The Sun.
London, England, 1826-01-02 00:00:00

DREADFUL ACCIDENT.

(From the Dublin Freeman's. Journal.)
CA T.LAN (COUNTY KILKENNY), DEC. 26.--.. k
scene of horror has happened' in this town. Tor"
day, between the hours of twelve and one o'clock,
the Augustinian Friary Chapel being crowded to'
excess, some women and children began to groan-
nod complain of the immense preistire. A sod-
(l.4i panic; seized the congregation, when a cry,
perfectly unfounded', that '" the gallery was giv.
rug way" resounded through the Chapel A
frantic rush towards the only door common
to the floor :find gallery took phice. Wo-
men and children were instantly
crushed to
death, or suffocated just outside the uoor Where
they fell. Immediately a pile, five feet deep,
Of the ilead, dying, and half-suffoessted, accumu-
lated at the door. .A cry, that the kitchen
(which is -under the'Chapel) was on fire, added
to the terror of the scene. A rush towards the
altar broke down the railings of the sanctuary.
some were' killed in the. fall. from • the windows.
Now a scene.- of. heartrending 'lamentation took •
place—the -father,- seeking among 'the piles of
dead and dying for the child-,the husband for
the wife—the mother hearing the
,dead body of
her beloved child in her arms running frantic
through the streets. A fine young woman, a. Miss
Cross, bore a.neighbour's child over the pi he, and
instantly remembering that her, own sister was
within, she attempted to retarn, but net her
untimely -.fate at. the, fatal door of .death. A.
mother of nine children is consigned to the grave !
At this hour (a.. o'clock at night) two childreo
'Who were crushed to .death behind the (loot re•
main unknown, belonging probably to country
people, who hive not, yet-heard of their untimely
fate. 'Fourteen persons are already dead,' The
number of those who had broken logs, sans, ribs,
&c. now under the hind of the surgeon, amounts
to one hundred. This day of sorrow will he
remembered for a long time by the Weepitli inha-
bitants of Oallan.
We are sorry to say the above account -
con.
firmed in most of the particulars, by the fol wing
extract from a Kilkenny Paper :--
." A most afflicting catastrophe happened at Callan °town.
day last, of which a Correspondent has favouied us with eft&
lowing account :—As the Rev. Mr. Rice was going to 'c bride'
mass on Monday, the 2fith inst., at the hour of eleven o h,,k,
the Chapel was immensely crowded ; and a pOor womanitt the
body of the building having given utterance to the angult, iihe
endured from the very great pressure, this unfortunately !ached
a movement among the people in the gallery, on which a port
arose that the gallery was giving way, and a second that afl had
broken out underneath. The people in, the body of the C Abel
rushed forward towards the door, and pressed on thoee,c ,innti
down from the gallery., when melancholy to relate,. six-spoor
women, with threiehildren, lost their lives by. the press of
1
the crowd, and a great number were severelyinjured by.' 01-
tusions and fractured Botha, &s. Too much praise cant be
bestowed on the exertions of 'Doctors Butler and Keutin of
Callan, who; until a very late hour, never ceased to us all
their-exertions in relieving and administering remedies t the
unfortunate surviving sufferers; and also the huinane con la
of the Rev. Mr. Dobbyn, who contributed much to their r ref
by his unceasing exertions." -
1' Itobt THE LEINSTIEIt JOURNAL.----We are Crlti-
cerned to "say, other accounts represent the .
tality as much greater, and one states that a e
persons expired late on Monday night ; • and a .
other, that two of the women who were killek,
were advanced in a stale of pregnancy ; and'a
third, tipai one of the women has, left ten helphis
childrentehind. :

Tlitaituy evening the town of Newbury, its
conjunction with Speenhamland, the great thoroughfare wit
to Bath and Bristol, was brilliantly illuminated whit gas fop
the first time, the works having lately been completed by Mr.
Hadley, the gas- contractor,' of London. The Alayor of the
town of Newbury, most of the tut:tubers or Ili c Corporation, the
Comntiasioners of the town, and a number of others, were col.
'acted on 'the occasion to witness the Illumination by gist it
hetttr, a novels to that paw of the country ; the inhabitants
appeared highly delighted with the improvement.