ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP LONDON BRIDGE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1198, 13 February 1885, Page 3

ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP LONDON BRIDGE.

At 5.40 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, the whole of the oily of London was thrown into a great state of excitement by the report of a erritic explosion which seemed to come from Die neigborhnod of the Thames. Saturday .hying a half-holiday in London, there were run many people in the city, out large crowds soon gathered at the principal corners, anxious to hear the cause of the shock which had scared them In a short time it became known that the scene of ihe < xplosion was' London' Bridge, and vague rumors floated ahoat that the bridge h-ol been blown up and many lives lost. Happily these supposin'ions proved to he unfounded An excited crowd rushed towards the bridge, but found it intact, though those who were crossing the liver at. the time of the explosion stated that a violent cooc saion had taken place and f igh'died them not of their wits. As yet we know nothing of the perpetrators of this foul outrage, or how it was accomplished. All that we are sure of. is this: that on Saturday night shortly after half past live, a violent explosion took place under the secon I arch from the Surrey side of London Bridge For unate yno one was injure I, thoiuh s veral passers by were thrown to the ground, and th*re was a stampede of passengers to either end of the bridge. Of con iso there are several theories as to the explosion. One is that a bomb was thrown ovr the bridge and exploded on touching the water; another that an infernal machine, wound up to go off at a certain time, was pi iced in the buttress ; while a third idea is j that a packet of dynamite was thrown overhoard from a boat under the bridge. Any of these theories may be the correct one ; but the police have as yet no c'ue. One strange thing is that the biidge presents no signs of being inju-ed in any way, though for half-a-mile along the river on both si ies every pane if glass was shattered to atoms The report of the explosion was distinctly heard several miles from London, and the superintend-nt of the Fire Bri ade at West Ham (six miles from London Bridge) ordered out his engine, thinking that the report was gas explosion in his own nei-jhbonrhoo I. And now as to the authors of this liahol'cal attempt. There can he no bon'd that this is another of the Fenian outrages, of which the last occurred in the snmm-r, when simultaneous oxplo« sinus took place at Scotland Yard, Trafalgar square, and St. James's street. Evidently the American Irish did not intend us to pas our Christmas without giving us a reminder that they were still hatching their vile plots. One circumstance pomts conclusively to the fact that Fenians had a hmd in this oit’a/e. It is tin's; December 13 is the anniversary of the explosion at Cl-rkcnwell Prison in 1867, when the Irish party blew down the prison wall, in the hope of rescuing Bn ike and Oasey, who were then con line I there. Fortunately, however. Saturday's explosion proved as futile as that seventeen years ago, though at Clerkenwell the lives of twelve innocent p rsons were taken, while no loss than 120 were seriously wounded. It is np p-lling to think how terrible must havt been the loss of life if the dynamit nds had sure e-led in their villainous ohj-ct last Saturday. It is computed that there wore or the bridge at the time of the explosion ai least 500 foot passengers and about 10C v-hicles. If the bridge had been blown in 1c air not one of these would probably have escaped, while the effect of the cxplosioi would have been to devastate the riverside buildings for some 100 yards. Unfortunately the police have as yet no cine to help then in unravelling the mystery which surrounds the whole affair; but they have come to the bottom of other plots which have been, to outsiders, seemingly untraeeable ; an the men who hunted down the perpetrators of the railway station explosions and brought to light the Birmingham dynamite mannfac tory may be trusted to e neilate the lates conspiiacy of the American Irish dyn uni tards.