respectably-dressed woman, who was standing on Roff's
pier waiting for a steam-boat, had her parasol caught
by a gust of wind, and was herself blown into the river
and drowned. No person present was acquainted with
her, or knew her name or address.

A frightful Railway Accident occurred on the 12th,
on the Pontop and Shields Railway at Eden Hill, near
Chester-le-Street, when an engine employed in hauling
up iron-stone, on which four persons were sitting, besides
the engine-driver and stoker, plunged over an embankment,
a height of about twelve or fourteen feet. The
fireman and a person named Swinburne, partly jumped
and were partly thrown from the engine to a considerable
distance, but were not seriously hurt. The engine
fell with its funnel towards the embankment, and then
rolled over on its side, burying the other four men under
it, killing two poor fellows—J. Mann, an engineman,
and W. Richardson, a bank-rider, who were quite dead
when taken out, and were bruised in a most shocking
manner, the side of the engine having fallen upon them.
A young man named Moffet, a fitter, and a pitman, a
stranger, were more fortunate; having fallen where the
pressure was less violent, they were dug out with each
a broken thigh.

Another Railway Accident happened on the 14th.
While the mail train of the Bristol and Exeter Railway
was on its way towards Bristol, and had arrived within
a mile or two of the terminus, it was discovered, to the
consternation of the passengers, that one of the carriages
was on fire. Efforts were made to signal the engine-driver,
for a time ineffectually, as the train was carried
full a mile before it was pulled up. Fortunately, it was
nearing the city, and had to pass through a densely
populated district, and the inhabitants of the houses
skirting the line gave the alarm as it passed them, which
drew attention to the accident, when the train was
stopped in sufficient time to prevent any very serious
consequences.

Mr. Henry Fazakerley, a young gentleman who had
just succeeded to the Gillibrand Hall and Fazakerley
estates, and Mr. James Green, a young friend from
London, with a miner and an underlooker, have Perished
in a Coal Pit, at Chorley. The gentlemen descended
the shaft from curiosity. The party had an unprotected
light; an explosion of fire-damp ensued; and all four
were killed. From subsequent inquiries, it appears that
the pit was a dangerous one to descend, the ventilation
having been very defective. Mr. Fazakerley and Taylor,
a miner, descended the deep shaft first; their lights
were extinguished; unwarned by this, Taylor returned
to the surface, and descended with Mr. Green and
Billinge, Taylor taking lighted candles and a flaming
torch: Mr. Smith, a friend of Mr. Fazakerley, declined
to make one in the dangerous adventure. When all
arrived at the bottom of the shaft, they walked with
the blazing torch up the only working; an explosion
ensued, and the scorched and bruised bodies were hurled
along the gallery into the water of the "sump-hole"
at the foot of the shaft.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.

The Lord Mayor, on the 28th ult., gave a great
Banquet to the Royal Commissioners, in Celebration of
the Great Exhibition. Covers were laid for above 200
guests in the Egyptian Hall, which was tastefully decorated
for the occasion with a variety of flags and
banners. Several very interesting speeches were made
in the course of the evening, especially by Earl
Granville, Lord J. Russell, and Mr. Paxton. Earl
Granville, in returning thanks for the honour which
had been done to the Royal Commissioners, adverted at
some length to the strenuous efforts made by Prince
Albert in promoting the objects of the great gathering
of nations.—Lord J. Russell said, that the Exhibition
had already run a great proportion of its course,
and that the time was approaching when all the wonders
of art and mechanism they had seen there would
disappear and vanish away. "But," he continued, "there
are many things which, I trust, will not vanish away.
There will be, in the first place, the recollection of all
those who were present at the Exhibition—of the
wonderful ingenuity and skill displayed by the various
nations of the world in the production and manufacture
of the works of fine art they had sent to the Exhibition.
There will not vanish away the instruction which many
have reaped from the daily studies of the objects there
exhibited. There will not vanish away the recollection
of that useful collection, which will make some of the
rarest and newest inventions of the present day become
common as air, and minister to the comforts and happiness
of millions in future ages. There will not vanish
away that feeling which the artisans and labourers who
have come from a distance must have, that in providing
that Exhibition of which Prince Albert gave the notion
and the suggestion to the country—his comfort, his
welfare, and his enjoyment have been cared for, and he
will go back a more instructed, and, I trust, a better
man, for that which he has seen in the Exhibition.
Other things, I trust, will not disappear, when all the
objects we see there are scattered over the different
parts of the earth. There will not, I trust, disappear
that feeling of friendship and brotherhood which has
existed, when the nations of the earth have been, as it
were, shaking hands with each other in the midst of
that Exhibition—that feeling of friendly rivalry for
objects calculated to promote the good of all—that
feeling of friendship and esteem for each other—that
unwillingness to do anything that might promote anger
and dissension—and the wish that, on the other hand,
concord and peace should reign throughout the earth.
These are things which I trust will not pass away with
the passing sights of the Exhibition; and if that be so,
those who have in any degree co-operated in producing
these effects will have a proud reflection to make, and I
trust that the millions of the earth will gain benefit by
the proceedings of the present year."—Mr. Paxton
concluded an interesting speech by making an appeal in
behalf of his building. He referred to the great meeting
held in that hall for the purpose of encouraging this
Great Exhibition upon its first announcement, and he
had no doubt that it was to the exertions of the
citizens of London that they owed very much of the
success which had marked its completion; and he
begged of the Lord Mayor to come forward again and
arouse the City of London to the necessity of petitioning
the Houses of Parliament, in order that the Great
Exhibition building might be permitted to remain in
Hyde Park, as a monument of British enterprise. If
he felt confidence when he first brought forward his
design, that it would answer for the purposes of the
Great Exhibition, he had now far more confidence that
it would answer the purpose of a winter park and a
garden for this great metropolis. The company present
expressed their concurrence by loud and general
cheering.

A meeting of authors and publishers was held at the
Hanover Square Rooms on the 1st instant, in
consequence of the recent decision by Lord Campbell, in the
Court of Error, of the question of Literary Copyright.
Sir Bulwer Lytton presided; and among those present
were Mr. R. H. Horne, Mr. John Britton, Mr Howitt,
Mr. George Cruikshank, Dr. Worthington, Mr. Henry
Colburn, and Mr. Henry Bohn. The chairman opened
the business. He combated the idea that the act of
Queen Anne includes foreigners, and mentioned that
Voltaire published one of his works in this country by
subscription. Voltaire was the friend of Walpole; he
knew personally all the persons concerned in passing the
act of Anne, and he obtained subscriptions to the
amount of £6000; but he never could get copyright,
and never supposed he possessed it. He wrote an essay
in English, and translated it and corrected it in French;
but the essay was reprinted by others without his
corrections, and with all its faults, and he was almost
driven mad by the annoyance. Again, his complete
works were published at Oxford, not in his own name,
but in that of his father, Arouet. Yet he never
attempted to repress either of these acts as piracies.
Lord Campbell, in his judgment, was equally wrong in
his illustrative arguments about Rapin and De Lolme:
neither of these men asserted the copyright attributed
to them. Indeed, Lord Campbell seemed to have