The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-21 00:00:00

have detected the defect in the box, because it is an ex-
ceteional case. By Mr. Pemberton : I have known of at
least six cases of explosions of fire boxes ; each individual
case has not been in the same part of the fire box; I
think the want of water had much to do with the ex-
plosion, and was not alone attributable to the pressure of
901bs on the boiler • if I was making a box I should make
it half an inch thick for a pressure of 901bs. Mr.
M irshall, the foreman of the loom wive den tetriie-te at the
Etehill station, was next called and said: I have the sole
charge of the stationary enginesatEd ; my duty is to
attend to all the general repairs to the, ocomotives at Edge-
hill ' • I have worked thirty-seven years at engines,
and have been 17 years in the company's employ. Last
year I superintended the repairs that were done to the
St. Patrick enzine:; she went into the sheds in June, and
went to work again on the 10th of November last. I
tested -be tire box; it was first tested with a hammer, and
the result was that, on the right hand side, six inches from
the bottono,-I found a blister or a fullness which indicated
a thinness, and we cut it out. That was the thinnest part
we detected—barely three eighths of an inch
where they patched it, and, the patch was
good to this day; the stays were all examined,
and all that were repaired were rivettel up. By the hem-
mer he could ascertain the thickness of a box to a certain
extent, from one eighth to one sixteenth of an inch.
In my judgment the hammer is the best test ; drilling
is not a safe test, because you cannot make the rivet tight,
and you might drill a hundred holes, and then miss the
place. In November, when I turned the engine out, I
believed the plates to be three eighths of an inch thick,
after sounding it with the hammer all eve-. I have never
found a box to wear thinner on the corner than on the side,
as in this case, and I have examined hundreds of lire
boxes in the course of my time. It is the duty of the
engineer to report the state of the engine to me, and I
have never had a report about this engine since she was
turned out in November last. Fire boxes are looked at and
examined shout once in six weeks. At the time of the
explosion, the engine was standing on the curve. The outtr
rail is somewhat higher than the inner one. The water guage
was not broken. Tots is the first box that has ever given
way or exploded since I have been in the company's
service. By Mr. Ward : The engines are overlooked daily.
I admit that if Iliad hared a hole in this particular place,
I should have discovered the defect. By Mr. Pemberton :
The' engines are ci issed into three orde-s, first.
second and third, and the St. Patrick belonged to the
second class. In consequence of a question pat by Mr.
Pemberton, which had reference to the character of the
witness, Mr. Blenkinsop said there was not the slightest
grounds for the attacks that had been made by dastardly
and cowardly anonymous letter writers, as it had been fully
investigated by the company and found to be perfectly
false, and he was retained in his present high position.
By a Juror : I can't say whether the dome was taken off
the boiler in August last. There was no way of getting
into a boiler except by taking the steam pipes out. The
dome is taken off every six weeks on all the engines.
Sampson Evans, a boiler maker, was called, and said he
could with a hammer ascertain the thickness of a boiler to
the sixteenth of an inch. On the 30th of August I ex-
amined the boiler of the St Patrick, bat perhaps I
omitted the corner where it gave w iy. In •my twenty
years' experience I have always found that the boxes wear
heaviest at the side and by the door of the fire. The
thinnest part I found was the sixteenth of an inch, and
there I put a patch on it. I believed that after I had
tested the box, that it was a quarter of an inch thick en the
opposite side. This is the first time that a box
has exploded after I tested it. This is the first time the
hammer has ever failed me. Mr. Marshall re-called: I
believed that when I turned the engine out of the sheds
it was in good working order for twelve months to come.
The Coroner then proceeded to sum up the evidence, and
in his introductory remarks said, that he would be as
brief as he possibly could in the remarks that he should
make, but the case was one of such paramount importance
to the public, and theenquiry having lasted overnearly three
whole da3 s, it must of necessity detain them for some
time. Toe question they would have to consider was—
what cau-ed the explosion of this engine, and then—was
there any blame to be attached to any of the servants of
the company for it, and if so, who was to blame—if any
person could be blamed. There was no doubt but that the
railway company were the responsible parties, and they
were bound to keep proper persons in their employ, who
attended to the important duties they had to fulfil. Having
referred to the respectability of the servants of she com-
p any, most of whom had been in their employ for a 1 nig
series of years, he referred to the evidence given by each,
and then said it would be for the jury to consider, the
whole case, and ascertain whether tie re had been any
negligence, and whit amount of negligence, on
the part of any of these persons. For his part, he did
think there had been some negligence, bat as to what
amount he was unable to say. The Coroner then recapitu-
lated the whole of the evidence that had been adduced
during the investigation, upon which he offered some few
brief comments, but particularly mentioned that given by
the locomotive manager Marshall, which really was most
important, for from that they would have to decide whether
or not the company or their servants had really performed
the duties they had a right to-perform for the safety of life
and property ; and. observed, after pointing out the re-
sponsibility of the company and their servants, that he did
not think there was one tittle of evidence to show that
there had been any gross carelessness on the part of any
person, but still there might be some amount of careless-
ness, and it would be for the jury to say if they thought it
was an or not. Gross carelessness, however, constituted
manslaughter, and he did not think that that was proved.
lie then left it for the jury to find a verdict iu accordance
with the evidence. The jury then requested to .retire, and
after a brief absence returned into court with a verdict
that the deceased, Joseph Ford and Seth Foulkes, died
from the bursting of the firebox of the steam-engine St.
Patrick, at the Edgehill station of the London and North
Western Railway, and that the said firebox was eompletel
worn out and unit for use; ant they were also of opinion
that the superintendent of the locomative department had
not displayed proper care and attention when the eng.ne
had been repaired and examined in the months of August
and November last. By this verdict gross negligence was
not implied, therefore the vaidict did not amount to ono of
manslaughter.

The marriage of Mr. T. F. Meagher with Miss Margaret
Lumley, a beautiful and accomplished young lady, was
solemnised in St. James's Catholic Church, Brooklyn
(N Y.) on the 29th nit.—Limerick, Observer.
AN ULSTER TENANT RIGHT ASSOCIATION.—A meeting
will be held in Belfast next week—Mr. Sharman Crawford
presiding—to consider the steps necessary to be taken for
the formation of a tenant right association, for the purpose
of organisation in Ulster.—Northern Whig.
ORIGIN OF THE. RUMOUR OF THE LION-RATIFICATION OF
THE PERSIAN TREATY.—Tte Vienna diplomatists believe
that the Dresden Journal received its information relative
to the non-ratification of the treaty of peace between
England and Persia from Baron Seebach, the Saxon
Minister, or rather the Russian agent at Paris.
Some members of the Vienna S of St. Severin, who
a short time ago went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, fell
into the hands of the spoilers in the neighbourhood of
Nazareth. and were not permitted to con inue their jour-
ney until they bad transferred their valuables from their
own pockets to those of the children of the soil. The
ungodly Viennese do not attempt so conceal their satisfac-
tion tbat the lay Jesuits have met with such a misadven-
ture.

f ItENCII RAILWAY CHARGES.—The great obstacle to a
more rapid transmission of the homeward India and China,
and Australian mail, through France, is the enormous
charge for a special train between Marseilles and Calais.
According to the third report of the Postmaster-General,
just i ssu-d, the expense of conveying an Indian m ail from
Marseilles to Calais by special train was £BOO, about six
times more than would be charged in England.
Navan STATISTICS,--The Debats contains a statistical
article on the losses experienced by the French and other
commercial navies in late years, front which we extract the
following :—" Of the 32,000 to 34,000. vessels of all
nations which are known to the maritime companies,
1,850 were lost in 1852; 1,610 in 1853 ; 2,120 in
1854; 1,932 in 1855; and 2,124 in 1856. The month of
December continues to furnish the greatest amount of
accidents (303 out of 2,124 in 1856) ; then follows
January (289), then November (221), finally, October
and February (219 and 192); June is the month least
unfavourable to navigation. The lumber of vessels lost
without ever being heard of happly diminishes—in 1851
253 vessels were lost in that mariner, in .1855 only 138,
and in 1856 only 115 figure in this list. But this only is
still sadly extensive, for calculating 12 men to a vessel, it
represents 1,380 sailors, who in a single year have paid for
the prosperity of commercial relations. Of the 115 vessels
thus lost in 1856, our navy figures for 15 and England
for 42, and to the total figure must be be added 63 vessels
burnt at sea. But what is really alarming is the increase
of collisions at Fes. The extension of steam conduces to
this result In 1845 only 594 collisions, producing 56 losses,
took place; in 1855 there were 743, with 69 losses; and
in 1856, 908 collisions, with 91 losses. The number
of these accidents, entirely due to the want of caution,
and of which the sea is innocent, has therefore nearly
doWed eithin the last 12 years. In that period no less
than 7,916 collisions, wi!la 763 total losses, have taken
place. This figure is thus made up :—Collisions between
steamers and steamers, 28 losses ; between steamers and
sailing vessels, 45 ; between sailing vess Is and steamers,
90 ; between sailing vessels and sailing vessels, 545;
cases where both vessels sank, 55 ; total, 763 losses. Ou:
mercantile navy lost, in 1856, by storms, collisions, fires,
&c., 85 deep-sea vessels and 358 coasters, of which 'lB sank
in collisions. Consequently a French vessel is lost every
21 hours, or, on an average, six vessels every five days."