several buildings on the opposite side of the water were ignited.

The fire seems to have burst out at once into an immense conflagration, the materials being of the most combustible nature; and the first notice was given by the appearance of a great body of flame. When first perceived, the main part of the building was in flames, and two immense tanks of naphtha were blazing from the manholes. Some daring neighbours stifled these vents, and by so doing probably prevented the greatest disaster which has occurred since the great Fire of London. The light of the burning mass speedily brought six engines of the brigade, who, from the nature of the combustibles, could do little to check the progress of the flames, which ignited two vessels lying in the basin, and thence spread to six large warehouses on the other side. Six more engines arrived to cope with this new conflagration. For a long time, notwithstanding an ample supply of water, the flames raged unabated; but by great perseverance their progress was finally stopped. Had all the warehouses which caught been consumed, the destruction of property would have amounted to more than half a million.

The Gutta Percha Works were almost totally destroyed. It is well known how highly inflammable this substance is; the adjoin ing works were a Patent Firewood Factory; next to them the premises of a Patent Cooperage Company! The fury of such a conflagration may therefore be readily imagined.

7. ASCOT RACES.-The following were the results of the principal races at this favourite meeting. The Queen's Vase" was won by

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Mr. Thellusson's Rataplan;" the "Ascot Stakes," by Lord Palmerston's "Buckthorn;" the Coronation Stakes," by "Catherine Hayes," the winner of the Oaks. Her Majesty, accompanied by the Duke of Genoa, eldest son of the King of the Two Sicilies, and a suite of illustrious visitors, honoured the course with her presence on Thursday, the "great day," when the "Emperor of Russia's Plate" was won by Mr. J. M. Stanley's "Teddington."

9. RIOTS AT QUEBEC, AND Loss OF LIFE.-Father Gavazzi, an Italian priest and Church reformer, after lecturing in London against the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church with great eloquence and success, proceeded to Canada, where he followed the same course. In a lecture in the Free Church at Quebec, the Father made some allusion to the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, which was of fensive to some Irish who were present. present. A general row ensued, in the course of which the Fa. ther, after defending himself with great valour, was thrown out of the pulpit and severely maltreated.

From Quebec, Father Gavazzi went to Montreal, the capital of Catholicism in Canada. Here, on the 9th, he lectured, guarded by a strong body of police. These officers were attacked by an infuriated crowd, and nearly overwhelmed. Shots were fired on both sides, and two or three of the assailants were killed and several wounded. The mob were driven from the chapel, but conducted themselves so riotously in the streets, that the military were called out; and as the rioters increased in audacity, and attacked the soldiers, the latter fired, in defence of themselves and society.

Unhappily, seven persons persons were killed on the spot; six severely or mortally wounded; and ten or twelve others more slightly.

10. FIRE AT SEA.-The ship Condor, of Liverpool, was totally destroyed while on her passage from Melbourne round Cape Horn, by a fire, which originated in spontaneous combustion. The Condor was a fine ship of about 900 tons register; she had about 60 passengers, a quantity of Australian produce, including a large bulk of wool, and 22,000 ounces of gold. She sailed from Melbourne on the 11th of April, and seemed likely to make a rapid passage. After doubling Cape Horn, and just as she was about to cross the line, the wool on board of her iguited from spontaneous combustion, and the fire could not be kept under. There were about 100 persons on board, passengers and crew, but only two boats. The destruction of the majority of the crew and passengers appeared in evitable, for she had sighted no vessel for seven days; but happily, on the evening of the day on which the fire broke out, a ship hove in sight, and bore down upon her, and proved to be a French vessel. The weather was squally, but fortunately not very tempestuous. The Frenchman kept company with the burning ship, but sent no boat alongside to assist the escape of the persons on board. Before midnight, however, the whole of the passengers and crew had been conveyed on board the French ship in their own boats, together with the gold. When the ship bore away, the Condor was a mass of flames below and aloft. The French captain treated the rescued persons with the greatest humanity, and conveyed them to

Pernambuco; where, however, he put in a claim for salvage to the amount of 20,000l. Among the passengers of the Condor was a fortunate gold speculator who had purchased for 1800l. a nugget of gold which weighed 32 lbs., and other nuggets, weighing in all 80 lbs. These valuable specimens he had with him, and about 4000 ounces of the same precious commodity; but as he brought this wealth with him as passenger luggage," and had not insured it, salvage will fall to his own loss.

THE MONSTER BALLARAT NUGGET. There is now exhibiting at Wyld's Globe, in Leicester Square, a nugget of gold which was found in Canadian Gully, Ballarat Diggings, 66 feet below the surface. It is imbedded in, or rather encrusted with, quartz, the whole interior being a mass of gold. The weight of the precious metal, free from the quartz, is calculated at 134 lbs 11 oz., and its value is computed at 60001.

IN

12. DREADFUL MURDER GLASGOW.-A murder of singularly savage character, and brought clearly home to the perpetrators, in a most extraordinary manner, was committed in Glasgow.

Two ship - carpenters named Boyd and Law had been drinking freely to a late hour on Saturday night. About one o'clock on Sunday morning they were enticed by two prostitutes into a low den in the New Vennel. About an hour afterwards Boyd was precipitated, half-naked, from the window into the street-about 23 feet and killed on the spot.

The circumstances of the atrocious deed were witnessed by two boys who had hidden themselves under the woman's bed, and by two girls who were looking through

the chinks of the room-door, and who gave the alarm.

The evidence of these persons, given before the High Court of Justiciary, will show the cold blooded atrocity of the deed. The parties indicted were Hans Smith Macfarlane, Helen Blackwood, Mary Hamilton, and Ann Marshall or Young.

The boys, William and James Shillinglaw, were aged respectively 11 and 9 years. The elder stated, that the house (i.e. in the Scotch sense) consisted of only one room. There was one bed in it. His brother and himself slept under the bed. Remembered Saturday, the 11th of June last. Went to bed that night about 9 o'clock. Helen Blackwood was the only one in the house at that time. They crept under the bed as usual, and fell asleep. Witness awoke during the night, and saw no person in the house, and fell asleep again. He awoke a second time. There were people in the house then. Saw Mary Hamilton and a man named Law, who appeared to be drunk. About five minutes after that there came in Blackwood, Marshall, Macfarlane, and the man who was thrown out of the window. There was a candle burning at the time. The man was drunk. Law and he appeared to be acquainted. Helen Blackwood asked the last man who came in to give her money to get whisky. He gave her some, and she brought in whisky. The whisky was brought in a jug, and it was poured into a cup. It was then handed round, and all the company drank some of it. Saw the man drink some of it. Before he drank it, Hamilton took the cup from Blackwood and poured whiskey into it from the jug. She

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Law at this

took a paper with half an ounce of snuff out of her pocket, and put it into the cup, and then handed the liquor to the man. The man by this time was sleeping, with his hands on his knees and his head hanging down, and did not see her do this. The man drank all that was in the cup, and then he lay gasping. He appeared to get sick from it, and stupid like." He rose up, and attempted to strike Helen Blackwood. She was standing near the bed. She lifted up the chamber-pot and struck him on the side of the head with it. They were standing face to face when she struck him. When the man got the blow he fell back all his length, and his head struck on a stone which was used for a stool. The man lay there gasping. time was sitting on one of the stones near the window. He was quite drunk and helpless. Blackwood and Marshall said to Macfarlane, "Oh, what'll we dae wi' him? Macfarlane said, Oh, its dark, naebody 'll see, heave him out o' the window." Before Macfarlane said this the man's clothes had been taken off. Blackwood proposed to take them off. She said to Marshall, "Let us strip him," and they did so. They took off him a pair of moleskins, a dark coat and waistcoat, and a cap. Macfarlane was sitting near the door while this was going on, and Hamilton was sitting beside him. Blackwood took out of his pocket a handful of money. The clothes were at this time lying on the bed. The man made no resistance while they were stripping him. He appeared to be quite unable to resist. It was after the man was stripped that Macfarlane said, "Throw him over

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the window." In doing so Blackwood took one of the arms of the man, Marshall the feet, Macfarlane the other arm, and Hamilton looked on. They hove" him over the window. The head went foremost, and witness heard a fall on the ground. The man did not resist in any way. Hamilton made no resistance to what was going on, and said nothing. She was standing with her back to witness. She might have lent a hand without his seeing it. She was close to the man. The window was shut when Macfarlane proposed to throw the man over the window. Blackwood opened it. Hamilton and Macfarlane went first out of the room. Marshall then commenced wringing her hands and went to the window, crying, "Oh, my man's dead; he went to the window and fell over the window." Before this she threw over the window, pieces of the pot that had been broken. Blackwood fell a-shaking, but she went to the bed and riped (searched) the clothes. It was

Jane Leitch and Mary Kelland also witnessed what was passing through chinks in the door, and gave similar evidence as to what occurred. The former saw Hamilton and the man that was killed, followed by Macfarlane and Blackwood, go up-stairs to the house about 12 o'clock, and heard Blackwood say to Hamilton. " It's a good chance; to which she replied "Yes." She saw Hamilton and Blackwood take off the man's clothes, and afterwards saw them fling him over the window. Saw Blackwood go to the bed where the man's clothes were, and take money out of the pockets; heard the rattle of it. Also heard Blackwood say, "We'll get 1s. on the man's umbrella on Monday morning, besides what we 'll get on the clothes."

Macfarlane, Blackwood, and Marshall were found guilty; the case against Hamilton was found not proven. Macfarlane and Blackwood were executed on the 11th August. The sentence on Marshall was commuted to transportation

15. ACCIDENT AND Loss of LIFE ON BOARD H.M.S. "LONDON.”—A frightful accident occurred on board H.M.S. London, 90, Captain Hutton, which arrived at Spithead on the 21st instant, during her passage from Lisbon, which caused the immediate death of seven individuals, one of whom was the first lieutenant of the ship, Wellesley Pole Chapman. The vessel was in tow of the Imperieuse, 50, screw frigate. The tow-rope from the Imperieuse was joined to the London's chain messenger on the lower deck, the latter being made fast to a ringbolt. The messenger seems not to have been properly secured to the bits, and, a sudden

strain taking place, the ringbolt was carried away, and the cable flew round with tremendous velocity and force, killing Lieutenant Chapman and six men, who were sitting down to their dinner, and wounding nine others. The deaths of the officer and seamen were instantaneous, and another seaman was so frightfully mutilated that his recovery was deemed impossible.

21. MURDER AND SUICIDE AT POPLAR-A man named Francis Picking, a blacksmith, in the employ of Mr. C. J. Mare, the iron ship builder at Blackwall, murdered his wife, and afterwards destroyed himself. Picking and his wife were a very dissipated couple, frequently inebriated, and were constantly quarrelling. They had promoted a raffle at a public-house for a fiddle; but having quarrelled and broken the instrument, only six persons consented to become members in the raffle; a circumstance which appeared to give very great annoyance to Picking, who gave vent to his feelings by oaths and curses. They reached home about 12 o'clock at night, and ap-pear to have gone to bed quietly.

very

On the following morning their son, who slept in the same room, rose and called his father, asking him if he was not going to work. His father replied, "No, I have something to do first." The boy left the room. His mother was then fast asleep, and his father in bed by her side.

At half-past 10 o'clock a girl brought home some linen which she had been engaged to wash. On opening the room door, which was not locked, she stepped into a pool of blood on the floor, and before her, on the bed, were Picking

and his wife, weltering in their blood. The girl screamed aloud; neighbours arrived to assist, and a surgeon, who pronounced the woman to be quite dead. The unfortunate creature had been murdered in her sleep; there was not the least appearance of a struggle; her throat had been cut from ear to ear; all the great arteries were divided, and her death must have been instantaneous. Picking had also cut his own throat, but not with the same determination and violence with which he had inflicted the wound on his wife. He was not quite dead, but expired the following morning.

22. AFFRAY AT SMYRNA.-The following is a detailed account of the affray at Smyrna, which seemed likely to introduce a further complication of the affairs of the East, now in such a state of embroilment as to threaten an European

war.

"On Wednesday last, M. Vekbecker, Austrian Consul-General, informed the Sardinian Consul that a thief was concealed in a Sardinian house, and demanded an authorisation to search it. The request was granted, and in the afternoon 10 Greek boatmen, all known to be assassins, entered the house by force, and there seized, not a pretended robber, but M. Kossta, a Hungarian, aide-de-camp of Kossuth, and who had just returned from the United States. Not being able to oppose any resistance to the sbirri, excited by the reward of 3000 piastres which had been promised to them, M. Kossta was gagged and handcuffed, and pushed into a boat in such a brutal manner that he fell overboard, and was with great difficulty saved. He was then conveyed