The Globe. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1874.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 170, 22 December 1874, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1874.

The English papers, received yesterday, are full of the accounts of the terrible gunpowder explosion which occurred on the Regent's Canal. Never since the celebrated explosion at Erith, which happened rather more than ten years ago, has an accident which has done so much damage taken place. It will be seen from the reports of the case, that the probability is that a very much greater amount of harm would have been done, if it had not been for a " dip" in the ground just where the barge blew up. The force of the air wave caused by the explosion was broken by this dip, and the consequences were less disastrous than they would have been, had the explosion taken place on a flat surface surrounded by houses. Let us try to fancy what would be the result supposing that a corresponding amount of powder was to ignite in a city like Christchurch, standing on what we may call, for the sake of argument, a perfectly flat plain. There would not be one house left standing, or at all events, not one dwelling that would not be seriously damaged by such an accident, and the amount of injury that would be inflicted on the inhabitants of the city would be something frightful. And yet, while we are living, here in this town, in a state of fancied security, the materials for a catastrophe, of dimensions hardly so great perhaps, as that which we have lately read of with horror, but large enough to be remembered for many years, should it occur, are in our midst. It will be remembered by every one, that last year, about this time, or a little later, the mischievous section of the community amused themselves, on a few consecutive evenings, by letting off a number of fireworks in the streets, to the great alarm and discomfort of the more orderly portion of the population. The perpetrators of this silly piece of mischief escaped scot free in most instances, though a few persons were summoned before the magistrates and fined. The makers of fireworks must have had a very good time for some days, and they were probably the only persons who did not see any harm in the pyrotechnic displays to which we were treated. This year, in anticipation we suppose of a similar run upon their stock-in-trade, they are busily employed in the manufacture of numerous diabolical crackers, &c, and we presume that it is intended that the scene of last year shall be repeated. "We trust, however, that the police will interfere on the first firework being discharged in the streets of the city, and that the offender, whoever he may be, will get such a lesson administered to him by the Bench, that the practice may be stopped at once. But the firework makers are even now, making up daily a large quantity of powder, and in one shop in this town enough explosive material could be found, at any minute, to lay the street in which it is situated in ruins, and do an amount of damage which it is utterly impossible to calculate. Surely it is possible to get at offenders of this description, who are the proprietors of a mine that may explode at any moment, to the destruction of unsuspecting citizens who may reside near one of these hidden magazines, and it would be a judicious act on the part of the authorities if. immediate steps were taken for the discovery and suppression of the houses we have hinted at.