were necessary, dispensed- with their services,
and called in the aid of six or eight of his own warders as
an additional force during the night. Shortly before the
explosion the prisoner Burke appeared very excited, and
went often to the window of his cell

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