The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-28 00:00:00

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I 1111 'I.,- tri A n

HER MAJESTY.

The Queen, with the junior members of the
Royal Family, and their attendant suites, will
arrive in England on the 11th of September.
The Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, Captain
his Serene Highness the Prince Leiningen, will pro-
ceed t•o Cherbourg, and be ready to embark the
Royal party on the morning of that day. The
yacht will thin cross to Portsmouth Harbour, and
the Queen and Royal Family will disembark at the
Royal Clarence Victualling Yard. They will then
travel t• Windsor, 'arriving at the Cast!e a littla
after seven o'clock.
It is believed that the Queen 1% ill leave Windsor
about Friday, the 25th of September, for her lligh-
land home at Balmoral.

71.1 E CA7 ASTROPHE AT .IBERG EL E.

In the excitement attendant upon the awful
catastrophe of last week some expressions have
found place in the descriptions published by the
daily journals which do not appear to be exactly
warranted by the circumstances when these are
examined critically. The idea that the terrible loss
of life which occurred was due to " explosion" is
not well founded. The paraffin oil with which the
run-away trucks were loaded is not, at least in the
liquid form, an explosive material. It is highly
combustible, and when ignited, as it doubtless was
by the fire of the engine with which it came in
contact, it would burn with terrible rapidity. But
had the material been really explosive, instead of
a few carriages with their inmates being consumed,
the whole train must have been shattered to
pieces. Various explanations have been hazarded
in regard to the absence of cries for help from
the carriages, and the fact that no effort seems to
have been made by any one passenger to escape
from the burning vehicles. It has been suggested
by some that the inmates were stunned by the con-
cussion ; by others that they were instantaneously
rendered insensible by the ana3sthetic properties of
the vapour from the oil. We do not think that the
circumstances can be altogether explained in either
of these ways. In even very violent collisions it
has never been the case that all the inmates of the
first.few carriages have been so stunned by the
concussion as to be incapable of an effort at self-
preservation, and it has often happened that, the
whole
.force having been spent in breaking up
carriages, as occurred in this instance, the pas-
sengers have escaped with very little injury. There
must, then, have been other causes in operation.
The passengers here were grouped into two portions,
those who were consumed to ashes and those who
escaped comparatively unhurt. We must, therefore,
necessarily look upon the presence of the paraffin
oil as the essential cause of the exceptional horrors
which marked this railway accident. It has been
suggested that the unhappy victims were thrown
at the outset into a state of anaesthesia. Of the
anaesthetic properties of the vapour of paraffin oil
there can be no doubt. The oil is highly complex
and somewhat variable mixture of volatile hydro-
carbons, and though this mixture has probably
never been directly tested, some of its constituents
undoubtedly belong to the class of anaesthetics.
Amylene, for example, is a well-recognised member
of the class, and amylene is a very common, if not
a constant, constituent of the oil. So far, then,
probabilities appear in favour of the hypothesis; but
without venturing to dogmatise upon so difficult a
subject, we are compelled to think that these proba-
bilities diminish on a closer examination. A careful
consideration of the circumstances appear to us to
indicate that the ignition of the highly inflammable
fluid mustNhave followed almost instantly upon the
collision, and consequently that the unfortunate crea-
tures must have been surrounded by a sheet of flame
long before anaesthesia could possibly have been pro-
duced. What they then breathed was not the mere
vapour of the volatile hydrocarbons, but a torrent of
black smoke, charged perhaps to some extent with
hydrocarbon vapour, but deadly from its tempera-
ture, and from the products of combustion of which it
mainly consisted. Carbonic acid, and the still
more poisonous carbonic oxide, are more likely to
have been the noxious agents than the val ours of
the oil. They must have been present in far larger
quantity, and are much more intense and rapid in
their effects. It was probably asphyxia, in fine,
not ant-e3thesia, which cut short the sufferings Of
the victims. But this is not all. The cause of
death, and the explanation of the horrible stillness
which characterized the inmates of the leading ear-
riages, may be reasonably ascribed, we think, in
some cases, to the shock which the sudden expo'
sure of the entire body to flame would inevitably
occasion, The impression upon the nervous centres
thus produced would be a powerful agent in rapidly
extinguishing vitality. And there is nothing la-
consistent with recorded experience in this viely•
In our journal of the 17th of January,
1863, Dr. Buzzard described minutely the appear"
antes presented by six children who had been
taken out dead from the top room of a house which
bad been burnt down. They had all been found
lying in bed in a posture of repose, except WI
who was on the floor. The condition of the bodies
showed unmistakably that the extensive burns O
them had been inflicted during life, and signs f
suffocation were absent. Yet they had made, wit',
one doubtful exception, no effort to escape, an(i
their countenances bore no sign of a struggle for
existence. On such a point as the degree of con-
sciousness which would exist under the circum-
stances of violent death of this description it is iro"
possible to speak with absolute confidence, but 0a
the whole we believe that a human body suddenlf
o
ti
wrapped in flames under the conditions which o.b:
tained at Abergele would have its vitality e% n
guished with extreme rapidity. And this 010,,t
amount of comfort is all that we can extrnt'
from an event which is sickening to dwell upon.
7he Lancet.

THE THREATENED CAB STRIKE. —A greater
the
hmount of public inconvenience, resulting fro
cabmen's agitation against the railway privileged ca"t
system, is likely to arise in the streets of LondonP to-rtigb,
than has been experienced since the agitationcoinrner°:
The notice, directing "all cabs to be home at se'let
o'clock," on the occasion of the Cumberland-market Met;
ing some threo weeks since was but litttle attended to, the
movement not being then very generally taken up bY the
trade. Up to last week, however, 4,762 non-privileged d
ver5,1,132 non-privileged masters, 53 privileged drivereint
42 privileged masters, in all representing 3,877 plat°s' 11$ s
signed a guarantee not to ply at or near the railway statioo
until the privileged cabs are withdrawn thereform. 1)°, 6,1115
the past week large additions have been made to the t315-ti;
tures of both masters and men, so that it is expected thtt
t()
at least 4,000 cabs will be withdrawn from the streets ;
night about seven o'clock, in order to enable proptieteria
and drivers to attend the e Groat• final meeting," to be titeret
in the Agricultural Hall at eight o'clock. As the iett,
of the Cabmen's Association to the railway corePBl3lo,°
sent a fortnight ago has produced no effect tending to
amicable settlement of the dispute, it is more than probalTo
a strike will be decided on to-night. What its forni W. 05
be it is impossible to say. Some masters suggest ae
t ping
all cabs at home until half-past ten every morning, °°ioo
to render the conveyance of the public to the early nor
difficult. Others are for keeping the cabs at horn
of
four o'clock in the afternoon, while a small section c"ffio
tra
of
trade advocate entire cessation from ordinary cab
for a certain period. Whatever may be the deci6l3llbile
to-night's meeting in the direction of a strike the 13‘1
will be the sufferers. A vro.
How TO INCREASE YOUR OWN RENT.--1' *;us
perty owner of South London has been detected PlaYcl
a clumsy trick during the past week. He had indue, ce 1.3.-
certain capitalist to examine a house he had for sauce
presenting the rent to be £l5 a year more than
he "tio
actually obtained for it, to back up which story
ini' To
persuaded his tenant to act in collusion with h
capitalist had almost completed the purchase, at fair re'
cassive price, believing that ho would obtain~e,
a _f
turn, when his prospective tenant rushed into the ",
that he had been party to a deception, of which :o oaf
of his
and made a clean breast of his own perfidy-, ac kn
now ashamed. The tenant had made the timely year
that he would be compelled to pay the extra ,El-5 per.,t_ or
be liable to an action for assisting in the workin
to the new landlord, according to his own s
fraud.—South London Press. agar
house, Wednesday evening a large cigar
house, iu the occupation of 111essrs. Cope Brothers;os
manufacturers, in Sidney-street East, Liverpool;
ptroyed by fire. taten:vf