ACCIDENT AT THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY.-

One of the loco-motive engines at work on the railway near Liverpool, was proceeding on Wednesday along the embankment to the eastward of Broad Green, where there is a temporary switch or crossing plate, to enable the trams to pass from one side of the railway to the other. At this point some malicious person had fastened one of the moveable tongues in the wrong direction, by which the engine was thrown off the

rails, and Stephenson, one of the contractors for the road, being on the engine at the time, imprudently jumped to the ground, and was run over

by the loaded waggons which followed, and killed on the spot. The di. rectors have offered a reward of 200 guineas on conviction of the offender, and the Railway Company have further organised a numerous and active police, for the protection and safety of the road in future. The movable switch, the wrong position of which was the occasion of the accident, is only a temporary expedient during the construction of the railway, and will be entirely discontinued before the opening of the way to the public. The accident was at first erroneously referred to Stephenson the engineer.

PUDDING SLEEVES.—The Bishop of Bristol, while preaching a cha. rity sermon at Bishop yearmouth, last week, set fire to one of his sleeves, by its coming in contact with the candles placed for the purpose of lighting the pulpit. Fortunately his hands were gloved ; so that he was enabled to put out the flame without injury. The dress of our Bishops is a singularly fantastic one, without either dignity or suitable- ness. It was a pardonable mistake of the stranger, who, in the House of Lords, took them for a few old women listening to the debate. SUDDEN Dea•rns.—On Wednesday morning, the children of Charles Carter Petley, Esq., Riverhead, were flying a kite on the lawn, and Mrs Petley went out to see their sport and enjoy their pleasure, when he turned round suddenly, and instantlyfell to the ground a corpse. The deceased, who was an able and Much-respected magistrate, was fifty-one yean of age.—Maidstone Journal. On Friday morning, Mr. Thomas Todd, of Coppergate, shoemaker, had been standing at his door, smoking his pipe, and conversing with a neighbour, when he observed that he thought he would go in and get his breakfast. in went into the house, seated himself in a chair at the breakfast-table, and almost immediately expired. He was sixty years of age.—York Courant.

An awful occnrrence took place on Saturday last, at Sturton, near Gainsborough. Mr. Joseph Downes, of that place, farmer, whilst em- ployed with some labourers in forming a stack, fell down and instantly expired. It is a melancholy and remarkable fact that he is the third person in the family who has expired in the same manner—Morning Herald.

SUICIDES.—On Wednesday afternoon, Major Mallory, of 24, South Molton Street, cut his throat with a razor. He had gone to his bed-room, as was supposed, to change his dress, previous to riding out. H is ser- vant after waiting for a considerable time, went up stairs to inform her master that the horse was in waiting, when she found him extended dead on the floor.

On Fritlay last, an old man named Taylor hanged himself, out of ter- ror, it is said, of his being prosecuted by his landlord, who had detected him stealing the feathers from the bed of the room where he slept. The body was quite stiff and cold when discovered in a small court in Castor Street, Poplar.

On Saturday morning, a girl named Smith, aged eighteen years of age, drowned herself in a pond near the Bell public-house, Little Waltham, Essex, where she was a servant. She was a comely girl, and much at tached to a young man named Millbank, from whom she had received some slight.

Miss DJ ELK.—The character of this interesting performer has been most wantonly and maliciously assailed by some of our brethren. The charge (borrowed, we suppose, from one of the entertaining little anec- dotes of the Elephant in the Menagerie, which has just issued from Mr. Knight's) was so circumstantial, that at first it staggered even our- selves, who rank among her earliest admirers. We are happy to find in the Advertiser of this morning, the following ample vindication of the young lady. Her bulk, not her will, we have no doubt, consented to the accident which has terminated so fatally. She meant to caution merely, but pressed her admonition too closely for the unfortunate in- truder on her privacy. The Advertiser's explanation runs thus :—" The account transmitted to us of a fatal injury having been inflicted by the elephant on its keeper, Bernard, on Friday last, is, we are assured, in many circumstances, quite erroneous. In the first place, the accident occurred on Wednesday the 15th; and Bernard is now in France ; and so far from Tom, an attendant, having had his leg lacerated, he was in- e disposed at Newcastle, where the accident did not happen, as stated, but fif- teen miles distant on the road. Mr.11uguet, the proprietor,was travelling with the elephant, and one of his servants having approached the animal incautiously, and bellby* a stranger, it thrust him against a wall, and injured him very much; and being of a consumptive habit, he died the next day. The elephant became afterwards perfectly docile, and walked through the town amidst a great number of persons who assembled to see the animal proceeding to the place of performance."

FRIGHTFUL DISCOVERY. As two boys were nutting last week in Branston Wood, near Lincoln shortly after separating in a lone part of the centre of the wood, one of them cried out lustily, as in great terror. On the other going after him, he found him almost "frightened to death," at the sight of a man that was hung on one of the branches of a tree. They ran together in their fright, and procured the assistance of other people • and at length the body was cut down, and removed to a small inn on the skirts of the wood. An inquest was held on the re- mains by Mr. Bunyan, coroner. The following are all the particulars that could be learnt. The body must at least have been there for six months. He was suspended in a black silk handkerchief, the stiffner of which was in his pocket ; not a vestige of features could be discerned, the birds had literally picked out his eyes ; and his clothes adhered to the decayed clayey mould of the decomposition of the body, as one mass, exposing the skeleton wherever it was disturbed. There were 17s. in silver and 4d. in copper in his pockets with a carpenter's rule and some loose tobacco papers, but not a line of writing or other means likely to lead to any discovery of who the unfortunate fellow was. His hat and a hooked walking-stick were on the ground. The rule and stick were ordered to be preserved by the Coroner, to meet any future inquiry ; no person in the neighbourhood is missing. Verdict, "Found suspended by the neck in a tree." &c.—Lincoln Herald.

ACCIDENT AT DIEPPE.—A letter dated the 25th ult, mentions an unfortunate accident as having occurred on the previous Monday. The bridge which connects the two sides of the harbour is pulled down ; and in consequence, the people of the village of Follett are obliged to cross over in little flat-bottomed boats. One of these boats was upset on Monday afternoon ; and out of seventeen persons whom it contained, seven were drowned.

SHIPWRECK.—The Triton, from Dublin, for Quebec, was totally lost on the 8th July, on Cape Roster. The Triton had on board 136 emi- grants, from 25 to 30 of whom are said to have been drowned. Sixty of the survivors meant to proceed to Quebec • the others had spread themselves over the country in the neighbourhood of Cape Rosier. BOAT ACCIDENT.—During the regatta on Wednesday, at Liverpool, a boat containing nine persons was upset. Seven were picked up and two drowned.

ANOTHER.—A boat off Baltimore, in Ireland, was run down on Saturday fortnight ; and four out of seven men, her crew, unfortunately drowned. The crew of the vessel which was the involuntary cause of the accident, treated the survivors with much kindness, and in dis- missing them gave them a quantity of flour and a barrel of beef as a present ; of both of which they were robbed by their countrymen, the sailors of the hooker who put them on shore !

FLOODS IN AMERICA.—The last arrivals contain the particulars of a mountain flood, that approach in interest the inundations which we lately noticed in the work of Sir A. Dick. The valley where the scene of suffering lay, was that of the Newhaven River, in Vermont. The New. haven rises in the mountains of Bristol and Lincoln : it enters the plain .11* the former village, which it courses rapidly ; until it reaches the New. haven West mills, where its channel is much narrowed, and where, in consequence, it forms a rapid for nearly a mile, until it enters Otter Creek. The weather, as was the case before the great floods in Moray, had for several days been very warm. The rain began on Saturday night (24th of June), and it rained hard nearly all Sunday and Monday. The buildings at Wilson's mills stood on a piece of what the Americans term interlude land ; they were principally on the east bank of the stream. There were two houses, occupied, one by Mr. John Wilson, the proprietor of the mills, the other by a Mr. Stewart. By eleven o'clock on Monday, the waters had risen so much as to alarm the Wilsons for their property ; and two men, Miles Farr and his son, crossed over a bridge, that still stood, to assist them in saving it. While they were thus employed, two bridges in succession gave way, and the whole vo- lume of the stream was directed against the mills they were endeavour- ing to preserve. They gave up all attempts at saving the mills, and hurried to Wilson's house; where they fieind a rapid stream of water sweeping along, which they in vain endeavoured to ford. The two Farrs, together with four others whom the calamity had attracted there, waded to Mr. Stewart's house to save its inmates, who were sheltered in the barn. They set immediately about constructing a raft for that purpose ; but had barely completed it, when the wooden house to which it was attached gave way, and the raft on which only one of the unfor- tunate family had found shelter, was swept down the stream, and enter- ing the rapids was broken in pieces. Two of the persons who were on it were drowned, and the others escaped with great difficulty, by being swept by the current into shallow water. The barn where the nnfor. tunate family were, was swept away a few minutes after the raft ; and the whole of them were drowned, except a boy of fourteen, who was hurried against a tree, where he clung till morning. The boy said, on entering the narrows, he had hold of his mother's hand, and she spoke to him ; but in a moment after, the drift-wood tore them from one another. In Wilson's house, there were himself, a son of twenty years of age, a daughter, two infant children, Wilson's wife, and his wife'.: sister. When they found escape, as they supposed, impossible, the whole retreated to the second floor—that, as Wilson said, they might all go together. Soon after, the chimney fell, by one of the walls being

undermined ; and the young man was hurled into the cellar, and con- siderably bruised, but contrived to scramble up again. The father and son, after a time, went to the door to look out, and while they were thus occupied, they felt the house lifted from .beneath them. They imme. diately sprung into the water, and by great exertion gained the bank.

The house with the rest of the family was hurried down the stream, and whelmed in the waters, the inmates calling aloud for help, which none could render. Next day, the water had partially subsided, and the de-

struction it had caused was rendered apparent to the survivors. The number of houses and buildings swept away were twenty-one; fourteen

persons had lost their lives ; 'twenty-two bridges were destroyed, and several mills, including that of Wilson ; and altogether the damage to Private.individuals is calculated at not less than 60,000 dollars.