4 MARCH 1848, Page 5

SCOTLAND.

The Town-Council of Glasgow, which represents 344,200 constituents, has resolved on a petition against the Income-tax as now levied.

A fatal accident has occurred on the Caledonian Railway, a line recently opened. On Thursday sennight, as the mail-train was proceeding Southward, it ran off the line a few miles from Ecclefechan. The night was dark, rainy, and tem_pes- tuous; and when the passengers who were unhurt had managed to get out of the carriages, they could hardly discover what disaster they had met with; but groans and cries for help soon told how fearful it had been. The engine had gone down an embankment, and was embedded in mud and water; it had dragged the train after it. The first carriage was on fire; but the flames were soon extinguished. One of the occupants suffered a fracture of the leg; two others, Mr. and Mrs. Warwick, also suffered fractures, and the former was so jammed in among the fragments of the carriage that the wood-work had to be sawn through to release him. The engine-driver was under the machine for some hours before be was discovered: he was scalded and bruised, and his right arm fractured. It was also a long time before the guard was found; he had been thrown under the foremost carriage, and was so mangled that he died soon after lie was released. Other persons were wounded. On the non-arrival of the train at Carlisle, a pilot engine was sent of to ascertain the cause; and eventually the passengers were conveyed to that city. It was necessary to amputate Mr. Warwick's legs; and lie died soon after the operation. Other sufferers are in a deplorable condition. The accident was caused by the sinking of the rails on an embankment, in consequence of the late heavy rains.

The prevalence of wet has also caused an accident on the Edinburgh and Glas- gow Railway. A large quantity of earth slipped in a cutting near Falkirk ; and during the night a cattle-train ran into the debris and was thrown off the rails: some of the cattle were killed by the crash, but the people in charge of the train escaped unhurt.