a Christian," and that therefore the true intent and
meaning of the statute were best fulfilled by the substitution
for these words of such a form as was most binding
on the conscience of the swearer. Mr. Baron Alderson
was of opinion that the words, "on the true faith of a
Christian," formed an essential part of the oath, and
that the oath is not taken at all if these words are
omitted by the person swearing. He regretted the
consequences of this state of the law, and hoped that some
remedy would be provided by the legislature. Baron
Parke and Chief Baron Pollock concurred with Baron
Alderson, and judgment was accordingly given for the
plaintiff. The declaration was filed to obtain a penalty
of £500; but, by this decision, Alderman Salomans is
visitable with the penalties of a "recusant," as defined
in the worst days of persecution. On the following day
it was stated in the Court of Aldermen that a writ of
error is being prosecuted, for the purpose of obtaining
the decision of the highest judicial tribunal in the
kingdom upon the important question.

In the Vice-Chancellor's Court, on the 23rd., Mr.
Lumley, of her Majesty's Theatre, obtained an Injunction,
restraining Mlle. Johanna Wagner from appearing
at the Royal Italian Opera. The application was
founded on an agreement concluded between Mr.
Lumley and Mlle. Wagner in November last, for her
singing at her Majesty's theatre exclusively for three
months, from the 1st of this month of April. The
application was resisted on the grounds, first, that Mr.
Lumley had failed in payment of a sum of £300 within
the time stipulated in the engagement; and, secondly,
that the clause binding Mlle. Wagner exclusively to her
Majesty's theatre was an addition inserted without the
consent of Mlle. Wagner or her father. The Vice-
Chancellor granted the injunction, with liberty for the
defendants to move its dissolution the following day,
when Mlle. Wagner's first appearance at the Royal
Italian Opera had been announced to take place. The
motion has not yet been made.

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

The Birkenhead steamship, conveying troops from
England to the Caffre war, was Wrecked on the night of
the 25th of February, off the coast of South Africa, with
a most melancholy and appalling loss of life. The vessel
arrived in Simon's Bay, at the Cape, on the 24th
February. She put on shore a few invalids, one officer, Mr.
Freshfield, and 18 men, with a considerable number of
women and children; and having shipped some horses
for the troops, started for East London, near the seat of
war, at six o'clock on the evening of the 25th. The
weather was clear and calm, and the coast is well
known; so Commander Salmond, desiring to make a
quick voyage, ran closely along the shore. At two
o'clock that same night, the Birkenhead ran on a reef
of rocks which is well known to stretch out from Point
Danger, about fifty miles from Simon's Bay; and in
twenty minutes she broke into three pieces and went
down, carrying hundreds with her to rise no more, and
leaving hundreds to struggle for life amidst the rocks,
the masses of wreck, and the sharks, with boats enough
to save only a fraction of their number. The official
accounts say that "438 lives of officers, seamen, soldiers,
and boys, were lost, out of 630 who were on board the
ship when she struck."

A clear account of the wreck and its sequel is given
by Captain Wright, of the 91st Regiment, in an official
report of the Commandant of Cape Town, dated the 1st
of March. He says:—

"The sea was smooth at the time, and the vessel was
steaming at the rate of eight and a half knots an hour.
She struck the rock, and it penetrated through her
bottom just aft the foremast. The rush of water was so
great that there is no doubt that most of the men in the
lower troop-deck were drowned in their hammocks.
The rest of the men and all the officers appeared on
deck; when Major Seaton called all the officers about
him, and impressed on them the necessity of preserving
order and silence among the men. He directed me to
take and have executed whatever orders the commander
might give me. Sixty men were immediately put on to
the chain-pumps on the lower aft-deck, and told off in
three reliefs; sixty men were put on to the tackles of
the paddle-box boats; and the remainder of the men
were brought on to the poop, so as to ease the fore-part
of the ship. She was at this time rolling heavily. The
commander ordered the horses to be pitched out of the
port-gangway, and the cutter to be got ready for the
women and children, who had all been collected under
the poop awning. As soon as the horses were got over
side, the women and children were passed into the cutter,
under charge of Mr. Richards, master's assistant; the
boat then stood off about 150 yards. Just after they
were out of the ship, the entire bow broke off at the
foremast, the bowsprit going up in the air towards the
fore topmast, and the funnel went over the side, carrying
away the starboard paddle-box and boat. The paddle-
box boat capsised when being lowered. The large boat
in the centre of the ship could not be got at. It was
about twelve or thirteen minutes after she struck
that the bow broke off. The men then all went
up on the poop, and in about five minutes more the
vessel broke in two, crosswise, just abaft the engine-
room, and the stern part immediately filled and went
down. A few men jumped off before she did so, but
the greater number remained to the last, and so did
every officer belonging to the troops. All the men I
put on the tackles, I fear, were crushed when the
funnel fell; and the men and officers below at the
pumps could not, I think, have reached the deck before
the vessel broke up and went down. The survivors
clung, some to the rigging of the mainmast, part of
which was out of the water, and others got hold of
floating pieces of wood. I think there must have been
about 200 on the drift-wood. I was on a large piece
along with five others, and we picked up nine or ten
more. The swell carried the wood in the direction of
Point Danger. As soon as we got to the weeds and
breakers, finding that it would not support all that
were on it, I jumped off and swam on shore; and when
the others, and also those that were on the other pieces
of wood, reached the shore, we proceeded into the
country, to try and find a habitation of any sort, where
we could obtain shelter. Many of the men were naked,
and almost all without shoes. Owing to the country
being covered with thick thorny bushes, our progress
was slow; but after walking till about three p.m.,
having reached land about twelve, we came to where
a waggon was outspanned, and the driver of it directed
us to a small bay, where there is the hut of a fisherman.
The bay is called Stanford's Cove. We arrived
there about sunset; and as the men had nothing to
eat, I went on to a farm-house, about eight or nine
miles from the Cove, and sent back provisions for that
day. The next morning I sent another day's provisions;
and the men were removed up to a farm of
Captain Smale's, about twelve or fourteen miles up
the country. Lieutenant Girardot, of the 43d,
and Cornet Bond, of the 12th Lancers, accompanied
this party, which amounted to sixty-eight men, including
eighteen sailors. I then went down to the
coast; and during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
I examined the rocks for more than twenty miles,
in the hope of finding some men who might have
drifted in. I fortunately fell in with the crew
of a whale-boat that was employed sealing on Dyer's
Island. I got them to take the boat outside the sea-
weed, while I went along the shore. The sea-weed on
the coast is very thick and of immense length, so that
it would have caught most of the drift-wood. Happily,
the boat picked up two men, and I also found two.
Although they were all much exhausted, two of them
having been in the water thirty-eight hours, they
were all right the next day, except a few bruises. It
was eighty-six hours on Sunday afternoon when I left
the coast since the wreck had taken place; and as I
had carefully examined every part of the rocks, and
also sent the whale-boat over to Dyer's Island, I can
safely assert that when I left there was not a living
soul on the coast of those that had been on board the
ill-fated Birkenhead. The order and regularity
that prevailed on board, from the time the ship