Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1862-11-28 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE ON TILE RAILWAY. Shortly after noon on Thursday week, when the third-class Liverpool train, arriving at Birmingham at 130 p.m., was about three quarters of a mile from the Edgbaston station, and was proceeding at the rate of about twenty miles per hour, the engine driver saw a man get on the line about fifty yards in front of the train, and deliberately lay his head on one of the rails. The driver at once put on his brake and shouted to the guard to do the same, but the train could not be stopped nntil both the engine and all the carriages had passed over the unfortunate man. Under a bridge crossing the line, near the spot where this painful occurrence took place, was found an overcoat, a walking-stick, a pair of gloves, and a hat. Written inside the hat there was the name "J. Parsons." This is the only clue found to the identification of the deceased, who was respectably dressed.  THE PRINCE OF WALES AND THE PRINCESS OF DgNMARK.—The marriage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will be solemnised at the Chapel Royal of St. George, Windsor, early in April next. The walls of the Rubens Room, or King's Drawingroom, at Windsor Castle, have just been hung with a rich crimson figured satin, the pattern being the Royal Arms. The Council-Chamber has also been hung with crimson damask satin, the design being a wreath of laurels surmounting the Royal Crown. The pictureframes in these rooms have all been re-gilded. It is thirty years since the walls of the apartment were decorated in a similar manner.—His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will return home very shortly, Rome being the termination of :his !tour. The Prince may, therefore he expected in England in a few days. —Their Royal Highnesses Prince Christian, and his daughter Princess Alexandra, will return to Denmark this week. They will be met on their journey by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who will acecnnpany his fiancee to her father's residence, where he will remain for some time on a visit—Cot,,! Journal.  We have to record another fatal accident caused by the prevailing fashion of wearing large crinolines. An inquest was held on Saturday, at the Sheffield Public hospital, by the deputy coroner, on the body of a young married woman, named Sarah Swift, who had died on the previous day. It appeared from the evidence of the husband of the deceased, that a few days ago he and his wife were in the house together, and that he left her in the Kitchen attending to the baking of some bread, whilst he went up stairs. After he had been absent a few minutes he heard his wife scream out in a dreadful manner, and on rushing down stairs he saw her standing in the room enveloped in flames. With great presence of mind he wrapped a woollen rug round her, and succeeded in putting out the flames at great risk to himself. Assistance was procured, and the poor woman was removed to the Hospital, where the surgeon found she had sustained extensive injuries. She died on Friday. She was not able to give any clear account of the manner in which her clothes caught fire, but she would be obliged to pass the fire frequentlyathilst looking after the baking, and there is no doubt that her clothes were pushed against the bars by the crinoline petticoat she was wearing. She was twenty-ona years old, and had been married but a short time. The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death."  The Irish Times states that on the 3rd inst. a 4 the barque Dunbrody, of New Rose, was on her homeward passage from Quebec, 950 miles from land, long. 30 W. an owl settled on the main topsail yard, and was captured. Tile bird died three days afterwards. A letter in a Boston paper states that the British gunboat Racer had gone into the harbour of Charleston, and taken on board the British Consul as a passenger According to this gentleman the Confederates have lauoched a powerful ram at that port, and have two others ready for plating. Admiral Milne with a large fleet was to leave Halifax on the 15th inst. for the new sphere of industry assigned to Commodore Wilkes.  AN IMPUDENT rICKPOCKET.-A magistrate has had his pocket picked. The hon. G. C. Norton got into the crowd on Illackfriars-bridge during the fire at Messrs. Price's wharf on Thursday evening. He found a young woman with a child in her arms in danger of being crushed to death and chivalrously rescued her. His humanity cost him dear. While he was forcing the crowd back some one stole his purse, containing a large sum of money and a rough diamond. It is proposed to supersede the use of armour plates for ships by willow- wood of the thickness of a foot, having a steel rolled plate of one inch and a half inserted in the middle of the wood. This wood has the property of resisting compression to a great degree, and possesses the same cohesive and repulsive properties of steel. Whalebone, from its cohesion and tenacity, has likewise beeu proposed as an extra backing for the iron plates, placing the same between the iron and the teak or willow. Horn has its advocate as an additional backing.—Mechanics• Magazine.  MUNIFICENT Girr.—A benevolent lady has presented to the National Lifeboat Institution £340, to pay for the new lifeboat and transporting carriage which the society had just sent to Fleetwood, on the Lancashire coast, in lieu of a previous small boat there, which was found unsuitable for that dangerous station. The new lifeboat is to be called the Edward Wasey, after Captain Wassy, R.N., who, while in command of the Fleetwood coastguard district, had often put off In the lifeboat, and had rescued twenty-seven shipwrecked persons under the most dangerous circumstances, and occasionally during a midnight storm. The following anecdote of Pope Pius IX. is related in a French publication: —" The Sovereign Pontiff, among his other powers, enjoys that of annulling the wills of his subjects. The son of a Roman landed proprietor complained to his Holiness that his father had bequeathed the half of his fortune, or 40,0001., to the priest who on a particular day in a church named should say the first Mb& The Pope, not daring to cancel a will on account of an act of religious insanity, adopted another plan. He went himself at daybreak to the church in question and celebrated the first mass. He thus gained the 40,000 f., which he then handed over to the grateful heir."