The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-19 00:00:00

.apt being merle either by _
~al-owners or by the Government of the country to
prevent their recurrence. On Tuesday morning, it
would seem, a number of men, amounting to nine-
, teen, were destroyed by an explosion of fwe.damp
while in the execution of their daily work, without
one moment's warning, without a chance of escape,
and, as we must repeat, without any effort having
been previously made to avoid the known danger, or
to provide an escape from the consequences of an acci-
dent which experience has shown to be not only
likely, but almost certain, to happen.
We feel bound to press most urgently the im-
portant question, Has any effort been made at any
time beyond a barren inquiry to ameliorate the con-
dition of these poor people ? Factories have been
regulated; outcry has been raised with regard to
over-work and disagreeable employments ; and justice
has been done, or at least an attempt has been made.
No effort has been made, however, to remedy this
frightful evil; no inquiry as to the means of effecting
a remedy has been seriously and earnestly set
c foot.
The public apathy is, no doubt, one main cause of
this. The sufferers are not in a condition to make
themselves heard, and the wholesale murder goes on.
The plan in adoption before the accident is continued
after it. The newspapers duly record the matter ;
the inquest is held, and the verdict of " Accidental
death" is returned. The sufferers are buried, and the
inquiry is buried with them.
If it were the case that the occupation of coal-
mining necessarily involved these results, even in
that case the subject would be worth considering.
But it is not so. The care and attention devoted in
some mines is much greater than that observable in
others ; the ordinary condition of the mine may be
bad or good with regard to the important subject of
ventilation ; and in this way there might be, and
there ought to be, a condition which should exclude
half the smaller accidents that happen.
But yet more; there is an invention actually used
occasionally in most mines, believed to be a safe-
guard against accident—certainly a most admirable
and safe contrivance—we mean the Davy lamp. The
Davy lamp is known, is firmly trusted, but is not
used, except when the danger has happened. If the
inquiry is made—What do you with your Davy.? the
answer will be, in many cases—Oh, the pit is not
very foul ; we are not using it for working ! No one
doubts that it can be so used, because sometimes it is.
No one doubts that, wl.ea used, it is a great safe-
guard, if not absolutely a preventive of accidents
from fire-damp ; but no one can use it extensively,
because his neighbour would be able to extract coals
a little cheaper by working with ordinary candles.
Now, generally, no doubt, people will look after
their own interest, and their own safety, but there
are exceptions to this.
Hundreds and thousands of the population of
England live in towns imperfectly drained, with
churchyards immediately adjoining, and without
employing water to clean either themselves or their
houses. fhese people no doubt pay the penalty of
neglect, partly their own; they also aie, but in dying
they bequeath a terrible legacy in the fever which
rages in consequence of their neglect. And it is felt
to be the duty of Government to look after these
people, who arc not fit to look after themselves. No
one doubts that this is a duty, although it is certainly
an interference with a private right. We argue that
it should also be so with regard to mining. The
miner, whether proprietor or working man, does not
regard his own best interests. Perhaps he cannot,
but at least he does not. Surely it is for Government
to help the honest and well-meaning, and to enforce
sound regulations on those who will not act properly
without such supervision.

vrEvEn. may be the difference of opinion
between contagionists and anti-contagionists on the
subject of plague, there seems to be hut one opinion
with regard to the desirableness of obtaining a
modification of the present system of quarantine laws
which have exclusive reference to that disease. A
system which commenced its existence amongst the
superstitions and prejudices of semi-barbarous times,
and which at the present moment has not a voice to
uphold it but the cupidity and ignorance of a few
interested individuals. It might appear at first sight
a very easy. matter for Great Britain and France to
abolish their quarantine restrictions, and set a good
example, but the nature of the case will not admit of
this, for should these nations refuse to exact quarantine
from vessels coming into ports over which they have
control, they would at once be placed on the list of sus-
pected vessels on enterino, ports where the quarantine
laws are severe, and their term of quarantine would be
greatly increased. It is thus necessary that not
only Great Britain but all powers having porta in the
Meiliterrancan should agree upon the terms of quaran-
tine. Several attempts have been made to effect this,
but first one objection and then another has been
offered, and no congress of powers to consider the
subject, which was long ago proposed, has yet taken
place. We hope, however, from the nature of the
correspondence on the quarantine laws, presented to
the House of Commons, and published in May last,
that this congress will not now be long delayed; and
it will have this advantage both in France and
England, a mass of information has been collected on
the subject of plague which will be of the greatest
value in assisting its deliberation.
The difficulties which exist in altering the quaran-
tine laws are very considerable. By some govern-
ments it is feared they are employed as an engine of
state for political purposes. By others they arc main-
tained as a means of employing a certain number of
persons who would otherwise be idle. Thus at
Naples, where the quarantine for vessels passing
through the straits of Gibraltar is fourteen days, an
attempt was made about five years ago to reduce
this period to three days ; but a great number of
people being thus thrown out of employment, the
King thought it expedient to return to the old
period, and fourteen days of quarantine are
still required at Naples. At Leghorn, and
other places on the continent, the right of malting
quarantine laws is vested in a Council of Health,
over which the government has no control ; and in
these cases laws are most severe and oppressive.
An instance is related by Sir W. Prat, Superinten-
dent-General of Quarantine, in which a vessel coin-
ing from Jamaica, loaded with cotton and coffee, was
made to undergo twenty-one days quarantine, in
addition to the exposure of the cotton and coffee,
although she had come direct from Falmouth, where
she had already . performed ten days' quarantine.
Another case is given by Lieutenant-)ol. BENNETT,
in the correspondence already alluded to, in which a
child was taken ill on board a vessel during
quarantine, and the surgeon who was sent
for, was only allowed to examine it at a
distance. It is needless, however, to go into the
details of the loss of time, the injury to merchandise
from exposure, and the host of petty annoyances to
which travellers are subject by the present badly-
conducted systems of quarantine. It is only right to
add, that the most influential European powers in
the Mediterranean—Great Britain, France, and Aus-
tria, are anxious to adopt some uniform system.
Then come the questions of modified quarantine
and no quarantine. There are some persons who
maintain that plague is not a contagious disease, and
cannot by any means be communicated by per-
sons or things, and they would abolish all que-
-1 rautine. But however correct this view may
be, there appears no probability of its being
acted on at present. We must, therefore, seek for
such a mitigation of the severity of these laws as the
result of the knowledge, real or assumed, of the ma-
jority of medical men and persons conversant with
this disease will permit. Both English and French
governments have been engaged in collecting facts
with regard to the nature of plague, and medical
men in both countries have arrived at nearly the same
conclusions. The report of the French Academy of
Medicine on the subject is a very full and complete
one, and examines in detail all the facts with
regard to the plague that could be considered
to have any bearing on the quarantine laws. In this
report plague is stated to be sporadic and epidemic
The former is not transmissible by contagion, but the
latter is, and that within certain epidemic foci. The
contagions nature of the disease is thus admitted. The
report goes on to say, that it is indisputable that the
plague may be trausmitted beyond, or away from

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important conclusion at
arrived, is this—that when plague is imported into
any place, there must be present a pestilential con-
stitution of the air to propagate it. But these inqui-
ries would have been incomplete could not the period
have been ascertained which elapses between a per-
son being exposed to the contagion and the appear-
ance of the disease. From extensive inquiries on this
subject, the French report states, that there is uo con-
clusive evidence that it ever breaks out after the eighth
day.
On these grounds the French commission recom-
mencl—lst. That for vessels having a medical man on
board and coming from Egypt, Syria, and Turkey,
with a clean bill of health, ten days' quarantine
be required, to date from the departure of the vessel,
but if it has afoul bill of health, the period of quar-
antine to be fifteen days. 2d. That when a vessel,
coining from the same ports with a clean bill of
health, but having no medical man on board, then
ten days' quarantine be required from the arrital of
such vessel; having a foul bill of health, then fifteen
days.
Such a system would be an immense improvement
on the present; and although we are inclined to think
that, on further inquiry, even this might be dispensed
with, we should be glad to see such a system adopted,
with modifications according to circumstances, in all
the ports of the Mediterranean.

The state of anxiety noticed in our Paris corre-
spondence of yesterday continued to be manifested '
there on Tuesday. Independently of the unfavour-
able effect of the state of uncertainty of the interna-
tional relations with this country consequent on the
marriage question, the events which are in progress
in Portugal, and the financial disasters at Lisbon
have contributed' to the decline which has taken place
in every description of public funds ; and more espe-
cially in railway shares. The alarm alluded to in our
correspondence some days since respecting the pos-
sible augmentation of the rate of discount by
the Bank of France, is not diminished ; and
some measure of that kind seems the more proba-
ble, from the fact, that while the amount of specie in
the Bank this time last year was 180,000,000, it is
at present only 106,000,000. It is now known that
a strong minority in the direction is favourable to a
restrictive principle of discount, and very slight
causes may convert that minority into a majority.
The draft of the note of M. Guizot, in answer to
Lord Palmerston, was, as stated in our correspondence
of Tuesday, sent to the King at Compiegne, but did
not arrive there until after his departure on Satur-
day. Ho received it at St. Cloud, where a cabinet
council on the subject was held on Sunday, after
which the despatch was sent to M. de Jamie, to be
immediately delivered to Lord Palmerston. The
announcements of the Paris journals of Tuesday
confirm what was previously given in our cor-
respondence, that, after a temperate refutation of
Lord Palmerstim's arguments, M. Guizot formally
and cncrgetica declares that France will never
consent that the Duke and Duchess of lontpensicr
shall renounce for themselves or their children their
hereditary rights in Spain.
The President of the Council, who arrived in Paris
on Saturday evening, visited the Kin personally at
St. Cloud on Sunday, but only sent his card to his
colleagues of the Cabinet.
Another Cabinet Council was held at St. Cloud,
under the presidency of the King, on Monday.

Although no direct armed intervention in Switzer-
land is menaced, measures are in progress which
leave no doubt of the sentiments which animate the
two great powers, from which chiefly intervention
might proceed—France and Austria. The tone of
the ministerial journals of Paris, combined with the
concentration of troops on every part of the Swiss
frontier, and the simultaneous movements which arc
' exhibited on every part of the Austrian Helvetic
frontier, manifest, if other evidence were wanting, the
concert with which these powers are actives. Seeing
that the liltramontaine cause must be lost if a majority
against that party is formed in the Diet, Austria is
now employing all her influence to detach the Orisons
from the Liberal party. M. de Phillippsberg, former
Charge d'Affaires from Vienna, has been accordingly
commissioned to intimidate the authorities of that
canton. This emissary is reported to have declared
to them that the Emperor, animated with the kindest
intentions, was confident that the Orisons would not
lend themselves to the opposition raised against the
seven cantons, but that if his confidence should prove
to be illfounded, the inhabitants must expect to see
those advantages, which had been accorded to them
in their intercourse with Italy, withdrawn. In fact,
M. de Phillippsberg, far from endeavouring to keep
secret the intentions of his master, demanded that
they should be communicated to the Vorort.
Notwithstanding these efforts, and the less open
proceedings on the part of the cabinet of the Tuileries,
there is a prospect, amounting almost to certainty,
that the effect of the political movements in Geneva,
Bale-city, and other cantons, will create a majority
in the Diet by which the league of the seven cantons
will be dissolved and the Jesuits expelled. The
Reeve de Gen %Iv has an article written in a tone of
much moderation on this subject in which the part
which the radicals will take in the event of the de-
crees of the Diet being resisted by the cantons of the
league, is stated :
In that case, it will not he necessary to proceed by force of
arms to break this alliance, so contrary to the federal pact.
We shall probably wait for aggressive proceedings on their
part before acting. If they attempt ti.em, they will be de-
feated; if they do not, the fanaticism of their partizans will
defeat them. To exist, such an alliance must be based on
falsehood, and on such foundation it cannot long stand.
Who can believe that the population of the seven cantons can
long continue in their present ignorance of their true situa-
tion. The thing to be obtained is a majority in the Diet,
. which, when that has pronounced by a legal decree their
dissolution, all Switzerland will conspire to give abet to it.
It is not by force of arms that we shall dissolve the ultra-
montaine lsague ; it is by the federal spirit of the population
of the cantons.

The Madrid mails of the 12th were due, but had
not arrived in I'aris on Tuesday. The Bordeaux
courier had arrived, but did not bring them, the mail
not having arrived at that city before his departure.

SPAIN.—Ma. COBDEN AT SEVILLE.—The Man-
chester Guardian has published an extract from the Diario
de SeriPa, of the 4th inst., from which we learn that several
merchants, landowners, and public functionaries gave a ban-
quet to Mr. Cobden, at Seville, on the 2nd inst. The chair
was taken by Senor Miguel Chacon y Duran, director of the
Economical Society of Seville, seven members of which were
present. Senor Chacon proposed the toast of " Mr. Cobden
and the application of his ideas to the economical state of
Spain." Mr. Cobden replied to the following effect in English,
which was translated by Senor Alberto Prate y Soler:—
"Gentlemen, I return you my most sincere thanks for
the kind reception which you have given me in the beau-
tiful capital of Andalusia. I am aware that, personally,
I am not entitled to the consideration with which you so
generously treat me. I have, however, had the pleasing
satisfaction of finding at Seville a great number of en'ight-
ened individuals who share those principles of which I
have sought to be the interpreter. As I have already
thanked you for the expression of your kindness, scarcely
an thing remains for me to say. ICI bad been a Spaniard,
I should have given you the trouble of listening to a long
speech. I should have endeavoured to show that free trade
would confer the greatest benefits on this country, that it
would cause activity in your ports and mancets, that it would
enrich your agriculture, and that it would render your
finances prosperous. I should have inculcated the moral
advantages which result from the mutual communication of
nations. I could have drawn you a very lively picture of the
pacific benefits which would ensue from the general adoption
of the principles of free trade. I could have demonstrated to
you that nations greatly differing from each other, if it were
possible for them to communicate their ideas, laying aside their
mutual prejudices, would gain extraordinarily by the acqui-
sition of information which would be useful to the country,
and would increase its enlightenment. I should enlarge
with pleasure on these principles, were I a Spaniard ; but,
as an Englishman, I thiepe it more dislOtte to leave the
defence of tbjem to Spaniard., in order last I may not be
blamed for seeking to propagate, beyond' my own country,
doctrines of which the advantages are entacienffy known.
I believe, however, that, in this enlinhtena assembly there
are persons who, with the eloquence natural to their na-
tidn, will know how to defend successfully those princi-
ples of humanity aed philanthropy upon which it is not
allowable for me to expatiate. I am glad that after I have
communicated my sentiments to you, you will respond to
them by showing the state. of the country, and the appli-
cations of my doctrines of which it is capable, which it
is not for me to explain. In conclusion, I would wish to
propne a toast in favour of Andalusia; but I experience
a difficulty in finding one in a country privileged by nature,
sal abounding in every kind of produce. What can I

.
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,in which have" so often attracted attention for --Via• 'no facts to Owe thatinirchtnrtiso can transport the it
"e moment. These accidents seem to recur with a regu- diecase beyond foci ; and that even with regard to se
Lidi larity which it is almost horrible to think of, but-the clothes worn by persons- having the plague, the cases P
len occasion passes by, and is soon utterly forgotten, no are too few to warrant the conclusion that the
_.. .....—,.• hwiner made either by the combined efforts of disease can be conveyed even in this way. Another r_
. ,- :.,,,,,tAnt conclusion at which the reporters have r,
- • • —_, :...... I -