A dreadful collision between two Margate steamers, the Magnet as4,
the Red Rover, occurred on Monday afternoon. The Magnet left Margate in the morning, with 150 passengers ; the fog being so thick that she ran aground, not far from the Reculvers, about half. past ten. In an hour and a half, she floated off with the tide ; but the fog being still very thick, she proceeded cautiously at half-speed. Just before two o'clock, the Red Rover was seen going in the opposite direc- tion, close by the Nore, about a hundred yards off the Magnet. Through a mistake of the signals, the two vessels struck against each other; the bows of the Red Rover were staved in, and she began to fill immediately with water. The passengers, of whom there were about thirty, and the crew, leaped on board the Magnet, just in time to save their lives ; for the Red Rover in a few minutes went down head- foremost, and nothing but her mast and funnel and some floating baggage was to be seen of all that she carried. The Magnet lost her balggvaarks and rail on the starboard side. She carried her passengers to Sheerness; and the next day proceeded to London, to be repaired. Port Admiral Fleming, of Sheerness, conveyed most of the passengers in his gig to Chatham. Nobody received the least bodily hurt. Captain Reid of the Red Rover, being ill, did not command his vessel on the day of the accident ; but his mate, an experienced seaman, bad the charge of her. The owners of the Red Rover have applied for the alantance of the Admiralty barges and tackle to get her up.
On Wednesday afteinoon, an inquest was held in Greenwich, on the body of Jon Nichols, a waterman, who was shot by Mr. Hewes, the owner of the Brilliant yacht. Mr. Hewes was firing a salute from his vessel in the direction of Greenwich Hospital, where many people were standing : he loaded his blunderbuss with a part of a glove, on which was a button ; and it was the button which caused the death of Nichols. Mr. Hewes had been cautioned to fire in the air ; but he rested his blunderbuss on the rail, and almost seemed as if he were taking aim. As soon as discovered the mischief he had done, he went ashore, and took the deceased on board the Dreadnought. The Jury gave a verdict of " Homicide by misadventure."
Some extensive premises, called Bellevue Academy, at Woodford Bridge, were destroyed by fire on Wednesday. Fortunately, the young ladies who go to school there were at home for the holydays. There is some reason to suspect that the fire was the work of an incen- diary.
The inhabitants of the Northern part of the metropolis were alarmed on Tuesday night, by the appearance of fire in the direction of Highgate and Hampstead. Many engines and firemen were sent to those places ; but what they mistook for fire, was a display of the aurora borealis.
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