The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-10 00:00:00

DENMARK.

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)
COPENUAGEN, April 5.

The meeting in the Casini, of which I spoke in
my letter, came off on the 28th, and is considered
by its originators to have been a complete success.
The resolutions, which have already appeared in
your columns, were adopted unanimously, and no
doubt really conveyed the full conviction of the
assembly, expressed by the different speakers with
as much firmness as moderation. While it was de-
clared that the only way out of the present troubles
lay in the giving up of the constitutional union with
Holstein and Lauenbnrg, it was at the same time
strongly urged that the Government ought with
the greatest determination to keep any description
of foreign interference out of Schleswig. To judge
from the proclamation signed by the King on the
30th of March, the Government has come to the
same conviction, for, as you will perceive from the
trnour of it, the general drift of that document is
towards the isolation of Holstein. The Government
only wishes to proceed gradually, and to avoid
violent or abrupt steps. The proclamation of the 30th
cannot be looked upon as having been influenced by
the meeting two nights before in the Casini, for
it is evidently a long-concerted measure ; but it
speaks highly for its having been issued at the
right moment that both the Government and the
nation at one and the same time have expressed the
necessity of such a step. How it will be leceived in
Germany is another question; I fear not very well,
for the German politicians do not at all wish to lose
that pretext for meddling with the affairs of Den-
mark which the participation of Holstein in the
joint constitution hitherto afforded them.

The Rigsraad for Denmark proper and Schleswig
is to meet on the 22d. We shall then hear of the
further measures intended by the Government; and
the Holstein Estates will reassemble in the course
of the summer, when the Government will make a
new attempt (the third or fourth within a few years)
of obtaining their assent to the introduction of a
more liberal provincial constitution. _ _

The principal topic of conversation of late has
been the offer of the Greek crown to Prince Wil-

Liam. This plan is not popular here, because the
succession depends entirely on the lives of the three
sons of Prince Christian ; nor has the circumstance
that Lord Russell has urged the matter on with un-
usual haste predisposed the minds of the public
favourably, and some of the papers even affect to
consider it a great sacrifice on the part of Denmark.
I am, however, positively assured, on the very best
authority, that the Government will raise no diffi-
culties, and the King has already declared that he
will raise no objection if Prince Christian is dis-
posed to receive it for his son. The rumour that the
proposed crown had already been accepted by the
Prince after the holding of a fami'y councl at
Laeken, must be received with great caution. The
Prince arrived here yesterday from Ballenstedt, in
Anhalt Bernburg, where his family still is, and
some conferences have been held ; but he is not ex-
pected to decide till Tuesday, when a state council
will be held to discuss the subject. If there be
difficulties, they will be raised by the family of the
young Prince, but not on the part of Denmark.

Dreadful Boiler Explosion near Glasgow.

At an early hour on Wednesday morning a ter-
rific boiler explosion, resulting in serious loss of life,
occurred at the Mossend Ironworks, near Holy-
town, a station on the Caledonian Railway, about
13 miles from Glasgow. The works in question,
which are the property of the Mossend Iron Company,
cover nine or ten acres of ground, and comprise seve-
ral large sheds occupied by forges, together with an
extensive rolling mill. The machinery in these two
departments was di iven by separate engines, these
again having each its own set of boilers, and it was
to the boilers connected with the rolling mill that
the accident occurred which it is now our painful
duty to record. These boilers were five in number,
and were placed side by side on a substantial
foundation of brick, their ends pointing towards
the north and south. They were all 25 feet in length,
and four of them, which were egg-end boilers, were
5 feet in diameter, while the fifth, a flue boiler, had
a width of 6 feet. The fire hole extended along the
south ends of the boilers. Beyond this is a tramway
on which some coal laden trucks were standing at
the time of the accident, and south of this again
stands the rolling mill. On the west side of the
boilers, at a distance of about 20 yards are the forges,
and on the east side, about double the distance off,
is an engineer's shop. The chimney which carried
off the smoke from the furnaces stands on the north-
west corner of the square site which the boilers oc-

cupied.
At the time when the accident occurred-2 o'clock
in the morning—there were upwards of 300 men
engaged in the works, the greater portion of them
being dispersed through the forges and rolling mill
in the immediate vicinity of the boilers. At the hour
mentioned the whole neighbourhood was alarmed by
a dreadful crash, followed by a shower of bricks and
other debris, which flew in all directions to a dis-
tance of 300 or 400 yards. On repairing to the site
of the catastrophe a scene of ruin presented itself
such as has seldom been witnessed. The site for-
merly occupied by the boilers presented a yawning
crater, the force of the explosion having completely
torn up and scattered to a distance the mass of sub-
stantial brickwork. As for the boilers, one with both
ends blown out lay along the tramway to the south
of the firehole, where it had thrown down the chim-
neys of two of the rolling mill furnaces; the greater
part of another lay a little further to the south among
the ruins of the rolling mill sheds ; a third had been
precipitated about 30 yards to the northwards of its
bed, where it lay in the shape of a huge spiral riband,
while the remaining two bad been hurled northwards
quite out of the works and alighted in a field ate dis-
tance of about 250 yards. Besides these ponderous
masses, domes, ends, and other fragments of boilers
had been thrown to great distances both to the north
and south. One large piece, for instance, weighing
about two tons, had flown across the turnpike road
on the south side of the works and alighted in a field
at 300 yards' distance. The roofs of the rolling mill
sheds were completely destroyed by the falling
debris, and those of the forge sheds and the engi-
neer's shops suffered considerably. But the worst
remains to be told. Of the persons employed in the
neighbourhood of the boilers seven were either killed
on the spot, or so severely injured that they did not
long survive the accident ; while several others were
more or less hurt. The following is a list of the
killed :—Joseph Swift, leaves widow and 10 chil-
dren ; James Mulhecom, widow and two children ;
John Trueman, fireman, widow and three children ;
Charles Carnal, boy; William Douglas, only sup-
port of a widowed mother ; John Duncan; and Peter
Tracy, newly married. The following received con-
siderable injuries :—Henry Leadbetter, Jas. Berry,
Bernard Clinton, John Haney, boy ; John Oaks,
boy; and Titus Lowe, a young lad.
Beyond the range of the works the falling debris
injured the roofs of many houses in the village of
Mossend, and in one instance a piece of a steam pipe
was driven through the wall of a house into a bed-
room, where several persons lay asleep. No one seems
to have been injured by these dangerous missiles,
though there must have been many hair-breadth
escapes.

The cause of the accident has of course been a

fruitful theme of speculation. The prevailing
opinion seems to be that the boilers had been
allowed to get overheated, and that while they
were in that state the fireman, Trueman, incau-
tiously turned on the supply of water. In con-
firmation of this it is alleged that the valves which
have been found were open, and that several
of the boiler-plates show unmistakeable indi-
cations of overheating. On the other hand it
mustt
hbee
teshoteautresa:ttoh,faaty
and commenced
boilers were supplied with
the n
usual precautionary appliances,
the local
and that True-
man has always been regarded as a reliable man.
i
local authorities
visited
commenced an investigation
into the circumstances.

Locomotives were first dawned in the reign of Charles the
2d; constant improvements have made them perfection. The
same means have now so perfeeted ilerring'
brushes and combs that they restore the colour to grey hair,
and cure Neuralgia and nervous headache With all but un-
erring eertainty. N.B.—Counterfeits are being made.—
Mem 32, Basingball-street, London. s magnetic