The Press. — 1855-03-31 (London, England)

THE PRESS.  Ittibtnts and Offmtes.  Tux unusual spectacle was presented at Belfast, on Thursday week, of a ship on fire, which spread with great rapidity, and in a short time the deck and bulwarks were one mass of flame. About one o'clock the masts fell simultaneously with a loud crash. The night was dark and stormy, and the wind was from the east. The Madonna is a St. John's built vessel of 569 tons register. THE London correspondents of the Bank of New South Wales have received advices from Melbourne, announcing the conviction of George Dumore Lang and Frederick Lee Clark, manager and accountant, for having defrauded the establishment of moneys amounting to nearly 30,0001. The trial took place at the Supreme Court, and it appeared that Lang and Clark were appointed in February, 1654, and the concern appeared in a most flourishing state for some time ; but Lang, refusing additional aid when offered, suspicions were aroused, and, on Lang and Clark being ordered to post their books, it was found that deposits which had been received had not been entered, and that defalcations, or embezzlements, had taken place to the amount mentioned. The Chief Justice sentenced Lang to five years' and Clark to four years' hard labour at the public roads. k DEATH FROM CHLOROFORM shows the danger of using this perilous drug except under medical direction. Mrs. Elwes of Aislaby-hall, near Whitby, was accustomed to inhale chloroform for tooth-ache and other slight affections. On the night of Sunday the llth inst. she was found dead in her bed. Her medical attendant slept in the house, as she expected to be confined, but he was ignorant of what sbe had done, and was for a time puzzled to account for her sudden death. On investigation, however, the truth was disclosed; an inquest was held, and a verdict returned that Mrs. Elwes died from the incautious inhalation of chloroform taken to alleviate pain. WILLIAM WRIGHT, who was convicted at the resent Wilts assizes for the wilful murder of Ann Collins, a woman with whom he cohabited, at Lydiard Tregoze, near Swindon, underwent the extreme sentence of the law in front of the county gaol, Fisherton Anger, on Tuesday, at noon. A PAINFUL SENSATION was created in Canterbury on Wednesday by the discovery that the Reverend John Peachey Francis, the vicar of Holy-cross, bad committed suicide by shooting himself in his study. It appears that the reverend gentleman bad been in a desponding way for some time past, and was unable to attend to his clerical duties. The deceased was brother-in-law of the late Bishop Broughton, and in his 76th year, having held the vicarage of Holy cross, Westgate, with the incumbency of St. Peter's adjoining, for the period of fifty years. AN EXPLOSION OF GAS of frightful character occurred in Portsmouth dockyard on Saturday night. The scene of the catastrophe was at the dockyard policestation, where the men had for some days past experienced a disagreeable smell, evidently arising from an escape of gas, and had complained of the circumstance to their superior officers. On Saturday night the smell of gas seemed to be stronger than on previous occasions, and to ascertain where the escape came from, one of the men applied a light to different crevices in the flooring-boards. At length a terrific explosion took place, resembling the discharge of a piece 'of heavy ordnance. It appears that the gas had escaped from the main, and bad accumulated under the floor of the room the police were waiting in, the whole of which was blown up, together with the furniture of the room, and all the unfortunate men who were sitting in it. The roof of the building, only consisting of a ground floor, was alto blown into the air. Ten men were severely injured by the catastrophe, one of whom, a policeman named Giles, died next day.