The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-13 00:00:00

LONDON POLIOE.-UNION HALL

SINGULAR MARRIAGE.—James Balls, late the driver of
one of the Brixton stage-coaches, appeared upon his recog-
nizance, for the purpose of entering into bail for an assault,
and threatening the life of his wife, a lady of considerable
property, to whom he had recently been married.
The complainant, a tall genteel-looking woman, was ac-
companied by a medical gentleman, one of her trustees, and
two ladies. She stated that she was married to the defendant
six months ago, at which time he was the driver of a Brixton
coach, and that she lived on the line of road over which he
was in the habit of driving backwards and forwards every
day. That in six days after their marriage took place he left
her, and only came occasionally to see her for the' purpose of
demanding money ; and on those occasions if she refused his
demand he would threaten her with personal violence, and
has frequently thrown things at her.

Mr. t ottin.kham.—Descilbevien he last threatened your
life. _

Complainant.—On Thursday last he came to my house,
and on entering the room where I was sitting, he exclaimed
in a loud tone, " I want half a hundred pounds, and must
have it." She told him that his conduct to her was so bad,
and that she had already given him so much money, she had
determined sot to give him any more, upon which he flew
into a violent passion, took up the poker, and swore that he
would murder her if she refused to give him what be came
there for.

Mr. Cottingham.—Where has be been living since he left

Complainant. —I am totally ignorant as to that, or who his

associates are

What money have you given him since your marriage?—
Upwards of £BOO, which he soon run through.
Mr. Cottingham asked the defendant what he had to say
in answer to the charge ? _

The defendant raid that he never threatened t) injure her ;
that he had no such thought ; that when he got married to
her, knowing she was a lady, he wanted to live comfortable
as a gentleman, and accordingly thought they ought to ride
in their carriage as well as other folks with plenty of money;
that the £BOO she talked about giving him be had expended
most part on a carriage and horses for their joint use ; that
soon after their marriage she wanted to keep a tight hand
over him, and treated him more like a poor dependent than
a husband. He added that he did not like such goings on,
and it was her fault that he was obliged to leave the house,
and that his marriage with her was anything but fortunate,
for previously to it he was in the receipt of six guineas a-
week, while he was driving one of his father's coaches, and
since then his friends had turned their backs upon him.
Mr. Cottingham, who was evidently surprised, asked the
complainant whether she was aware the defendant was a
coachman at the time she formed a matrimonial alliance
with him ? _ _

The reply was, that she had known him three or four
tyoeaßrsriaxitiotene.edently, seeing him of a day driving up and down

'-fliCOMplainant's trustee said that her father held a high
situation in the East India House, and left her an ample for-
tune, which was luckily secured in such a manner that the
defendant could not touch it. He added that, since the mar-
riage took place, the lady had led a most wretched life, in
consequence of her having formed an alliance so much be-
neath her.
Mr. Cottingham expressed his astonishment that a lady of
birth and education should have entered into an alliance with
the defendant; who, having entered into his own recognizance
of £2OO, and found two sureties of £lOO each, was then
discharged.

EATING AND DRINKING.-It will rather take the reader
by surprise to be told, that in a life of 65 years' duration, with
a moderate daily allowance of mutton, for instance, he will
have consumed a flock of 350 sheep, and that altogether for
dinner alone; adding to his mutton a reasonable allowance of
potatoes and vegetables, with a pint of wine daily for thirty
years of this period, above thirty tons of solids and liquids
must have passed through his stomach.
" I'm a 'tickler friend to you," as the snuff said to the
nose.—" I shall be glad to hear from you at all times," as
the deaf man said to the trumpet.--" Let me collect myself,"
as the man said when he was blown up by the powder mill.—
Loaded with slugs," as the gardener said to the wallflower.

DREADFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT IN FRANCE.

(From Galig_nani:!.Mes.9.fnger of Monday.)

~
The Rive Gauche Versailles railway was yesterday- evening
the scene of a deplorably fatal accident, by which many lives
have been lost, and a great number of persons dreadfully
maimed.

This sad catastrophe took place near Menden ; the train
which experienced the accident being that which started at
half-past five o'clock from Versailles, and which, being
crowded to excess with persons returning to town from the
fete, rendered the event more calamitous than it would have
been at any ordinary period. Our informant is a gentleman
who was a passenger by the train, and who was happily in
one of the carriages which escaped the collision. He de-
scribes the velocity with which the train was proceeding
some minutes previous to the accident as extreme, so great
as to have suggested in his mind the idea that the slightest
obstacle on the road encountered by the wheels of the engine
would be dangerous to excess. The thought had scarcely
occurred to him when a frightful shock to the entire train, a
fearful crash, mingled with horrible shrieks from the carriages
in advance of that in which he sat, showed that some dreadful
accident had occurred, but the doors of the carriages being
locked at the exterior it was not until our informant and the
other passengers in the carriage, and in those which were
placed behind it, were able to make their egress by the win-
dows, that the frightful extent of the accident they had so
providentially escaped became known to them. The scene
which presented itself was truly appalling. It appeared that
the engine had by some fatality got off the line, and ran up
against the embankment, when, from the alarming rapidity
with which the heavily-laden train was then running, six or
seven of the carriages were literally dashed to pieces, and were
lying in a mass of fragments piled in a broken mass upon the
engine; numbers of the outside passengers had been thrown
off by the shock, but of the unhappy sufferers who had taken
their places in the interior, and who still survived, the fate
was even more dreadful than those who had been killed ; for
to make the calamity still more horrible, the fire of the en-
gine almost instantly extended to the broken mass which was
above it, and several of the sufferers were actually burnt to
death on the spot. Our informant describes the shrieks of
the victims, whom it was impossible to aid, and more parti-
cularly of two unfortunateladies, who were vainly calling to
the last for water, as inexpressibly dreadful. The agitation
inseparable from such a moment, and the confusion which
necessarily existed, rendered it impossible to obtain any ac-
count of the loss of life, or other particulars relative to the
sufferers ; but these will, doubtless, reach us in the course of
the day, Wp entertain a hope—a faint one—that they. may
show this accident to be less dreadful in its results than we
have described it, almost from the lips of the gentleman to
whom we owe the information. But we have rather under
than overstated his description, and his coolness and pre-
sence of mind lead us to fear that his narrative will be more
than borne out when the full details are made public.
We find the following accounts given in the Siecle and the
National. They confirm, as far as their details go, the har-
rowing statement of our own informant ; but the true cause
of the accident, as also the extent of loss of life, with other
particulars, with which it is very desirable the public should
be fully informed, seems to rest as yet upon mere surmise.
We trust that autheptic and full particulars of the cause and
extent of the disaster, will bp wade Jinown. poppealplpt
upon such subjects is a certain mode of magnifying the effects
of such disasters in the public mind.

"The half-past five o'clock train was returning yesterday
from Versailles, with about 18 waggons drawn by three en-
gines, when, between Bellevue and Meudon, the first engine
broke down, in consequence of the breaking of one of the
axletrees. The second engine consequently rushed upon it,
crushed the stoker, and snSashed the engine to pieces, strew-
ing the fire along the railway. The fire caught the waggons,
which had been newly painted. The conflagration became
dreadful, and, to add to the horror of the accident, the doors
of the waggons were all fastened, the keys being kept by the
conduotours, so that the passengers could not get out to save
themselves. The bodies of the victims were brought last
night to the station at Paris, and laid in the waiting-room,
but they presented only the appearance of a mishapen mass
of burnt flesh and bones, so that not a single individual
could be recognised. When assistance was sent to Meudon
to collect the remains, it was found necessary to use
forks, and poles, and shovels, or other tools, to move them,
Many who were injured, but escaped with life, remained at
Meudon ; some were brought to the Neckar Hospital, and
others were taken to their homes, so that the number of the
sufferers cannot as yet be ascertained; but the killed are va-
riously stated, some giving the loss of life so low as from 7 to
12, and others at between 30 and 40, and the wounded to be
no fewer than 150. One of the directors of the railroad had
an arm and a leg broken. Seven waggons were either entirely
burnt or severeFy, damaged. Quo gentleman, who was in the
first compartment of the waggon which immediately followed
the engine, although he escaped without bodily hurt, was so
affected by the shock that he lost the use of his mental facul,
ties, and was wholly incapable of giving any account of what
had occurred. Immediately on the intelligence of the disaster
being made known the commissary of police at Meudon, the
gendarmie, and a great number of private persons hastened
to the spot, and rendered every possible assistance. Many
of the sufferers were carried up to the palace, and others hu-
manely received into private houses. The burning heap re-
mained two hours before it could be extinguished."
The National adds the following to the above :—" On
going to examine into the cause of the accident, the two en-
gines were found one resting upon the other ; the tender of
one of them had been completely turned round, and in the
directly opposite position ; a little on one side was a waggon
overturned, and half burnt ; at a short distance some of the
rails were cut asunder, and others driven deep into the earth.
The noise which preceded the accident was not that of the
explosion of a bursting boiler, nor were there any traces of
violent rupture in the bodies of the engines ; but it was as-
tonishing to find that the sentry-bo, of one of the watch-,
men near at hand showed all the appearances of having been
blown up."

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.
( From yesterday's London papers.)
The subjoined particulars have a painful interest :—Two
stokers, at first stupified by the smoke and then calcined by
the fire, remained for a considerable time after they had ex-
pired standing at their post, grasping the tools they had
been using. An old soldier, taken alive from the fire, with
an arm broken, a deep wound in his side, and his head bleed-
ing from a cut, refused all aid, exclaiming, " Never mind
me; I shall do well enough. lamin no pain, but go and
save my son and my brother, who are in that waggon,"
pointing at the same time with his mutilated arm. A young
woman snatched alive from the middle of the flames mi.'s'
out for her husband, describing his dress, the colour of his
coat, and adding that lie wore the riband of the Legion of
; Honour. At' the' same time he lay burnt to death at her
feet, and a humane bystander recognising him by her de-
scription threw his handkerchief over the remains to save her
from the horror of the sight. M. Guilland, a distinguished
pupil of the Polytechnic School, succeeded in getting through
the window of the door of the carriage in which he was, and
was able to run about 50 paces from the scene of the disaster,
and then dropped down dead. AM. Bertrand had his thigh
severed from his body, and, as we are told, died yesterday
morning, The wife of a physician, in the Rue de Regard,
is also dead. A pupil of the Normal School has had a leg
amputated, M. de Gaujal was, it is said, only slightly injured,
but his wife had her shoulder broken, or, at least dislpcated.
M. Pontois, the avocet, was found completely calcined, but he
had previously sufficient presence of mind and strength to
force his niece, aged 14, out of the window. She, however,
had her shoulder broken by the fall. The prefect of a de-
partment adjoining that of the Seine, was among the burnt.
Three law students were so fortunate as to save themselves
by getting out of the window. Another person succeeded in
like manner in saving his wife and himpelf. A shoemaker,
of the rue de Sevres, shut up in a waggon, saw his fellow-
passengers perish. He was untouched, but expecting imme-
diate death, when the roof of the carriage fell in, and shel-
tered him from the flames until he was able to extricate him-
self from his perilous situation. A Prussian of extraordinary
strength burst open the door which confined him, and saved
his wife and himself. Among the bodies were those of a bride
and a bridegroom. who'were married on Saturday. One pf
the directors of the railroad stated yesterday that all the pas-
sengers in the first five carriages were either killed or injured ;
consequently, as each carriage contained forty persons, the
number of sufferers from death and mutilation must hare
been 200, independent of those in the other carriages, who
sustained more or less serious injury from this lamentable
catastrophe. At ten at night a young man was seen running
about Sevres calling for his father, mother, and sisters, all of
whom had been destroyed by the flames. Sixteen persons,
alive, but severely injured, were carried on Sunday up to the
Chateau of Meudon. Of these, two died yesterday. Eleven
sufferers were taken on Sunday evening into the Necker
Hospital. Of these, the wife of a draper died yesterday, and
her sister, who was with her, is in a hopeless state. A
banker from Turin, who came to Paris with his wife and sis-
ter-in-law to pass a month, went to Versailles on Sunday,
and as they have not since been seen or heard of, they have
no doubt been included in this lamentable loss of life. So
likewise it must be believed is Mlle. de Villevray, a lady who
went to'Versailles on Sunday, and was to return by the six
o'clock train, but this has not since appeared. These, how-
ever, are not all the afflictions we have to record. Admiral
Dumont d'Urville, with his wife, his son (aged 14), and a
naval officer to whom he was much attached, went to Ver-
sailles on Sunday, intending to return to Paris to dinner.
No tidings of any one of the party have since been received,
although the Minister of Marine sent an express to Versailles
to make inquiries. No doubt of their fate can be entertained,
and it said to have been confirmed by the finding of a letter
upon a body which had been rendered irrecogniseable by the
fire. We were last night assured that the total number
amounted to SO; but it has been impossible to ascertain the
number of those injured, but who are still living. It was
stated yesterday, at the Chamber of Deputies; that the Duke
de Montpensier left Versailles by the train, but alighted at
Sevres, the station before where the accident happened.
We have received the following account of the cause of
this deplorable event. A few minutes after leaving the sta-
tion at Bellevue, M. Milhau, one of the inspectors who was
on the second locomotive, perceived a slight sinking of the
hind part of the engine before him, and immediately blew
his whistle to warn Mr. George, the chief engineer, who was
conducting the train. Mr. George, at once lightening the
break, looked back to learn the cause of the signal. At the
same instant the sixletree of iris locomotive broke, whether
from any weakness in itself, or from some obstacle in the
way, remains to be known, and the unhappy engineer was
thrown to a distance of some yards, and killed instantane-
ously. M. Milhau was also thrown off by the concussion,
and had one of his legs fractured, and a shoulder put out.
Two other engineers, who were on duty upon the first en-
gine, were killed."—The Sie'cle also publishes a letter from
M. Anbeeuf, mayor of Meudon, dated at eight o'clock yes-
terday morning, in which, after relating the general features
of the accident as given above, and, by other accounts, adds :
" The spectacle was most horrible when the burning away
of the panels of the vehicles exposed the results pf the fire
inside, Masses of disfigured bodies, soave still palpitating,
trunks without• members, and members reduced to cinders.
One woman escaped as by a miracle, after seeing her mother
and two children consumed by her side. Another mother
was snatching her child from the flames, but clasped only a
headless body. In a few minutes all the houses in the neigh-
bourhood were spontaneously converted into hospitals, and
their inhabitants, with laudable zeal, made every exertion
for the relief of the sufferers. Litters and conveyances of
all kinds were promptly brought down. A company of en-
gineer soldiers hurried to- the spot with fire-engines, but
water was wanting. At every instant bodies were rescued
from the burning heap, but they were for the most part so
much burnt as for it to be impossible to indentify thsen thie.
The ground was strewed with watches and money. A
wind blew with great force, the fire could not be got undero
till about ten o'clock, and then it was found that at least GO
persons were either dead or in imminent danger, besides un-
accountable numbers more or less seriously injured. The di-
rectors of the railroad displayed an activity worthy of all
praise, having sent several carriages from Paris to convey
back the victims, While lam writing, the authorities of
Versailles and the directors arc on the spot clearing away
all the remains, and sending them in carriages either to
Versailles or Paris. The corpses were not, as has been
falsely stated, precipitately interred during the night, but
were taken into one of the halls of the Chateau de Meudon,
where the relations and friends of the deceased might inspect
them."
The Gazette des Tribunaux states that 73 persons have
been ascertained to be killed, and that the number of those
who have been injured, but are still living, are much more
considerable. This journal also notices that a family of eleven
persons, from the rue de la Poterie, went to Versailles on
Sunday, and not one of them are returned ; so that they are
concluded to have been killed

There is no nobility like that of a great heart, for it never
stoops to artifice, nor is it wanting in good offices where they
are seasonable.