The Bee-Hive : — 1869-08-21 (London, England)

FEARFUL OCCURRENCE ON THE GREAT  NORTHERN RAILWAY.  Between eleven and twelve o'clock on the 16th inst. a serious collision took place on the GreAt Northern Railway at Barnet, whereby one life has already been sac;ifieed, and several persons hawe been severely injured. The train which leaves King's-cross at el'even o'clock for Barnet, bad reached its destination, and had been shunted, as was supposed,,from the down to the up -line, to return to London. Instead of this: however, .it seems that the train was actually returning on the same line by which it came, and on entering the Whetstone tunnel it came into collision with. as goods train, when a fearful scene ensued. iThedriver of the goods train jumped from the engine just n tun( to save his life, but the stoker, in a similar attempt, was seriously injured. The driver and stoker of the passenger train leaped off also. The latter ,was not mach hurt, but the former had received several severe con tusions. He, together with the stoker of the goods train, was at once conveyed to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's-inn-road. Bat the most melancholy part of the story remains to be told. In the guard's van nearest the engine WAS the gas tank, and when the collision occurred, tank blew up, and the whole train was set on fire. The guard, who was in the van, had not time to escape. and was burnt to a cinder. The other guard in the rear of the train, in trying to escape, was much injured, and had to be remoged to the hospital. Several carriages in the passenger train were completely destroyed by tire and the force of the shock, and six or seven of the trucks in the goods train were smashed to icces. The traffic on the line was altogether suspended. It is believed that the accident was caused. by the carelessness of souse of the offiAals, two of whom have already been suspended. An investigation is about to be made. The name of the deceased guard is Henry south. On inquiring at the hospital, it was ascertained that the guard and driver of the passenger train had sufficiently recovered to be able to leave. The stoker of the goods t. am, hewever, still remains there t4ut is progressing:, favourably.  DEMOLITION OF CITY CIIISRCIIES.—Two churches iu the City of London are doomed partly to disestablishment and disendowment, and entirely to demolition. One is the church of St. Mildred. in the Poultry, where there has never been a congreption ot more than two or three for many years past, and the other the church of Allhallows Staining. which has not had a vicar during the last three ca four years. Both these churches are now to be taken down under the Union of Benefices Act,  GREAT CANAL FROM AMSTERDAM TO THE NORTII SEA.—The great ship canal which is to connect Amsterdam with the North Sca at a cost of 27,000,000 guilders is now in progress after a temporary stoppage of the works. The canal will be about 15 miles in length, at one part strongly embanked, and a harbour of refuge will be built at its mouth at a part of the coast where a harbour is greatly needed. SUICIDE THROUGH DISTRESS.—OR Tuesday, Dr. liardwicke held an inquest at the College Arms, Crowndale-road, St. Pancras, on the body of Griffith Griffiths, who was found dead in his lodging in Nort4ampto.n-street after he had been hanging for four days and nights by a rope round the neck from a nail in the rcom door. The pawnbrokers' duplicates produced showed that deceased had been reduced to great poverty, and had parted with nearly all his things. The jury returned a verdict that deceased committed suicide whilst in an unsound state of mind induced by distress.  THE Bisrior or LONDON, having determined on reconstructing the rural deaneries of his diocese, has already added two to tnose existing. One contains the severalparish es comprised within the ancient parish of Shoreditch hitherto contained in the deanery of St. Sepulchre, and to this he has appointed the Very Rev. G. P. Pownall, Vicar of St. John's, Hoxton, formerly Dean of Perth, Western Australia. The other deanery has been taken out of St. John's, Westminster, and comprises those districts south of the Thames which are in the diocese of London. To this deanery his Lordship has appointed the Rev. W. D. Maclagan, M.A., Rector of St. Mary's, Newington. SIMPLE METHOD OF At,:;ERTAINING Caniere, of St. Jean du Gard, in reply to the offer of the Marquis d'Orches, of a premium of twenty thousand francs, for a practical method of determining death, furnished, the following, which he says he has practiced for forty years :—Place the hand with the fingers closely pressed one against the other, close to a lighted lamp or candle; if alive, the tissues will be observed to be of a transparent, of a rosy hue, and the capillary circulation of life in full /Ally; if, on the contrary, the hand of a dead person be placed in the same relation to light, none of the phenomena are observed—we see but a b,arkd as of marble, 'without circulation, without life. 

Article type: Incident