not have been a mere coincidence) that the weather was as nearly as possible the same as it was five years ago, that a warm gusty wind had been blowing for some days, and that for several nights lightning had been almost constant. The temperature in the district where the shock was felt rose on the 31st no less than fifteen degrees.

NOVEMBER.

5. FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE SOUTH WALES RAILWAY.-One of the most disastrous accidents that have happened on the South Wales Railway since it has been amalgamated with the Great Western took place, and was unhappily attended with the grievous loss of three lives and the fearful maiming of six other persons. The accident occurred at a portion of the line between Newnham and Gatcombe stations in Gloucestershire, and about fourteen miles from Gloucester. The line in this vicinity runs a good deal close upon the western shore of the Bristol Channel, and is remarkably picturesque when the tide is in. The accident arose from a collision between the up London mail from South Wales and a cattle train which was preceding it, and was the most serious that has occurred on the whole of the line from Gloucester to Milford Haven since the memorable collision of two passenger trains which met on the same line of rails through a mistake in telegraphing at Port Talbot, Glamorganshire, many years ago. The catastrophe arose, it would appear, from the practice, often condemned, of running slow goods and cattle trains in front of fast passenger trains, without a sufficiently safe interval being allowed between them. In this case it led to the loss of life already mentioned, and incalculable domestic misery among the survivors and their relatives, to say nothing of the injury to property that has ensued. The following are the particulars of the accident:

In the evening the up mail train from the terminus of the South Wales line at New Milford left Milford at its regular time, 5 p.m., on its up journey, via Gloucester and Swindon, and it kept good time for the whole of its journey up to the time of the catastrophe. The train left Carmarthen Junction at 6.15 p.m., and had been preceded five hours before by a special cattle train, which left Carmarthen at 1.30 p.m. There was nothing amiss up to 10.30 p.m., at which time the accident happened. The mail train, which consisted of a powerful engine and three passenger carriages, left Lydney station at about ten minutes past ten, and had passed the next small station as usual without stopping. It had arrived within about a mile of Bullo Pill, a small coal siding and goods

station, but not a passenger station, when the train ran suddenly into the special cattle train with an awful smash. It was a light night, but there was a fog along the side of the Bristol Channel, and this with a sharp curve in the line at the spot prevented the driver of the mail train seeing the tail red lights of the cattle train until the mail was close upon it. There was not time to jump, and the driver and his stoker, having first shut off steam, lay down on the floor of their engine, and the collision followed in a moment. The result may be anticipated. The last vehicle in the cattle train was a third-class carriage in which were riding the guard (William Probert) and the drovers in charge of the cattle-eight in number -viz., Evan Morgan, David Thomas, Edward James, Daniel Thomas, Benjamin Roberts, John George, William Edwards, and Philip Jones. The mail train was proceeding at full speed, and dashed with awful force into the hinder part of the cattle train, crushing the third-class carriages to pieces and scattering the fragments and the ill-fated occupants over the line. Three of the cattle trucks were also broken and twelve of the beasts were killed, several others being maimed. The powerful engine of the mail train having crushed up the third-class carriage of the cattle train mounted on the top of one of the trucks, where it remained fixed. The passengers in the mail train miraculously escaped almost unhurt. Nine of the passenger carriages left the rails, and, although some of the passengers in the first carriage were much shaken and knocked about, and all were greatly alarmed, none are reported as having been injured seriously.

When the first shock had passed, the passengers in the mail train hurried out of the carriages to see the fearful wreck. The guard and driver of the mail train, being unhurt, first despatched messengers up and down the line to stop any thing that might be coming along it. They found, as already described, the unfortunate drovers and the guard of the cattle train lying about the line among the wreck of the carriages and trucks. Three of them were dead, the guard and two of the drovers; and all the other drovers were grievously injured. The line was blocked with the broken carriages and with the dead and maimed, and the scene presented was fearful in the extreme. The nearest telegraph station to the scene of the accident was Bullo Pill, and a telegraphic message was sent as early as practicable from that station to Gloucester for assistance, and when the special train sent down from Gloucester had arrived the injured persons and the passengers of the mail were forwarded to Gloucester by it. The dead bodies were left at Bullo Pill. The special train from Gloucester returned to that city between two and three the next morning, in the care of a surgeon. The sufferers were at once conveyed to the Gloucester Infirmary, where Mr. Carter, the house surgeon, having been already apprised of the accident, was in readiness to receive them and administer promptly to their necessities.

The following persons were killed by this deplorable accident :

William Probert, of Carmarthen, guard of the cattle train; David Thomas, of Llandilo, Carmarthenshire, cattle drover; Evan Morgan, of Carmarthen, also a cattle drover.

Six others were seriously injured.

7. EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF FORGERY.-On the preceding evening three of the City of London detective police, specially employed for the purpose, made a discovery of forged bills of exchange, of bills in process of fabrication, and of implements used in the forgery, at a place in Nicholas-lane, Lombard-street, and arrested three men, foreigners, on the spot. The prisoners were taken before the Lord Mayor to answer the charge, and the examination excited unusual interest from the attendant circumstances. They gave as their names Seigmund Striemer, forty-five years of age, residing in Queen's-road, Dalston, ; Gustav Stoven, twenty-nine, living in Nelson-square, Park-road, Peckham; and George Kunake, or Konike, about forty-five, residing in Henriettaterrace, Blake-road, Peckham. The prisoners were all well dressed. They were nominally charged with forging and uttering two bills of exchange for 1807. 10s. and 1201. 78. respectively, and eighteen other bills of exchange of various amounts, with intent to defraud; but that, as will be seen, hardly affords an adequate notion of the crime of which they are accused. The prisoners were undefended.

The City Solicitor (Mr. Nelson), addressing the Lord Mayor, said he appeared there to prosecute the three prisoners for one of the gravest offences that could be possibly committed in a commercial community. The prisoners, it would be found, had been engaged in the manufacture of fictitious paper to an enormous amount. In the autumn of last year a man named Gerson Wetzler was accused at that court of uttering a forged bill of exchange, of a foreign character, and having been committed for trial, was afterwards convicted at the Central Criminal Court. From information that came to the City Solicitor's knowledge in conducting the prosecution on that occasion, he was convinced the prisoner, with others, had been engaged for some time in systematic acts of forgery, and feeling that the trading interest, not only in the City of London, but in many parts of the country might be largely involved in the consequences of such a system, attention was called to the matter, and inquiries set on foot by the police of the City, the result of which had gone to show that forged bills of exchange must be in circulation to the amount of many thousands of pounds. He would not have made that statement if he did not believe it was warranted by facts within his knowledge. He held in his hand no less than twenty bills of exchange which had been fabricated within the last month-one for 6207. 14s., another for 5147. 12s., others for 3207. 10s., 3967. 10s., 480/., 3207., 4407. 10s. 6d., 4447. 6s., and 2897. 7s., the rest being of less but still of considerable amounts in some cases; and the whole twenty amounted altogether to 51927. 16s. 8d. They bore no less than seventy-four signatures,

all of which were forgeries, and they were drawn in no fewer than five different languages-ten in English, three in French, four in Italian, two in Spanish, and one in German. They purported to have been drawn in various parts of the civilized world,-three in the Mauritius, two in Constantinople, two at Elberfeld, and one each at Rio de Janeiro, Palermo, Odessa, Almeira, Havannah, Stettin Milano, Marseilles, Sydney, Philadelphia, Melbourne, New York, and Montreal. The Bench would see that they extended over a great part of the globe. Those forged bills of exchange in every instance but one were drawn on paper engraved and printed for the express purpose, and had the name of the drawer engraved in the usual way in the margin. In every case also they bore the names of some English firm as the acceptors, stamped by a die, so that any gentleman taking any one of such bills to his banker's, it would be assumed on the face of it to be a genuine bill of exchange. There were no less than twenty-two names of firms stamped on them, namely, four at Liverpool, one at Halifax, two in Glasgow, one at Huddersfield, two at Wolverhampton, two in Cork, two at Bradford, two in Manchester, one in Sunderland, two in Leith, four in Edinburgh, two at Wakefield, three at Sheffield, one at Leeds, one at Salford, one at Paisley, and one at Birmingham. When he said that the whole of those bills had been fabricated with the greatest ease and at a small outlay of money, the Lord Mayor would have no hesitation in arriving at the conclusion that those forgeries had been systematically perpetrated. The three prisoners were arrested on the 6th, manufacturing bills of exchange in a room in Nicholas-lane, within a stone's throw of the justice-room of the Mansion House, and in the heart of the City of London. Striemer, one of the prisoners, occupied a front room on the second floor, and was described as a translator of languages. Some of the bills that would be produced in evidence were only in their inchoate state. They were in course of fabrication, but not perfect, and in the room where the prisoners were the officers found as many as fifty-four dies, with the names upon them of various firms. They also found-and he was speaking without the least exaggeration-several hundreds of blank forms, and two books containing engraved forms of bills purporting in one book to be those of the Philadelphia Union Bank, and the Bench would see from the counterfoils how large must have been the circulation of such bills. The other book contained forms of bills of the Mercantile Bank of Sydney. From the surrounding circumstances there was reason to believe the prisoners had been doing a large business.

Detective Sergeant Webb said, "On the afternoon of the 6th, about three o'clock, I went, in company with Sergeant Moss and Whitney and Obee, to 20, Nicholas-lane, King William-street. We went upstairs, and in a front room on the second floor we found the three prisoners and another man. We told them we were officers, and that we should take them into custody for being concerned in forging and uttering a number of bills of exchange.

The prisoner Striemer said, 'What do you mean? I do not understand you. This is my office. I know nothing about any forged bills, and you have no right to take us.'

"The other prisoners were standing by his side when he said that. We told them to consider themselves in custody, and that we should search the office. It was a small room containing a desk and table. On the desk I found the bill produced, with the ink upon it still wet, on a writing pad. It purports to be dated New York, October 1, 1868,' and is for 45l. On the side of the same desk we found five other bills."

The City solicitor.-" They are all apparently drawn by banks abroad."

Webb.-"They purport to be made in blank by banks at Sydney, the Mauritius, Philadelphia, and Montreal. We also found a large quantity of forms of bills of exchange, several hundreds of them. We have not yet had time to count them. We also discovered fifty-four dies, with the names of as many different firms upon them, for accepting bills-some in Manchester, Liverpool, and many other large towns in the kingdom. We likewise found dies of the City and Union Banks. The name 'S. Striemer, translator of languages,' was painted on a glass panel of the door, and below it Gordon and Co., bill brokers.""

The Lord Mayor remanded the prisoners for a few days, and they were removed to Newgate.

9. LORD MAYOR'S DAY.-The Lord Mayor's Show was marked by a revival of much of the old ceremonial splendour, and the streets on the route from Guildhall to Westminster were crowded by sightseers. There was only one man in armour, but there was a profusion of bands. The old state coach, blazing in gold, was once more brought out, and the popularity of the show, as "an emblem of the people's sovereignty,' was shown by the reception which was awarded to the new Lord Mayor along the line of route.

On leaving Guildhall the procession passed into Cheapside, thence along the Poultry, past the front of the Mansion House, round by King William-street into Cannon-street, then onward by way of Fleet-street and the Strand to Westminster. On arriving at Westminster Hall, which they did shortly after three o'clock, the civic authorities were conducted to the Court of Exchequer, and were received by the Lord Chief Baron and Barons Channell, Pigott, and Cleasby. Having taken the places assigned to them on the benches usually occupied by Queen's Counsel, the Common Serjeant, in the absence of the Recorder, addressed the Court, and introduced the new Lord Mayor, Mr. James Lawrence, whose personal career and services as a member of the Corporation were briefly described. The chief events of the mayoralty of the last Lord Mayor were also mentioned. The Lord Chief Baron replied in appropriate terms, and addressed the new Lord Mayor upon the duties and privileges of his office. The new Lord Mayor then took the prescribed oath; and, the other formalities having been