The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-04 00:00:00

be Court..

Sir 11. E. F. Young has arrived in town from the
Cape of Good Hope, and had yesterday an interview with
Earl Grey, at the Colonial-office.
Lord Kinnaird had an interview with the Right
Hon. E. Strutt yesterday, at the office of the Commiisiouers
of Railway, in the Board of Trade.
The Ecele•iastieal Commissioners for England had
• general meeting yesterday, at their office in Whitehall-
place.
The Postmaster-General had an interview with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer on Wednesday, at his official
residence in Downing,street.
Deopatchcs from the Governor of the Cape of Good
Hope, and also from the governors of the West India
Colonies, were received yesterday at the Colonial-office.

THE ACCIDENT AT THE EUSTON STATION.
Yesterday the jury empannelled to investigate the
death' of Charles Gedge and James Hickey, two of the
labourers killed by the tailing of a portion of the new build-
ings at the Huston-square terminus of the London and
North-Western Railway, re-assembled before Mr. Mills at
toe Parcel-office.
Mr. 'life begged permission to state, in reference to the
relative strength of columns built on the brick-flat and brick-
on-edge principle, that subsequent to the last meeting of the
jury en experiment had been made on two piers built on the
respective plans, 2 feet 3 inches high. The result was that
the pier built on the brick-flat principle was crushed with a
weight of 30 tons, while that on the brick-on-edge principle
required 3.5 tons to crush it.
Mr. Mills, the deputy coroner, said, that the opinion of
Mr. Hocking having been committed to writing, he would
now read it to them, premising that as it was given by that
gentleman in his official capacity, under the same oath of
fidelity which bound him on all occasions, it would be unne-
cessary to swear him to its truth. The deputy coroner then
read a' follows
am of opinion that the minuses, or some of them, failed under an
impulse derived from the seaffald, acted I.lfloll by the movements of
the workmen; and the failure of any one would, under the circum-
stances, necessarilyinvolve thatof all the rent, and of the superatructure,
the weakness which aulmi ttad of failure from, urn an impulse being more
attributable to the unindurated state of the cement used in builduar
the columns ; and that the columns broke under an impulse which, as
I believe, they might have borne safely if the °meet had attained the
Mated induration which it is capable of attaining.
(Signed) MIRIAM liss.xuou, Office of Metropolitan Buildings.
In reply to questions, Mr. Hooking stated that he held it
to be impossible that the pedestals could have failed, unless
the columns had first given way, even though the former
were run up with mortar and the 'ewe with cement. Had
the cement been properly indurated he believed the columns
would not have given way under anything short of a crush-
ing pressure. It was possible to leave erected a scaffold
which would not have touched the brickwork at all ; but
this would have required so large an amount of care and
bracing and involved such extravagant expense as to render
it scarcely practicable. Circular columns built of brickwork
were necessarily faulty to a certain extent, owing to the ne-
cessity of cutting and breaking up the bricks in order to fill
up the interstices which must otherwise occur; and until
the cement or yielding materials used in the cor.structioa
had attained the hardness of the bricks themselves, there
was always some degree of danger to be anticipated. Had
the work in question been carried on during the summer
' months instead of in November, no doubt a sufficient degree
of induration would have been induced.
Mr. John Braithwaite said be was an engineer, and had
during an experience of nearly forty years paid great per-
sonal attention to every description of brickwork. He had
heard the evidence adduced, and was prepared to give an
opinion thereupon. lie slid not think with Mr. Reeking
that the original failure was in the columns, but was of Mr.
Tite's opinion—viz., that the pedestals had first given way.
The mischief he had no doubt began when the outer columns
were unduly loaded with the upper wall. The public were
chiefly to blame in the matter, for however quickly works
were proceeded with, it was never fast enough for them.
Had the pedestals been built of solid atone witness did not
think the accident would have happen, d.
The Deputy Coroner said he thought the little matters
of detail on which the jury had exhibited so laudable a de-
sire to inform themselves were really not of much importance
after the statement made at the opening of the inquiry by Mr.
Hardwicke, who came forward in the most candid mann ,r
and admitted that the works had been carried on a little too
fast, and that owing to the dampness of the seuouthe cement
had cot become properly indurated.
Mr. Hardwicke : I said that owing to the cement rot
being properly indurated the columns were more liable to
lateral pressure.
The Deputy Coroner: Exactly so. It did not appear,
however, that the works had been pressed on very violently
either by the directors, the architect, or the contractor ;
indeed, it was worthy of remark that the men employed by
the latter were paid by day work and not by piece
work, as usual when works were executed in a great
hurry. Into whatever details they might enter, the
question appeared to him to be, not whether the columns
were wrong, or the pedestals wrong, or the upper wall too
heavy, but simply the unindurated state of the cement, of
which they had had most satisfactory proof. All other mat-
ters, he considered, they might dismiss from their minds.
Mr. Wakley, he could inform them, was of opinion that the
cement was not sufficiently set, and that the time and season
was not such as to warrant works of a similar character
being carried on in so great a hurry. He did not think that
the scaffold had anything to do with the accident. It might
have had some trilling effect ; but his impression was, that
the true cause of the accident was to be found in the fact of
the works having been carried on in too great a hurry at a
bad season of the year.
The Foreman said he had been desired to ask whether any
provision would be made for the families of the deceased
parties ?
The Deputy Coroner said that was a question he could
not answer. The law of deodands was now done away
with, and power of action, in cases of death where blame
was attributable to any party was given to the relatives.
The jury here retired, Lad 'after remaining in deliberation
nearly an hour, they returned as their verdict, "That
Charles Gedge and James Hickey were killed by the falling
of a portion of a certain building situate at the Euston-
square station of the London and North Western Railway;
and that the fall was caused by the non-induration of the
cementwithlwhich certain portions of the building were
erected during a wet and bad season of the year; and the
jury add to this verdict an expression of their opinion that
due caution was net taken in the erection of the building,