A paragraph appeared in last week's Spectator, abridged from a

Daily Paper, in which it was stated that a Mr. Price bad applied to the. Royal Humane Society for the use of their drags to recover the body of his son, who bad been drowned, as be supposed, in the Serpentine; and that three guineas was demanded for the use of them. We are in- formed by Mr. Westropp, the Secretary of the Society, that this ac- count was entirely incorrect : the use of the drags was immediately granted, and they were used for five hours in dragging the Serpentine, —in vain, no doubt, as the child was not drowned at all, but was found in the neighbourhood of Cripplegate in perfect health. Mr. Price himself, instead of making any complaint against the Society, was so well satisfied with the prompt attention and assistance which he received, that he expressed his intention of becoming a contributor to it.

One of the gnu antelopes, kept at the Surry Zoological Gardens, gored its keeper on Saturday last, so dreadfully that he died on Mon- day, in extreme suffering, at St. Thomas's Hospital. The man had been violently beating the animal with a whip, in order to make it move about for the amusement of some visitors. The antelope bore it patiently for some time, but at last was exasperated, and turning upon its tormenter, knocked him down and gored him in the way we have stated.

On Thursday morning, as some bricklayers and labourers were en- gaged in pulling down two old and dilapidated houses in St. John's Street, Clerkenwell, the side-wall of the adjoining house and a portion of the roof fell in upon one of the workmen ; who was forced through the rafters of the second floor into the room beneath, and buried in the ruins. On being extricated by his fellow labourers, it was found that his skull was fractured in a frightful manner, and his countenance dreadfully disfigured. He was conveyed to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in a state of insensibility. Two boys who were with him fortunately escaped ; one clung to the rafters of the floor, the other felt underneath the sound part of the flooring, which protected him from being covered in the ruins. Another labourer is missing, who is supposed to be buried under the rubbish.

Some children were playing on Monday in a pit in the Bird-cage Walk, St. James's Park ; when a quantity of loam and sand fell in, and covered two of them. One was got out uninjured, and a little girl pointed out a corner of the hole where she said the other was buried. Some labourers continued digging there till the whole of the loose earth was removed ; it was then discovered that the little girl had made a mistake, and they had been actually heaping the earth on the spot where the child lay. He was taken out quite dead.

On Sunday morning, just as Mr. Farnham Flowers had returned home to the Eel Pie House, below Limehouse, with three of his bro- ther's children and the servant, in a chaise cart, within a few yards of the stable door, the horse suddenly turned round and went direct into the canal, when all the children and the servant were thrown into the water. The children were preserved by the extraordinary exertions of John Munson, a sailor. Mr. Flowers was saved by leaping into the canal at the moment the cart was going into it. The servant was drowned, although be was not longer than eight or ten minutes in the water; having been taken out,with the,drag belonging to the Humane Society, which is kept at the Eel Pie House.

The body of Eliza Youthhead, R girl of fourteen, who had been living with a married sister in Little Carter Lane, Doctors' Corn- -mons, was found in the Thames, near Millbank, on Monday morning. An inquest was held on Monday night on the body, but no evidence 'was produced as to the cause of her death. She was not dejected nor unhappy, nor had she any improper acquaintance. The Jury returned a verdict " that the deceased was found dead in the Thames, under suspicious circumstances."

A boat with four persons in it was upset in Battersea Reach on Sun- day afternoon. They were saved by the exertions of Mr. Henry Long, opposite whose house the accident occurred.

William Salmon, a Bristol bargeman, was drowned at Queenhithe on Saturday last, while intoxicated.

A poor woman, in extreme distress, was delivered of a child on Wednesday, on the pavement of Charles Street, Westminster. She was soon conveyed to the workhouse.

Edward Weedon, who lived in Union Street, Shoreditch, cut his throat on Thursday night, after having quarrelled with his wife. He was a very passionate man, and had attempted suicide before.

Last week, the body of a child was found under the window of the Duke of York public-house in Limehouse, dreadfully lacerated. An Inquest has returned a verdict of " Wilful murder against some person unknown."

The dwellinghouse of Mr. Joseph Grimston, Grove Place, Edg- ware Road, was forcibly entered by some thieves, on Wednesday morning, and property to a large amount stolen therefrom. It appears the burglars got over the garden wall, and effected an entrance by boring the shutters with a centre bit.

On Saturday evening, the inhabitants of Greenwich and Deptford were thrown into alarm by a report that the Greenwich gas-house was on fire. In a short time thousands assembled ; when it was discovered, that a steam-vessel belonging to the Steam Navigation Company, the Waterloo, lying opposite the gas-works, was on fire. The heavens ware illuminated for miles round. At half-past ten, the vessel was burnt to the water's edge. It is not known how the fire originated. The Waterloo was the property of Mr. Brocklebank, and had been sold by him to the Company for towing.

An inquest was held on Monday on the body of Mr. W. Stoffell, aged thirty-five, son of the landlord of the Three Cranes, in Watling Street, which house was on Saturday morning destroyed by fire. The deceased, who had been for some time seriously ill, was rescued from the flames by the firemen ; but it being found impossible, from his weak state, to take him down a ladder,• he was wrapped up in a sheet and dropped from the window into a large canvas sheet, held by the men below. In his descent, however, he came in contact with the curb-stone, and received serious injury on his head. It appeared that there was not time to lower the deceased by degrees, or to procure a rope. The Jury returned a verdict of Accidental Death.

An inquest was held on Wednesday, at a public-house on Brixton Hill, on the body of a woman aged sixty-five, a hawker of braces, who was found drowned in a pond at the rear of the premises. From the swollen state of the face, and a cut on the temple, it was at first sup- posed that she had been murdered; but it was clearly proved that she

had been seen near the pond in a state of intoxication ; and that the cut had been occasioned by a fall.