stopped in time to escape another accident. Assistance
was soon got from Taunton, whither the wounded men
were conveyed. At the inquest on Humberstone's body,
Capt. Laffan, the Government Inspector, was examined,
but was unable to account for the accident. The jury
stated in their verdict, that of the cause of the accident
they had no satisfactory evidence; hut they added:
"We have, however, sufficient evidence before us to
show that the portion of the line upon which the accident
happened is naturally defective in respect of the soft
stratum on which the rails are laid, particularly after
wet weather. This ought to be remedied."

An aged woman has been Killed on the railway at
Baschurch, near Shrewsbury, by a train running over
her at night. A railway labourer saw her on the line,
and warned her that she was trespassing; she replied,
"I know all about it! " She refused to give her name,
or say where she was going; the man said he would
follow her; she exclaimed, "If you follow me, I will
knock your brains out!" The man then left her. Poor
people are in the habit of going on the line to pick up
pieces of coke. A coroner's jury gave a verdict of
"Accidentally killed;" and the railway man was
reprimanded for not forcibly ejecting the deceased from
the line.

There has been an Accident on the Scottish Central
Railway. A luggage-train came to a stand in a tunnel
near Perth; notice was sent to the man on guard at the
entrance; yet he allowed a mail-train to enter the
tunnel on the same rails: the result was a collision. The
guard of the goods-train was much hurt, and many
passengers in the mail-train suffered. The scene in the
tunnel—the terrified and wounded passengers screaming
in the darkness—was frightful.

A goods-train ran into a passenger-train at Monkton
station, near Ayr: this was a flagrant case of Accident
by neglect. The passenger-train was stopping at the
station as usual; when the other train approached the
danger-signals were up; but the driver took no heed of
them, and continued his course. A porter gave the
alarm to the driver of the stationary train; who
immediately put on his steam; but there was not time to
avoid a crash. A carriage was smashed to pieces, and
many passengers were hurt: one person received a
concussion of the brain; another had a rib fractured; and
the collar-bone of a third was broken.

A Dreadful Accident happened on the 8th. An
ordinary passenger-train, from Sheffield to Retford, had
not advanced four miles from the starting-place, before
it ran off the line, tore up the rails for some distance,
and then the engine dashed down the embankment,
fifty feet high, on one side, while the carriages rolled
over on the other. The guard was killed on the spot,
the engine-driver was buried under the engine, and the
stoker escaped from the same place. Wright, the engine-
driver, did not die until the following evening; enduring
the most exquisite agonies. He has left a wife, and a
child by a former wife. It is stated that about two
months ago he ran his engine into another, at Leeds,
for which he was suspended, and that this fatal Wednes-
day was the first day on which he had resumed work.—
Tuckwood, the guard, was a Londoner, and only
twenty-four years of age: he had been married only a
few months.

An Accident occurred on the London and Birmingham
line on the morning of the 13th. The accounts of it
next day were exceedingly various. The following
seems the most probable. A relay of the rails of the
up-line is taking place between 200 yards north of the
Leighton station to within about 100 yards north of the
41 1/4 mile post of the line. Various precautions are
stated to have been dictated to the engine-drivers of the
line. A cross line had also been laid down; and signalmen
had been appointed to remind the drivers of the
necessity of caution. In addition to this, a pilot-engine
had been stationed near the relaying, under the conduct
of which all trains were to make the transit. The 6.30
down-train, heavily laden, arrived in due course at
Leighton. The pilot-engine came up to the Leighton-
station, and having been attached to the down-train,
proceeded with it over the single line to that point
where the relaying of the up-line terminated. The
pilot was then unhooked from the engine of the down-
train, and proceeded at a rapid speed on to the crossing,
in order to pass on to the up-line to allow the down-
train to pass. The pilot-engine had nearly reached the
crossing, and was partially crossing on to the up-line,
when the down-train, the engine of which had been
kept by Pattison the driver following at too fast a speed,
caught the left-hand hind-buffer of the tender, dashing
it across the line down the embankment, and throwing
the pilot-engine round across the up-line. The shock
was so tremendous, that the engine of the passenger
down-train had its front completely stove in, and was
also, together with its tender, thrown over across the
down-line; and four or five of the carriages of the down-
train also being thrown off the down-line, the entire
road up and down was perfectly blocked. The passengers
escaped with little more damage than a fright;
but a policeman was dangerously hurt. When Captain
Bruyeres, the General Superintendent, examined the
drivers, they threw the blame on each other.

A fatal Coach Accident occurred on the evening of
the 4th, which caused the death of Mr. George Hemming,
many years known as coachman on the Shrewsbury
road. He left Worcester about half-past four o'clock,
and having reached Bromsgrove, changed horses, and
proceeded towards Birmingham. He had then on the
coach twelve outside and four inside passengers, and
was proceeding along at an ordinary pace until he
arrived at about twenty yards beyond the Long Bridge
Turnpike Gate. Here he perceived a horse and cart
approaching him on the wrong side, and called out to
the driver to turn. The man not doing so immediately,
Hemming, in order to escape him, attempted to cross
the road, when the driver of the cart unfortunately did
the same, and a collision took place. The forewheel of
the coach was driven inside the cart-wheel, and Hemming
was thrown from the box with great violence, and falling
on his head received a fracture, from the effects of
which he expired almost instantly. All the passengers
on the top of the coach were thrown off, and the vehicle
being turned over, fell upon and severely injured many
of them. Six young females who were on the outside
of the coach escaped unhurt.

A tremendous Storm of Thunder and Rain did much
mischief in the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, and
Hereford, during the night of Saturday the 5th inst.
Its greatest violence was felt in the county of Worcester,
westward of the Severn. For twelve hours the rain
descended in torrents, accompanied with fearful lightning
and thunder. The greatest ravages were inflicted
on the valley of the Teme river, which runs from
Herefordshire and Shropshire, and falls into the Severn
about two miles below Worcester. Upon this river,
and its tributary streams Laughern and Leigh brooks,
the destruction of property has been very great. Most
of the bridges upon these streams have been blown up,
or are so far damaged that they will require rebuilding.
The rise of water upon the Teme was the most rapid
and the highest upon record. The destruction of crops
and live stock along the Severn valley has been dreadful.
Nearly all of the wheat had been got in; but large
fields of beans were swept away, and whole hop-yards
—in which the valley of the Teme abounds—were
destroyed. The damage done to the meal and grain in
the corn-mills in these valleys is great: and the number
of sheep washed away in the parish of Powick alone,
is reckoned at 2000! Among the losers are the poor
villagers of Powick, who have the right of depasturage
on a common near the river called Powick Ham.
The whole of the sheep on the ham were swept away.
Next day, when the waters had partially subsided,
carcases of sheep were seen lying about in all directions.
At Hanwick Mill two men had a narrow escape:
they were overtaken on the road by the flood, had to
swim to a tree, and remain there for hours till rescued.
At Stone Bridge, on the Leigh brook, a cottage was
swept away, and a woman was drowned.

The Bhurtpore, emigrant ship, has been Lost on her
passage from Liverpool to New Orleans. This vessel
was about 1,500 tons burden, having a crew of 35 hands
and 485 souls (men, women, and children) as passengers,
the latter, with the exception of 56, being all Irish, and
generally young people of the peasant class of life. She
left Liverpool on the morning of the 16th inst., and