in question to the prejudice of his own kindred. After
the case of the plaintiffs had been heard at very great
length, the defendants, instead of entering upon their
case, made an offer through their counsel to pay the
fund in dispute into court. This proposal was agreed
to, and thus the proceedings, for the present, at least,
were brought to an abrupt conclusion.

At the Exeter Assizes, Mr. Baron Martin delivered
sentence on Robert Bird and Sarah Bird, his wife, for
the misdemeanour of which eight out of fourteen judges
believe them to have been legally convicted on the
second trial for cruelty to Mary Ann Parsons. Baron
Martin was one of the minority who held that the
conviction was bad; but he bowed to the decision of the
majority, as if the case had gone to the House of Lords.
However, as the case of the prisoners had never been
heard, he offered to give them time to make affidavits.
It was ultimately arranged that sentence should be passed
immediately, and the prisoners left to state their case to
the Secretary of State. They were sentenced to be
imprisoned, with hard labour, for sixteen calendar
months; which will be two years from the beginning of
their present incarceration.

The case of Miss Augusta Talbot, which was the subject
of a petition to the House of Commons, presented by
Mr. Craven Berkeley on the 14th, came before the
Court of Chancery on the 22nd, in the form of two
petitions, the one on behalf of Miss Talbot, by the Rev.
Dr. Doyle, her guardian and next friend; and the other
by Mr. Berkeley, as her next friend. The object of
both petitions was the same, an arrangement for the
future residence of the young lady. In the course of the
proceedings, the Lord Chancellor said he had some
conversation with the young lady at Lord Shrewsbury's
last autumn, and she appeared to him to be a very
intelligent person, and fully competent to exercise her
own judgment. An order had been made, by which she
was to be allowed to go with Lord and Lady Shrewsbury
to the continent. He certainly was surprised afterwards
to hear that she had, without any order of the court,
betaken herself to a convent. He saw it stated that she
had gone there with his consent, but there was no
foundation for that statement. He first heard of her
going to the convent from Mr. Berkeley, who applied
to him in his private room in the House of Lords for a
writ of habeas corpus to bring the young lady before
him, which application he at once refused, thinking
that an irregular and unnecessary course of proceeding
in this young lady's case. Mr. Berkeley then left him,
saying that he would present a petition on the subject
to the House of Commons, which he (his Lordship) left
him to do. The Lord Chancellor further said that he
observed it was stated in Mr. Berkeley's petition that
the young lady was a postulant in the convent, but he
(the Lord Chancellor) had received a letter from her
in which she stated that she was not a postulant, nor
did she return to the convent with that view. It was
finally arranged, that the further discussion on the
petitions, should be taken on the 27th inst., and that
in the meantime the young lady should be brought up
from the convent at Taunton.

Thomas Drory, and Sarah Chesham, convicted of
murder at the Chelmsford Assizes, were Executed there
on the 25th.

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

A WHOLE family, with some friends, numbering
altogether sixteen persons, were Poisoned lately at
Bishop's Sutton, in Somersetshire, by eating some
pancakes which had accidentally been mixed up with an
ounce of white arsenic, sold by mistake for carbonate of
soda, which was to have been used for lightening the
pancakes. Medical assistance was obtained before it was
too late, and fortunately no lives were lost.

A melancholy Shipwreck took place on the 6th, upon
Goodwin Sands. The brig Mary White, of London,
laden with coals, was driven upon the North Sand Head.
A life-boat belonging to Broadstairs succeeded in reaching
the vessel; and seven of the crew were got into the life-boat,
but before the captain, a man, and a boy, could be
got on board, the boat broke adrift, leaving these,
together with two of the boatmen, in the brig. The
two boatmen immediately jumped overboard and swam
towards the life-boat, which they reached in safety, but
the captain, man, and boy continued in the vessel, which
shortly after fell over on her side, and, it being impossible
for the boat to get near the vessel again, they
doubtless met with a watery grave, as the vessel soon
afterwards went to pieces.

A painter, of the name of Collins, was Killed on the
12th at the Crystal Palace. While employed in painting
the windows on the roof of the building, the board on
which he was standing shifted; he lost his equilibrium,
and, falling upon the glass work, his weight caused the
frame to give way, when he fell on the top of the table
standing on the floor with such force that the table was
dashed to pieces. He died the same night.

Captain Hutchinson, of the Royal Engineers, superintendent
of the Holyhead harbour works, was lately
Killed by an extraordinary accident. A blast was fired
containing two tons of powder; and though Captain
Hutchinson had removed to a distance of at least half a
mile, an immense block of stone fell upon him, striking
him dead, in his wife's presence. A labourer suffered
a fracture of his leg; while a lady's dress was torn to
fragments by the concussion of the air.

A Fatal Accident has occurred at the Kirkstall station
of the Leeds and Bradford Railway, from the incautiousness
or error of two ladies. Mrs. Nichols and her sister
Miss Leyland entered the station by a wrong gate,
one which leads to the goods warehouse, and walked
along the side of the warehouse towards the platform.
While still on the roadway, an express-train approached,
running upon the rails laid rather close to the warehouse
wall. A guard and a porter called out to the ladies to
warn them; but they considered themselves to be safe, as
they were outside the rail, and continued to walk forward.
Miss Leyland, who was nearest to the rails, was caught
by the engine, whirled round, dragged forward twenty
yards, and hurled upon the platform. The unfortunate
lady was so dreadfully injured that she is not expected
to recover.

A fearful explosion of Fire-damp took place in the
Victoria Mine, at Nitshill, near Paisley, early in the
morning of Saturday the 15th, while sixty-three men
and boys were in the mine. Unfortunately, the shock
was so great that the gearing of the shaft and the sides
of it were destroyed, and the shaft was filled with rubbish.
Only two men at a time could work in clearing the
ruins away, and meanwhile the relatives of the miners
assembled and caused a most distressing scene. At
midnight, so much of the débris had been removed that
voices could be heard at the foot of the shaft. But it
was not till four o'clock on Sunday afternoon that actual
communication could be established with two men who
still lived. Provisions were conveyed to them; at
midnight, one man was extricated, in an exhausted state,
and half an hour after the second was got out alive.
These men said they had been working with two others
in a part of the pit where the explosion was not very
severe; they hastened towards the shaft, where there
would be an in-draught of fresh air; but two perished
by the way from the choke-damp. On Monday morning,
the corpses of these sufferers were got out of the pit;
and at that time no hope existed that any of the fifty-nine
people missing had survived. It is stated by all
the accounts that the ventilation of this mine was good;
but it is believed that the calamity arose from some
great sinking of the roof, or the penetration of some
great cavity full of explosive gas.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.

The Ragged Schools erected in Lambeth at the cost of
Mr. Beaufoy, as a monument to the memory of his wife,
who lived a life of active good deeds among the poor,
were opened on the 5th in the presence of a large assembly,
over which Lord Ashley presided, and at which
many clergymen were present. The schools have cost
£10,000, and a sum of £4000 has been invested by Mr.