The Sun. — 1844-07-26 (London, England)

ANOTHER ROYAL VISIT. —We understand that his Royal Highness Prince Frederic William Louis of Prussia, brother of the King, and heir apparent to the Prussian throne, is expected on a visit to her Majesty in the early part of next week. On account of her Majesty's expected accouchement his Royal Highness will take up his residence at the mansion of his Excellency Chevalier Bunsen, the.Prn !..11 a Minister, who returned on Monday last from Berlin; ^for the especial purpose of receiving the Prince in Pr:do-terrace. His Royal Highness, we understand, will pr. :,,ably be present at the Goodwood races.—Post DREADFUL SUICIDE or A rzstALE.—On Tuesday female expired, at the GreenwDiballich un'i wiry the unfortunate young named Hannah , .aed ehteen, precipitated herself from a second-floor wir.dowig of a house near the Magistrate's Police-office, Woolwixh, on Saturday last, and received such injuries, that Serge Ant Perry, 8 R, and constable Gladwin, 122 R, immediately 'sent off for Surgeon Stuart and Mr. Waters, the relieving e4cer, who both most promptly attended; the former, aft sr dressing her wounds, advised her removal to the union, ''..fhich was done by his order. The unfortunate deceapd 'RAS subject to fits of aberration of intellect, and in One of those ele destroyed her life.  Yesterday morning, the Lord Mayor, accompanied by the Chairman of the Navigation Committee, and attended by the Water-Bailiff, the City Solicitor, and the Under-Sheriff, inspected the steam-boat piers above bridge (i.e., above London-bridge). They disembarked at Blackfriars-bridge, and minutely examined the construction of the pier. His Lordship examined persons who were present at the time of the accident, as to the inimediate cause of the disaster. It was quite manifest to the Lord Mayor that the planks connecting the dumb lighter with the shore had been of a thickness quite incompetent for the purpose for which they were laid down, and that the lighters themselves, and in fact all portions of the structure were highly dangerous. The result of his investigation of the Blackfriars-bridge pier most powerfully confirmed the truth and necessity of the observations which he had made on the preceding day in the Common Council, when the subject was so properly introduced and handled by several of the members of that body, and he had himself asked why the Committee which had ineffectually represented the condemnation of the pier to a former Chief Magistrate, had omitted to make a similar representation to him. The Lord Mayor and the City Officers, after having examined the Blackfriars-bridge pier, attended a Committee at the Guildhall, and orders were issued to the Water-Bailiff and Clerk of the Works, to set off from London-bridge and proceed up the river, and to compel the owners of all piers immediately to put them in a condition for the safe and convenient embarkation of passengers by steam-boats ; and in the event of hesitation in complying with the regulations, the Lord Mayor declared that he would sign warrants, which the City Solicitor bad prepared, for removing with a sti ong hand every pier not rendered conformable with the rules. Blackfriars-bridge pier, it appears, had been presented two years ago by a conservancy jury as unsafe, and the parties engaged in keeping it in use were informed that it would be removed, under the authority of the Court, but intelligence having been received, that the proprietors were poor watermen, thrown out of employment by the introduction of steam navigation on the river, the pier was permitted to remain, upon an assurance that it should be rendered perfectly safe and secure. The manner in which that pledge was redeemed the late melancholy event demonstrates, and the Lord Mayor commented in strong language upon the readiness with which such a pledge was received, and the carelessness with which it was ever afterwards treated. At the last Court of Conservancy, a very intelligent jury presented several of the floating piers as offering obstructions at a certain state of the tide to the free navigation of the river. They, however, accompanied their presentment with a statement that "in the absence of better constructed permanent erections for the, accommodatfon of persons landing from, and embarking in steamboats, the continuance of some such piers was a necessary evil, but they represented that measures should be taken by the Corporation, as conservators of the river, to compel the proprietors of all temporary piers to render them now more firm and safe for passengers, and that they should be provided with coloured lamps at night, so placed as to show the position of the piers, and to define their limits."  t appears that the Navigation Committee, in concurrence with the Lord Mayor, have been for some time engaged in making arrangements to give effect to these recommendations of the conservancy juries, and it is to be hoped that a calamity so deplorable will quicken the speed of the authorities, and lead to an early consummation of such an important object. At a Court of Common Council, held on the 16th of December, 1841, Mr. Jonathan C. Prior, the Chairman of the Blackfriars-bridge Committee, whose unwearied attention to the duties of that office, and ability in completing the repairs, entitle his opinion to great respect, said, in recommending that Mr. Walker's plan of erecting a pier on the Bridewell side of Blackfriars-bridge, the Court could not forget that already three or four deaths had taken place in consequence of the wretched awl badly-managed construction at present in use. It was quite impossible that the Corporation should allow such a melancholy appeal to pass unnoticed. So long as that bungling piece of work was in existence, the lives of the public would be in constant jeopardy, and it therefore became the duty of the Court to interfere without delay, for the sake of humanity." Sir Peter Laurie supported Mr. Prior's view of the subject, and dwelt most particularly upon the security of the lives of the public, with reference to the pier. On the 20th of January, 1843, Mr. Prior, in bringing up the first report relative to Blackfriars-bridge, concluded his remarks by "urging again upon the Court not to lose sight of the necessity of remedying the existing evil at the bridge, but at once to cause the present disgraceful landing-place to be removed." Mr. Anderton also rose and said " he regretted that a committee which bad so admirably performed its duties should be dissolved before they had carried their plan for establishing a better and safer landing-plane, and it would be most satisfactory to know that the committee, to whom the keeping up of the bridge devolved, would not suffer the question to rest."  The public will see from the above quotations from the speeches made on the subject of the danger, the lamentable evidences of which have so recently been manifested, that some of the members of the Corporation did not hesitate to speak aloud their apprehensions.  Dispatches were sent off from the Colonial-office to the Governors of Gibraltar and the Mauritius.