The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-19 00:00:00

VilibiCT OF M4NSLACOHTER_

The inquiry into the death of the unfortunate
people killed in the late disastrous collision on the
Great Southern and Western Railway, was resumed
yesterday (the seventh day) at the Court House of
Naas. Capt. Tyler, R.E., government inspector of 1
railways, occupied a 1411 i on the bench. The coroner
read the following letter which he had received from'
the Attorney General, in reply to an application
made by him to government at the commencement
of the inquest:
Fort Augustus, Oct. 10, 1853.
Sir,—Your letter of the 6'h instant only reached me thisl
evening here. It is not the practice, nor would it be cape-
client, tor the coventnient to interfere with the functions of
the eormier, either by direction or adciee. Ile ii supposcd
to be perfectly coric,rsant with the law, and must therefore
discharge his duties OR his own reoppnsibility.-1 have the
honour to be, your obedient servant, A. BREWSTER.
To Robert L. Hayes, Esq.
The examination of witnesses having been brought
to a close, some of the depositions were read over tor
the purpose of giving an opportunity to correct or
add to the atm.:mots made • and the jury was ad-
dressed by Mr. Fitzgibbon. 4.C., on behalf of Berry,
the guard of the caseenger train, and by Mr. Curran
for the prisoners Gass and O'Hara, the driver and
stoker of the goods train.
The coroner then proceeded to deliver his charge,
and thus stated the low of the case :

In first East, page 295, it is stated—Manslaughter is, in
short, the unlawful and felonious killing of another with-
out any malice express or implied, and the cases coming
ender this bead are—fiat, where death ensues from actions
in themselves unlawful, but not proceeding from a ma:i-
Mous or felonious intention ; secondly, from actions is
themselves lawful, bat done wiliest due care and circum-
spection for presenting mischief." It is laid down by
Foster, in his Crown LAW, p. 262, " If a man driving a
cart, rte., kills, if he saw the danger, it is murder ;
if he did not, through negligence, it is man-
slaughter ; if he took due care, it is accidental death."
In Archbald's Criminal Law, page 621, it is stated, " Where
an act in itself lawful is at the same time dangerous, in
order to render the intention homicide from its excuse
bible, it must appear that the party who did the act used
such a degree of ceutian as to make it improbable that
any danger fr. injury should arise from it to others, if
not the homicide will be manslaughter at the least."
Gentlemen, in considering this case, you will bear in mind
the excellent character that Gaas aad Berry have received
from those best enabled to give it—the officers of their im-
mediate departments. At the same time I am bound to
tell you that, if upon the rest of the evidence you arc
satisfied they teglected their duty, or did it in a careless
and heedless manner, character caosot avail; bat if other
portion, of the evidence produce doubts, good character
may increme those doubts so as to make them mintiest:
foundation for a verdict favourable to them. You will
now, gentlemen, please retire to your room, and after due
consideration, render an account to the crown, by your
verdict, of what was the cause of death of Thomas William
Jelly and the several other persons named in these papers.
The jury then retired to their room, it being at the time
twenty-five minutes past four o'clock.
At twenty minutes past seven o'clock—that is to say, in
two hours and fifty five minutes after they had retired to
consider their verdict—the jury returned into court.
The verdict of the jury was then handed 'ln and read by
the coroner. It stated that the jury epos their oaths, said,
" that the deceased Thomas Wm. Jel died at Clowning',
in the parch of Whitechureh, on Wedaeeday, the sth
October, 18-53, from injuries received by a collision on the
Great Southern and Western Railway cm that day. We
Sod that the collision was mused by the negligent* of
Jamie 134141, the engine driver, and John O'Hara, the
stoker, of :be ' pick-up' train ; we therefore find James
Gam and John O'Hara guilty of manslaughter of the said
Thomas Wm. Jelly."
The Foreman then handed to the Coroner the following
resolution to which be seed his fellow-jurors had agreed :
" The jury were about to draw the attention of the direc-
tors of the Great Southern and Western Railway to some
mitten which require amendment and alteration in the
working of their line, but as they are aware that the go-
vernment have sent over Lieut. Tyler, the Government In-
spector of Railways, to make an inquiry on the subject,
they are esereasing a wise discretion is leaving the matter
is his hands, satisfied that he will make such a report as will
east the sesessery changes. Having now brought this inl-
and painful investigation to a conclusion, we feel it
res= es no to state that we have iniautely examined
the rake and regulations which have bees issued by the di-
rectors to their °atrial'. It appears to us that those rues
and regulations reflect the highest credit on the jordgmest
of their authors, and that they are well calculated to secure
the lives and property of the passengers. It is our convic-
tion that no culpability can attach itself to the company on
account of the late fatal collision, but on the contrary we
consider them fully entitled to that public confidence
which they have hitherto enjoyed."
The rider pot by the jury to their verdict exone-
rates the railway company from blame, as I antici-
pated hoar the drift of the evidence would be the
case; but this will not have the effect of settling the
weighty claims against the company which are now
penning.
Berry, the guard of the passenger train, was dis-
charged, and the other prisoners, Gass and O'Hara,
were removed in custody, to await their trial at the
next Kildare Assizes, the coroner having declined to
accept bail for them. The inquest holding at
Stevens's Hospital, on one of those whore death re-
sulting from the accident took place there, was again
adjourned yesterday, until the inquiry at Naas should
be concluded.

- Mrs. Latham Blacker still lies at the filtrate sta-
tion in a very weak and precarious state; and the
daughter of Mr. Knapp also continues in a dangerous
condition. The four sufferers still lying under treat-
ment in the hospital are reported to be all progress-
ing favourably, and the best hopes are entertained
of their speedy recovery.
The number of persons who visited the Great
Exhibition yesterday was 12,214, of whom it is sup-
posed that not less than 2,000 were children. The
receipts were much better than on any day since the
Queen's visit.

—Major Fairfield, agent to the extensive Dublin
estates of the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, died at
his residence near this city on Sunday night. Major
Fairfield was deputy-chairman of the Great Exhibi-
tion Committee. Mr. Sidney Herbert is at present
in Ireland.

lieputiAssistant Commissary-General Uniacke,
eldebt son of Lieutenant• General Uniacke, has been
appointed by the Lords of the Treasury to the charge
of the commissariat department at the Bahamas, and
proceeds by the contract mail steam-packet Orinoco
from Southampton, to relieve Assistant Commissary-
General Pdailissy at that station.