The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-29 00:00:00

supply of fresh air along with it, and also F xpels
the foul air before it.

The public will have ample opp ortur it;es of
judging for themselves of the merits of thi s inven-
tion. The railway will be open during t he whole
of this week, when visitors to the Pah te 3 will be
able to test it by personally travelling n,p an it.

Alarming Railway Accicleni .

ACCRINGTON, Sa. turday.

An alarming accident took place at th e railway
hero last night, which might, if it had not occurred
at so late an hour, have been at:ended wit h a ter-
rible sacrifice) of life. Between nine and tot o'clock
last night tin excursion train, consisting of a.:bout
30 empty carriages, which had been stan.din for
some time near the Accrington Railway sit:, cion,
were taken ur the incline on the Manchester 1-yr inch
of line by two engines, one la; ing in front ari the
other at the rear. When the train bad been r u n up
the embankment a short distance, the rear giee
left the carriagee- attached to the one in front far the
purpose of getting upon another line. In a fa V,
moments after the last engine had left the tra in, the
coupling chain between the second and car-
riage from the bead engine broke, and 28 of the
carriages ran back at a tremendous speed. The
down engine shunted off the line soon after they
broke loose, and the carriages, when they paseted it,
were running at a rapid rate. Two guards happened
to be on the runaway carriages at the time, and they
put on breaks for the purpose of checking their im..
petus ; but in this respect their efforts were quite,
useless, and finding that their position was becoming
more alarming every second, and that a terrible
smash must soon ensue somewhere, they jumpt d
off the carriages, and luckily were not at all injurt d
in doing so. The carriages ran ahead down the line,
near the Blackburn siding ; they were turned off
the main line by a pointsman, but they had not
gone far before a great crash took place. Oa the
line they were running there were two carriages
standing, The clown carriages came
into collision
with them, bat they were not at first thrown off
the rails, and all dashed forward at a speed toward 6
the station. The two carriages alluded to bound-!d
forward when struck, but the runaways speedily
overtook them and ran them on the rails, following
the same course themselves immediately afterwards.
Here the accident assumed a most alarming chae
racter—the carriages were crushing into each tether,
rearing up and rolling over in all directions, and
the fearful momentum they bad obtained caused
them to spread general destruction. Wheels, huge
pieces of iron, foot-boards, glass, carriage sides,
halts, and chains literally strewed the ground. The
crash was terrible and the damage immense. Five
of the carriages—a first, three second, and one third
—were completely broken to pieces, Happily, n()
one was in the carriages, If they had been occupied
every soul would have been cut up and killed on
the spot. If also the pointsman had not turned the
carriages upon the siding when they were cotoing
down the embankment there would have been a
dreadful catastrophe at the station. A passenger
train was waiting there when the carriages broke
loose, and it could not by any possibility have got
off the line, neither could the passengers have got
out of the carriages in which they were seated in
time to have escaped the collision which, must have
ensued. After the accident several of t.;`ita railway
officials were soon on the spot, and they secured a
number of men to clear the read, A huge fire was
made of the broken timber of the carriages for the
men to work by. It was not until this morning that
the debris was got out of the way. To-day numbers,
of people have visited the scene of the accident out
of curiosity. The affair created much excitemeat
throughout the town and neighbourhood, for it lette,
put many in mind of the dreadful accident which
happened on the same branch of railway, and aLteost
under similar circumstances, at Helmshore, it few
years ago. On that occasion the carriages of au
excursion train broke loose from the engine, an d ran
down an incline, the results of which are known to
all. There can be no doubt that the cheek which
the rear carriage's would experience w-hxn left by

the engine was the sole cause o the acnident lest
night. The coupling between thecarrisgles is bruhen
hut appears to be
at the end of the screw.
strong and sound, and nothing but a strain upon
the metal which it was never intended to bear could.
have snapped it.

Loyd Wharucliffe ozi the New Penal
Servitude Act.
_es ,
At the West Riding Intermediate Sessions, at
Sleiffreld, held on Friday, Lord Wharnc;iffe pre-
sided, and took the opportunity of making a re-
mark or two with reference to the changes that
have been lately introduced by the legislature in
the operation of the sentences pronounced at assizes
and quarter sessions. Formerly there was a great
deal of uncertainty in regard to the strictness or
otherwise with which sentences of penal servitudii
were carried out. This was considered to be a great
evil, and the legislature had passed an act during
the last session, the effect of which was that when
a sentence of penal servitude was passed there could
be no doubt of the proportion of the time that the
convict must serve. It had been wisely decided,
however, still to leave room for certain remissions,
as rewards, not for ordinary good conduct, but for
increased industry and special good conduct, which
would doubtless be accepted as denoting a desire to
reform. Under the new regulations, no sentence of
penal servitude could be passed for less than five
years, and the first nine months must be passed by
the convict in'solitary imprisonment. The remain-
der of the term is capable of diminution to the ex•
tent of one-fourth in case of the convict's superior
conduct and industry, but he must serve three years
and four months out of the four years and three
months. Again, a prisoner who had been previously
convicted of felony, could not be sentenced to a less
term of penal servitude than seven years. There
were other provisions as to the granting revocation
of tickets-of-leave, which he need not dwell upon ;
but the act appeared to him to be a most salutary
one, and well calculated to deter persons from crime
because of the certainty of their punishment being
made a reality. Another topic of considerable in-
terest he would briefly refer to, namely, the change
that had taken place since the last sessions by the
holding of assizes at Leeds. The grand jury were
aware that there had been an antagonism between
various towns, and that the Privy Council had de-
cided to give the assizes to Leeds; and it was not
for him to say—although ho opposed the change—
that they had not decided wisely. The town of
Sheffield had done all that was within their power
to get the assizes held here ; but he wished it to go
before the public as widely as possible, that, in his
opinion, the town could not fairly call upon Govern-
ment to incur any expense or to give them the ad-
vantage of assizes, whilst they neglected to do that
which almost every other large town had done,
namely, to appoint their own recorder, and have
separate quarter sessions for their borough. If Shef-
field wished to attain the position which Leeds had
secured, she must begin by doing as Leeds did—ap•
point a recorder and get a court of borough sessions.
Justice would be better administered by a recorder,
who would be, of course, well acquainted with the
law, than by a bench of lay magistrates ; and it
would be found that the attendance of magistrates
would b 3 much larger when the work of the see.
sions was so materially lightened. It was a fact that
59 per cent. of the cases tried at these sessions were
such as would be disposed of by the
Recorder of
Sheffield, because they arose within the limits of the
borough. In disposiug of the cases that came be"
fore him, his lordship carried out to the full the new
instructions, and several notorious thieves were et.a-
tcheed to hug tcrn-is of prIDI servitude.

. SALMON FISHING IN TIIE TAY._The salmon fish'
mg by net in the Tay and its tributaries was ended
onFriday, after the most unsuccessful season for the last
30 years. In the past week a great number of tacksmeu
between the Linn of Campsie
most of the stations gave and the mouth of the Earn
have given up fishing altogether. In fact, the tacksmeu of
up fishing on Tuesday night, and
there is no doubt that there has been a loss of several
thousand pounds to the occupiers of fishings in the past
season. With regard to the rod fishing—which is now
about to corun3enee—there are are doubts as to whether
it will end on the 30th September or the 10th October,—
SCoMitan.