Page:The Annals of Our Time - Volume 1.djvu/26

AUGUST Liberals to only 53. The Liberal majority elected to the last Peel Parliament was 356 to 302; the majority in the present Melbourne Parliament, 336 to 322. The petitions presented against returns amounted to 60. In the case of 14 the members were declared not duly elected, and the seats transferred; 25 were declared duly elected, and 21 pettionspetitions [sic] were not proceeded with.

23.—A lighter laden with gunpowder explodes off East Greenwich, causing considerable damage to shipping in the river, and injury to several people.

— Irruption of water into the Thames Tunnel. One of Mr. Brunel's assistants writes: "Seeing a quantity of loose sand falling near the gallery, I gave the signal to be hauled into the shaft. I had scarcely done so when I observed the ground give way, and the water descending in a thousand streams, like a cascade." Within an hour the Tunnel was entirely filled. No lives were lost.

26.—Railroad from Paris to St. Germains (the first in France) opened.

September 5.—Collision in the Thames between the Apollo steamer, from Yarmouth, and the Monarch, a Leith packet. The Apollo sank, but those on board, with the exception of the stewardess and two children, were saved by the Monarch crew.

— The first session of the twenty-fifth Congress of the United States opened with a message from the new President, Martin Van Buren. The document dealt mainly with one subject, the financial embarrassment of the country, for the consideration of which Congress had been especially convened three months earlier than usual.

— Died at his cottage, near Durham, aged 98, Count Barowloski, the well-known Polish dwarf. His height was under thirty-six inches, but his body was of the most perfect symmetry, and his mind cultivated to an extraordinary degree by travel and study.

— Died at his seat, Gelligron, Glamorganshire, aged 67, Owen Rees, partner in the publishing house of Longman & Co.

9.—Collision at the Kenyon Junction of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, causing the death of one woman and an infant, and injury to several passengers.

— News received of the mutiny and murders on board the British ship Fanny, Captain M'Kay. A mixed crew of Manilla men and Lascars fell upon the Europeans, murdered the commander and other officers, and plundered the ship, which they afterwards sunk.

13.—Letter received by the Geographical Society from Captain Back, R.N., describing the obstacles which prevented his carrying out the mission of discovery on the N.W. shore of the Hudson Bay territories, on which he had started in H. M. ship Terror in June 1836, and from which he was now returning.

14.—Fire at an india-rubber and shell shop in the Strand. Three inmates on the second floor—Mr. Harris, his child, and servant—lost their lives.

19.—Musical festival at Birmingham, extending over four days, and remarkable, among many similar displays, for Mendelssohn's playing of one of Bach's preludes and fugues. The great composer's own oratorio of "St. Paul" was performed on the second day of the festival, and Handel's "Messiah" on the third.

20.—Captain Alexander Burnes—"Bokhara Burnes," as he was known in London society, from his travels in Central Asia—arrives at Cabul as head of the commercial mission sent thither by the Governor-General, Lord Auckland, He was received with great honour by Akhbar Khan, and conducted to the court of his father Dost Mahomed. At a conference on the 24th, the Ameer said: "Instead of renewing the conflict with Runjeet Singh, it would be a source of real gratification to me if the British Government would counsel me how to act—none of our other neighbours can avail me; and in return I would pledge myself to forward its commercial and political views." Burnes thereupon assured him, that the British Government would exert itself to secure peace between the Punjaub and Affghanistan; and added, that although he could not hold out any promise of interference for the restoration of Peshawur, which had been won and preserved by the sword, he believed that the Maharajah intended to make some change in its management, but that it sprang from bimself and not from the British Government.

— The Duke of Terceira and his friends seek refuge in England after their unsuccessful attempt to restore the Charter of Don Pedro at Lisbon.

29.—Foundation stone laid of the new University Library, Cambridge.

30.—The first anniversary meeting of the British Medical Association held in the London Coffee House, presided over by Dr. Webster. A petition was adopted for the institution of a National Faculty of Medicine.

October 3.—The old royal stud, bequeathed to the Fitz-Clarence family by the late King, sold at the Hampton Court paddocks. Total realized, 15,692 guineas.

4.—The Queen leaves Windsor for Brighton, where she met with a reception of surpassing splendour, and was presented with an address.

5.'—Died 4t Aremberg, aged 54, Hortense Eugénie de Beauharnais, ex-Queen of Holland, mother of Prince Louis Napoleon.

8.—Died, in his 72d year, Samuel Wesley, musician, son of Charles Wesley and nephew of the fonnder of Methodism. Rh