place at a reading-desk placed there. The bedesmen of the abbey stood round, and at the opposite wall were placed the choristers, who chanted the continuing portion of the service. At the proper moment the coffin was lowered to its final resting-place, and the service was concluded in due form, solemnly and impressively, the mourners standing at the foot of the grave. After the concluding benediction had been uttered they took a last look into the vault, and then slowly departed.

29. MEETING OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS AT BRISTOL.The thirteenth Annual Congress of the Association for Promoting Social Science was opened at Bristol, under the presidency of the Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote, M.P. There was Divine service in the cathedral, and the sermon, preached by the Bishop of the diocese, dealt with the whole subject of that which is called Social Science under its religious aspects.

A meeting of the council was held at the Volunteers' Club at one o'clock-Mr. George W. Hastings presiding-when the programme of the proceedings of the congress was considered and approved of, and a vote of thanks passed to Dr. Jarvis, of New York, for a contribution of valuable books.

The Victoria Rooms, in which the opening address was delivered, were crowded by members and associates. Sir Stafford Northcote, without attempting to travel over the wide field of inquiry opened up by the discussions of the Association, offered a few observations upon some portions of it. The relations between Great Britain and her colonies, the limits which the law should place on charitable endowments, the problems to be solved in connexion with the education question, the completion of our system of sanitary organization, the importance of improving the condition of the agricultural labourer, and the results to be expected from the conference of ladies, were amongst the topics touched upon by the right hon. baronet. In the course of his long and able address he was frequently and loudly cheered.

The sections met on the following day, four departments being occupied from day to day in hearing special and voluntary papers read, and in discussing the various subjects. The Department of Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law was under the direction of Mr. G. Woodyat Hastings. It was divided into the International and Municipal Law Section, and the Reformatory Section; in the second-named section the chairman being Sir J. E. Wilmot, Bart. The Rev. Canon Kingsley presided over the Education Department. Dr. John A. Symonds was the President of the Health Department, and the Right Hon. S. Cave, M.P., assumed the direction of the Economy and Trade Department.

A new feature was incorporated with the programme of the congress this year. This was a Ladies' Conference, which dealt with reformatory industrial schools, employment of women, education of girls, infant mortality, and the management of

workhouses.

Of evening meetings there were three. On the 30th the members and associates were entertained by the Mayor of the city, at Colston Hall; on the 31st addresses were delivered to working men; and on Monday a soirée was held at the Victoria Rooms, when Miss Carpenter discoursed on Female Education in India.

Excursions to Cheddon, and to the Bristol training-ship at the mouth of the Avon, were arranged. The actual business of the Congress was brought to a close on October 6, when a general meeting was held in the Fine-Arts Academy.

OCTOBER.

1. TERRIBLE FIREWORK CALAMITY.-The house and shop of a dealer in fireworks at Bayswater were destroyed by the explosion of his dangerous stock, and seven out of thirteen persons then sleeping in the house were killed on the spot.

The particulars of this fearful calamity may be given in a very few words. The house, No. 69, Moscow-road, Queen's-road, was in the occupation of a man named Titheradge, who was a confectioner. Moscow-road is a narrow and little thoroughfare leading out of the Queen's-road, Bayswater, and the building was a sort of four-roomed house, with an underground kitchen at the back. In this house thirteen persons, seven of whom were grown up, lived and slept. The shop, though described as a confectioner's, was what is termed a "general" one, and added fireworks to other articles, and Titheradge was licensed to sell these dangerous articles. At five minutes to three o'clock in the morning the constable who took this road as part of a very long beat happened to be passing near the house, when he heard a noise resembling fireworks, and was startled immediately afterwards by an explosion which blew the front of the shop out, shutters and all. He at once sprang his rattle, and used his best exertions to rouse the people in the place. But egress by the front was impossible almost immediately, as the house must have been in flames instantaneously in the front, and the explosion, to all appearances, went through the two windows over the shop. Of course all who slept in that apartment must have been killed at once. A second policeman came at the alarm of the rattle, and he ran for the engine, which came in fifteen minutes after the alarm. In so small a house the heat of the fire was soon reduced after the engine came, especially as every article in it was destroyed and the house almost gutted before. Then it was found.

that Mr. Titheradge, who was an invalid, suffering from a gout attack, had rolled himself down the steps, and had been rescued at the back of the house by one of the firemen. It was believed he and part of his family slept in the parlour. Five other persons, including his wife and two children, escaped by the back also, but on entering the upper part of the house the charred bodies of seven persons were found, three in one room and four in the other. These were the bodies of Mrs. Jack, a widow; Stewart Jack, aged twentyeight; Henry Harding Jack, fourteen; and Agnes Jack, aged seventeen (the children of the first-named deceased). The other three bodies were those of Elizabeth Titheradge, aged nine; Emma Titheradge, seven; and Edward Titheradge, aged three. These bodies were removed to the Paddington dead-house, there to await an inquest. The flooring was burnt through, and some of these bodies were found on the rafters.

9. RAILWAY ACCIDENT NEAR NOTTINGHAM.-A frightful railway accident occurred on the Midland Railway, resulting in the death of seven persons and the wounding of some others, at the Long Eaton Junction, near Nottingham. It being the great annual October fair at Nottingham, a number of special trains came in from the Midland district. Among these were three specials from Leicester, two of which trains were despatched from Nottingham early in the evening. The last train (to which the accident occurred) left at forty minutes past eleven p.m. The night was exceedingly foggy, and when the last special approached the Long Eaton Junction there was a luggage train on the line. It was, however, discovered in time to prevent the special running into it. It appeared that the couplings had broken, and the carriages had become loose. The luggage train was got away as quickly as possible, but not without delay to the special. In the meantime the North Derby mail train had been despatched from Nottingham, the officials no doubt imagining that the special had not been delayed; and the night, as before stated, being extremely foggy, the special was not seen until too late, and the mail train ran into it with fearful velocity. A scene of the most appalling nature ensued. The enginedriver and stoker escaped almost by miracle. Seven of the passengers by the special were, however, killed. The number of wounded was small, amounting to not a dozen persons. The bodies of the unfortunate persons killed were removed as quickly as possible to the tarpauling-sheet stores at Trent station. Five of the wounded were taken to the Derby Infirmary. Medical assistance was quickly on the spot, and every requisite aid afforded to the sufferers. All exertions were used to clear the line, which was not, however, done until three o'clock the next morning.

Several of the carriages were smashed; but it was a most extraordinary circumstance that the shock was not felt in the fifth carriage from the end carriage run into by the mail train, and the people were laughing and singing songs after the accident had occurred, not knowing why the train had stopped.

The following were the names of the killed :-Joseph Day and Richard Cufflin (finishers), George Gilks (dyer), Alice Henson, Eliza Wright (factory hands), and two children, named Mary Ann and John Parrott.

The legs of several of the wounded were found to be broken, and there were some severe contusions, cuts, and other descriptions of wounds.

When the nature of the accident became known the greatest excitement prevailed. Dr. Robertson (the company's Nottingham physician) and the Nottingham station-master were quickly on the spot, and rendered every available assistance.

There had not been so terrible an accident in this district for a quarter of a century.

10. FATAL FIRE AT NEWINGTON.-A few minutes before six o'clock in the morning, a fire was discovered at a house, No. 44, Newington Butts, not far from the Rev. Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle, and in the course of a little more than a quarter of an hour resulted in the death of a family of four persons. The premises in question. were in the occupation of Mr. Alfred M'Micken, a master tailor, who resided there with his wife and two children, and a servant girl named Emma Woodham. At ten minutes to six o'clock Policeconstable Wheeler, 33 L, while going on his beat, saw the door of Mr. M'Micken's shop suddenly opened, and Mr. M'Micken himself, dressed only in shirt and trousers, called out to him, "Run for the engines!" The constable observed through the open door that the back of the premises was on fire. Mr. M'Micken ran upstairs to arouse and save his family. Wheeler, being unwilling to leave the spot while no one was there to give any aid, drew his staff, and rapped vigorously at the shutters of some of the neighbours' shops, and succeeded in arousing the inmates. Mr. Powell went off at once for the fire-escape, which arrived almost immediately. The engines arrived afterwards, but under the circumstances the only hope of safety for the family lay in the manipulation of the fireescape. The fixing of the ladders against the second-floor window was rapidly effected, and the conductor ascended it hatchet in hand. He was obliged to smash in the framework of the window to gain an entrance. A volume of dense, black, hot smoke came out and nearly suffocated him. As soon as the smoke cleared away a little he entered the room and groped his way to the bed, where he found Mr. M'Micken with his arms around the body of the child Alfred. He had evidently fallen across the bed while carrying the child from the back room, where it had been asleep with the servant. The conductor fastened a rope around Mr. M'Micken's body, under his shoulders, and then carried him to the window, lifted him out, and lowered him by means of the rope to some of the neighbouring shopkeepers who were standing below. M'Micken was at the point of death, and he was carried at once to a coffee-house close at hand. The landlord, when knocked up, refused admission, and the unfortunate M'Micken was carried back to the burning house, where a

cab had pulled up. While being lifted into the cab he expired. After the fire-conductor had lowered Mr. M'Micken he went back for the boy Alfred, whom he found quite naked. He handed the boy down to a man who stood on the leads over the shop window, and so the poor boy was passed on to Mrs. Buckmaster, who leant out of her first-floor window next door to rescue him. He was grievously injured, the flesh being burnt off his legs, and was at once placed in the cab alongside the body of his father, and driven to St. Thomas's Hospital. By this time the fire-engine was got to work, and the men of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade entered the house. They discovered near the door of the first-floor front room Mrs. M'Micken and the youngest child, William, aged eighteen months, on the floor dead. From the appearance of the bodies it was clear that they had died from suffocation. The bodies having been placed in a shell, the fire-engine was converted into a hearse, and the coffin was carried on it to the local dead-house. The fire had burnt out the back kitchen and back parlour, and had nearly destroyed the staircase, but it was easily subdued. The neighbours said they were certain another person was still in the house, and upon search being made the servant, Emma Woodham, was found lying on the floor of the back room on the first story. She was apparently dead, but on being brought out into the air she revived. She was partially dressed. No time was lost in taking her to St. Thomas's Hospital, when she was attended by the house

surgeon.

The house was carefully examined to ascertain the cause of the fire, and it was found to have originated in the back kitchen. It was inferred that Mr. M'Micken, on going back to save his family after giving the alarm, opened a door leading from the back of the premises to see the extent of the fire, and so allowed the flames to communicate with the staircase. The door appeared to the policeconstable to be shut when M'Micken first spoke to him. This, then, was the proximate cause of the loss of life.

In the hospital Emma Woodham was visited by her brother, to whom she said she was awakened by a smell of smoke. She got up to awaken her master and mistress, and put on her gown. She went towards their room, but being overpowered she fell on the floor. She attributed the fire to one of the children having been playing with lighted paper the previous evening, and possibly he had set fire to a piece of cloth which kept smouldering all night. To one of the chiefs of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, who saw her subsequently, she said that she could not tell how the fire

arose.

The following were the names and ages of those who were so fearfully cut off:-Alfred M'Micken, aged forty years; Elizabeth M'Micken, his wife, thirty-four; Alfred, three years and a half; and William, the baby, eighteen months.

FUNERAL OF MARTIN. FENIAN DEMONSTRATION.-One of the largest public demonstrations of the Fenian Brotherhood in the