Zbe Vrobintes.

The Honourable Charles Hope was inaugurated as Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man, with the usual ceremonies, on Wednesday. Lady Isa- bella Hope and other ladies were present on the occasion. Mr. Hope re- ceived a public address of congratulation from the inhabitants on his ap- pointment. The first stone of "the Booksellers' Provident Retreat," for decayed booksellers and publishers, their widows and assistants, at Abbott's Lang- ley, in Hertfordshire, was laid by the Earl of Clarendon on Wednesday, in the presence of several hundred ladies and gentlemen. The com- pany afterwards partook of an elegant deefiner, in a marquee; and the sum of 600/. was subscribed after the entertainment. Funds to the amount of 15,0001., for the support of the inmates, have been allotted by the Book- sellers' Provident Institution of London.

The strike of the colliers and puthllers of South Staffordshire is at an end; the employers having granted the rate of wages desired by the men, in consequence of the increased demand for iron. It is feared, however, that the men will turn out again for a further advance.

The counterpane-weavers in this town have demanded an advance of wages; and the employers have acceded to the same, to the amount of nearly ten per cent.—Bolton Free Press.

The inquiry into the conduct of Mr. and Mrs. Macclougal, the Master and Matron of the Andover Union Workhouse, has continued daily, with the exception of Monday, and still appears as far as ever from conclusion. 'I he evidence, chiefly that of paupers, has turned upon charges of stinting them in their diet, and of harsh de- meanour. It is made up of petty details, and is uninteresting; but on the whole it has gone strongly against the Master, and against the counter-evidence of Jane Grace, the cook, whose testimony, was in favour of the accused. On Thursday, (the ninth day!) two women who had been in the workhouse deposed to the fact that bedding, provisions, and other things, bearing the official stamp or packed up as if for use at the workhouse, (tea, for instance, in ounce-packets,) had been sent to Mr. Holley, Mr. Macdougars son-in-law, at Stockbridge.

A frightful disaster occurred on the Birmingham and Bristol Railway, on Saturday night, from the culpable negligence or rashness of some of the persons employed. Much secrecy was kept up by the Railway-people, and the accounts first published were in consequence rather confused; but the facts could not long be suppressed. The accident occurred about ten o'clock, near the Defford station, some twenty miles from Gloucester. This relation, by one of the correspondents of the Tinies, appears to be the most correct. " At the Defford station, which is situated in a deep cutting, a goods-truck was placed across the up-line at the points,' about fifty yards beyond the station, ready to be shackled to a down- train (third-class,) leaving Birmingham at half-past seven p.m. The stopping or red-light signal was turned to stop a luggage-train that was expected to arrive about the same time; the trains generally waiting here. When the luggage-train drove up, the engine-driver, disregarding the signal, went on right a-head, and, not even slackening his speed, passed the station at about thirty miles an hour, and running against the truck, turned it over on to the down-rails; the shock causing the engine to spring off the rails across both sets of rails, thrusting the tender up the bank of the cutting. At the same moment, the third class down-train arriving at the spot, drove over the luggage-train, engine, and truck, dragged a passenger- carriage on to the top of the engine, which it set on fire, and smashed to pieces the next carriage. The passengers, mostly of the poorer class, were thrown about in all directions: one, a man of the name of William Mills, a carpenter, going home to his wife and family at Cheltenham, was so much cut, bruised, and scalded, that he did not live more than a few hours. Six or seven others were severely cut and scalded, and all in the train very much shaken. The engine-driver of the luggage-train, a man of the name of Ward, who it is said has always had the cha- racter of being a very reckless driver, was killed; being literally cut to pieces, and buried among the ruins of the engines, carriages, and trucks. The stoker was very much cut and scalded, but escaped with his right arm broken in two or three places. The engine-driver of the passenger-train, perceiving some obstruc- tion on the rails at a short distance from the points, shut off his steam, reversed the engine; and both be and the stoker jumped off just as the concussion was about to take place. How he could see the obstruction, on not a very light night, remains a mystery; but it appears he had slackened speed considerably prior to arriving at this place, as he was about to stop at Defford station." It is said that Ward was heard to declare, on leaving Gloucester, that he would be in Bir- mingham in two hours. The engine he drove was the largest on the line. The writer in the Times also saw Baird, Ward's fireman; and he made this statement "We left Gloucester at nine o'clock on Saturday night, with the lug- gage-train. When we got to Bredon, the pumps of the engine got bad; and by our attending to them the fire got very low; but by the time we got to Egginton the pumps were working pretty well, and Ward said he would assist in getting the fire filled up. I then commenced filling up the fire; and he assisted me, by opening and shutting the fire-hole door as I put in the coke. I am not exactly sure whether it was by the bridge at Defford or when crossing the Avon that Ward said to me, Jamie, there's some hing wrong'; and immediately I saw him shut off the steam. On observing this, I began to reverse the engine; and whilst doing so, I was thrown off it. As I was falling, I felt something strike my shoulder. It was very dark at the time. I was restored, after a time, to sensi- bility, by the pouring of water over me. On looking up, I saw engines and car- riages heaped upon each other, and some of them on fire. I asked the person who was assisting me if he could tell me anything of Ward? He said, Stranger, we will take you to the station: you are not fit to inquire after your friends.'" Baird attributes the accident to imperfect signalling at Defford. General Pasley arrived on Monday morning, to inspect the spot where the colli- sion occurred, and to investigate the causes of it.

The inquest commenced, at Defford, on Monday. General holey and several officers of the Company were present John Murphy, a porter at the Defford sta- tion. described the cause of the accident. "On the afternoon of Saturday, I was on duty at the station, when the clerk from the Eckington station came up to me and said that he wanted a truck for the conveyance of sheep sent to Eckington that evening, in order to be ready for Monday, morning. About a quarter-past ten o'clock the same night, I got the truck out, for the purpose of hooking it on to the down-train. While doing so, an up-train from Gloucester came up, and ran into it. The collision caused the engine of the up-train to be thrown off the up- line on to the down-line. The down-train, leaving Birmingham at forty five minutes past seven p.m., arrived at Defford at the same moment; and the con- sequence was that a second collision took place. Both engines were considerably damaged. Two of the trucks belonging to the up-train were knocked to pieces, and two of the passenger-carriages belonging to the down-train were very much damaged." Ward, the engine-driver, was killed by a quantity of iron bars with which the luggage-train was laden, and which fell upon him. This train was a special one, and Murphy was not aware that it was coming. Two persons only were employed at the station. All up-trains were to be stopped at Defford, that night, as the line was under repair beyond it in the direction of Birmingham: to stop them, three red lamps were, or were intended to be, exhibited; but Murphy could not show his while moving the truck, and the station-clerk was obliged to set down another while he gave tickets to passengers: the third lamp, however, was properly exhibited by a labourer at Defford Road Bridge; but Ward took no heed of it Abbott, a porter, who acted as guard to the goods-train, deposed that he saw the red light at Defford Road Bridge, but was unable to communicate with the driver: he put on the break. He thought Ward must have seen the light; though the train was going very fast. The station-master declared that this was not the first time that engine-drivers had neglected to stop when a red light had been exhibited. Shaw, the man stationed at Defford Road Bridge, said—" When I saw the luggage-train approaching Defford, I showed my light. When I first saw it, the train was passing Eckington station. The driver did not appear to take any notice of my light. I shouted to him, flashed my lamp backwards and forwards before hum, and put my lamp as close to the engine as I- durst. I believe I heard a whistle after the train passed me; but that might have been the whistle of the down passenger-train. I saw a red light on the platform, and also the one which the porter Murphy had. The driver could not help seeing my light, and must, I think, have seen the others. The train passed me at a very rapid s and the driver did not, I think, turn off the steam." Baird, the stoker, not Icing in a fit state to be examined, though he is progressing favourably, the inquiry was adjourned for a fortnight A writer in the Morning Post has learned from the people of the neighbourhood that the drivers of goods-trains are in the habit of passing Defford when signals are made to them to stop; wishing to avoid having more tracks attached to their trains, and the consequent delay.

A man was killed on the Grand Junction Railway, last week, near the Wolver- hampton station. He was a labourer employed on the line; and the disaster was the result of his own carelessness. He was standing between the rails on the

down-line, looking at the eleven o'clock mail-train from Liverpool, when at the same moment the quarter to two mail-train from Birmingham came up. The engineer sounded the whistle for a considerable distance; and the man's fellow- labourer, who was a short distance, also loudly called to him to move off the line, but without effect: although the engineer shut off the steam on perceiving that the man did not remove himself, he was knocked down, the train passed over his body, and he was killed on the spot.

An accident which it is feared will involve the loss of two lives occurred on Wednesday week on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, now in course of forma- tion, at Shap Fell, Westmoreland. A portion of the rock had been charged with gunpowder for the purpose of tearing it up: from some cause or other, the charge would not explode, and two of the workmen returned to it and began drilling the stone to draw out the powder. In doing this, they had unfortunately neglected to pour into the hole a sufficient quantity of water to keep the stone moist; and the consequence was that the " jumper " became heated by the friction, and set fire to the powder. One of the poor fellows was blown into the airs height of thirty or forty feet, and came down upon a heap of stones, after which he rolled over into a gully twelve feet deep. The other was driven to a considerable dia.. tance.

The boiler of an engine on the Great Western Railway burst on Tuesday even- ing, while the engine was engaged in drawing a train, between Swindon and Shrivenham stations; and the train was detained two hours behind its time for arriving at London.

Laws, an engine-driver on the Newcastle and Darlington Railway, was brought up before the sitting Magistrates at Sunderland, last week, at the instance of the manager of the line, Mr. Allport, charged with having negligently caused a col- lision between the engine he was driving and that of the mail-train which left Sunderland on the afternoon of the loth August. The defendant pleaded guilty; and stated that the accident happened in consequence of his having forgotten cer- tain orders which he had received previously. He was fined W., r to be impri- soned for one month in default of payment.

Two men in the employment of a railway-carrier at Wigan have been charged with a neglect of duty in leaving the switches at the junction leading to the ware- house turned the wrong, way, thus endangering the safety of the passenger-trains moving on the line. The men were summoned before the County Magistrates- but it was found that the station was within the bounds of the borough: a second summons by the borough authorities was informal; but a third has been issued.

Four more men have died from the injuries they received by the explosion tit Tividale colliery, near Durham; making in all ten deaths. Six others are still in a dangerous state.

One of the men taken alive from the Jarrow colliery has since died; making the total number of deaths forty. A subscription has been commenced for the relief of the relatives of those who were killed by the explosion.

The correspondent of a Carmarthen paper, writing from Blaine, gives the fol- lowing illustration of the recklessness of the colliers. "A fortnight ago, a person with whom I conversed, and who had inspected the mine, then reported it to be in an excellent state of ventilation; better, from the account of the colliers, than it had been for some time past. A portion of the explosive matter which had accu- mulated in a dome at the top of the level, and which had been formed by a fall from the roof, was recklessly ignited at that time by some of the colliers, with a view of showing the effect to a stranger: the whole party were thrown violently to the ground, but no other damage was then done. To accomplish this mad ex- periment, two pickaxes were tied together, having a candle attached to the top of the uppermost, which were held up by a man standing on another mass's shoulder, to reach the gas."

Blackburn, the man who murdered his wife at Stondon Massey, in June last, and then cut his own throat, died this week in Chelmsford Gaol, from the wound he inflicted on himself.