Wales's Tower is completely gutted, the roof even being
destroyed, and the flames penetrated into portions of the
Brunswick Tower, which adjoins, doing much injury
there also. The apartments which have chiefly suffered
are about a dozen bed-rooms and the Gothic Dining-
room. The whole of the valuable furniture of the Red
Drawing-room, which was placed in great jeopardy, was
carefully removed by the soldiers and the Lord
Chamberlain's men, and little damage is done to it, with the
exception of the breaking of some of the glass of the
magnificent chandeliers. In a very few minutes after
the alarm was first given, the Fusileer Guards, 700
strong, were on the spot, and the 2d Life Guards, under
the command of Colonel Williams, followed with their
barrack engine. The soldiers behaved manfully, some
mounting the roof of the tower, some removing the
furniture with the utmost care from the apartments
contiguous to the conflagration, while others were using
their utmost exertions at the engines. An express was
despatched from the Castle to the London Fire Brigade,
which arrived with two powerful engines, under the
superintendence of Mr. Braidwood, at 2 o'clock in the
morning. About this time the fire was partially got
under, but it was not totally extinguished before
4 o'clock. Her Majesty remained during the whole
time in the adjoining rooms, and happily has sustained
no inconvenience from the alarm which such an event
was likely to cause. The frost was so intense during the
night as considerably to retard the action of the engines,
while it favoured the action of the flames. The fire
seems to have originated from a furnace-flue, situated at
the basement of the Prince of Wales's Tower, for the
purpose of heating the air which warms the Gothic
Dining-room and many other apartments in this
tower.

R. B. H. Blundell, Esq, of Deysbrook, in Lancashire,
was Found Drowned on the 19th inst. From the
evidence of the domestics examined on the Coroner's
inquest it was ascertained that early on Saturday fore-
noon he left his house to walk about his grounds and did
not return that night, and that on the next day search
was made for him, when his hat was found floating in a
pond in a field about 300 yards from his own residence.
Mr. Barnes, the surgeon who attended on Mr. Blundell
for several years, gave it as his opinion that, although
somewhat eccentric in his manner sometimes, there was
nothing to convince him that he was wrong in his mind.
The coroner having summed up, the jury after an
hour's deliberation, brought in the verdict,—"The
deceased, Richard Benson Hollinshed Blundell, was
found drowned in a field contiguous to the lands of
deceased, but by what means sufficient evidence has not
been given." Mr. Blundell was for many years magistrate
of the county, and one of the most extensive coal
proprietors in Lancashire.

The Danger of stepping from a Railway Carriage
while the Train is in Motion was fatally shown on the
Midland Railway on the 23rd inst. A middle-aged
well dressed man opened the carriage door, sprang out,
and fell between the edge of the platform and the train.
The wheels ran over his legs and mutilated them
terribly. His body was then twisted into a posture
more nearly parallel to the train, and the wheels of
several carriages ran along his chest, literally opening
the trunk from end to end. The accident was witnessed
by a number of horrified officials and passengers, but no
one was able to render the slightest assistance.

An Explosion of Fire Damp, attended with a deplorable
loss of life, occurred on the afternoon of the 23rd
instant, at the Arley Mine of the Ince Coal Company,
near Wigan, in Lancashire. The number of those
actually known to be killed is twenty, but twelve others
are known to be missing; and twenty-five are still in
the mine, whose fate has not been ascertained. About
twenty have been more or less seriously hurt by the
explosion. The Arley mine was sunk about three years
ago, and has been worked ever since; it has no
communication with the neighbouring mines; and, with the
exception of one which took place at the sinking of
the mine, this is the first accident of any description
that has occurred in it. The depth is about 415 yards,
and the mine is divided into four districts, there being a
separate current of air for ventilating each. The cause
of this shocking catastrophe has not yet been
ascertained; but the matter of course will be investigated.

SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS

THERE was a great meeting at Exeter Hall on the 1st
inst., in support of the Early Closing Movement; the
Lord Mayor in the chair. The report of the association,
read by the Secretary, gave a gratifying account of the
spread of the movement, and the beneficial effects of
the curtailment of the hours of labour, especially in
London. The Lord Mayor strongly expressed his
opinion that the hours of labour were too many both
for masters and men. Mr. Hitchcock, a large employer,
stated that he had closed early, provided better
apartments, given longer holidays, and otherwise increased
the comforts of his young men, for the last ten years;
and he found that doing so "paid." The Reverend
John Jackson hoped that the Crystal Palace question
would be solved by increasing week-day holidays. The
Bishop of Chichester and Lord John Manners urged
the imperative necessity of giving more time to the
working classes for their own improvement, in order
that those who form the strength of the nation may not
degenerate; and to secure that nice adjustment of toil
and leisure which appears to be the true realisation in
this world of Christian equality. Resolutions regretting
and condemning the custom of late closing, still very
general, and appealing for help to the ladies, passed
unanimously.

A meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society
was held on the 8th inst., at Exeter Hall, to celebrate
the 50th anniversary of the society; the Earl of
Shaftesbury in the chair. Amongst the number present
were the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Chichester, the
Earl of Carlisle, the Bishop of Winchester, Bishop
Carr, late of Bombay, Lord C. Russell, Sir T. D.
Acland, &c. &c. The Chairman after observing that
they were now at the commencement of the fiftieth
year of the life of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
made the following remarkable statement:—''The
Scriptures have been rendered into 148 languages or
dialects, all of which have been reduced to printing,
and of these 121 had never before appeared in type.
The combined societies of England and the Continent
have circulated not less than forty-three millions of
copies of the Scriptures in whole or part; and thus the
records of inspired truth have within the present
century been rendered accessible to six hundred millions
of the human race. But there is one matter which calls
for special attention; of the 148 languages so reduced
into printing, 25 existed only in an oral form. They
had no alphabet, and were not reduced into writing
until such time as they were worked upon by the
agents of the society. Let this fact (said Lord
Shaftesbury) be treasured up by those who talk of the
intellectual improvement of the human race and the
march of mind, and let them tell me if in the whole
range of intellectual power there is anything which
shows more of mind, thought, and capacity than that
twenty-five oral languages should be reduced to writing
and alphabet, and that thus was devised the means by
which twenty-five nations should have access for
themselves to the invaluable and unspeakable Word of God."
Lord Shaftesbury concluded by remarking that the
society included in itself all the great questions of the
day. It was, he said, a free-trade society, a reform
society, a peace society, and it was a defence society.—
The Secretary then read the report, which, in detail,
confirmed the account given by Lord Shaftesbury.—At
the close of the meeting a subscription of upwards of
£7000 was announced as having been already collected
towards the Jubilee fund.

A Council of the Association for promoting a cheap
and uniform system of International Postage held a
meeting on the 15th inst., when they came to certain
resolutions of which the following is the substance: "That this
Association is gratified with the declaration of the post-
master-general as far as regards uniformity of colonial
postage, but considers that the rate proposed does not