The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-08-27 00:00:00

THE DEFENCE OF ENGUND.

The 7'imes, in a leader on Monday, Ws that Bogland hae
now the opportunity of seeing how eitteh a nation can do
and how much, nation can tu*r. What if it ehould come
to posi that the British people should be put on their defence
and made ti tight for their live.? We are the only unarmed
people in the world. No reasons, except those founded on
fahe security, blindness to change, insolence, or pure folly,
yin lie given why every man should not have a certain de-
gree of military training. Theie min be CO doubt that there
I. In the count, y a vast amount of warlike ardour. The
question is how to de:4 with it, and how to Whit to the beat
ac,onut. The militia a. it is, and still more the volunteers
as they are, wood be of very title use against much an In-
vasion as the Eniperer of the French has thought fit to
invite across his frontier. It takes throe ears to
make a man a soldier, and three or four monies la
the utmost time these men has given to elementary
training. But they are willing enough. They will do
remost anything they are asked to do, sell, lithe matter be
well premed on the plea ct public urgency, they will Benoit
to long spells of training, even Si much personal incon-
venience But then csalS the konal difficultiet, There are
so many eifferent lulls of men among us, e 0 many various
vim Woos and easiest They are all so mutually pillow., and
to umimaistonied to he swamped in a simple and Conilde.
kentive system. This difficulty must be met as it is already
met, by variety of service Let us have militia to every-
body's taste, on the simple condition that everybody most
prepare himielf to defend his country, and that in the
capicity of a teal euldier. It may interfere en little with
bassinets, and still more with pleasure, but •e do not divide
all our time between duty anal pleinure. We give perhaps
as much to that which is neither, being pule idleness ; and
good many of us will find the chief novelty of a good military
training is that it gives them sosaeLhing to du.

THE LATE FRIGHTFUL COLLIERY
EXPLOSION NEAR WIGAN.
The Wigan Examiner gives the toiloelae account of the
shocking oil sty scetdeht welch occurred TAW Wigan, on
Friday in last week
"Again tLe Wigan colliery district has been vidted
by ens of those terrible calamities which of late have
unfortunately been so frequent, and attended with such
frightful loss of life. Oo leriday writing, shortly after
nine o'clock, the colliery at Brynn, known as theßrynn
Hall Colliery% aid owned by Merano. Crippin and Sons,
was the :scene of a fearful explosion, resulting in a large
sacrifice of life, and serious injuries to a number of
men and bees employed thereat. At present it is ex-
ceedingly difficult to gather any cone cted or circum-
stantial narrative of the disaster, or to give any accu-
rate list of the killed and injured, but it is supposed
that sot lees than 14 or 15 lives have been lost, and 13
persons have been mere or less injured, the injuries re-
, ceived by two of them being so serious that little hopes
I are entertained by the medical men of their recovery.
The colliery at which the explosion occurred consists of
three mint at-the five-feet or top thine, the four-feet or
middle mine,the s x-feet or nine -feet,Which is the bottom
mine, and there are worked by an upcast awl down-
cast shaft, the :Ater containing the cage in which the
men secant' and descend, and the upcast being simply
we ked with • hermit. The top mine at present is sot .
being worked, and the bottom mine, known as the nine-
feet or six-feet, in which the explosion occurred, has
only been sunk about three or four months, and cones-
ouently the workings, which extend berth and south,
are only very limited in extent. ()4 Friday morning
the men west to their work as usual, and front what
we can learn about 170 were sent down, of whom about
forty were for the bottom of the mine. Tne wn rk
proceeded as usual till shortly after nine, when those on
the bank heard a loud report, ma in an instant the
woodwork about the upeaget, where the chief force of
the explosion would soma to have vetted itself, wee a
mass of ruins, brieks and large pieces a timber being
thrown about in inextricable confusion, and large masses
being hurled to a c nnsidereble distance, giving some
faint conception of the force of the explosion which
had occurred below, hi a short time the pit brow was
crowded with men and women, who but too well knew
the terrible meaning of the loud report, Bed the cloud
of dust which, like a funeral pall, hovered above what
was now a charnelthaure in the depths below, fearful
anxiety pervading every face as to the extent of the
calamity which had just befallen them, and friends and
relatives in the workings far below. The Menem.
Cripein were at the time unfortunately absent from
the colliery, Litt the officials connected with the pit at
once took steps to aft- ad every assistance to the men in
the workings, and the proprietors of the colheriss in,
the district Worded every assistance in their power.
Mr. .1, Mignon, the manager, was also epseslay on the
spot, and he, together with Mr. W. Smethurst, of
Mesa a. Smethurst'e colliery, and Mr. W. Pickard, the
Miners' agent for this district, as soon as poi:able ex-
plored the workings. The tusn in the four-feet mine
were at once got out, hut two of these, one a hooker-on
had been inierea by the boxes being violently blown
by the fonn ef the exploinion. The shaft had been
considerably knocked ale ut, and before the searchers
could descend to the bottom workings the cage had to
Ice remived and a hoppit affixed. In a short time about
I 13 injured men were broueht out from the places near
, to the shaft, hut the ',archers meeting with large roan-
titles of emote, bolts in the north and south workime,
Were prev,c tett from going vs ry far along them. Itelet .1,
ti 3 ,olueuce of smoke which were met with and the
strong smell of burning which we., experienced. forced
! them to the conclnsion that the mine was on fire, The
largest quantities of smoke were met within tine north
! workmge, and it is in this quarter that the explosion
fs thought to have occurred, although this is not certain,
I and the cause of it is at present tato, ether insolub"se
but that it Lad been very violeet there were auffie.sealf
Maicetioes, romping* b. ing blown down.. mind Cee por,
, theta of the wm kiugo explored considerably amazed',
As the io lured one after another were Igeoght oat off
werkinge, and were recognised by relatives or Merida.
the most heart-rending eri, s might be heard, and
I slowly the poor fellows were conveyed away to their
Ihomes, or those who were more seriously irjured ton
some place close at hand, in carts tilled with strew,
not till
hod
ishortly
been
after bour,gmh for
the
ockthaptu purpose. I
t.
"t twa
dead
s
bodies were brought tis the surface, and these were
the remairs of a lagl named Samna Itriolhorn, and
a yearn.. was retuned Robert Greenhalgb, winieh were
wrapp..d is, cli he and conveyed t • the faritohn use eels
joirm g the colliery, vette they lay swaddle, icautifice.
tion. The iudivatioue of the fire in the pit toot 110 W
become so strong hod were so rapidly incre,ising thst it
was thought prudent to Lam some amps to avert a
further explosion, and as no hopes at all were now held
out that any of the men in the pit could still be alive,
was resolved to put up bratticings in the north work-.
ings to stop the current of air on to the larkee wawa
the first was supposed to be, the Peach say further
into the working being meanwhile delayed. At that
time about 18 injtwed men Arid boys and two dead
badies had been bromiet out, and it was supposed that
about 12 or 13 were still iu the pit Gi whom no hope
ma to tair being alive was entertained. We
may add that amongst the things picked up by the
searchers was &MINI of gunpowder, which was com-
pletely aroa.bed In, bet the eunpoweier haat fortunately
beeil entouched. lle. Mather, of Ashton, and Dr.
Brayton, of Hindley, with cue of the assistant tur-
geene, were el:sally at the colliery, and paid every at-
tention to the eufferere, whose injuries consisted chiefly
of wounds and eastudens, Borne of them, we under.
t--and, bang found to te suffering hem afterdamp.
Several of the men bronght out of the bottom workings
were Lund to have escaped with but trifling injuries%
and were able to proceed Lome."
Tee Lumber of deaths is now ascertaieal to be
nineteen. rourteen men and boys were dead when
brought out of the pit, two died after being removed to
their homes, and three bodies hove not yet been re.
covered '