iflttropolis.

A Court of Common Council was held on Tuesday, to discuss Mr. An- derton's motion-

" That it be a standing order of the Court that the Chamberlain shall not pay out of the Chamber any sum of money for any charges or expenses for any visita- tion or journey by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, or any other branch of the Cor- poration, either for the purposes of Conservancy or otherwise, when such visit or journey shall be beyond the boundary of the jurisdiction of the City, without the previous authority of the Common Council upon a motion for that purpose." Mr. Anderton denied the right of the Court of Aldermen to instruct the Lord Mayor to visit Oxford, and to saddle the City funds with the expense-- The Lord Mayor had no right to proceed beyond Staines, the recognised boun-

dwy of the City. No advantage could possibly be derived from any stretch made by his Lordship beyond the boundaries of his own acknowledged juris- diction. The Lord Mayor could, and he had no doubt would, go to Oxford, and treat all his visiters there, and at other places beyond his jurisdiction, as a private gentleman, and at his own expense; for a more liberal man never presided M the city of London: but it was absurd to carry the expenses of the Mayoralty beyond the stone which marked the City boundaries.

Sir Peter Laurie seconded the motion— The first visitation within his memory was that made by Sir Claudius Hunter, who was dubbed Doctor of Laws upon the occasion at Oxford. It would, no doubt, be extremely agreeable to the .present Lord Mayor's friends to see him covered with the same sort of distinction; but his Lordship was too independent to seek any honour at an expense which proceeded from any other source than his own pocket or his own merit.

Deputy Stephens had no objection to see the Lord Mayor and his party go beyond the boundaries, if they paid the expenses incurred after they quitted his jurisdiction. Sir James Duke was not only opposed to the expenditure of money beyond the limits of the City jurisdiction, but he wished that the expenses within the limits should be defined. Alderman Wilson turned the tables on Mr. Anderton-

Mr. Anderton had not the candour to tell the Court that he was Deputy-Go- vernor of the Irish Society; that he went to Ireland last year; that instead of going direct to Londonderry, where the Society's property. lay, be took a most delightful tour over the Welsh mountains, staid some time In Dublin, was absent a month or six weeks; and that the deputation expended 3001. in addition to 6271. set apart for the Society to dine upon or spend as it pleased, and one dinner to the amount of 1501. given in the extreme of luxury. Had he forgotten that he was a member of a Court which annually sanctioned the ex- penditure of a fixed sum of 2,675/. in eating and drinking ?—another fixed sum of 7001. annually in eating and drinking, and dancing and music, with their wives and daughters., on the river, and on parts of it which were not confined to the limits of the civic jurisdiction? In fact, in the Common Council, in eating and drinking last year, of which the mover had his share, there was expended the ,sttm of 4,4801. and he had participated in all these luxuries without seeming even to remember that such things had ever been. Alderman Wilson stated that the upper district of the Thames had not been visited for thirteen years previous to 1839, and that the cost did not exceed the average sum of 841. us. 2d. per annum. Thus it appeared, that twenty years had elapsed since the Court of Aldermen went to Oxford, during which time they had expended 1,099/. in taking a view of the river as far as Henley; while within the same period the Court of Common Council had spent in eating and drinking, and music and dancing, and contingent expenses, the sum of 89,6001. Mr. W. Lawrence taunted Alderman Wilson with the kind of liberality which he displayed as the occupant of the civic chair—

The worthy Alderman might very well talk of his own hospitality, conferred as it bad been upon the members of his own family and upon their customers. It happened that in the Mayoralty distinguished by that liberal description of hos- pitality, the allowance was more than usually great. It was about 8,0001. Alderman Wilson—" Yes, and add to that sum 7,0001. more which I expended to maintain the honour and dignity of the City. My Mayoralty cost the sum of

'Mr. Alderman Sidney spoke in approval of the visit to Oxford and the payment of the expense by the City. Mr. W. Jones and some others spoke in opposition.

Finally, the motion was carried by a large majority; only four clis- ttentients appearing.

The Provident Booksellers' Retreat—a home for decayed members of 'the trade, erected by the Booksellers' Provident Fund Society, at Bishop Langley—was opened on Tuesday. The ground, nearly four acres, was the gift of Mr. Dickinson, the eminent paper-maker; who was also a Bab- scriber in money. The building at present comprises only seven houses of four rooms each, for seven' pebsiontirs; but the intention is to enlarge it; and in the part built unusual attention has been paid to the comfort of the occupants. The ceremonies on Tuesday were crowned with a public breakfast, at which Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton presided. He made an eloquent speech; great part of it, however, devoted to the claims of authors, whose genius is crippled while they are dependent for remuneration on the returns of trade. The amount collected at the breakfast towards the charity was 8001.; which more than covers the debt on the building.

The Richmond Railway is to be opened to the public on Monday. General Pasley has inspected the line, and found its condition satisfactory: he only sug- gested that certain gates should be lengthened where a road crosses the rail. He expressed great admiration of the viaduct at Wandsworth, which is a thousand -het long, and consists of twenty-two arches.

The directors celebrated the completion of the line by the running of ex- cursion-trains on Wednesday. Accompanied by great numbers of their friends, they proceeded by two trains to Richmond. There was a banquet at the Castle, to which four hundred persons sat down; and in the evening a splendid ball, to which the gentry of the neighbourhood were invited. During the day a number of trains conveyed the townspeople on excursions along the line.

Notwithstanding the opposition given by the members of the Spitalfields silk- trade to the passing of the late Free-trade measures, it is a fact that they have not been in such brisk employment as at present for many years past. There is not in the whole district of Bethnal Green or Spitalfields a narrow silk weaver out of work.—Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle.

The Eastern Counties Railway has been the scene of another very serious acci- dent. On Saturday night the most cxsgerated rumours were current in Lon- don of numbers of people killed by theter- but it appears that it was not fatal to any one at the time, though many were badly hurt.

The Stratford station of the Colchester branch is very dangerously situated, there being a curve through a shallow cutting immediately afterpassing the station from London; and at each end of the cutting is a bridge; between the bridges there is a aignal-post, by which engine-drivers are informed whether there is any obstruction at the station, for they cannot observe the latter till very near it. The accident occurred between four and five o'clock. The up-train from Ipswich, due at Stratford at 3.56, did not arrive at that station until twenty minutes after its proper time. Several passengers bad alighted, others were entering carriages, sa the engine-driver was taking in a supply of water, when a train was observed coming rapidly towards the station. The station-master was on the platform, Wand the noise of the approaching train attracted his attention; he at once saw the imminent danger in which the passengers in the stationary train were placed, and ran towards the engine, intending to induce the driver to go on with the train then at the station; hut before be had time to explain his object, the colli- sion took place. The train, which but a moment previously had consisted of seven or eight first and second class carriages and two, horse-boxes, now pre- Seated but little more than a mass of broken fragments and rubbish. A. se- cond-class carriage, which had been attached to the train at Romford, and placed in the rear of the two horse-boxes, was completely smashed; the engine having

mounted on the rains, and the passengers which it had contained were seen, and wounded, lying about the railway in various directions. Two other class carriages were so crashed as to be rendered entirely useless. Although the horse-boxes were in the same condition, the horses were uninjured. The pas- era in the rear-carriages were all more or less hurt and contused. Surgical assistance was immediately obtained from Stratford; and in a short time a number of those whc were most hurt were sent in omnibuses to the London Hospital, while some who resided in the neighbourhood were removed to their residences. A great many persons were more or less bruised: the most

serious injuries were these--big toe cut off, and foot otherwise mutilated; fracture of the right leg; several ribs broken, fractured sternum; bad fracture of the leg; foot partly cat off, jaw injured; fractured collar-bone- fracture of the bones of the left leg; concussion of the brain- fracture of the thigh, and dislocation of the small bones of the leg—a frightful lest !

The -officers of the company were soon on the spot. The secretary, Mr. Roney, was at Cambridge; but the news was transmitted to him by telegraph, and he immediately hastened to Stratford. On his arrival, he summoned the people em- ployed at the station before him, and held an inquiry into the causes of the dis- aster. Reporters were allowed to be present Mr. Richardson, the station-master, stated, that the one p. m. train from Ipswich, usually arriving at the Stratford station at fifty-six minutes after three, was twenty minutes behind its usual time on Saturday. A cattle-train from Colchester bad just been cleared off the up- line into the siding when the passenger-train arrived. The passenger-train was about starting for London, when he observed an engine and train of empty trucks approaching the station. He ran towards the driver of the passenger-train, in-

tending to hasten his departure; but before he could reach the engine, the collision had occurred, and the fireman of the passenger-train was thrown off the engine on to the railway. He described the manner in which the carriages were de- stroyed and passengers thrown about the line. The train which caused the accident consisted exclusively of empty trucks, drawn by an engine. They had been sent up from the Romford station' and were going to the Stratford station, Cambridge branch. When the train of trucks arrived, the regular signal that a train was at the &teflon, and that any other approaching must stop, was given. The signal used was the one on Hall's principle, and consisted of a fan, all the four divisions of which it consisted being down: had no obstruction existed on the line the fourth division of the fan would have been raised. The servants at the Stratford station of the Colchester branch consisted of a foreman, a porter, a goodsman, a signal and pointsman, and a lad of about eighteen years of age, who does errands and other work. When the collision took place, the regular signal-man was attending to the cattle-train on the siding, and the signal was in charge of the youth referred to. The signal-man had left his duty to attend to the cattle-train by his (Richardson's) orders, and he had directed the lad to watch the signal. He saw the lad lower the fan properly, after the Ipswich train had come up, as a signal for no other train to approach. Unwin' the lad spo- ken of by Richardson, stated that he had lowered the fan of the signal. Mr. Burford, a tradesman of Stratford, corroborated this; having observed the signal- post from a bridge. At the close of the investigation, Mr. Roney announced that William Clare, the driver of the truck-train, Quinlan, the stoker, Thomas Green, the signal-man, and an assistant-overseer in the locomotive department named Nicholson, who was riding upon the engine of the track-train when the collision took place, had all been given into custody, as it appeared they were the

through whose negligence the accident had occurred. Clare, Quinlan, and persons

Nichol-

eon, had all declared that the signal was not down. The prisoners were taken before the Ilford Magistrates on Monday, and a long

investigation ensued. Mr. Kitson, head clerk in the locomotive department was at the scene of the collision directly after it occurred. "I went up to the engine-driver of the truck-train, and I found him standing upouthe engine. I said to' Clare, what ever have you been doing?' He said he did not know, or something to that effect. I do not quite remember his precise words. I next asked him how it was he bad paid no attention to the signal? He answered that the signal was up." "I know all the parties employed at the Stratford station of the Cambridge branch. Clare is one of them; he is an engine-driver and fitter and Quinlan is a labourer in the shop, and goes out with engines occasionally. I have seen Clare act as engine-driver three or four times on the Colchester line, and several times on the Cambridge line. It is not the habit of the company to take men out of the shop to drive engines; and the reason of Clare's being so em- ployed was, that we have had to bring 1113 so much cattle during the past week. I call Clare.an occasional driver, and Quinlan an occasional stoker. I have been in the employ of the company about eight months. I know it is customary to supply engine-drivers and stokers with books of regulations. I cannot say tluit Clare had one." Birchr a porter at the Ilford station, said about six minutes in- tervened between the starting of the passenger-train and the track-train from the Ilford station. The track-train remained at the station the specified time of five minutes : that time is laid down by the rules now in use ; for- merly it was considered that an interval of ten minutes should be allowed to elapse, but recently it bad been reduced to five minutes. Blatchford, chief guard of the passenger-train, said ten minutes had been lost in the jonrireY to Ilford; from that place to Stratford two minutes were gained. He saw the truck-train about to dash into his own train; it appeared to be coming at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour. "One of the rules is, that on going into station the driver must sound his whistle. I did not hear the whistle of the train that ran into us; if it had been sounded Isbnuld have heard it. That train, I should say, was coming rather fiat. At the speed at which it was coming it could not have stopped at the station; it must have gone past the station." Tomlinson, a smith employed on the line, was on the track-train. Clare anti Quinlan managed it. "I know the signal at the Stratford station. I saw it was down as we were approaching it: the lower fan was red. We had passed under the arch of the bridge before we saw it: the signal is, I think, half-way between the two bridges. The signal we saw was stop,' or' danger.' As soon as I saw it I was alarmed, and tumed,round towards the fireman, who stood at my right hand. He was already at the break, and he had turned it. The engine-driver turned towards the break also; he had then shut off the steam. I helped the engine-driver and the fireman at the break. The fireman laid himself down on the tender, and I followed his example. I had before observed the passenger-train in advance of us at the station. I think our driver had reversed his engine; I saw him standing with the reversing-lever in his hand. Ile stood while we My down: we had first done all that we could with the breaks. We did all that man could do to stop the train after seeing the signal. We did not succeedig stopping the train, because in my opinion, we were going at too great a speed. Unwin declared that he had properly attended to the signal He did not hew

the whistle as the engine approached the station. All engine-drivers are bound to sound the whistle, even if the train is not going to stop. I don't know whether that is always done; some engine-drivers neglect to do so." "I have often managed the signal, and know how to do it. It sometimes hap. pens that the fans will not answer the string; but on this occasion I saw that the fans had fallen before I left the winder. I have once or twice seen Clare driving on Jackson's engine. I have been supplied with a book of signals. Everybody engaged on the line ought to have a book like this; but everybody hasn't one. There are two men at the Stratford station who never had one: I know that, because they told me so." Mr. Burford testified to seeing the signal properly lowered. Richardson, the station-master, repeated the evidence given before the secretary of the company. He thought the speed of the track-train was ten or twelve miles an hour; he did not hear the whistle. Mr. James Samuels, resident engineer, was exarained. "I have since Saturday last examined the Firefly

enug.*:ne, which drew the train of trucks. I find that the break is in good working order. I have made a measurement from the East corner of the Stratford station platform to the signal: the distance is two hundred and fifty-nine and a half yards by the rail: the distance from the signal to the place on the up-line from which the signal can first be seen is two hundred and twenty yards. When making this measurement I was standing on an engine on the same place as an engine-driver would stand. Supposing an engine at this spot were travelling thirty miles an hoar, it might have stopped within four hundred yards, if a heavy train. I have seen such trains stopped within a shorter distance, the engine being reversed and the breaks applied." Mr. Thomas Scott, superintendent of the line, made these admissions in his cross-examination. "Since February, Clare has gone out occasionally as an engine-man. He is, I think, paid extra when he is so sent oat; but I will not swear to that. It is Mr. Hunter's duty to engage engine-drivers on this line. I have seen Quinlan as a labouring man at work. I don't recollect ever having seen him as a stoker. I was formerly superintendent of the locomotive depart- ment. I know it is quite necessary that all engine-drivers should have copies of the rules and regulations; and it is more essential in this case than in that of any other officer on a railway. I do not know whether Clare ever had any copy of these rates. I and my clerks are the parties whose duty it is to supply the officers with these rules. I never inquired if Clare had a copy of the last rules of 1846. I have sent him out with an engine without knowing whether or not he had a copy of the regulations of the company." The rules for the guidance of the engine-drivers were read. Nothing inculpatory of Green and Nicholson having appeared in the evidence, they were discharged from custody. Mr. Rawlins, a solicitor, addressed the Magistrates for the prisoners. He threw the blame on the officers of the company, not on these men. It was not to be for- gotten, whatever excuse might be made, that Clare, who had on Saturday driven the engine, was only a fitter, and that he was only occasionally taken from his legitimate work and sent out with an engine. -He was on this occasion sent out Mean hour in the day when there was the most traffic on the line; and yet it had not been shown that he had been supplied with those rules and regulations by which that traffic was governed. The palpable reason of his having been intrusted with an engine was, that the company had not a sufficient number of proper ser- vants. And then they came to the stoker. It had not been shown that this man had ever before acted in that capacity; he was a mere labourer: when he went on the engine he had no copy of the rules; and yet the company now in bringing the charge referred to those rules, which they said he had neglected, but which they had not proved that he had ever known or ought to have known. Before they stated he had neglected his duties, they must first prove that he had been made ac- quainted with those duties. Could safety be hoped for when, at a time that the line was crowded, a fitter and a labourer, the one made for the moment an engi- neer, and the other a stoker, were intrusted with a train going at the speed of twenty or thirty miles an hour?

The Magistrates resolved not to dispose of the case summarily, but committed *prisoners for trial at the Chelmsford Sessions. An application was made to admit them to ball; but this was refused while any of the injured persons should be in danger.

Coddington, one of the Government Inspectors, has examined the-scene of the catastrophe, and tested the possibility of stopping a train between the spot where the signal is first visible and the station. The Firefly and a train of tracks 'Awe employed; a speed of thirty miles an hour was got up; when the signal was seen, the steam was shut off, the engine reversed, and the breaks applied—thetrain stopped some yards from the station. It was the general opinion that the signal Wes placed on the wrung side of the line: on the other side it would be visible at a greater distance. An accident of a precisely similar character to that on Saturday occurred at the same spot six years ago; but though manypersons were hurt, it was not of so fearful a description as the present accident.

The inquest on the body of White, the soldier of the Seventh Hussars, was re- Mimed at Hounslow Heath en Monday. A brother of the deceased was present. A number of soklienewere examined, and described the flogging inflicted on White. It was done under the sentence of a court-martial, who had found him guilty of striking his sergeant across the breast with a poker. The. punishment was one hundred and fifty lashes: the surgeon did not interfere during their infliction, nor did the celpri .t complain; the whole number of strokes was administered. Two &triers vrielded the eats; which, said one witness, made the punishment more severe than in other regiments; trumpeters, mere youths, being generally em- ployed. Several of the soldiers, but -none of the officers, fainted during the punish- ment. When it was over, White walked to the hospital. There he was treated for the cure of his lacerated back: when that was getting well, he experienced an attack of sickness, which he considered was the result of the beating. A soldier who was in the hospital declared that Dr. Warren, the regimental surgeon' had Resented to White's notion that the punishment had brought on the sickness. That sickness terminated in death. As described by the soldiers, White's ailments were,.a pain in the left side, a violent beating of the heart, boils on the back, and *M in the legs. Thee(' appear to have arisen after the mangled back had pretty well healed. One witness remarked, that punishment by the cat was of fre- quent recurrence in the regiment; in America it had been more frequent than since the troops had come home. After the punishment had been inflicted, Colonel Whyte addressed the men, declaring that White's conduct had been brutal; he was determined to repress it; and he told the men to say to the culprit when he recovered, that if he misbehaved again he should be punished in the same way. Private Matthevrson was examined. He believed White's punishment was too severe. He himself had received a hundred lashes, for the following offence. "I was in the stable when a sergeant looked through a window. He said, Who's there ?' s I said, Rollos!' and he replied, 'Is that the way you speak to a ser- geant?' I said, I did not know he was a sergeant, or I would not have done go.' He then said, Well, if you don't know, PR teach you better manners.'" The man was ordered to be confined for a week. He asked Colonel Whyte how he ought to address a sergeant? This was considered to be insolence; the sol- dier was brought before a court-martial, and the matter ended in a severe flog- ging. "I came out of the hospital this day," said the witness. "My back is not well now, properly speaking. I had boils on my back, and pains in my side, back, and chest, the same as White complained of. I had great pain in my chest the next morning, and difficulty of breathing, attended with pain. My back was dressed, but White's was not Three or four days afterwards the pain left the chest, and came to the sides. It would sometimes leave for two or three hours, and then come back again. I had no medicine for it. I feel it still in the even- ings, when I lie down and draw breath; it feels as if something was mining mto my sides." Apiece of skin was produce,d, said to be that taken from the de- ceased's back, but it seemed to be only part of it.

The inquiry was adjourned for a week.

It was considered necessary by Mr. Coroner Wakley that the body of the de- ceased should undergo another surgical examination. It had been interred at Heston; on Wednesday, it was exhumed. Mr. Erasmus Wilson, the lecturer on anatomy at University College, and Mr. Day, a surgeon of Hounslow, made the necessary examination. While thus engaged, Mr. Hall and Dr. Read, Army sur- geons, arrived from London by order of the authorities at the Horse Guards: but they were not permitted to enter the churchyard; directions to prevent all inter- ference having been given by the Coroner.

A gentleman named Charlesford has been killed, through his own temerity, at the Blackwell station. Ile was too late for a train ; but he rushed on to the plat-,

form, without a ticket, and attempted to jump into a carriage while the train wes in motion: he fell, and was so frightfully crushed that he died in a few minutes.

Weise, the German charged with stealing gold and silver from the Royal Mint, and his wife and step-daughter, accused of receiving the metal, have been com- mitted for trial.

At Worship Street Police-office, on Tuesday, Benjamin Alexander Ford, a youv man who is respectably connected, was charged with uttering forged checks. No fewer than six cases were proved; and the prisoner was remanded that others • ht be brought against him. kis plan seems to have been to induce people to cüh"oroesed' checks, on the plea that he had no banker; and he was very skll- ful in lulling suspicions and uttering plausible falsehoods.