The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-04 00:00:00

THE GREAT FIRE AT NEWCASTLE.

The local papers give full details of the great fire which
tookplace on Sunday, at the Friar's Goose Chemical Works,
on the Tyne. The premises where the fire took place
belong to the Jarrow Chemical Company, Messrs. J. C.
Stevenson, Mr. Alderman Williamson, and others being
partners, and are situated at the Felling, a few hundred
yards to the east of Messrs. Allhusen's chemical works.
The buildings cover an area of about twenty acres, and
the articles made there are alkali, carbonate of soda,
bleaching powder, &c. The fire was discovered shortly
before 11 o'clock. Only a very few minutes before the
watchman had gone over the works, and had not noticed
the slightest indication of burning. Two men who were
at work on the premises were totally ignorant until the
ringing of the fire-bell. The fire had its origin in the acid
chambers. The wooden portion of the structure had within
two or three weeks been newly tarred; and this would seem
to render not improbable the supposition that the confla-
gration had arisen through combustion from the sun's rays.
The works were fitted with an extensive system of fire-
plugs and other apparatus, but long before these could
have been brought into operation the flames had extended ;
and the engine was out of work. In an extraordinary
short space of time after its discovery the fire had run
along the whole of the roofs of the range of buildings
facing south to the great refuse bank and pit-heap
of the Friar's Goose Colliery. The rafters having
been newly pitched aided the progress of the. flames,
and exposed to the full action of the intense
heat the leaden cisterns filled with sulphuric acid stored
below. One by one the leaden cisterns melted and let
out their corrosive contents, bubbling and boiling on to
the ground below. The whole of the site having an
inclination towards the river, the boiling sulphuric acid
streamed down in green stifling rivulets through all the
open ways affording an outlet. In sunken places and flats
It formed pools inches in depth, and overflowing these ran
into the river at several points. This crippled the exertions
of those engaged within the factory, for wherever the foul
smelling streams had run the ground was rendered
impassable for the firemen and workmen, the corrosive
acid burning the boots and clothing and flesh wherever
it found a lodgment. To overcome this difficulty a large
number of planks were procured, and the dangerous places
were bridged over as well as the haste of the moment
would permit. As the fire leapt from one dry range of
sheds to another, streams of molten lead followed in its
track, and great tongues of flame leapt up, accom-
panied by a dense volume of brown smoke, varied now
and then by a heavy gush of inky blackness. In the
meantime measures of the most complete and energetic
kind had been taken to curb the progress of the names.
The two Messrs France, Mr. Superintendent Elliott,
Serjeant Bryson, and several of the Gateshead police and
the men employed upon the works, made a gallant stand
against the flames at the north-west end of the site.
Under the direction of the three first-named gentlemen a
hose and discharge pipe were got to play upon the burning
mass with some effect, the utmost energy being displayed
by all concerned. Sergeant Bryson, in the roost gallant
manner, took the discharge pipe on to the roof of No.
" burner " house, and with the assistance of Police-
constable Thompson and two or or three workmen directed
a powerful jet of water upon the flames. Immediately
above the roof on which they were standing a heavy pipe,
called the " burner" pipe, traversed from one house to
another on either side. The sergeant, with his aides, had
not been long in theirposition when Mr. H. France observed
that the pipe was in an unsafe condition, in consequence
of the gradual destruction of one of its supports ; he
therefore called to Bryson and his men to come down.
Other persons also saw the danger, and called to them to
descend ; but it would seem that they did not comprehend
the shouts. The support of one end of the pipe gave way,
awl it immediately parted in the middle and came crash-
ing down on the roof near where the men were standing
with the discharge pipe. None of the men appear to have
been struck by the pipe in its descent, but Bryson, Thomp-
son, and a young man fell through the roof into the
midst of the wreck below. Not a moment was lost in res-
cuing them from-the debris. Sergeant Bryson had fallen
upon one of the places' drenched with sulphuric acid, and
besides injuries to the face and head from the falling
timber, he was dreadfully burnt by the corrosive liquid.
Almost immediately after the medical gentlemen were
called on to examine Police-constable Thompson, who had
been lifted from the spot where he had fallen, and carried
to the public-house. . It was found that one of his legs
was fractured, and his foot and ankle dreadfully cut. A
cab was therefore procured, and he was put into it and
despatched to Newcastle Infirmary. The young man who
fell at the same time as Bryson and Thompson was also
brought to the public-house for examination. Three of
his ribs were broken. At half-past one o'clock the fire
was at its height, raging over an area of ground so
large that it mocked the exertions of the means taken
to extinguish it. The entire labour of the seventeen or
eighteen jets playing upon the flames had to be directed
towards the confining of the conflagration within the
limits of its present devastation, and even in this they
were only partially successful, for upon the great front of
fire advancing towards the riverside part of the property
they made little impression. The damage done to the
property and stock can only be roughly calculated. We
believe, however, that it will not be lcss than about
270,000. The loss will be only partially covered by
insurance in the Royal;the Norlji British, and the York-
shire Fire Offices.

LAW AIM LOLICE.

--.9. -

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN TELEGIUNI.—In the case of
Pigott v. the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, Vice-
Chancellor Stuart dismissed the petition praying for leave
to examine the defendants' cable, &c. His Honour ob-
served that inspection, though granted more frequently
in equity than at common law, was, nevertheless, a matter
of discretion. The plaintiff's provisional specification
was for a cable, and nothing more. Portions of the plain-
tiff's and of the defendants' cable had been exhibited, and
the difference between them was complete. No one could
pretend to say that the construction of the defendants'
cable was an infringement of the plaintiff's cable.
WESTON'S MUSIC HALL.—In the Court of Bankruptcy,
Mr. Weston, the late proprietor of the Music Hall in
Holborn, came up for his examination. His preliminary
list of creditors returns unsecured debts of £5,033, and
security for the further sum of about £5,000 is held in the
shape of mortgages upon the Bedford Arms. The failure
was ascribed by the bankrupt to pressure by creditors and
falling off of business. The examination was adjourned
till the 9th of November.

STRANGE ACTION FOR SLANDER.—An action for slander
was brought at the Guildford Assizes by Mr. Francis
George Hare against his brother Augustus Hare, under most
singular circumstances. The plaintiff and the defendant
were both sons of the late Mr. Hare, barrister, who died
in 1841, leaving a large fortune to be divided amongst his
family. The plaintiff was formerly in the Guards, and
lived a life of gaiety, during which he wasted a good
deal of his money. Mrs. Hare and her daughter
during an absence on the Continent became Roman
Catholics, and the plaintiff subsequently embraced the
same faith. The sister died in May 1866,. and it then
appeared that some speculations into which she had
entered were unsuccessful, and consequently she was not
worth so much as was anticipated. Before her death this
lady made a will under which the plaintiff became
entitled tl some property, and soon after the
demise of the sister the defendant wrote a letter to
Mrs. Montgomery, a lady holding a high position, and
related to Lord Leconfield, stating that there were rumours
about as to what had occurred at the death-bed of his
sister, and to the disposition of her property, and that for
some time before her death his sister would not see plain-
tiff, and that she shrieked when his name was mentioned.
It was also represented that the sudden death of his sister
ought to be cleared up. It was ultimately settled that all
imputations against the plaintiff should be withdrawn,
and a verdict for 20s. and costs given by the jury.
DAMAGES FOR ASSAULT. —At the same assizes the
cause of Walker v. the South-Eastern Railway Company
was disposed of. The plaintiff, an assistant to a surgeon,
was with a friend at Gravesend, and on returning it was
attempted to place some drunken persois in the same
carriage ; but this the plaintiff objected to, and an alterca-
tion took place between him and some of the officials.
Upon arriving at London Bridge a dispute took place
between tho same officials and some other passengers, and
on the plaintiff's coming up he was knocked down and
kicked. On rising he struck one of the officials in the
face, and for that offence was committed to the Surrey
Sessions, where the jury acquitted him. The jury now
gave £l7O damages for the assault, but refused to award
anything for the false imprisonment.
CHARGE OF KILLING A BOY.—At the Hammersmith
Police-court, Charles Lovejoy and Edward Allen,
boys about 14 years of age, were placed in the dock on a
charge of causing the death of another boy, name un-
known, by shooting him in the head. It seems that the
prisoners were at Wormwood Scrubs, and a sergeant in a
rifle eorpi gave the prisoner Allen his rifle, which was
loaded, to take care of. Soon afterwards Allen put a cap
on the nipple, and the other prisoner said, " You dare not
fire it." Allen, to show that he dare do so, fired the gun,
and shot another boy who was close at hand in the ear,
killing him instantaneously. It transpired that the pri-
soners had been informed that the gun was loaded. 'I hev
were both remanded.

We have authority for announcing that Mr.
R. W. Rawson, C. 8., now Governor of the Bahamas,
West Indies, has been appointed to be Governor-in-Chiel
of the Windward Islands ; and that Mr. John Scott,
formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Natal. is to succeed Mr.
Rawson at the Bal amas.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 4, 1868.

There is, however, one drawback with regard
to the ultimate benefit of the work, viz., the
great work of kind and judicious supervision
when the children leave the school. Many of
them are orphans, without a friend in the
world ; others have bad homes in either case,
if a girl from any cause (and very often it is
not her own fault) leaves the situation where
she has been placed, having no friend to whom
she can turn, her only alternative is to enter
a low, cheap lodging-house, where she is im-
mediately exposed to bad companionship and
to all the nameless evils which follow in its
train. If some ladies from charity would look
after such girls, and thus assist in or undertake
this portion of the work, they would be instru-
mental in preserving many young souls most
dear to the Sacred Heart of Jesus."
3. Poor-Law Schools.

(1.) Under this head may be classed S.
Mary's Orphanage at North Hyde, inasmuch
as it is certified under the Poor-Law Board
for the reception of boys from Workhouse and
District Schools, although it also receives boys
of other classes. _

The School contains 170 boys. The late
Vicar-General, the Very Rev. Canon O'Neil,
whose long life of good works has endeared his
memory to the diocese at large, bestowed on
this school his special care. It may be said that
through him it has been raised from a state of
less than inefficiency to a high point of excel-
lence, in good order, peace, and health. It
was he who introduced into the school the
Brothers of Mercy, and to their kind, wise,
and patient care, the present satisfactory state
of the school is immediately to be ascribed.
One of Canon O'Neal's last acts was to build
another wing to the school, capable of receiv-
ing 100 additional boys. In the new building
are two large and excellent dormitories, with
complete ventilation. The work was executed
from the designs of Messrs. Willson and Nichol],
and has been thoroughly well done. The cost
amounted to £2,100, of which £l,OOO has been
contributed by the Diocesan Education Fund.
In November last a full set of brass instru-
ments was provided for the school ; and in the
last fewmonths a full band has been trained,
which has already attained great proficiency.
The moral and religious state of the school is
highly to be commened.
(2.) St. Mary's, Walthamstow.
This •school, for girls, transferred from
Workhouse and District Schools, is capable of
receiving about 100 children. It contains, at
this moment, only 25. The cause of this is
to be found in the unjust conduct of those who
detain our poor Catholic children in the Prc-
testant District Schools. Year by year, till
our patience is wearied, we have striven to
obtain the bare justice due to our Catholic
poor. Year by year, Bills have been intro-
duced into Parliament, and either mutilated
at last, or thrown over to another session.
It is right here to say that from the late and
present presidents of the Poor-Law Board, and
from their officials, we have met with the most
kind and equitable treatment; and also that
the Guardians of the Strand Union, of Chelsea 4
Fulham, and of St. Giles's, have manifested
an equitable and kindly disposition:
The children at Walthamstow are in every
way in a very satisfactory condition. No one
who has not watched the children received from
the Protestant district schools can conceive
the profound mental and spiritual injury suf-
fered by our poor Catholic children. When
they are released at an early age, they more
easily regain the practice and spirit of their
faith ; but in many cases, and almost always
in the case of those who are grown to a certain
age, the difficulty of training them back to the
practice of their religion is very great.
(3.) St. Helen's School, Brentwood.
This most interesting work, for boys under
seven years of age, has been formed by the
generosity of Miss Tasker, to whose charity
the diocese and the poor already owe so much.
On the transfer of the first set of boys from
the Strand Union School to North Hyde, it
was found that some were too young for the
Orphanage, and some almost infants. It was
necessary, therefore,' to provide a school ex-
clusively for boys under seven years of age.
This has been completed, under the care of
the Very Rev. Canon Kyne, at Brentwood,
in a building enlarged and adapted to the
purpose, on the land immediately adjoining the
church and presbytery.
4. Noit-cert;fied Schools.

(1.) Elizabeth Hampstead, under
the SistersofProvidence of
the Immaculate
Conception.
The school contains 20 orphan girls.
The zealous community have lately, by their
own efforts, and on their own responsibility,
purchased a freehold property consisting of
house and grounds, for the extension of their
work.
(2.) S. Elizabeth's Home for Poor Children,
attached to the Franciscan Convent, Portobello-
road, Bayswater.
The Franciscan Sisters have built upon their
own land a house capable of holding 80 poor
children, of whom they will undertake the
manageMent. The building is roofed in, and
will be completed, it is hoped, by the Feast of
S. Francis in next October. The Sisters, by
collecting in the diocese, have already raised
£1,600. A further sum of £370 is required
for the cost of the new building. This amount
they have received partly from the charity of,
the faithful and partly from the generosity of
those who, though not united with us in all
things, have shown a kind and ready will to
help them in this good work.
lII.—In the Report of last year we pub-
lished a scheme for the encouragement of
certificated Masters and Pupil Teachers. In
the course of the year 22 schoolmasters .have
received a grant of £2ll Bs. 2d., and 16 pupil
teachers have received £B5. The importance
of this application of the Diocesan Education
Fund is very great, and will be fully appre-
ciated by allowho have watched the vicissitudes
of our education in the last twenty years.
From the letter of the Principal of S.
Mary's Training College, it will be seen that,
at the examination of the pupil teachers this
year, out of 38 candidates, 7 were placed in the
first class and 18 in the second. This satis-
factory result may be in a great measure
ascribed to the prudence of the Poor School
Committee in forming the preparatory class.

Lastly, a sum of £331 18s. 3d. has been
given in miscellaneous grants, towards the
maintenance, clothing, and education of desti-
tute children.

In our efforts to provide for individual cases
of destitute children, we especially need the
help of all charitable persons ; and we are the
more encouraged to ask it by the knowledge,
that in the year before last many responded
to the appeal we then made. Instances, too,
are known to us of persons who secretly, out
of their small means, and it may be truly said
out of their poverty, with much self-denial
undertook to maintain a poor child in some
of our schools, and continue to do so to this
day. We would earnestly invite all who have
the power to do the same ; and to encourage
their children to learn betimes the happiness
of denying themselves for the poor, and of
caring for the salvatiou of souls, by under-
taking, either singly, or by uniting together
with others, to maintain a destitute child.

IV.—ln bringing this report to an end, we
cannot refrain from saying that the work of
education vital at all times; is even more urgent
now. It is certain that systems of education'
will be hereafter tried, and perhaps forced
upon the country, which will render all our
efforts to maintain a pure Christian and religi-
ous education all the more imperatively neces-
sary. The people of England in all their divi-
sions are, nevertheless, to a great extent,
agreed in regarding the union of religion and
education to be essential. They still believe
that education must develope not the intel-
ligence only, but the conscience and the will ;,
that this cannot be done by instruction alone ;
and that it can be done only by Christianity
pervading the whole training of the child and
the whole discipline of the school. Catholics,
of all men, are bound-by every principle and
by every instinct of their faith to this obyious

truth. But holding it, we must act upon it.
We must show that we mean what we say,
by doing what we declare to be necessary. If
we be negligent or slack, we shall have only
ourselves to blame, when the relentless ad-
vance of secular education and local rating
shall hereafter pass over us.
We began our report by rejoicing over the
great and steady growth of numbers in our
schools. We must end it by an expression of
profound anxiety for the thousands of our poor
children who as yet are perishing in the streets.
Every day brings ns evidence of the multi-
tudes who for want of training are lost. May
God so awaken us to this terrible havoc of
souls, and of our poor innocent little ones, that
we never relax or give ourselves rest till, by
an effort persevering and wide-spread through-
out London, we shall have gathered the last
of our poor children under the influence and
guidance of a thorough Catholic education.
There remains but one other topic. At the
beginning of this fund many engaged their
generous assistance for three years, some for
five, some for more. We enter now on our
third year. At the end of it our income will
be reduced by one-half. But in the last two
years our work and our liabilities have been
greatly increased. We earnestly pray, for the
love of God and of souls, that you renew your
subscriptions for another three years. A little
self-denial, a trifling privation, will be enough
to enable most of you to do so with ease.
Happier for you if it cost you some sensible
denial of yourselves for the sake of our Divine
Master. Deal generously with Him, and He
will not bo outdone in generosity. Your offer-
ings will return upon you and yours a hundred
I fold in every good gift of grace, and in the
eternal reward of His kingdom.

HOUSEHOLD SUFFRAGE AND THE
ANGLICAN ESIABLISMIENT.

From the old Parliament, on the eve of
dissolution, the minds of men in hope or fear
are turned to the new ; some regret the consti-
tuencies created by the Reform Act of 1832,
others contemplate with joy the prospects of
more vigorous action from household suffrage.
The Reform Bill of 1832 was undoubtedly a
revolution in the constitutional balance ; it
weakened the power of the Crown, of the
House of Peers, and of the Anglican Establish-
ment, and it threw the governing power prac-
tically into the hands of the middle classes.
This balance, disturbed by the Reform Bill
of 1832, will, as it seems to us, be in a mea-
sure readjusted by household suffrage ; the
larger admission of the Democratic element
into the franchise will indirectly increase the
power of the landed interests and of the great
employers of labour. Middle-class predomi-
nance, exclusively represented under the Re-
form Bill of 1832, and destined to perpetua-
tion by Mr. Gladstone's "hard and fast line,"
is rendered next to impossible by household
suffrage. The masses of the people admitted
to the franchise are, more open to influences,
good or evil, than a class so self-sufficient and
so exclusive as that from which the new Re-
form Bill has wrested the supreme power.
The question to be considered is, and it is an
exceedingly grave one, How are the masses to
be influenced for good ?—how are the evils
to which Democracies are prone to, in every
country and in every age, to be averted ? Com-
munism, war, revolution, are the disturbing
elements in a State where power is confided
exclusively to the hands of the people, but in
a nation like England, where ancient institu-
tions and time-honoured traditions are deeply
rooted—where hereditary monarchy and a
vigorous aristocracy flourish, the admission of
the people to a larger share of power is not
likely to produce the mischief predicted of
pure Democracies. There is danger, undoubt-
edly, and more especially on account of the
almost entire absence, in the labouring classes
of England, of religion, the great promoter of
order and of the stability of States ; but it
is a danger which exists, whether the people
be excluded from political power or not. To
treat them as the outcasts of society is to
make them so ; to put confidence in them may
be one step towards reconciling them to reli-
gion. One thing, however, is evident, that
this conversion to Christianity of the masses
of the working people admitted by the new
Reform Bill to a large share in the govern-
ment of the country cannot be effected by the
Anglican Establishment. Between the Esta-
blishment and the people there is no sympathy,
no point of contact ; Anglicanism is the reli-
gion of the respectable classes ; it does not de-
mand much from them nor give much in re-
turn beyond the stamp of respectability. It
allows as great a latitude in faith as in practice.
With the least possible inconvenience, the
sacrifice of two hours once a week, and on occa-
sions a handsome subscription or two, men
may pass their lives as honoured members
of the Established Church, and on their death
be entitled to a decent funeral and to a lauda-
tory headstone in a conspicuous position of a
country graveyard.
Now, such a religion—of course, we are
speaking of Anglicanism proper, not of Ritual-
ism in any of its shapes of Catholic develop-
ment—has
not hing in common with the work-
ing
classes. How they are to Ile converted is
another question, which we cannot enter into
here ; but at least so much is certain that in a
Parliament, in which the voice and feelings of
the masses of the people of Great Britain and
Ireland find a response or exercise an influence;
the Established Church, whether in Ireland or
in England, is doomed. It has struck no
roots into the soil ; it is an exotic which
flourishes in the hothouSe of social influence ;
it is true to its original seed—Royal favour.
As long as the middle class were in the exclu-
sive enjoyment of political power, the Anglican
Church was sure to flourish, for it was closely
connected by interest, by tradition, by family
ties, by property with this large and influential
class. It had gradually collected around it
also many sympathies—a little of the moss of
antiquity was visible here and there at the foot
of its walls, in retired corners and pleasant
nooks of the country. In the golden age
of English literature the Anglican Church was
enriched with an accidental glory, in the same
way as it is still indebted for many of its
most sacred reminiscences to a liturgy not
its own, and to ancient cathedrals and village
churches raised for a worship which, in its
pride, it denounced as alien. But what avail
are mere reminiscences, decaying traditions,
or class-interests to a Church which does not
possess the hearts of the people, and has lost
its hold on the intellect of the country? With-
out roots in the soil, can it stand for an instant
against the wrench of the popular will ? Like
a tree whose roots have been cut, it may wither
for awhile above the ground, but the day is no
longer distant when its remains will be carted
away. And shall we regret the disappearance
of this great heretical Establishment, though
under its ruins the remnants of unadulterated
Protestantism remain, or more hideous forms
of error spring np ? Why should we do so,
for is it not itself the breeder of heresies ? Is
it not sacrificing to the spirit of infidelity in
its own ranks, and to the intellectual unbelief
of the day, the fragments of the Christian
faith it long held as divine ? Whether the
Parliament of household suffrage be destined
to work out good or evil in the country, this
much at least is certain, that it will not long
endure that the Anglican Establishment, the
Church
.of a class, shall enjoy the rights of
a National Church. Freed from the shackles
of an Establishment which they loathe, and
from a position which is degrading to them,
the Ritualists will gradually but surely find
their way home to the Catholic Church, the
sole representative of dogmatic truth in the
country. At the removal of this ancient adver-
sary, at all events a clearer field will be opened
to the Catholic Church, and she, brought
once more face to face with the nation so
long estranged from her presence, will know
how to reconcile the masses to the doctrines
of a lost Christianity.—Westminster Gazette.

A bill exempting property of blind persons,
amounting to $3,000, from taxation, has been defeated in
Oonneetieut Legidatue.