Serious Accident on board the Lord Melville Steam Packet.

Wednesday morning about nine o'clock, the Lord Melville steam packet, Captain Middleton?, left her station off the Tower, on her passage to Calais, with eighty passengers on board, amongst them were the Hon. Mr. Rouse, son of the Earl of Stradbroke, and his lady, attended by a lady's maid, courier and coachman. The vessel proceeded at a steady pace down the river, on the south side, under the care of a pilot, named Tur[?]e[?], and the captain, the first and second mates, Jarman and Bromley, being at the wheel. On the packet arriving at that part of the river called Hanway hole, near the Thames Tunnel, there was found to be very little leeway for her, as a brig, called the Bridget, from Sunderland, laden with coals, was swinging round upon the tide, which was at flood, and very strong, The pilot, perceiving the brig bearing ? the starboard? quarter of the Lord Melville, called out to the crew to let go their? head-?ine or war[?], at the same time giving orders to the men at the wheel of the packet to drop her astern. The latter orders were immediately obeyed, and the paddle-wheels were stopped; but the crew of the brig neglected to sl?cken their warp; and the consequence was, that she was carried by the strength of the tide with great violence against the packet; her jib-boom came abaft the funnel, and instantly carried away the mizen mast, and all the gear belonging to it. At the moment the brig struck against the packet, the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Rouse and suite were on the quarter-deck, with about twenty other passengers, the rest being below or in the fore part of the vessel. James Bromley, the second-mate, perceiving the mast falling in the direction where Mrs. Rouse was standing, left the wheel, and ran to her assistance.—He succeeded in catching hold of the lady, when at the same moment the whole fell upon the deck with a most tremendous crash; the mast struck poor Bromley upon the back, and he fell with his chest upon the edge of the starboard? quarter; a part of the rigging also hit the Hon. Mrs. Rouse upon the back of the head, and she lay on the deck to all appearance dead. Jarman, the chief mate, perceiving the danger that impended, jumped over the side of the vessel into the river, and it was with much difficulty he was preserved from a watery grave. The confusion that ensued amongst the passengers was beyond description—the ladies were fainting in all directions, and great fears were entertained that the machinery had been injured, and that the packet would go down. After the alarm had somewhat subsided, boats came alongside, and Bromley, whose dissolution seems fast approaching, was conveyed to Guy's Hospital, but ? he reached there he breathed his last. The Hon. Mrs Rouse was carried insensible ashore at Wapping, to the Ship public-house., where she was bled. She was then carried to the residence of the Earl of Stradbroke, in Hertford-street, Mayfair. Upon examination there was found to be a very bad wound on the back part of the head, which it is feared has injured the brain, and her face is much lacerated and contused. We are informed she still remains in a very dangerous state.

Friday evening an inquest was held at Guy's Hospital on the body of Bromley, when, from the evidence adduced, it appeared that the accident was entirely owing to the negligence of those on board the brig. The Coroner, in his address to the jury, said that there was no evidence to show that the deceased did not die immediately on receiving the injury; in which case, the place where the accident occurred being beyond the jurisdiction of Southwark, he had no power to continue the investigation, and the body must be removed into the county of Surrey, to await an inquiry there. The jury was then discharged, and orders given that notice should be served upon the Surrey coroner of the circumstance. He added, he would renew the investigation if any proof could show that the deceased was alive in Southwark.