The Queen Victoria steamer, from Liverpool to
Dublin, was Wrecked with great loss of life, on the
night of the 14th inst, She was a first-class vessel,
commanded by Captain Church, an officer of experience.
She left Liverpool in the afternoon, having a general
cargo and about 120 people on board. Of these about
twelve were cabin and the rest steerage passengers;
the latter included a number of cattle-dealers, who
were returning from England after having disposed of
their stock. Till one o'clock next morning all went
well, but about that hour some heavy falls of snow took
place, which retarded her progress a little. No material
abatement, however, took place in her speed; and
about two o'clock the first mate and some of the
passengers perceived the Kish Light. Suddenly the
first mate, who was on the look-out at his post,
perceived dimly through the snow, at a distance of not
more than twenty yards, the cliffs of Howth, a little to
the north of the Bailey Light. He immediately gave
the order to stop; but it was too late, and the next
instant the vessel went headlong upon the rock with a
fearful crash. The captain was instantly upon deck,
and gave orders to reverse the engines; this was done,
and the vessel backed out into deep water; when,
finding that she was rapidly sinking, the captain
attempted to run her ashore. A dreadful scene of
confusion and terror succeeded. When the vessel first
struck, a number of persons attempted to get on to the
rocks from the bows, and eight out of about a dozen
were successful in landing. When it was found that
the ship was sinking, the starboard quarter-boat was
immediately filled by a number of the passengers; but
in the hurry and confusion of the moment, proper care
was not taken to secure the ropes, and the great weight
caused the boat to slip from her davits into the sea;
when she instantly swamped, and all in her perished.
The larboard quarter-boat was then lowered,
fortunately with more success. It contained seventeen
persons; including Mr. Duffy, Queen's Square, Dublin, Mr.
Walsh, of Athy, Kildare, and Mr. Charles Ralph, ship-
owner, of Wicklow—of whose humane and courageous
conduct we cannot speak too highly. On reaching the
water, however, it was found the boat was leaking fast,
and must have gone down in a short time, were it not
for the coolness and presence of mind of a young lad,
who having searched with his hand, found that the
plug-hole was open, and immediately thrust his fingers
into it. At this time the boat was almost immediately
under the sides of the sinking ship; the bulwarks of
which were crowded with the passengers, whom the
captain was seen endeavouring to quiet and pacify.
Some of them, however, leaped into the sea, and were
instantly drowned. Mr. Walsh saw his wife clinging
to some of the woodwork of the vessel, and called upon
her to leap down; but Mr. Ralph cried out, "For
God's sake don't jump down, or you will surely be
drowned; hold on, and we will return for you in a few
minutes." They had no idea at that moment that the
vessel was so near destruction; but in a few minutes
she went down, bow foremost; and the unfortunate
lady, and nearly all who remained on board, were lost.
Up to the latest moment the captain was seen upon the
deck endeavouring to calm the agitation of the
passengers, and to direct their exertions for the preservation
of their lives, together with the first and second
mates, who clung to their ship to the last. In the
mean time, the boat was shoved off; the water was
baled out with a hat! and Mr. Ralph and a young
man-of-war's-man, named Kegg, being the only persons
that could row, seized the oars, and, after severe
exertion, ultimately succeeded in landing fourteen persons
on the rocks about half a mile below the wreck.
Undeterred by the danger of the enterprise, and intent
only on saving as many lives as possible, Ralph, Kegg,
and the young lad, who still continued to stop the plug-
hole with his fingers, rowed back to the scene of the
disaster; but they found the vessel had gone down,
her masts alone being visible above the water. Twelve
or fourteen persons were clinging to these with all the
tenacity of despair. Ralph and his companions took
five off the foremast, and were proceeding to relieve
those upon the mainmast from their position, when the
steward of the Queen Victoria, who was one of them,
cried out, "Don't mind us, my dear fellow; the boats
of the Roscommon will pick us up." On turning
round, Ralph perceived at a short distance the
Roscommon steamer, the boats of which had already
picked up several persons, and were proceeding as fast
as possible to render further assistance. It appears
that the Roscommon was proceeding from Dublin to
Holyhead, when the commander, Captain Brown,
observed four red lights in the direction of the Bailey
Lighthouse. This being rather unusual, he conferred
with his mate, Mr. Davis, on the subject, and at length
resolved to make for the lights. They soon arrived at
the wreck; and, the snow having by this time ceased,
they at once perceived what had happened. The boats
of the Roscommon were lowered and proceeded to the
wreck; where they took off the men who were clinging
to the mainmast, and rescued others who were then
struggling in the water. The boats also took the
people who had been landed on the rocks by Mr. Ralph;
the whole number received on board the Roscommon
was forty-five, making with the eight who got to land
when the Queen Victoria first struck, fifty-three persons
saved. The Roscommon returned to Kingstown, and
steamers were at once despatched to the wreck; but all
they could effect was to pick up some of the corpses and
save a portion of some of the floating property. The
number of people saved is fifty three, twenty of whom
belonged to the crew. The exact number of the people
on board, and the names of those who perished, has not
yet been ascertained. An investigation into the above
affair has begun.

The Rev. James Commeline, rector of Redmarley, in
Gloucestershire, has Lost his Life from Reading in Bed.
The book had been placed on a reading-stand at his
bedside, and it is supposed he had dozed off for a few
minutes, as the inmates of the house were suddenly
alarmed by hearing his screams, and on rushing into
the room they found the bed in flames and the room
filled with smoke. He was found to be badly burned,
and died two days afterwards.

At the village of Llanfchangel, near Brecon, the
house of a tradesman, named Morgan, has been
Destroyed by Fire, his whole family, excepting himself,
perishing in the flames. The fire broke out in the
night. Morgan, at his wife's entreaty, got through a
window to open a door. In a moment the whole house
was wrapped in flames, and he was the only inmate
who escaped with life. Eight persons perished—Mrs.
Morgan, five children, a servant girl, and Mrs. Griffith,
a widow.

A fatal Accident took place, on the morning of the
19th, on the line of the London and North-Western
Railway. Two labouring men were proceeding to work,
and while passing through the Kilburn tunnel they
heard the noise of an engine approaching them, but
could not tell which way or on which line. They both
accordingly laid down between the rails, thinking the
engines would pass over them; but the fender under
the engine, which was very low, struck both of them,
and dragged one of them a considerable distance. The
driver stopped the engine with all possible speed and
dragged one of the poor fellows in a shocking condition
from under the tender. One leg was completely cut
off, and other parts of the body were dreadfully
mutilated. A search was then made, when the other man
was discovered some distance down the line in an
insensible state, with the scalp torn from his head, which was
dreadfully mutilated. Both the injured men were
conveyed to the nearest surgeon's, but one was found to be
quite dead, and the other died soon afterwards.

The packet ships Roscius and Lady Franklin have
arrived at New York from Liverpool, after singularly
Stormy and Disastrous Passages. The Roscius left
Liverpool the 17th December, and on the 1st of
January, during a strong gale, was boarded by a tremendous
sea, that stove in the upper deck and fore hatches on
the main deck, twisted the mainmast head off, and
filled the between-decks with four feet of water. All
the stores, provisions, and clothes of the steerage
passengers were much damaged by this inundation, and
no doubt a greater part entirely destroyed, as their
boxes were washing about the decks until the ship
could be brought-to and the wreck cleared. When