On 'Wednesday, after an irquiry of four days into the
cause of the dreadful explosion of the boiler of the Union steam-boat at Hull, the particulars of which we gave last week, a Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of " Manslaughter against the engineer, Joseph Gamble." Gamble was committed to York Castle, to take his trial at the next Assizes. In the course of the lengthened investigation, scarcely any additional fact of interest was stated. Much evidence was given as to the immediate occasion of the explosion : it was chiefly of a technical description. Some witnesses said that the safety-valve was too small ; others, that a weight was placed upon it ; but the general opinion of the engineers and scientific men was, that the explosion must have been occasioned by the generation of hydrogen gas in the boiler by the decom- position of the water, occasioned by the boiler becoming red Lot. In opposition to this opinion, it was stated that the wood placed inside the boiler to check the water from flowing suddenly to one side bole no marks of having been burnt ; though, as there were several flues, oue part of the boiler might have become red hot without charring the wood. The opinion of all the witnesses was, that the de (kit 'icy of water in the boiler was the pioximate cause of the accident, whether the explosion was caused by highly-condensed steam, or by the ignition of gas.
A large steamer running between London and the Continent came into collision with a schooner at sea last week ; and the vessel, a ith her cargo, almost immediately went down. The crew were all saved ; the steamer met with great damage, and her stern and bulwarks were Carried away; she is now under repair at Deptford.—C'onstiletionaL A dreadful case of murder and suicide occurred in Birmiugham last week. We extract the following particulars from the Birmingham Journal.
.• Samuel Johnson, a labourer, living at Smethwick, three miles from Bir- mingham, had been for sonic time past in great distress. On Tlitn slay morn- ing, he got up about four o'clock, dressed himself, took two of his children Cut of bed, and carried them down to the back yard, where he tied a rope round the neck of one of them and strangled it. Ile then stabbed the other to the heart ; and having accomplished this double murder, hung himself. A Jury met at the Swan Inn, tiniethwicke to investigate the case. The Jury having been sworn, proceeded to the house of the deceased, which is a few yatds from the above inn, and one of four small houses on the turnpike-road leading to Birmingham. The body of the unfortunate man was laid out on his bed, and at ,his right side lay his two victims. The three surviving children were in the ki!ehen. Ou the return of the Jury the examivation was commenced."
The evidence showed that Johnson was miserably poor; that his children had scarcely any thing to cut in the day, and at night were co- vered only with their mother's clothes; that their father was a kind man to his wife and children, and industrious, but that he could get no work; he was expecting to be turned out of his house, and had sold his shovel to procure food. The man, in short, went mad front want and despair. The Jury, satisfied of this, gave in a verdict—" That the children died from strangulation and stabbing, and the father from strangulation whilst labouring under temporary insanity."
An extraordinary act of suicide is said to have occurred at the Rut. land Arms, Newmarket, on Monday: the keeper of the tap having been missing, was found drowned in a butt of beer containing 500 gallons. He appears to have taken off the lid and precipitated himself into the butt ; the contents of which having overflowed, led to the dis- covery. It is said that he was behind in his payments, through some losses in gambling.—Bury Herald.
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