The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 18, 1848.

the law which re*Wed Itia leak to so small a m-
erry% and yet the Qum:mum or THE EXCHEQUER
ifs quite certain that this suspended law had nothing
whatever to tie w iin exciting the panic !
We exclaim with Alderman Titottrsott,—then
what, in the name of goodness, did excite the panic?
Where does the CHANCELLOR OP THE EXCHEQUER
mean to find the exciting agency ? In the earth or the
air, or the direction of the wind, or in the prevalence
of some miraculous hallucination ? lle repeated last
night with great complacency the statement he made
in November. Parties went to him, and they said
they did not want money ; they simply wanted the
assurance that people with abundance of unimpeach-
able security in their hands should not be denied all
reasonable accommodation. lie suspended the law,
and gave them that assurance, and the panic was in-
stantly at an end. It is a most extraordinary circum-
stance that • man of an accurate and reasoning
mind can permit himself to repeat these
facts without deducing from them their palpable
infereace—that the panic was calmed by the want of an
assurance which the repeal of the Bank Act gave ; and
yet the panic was not caused by the Bank Act. We
again my, then by what was it caused ?
It seems to us that no allegations can be more un-
satisfactory than those which affirm the impolicy of
Mr. Humus' motion, because parliament is sitting
and a committee has been appointed. Why is the
House of Commons to be converted into an executive
department, and the pmress of the public busi-
ness placed in jeopardy by the transference
to the houses of legislature of discussions and
responsibilities, which can only be conducted
with advantage and resolved with safety by the
members of the cabinet? Why is one of the most
momentous public concerns of the time to be made an
exception to the maxim, as forcible as it is old, which
teaches that the best treatment of an admitted evil is the
precaution which prevents its occurrence ? It is sat •
small matter to place the stability of the cominerefig
institutions of the country upon the problematical
temper of a heterogeneous assembly, and still lam
upon the problematical nerve or the doubtful car
panty of a minister of the crown.
There is one word to be said in conclusion. The
debate of last night did not pass off without owns
allusion to the favourite doctrine of the currency
school, that when the Bank has got to the bottom of
its reserve, and wants money, it may sell securities.
By all means, say they, go into the market. Into
what market ? Where was the market in the panic
of 1825, or in October last ? These good people
have not the remotest idea of the difficulty
of selling that which nobody will buy; and
with all deference we beg to suggest, when they
exhort the Bank ruthlessly to sacrifice its secu-
rities in the teeth of a panic, they ought by the same
rule to accuse of suicide a parched caravan in the
desert, because it c:id not buy water which did
not exist ; or a beleaguered and perishing city of folly,
because it did not buy provisions which nobody
could

on Saturday evening last interred, mantes, and shrouding,
his child, then live days disa. In Roscommon thbles are
quite as bad, and in Mayo the local paper states—" Deaths
from ttarvation scour by dosens."

PROVINCIAL.
WARWICKSHIRE.
BANKRUPTCY OF THE OAK FARM IRON WORKS.—
Intuits from Birmingham announce that a fiat in bankruptcy
has been opened in the matter of the Oak Farm Iron Works:
Full particulars respecting the stoppage of this concern have
already appeared in this paper. The liabilities are some-
thing like 300,0001. Until within the last few days, it was
hoped that the matter would have been arranged by the
acceptance of a composition of 9s. 6d. in the pound ; but one
or two of the creditors having shown themselves refractory,
bankruptcy became inevitable. Even yet it is hoped that
this ruinous alternative may be superseded. The 000011111
has been standing still for some time, and, as • coiregesum,
a very lugs number of men ars thrown out of employ.
TUE MURDER IN BIRMINGHAM.—The coroner's
inquest upon the body of Mary Ann Wallace, who was
murdered In Birmingham, commence don Wednesday. The
two excavators have been taken into custody, but one has
since been discharged, and there seems to be no evidence
against the other to fix hint as having had any concern in
the murder. A short time prior to the perpetration of the
deed the deceased was seen with a man an • bear skin
dress (probably a " navvy," or other such person), but he
has not been heard of. _

VERDICT OF MANI3LAC3GIITE; AGAINST A STEAM-
ENGIN. PROPRIETOR POE MIND AM VNOLPE BOILER.—
The adjourned inquiry at Manchester on Wednesday was
extended to include three more sufferers from the boiler ex-
plosion, who had died since Saturday, =skim altogether 12
persons killed. Mr. Rrey was still retained in custody by Mr.
Chief Superintendent Beswiek, and wee represented by coun-
@el.—Junes Heap, one of the workmen who had been hurt
by the explosion, stated that, at the time of the occurrence,
be was working in a room over the boiler, and heard a loud
hissing noise, much louder than the steam blowing off, and,
at the same moment, the floor was carried from under him,
and he fell into the story below under a vice-bench, which
protected him from the superincumbent materials, and
probably preserved his life, though it was some time be-
fore he oouldget liberated. He then sawthat all the workshop
was in ruins, and the boiler had been forced from its original
position. He saw the bodies of nearly all the deceased taken
out. He saw " little Joe " amongst the latter, who had been
the stoker, and it was sot he but Mr. Riley who attended to
the boiler, and said there was enough water in it. An old
man named Thomas had filled " little Joe's " place till a
fortnight ago. A new grindstone had been put in gear
that morning in place of another one, but he did not think
it required much additional power.—Mr. J. Hartley, boiler-
maker, had been in business 30 years. Had seen Mr. Riley's
boiler, and had lengthened it for that gentleman three years
and a half ago. It was then an old boiler, and was only sof-
&tient for a one honepower engine, the power he was then
sing it for. The back pert of the boiler was this about rtes'
middle; and where they had pieced it the plates
wen only about a quarter of an inch thick. On plate,
however, was three-eighths thick ; but he was sot
sure whether it was at the extreme end of the bottom eget
the aides. All the end plates were three eighths. H. lei
added to it four plates, each three-eighths thick, composed a
best Staffordshire iron, about three feet long. He put the
strong plates in the part over the fire, and then considered it
a ode boiler for the work to be done. It was then 9 feet by
Übe. 9 inches, and would be nearly 5-horse power. Mr.
limy was then putting up another cylinder larger than ha
bed need before. The engine was high pressure. He bad
impaired the boiler the last Whit-Sunday
but one when there
was a mock in the side fine at the end where it had now
bunt, the old end, which was over a side flue, and where the
flame bad to go round it. He pointed the crack out to Kr.
Riley, and put a patch on, with fresh rivets is two other
places where the old ones had sprung, over the same Hue,
about six inches from the crack. The old part was too thin
at the bottom to work with the new part, and he told Mr.
Riley so, cautioning him not to put too much pressure on ;
but that was not the part which had given way, though it
was part of the same plate which had given way, being part
of the old end of the boiler. They covered the crack, and
left it water-tight. About three months since Mr. Riley
called at their place, and said he thought of ordering a new
boiler. Witness told him he had better do so. Mr. Riley
said he had been screw-patching the boiler in question, and
witneastald him it was a bad system to screw-patch the high
pressure boilers. He said money was very bad to get hold
of, but he was thinking of ordering a new one in about •
month. When telling him of the screw-pinching witness
told him that the boiler was very thin, and he would have
a serious accident some time. The *crew-patch produced
was not put on by witness. The piece of iron where the rent
had occurred witness could ant see when be repaired the
boiler, it being covered with brickwork. It was not
the part he thought would have exploded, but two
feet six inches from it —Cross-examima Was confident
there was nothing in the shape of the boiler which
rendered the lengthening of it improper. Thought
the accident did not occur from want of water, but
from the plate of the boiler being too thin by wear.
Was of opinion, from examination of the boiler since the
accident, it was not sufficient to carry Sib. pressure to the
inch with the screw patch on. He believed the pres-
sure was about equal to 351 b. to the inch when he
lengthened it, and wandered it ought to carry 501bs.
Stronger plates to lengthen the boiler with thss I Isculd
have ...kr...1 a.. otaer portion. Mr. Riley, and wife and
amity, lived a few yards from where the boiler was.—Mr.
R. Roberts, civil engineer, said he had examined the de-
m.lished steam boiler. It was a cylindrical boiler, with
ends a little convex. After describing the number and
situation of the iron plates forming it, he said the four
bottom plates appeared to have been originally 1, arid the
top plates inch thick. He had been told on the premises
that the boiler had been lengthened about two years ago
with plates 4 feet long, which appeared to be little worn ;
but the seam joining the two 5 feet plates near the bottom of
the boiler (15 inches frorn the lowest part and near the
middle of the length) was worn into a hole extending
backwards about 10 inches from the junction with the
4 feet plates. This hole appeared to have been patched
with • piece of iron 151 inches long, 7 broad, and 4 of
an inch in thickness, attached to the defective plates, not
with rivets but with six bolts. The boiler plate under one
' of the bolts was about 1 and under another about 1 of an inch
thick. The patch was, in his opinion, a most culpable piece
of cobbling, especially for a high pressure boiler, as this was.
Soon after his arrival he discovered that • piece of one of the
worn through plates, 3 feet by 14 inches, was missing, and
it was found in the ruins and now produced, presenting
strong indications of having been exposed to • high tempe-
rature of heat when dry, there being deep cracks in it several
inches in length. The undetached piece of this fragment
had been patched to repair two large cracks, the one S and
the other 9 inches in length, and the piece that had been
mining had been torn off at about two inches from the last-
mentioned patch. The end of the boiler next the chimney
was torn from the body through about I of its circum-
ference. The other end was torn completely off. The area of
the safety-valve seat (which was mate of brass, and not
likely to fasten the valve) was 11 square inches, which
he thought rather too little. As the lever had not,
been found, or the weight on it ascertained, he would not
say at what pressure the boiler had been worked. Only
three-horse power, he understood, was enough to turn the
machinery, and there did not appear to have been • defi-
ciency of water, so that it appeared to him the explosion was
solely attributable to the hole in the bottom of the boiler not
having been properly repaired, as the plates (except the two
defective sore referred to) appeared to have been strong
enough to bear a pressure of 100 lbs. to the square inch.
The large piece produced was one of those defective plates.
—Some witnesses for the defence (workmen of Mr. Riley'i)
stated that they had never heard complaints among the
workmen of the boiler being unsafe. One of them, named
John Lee, said he had been there throe months, and never
knew of the boiler being out of repair, and had stopped
during the last fortnight for nothing but through being oat
of work.—Their evidence was contradicted by other erit
nesses, who showed that the boiler had been under repair
only a few days before the accident —The jury were left
alone about half-past 11 o'clock at night to consider the
evidence, and, after a brief deliberation, found a verdict of
"Manslaughter against Thomas Riley," the owner of the
boiler. They accompanied their verdict with a written re-
commendation to the coroner, in the following words
We, the Jury on this inquest. are of opinion that this sontlent
could not have taken place if proper mamma bad been takes, and
would recommend that the coroner should propose, either to the
antborities of the town or the legialature, that proper inspectors be
auL"OItIMIN tomr"lt2lieZrhee
rWilen4 all:611°1=91'11er mlebare oftt
risk, and aro to examine se to th capability or au puttee employed
as menus, and baring the management of boilers and engem.

Cie Ti rane.
OLViale.—Last evening Mr. Brooke appeared in
the character of Richard the Third, in the tragedy of the
name, nominally by Shakopeare, but really by Colley Cibber.
It is surprising, at this time of day, when there prevails a
due veneration for the memory of our immortal dramatist,
and a regard for the purity of his text, that one of those gross
corruptions of it, perpetrated at a period when dramatic
taste was vitiated and false, should still be retained on our
stage. It is truly sickening to listen to Each a mass of fair
ties, dulness. and absurdity, the meanness and deformity of
which is only the more offennve from the splendour and
beauty with which it is mixed up. As to Mr. Brooke's perform-
ance of Richard, if we estimate its success by the crowded
audience which it attracted, and the applaues which it re-
ceived, then we must regard this snorer as equal, at least, to
that of any of his previous efforts. But, to our judgment,
his representation of the character, though powerful and
striking in parts, was, as a whole, by no means satisfactory.
It is too boisterous and violent—it was all glazing colour
without shade—all forticrimo without a piano. It was from
beginning to end one unmixed, unsoftened, exhibition of
rage. Richard was incemently in a pardon ; he stormed at
every body about him ; and even in his musing soliloquies
be worked himself into a fury and stormed at himself. He
uttered in this violent tons simple phrases—such as orders
and directions—with which violence had nothing as
when, is answer to the question put by the conductor of
King Henry's funeral, if he should carry the body to Chert-
sey, he roared—" No—to Whiteners. I shall meet you
there," in the OM, tone with " Off with his head. So much
for Buckingham." An actor of ordinary physical strength
would have been utterly exhausted by such unceasing no-
lanes of effort ; and his voice, which is naturally a tine one,
became at length as unmusical as the rasping of a saw. But
his energy was unflagging ; and the scene of Richard's
ghastly horror in his teat was given with prodigious strength
and appalling effect. His combat with Richmond, and dying
agonies, were also represented with great power, but were
too mach protracted, and more melodramatic than really
tragic,. Mr. Brooks has certainly high powers, but he mast
resat his tendency to numeration, and subdue and chasten
his tow, before he out be regarded as a great tragedian.