A duel between a Captain Arens and a Mr. M'Donald
took place on Saturday morning, in a field near West End. The duel arose out of a dispute on the relative merits of Colonel Jones and Mr. Portman. The Captain, says the Globe reporter, maintained that the Colonel was the " far more preferable" man of the two. The Captain was wounded in the arm ; when the two politicians shook hands, and the affair ter- minated.
About five o'clock on Wednesday morning, the police-constables on duty discovered the house of Mr. Blandon, a grocer, the corner of Elm Street, Gray's Inn Lane, to be on fire. Upon the constables forcing open the doors and windows, the flames, as a matter of course, burst their way upwards with rapidity and fury. By the speedy arrival of the engines, and an abundant supply of water, the fire was, however, prin- cipally confined to Mr. Blandon's house ; which was soon reduced to a heap of ruins. Mr. Blandon is insured in the County Fire-office. No serious personal accident took place on the occasion. [Why arc not policemen instructed, in no case to break open doors and windows of houses on fire ? This was the constant trick of the old blockheads they superseded; and many lives were lost in consequence, as well as much property. Had it not been for this absurd and dangerous prac- tice, in all probability, the English Opera-house would have been saved. The policemen ought to seek access by the first-floor window. If a ladder were placed at every Station-house for that purpose, not one life in twenty would be lost that is now sacrificed, not to the flames, but to the stupidity of those that seek to quench them.]
On Thursday night, the Soho, steam-vessel, lying off Black- wall, sustained considerable damage by its timbers accidentally catching fire. On Tuesday evening, a woman named Westropp, residing in. the Waterloo Road, was crossing the,road by the Coburg Theatre, with a child in her arms, when her foot slipped, and she fell; at that moment, a gentleman was passing rapidly in his gig, and not perceiving the we-
man, the left wheel passed over her arm, and literally crushed it. The gentleman stopped, instantly alighted, and rendered every assistance. The poor creature was suffering the most intense agony from her wound ; yet the feelings of the mother were predominant ; and her first exclamation on being raised was—" Where is my boy, my Henry, my child ? Is he hurt, is he hurt? My poor boy !" The child was bruised by the fall, but received no further injury. The gentleman to whom the gig belonged gave the unfortunate woman three sovereigns on the spot : he seemed much concerned.
On Sunday afternoon, at a house in Osnaburgh Street, Regent's Park, a little boy, playing with a paper kite at the second-tioor window, overbalanced himself, and fell into the area beneath, a height of nearly thirty feet. Ile was taken up quite insensible ; and on a surgeon being sent for, it was found. that he had both his arms dislocated, his right kg broken, besides being severely injured by the iron railing in his fall : very slight hopes are entertained of his recovery. About two years since, a sister, four years old, was killed by a similar accident.
Four fishermen, named Kendrick, Darby, Wilkins, and Hall, were casting their nets into the Thames, on this day week, just above Long Reach, near Dartford Sands, for shrimps ; when a collier, outward bound, in going down the River, ran against their.boat and sunk it. Wilkins and Hall were almost instantly drowned. Kendrick made towards a collier passing up the River ; when a boat going down the River struck him on the head, and he sunk. Darby, after having been in the water some time, was picked up by a seaman named Watkins, who lives in Wood Wharf, Billingsgate Dock, Greenwich.
Three men were severely hurt yesterday morning, by the falling of a scaffold in which they were working at Messrs. Barclay's brew- house.
An ingenious thief stole, on Saturday, into the house of Captain Recce, Myrtle Place, Blackheath; from which he contrived to carry off a large quantity of wearing apparel and some articles of plate. He was subsequently found sound asleep in a gorse bush on the heath, and the goods were recovered. The policeman of the beat was sound asleep on the step of Captain Reece's door while the robbery was being perpetrated : he has, in consequence, been dismissed" the Force."
On Saturday morning about six o'clock, screams were heard from the house of Mr. Sumpter, 14, Craig's Place, Kent Road ; and shortly after, a female with a child in her arms rushed into the street, crying out that her husband, a law-writer, named James Ludlow, lodging in the house, had attempted to cut her throat. Several persons ran up stairs, and found the unhappy man (who has been several times confined in a lunatic asylum) pacing the room with an open razor in his hand, and the blood streaming from 41 wound in his own neck. He was disarmed, and placed on the bed ; when the wound was bound up by Mr. Osborn, a surgeon, who declared, that if it had been half an inch lower, instant death must have taken place. Mrs. Ludlow states, that her husband got out of bed mid came to her with a razor in his hand. She made a violent effort to get her child, and then rushed down stairs. The un- fortunate man became so outrageous in the course of the day, that it was found necessary to convey him to an asylum.
On Wednesday morning, a middle-aged man, dressed like a sailor, passed though the gate at the Surry side of Waterloo Bridge, as if with the intention of going into the Strand : he had, however, not proceeded further than the third arch when he got on the balustrades, and jumped into the Thames. The unhappy man's head struck against the pier, and he fell against a boat rowing a party across the River ; he was picked up, but he expired in a few minutes.
Two women contrived on Monday to wile a man named Simmons, a barber from Woolwich ; into a house in St. Giles's, where, after plying him with liquor, they attempted to rob him ; and on his resistance, they and two men who were with them beat him unmercifully with a poker. The whole gang were apprehended by a policeman, and fully identified by Simmons.
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