The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-02 00:00:00

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A terrific explosion of gas, even
its results than that which recen,
Camp
Hill, took place on Thursday mornipt at j S
residence of Mr. Wm. Russell, Milton-place, Vic-
toria-road, Aston New Town, Birmingham, The
house forms one of a row, and in front has only two
stories. The entrance door opens into a passage or
hall, the first room on the left being the parlour.
Beyond this is the back sitting-room, out of wh'ch
is the staircase communicating with the upper rooms.
Oa tne farther side of the sitting-room is a C!trr
leading into the kitchen. Between Mr. Russell's
house and that of his neighbour's is, or rather was,
an entry which formed the division between the two
houses and the approach to the back yard. The
landlord of the house is Mr. Benjamin Morgan, v. ho
lives in the same row , and Mr. Russell, we arc in-
formed, has only been his tenant a few weeks. Mr.
and Mrs, Russell have been spending Chri,stm.,e
in London, and returned home on Wednesday
night. During their absence the house had been
left in charge of the servant, Sarah Morris, a young
woman 18 years of age. The house is lighted
with gas, and there aro gas fittings in the front
and back sitting rooms, kitchen, end the bedrooms
on the first floor. On going to bed on Wednesday
night the gas was not turned off at the meter, and
Mr. and Mrs. Russell, who slept on the back bed
room, kept a small light burning in their room
night, Mrs. Russell being somewhat unwell, Mr.
Russell came down stairs on Thursday morning at
about 8 o'clock to procure a cup of tea for his wife.
The servant did not come down stairs until some
time afterwards, and Mr. Russell, who was then at
the kitchen fire, scolded her for being late, and sent
her to unclose the parlour shutters. She took a

PRICE ..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

Colone:

:pemses,

(From the Law fazes of To-day.)
Colonel Crawley has received from his judges
the full and honourable acquittal which had been
already accorded to him by public opinion. But the
country must not be suffered to rest with thin. The
country has been deluded into a cost of £150,000 for
the prosecution of an honourable and innocent man
and it has a right to know by whom that impudent
delusion W 0.3 practised upon her. Although the
howl against him was eauerly echoed by the news•
papers in this coniftry whose vocation it is to bring
into contempt, fcr the purpose of destroying, every
institution not purely democratic, it had its origin
in some other region, and Parliament should demand
from the Government the sources of the information
upon which it acted when consenting to this infa-
mous prosecution. But justice will not be satisfied
with this. Compensation is due to the injured
object of the persecution. He has been dragged
from India to England to undergo the trial which
in due course should have been held in India, and
thus he has been put to an enormous cost beyond
that properly attaching to the ordeal. This at least
the country is bound to repay from the public purse
to the uttermost farthing. For the harass and
anxiety to which he has been so long subjected
there can be no compensation, but every farthing of
the expenses he has been put to beyond those atten-
dant upon the transfer of the place of trial might
be fitly supplied by voluntary subscription,

lighted candle with her, and .he had no sooner
opened the parlour door than a terrific explos'on
took place, which shattered the house from basement
to roof, forcing out the windows, and blowing down
the walls as instantaneously as though a magazine
had been exploded underneath. We have stated
that Mr. Russell was at the kitchen fire at the back
of the house. The outer wall of this kitchen was
levelled to the ground, leaving the outer room open
to the yard. What with the noise of the explosion,
the crash of the falling walls, end the dust which
arose from the debris, Mr. Russell was for a few
seconds completely paralysed. His first thought
was that the earthquake had returned with increased
force, and then the actual cause occurred to him—
that there had been an explosion of gas in the front
room. He hastened there to ascertain the full ex-

tent, and found the whole of the front of the house
a complete wreck. The lighted gas was streaming
from the broken pendant in the centre of the room,
the furniture was on fire, end the flames were play-
ing round the room, lapping the walls as though
seeking some place to fasten upon. Seeing this
danger, Mr. Russell immediately ran down stairs
to the meter and turned off the gas. He then re-
turned to the front to search for the servant. He
found her tying upon the floor of what had been
the entry, where she had been blown by the
force of the explosion, and completely buried beneath
the bricks and rubbish of the fallen wall. The noiEe
of the explosion had, as might be supposed, created
almost a panic in the surrounding houses, and in a
very few moments there were plenty cf persons on
the spot to render assistance. With the help of
some of the neighbours the bricks were removed,
and the girl was got out. She was rather severely
burned, and also bruised by the falling bricks. She
was immediately placed in a cab and taken to the
General Hospital. It should be stated that after
Mr. Russell had turned off the gas he brushed out
with his hands and coat sleeve the flames where
they had taken hold of the furniture and the paper
upon the walls. The explosive current took an
eccentric course, and was almost fantastic in its
work of destruction. The parlour window was, of
course, blown out, and thus opened a vent in one
direction. By far the greater portion of the ignited
gas streamed through the open door into the nes-
sage, traversing this, and then it rushed onwards
through the back sitting room into the ki.chen,
sweeping everything before it. Tie furniture is the
parlour was entirely destroyed, the covering of the
sofa and chairs being shrivelled up, and the wood-
work scorched and blistered. Singularly enough,
while the division wall between the parlour and the
passage is only bulged out, so as to rt quire shoring
up and rebuilding, the wall on the ()thee side of the
passage next the entry is levelled to the ground.
Another curious effcct is that the floor of toe par-
lour and ceiling are uninjured, not scorched, in fact,
and yet the boards of the front bed room are forced
up, and the cellar ceiling down below is scattered
to pieces. The current had thus passed upwards
and downwards without affecting the intermediate
objects which it encountered. Passing through
into the back sitting room, the damage is seen to
even greater extent than at the front. One of
the side walls of this room is blown out, the
doors are shattered into fragments, the window
is gone, and the paper is stripped from the
walls, and hangs in shreds. We have be-
fore stated that the outer wall of the kitchen
which leads out of the sitting room is blown
down. Had it not been that the kitchen door was
open, the current must have expended itself in
the sitting-room, and the result would most pro-
bably have been that the whole of the back of the
house would have been blown out. It is truly for-
tunate that this did not not happen, as Mrs. Russell,
who was in bed in the room above, would have had
but a very poor chance for her life. As it was, the
walls of her bed room are bulged out a couple of
inches, leaving a long narrow crack close to the
ceiling. In short, the house is such a thorough
wreck as to be quite untenantable, and Mr. Russell
was compelled to get another residence and remove
his furniture at once. The cause of the explosion is
very obvious. The chandelier in the parlour is a
double one upon the ordinary water-slide principle.
One of the balance weights had fallen off, and was
found upon the floor in the morning. The effect of
this weight coming off suddenly would be that the
chandelier would drop with a jerk, and the gas
would be escaping all night. Mr. Russell did not
notice any smell of gas in the back room when he
came down stairs, and yet the parlour must have
been thoroughly charged with it. The frequent
occurrence of explosions of this kind should act as a
caution to persons first of all to turn the gas off at
the meter before going to bed, and next to examine
periodically the condition of their chandeliers.
From inquiries made at the General Hospital on
Thursday night, the girl Sarah Morrie, although
very severely burnt and otherwise injured, was said
to be progressing favourably.—Birmingha»3 Doily
Post.

Slough,
13 l BUCKSet, ehl e y,
BCrOill::::nLghEaCmT:ol:oTrht:epapgnoleliin: took
place yesterday a; the several districts into which
the county is now divided—viz., Aylesbury, Amersham,
and High Wycombe. The proceedings altogether were of
the quietest character possible, and the occasion was un-
attended by the excitement which is usually expected at an
election, as will be seen by the total number polled ; not
half the constituency voted, and the remaining section—
those who did not vote—is composed almost exclusively of
the liberal party. Dr. Lee come forward entirely unsup-
ported by the liberals of the country, and even in his cwn
behalf has made no effort whatever to secure his return
His reason for offering himself, as was stated in one of his
addresses,was merely to give the Liberal electors an oppor-
tunity of voting. He declined to be at the expense of bring-
ing the voters to the poll, and neglected the ordinary aids
even of legal agents, check clerks, &c. This he calls purity
of election. On the other hand the Tories have left no morns
untried to bring in every stray vote on their side, and en-
deavoured by every means at their command to swell the
majority of their candidate. As we have before stated, Dr.
Lee did not receive the support of a third part of the Liberal
electors. Ihe result of the contest must not, therefore, be
taken as a fair criterion of the strength of parties
.gin the
county. Had a man been brought forward who would have
received the support of the party, the result; would no doubt
have been different. At the close of the po the nubers
were—Harvey, 2,311; Lee, 312.
A GERMAN PROVERB says that to know our-
selves is to know much; to know God is to know all

things.
The third ordinary general meeting of the share-
holders of the Alliance Bank of London and Liver-
pool is to take place at the London Tavern on Jan.
22, and in addition to the declaration of a dividend
and other matters it is intended to take power to
change its name to that of "The Alliance Bank
Limited."