had charge of the night mail train from Liverpool to
London, on Saturday, December 25, 1847. The number of carriages and
passengers was not stated, but the pointsman at the Warrington junction
being at his post, waiting for the train, was surprised to hear it coming
at a very rapid rate. He had been preparing to turn the points in order
to shunt the train on to the Warrington junction, but as the train did
not diminish in speed, but rather increased as it approached, he,
anticipating great danger if he should turn the points, determined on the
instant upon letting the train take its course, and not turning them.
Most fortunate was it that he exercised so much judgment and sagacity,
for, in consequence of the acuteness of the curve at Warrington junction
and the tremendous rate at which the train was proceeding--not less than
forty miles an hour--it does not appear that anything could have
otherwise prevented the train from being overturned, and a frightful
sacrifice of human life ensuing. Meantime the train continued its
frightful progress; but the mail guard seated at the end of the train,
perceiving that it was going on towards Manchester, instead of staying at
the junction, signalled to the engine-driver and fireman, but without
effect, no notice whatever being taken of the signal. Finding this to be
the case, he, at very considerable risk, passed over from carriage to
carriage till he reached the engine, where he found both the prisoners
lying drunk. At length, at Patricroft, however, he succeeded in stopping
the train just before it reached that station, a distance of 14 miles
from Warrington. This again appears to be almost a miraculous
circumstance, for at the Patricroft station, on the same line as that on
which the mail train was running was another train, containing a number
of passengers, who thus escaped from the consequences of a dreadful
collision. The prisoners were, of course, immediately given into
custody, and convoyed to the New Bailey prison, while, other assistance
being obtained, the train was taken back again to Warrington junction.
The regulation is in consequence of the sharp curve at this junction,
that the trains shall not run more than five miles an hour. The bench
sentenced both prisoners to two months hard labour.

--_Manchester Examiner_.

HIS PORTMANTEAU.

An English traveller in Germany entered a first-class carriage in