honoured in the City of London, had fallen much into | admit," said the right hon. gentleman, "that at present desuetude, and the press very generally ridiculed the in the state of Europe there are on the surface causes || procession from the Guildhall to Westminster Hall. In for disquietude and apprehension. I know very well this instance the press was not in harmony with the that those who can throw their eye over all the possible citizens, who loved dearly their old privileges and the causes of international misconception may give a very symbols of them as seen in their civic ceremonials. long catalogue of causes of immediate danger; but The lord mayor on this occasion resolved to gratify those apprehensions are not shared by her Majesty's the public partiality, and accordingly the old gilt state government. They do not believe that there is any coach was again brought out, and everything done cause for war, or that there is any pretext for war. which could add to the popularity of the show. They believe, on the contrary, that it is the conviction of all those sovereigns and ministers who influence the destiny of nations and the course of events, that it is for the advantage of their countries and subjects that peace should be maintained. I admit-because on occasions like the present it is unwise to conceal any cause of anxiety which we may feel-I admit that in the relative position of France and Prussia-two of the most eminent among the civilised and leading countries of

The City was crowded along the route to Temple Bar, and thence to Westminster Hall, by delighted multitudes. The procession was very long, escorted by troops and Volunteers, and attended by numerous military bands. The people made the utmost demonstrations of their delight. The City authorities were conducted to the Court of Exchequer, and received by the barons of the court. The common serjeant, in the absence of the recorder, introduced Mr. James Law-Europe-there is apparently cause for anxiety in the rence, the newly-elected chief magistrate of the City. In the other courts a similar introduction took place. The civic chief was sworn into office, and the procession returned with the same pomp and ceremony, but with the additional gratification to the multitude, that the lady mayoress in a separate state carriage joined it at Westminster.

It is customary, on lord mayor's day, for a grand banquet to be given in Guildhall, where the cabinet, judges, and foreign ambassadors, and other distinguished persons, home and foreign, are invited; and the invitation is regarded as an honour by the highest and noblest, even by princes.

Among the guests at Guildhall on that occasion were the Duke of Cambridge, the lord chancellor, Mr. Disraeli, Lord Stanley, the Duke of Buckingham, the chancellor of the exchequer, the home secretary, one or two minor members of the government, most of the judges, the American minister, and a host of civic digni

taries.

A most important statement, to the effect that all causes of disquietude between Great Britain and the United States had entirely ceased, was made by the hon. Reverdy Johnson. The lord mayor, in proposing the toast of "the foreign ministers," coupled with it the name of the United States' minister.

great armaments which they now promote. But as in private life we sometimes find that between two highspirited individuals, without sufficient cause, there are yet some misconceptions for which they themselves believe there is no sufficient foundation, and under these circumstances their equals in rank, their friends, whose motives cannot be misconceived, feel it their duty to interfere, and, by promoting mutual explanations, lead to a more salutary state of sentiment, so I think that in the present state of the affairs of Europe, my noble friend who has so successfully, according to the statement of the minister or the United States, terminated those difficult and, in some sense, long-enduring misunderstandings with that country, can do no better than confer with the great powers of Europe. By stepping between those two great countries, who are unimated, as I believe, by no aggressive feeling, but occupy the position they do from peculiar causes that could not be anticipated, and which seldom have occurred before -by the wise and generous mediation of the other equal powers of Europe, I have myself the conviction that as happy a termination will be brought to these misunderstandings as has been brought to the miscon ceptions between the United States and our own country." In subsequent observations Mr. Disraeli referred to the coming dissolution, expressed his confi dence that the Reform Act (the authorship of which he declined to contend about) would work beneficially, and begged the City of London to recollect that, as great owners of property, they were interested in maintain.

Mr. Johnson repeated the statement he had made elsewhere, that all differences between England and America had been settled, and that without touching in the slightest degree the rights or the honour of either nation. And if in the future, he said, diplomatic nego-ing the rights of property. "I have never," said tiations were conducted in the spirit with which Lord Stanley and himself had carried on their negotiations, wars in the future would be next to impossible. "From 1846 to the present time," his excellency proceeded, "from one cause or another, there were in all that intermediate time clouds which alarmed the people of both countries. We have managed, as you will soon discover, to remove those clouds, and to leave nothing upon either nation but the undimmed sunshine of peace. And, without meaning to disparage the achievements of armies or of navies-achievements which we, in common with yourselves, have honoured, whether they be those in which your own arms or ours were concerned -I make bold to say, that if diplomacy in the future be so conducted that war cannot occur, the rank of diplomacy will be as high, perhaps higher, than it has ever been."

the premier, in allusion to the approaching elections, "found boastfulness and braggadocio of the slightest utility. Our opponents, indeed, have settled every | thing. They have exhausted all the arts of unanimous audacity. But I think I have read somewhere that it is the custom of undisciplined hosts on the eve of a battle to anticipate and celebrate their triumph by horrid sounds and hideous yells, the sounding of cymbals, the beating of drums, the shrieks and springs of barbaric hordes. But when all that has occurred, it is sometimes found that the victory is not to them, but to those who are calm and collected; the victory is to those who have arms of precision, though they may have made no noise-to those who had the breechloaders, the rocket brigade, and the Armstrong artillery.” The right hon. gentleman, without entering into details, had perfect confidence in the good sense of the The toast of "the health of her Majesty's ministers" constituencies, and he hoped to have the honour of rewas responded to by Mr. Disraeli, who took occasion, turning thanks on behalf of her Majesty's ministers, from the remarks of the American minister, to recall next year. In proposing the health of the lord mayor the fact that last year, when everybody was full of ap--who, it must be borne in mind in order to appreciate prehension about our relations with America, he had the joke, was a Liberal candidate for Lambeth-he said, ventured to say the differences would be satisfactorily "You have shown, by your conduct of the business of settled. He had said the same about the peace of this evening, how competent you are for the great Europe, and the accuracy of that statement had not office you fill; and I am sure you will give me credit been impeached by anything that had occurred. "I for hearty sincerity when I assure you it is my earnest

"I trust you will see manifested in this further dona-tect is Mr. Horace Jones. tion an expression of my entire satisfaction with the manner in which you have conducted the affairs of the

and Protestants, chiefly Irish. Mr. Murphy, the Irish | they generally resulted from the indifference of the controversial lecturer, announced his intention on that directors to the public safety, or the ignorance and day to deliver a discourse on the tenets and tendencies carelessness of the officials frequently set to perform of the Roman Catholic religion. The Orangemen and duties too onerous to be entrusted to them without their sympathisers were joined by large bodies of such supervision as would give security to the public. brethren from the proximate towns of Duckingfield and In London alone, the number of lives lost during the Staley bridge, who attacked on their way the portions year from the want of sufficient corporate and magisteof those towns chiefly inhabited by the lowest classes rial regulation in the streets, exceeded three hundred, of Irish, and, in consequence, severe fighting ensued. and more than a thousand persons were maimed or In the evening the Roman Catholic chapel and schools dangerously wounded. It affords some insight to the were stormed; and soon after St. Mary's chapel and moral and intellectual condition of the people from an unschool. The Irish defended the buildings, but were favourable point of view, when it is related that drivers overpowered by superior numbers. Shots were fired, of cabs, carts, and waggons, rushed rapidly through many were wounded, but fortunately no lives were lost. the most crowded thoroughfares, intent only upon the The magistrates ultimately assembled with the borough object of their own progress, and leaving to the old, and county police, and bodies of special constables, and young, deaf, blind, or decrepid, all the consequences of by midnight order was restored. The next day there chancing to be in the way. The punishments inflicted was a renewal of the disturbances in the streets of seemed to have no effect upon the recklessness of the Ashton, too formidable to be quelled without the assist-class, which continued to inflict the same average num ance of the military. The houses of the poorer Irish were sacked, and their furniture thrown into the streets and burned. A troop of the Enniskillen Dragoons charged and dispersed the mob, but they collected again at other points and resumed the offensive. Two companies of the 70th foot came to the assistance of the cavalry, but the same course was followed by the multitude. The town was patrolled throughout the night and the rioters were kept at bay, but St. Ann's Roman Catholic chapel was again attacked, and sustained further injury. Some lives were lost, and many of the rioters were arrested. The cause of the ontbreak was the previous interference of the magistrates in other towns with the right of Mr. Murphy to deliver lectures on controversial subjects.

ber of calamities in subsequent years, regardless of all consequences to themselves or others. The loss of life from all these and other causes showed a want of respect for human life, and a want of humanity on the part of many classes, difficult to be accounted for, in a country so enlightened and humane as England.

Perhaps the most shocking form in which this ap peared was in sending vessels to sea, unseaworthy. To spare expense, to effect some material economy, the lives of ships' crews were put in peril, and even sacrificed, by owners of ships and merchants. It is evident, therefore, that the want of concern for the life of the poor was not confined to the poor themselves. Shipowners, merchants, colliery owners, house owners, railway proprietors and directors, evinced the same unconcern for the public safety where gain was to be accomplished. A most atrocious instance of this came to light in the early part of the year. It was customary for sailors to wear "life-belts," and a trade in these was carried on in the East-end of London. It was found that in a vast majority of cases these were worthless, being stuffed with sawdust and other rubbish, so the unhappy mariner who trusted to them must infallibly perish; yet there seemed no way of making the vendors amenable to the law.

On the 5th of September serious riots occurred in Manchester from the same cause. Mr. Murphy had been lecturing in various parts of the country on the doctrines, discipline, and spirit of the Roman Catholic church, and he purposed doing so in Manchester. The magistrates fearing a disturbance between the Orangemen and the Roman Catholics, such as generally attended Mr. Murphy's lectures elsewhere, held him to bail. He immediately adopted a course which effectually defeated their purposes. He wrote an address to the electors of the borough offering himself as a candidate in the ap- A source of disastrous accidents had existed with proaching election, and called an open-air meeting of little mitigation for many years in the narrow entrances electors favourable to his return. The meeting took and exits of public buildings. In the theatres and place, and a vote of censure was passed upon the music-halls of London great inconvenience and repeated magistrates for holding Mr. Murphy to bail, and a re-accidents arose from this cause, which only in a few inquisition made to the home secretary to institute an in- stances had been partially remedied. Several notable quiry into their conduct. While the business of the instances of this occurred in the provinces, but the most occasion was in progress, a vast mass of Irishmen calamitous of these was at Manchester, at a place known arrived and spread themselves around the outer edges as "Lang's Victoria Music Hall." The rooms set of the crowd. They soon provoked a contest which apart for the performances occupied the three upper ensued with fierce determination on both sides. It was floors of the building, the lower range being shops. supposed that more than 6,000 men were engaged in Nearly 2,000 persons were present on the occasion. the contest. The arrival of the police only dispersed Some lads occupying front places in the pit, eager to the combatants without stopping the combat. Mr. have a better view of the performances, stood upon the Murphy was borne in safety away from the tumult. front bench, which gave way. Some of the youths No loss of life ensued, but very many were injured, and who were thus standing, in order to save themselves, some seriously. The persons taken into custody were caught hold of a slender gas pendant, and the pipe also chiefly Irish. Some pistols were discharged at the gave way. It was instantly plugged with paper and|| police. The next day the Irish assembled in great rendered secure, but a terrified person called aloud numbers in various places in the township of Chorlton, "fire!" Instantly the multitude rushed to the points and attacked persons indiscriminately, but were dis- of egress, which were so narrow as to allow only a few persed by the police, and many arrested. persons at a time getting through, and the struggle for emission became terrific. Thirty-two persons were mortally injured, of whom twenty-three were killed on the spot, or died before they could be removed. Great numbers of severely wounded persons were taken to the Infirmary, and much passionate lamentation prevailed amongst the relatives and friends of the slain and injured. The coroner's jury pronounced a heavy censure upon the proprietors, and measures were taken to prevent a repetition of such a disaster.

GREAT PUBLIC CALAMITIES. This year was notable for the number of frightful accidents which alarmed and horrified the public, many of which could have been averted had proper precautions been taken. Some of these were connected with coal mines, in which explosions from "fire-damp" destroyed many lives. Others from railway occurrences, which can hardly, with strict propriety, be called accidents, as

England suffered much this year from railway acci

dents, but one catastrophe of this description exceeded | handed him the key he observed the carriage on the all the rest in horror, or perhaps any other which had steps of which the gentleman had been standing was in taken place in any country. The Irish mail express- a blaze. He never saw that gentleman again. He train left Euston Square terminus, London, on the 20th heard a cry from under the engine, which he believed to of August, and proceeded via Chester. Halfway be- have been uttered by Joe Holmes, his mate. Thompson tween Chester and Holyhead is the village of Abergele, stated that the blaze spread from carriage to carriage about two miles beyond which the accident happened. with the rapidity of lightning, and that there was no The train there ran into some waggons loaded with going near a carriage when it once caught fire. He and petroleum. The engine set fire to that inflammable other persons who had witnessed the accident agreed in substance, which set fire to the train, flowing over the stating positively that not a shriek, a moan, or a cry carriages in sheets of flame, and instantly consuming proceeded from any one in the blazing carriages, and their inmates, reducing them to cinders. The train con- that no one in any of them made an attempt to get out. sisted of thirteen carriages. Next to the guard's van It is thought they were suffocated by the fumes of the came a carriage, first and second class. Then followed burning petroleum, or stupified by the explosion. two first-class carriages, and behind them a secondclass and a luggage compartment. A post-office van came next, then the travelling post-office itself, then another post-office van. All these had been attached at Chester. Following them were the train of carriages which was brought from London. One of the first four carriages was engaged by Lord Farnham, who was, with the countess and four servants, proceeding to Ireland. In the same portion of the train was the Rev. Sir Nicholas Chinnery, Bart., Lady Chinnery, and two ladies and a maid servant; in their company, Judge Berwick (of the Dublin Bankruptcy Court), his sister, and some friends. In a first-class carriage were the Duchess of Abercorn, two daughters, three sons, and

suite.

From Abergele station as far as Llanddulas, a mile and a half, is an ascent of about 1 in 90, and on this incline the collision happened.

There was a goods-train which left Chester about half an hour before the mail, and which it was customary to shunt, according to the direction of the local officials, either at Pensaen or Llanddulas-more frequently at the latter place. The operation of shunting was being performed on this day about one o'clock, at the top of the incline at Llanddulas. Some of the intermediate waggons between the engine and the rear van had to be shunted. The five or six waggons nearest to the van were uncoupled from the rest of the train and left on the main line, while the others were backed into the siding. The guard descended during this operation as was his duty, but was supposed to have put on the break. When the engine had put the other waggons into the siding it came out again on the main line and backed, so as to meet the waggons which it had left there. The moment it came into contact with them, and before a coupling could be effected, they rolled back, and, increasing in velocity as they descended, kept running down the incline till they were encountered by the express. Some one on foot ran after, but was unable to overtake them. They had run down about a mile when the express-train met them.

Arthur Thompson, the driver of the express, gave a very collected account of what he witnessed. His train was going up the incline at a moderate pace, about thirty miles an hour. He said that he did not see the waggons till his train was within a few yards of them—not more than the distance of the width of the railway; and seeing that there were barrels of oil, though not knowing of what particular kind the oil was, he resolved at once to jump off the engine. Before leaping, he said to the fireman, Joseph Holmes, "Joe, jump off." He himself, having jumped off on the embankment side, alighted on his feet, but was struck by a fragment of the guard's van, next the tender, which threw him down the embankment. He rose to his feet again, though suffering from wounds in the head, hand, and knee, and perceived that the tender had gone right over the engine, and that the van and foremost carriages were on fire. rushed to the back carriages, assisted in uncoupling them from the rest of the train, and handed a carriagekey to a tall gentleman who was standing on the steps of a carriage. In an instant after Thompson had

One of the passengers, the Marquis of Hamilton (eldest son of the Duke of Abercorn, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland), gave the following account: "We were startled by a collision and a shock which, though not so very severe, were sufficient to throw every one against his opposite neighbour. I immediately jumped out of the carriage, when a fearful sight met my view. Already the whole of the three passenger-carriages in front of ours, the vans and the engine, were enveloped in dense sheets of flame and smoke, rising fully twenty feet high, and spreading out in every direction; it was the work of an instant. No words can convey the instantaneous nature of the explosion and conflagration. I had actually got out almost before the shock of the collision was over, and this was the spectacle which already presented itself. Not a sound, not a scream, not a struggle to escape or a movement of any sort was apparent in the doomed carriages. It was as though an electric flash had at once paralyzed and stricken every one of their occupants.

So complete was the absence of any presence of living or struggling life in them that, as soon as the passengers from the other parts of the train were in some degree recovered from their first shock and consternation, it was imagined that the burning carriages were destitute of passengers; a hope soon changed into feelings of horror when their contents of charred and mutilated remains were discovered about an hour afterwards. From the extent, however, of the flames, the suddenness of the conflagration, and the absence of any power to extricate themselves, no human aid would have been of any assistance to the sufferers, who, in all probability, were instantaneously suffocated by the black and fetid smoke peculiar to paraffin, which rose in volumes round the spreading flames."

According to the evidence, the collision itself was not severe. The driver said that so little did he expect it would be so, even after seeing the trucks, that he would not have leapt off the engine if he had not seen there was oil on the trucks. The boiler of the engine did not burst. The buffers of the engine were smashed by their coming in contact with the trucks, and the tender, in its somersault, broke off both the valve pillars. The collision must have occurred about a quarter to one o'clock, but the line for a length of forty or fifty yards was in a sea of flame till nearly eight o'clock in the evening, owing to the petroleum being spread over it, and despite the exertions of a number of men who kept throwing buckets of water on it. The ballast between the rails, having become saturated with the petroleum, burnt fiercely, and the rails themselves became red-hot. Neither the engine nor the carriages of the express were overturned, but the waggons were thrown off the line with such violence that they knocked down portions of a strong stone wall bounding the line on the side next the sea. The noise of the collision was not heard at any great distance, but the flames were seen far and wide.

He Six carriages and a luggage-van were uncoupled by the wounded driver Thompson, and drawn away by an engine which fortunately came from the direction of Abergele before the flames had extended to them. In one of these rear carriages the Duchess of Abercorn's

T

they generally resulted from the indiference of the directors to the public safety, or the ignorance and carelessness of the officials frequently set to perform duties too onerous to be entrusted to them with m such supervision as would give security to the publi

Mr Murphy, the Irish in va ha ivan in on that the tenets and tendencies The Orangemen and ;zed by large bodies of i was of Darkingted and In London alone, the number of lives lost during the -ir way the portions year from the want of sufficient corporate and mazs.s ted by the lowest classes rial regulation in the streets, exceeded three kuzivi - severe feiting ensued. and more than a thousand persons were maine! do chapel and schools dangerously wounded. It affords some insight to t anter St. Mary's chapel and moral and intellectual condition of the people from an mard the balding, bat were favourable point of view, when it is related that drieshots were fired, of cabs, carts, and waggons, rushed rapidly thru timately no lives were lost. the most crowded thoroughfares, intent only upon the elled with the borough object of their own progress, and leaving to the f special ernstables, and young, deaf, blind, or decrepid, all the consequenc us put :-L ILe next day there chancing to be in the way. The punishments inf. 4 disturbances in the streets of seemed to have no effect upon the recklessness of “.. be qued with at the assist-class, which continued to inflict the same average arThe braws of the poorer Irish ber of calamities in subsequent years, regardless of armature thrown into the streets consequences to themselves or others. The lows of of the Eczanen Dragoors from all these and other causes showed a want of rep. A but ther colected again for human life, and a want of humanity on the par and the Endive. Two com- many classes, difficult to be accounted for, in a LE rame to the assistance of the so enlightened and humane as England. tre was flowed by the mulpatrowed through at the night pt at har but St. Ann's Roman as aura aita ked, and sustained furee were l ́st, and many of the The cause of the outbreak was of the magistrates in other Mr. Marphy to deliver lectures

Mr

Perhaps the most shocking form in which this ar peared was in sending vessels to sea, unseaworthy. I spare expense, to effect some material economy, the live of ships' crews were put in peril, and even sammár, by owners of ships and merchants. It is eridas therefore, that the want of concern for the life of a poor was not confined to the poor themselves. S owners, merchants, colliery owners, house OWDEN, IL way proprietors and directors, evinced the same concern for the public safety where gain was t accomplished. A most atrocious instance of this ca to light in the early part of the year. It was tomary for sailors to wear "life-belts," and a tre in these was carried on in the East-end of Loake was found that in a vast majority of cases these worthless, being stuffed with sawdust and other r so the unhappy mariner who trusted to them st fallibly perish; yet there seemed no way of making t vendors amenable to the law.

tem ber seri, as riots occurred in mese. Mr. Murphy had been le marts theepantry on the doctrines, --t of the Roman Catholic church, ez ar in Manchester. The magisbetween the Orangemen and h as generally attended Mr. here, b-d him to tail. He rse which effectually defeated an address to the electors of as a candi late in the ap- A source of disastrous accidents had existed led an open-air meeting of little mitigation for many years in the narrow earum return. The meeting took and exits of public buildings. In the theatres conaire was passed upon the music-halls of London great inconvenience and repeat Ir Mirrhy to bail, and a re-accidents arose from this cause, which only in a f the bize secretary to institute an in- stances had been partially remedied. Several's W the business of the instances of this occurred in the provinces, bat the sa 276, a vast mass of Irishmen calamitous of these was at Manchester, at a place kust treat themselves around the outer edges as "Lang's Victoria Music Hall." The roa Thy son provoked a contest which apart for the performances occupied the three p terre debertrural, n on both sides. It was floors of the building, the lower range bling re than 6-9 men were engaged in Nearly 2,000 persons were present on the ocas te arrival of the pice only dispersed Some lads occupying front places in the pit, eager at trg the combat. Mr. have a better view of the performances, stood upra The in saty away from the tumult. front bench, which gave way. Some of the ye teased, but very many were injured, and who were thus standing, in order to save these I pors as taken into custody were caught hold of a slender gas pendant, and the peake Some patia were discharged at the gave way. It was instantly plugged with paper xt day the Irish assembled in great rendered secure, but a terrified person called a in vari að þakes in the township of Cnoriton, "fire!" Instantly the multitude rushed to the past tak di persire indscriminately, but were dis- of egress, which were so narrow as to allow only ad and many arrested. persons at a time getting through, and the struggl emission became terrific. Thirty-two persons t mortally injured, of whom twenty-three were killed the spot, or died before they could be removed. G numbers of severely wounded persons were taken i the Infirmary, and much passionate lamentation vailed amongst the relatives and friends of the slain d injured. The coroner's jury pronounced a heavy o upon the proprietors, and measures were taken to provi a repetition of such a disaster.

GREAT PFLIC CALAMITIES. ir was n talle for the number of frightful acradandhi mfed the public, many of a have been averted had proper precautions Some of these were connected with coal à exp ́s. us from “ fire-damp" destroyed LTE UAE way occurrences, which can ta si prinity, be called ac idents, as

England suffered much this year from railway acti