The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-22 00:00:00

Acting-Manager, Mr. H. Barnett.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE
Lew; s, M ess: s. Lindub and Vining.
THIS EVENING the drama of AGORA FLOYD. Miffs
Amy Sedgwick, Miss Henderson, and Mrs. Simpson ; mesa,.
H. Roxby, G. Melville, G. Belmore, C. Scyton, Wallace, and
Cathcart.
After which, KILLING TIME, Mr. Geo. Dining, Mr. C
Seyton, and Miss Amy Sedgwick.
To conclude with a new whimsical Extravaganza, entitled
BEAUTIFUL H AIDE ;or The Sea Nymph and the Sallee
Rovers. Misses M. Oliver, Helen Howard, Hudspeth Hen-
derson, and INDITTity ; Messrs. C. Seyton, G. Belmore, Fitz-
james, Moreland, and Cockertil.

Nw THE ATRE-RO YAL, ADELPHL-
We Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
THIS EVENING, DOMESTIC ECONOMY. Mr. J. L.
Toole, Miss Kate Kelly, Miss A. Seaman. and Miss Stok
After which., at Eight o'clock, AURORA FLOYD. Miss
AVollia, Jones, Miss H. Simms, Mrs. Billington ; Mr. Benj.
Webster, Mr. Paul Bedford, Mr. R. Phillips, Mr. Billinton,
Mr. Stuart, Mr. Sefton, Mr. homer, Mr. C. J. Smith.

Commence at 7.

fp HE THIRD EDITION OF THE SUN,"
1 Containing the Latest SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,
Can be had Every Evening of
G. R. GLENIE, NEWS AGENT,
No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park.

The Weather—Sun Office, Ap:

THERMOMETER.
Highest since
the Noon
night
This day at N00n.....
Wind—North-Westerly ; blowing fresh, with sunshiny
weather, but occasional showers.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 4h. 32m.—Afternoon, 4h. 50m.
T 0 -moitilaw.-Morning, sh. Bm.—Afternoon, 6h. 27m.

• ,
4VCIAMOp, oss,
"A,P, ..„rgove: 74.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1863.

Few of the casualties that occur nowadays are
more distressing than the constant recurrence of
accidents in mines. The one that took place on
Sitrrday was very awful, and its suddenness ren-
dered it peculiarly appalling. At Hartley, over-
Nchelmir g as was the calamity, the sufferers were
prepared for their doom ; but here they were hurled
to destruction in a moment. It appears that the
mine of Botallack is one of the largest in that part
of Cornwall, and the greater portion of its workings
lies under the bed of the Atlantic. The ores and
the workmen are drawn up a diagonal shaft that

slopes down at the steep angle of 32 degrees. The
shaft is 180 fathoms deep. On Saturday last ten
men were coming up in a waggon that was attached
by a chain to the steam engine at the top.

They had nearly reached their destination
when the chain snapped, and all in the waggon
were hurled down the declivity and killed on
the spot. It is :curious to notice in
.ft letter to the
Times of this morning, written by a gentleman,
who visited the Botallack mines on Friday that
this very question of the chain breaking was then
alluded to. The writer thus describes the circum-

stance:—" While we ourselves were mounting on
the day before, I looked at the chain winding round
its pulleys at the angle of the incline, and asked a
half-naked giant at my side what would happen if
it should snap. He said, and the captain said, that
the break could easily stop the car. It may have
been tried and failed—for I saw a miner easily
sliding down, feet foremost, when the car was up
above—or, in the horror of the moment, the man
who sat nearest to the handle may have failed
in the presence of mind necessary to apply to it;
or, as seems to be more likely, the first few yards
of the descent may have dashed his brains out at
once against a projecting corner of the rock."
It is of no use to deplore evils without trying to
remedy them, and the more this question is looked
into the better, with a view of preventing a similar
affliction befalling other places. In the first place
this accident might have been rendered next to im-
possible by the application of a simple arrange-
ment similar to that we have seen in use in the
north of England many years ago. This consisted
of a clump attached to the cage, and travelling up
one of the guiding ways of a shaft, and so con •
nected with the chain that when the cage was lifted
the strain loosened the hold of the clump on the
guiding way up which it travelled freely ; but in
the event of the chain b 'caking it immediately
dosed irmly and held the cage securely in mid-air.
In the case of the recent accident at Botallack the
shaft descends in slanting direction at an angle of
some 32 degrees, and a car was used for the pur-
pose of raising the ore and lowering th© miners.
It would seem that this car is provided with breaks,
which are under the command of the man in charge
of the car, but in the present instance either from
want of presence of mind, or some accident they
were of no avail. Why should the lives of the men
be exposed to unnecessary risk, when dagger might
be avoided by fixing the breaks in communication
with the chain in such a manner that they could
only be relieved by its strain, and in the event of
its breaking would immediately check the car be-
fore it could gain sufficient momentum in its retro-
grade movement to render the operation difficult.
This awful instance of the faulty arrangements in
the working of mines must surely draw attention
to the subject, and it need scarcely be added that it
is a question of great importance, and one which
has every claim on the care and consideration of
the community. Unless some stop is speedily put
to such casualties, the employment of miners will
soon be looked upon as a most perilous one; their
relatives will be in constant expectation of hearing
of their untimely ends, and the dangers of the works
will realise the idea, expressed in the old Scotch
saying—

" Wives and mothers maist despairing,
Ca' them lives o' men."

Tnere are certain interminable trials in our courts
of justice which must, however much they may in.
terest the public at the outset, become, at length,
tedious from cons'ant repetition. The celebrated
YELVERTON case, for instance, created as much stir
at the time of its first hearing in London as it did
in Dublin, but when that was found to be only the
first step in a long series of intricate and weari-
some proceedings, both in Scotland and in England,
people got tired of the matter, and although it now
to a certain extent, a cause celebre, it has now
Passed out of sight. We expect that that the long-
-1"e ading actions against the mid level commission Er
the damage done to a large district, in the fen coun-
try, forming
Part of the Bedford Level, by the
bursting of a, sluice, through the alleged neglect of
the commissioners %.
their servants, will meet
with a like fate. A1,,,y, at Norwich, on the 6th

instant, decided virtually in favour of the plaintiff,
Nit.. COE, in whose name the action had been brought
against Mr. WISE, the clerk to the Middle
Level Drainage Company. On this ver-
dict, however, depended some hundred other actions,
brought against the commissioners to reoover com-
pensation for damage sustained through the inun-
dation. On Saturday last the commissioners, in
despair at the prospect through the agency of Sir
FITZROY KELLY, moved the Court of Queen's Bench
by leave reserved for a rule, calling upon the plain-
tiff to show cause why the verdict should not be set
aside and entered for the defendant, or, in the alter-
native, for anew trial, on the ground of misdirection,
and that the verdict was against evidence. After
considerable discussion, the Lord Chief Justice said
the Court were of opinion that the learned counsel
must have a rule on the points of law ; but that
with regard to the other points they would consult
Lord Chief Justice ERLE before giving their
decision. Thus the case is as far from a
settlement as ever, although from the strength
of the evidence adduced a future jury will
probably arrive at the same conclusion as their pre-
decessors. For the benefit of those unacquainted
with the nature of the country in what are termed
the " Fen districts," we may observe that in ancient
times the greater part of Cambridge, Norfolk, Suf-
folk, Lincoln, and the surrounding counties, were
nothing more than vast meres or swamps. In fact,
at one time, the Eastern counties were completely
cut oft from the midland and Southern portions of

the kingdom. The tracks across the morasses were
difficult and dangerous, and only known to the in-
inhabitants, who guarded their knowledge with jea-
lous care, for these swamps were their protection
from invasion. The danger of traversing them was
illustrated by the loss of a large portion of King
JOHN'S army and baggage, near King's Lynn, at
th

e commencement of the thirteenth century. But
as the population increased and civilisation ad-
vanced, land became of more value—the dense
forests began to disappear, and the most available
part of the marshes began to be turned to account.

It was not until the year 1620 that any great suc-
cess in draining marsh land on a large scale was
obtained, when Sir CORNELIUS VERMUYDEN, a
Dutchman of considerable engineering skill, was
invited to England, and by his enterprise and
ability succeeded, among other undertakings, in
laying the foundation of the great Bedford Level, a
portion of which has been recently the subject of
so much loss and litigation. After this, drainage
steadily advanced, and large tracts of valuable
land were reclaimed from time to time, until the
most important works of this vast undertaking
were completed under the celebrated TEL-
Soon a new era commenced. The
'ull power of steam was 'gradually un-
derstood, and a rapid advance in the means of
discharging water by its agency rendered compa-
ratively easy the execution of works which had
hitherto been almost impracticable. It was but
natural that the owners of large tracts of land in
'en districts should desire to combine to improve
heir property. Among others were those residing

FORD.

in the vicinity of the Ouse, which runs through
the counties of Bedford, Huntingdon, Cam-
bridge, and Norfolk. No expense was spared to
recover the land and a glance at the Ordnance Map
of those counties will show how completely the
course of this river has been turned to cause the

sluggish inland water to take a straight and rapid

course to the sea. The Ouse is a tidal river, in
common with all the streams on that part of the
coast, for in olden times the whole of the low lands
were flooded at
.high water. It was, therefore,
found necessary to erect strong sluices to eheck the
rising flood tides, which were so constructed as to
allow the accumulated inland waters to escape on
the ebb. At a point some five miles from St. Ives, the
course of the river is turned by the erection of a
substantial lock, and a drain a hundred feet wide,
and about twenty miles long, runs between high
embankments in a direct line to Downham Market,
where it again meets the Ouse 9 or 10 miles above
Lynn. The tidal waters at this spot are again cut
off from the Ouse by Demer sluice. The tide here
rises to a great height, and not being allowed to
expend itself as of old over the marshes, it rushes
with great force up the hundred-foot drain; thus
every acre of land reclaimed increases the pressure
on the sluices and embankments. This drain Ns as
constructed by commissioners, under a special Act
of Parliament. The object of the middle level was
to drain the upland waters, and the sluice in ques-
tion was intended to prevent the influx of the tidal
waters into the drain, so as to overflow and sub-
merge the lands below the level of the sea at high
water. This was in the last century, but latterly,
in order to get rid of the drainage that for a long
time used to fall into the river Ouse, it was resolved
to cut a straight drain eleven miles in length
through the country known as the Marsh Land,
from Popham's Eau to the Marshland sluice, run-
ning into the Ouse, and for that purpose an Act
of Parliament called the Middle Level Drain-
age Act, 7th and Bth Vic., c. 106, was obtained,
giving the Commissioners power to enter upon the
marshland and make the cut required, imposing at
the same time on the Commissioners duties both
onerous and difficult. By the Act, full directions
were given as to the mode in which the cut was to
be made, and the banks, the puddled clay walls,
and the fences were to be kept up and maintained,
but a good and substantial sluice was to be made
at the end of the cut next the River Ouse, which
is a tidal river. The sluice was built between
1844 and 1846, consisting of a kind of three arch
bridge, each arch being stopped with double sluice
doors Opening and shutting with the advancing
and receding tide. On each side of this bridge the
banks sloped gradually down to the bed of the river,
which at the highest tide rose to about 18 feet. Be-
tween the 22d and 26th of March, 1862, one hole—
though one witness said there were two holes was
discovered on the west side of the bank shutting
out the waters of the Ouse 15 feet deep
and 4 feet wide, the appearance of which betokened
approaching danger, and to fill up which with
of May as
the it
stones and straw sundry efforts wereth
appeared, in vain, for on the 4th
sluice was utterly destroyed, and on the 12th of
May 6,000 acres of land were submerged, the
cropsiured destroyed, and their fertility .
first of tl\TheowfOuwr eissaugerseesuwbmithittetdhe jthseriously in-
have been given in favour of the defendant--
uthryemthsahtouthlde
viz., that in the first instance the works were pro-
perly executed, but this is no reason why these same
works should have been neglected during sixteen
years. The continual wear and tear of a heavy
body of water rushing by it has been allowed to
undermine its foundations, and ultimately to drown
the country. If country gentlemen, either for their
own advantage or from public spirit, will take upon
themselves onerous duties, they are bound alike in
law and honour to fulfil them faithfully, or they
must abide the consequences.

The proceedings relative to the Alexandra will
soon engage public attention, but it appears from
what has already transpired that the Government
have adopted most harsh and unjustifiable means.
If these summary arrangements are to be the order
of the day, incalculable disadvantage will accrue

to the ship-builders throughout the country. This
conduct of the Government is all in keeping with their
refusing to give any protection to the Sea Queen.
Great excitement has been produced in Liverpool,
by this vessel being " exchequered," since it is
obvious that the most disastrous results will ensue

if the system be maintained. Workmen will, of
course, be discharged, and hence a considerable
addition will be made to the number of hands now
out of employ, and the distress and suffering among
the working classes will be greatly increased.
Mr. HORSFALL is to bring the question before
Parliament on Friday, when it is to be hoped that
a full and searching inquiry will be made into the
whole affair. It has been rumoured, indeed, that it
is intended to put off the consideration of the
charges against Messrs. MILLER, the builders of
the Alexandra, so that in the event of the subject
being discussed on Friday the particulars will not
be known. Such a subterfuge will not avail, how-
ever; for if this trifling with the interests, and in-
terference with the rights, of our subjects go on
much longer the general feeling of the country will
be roused to such a pitch of excitement that the
Government will have cause to regret their vain
endeavours. It is as absurd as it is unfair
to persist in favouring the Federals in
this manner, and Lord RUSSELL cannot
fall back on the argument of neutrality, since the
Americans never respect our flag as that of a neu-
tral power, but are as insolent as it suits their pur-
pose to be. The plain facts of the case, as repre-
sented to us by our Foreign Secretary, are virtually
these :—We are to bear all the disadvantages of a
neutral nation at home, and see our workmen out
of employ, our manuafacturers idle, and our general
trade depressed, while on the seas we can claim no
immunity from that position, since Admiral WILKES
and his friends are to expose us to the annoyances
and losses of war, without our having any power
to redress such grievances. It is high time that
such anomalies were put a stop to, and before the
session is any older let the case be seriously con-
sidered. It was supposed last year that we had
suffered enough from the disastrous war in America,
but we are now to learn that there is reserved for
us the insult of having our vessels searched, and the
mortification of finding that our own Government,
instead of being prompt to defend our honour, is
taking part against us in the most inconsistent and
unjustifiable manner.