no doubt that the signal-man did accidentally affect the points, and it was certainly possible for him to do so. I cannot say he did it, but somebody did, and recently on another line it was done by a boy who happened to be in the signal-box. Means have lately been invented to prevent the points from being shifted while a train is passing through them. I first saw such an invention on this Great Northern Railway, but there was no such thing in this signal-box. I consider the speed of twenty-five miles an hour quite safe on the main line, and the rule which orders men to slacken to ten or twelve miles an hour on approaching junctions might safely be struck out of the books, so far as this part of the main line is concerned. The signal-man must have reversed the points as the train went through them, and must have got them clean over, a thing which I never knew perfectly done before, and which accounts for the little damage done to the rails. He might have moved them at first unconsciously, but could not have moved them back unconsciously. I must disbelieve his evidence or that of my own senses. It is evident the man was very hasty. His strict duty was not to let the Hertford train out by signal from Hatfield till the last carriage of the accident train had passed his box. The tail had not passed. The junction never was clear. His literal duty was not to telegraph the line clear until it was clear, and he did not wait for that. I have known cases where trains have been signalled as arrived before they were within 100 yards."

The Coroner carefully summed up, leaving the jury to decide whether the accident occurred from any defect in the train, or from something that was done to the points. In the latter case they must decide whether the signal-man altered the points accidentally, or with such a degree of gross negligence as would amount to manslaughter.

The jury, after deliberating for half an hour, found a verdict that the accident resulted from the accidental shunting of the points by the pointsman while the train was going over. They added a recommendation that an independent line should be made from Hatfield to Hertford.

29. FUNERAL OF LORD DERBY.-The Earl of Derby was buried at Knowsley Church. The funeral was strictly private, in accordance with the late Earl's written instructions, which prescribed for his last obsequies a style of modest and orderly propriety-the customary funeral of a wealthy English gentleman, attended only by his sorrowing kinsmen, his domestic servants, and a few persons connected with his private life, or with the management of his household and of his large estates.

The church was occupied by an expectant congregation. In the centre of the nave was the opening of the vault, the sides of which were also draped with black, the sombre hue being relieved by a rim of white along the edges. The church is so small that, even if all the seats had remained in their original position, it could not have afforded room for more than 300 visitors, and there was space

for but 250 on this day. Only those were admitted who had received cards and were dressed in mourning, and not a tenth part of the claimants for admission could be satisfied. By half-past eleven all the seats, except those allotted to the mourners, were filled, and in solemn silence the visitors waited for the coming of the funeral procession. It was curious to notice the people who were there doing honour to the memory of the Earl. They were manifestly the parishioners who had been connected with Lord Derby by something like a personal tie. They seemed to be, for the most part, simple village folk; and the homage which they were paying to the memory of the deceased nobleman was none the less impressive. During the time of waiting the wailing of the organ broke the solemn stillness; and when the organ was silent there was borne on the ear the faint, slow notes of a muffled bell.

At Knowsley Hall itself all was quiet up to the hour of noon, when the hearse, decorated with plumes and the armorial bearings of the house of Stanley, drew up at the west front. Following the hearse were eight mourning-coaches. The remains were enclosed in three coffins-the first of oak, made from a fine tree grown on the estate, the second of lead, and the third of oak covered with rich crimson velvet, with the necessary furniture gilt. Both the last coffins bore an Earl's coronet and the following inscription :-"The Right Hon. Sir Edward Geoffrey Stanley, fourteenth Earl of Derby, Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe, and a Baronet, K.G., P.C. Born March 29, 1799. Died Oct. 23, 1869." When these had been placed in the hearse the funeral procession was formed. Preceding the hearse were a number of mutes, his Lordship's valet bearing the coronet on a cushion of crimson velvet, and following it were the eight mourning-carriages-the first containing Lord Stanley (now Earl of Derby) as chief mourner, the Hon. F. A. Stanley, Colonel the Hon. Charles Stanley, and Captain Stanley. The other mourners were Colonel Long, the Hon. Colonel Wilbraham (Lady Derby's brother), the Rev. Mr. Hopwood (brother-in-law to the late Earl); the Rev. Mr. Hopwood, jun. ; Mr. Arthur Hopwood, Mr. Charles Hopwood, the Earl of Wilton, Viscount Grey de Wilton, Mr. Penrhyn, the Rev. Mr. Penrhyn, the Rev. Mr. Champneys, Lord Skelmersdale, Rear-Admiral Hornby, the Rev. Mr. Hornby, Mr. Edmund Hornby, Lord Hyde, Drs. Miller and Gorst (the late Earl's medical attendants); Mr. Lawrence, solicitor to the Knowsley estate; and Messrs. Hale, Moult, Statter, William Moult, and Holme, agents to the estate. About fifty servants followed the carriages on foot, all of course clad in deep mourning. The late Earl's brother, the Hon. Henry Thomas Stanley, was prevented by severe illness from attending the funeral.

The hearse was drawn by four horses, and each carriage by four horses caparisoned in sombre velvet bearing the armorial escutcheons. A limited number of tenants who had been admitted into the park joined the procession at intervals, and outside Knowsley Lodge, where the Knowsley-road joins the Ormskirk-road, a vast crowd of

tenants on horseback and in vehicles joined the cortége, accompanying it to Knowsley church, a distance of a mile and a half. The day, though cold and frosty, was very bright, dry, and sunny, and the scene, as the procession went through the picturesque glades of the park, was very impressive. At every point passed by the procession heads were reverently uncovered, and the sorrow seemed to be unaffected, genuine, and universal.

The coffin was met at the porch by the Rev. William Leyland Feilden, the Incumbent, and the Rev. Mr. Bolton, Curate; and as it was borne up the centre aisle, Mr. Arrowsmith, organist of Prescot church, played an appropriate voluntary. It was about one o'clock when the service began. The northern and southern aisles of the church were set apart for those of the tenantry and the servants who were desirous of witnessing the last rites. Lord Stanley; the Hon. Frederick Arthur Stanley, M.P.; Colonel the Hon. W. P. Talbot, and Admiral Hornby occupied the front row of pews overlooking the vault, and ranged behind these were a number of friends and relatives of the deceased, and the servants from the hall. The solemn service of the Church was read by the Rev. Mr. Feilden with much effect. As soon as the coffin was placed in its chamber, the coronet was removed from the ermine tippet and placed above the breastplate. Lord Stanley and the several members of the family present then descended to the vault, and, after taking a parting look at the coffin, left the church. The funeral music performed on the occasion was the sacred air by Mozart, " Blessed are they that die in the Lord;" "He comforts the bereaved," Mendelssohn; "I know that my Redeemer liveth," Handel; "The days of man are but as grass," Boyce; and concluding with the "Dead March" in "Saul." It was estimated that the number of people who followed the procession and were in and about the church was between 4000 and 5000. As soon as the funeral procession left the hall, the family hatchment was placed over the front entrance. The route from the hall to Knowsley church was kept by forty county constables.

In the steeples of many churches, in both town and country, muffled peels were rung at intervals during the day. At Huyton, Prescot, Preston, and Liverpool, the inhabitants showed their respect for the memory of the late Earl by drawing down their windowblinds, while many shopkeepers put up their shutters-some draped or painted in funeral colours. Every where, on the public buildings and in the docks and river at Liverpool, the flags were half-mast high.

1869.] Catastrophe on board Her Majesty's Gun-Vessel “ Thistle.” 119

NOVEMBER.

3. CATASTROPHE ON BOARD HER MAJESTY'S GUN-VESSEL "THISTLE." -A dreadful catastrophe happened at Sheerness on board her Majesty's gun-vessel "Thistle," and caused, as might be expected, a vast amount of sorrow throughout the Isle of Sheppey. By it many families were thrown into mourning and dire distress. The "Thistle," a double-screw composite gun-vessel, of 465 tons and 120horse power, carrying four guns, was the last vessel constructed at Woolwich dockyard, and just previous to the closing of that establishment was ordered to proceed to Sheerness to fit out and get ready for sea. She was commissioned three weeks before by Commander R. M. Blomfield, late of her Majesty's line-of-battle ship Pembroke," guard-ship at Sheerness and the Nore. The "Thistle " was fitted with two pairs of engines which had formerly belonged to gunboats. She had three boilers, two of which were condensers, and the third a high-pressure boiler. By direction of the Lords of the Admiralty, steam was got up, and the vessel started on a trip to the Maplin Sands for the purpose of testing her speed over the measured mile. The greatest care had been taken by Mr. Walter W. Williamson, the chief inspector of machinery afloat, and other officers that every thing was in proper order for the trial. Not the slightest defect was perceptible in either engines or boilers, and it was thought that the trial would prove more than ordinarily successful. On reaching the sands, the vessel was, as it is technically termed, "put on " the mile, the condensing boilers only being first used. A series of "runs" had been thus made, when it was determined to try the vessel's speed with the high-pressure boiler. This was accordingly done, and two runs successfully made. On turning for the third run, it speedily became evident that some very serious mishap had occurred in the engine-room. Mr. Williamson, in company with Mr. Bannister, chief engineer of the factory, had gone on deck only three or four minutes previously, leaving Mr. William H. Roberts, the engineer, in charge of the vessel; Messrs. Edmund C. Scorrer, John Smithers, and Joseph Knight, engineers; with John Daer, fitter; John Timson, stoker; Joseph Lawrence, stoker; George Battley, chief stoker; Robert Robertson, leading stoker; Thomas Wakerell, stoker; William Dwyer, stoker; William Mitchell, leading stoker; James Elder, stoker; Mr. F. Williamson, foreman of engineers; Edward Mason, fitter; Mr. Joshua Anderson, Mr. George Whalebone, jun., and Mr. John Edgar, engineer-students, in the engine-room. The first intimation that a calamity had happened was given by the sudden appearance of Mr. J. Edgar upon the deck of the vessel, upon which he fell in a fainting state. Volumes of steam and smoke

rushing up the hatchway too plainly told what had occurred. There was no loud report, nor any thing else to indicate that at that very moment eight human beings had been hurried into eternity, and eleven others more or less seriously injured. Yet such was the fact. On the steam clearing away from the engine-room a truly horrible sight presented itself. The bodies of the dead, as well as those of the injured, lay just as they fell when overtaken by the destructive blast. At this time, of course, the chief endeavour was to get the wounded living men on deck, and very opportunely a private steamtug, named the "Rescue," belonging to Gravesend, the crew of which perceived that something was amiss on board the "Thistle," ranged up alongside, and her master (Forbes), in the most praiseworthy manner, consented to convey the injured men into Sheerness harbour. They were landed at the Cornwallis jetty, and at once taken to the sick-bay of the Naval Barracks in the dockyard. Captain the Hon. A. A. Čochrane, C.B., superintendent of the yard, directed that every attention should be shown the wounded men, and his instructions were fully carried out under the superintendence of Commander Silverlock, R.N., Dr. Forbes, R.N., and others. Three of the more severely injured-viz. Messrs. J. Anderson, G. Whalebone, jun., and Edward Mason-were taken on landing to the Military Hospital, where every thing possible was done to alleviate their sufferings by Dr. Reid, R.A., and Dr. Prescott, R.A. There was, however, but little hope of their lives, and the poor fellows gradually sank and died. In the mean time the "Rescue " was once more steered to the disabled vessel, and returned to the harbour, bearing the bodies of Messrs. J. Knight, W. H. Roberts, E. C. Scorrer, and J. Smithers, engineers, and those of Joseph Lawrence, John Timson, John Daer, George Russell, and Robert Robertson, all of whom were killed on board. Later in the evening the tug went out to the Mouse Light, near which the "Thistle" lay at anchor, and with the assistance of a second tug towed her into the harbour.

The high-pressure boiler was placed in midships, between the two condensers, and an investigation showed that one of the plates had cracked to an extent sufficient to allow the whole of the steam to escape, as it were, with one rush. The volume, having no other vent from the stokehole than by way of the engine-room, and hatchway leading therefrom, instantly enveloped the whole of the unfortunate men in super-heated steam, killing the eight abovementioned, and seriously injuring every one else in the engine-room. There was no time for these to escape from either death or injury. One of the least hurt-Mr. John Edgar, engineer-student-gave the following account of the catastrophe:-He was attending the counters, and was standing in the centre of the engine-room. Mr. Smithers was close to him, and the men Daer and Mason were watching the indicators. Suddenly, without any warning, and unaccompanied by any noise, he found himself surrounded with what he termed a flash of "white light." This was as suddenly succeeded by total darkness. He jumped, or was carried, over the starting