The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

A Comanosi between an express and a coal train
occurred on the North-Western Railway on Monday
afternoon. The up Midland express, due at Euston-
square at tour p.m., about a mile and a half below
King's Langley ran into a disabled coal-train, happily
only at a reduced rate of speed, but yet with suffi-
cient force to throw the passengers from their seats,
and severely cut and bruise them. The express
engine was merely thrown off the rails, and after a
few hours' detention the journey was continued to
town. The circumstances attending the accident
were these. Between three and four p.m. the engine
of a coal train en route to London broke down be-
tween Boxmoor and King's Langley, at a place called
Nash Mills. Immediately after the coal-train passed
Nash Mills, the signalman there observed the coal-
train come to a dead stand about 150 yards within
his signal-post. He instantly returned to his post
and slipped his telegraph wire, to show the Boxmoor
policeman that there was a block upon the up
line, and turned on the " danger " signal. The
breaksman of the coal-train now came back to
Simmonds, the signalman, to explain that the driver
had lost a bolt from his engine, and he was then
endeavouring to repair it. At this moment Sim-
monds, looking down the line, saw the Midland ex-
press due in London at four p.m. approaching. It
was then about eight hundred yards distant from his
signal-post, which was turned dead against it. With
a view to increase this precaution, and dreading a
collision, Simmonds ran down the line with his red
flag extended, and a number of fog signals in his
hand. There was no time to be lost. The express
had dashed through Boxmoor at a terrific rate, and
the lives of the whole 100 or 120 people travelling
by it now hung upon the coolness and observation
of the driver in seeing the danger signal at Nash-
mills, and his ability to pull the train up in time to
avert a collision with the coal train. Terrible as the
prospect was, there was still something in their
favour. It was broad daylight, about four o'clock in
the afternoon—there was no fog—and the danger
signal at Nash Mills, raised high in the air, could be
seen about eight hundred yards before arriving at it.
The engine-driver saw the danger signal, shut off
the steam, and then, with the stoker, jumped off the
engine, leaving the train to its fate. The speed was
checked over the last two hundred yards. The
guards screwed down the breaks, but the crash came.
The engine of the express dashed into the break-van
of the coal-train, crushing it into a thousand splinters,
the fore wheels of the engine mounting upon a por-
tion of the wreck. Only one of the coal-waggons was
damaged—the last—and so vast was the resistance
offered by this great mass of heavily-laden trucks,
that the train was not propelled forward more than
few paces, and none of the waggons were thrown off
the rails. The express train suffered more severely,
though, owing to the greatly diminished speed at
which it was travelling when the collision occurred,
only nine of the carriages got off the rails, and only
one was too much injured to go on to London. Assis-
tance was speedily brought up from Watford and
Euston-square, and every aid rendered to the injured
passengers, who were speedily lifted out of the car.
riages on the grass. One person, James Juke.t, a Derby
mechanic, received a severe contusion of the under
jaw and a slight concussion of the brain. Lord and
Lady Byron, much shaken and bruised, remained
with Dr. Sol'y, at King's Langley, for the night. The
Hon. Mr. Bader, accompanied by Miss Skipwith
and Miss Day, was also much bruised and shaken,
and the Rev. Mr. Foot, of Burton-on-Trent, was
severely cut about the head. Perhaps the best evi-
dence as to the collision, and the efforts made to
avoid it, is given by James Drake, a plate layer on
the line. who was at work about four hundred yards
on the Boxmoor side of the Nash Mills signal sta-
tion. He says his attention was first attracted by the
driver of the express putting on the steam whistle,
which he continued to blow from the moment he
observed him, when he was about three hundred
yards nearer Boxmoor than himself, until the mo-
ment of the collision. Drake saw the Nash Mills
signal was dead against the express, and dreading
that a collision might occur, himself and his compa-
nions, in the few moments allowed to them, shovelled
sand upon the rails to increase the traction. As the
express passed him, Drake saw the fireman walk
along the platform and open the sandbox of the
engine with the same view. The steam was blowing
off hard all this time, and among himself and his
companions there was a difference of opinion whether
the driver would be able to pull up without running
into the coal-train until they all beard the collision,
and ran forward to render assistance. As the express
passed, Drake saw the guard in the last break-van
with his break screwed tight down, and, for some
time before the engine got up to them, the driver by
signs implored them to throw sand upon the rails.
An official investigation has been held at Euston-
square.
.One of the positive instructions of the
engine-driver is that, "on approaching a telegraph
signal-station, should the signal be at danger, he is
to bring his engine to a stand at the signal, and wait
verbal instructions from the policeman in charge."

1065

This he did not do, and the question is, was he to
blame? Of course, it is to be presumed that he has
ample space in which to pull up after "sighting "
the danger signal; but in this case he not only did
not do this, but did not stop his train 150 or 200
yards further on, where the coal-train stood ready to
receive his charge. There is a little circumstance
which seems to throw great light on the cause of the
collision. The poor man Jukes, lying at Boxmoor,
states that when the express-train arrived at Derby,
where it should have arrived at 11.45 a.m., it was
absolutely forty minutes behind its time ; and what
if the driver when he passed the Boxmoor station
was trying to make up this serious loss of time, most
unusual with an express-train ? The authorities
state that the train was proceeding at its usual speed
of forty miles an hour, but a bystander at 80/tumor
contends that the rate at which it passed through the
station there was more like sixty miles an hour. Tl.•
result of the inquiry has not transpired.

. -
THE INQUIRY INTO THE BRYN MALLY MINE
accident was resumed at Wrexham on the 3rd inst.
The only evidence of importance was that the water
had burst in suddenly on the 30th of September, and
for a twelvemonth before there had always been in
the pit a certain quantity of water, which had never
increased. There were certain " faults " in the
workings marked and known, and a great quantity of
water on the other side of these " faults" was known
to exist. Mr. Hoicroft, the underlooker, visited the
pit several times in the week, and three weeks before
the accident a large body of water burst into the
level one day while he was present. No boring in
advance of the latest working had taken place in
accordance with the thirty-eighth rule. Several
witnesses were examined, all of whom testified
to the general absence among the workmen and un-
derlookers of all sense of danger from the "D fault."
In fact none appeared to be aware that they were
working into the seam of this " D fault." The north
side was known to be wet, but no more great danger
was ever apprehended by the men from that cause.
The inquest was adjourned till the 12th instant.
THE MANCHESTER ART EXHIBITION COMMITTEE has
obtained permission from the Treasury and the
Board of Trade to exhibit the purchases made fir
12,0001. from the Bernal Collection of Mediaeval
Art. The purchases respectively made by the
British Museum and by the Department of Science
and Art will be brought together for this purpose.
A NEW FOUR ARCHED BRIDGE over the Tees, at
Darlington, just completed and about to be opened
for traffic, suddenly fell intc the river last Tues-
day afternoon, killing two men. Mr. Howiston was
the architect, and Mr. Cail the contractor. An in-
vestigation is being held into the circumstances.
ST. AIDAN'S COLLEGE. Birkenhead, was inaugu-
rated on Tuesday by a grand banquet, presided over
by the Marquis of Westminster. The institution of
St. Aidan's College was founded some nine years
ago by the zealous efforts of the Rev. Joseph Baylee,
D.D., incumbent of Holy Trinity Church, Birken-
head. The college is a purely theological training
school, in the doctrine of the Church of England.
The course of training at St. Aidan's College is
divided into six terms, extending over two years, and
consisting of two parts—theological and practical.
On the theological portion h is unnecessary to dwel'.
The practical training consists of district visiting in
Birkenhead and Liverpool. The students are en-
couraged to hold lectures, under proper regulations,
as a means of indacing confidence in preaching.
Students are required to sustain an average visit..
ing of six hours per week (luring the whole term of
residence. The ceremony of Tuesday passed oil with
great eclat. _ _

EARL FITZHARDINGE'S FOXHOUNDS commenced the
season last Saturday. The noble master of the pack
has not yet arrived at German cottage, but is ex-
pected in a week or ten days. Earl Fitzhardinge is
so much improved in health that he will be enabled
to take the field.

SOME RAII.WAY PORTERS at the Lime•street station,
Liverpool, were testing each other's strength ; one
James Butler rising from the ground with a bundle
of steel bars on his back, slipped his loot and fell
forward under the great weight. The bundle of bars
slid over his shoulder and crushed in the base of his
skull so severely that he died in about twenty
minutes.

THE EXTENSION Or COMMERCE WITH AFRICA was
subject brought by the Board of Trade under the
notice of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. The
Board of Trade forwarded a despatch from Mr.
Campbell, her Majesty's Consul at Lagos, in which
that gentleman, alluding to the successful result of
the Pleiad's late voyage up the Tshadda, points out
the valuable commerce which the vast interior re-
gions of Africa must yield ; and offers himself to
head a commercial expedition to endeavour to reach
and open a trade with the Feletah chiefs in the in-
terior. "In every instance,' says Mr. Campbell, " here
the advantages of commercial intercourse had been
open to the natives, the chiefs, as they became rich,
have abandoned the slave trade and marauding
habits for the more safe and peaceful gains 0 legiti.

1066

mate commerce. The council resolved that the
letter be published.
MR. ASHUR, the treasurer of the Health and
Water Committee of Liverpool, ordered a warm bath
at the Pierhead Baths on Tuesday evening, went
into the room, and was seized with syncope, fell into
the bath, and was drowned. When discovered he
was quite dead.
THE GOOD OLD ENGLISH CUSTOM OF HARVEST-
HOMES has just been revived on St. Giles's estate,
Dorsetshire, the seat of the Earl of Shaftesbury.
Having previously entertained at a festivity of this
description the peasantry on a portion of his domain
in that county to the number of nearly three hundred,
his lordship last week invited those residing in the
parishes of Horton, Woodlands, Sutton, and Gassage
All Saints. The labourers and servants on the
various farms, numbering about three hundred and
fifty, assembled during the morning in the yard ad-
joining the mansion of St. Giles's, under the care of
their respective employers, anti shortly after pro-
ceeded to church, headed by a band of music. After
service the peasantry were conducted to a spacious
tent, gaily decorated for the occasion, anti under
which was spread a most bountiful old English
dinner of beef, beer, and puddings. The Earl of
Shaftesbury presided at the head of the tables, and
Loral Ashley took the post of carver at the other end.
Among the interested spectators were Count Crewe-
witch, the Russian Ambassador, and his countess ;
the Marquis d'Azeglio, and other visitors and friends
of the family. The repast being over, and grace pro
nounced, the noble earl rose, and addressed afew words
to those around him before they left. His lordship
thanked his good, honest, and noble tenantry for
their readiness in co-operating with him in a work
such as this, and for giving those in their employ a
a day's holiday, without stinting them in their wages.
He then proceeded to observe that he rejoiced they
were beginning to revive throughout the length and
breadth of the land the good old British custom of
harvest-homes. It had fallen, unhappily, into disuse,
but was now being revived in many parts of the
kingdom. He did hope it would be continued, be-
cause he believed such gatherings were of benefit to
them all :

He was sure if landlord anti tenant, employer and em
ployed, those who bad property and those who had none—
except that honest property of their labour—would juin in
one great effort to advance each other's welfare and to
maintain their Christian character. they would arrive at
that condition of things which was the happiest and safest
that could be attained in this fallen world.

Cheers were afterwards given for Lord Ashley, who
briefly returned thanks ; and also to the Countess of
Shaftesbury and the other members of the family.
The party then repaired to the park, where dancing
and a variety of rural sports were kept up with much
spirit, the whole proceedings being of a most pleasin2
and gratifying character.