NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2513, 9 April 1881, Page 2

NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

EANSACKING THE MAIL BAGS.

A new Irish grievance has been discovered. The Land Leaguers have reason to believe that their letters have been opened at the General Post Office and questions have been asked on the subject in the House of Commons by Mr T. D. Sullivan, Mr Labouchere, and Mr Cowen. Sir William Harcourt—for as the subject is one of police regulation rather than of postal arrangement, it comes within the province not of the Postmaster-General but of the Home Secretary—declined to state whether any letters had been opened, but cited the Act of Parliament which sanctions the opening of letters when they are suspected of containing treasonable matter, declared that the gravity of the responsibility which the law thus imposed upon the Secretary of State was deeply felt by him, and protested that the responsibility should be withdrawn from the Minister altogether, if it was not to be exercised in a suitable and effective manner. Obviously, if the men who are believed, or are known by the Government to be engaged in treasonable practises, were to be informed by Ministers of the steps taken to detect them, it would bo as well for the Government to do nothing. A FRIGHTFUL DEATH. The details of a frightful railway accident on the Erie railway, by which five men were burned to death, recalls the ghastly memories of the Abergele disaster. The night mail train from Buffalo to Jersey went off the line, from some unexplained cause, near Oswego, when travelling at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. The first six cars rolled over and over down an embanlAnent. In the postal car were four men sorting letters by the light of twelve kerosene

lamps. The lamps hr oke. In a moment the car was in a bl aze, Rescue was impossible, and the aw estruck passengers stood helplessly arpum i the fire in which four fellow creatures ’ were being burned to death. An expres 3 car caught fire, and efforts wore ms de to extricate its solitary occupant. • A hole was cut in the door, and the nr ian’s head appeared through the opening, but he could not force himself out. ’‘The hole created a draft upon which the fire seized, and it suddenly shot up the legs and body of the man, surrnui aded his head in one great sheet of fie .me, and he sank back, and was liteiallj • roasted to death before the eyes of the horror-stricken spectators. When his body was finally rescued from the wreck V w had''lost all semblance of form,”

ALLEGED PLOT TO BLOW UP WINDSOR CASTLE. The reports from Windsor regarding the a) leged plots to blow-up the Castle, inch'ido both a contradiction of the runriours and a statement of incidents which suggest that there were grounds for some alarm. It appears that on the night of February 11, a stranger entered a public house in Park street, within a few yards of the Palace lodge, at the end of the Long Walk, and taking a candle went into a passage, at the back, which is separate from the palace by a wall, and can easily he scaled. When about to close his house the landlord remembered that ho had not seen thisEj&n leave the place. A police CQSjstable w’as called, and a search was made in the yard and rooms, without avail ; and it was then conjectured that the stranger, who was dressed like a groom, had climbed over the back wall into the Queen’s private grounds. The Castle guard were accordingly informed of the affair, and the shrubberies at the rear of the houses in Park street were thoroughly searched by the police without any trace being found of the supposed intruder. Another suspicious occurrence took place on the previous night. Just as it was getting dark, two strangers, supposed to be Irish, culled at a cottage in Lammas avenue, a narrow court leading from opposite Clewer House to the road near All Saint’s Church. A tall man asked the landlady u if she could keep a secret a few hours, or till it got dark.” She replied that “it all depended upon wdiat it was,” whereupon a second and shorter man came forward. One of the strangers said, “ Can you tell us which is the east or south side of the Cavalry Barracks ? ” She observed that she could not, and they then inquired if there were not some fields leading round the back of the barracks near the officers’ mess, saying that they wanted to get to the officers’ quarters without interfering with the front gate ; but the owner of the cottage, in response, observed that she did not know. One of the men then asked—“ Will you allow me to leave this in the washhouse till we can call for it?” and placed upon the ground a bag containing something like a four-and-a-half gallon cask. He added that she must not be inquisitive or interfere with the bag, and observed that if she would lock the door of the washhouse and let him have the key they could fetch the bag without disturbing her. He offered to pay her for her trouble. They also asked if she knew where they could find an empty house to stay in till it got da r k, as they were strangers there. Asking for some matches, which they did not obtain, both left the cottage, one of the sti angers carrying away the cask on his shoulder, under his cape. The person alluded to watched them down the court, and and then informed a police constable of the occurrence. Tho above incidents have been supplemented by an occurrence which happened during the night or early morning immediately after the return of the Court from Osborne, and led to increased vigilance on the part of the authorities. At the north-western end of St. Alban’s street stands the vicarage, and adjoining this are some empty houses. In almost close proximity to these are two old cottages known as 5 and 6 St. Alban’s street, the latter (No. 6) being situated at the north-east corner of Church street, a narrow way leading from the Castle wall down into High street. The corner cottage faces the head quarters of the Windsor Volunteers, is only a . few yards distant from the Castle wall and has been vacated a little over a week. Between one and two o’clock on the morning of Feb. 18, Mrs Groves, at No. 5, who was lying awake in bed, was mnch alarmed at hearing the rattling of glass, and the opening of a window of the next tenement, which someone entered, shortly afterwards quitting the place. Next morning Mr Superintendent Hayes and the officer in charge of the Royal Household police were informed of the occurrence, and upon entering the lower room of the empty house a train of powder, extending from the middle of the apartment to the wall near the window, was found upon the brick floor. Lying below the window was a brown paper parcel, which, it is Stated, also contained some powder, while a small quantity was scattered upon the sill, as if it had been dropped by someone escaping through the open casement into St. Albans street. A. portion of the powder strewn over the floor was examined, and exploded upon the application of a light. In connection with this affair it should be stated that about seven o’clock on the night of Tuesday week two strange and suspicious-looking men called at the house of Mrs Groves, and pointing to the empty houses higher up the street near the vicarage, asked how they could obtain admission. Mrs Groves suggested that the proper way would be to obtain the key from the agent, but the men in reply, said that this would not do, and went away.