The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-22 00:00:00

ThE SUN, 'LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22, 1862.

~,.5.,...,...e_ ~ _ . .

THR DREADFUL COLLIRRY ACCIDENT
IN NOR IB UMBERLAND.

SHIELDS, TUESDAY, 9 A.M.

The condition of the poor women and children I
{eliding in the colliery village of New Hartley,
from which' have just returned, is that of " mourn-
ing, lamentation, and woe." This morning the fifth'
Bight of the imprisonment of the husbands and
children of the women has passed away, and the
sixth day has dawned, but only to reveal to us that
hope, which has buoyed up the poor women and
children during the past five days, must give way
to despair, as it is to be feared that every soul
within the pit has perished. A few short weeks
ago I was travelling in a third class carriage on a
" Pay Saturday" with a number of poor women be-
longing to this and adjacent pits, who had been to
Newcastle making their marketings, and I listened
with much interest to their simple and womanly
expression of sympathy with the noblest lady of the
land, whom they termed " our poor Queen," in her
great bereavement. Now the Angel of Death,
which found its way into the Palace, has swept
over their cottage homes, and their case this
morning is one that recommends itself to every
sympathetic heart. The telegram I sent hence
last night was not cheering. I might have given
expression to more gloomy forebodings, but we
have all been " hoping against hope ;" and,
though the conditions of life under which the poor
creatures in the pit were supposed to be living were
among the most depressing consistent with human
existence, yet the assurance was always given that
the air was certain to be good in the yard seam,
and that there was plenty of water. Last night,
after I left the pit to send off my telegraphic mes-
sage from this town, the prospects of saving the
men became less favourable ; and, as I did not re-
turn to the pit until 5 o'clock this morning, I am
therefore indebted to a local paper for the follow-
ing particulars of what transpired after my leaving
up to 1 o'clock this morning

" 8 o'Clock.

" Once more the shift men have come to bank,
and once again a more favourable statement is made.
While working at the mass of timber impacked be-
low the bucket door, the hole previously alluded to
was sufficiently enlarged for the admission of a lan-
tern, but it was not lowered far. The men work
steadily among the wood and small stones, and
while they work they are gratified by hearing the
sound of pebbles falling from underneath the ob-
structing material, and this proves beyond doubt
that the hoped-for vacancy must exist, and as soon
as the firmly fixed portion of material is once
loosened, the long hoped for fall will take place. A
man now sits in the hole opposite the buaket door,
to direct the working during the temporary absence
of Mr. Coulson, who came up at 6 o'clock. While
the work proceeds the water falls down amain from
the craggy sides above, but no danger of further
falls is dreaded. About 7 o'clock a quantity of
smoke, that must have accumulated in the furnace
drift before the fire in the yard seam was extin-
guished, found vent and came away up the pit,
Time being now more and more valuable, none is
expended in ' jowling ' experiments, and nothing is
heard from the interior of the yard seam or the fur-
nace drift. It seems now more probable than ever
that the men will be reached before the sixth day
of their captivity dawns.

"10 O'CLOCK P.M.
"Notwithstanding that the various officials on the
platform endeavour to put a good face on the mat-
ter, it is painfully evident that the hope now re-
maining is of that character which serves merely to
gild despair. Those only who descend the shaft
and work for the removal of the knotty obstructions
they find there can form a correct opinion of the
task on which they are engaged. These men have
been from the first, if not despondent, at least doubt-
ful as to the accomplishment of their task, and while
they have refrained from expressing aught that
might lead to increase the fears of those affected by
the calamity, their silence on the subject has boded
no good. The viewers, on the contrary, always ex-
press themselves in hopeful terms, and invariably
put the most favourable construction on the sternest
facts that are communicated to them from below,
while, if there is any intelligence of an encouraging
nature it is by no means rendered less cheering by
the version given by these gentlemen. Meanwhile
melancholy broods gloomily over the row of cottages
facing towards the colliery ; and the occupants, con-
sisting now almost entirely of women, habitually
speak in a fearful undertone, as though a sick man
lay in each house whose life depended on the preser-
vation of deathlike stillness. The inquest on the
bodies of the men killed by the fall of the cage will
be held to-morrow at the Hastings Arms, Seaton
Delaval, but unless the men should be got from the
pit in the meantime the proceeding will probably be
simply formal. It is worthy of note that among so
great a number of people as have visited the colliery
since the catastrophe no accident has occurred, not-
withstanding that the Blyth and Tyne Railroad,
where trains are constantly running, seems to be
used as the principal means of approach for pedes-
trians to the colliery.
" With reference to the suggestion made by a cor-
respondent and noticed in a previous despatch, we
learn, since that notice was written, that a telegram
has been received by Mr. Humble, resident viewer,
recommending the same means of supplying the
men in the seam with food. The message, which
is said to have been sent from Bristol, was submitted
to Mr. John Carr, and to other viewers ; but the
suggestion was not considered-a practicable one, in-
asmuch as the drilling might occupy six or seven
days, even if it could be accomplished from the shaft
instead of from the high main.

~ 10 10 O'CLOCK

" The accounts from the pit are very gloomy.
The hole has been made larger, and is sunk near
the seam. Great apprehensions are entertained
-with regard to the stythe. Should these fears prove
correct there is great danger.

" 10 30 O'CLOCK.

" A slight fall has occurred, and has blocked up
the aperture, but this obstacle is expected to be
removed in half an hour.

ig 11 O'CLOCK.

" Discouraging news reached the bank. Mr.
Wilkinson, one of the men in charge of the working
party, was seat down to examine the hole alluded
to in a former paragraph. He started with the '7
o'clock shift, and remained until shortly before 10
o'clock. In the interval the men were directed to
apply their efforts vigorously to the enlargement
and further sinking of this aperture in the direction
of the furnace drift. They did so with a will. From
time to time !tc. Wilkinson examined the aperture,
and though at each inspection a man of his experi-
ence must have detected more and more unfavour-
able symptoms, he dauntlessly thrust his head as
far down as possible, with a view of testing the
state of the air. Wilkinson was brought to bank
suffering from the effects of the foul inhalation, and
Dr. Davidson at once attended to him.
A deputation of men has come up from among
the crowd requesting to be informed of the true
state of affairs. Mr. Coulson offered to allow two
of them to go down the shaft and examine for
themselves, and they have descended. They ima.
gined that the bodies had been found, and that the
intelligence was kept from them.

" HALF-PAST 11 O'CLOCK.
The excitement gradually increased among the
crowd until it culminated on the return to bank of
the deputation,Charles Gallagher and John M'Leod,
who had been down in the pit. One of these
having made his way into the middle of the crowd,
said aloud, There is not a morsel of stythe. There
is water enough to drown a man, but there is no
stythe.' Mr. Foster, who had just come up the
shaft, and was standing with a number of other
people against the railing of the coal platform over-
looking the crowd, then spoke to the assemblage.
He said, Then the men are satibfied that every-
thing has been done that can be done, and that they
are told the true state of, the case. There is no
fear of the men if there is no stythe,but, to tell you
the truth, I am afraid that there is sty the.'
"A man in the crowd asked if it was correct that
they had heard jowls up to yesterday ? Mr. For-
ster replied that he believed so. Mr. Wilkinson
would not tell him a lie, and Mr. Wilkinson had
told him what he had told them.
" Mr. Emmerson, one of the men who works in

the shaft, and who was standing near Mr. Forster,
then whispered to him that they had distinctly
heard jowls yesterday. Mr. Forster repe ,ted the

statement.

" Some confusion then arose, in th course of
which one of the men restored orde • by stating

aloud that the managers had done all in their power
under the circumstances. They had granted them

a deputation, and they had reason to be satisfied
if they would promise to let them have a report
every two hours, although he still thought they
had reason to be dissatisfied, because they had not
got definite information sooner.
" Mr. Foster—' You do not wish a deputation to
go down every two hours ?'—A general reply of
' No, no,' and statements to the effect that a report

only was wanted, were made.
"Mr. Foster—' Well, now, my lads, you shall
have every word that we know. I will tell you
whatever I hear. It is quite possible they may get
the hole up in an hour, and it is possible it may be
longer, or it may be less. I think there is no fear
if there is no stythe. But I will tell the truth; I
have great fear there is some stythe He hoped
they were now satisfied."
On reaching the pit this morning again at 5
o'clock, I found every one at bank in the greatest
excitement—as Mr. William Coulson, the master
sinker's son, Richard Wilson, Richard Pickup,
John Liddell, end Matthew Dodds, sinkers, had
just been taken out of the shaft, suffering from the
effects of gas, Wilson apparently dying. They were
immediately attended to by the medical men, and
have happily all recovered. As already indicated
by the extract made above, " stythe" had come up
from below as loose stones fell from among the tim-
ber, and some of the men came to bank slightly
suffering from Akin the early part of the morning.
The sinkers, however, wrought with a will during
the night, and a considerable quantity of loose stone
was removed from among the timber and sent up to
the high seam, The working parties had forced
their way down to the clackhead pump, and they
found it so firm that about 5 o'clock, the men whose
names are given, had got of their " loops," and were
standing clearing away the rubbish ; indeed, had
driven below it, and found a hollow space beneath.
Everything gave a cheering prospect that the yard
seam might be soon reached, and the sufferers, if
alive, rescued at last, when there was a sudden and
heavy fall of loose stones from among the timbers,
and an immediate emission of gas. The men were
overpowered by it ; but they had strength left to
rap to their " marrows" in the high seam. They
at once were lowered, to them in " corves," and on
reaching the platform they found the men nearly
unconscious. They got them into the " corves," and
were wound up to bank, and were brought up not a
minute too soon, as the relieving party were being
seriously affected by the gas. They describe it as
coming up through the timber like blue smoke. The
men who went to the rescue of their companions
were James Muter, George Pace, George Graham,
and John Henderson. Mute]: had a most miraculous
escape from death on Sunday while working in
the shaft. He was below in the debris at the time
of the heavy fall of stone. He was surrounded by
it, but not struck by it, and there was just space
enough left for him to be drawn through by the gin.
The gas by which the four sinkers nearly lost their
lives is very fatal to life. It is not found in the
workings of the mines in this district as exuding
from the natural coal in the seam. But the furnace
generates it among other gas. It is denominated
carbonic oxide. It is a light, volatile gas, and would
in the opinion of viewers, find its way into the shaft.
The men lost below were heard to "jowl" in the
shaft at 1 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and it is cer-
tain that they have not been heard since. Down to
and a little beyond that hour this gas would, to
some extent, find its way out of the shaft through
the interstices of the timber choking up the shaft;
but late in the afternoon, it will be remembered,
there was a heavy fall of stone, which would fill it
up, and it is feared would almost hermetically seal
up the shaft. Mr. Atkinson, the Government In-
spector of Mines, who has been here several days,
furnishes me with the following note :
"The furnace generates, among other gases, a
very deadly one, carbonic oxide. This gas, owing to
the blocking up of the shaft, has accumulated in the
yard coal in the immediate neighbourhood of the
shaft, and sufficiently accounts for the men being
prevented from approaching the shaft to signal for
so long a time—they have possibly retreated from
this enemy into the workings, where they may have
lived in the comparatively pure air of the mine.
Some, however, have in all probability been de-
stroyed in their attempts to approach the shaft, or
in their anxietytto remain in its vicinity,"
Mr. Telford, Mr. G. Foster, and some other gen-
tlemen of great practical experience also agree with
Mr. Atkinson that some of the men, indeed the
great body of them, may still be alive in the yard
seam. The following experiment, however, has sub-
sequently been tried :—A cat was lowered down the
shaft in a basket from the upper seam 24 fathoms,
and was kept there half an hour, when brought up
it was stupid, and it has since died. An upcast and
downcast shaft exists between bank and the high
seam by means of a staple. From thence workmen
will be occupied nearly all day in making a similar
down and up-cast to the yard seam by means of a
cloth brattice. The depth is from 50 to 60 yards ;it
s to be feared it will be a tedious undertaking.

NORTH SHIELDS, JAN, 21, 8 P.M

A quantity of prepared canvass has been brought
to the pit from the neighbouring collieries. It is
anticipated that the brattice in the shaft will be
completed to-morrow morning. A fan-blast is also
being erected in connexion with the furnace. It is
quite possible, however, that to-morrow will be far
advanced before operations are resumed to remove
the obstructions, as they cannot •go on until the
shaft is made safe and the gas has been removed.
An inquest has been held today on the men killed in
the shaft. Evidence was taken only of the beam
breaking and falling, the larger issue of the cause
being left until the other men have been found in the
pit. Mr. Carr and the various viewers still hold to
the opinion that a.stronger body of men in the pit
may be alive. The carbonic oxide is supposed to be
local. It has not found its way into the yard seam,
The air in the pit consists of many millions of gallons,
and is supposed to be comparatively pure. 1,500
gallons of water flow into the seam per minute, and
dislodge 1,500 gallons of air, which must find its way
out through the staple leading into the yard seam.
Eminent medical men are of opinion that, though
nearly entering on the seventh day of their impri-
sonment, strong men with tolerable air and water
may hold out some time yet. A large concourse of
pitmen about the colliery are inclined to be riotous.
Respectably dressed persons are allowed to go to the
pit's mouth, but working men are excluded, except
those persons who are engaged in the operations.
The men are calm, but there is a good deal of agita-
ticn for a double shaft movement. The pitmen
thought of knocking off work at adjoining collieries
out of respect to the buried men. They were ad-
vised, as a more prudent course, to keep to their
work and give assistance to the families of the
buried men, and the advice has been adopted. A
meeting of the principal mining engineers in the
coal trade was held here this afternoon ; they ap-
prove the arrangements adopted in the shaft under
he altered circumstances.

FOREIGN MAIL PACKET LIST.

THE WINDHAM CASE.

The adjourned inquiry into the state of mind of
Mr. W. F. Windham, of Felbrigg-hall, Norfolk
was resumed yesterday in the Westminster Ses-
sions-house, before Mr. Warren, Q.C., one of the
Masters in Lunacy, and a special jury.
_ _

Mr. Jackson, a solicitor, produced several letters
addressed to him by Mr. Windham.

This closed the evidence for the defence.
Mr. Russell then addressed the jury for Lady
Sophia Giubilei, the mother of the alleged lunatic.
His client, he said, had no personal interest in this
case apart from the interest of her son, but the Lords
Justices had thought that in an inquiry into the
mental sanity of her own child she should not be
doomed to be a mere passive spectator, and he
thought it would admitted that her counsel had not
hitherto abused the power granted to her to be
present and take part in the proceedings. Mr. Cham-
-1 bers in his able opening speech had stated that Lady
Sophia was to be taken as concurring in the petition

against her son. That statement was not correct.
Lady Sophia had never concurred—she did not now

concur—in these proceedings; but, on the contrary,
all her sympathies, interests, and wishes were with
her son. It would be unnatural, indeed, for a mo-
ther, except upon the clearest grounds and for the
most incontestable reasons, to assist in branding her
own child with the stamp of mental incapacity.
Perhaps the only gratifying feature in this case was
_ _

;hat Mr. Windham—of whom it had been said that

his heart was not capable of good and that he
had no moral feeling—had during his whole
life, beginning from his earliest youth, con-
stantly expressed the deep and earnest affection
which he entertained for his mother. It was not

surprising, therefore, that Lady Sophia, instead of
concurring in the petition against her son, should
disapprove and condemn it. She regretted and
grieved over the faults which undoubtedly bad
stained his youth ; but those features of the case
had been greatly softened by the evidence for the
defence, and Lady Sophia looked forward with con-
fidence to the result of the interview which the
Master and the jury proposed to have with her son.
The jury had to consider a case surrounded by pre-
judice and falsehood, but he :trusted they would
rivet their attention upon its real merits. He hoped
they would pause long before they fixed upon Mr.
Windham the stain of insanity—before they took
from him on the very threshold of manhood that
which made manhood a thing to be prized—the
sense of personal freedom and personal independ-
ence. They had been told this inquiry would have
a sobering effect upon him, enabling him to distin-
guish real from pretended friends, and, if so, it
would serve a great and beneficial end. By a ver-
dict in his favour they would give him an opportu-
nity of retrieving the follies of his youth—the follies
of a raw, riotous, unrestrained, untutored youth—
and of playing a part which, though not conspicu-
ous by great deeds, might not be altogether un-
worthy of the name he bore and of the social
position into which he was born.
Mr. Karslake was then heard for Mr. Wind-
ham. He rejoiced to hear from Mr. Russell that
there was at least one of the relatives of Mr. Wind-
ham who did not appear in the ranks of the
petitioners against him. He had thought until a
recent period that there were two parties in this in-
quiry—the accuser and the accused ; but the jury
had been told that, in addition to the other anoma-
lies which surrounded the case, there was no recog-
nised accuser at all, and that Mr. Chambers
appeared there as a friend of the Court for the pur-
pose of assisting it in ascertaining whether Mr.
Windham was insane or not. The result of the
inquiry, whether favourable or the reverse to Mr.
Windham, would be to saddle him with a charge
of some £15,000 or £20,000, and for that enormous
,burden he would have to thank the petitioners, be-
cause they had- chosen to bring forward a case
which could not be proved in evidence, and because
they had acted throughout, not in a fair, honest,
and judicial spirit, but as partisans for the purpose
of depriving Mr. Windham of his property, which
was the only thing they cared a straw about. It
must be admitted that, besides the prejudice excited
by the petitioners against Mr. Windham, the pre-
judice which the alleged lunatic had created by his
own acts weighed heavily upon him now. Even in
contracting his marriage Mr. Windham had done
an act which was calculated to disgust society. He
should have thought, however, that when it had
been proved that General Windham, Mr. Hook,
and the other petitioners had made numerous affi-
davits in the Court of Chancery for the purpose of
inducing the Lords Justices to issue a commission
of lunacy against their youthful relative, and after-
wards had refused to pledge their oaths before the
public to the truth of these statements, the case
ought at once to have been brought to an end. No
doubt he should hear some specious reasons from
Mr. Chambers for not calling General Windham
and the other petitioners as witnesses; but he sub-
mitted that if the jury were satisfied that the mo-
tives of General Windham were not so disinterested
as they bad been represented to be, and that he had
declined to appear in the witness-box and to sub-
mit himself to a cross-examination in the face of the
public from a well-grounded indisposition to repeat
in open court the statements which he had made
to the Lords Justices, there was no reason,
however specious, which could remove the im-
pression from their minds that General Wind-
ham had acted incautiously and unfairly. It was
not his intention to contest the right of the
petitioners to institute a proceeding which they
honestly believed to be necessary and likely to be
justified by the result. If General Windham and
the rest of the band of petitioners were really of
opinion that their statements in the Court of Chan-
cery amounted to proof of insanity—if they were
satisfied that their allegations could be confirmed
by unimpeachable evidence in open court—no fault
could be found with them for the course they had
adopted, even though they might saddle Mr. Win-
dham with an enormous debt and expose to the pub-
lic gaze every folly and vice of his early years.
But, he repeated, the petitioners had acted through-
out, not as judges of the cause, but as partisans, and
had done everything in their power to excite a pre-
judice in the public mind against their young rela-
tive. Instead of going to Mr. and Mrs. Martin,
who above all other persons knew the early his-
tory of Mr. Windham, they had produced in the
Court of Chancery a series of statements upon which
they did not venture to rely before a jury, and they
had been guilty of a deliberate concealment of evi-
dence, because they knew it would not suit their
purpose. It would be recollected, moreover, that
they had carefully kept out of sight the character
and peculiarities of old Mr. Windham ; and yet the
jury had heard from Dr. Conolly that it was im-
possible to judge of young Mr. Windham without
knowing something of his treatment in early life
and the influences to which he was then exposed.
The truth was, he believed, that young Mr. Wind-
ham was in many respects a counterpart of his
father, all whose frailties and foibles were perfectly
well known to the petitioners, who, nevertheless,
acting in the spirit of partisans, had done every-
thing they could to conceal them from the jury.
Daring the course of the case for the petitioners,
two pictures, one of which must necessarily be
untrue, had been drawn by Mr. Windham. Ac-
cording to Mr. Chambers, in his opening speech,
backed by a number of policemen, Mr. Windham
was a congenital imbecile, continually slavering
at the mouth, talking incoherently, and screeching
and howling like a madman. That picture had been
utterly wiped out by Dr. Winslow, Dr. Mayo, and
Lord Alfred Hervey, who had favoured the Court
with another portrait of Mr. Windham, equally in-
consistent with the first and with truth. Mr. Wind-
ham, according to the two doctors and his uncle,
although of unsound mind and incapable of
managing his affairs, was so little of an imbecile
that any person might converse with him for hours
without perceiving that there was anything the
matter with him at all. But the real issue before
the jury was not whether Mr. Windham was of un-
sound mind, or whether he was incapable of
managing his affairs, but whether he was incompe-
tent tothe conduct of his affairs by reason of un-
soundness of mind. It might be true that many of
his acts had been profligate and vicious; but what
the jury had to consider was, not whether Mr. Wind-
ham had spent his youth in excesses of various

kinds and had done many foolish and objectionable '
things, but whether the acts and events which had
been proved in evidence were the clear and indis•
putable result of insanity. He admitted that there
were defects in the character of Mr. Windham, but
those defects were attributable to the example of

his father and to the treatment he received in child-
hood. Mr. Windham seemed to have been allowed
to do what he liked in childhood : his education,

such as it was, ceased at too early an age, and he
never was wisely or prudently directed. The evi-

denee of the witnesses showed that when at school
he was not a boy of dirty habits, while the slaver-

ing was completely accounted for by the peculiar
formation of his mouth, which had nothing what-
ever to do with his mental capacity. At school he
was somewhat riotous and boisterous in his manner,
and that circumstance, cotpled with his fondness

for rough out-door sports, satisfactorily explained
his sobriquet of " Mad Windham." The learned
counsel reflected with severity upon the conduct
of some of the tutors, and argued that, though apt
to resent and resist force when used by
those whom he disliked, Mr. Windham was always
amenable to authority properly and fairly exercised
—while his letters to his mother showed that he had
an affectionate disposition. He asked the jury whe-
ther it was likely, if Mr. Windham were the sort of

wild beast he was represented to be by the peti

tioners, if he were a creature who spent his time in
howling and catcalling, a person who never by any
chance indulged in coherent and conseauential con-
versation, he would have been kept so long at Eton,
or could have induced gentlemen of education,
ability, and position to live and travel with him ?
Mr. Burr, the tutor at Wokinghaw, had distinctly

stated that in point of intellect Mr. Windham was
not inferior to the other young men under his
charge, and that if he had continued his studies a
short time longer he would have passed the army
examination without the smallest difficulty. On the
other hand, the evidence of Mr. Cook and others
showed conclusively that Mr. Windham transacted
his business like any other gentleman, while the
conduct of Mr. Andrews, of Rimpton, when he ex-
pressed his willingness to allow his daughter under
certain conditions, to enter into an engagement with
Mr. Windham was clear and convincing proof that

in the opinion of a gentleman of great intelligence
and position there was not the slightest taint of in:

aanity about the alleged lunatic. -The education of
Mr. Windham might be said to have closed when

he left Eton, for none of his subsequent tutors, or
rather companions, ever read with him, or ever
wished to read with him. Col. Bathurst had given
his evidence with more fairness than the other
tutors, but he ought to have stated before leaving
the witness-box that, after his connection with the
alleged imbecile had altogether ceased, he did not
scruple to visit hia as a friend. The history of
his connection with the East Norfolk Militia at
Great Yarmouth, abundantly proved that Mr.
Windham, thong quick to resent an injury,
was always ready to show respect where re-
spect was due, and capable of discharging his duties
satisfactorily and properly when he chose to per-
form them. Mr. Scott, the metaphysician and
solicitor,of Aylsbara, had formed and expressed an
opinion that Mr. Windham was insane, but the
some gentleman had on several occasions gone to
Felbrigg-hall and dined with the alleged lunatic,
and had taken his wife and daughter with him,
exposiLg them to the insults which a man who
could not talk rationally or coherently might be ex-
pected at any moment to heap upon them. The
way in which Mr. Windham was treated by the
gentlemen of his own neighbourhood—the visits
paid to him by Captain Ives, a deputy-lieutenant of
tie county, and his terms of intimacy with Lord and
Lady Suffield, ought to have greater weight with
the jury than opinions formed upon such flimsy and
worthless grounds as those stated by Mr. Scott and
others. No person could doubt for a moment that
if Mr. Windham had been insane be would neither
have been permitted to remain in the East Norfolk
Militia, received as a guest by Lord Suffield, nor
visited as a friend by Captain Ives. In an evil hour
Mr. Windham went to lodge with the Llewellins,
in Duke-street. ,The affidavits of the Llewellins to
the Lords Justices were to the effect that Mr.
Windham was more like a wild beast than a human
being. That he was either unable or unwilling to
wash himself, unless compelled to do so. That he
was taken out of his room and put into a bath every
morning by Mr, Llewellin. That he habitually
threw away his money. That he was in the habit
of running about the house in a state of nakedness.
That he repeatedly exposed his person in a dis-
graceful manner to Mrs. Llewellin, and that his bed
was frequently found in a filthy condition. Could
anybody doubt that the Llewellins were mere
creatures of Gen. Windham P Gen. Windham had
been called a distinguished man. All his informa-
tion of Gen. Windham had been derived from public
report, he cared nothing for what his conduct might
have been in the field. He judged him by his
actions alone, and he begged to tell General Wind-
ham that he was a mere carpet knight if he could
attack his nephew with affidavits in the retirement
of the Court of Chancery, and then decline to re-
peat his statements in open court. General Wind-
ham had blown his own trumpet rather loudly; he
had challenged his kinsman to the combat; he had
exposed his life to the public gaze with every cir-
cumstance of exaggeration and falsehood, but, with
a moral cowardice almost unexampled, when his
nephew entered the lists to meet him in fair fight,
he had left his hired and perjured witnesses to make
what stand they could, and had meanly skulked and
hid himself in the seat beside his counsel. Here
was a man who the day before Mr. Windham came
of age treated him as sane and competent, and who,
long after his marriage, attempted to sell him a
property worth £l,OOO. The last thing we heard
of General Windham was that when Elizabeth
Moore proved the perjury of Mrs. Llewellin in
connexion with one of the most disgusting features
of his case, he left his home in Belgravia on Christ-
mas morning and sought out the humble dwelling
of Mrs. Brown, the laundress, for the purpose of
seeing whether he could not bolster up the evidence
of a baffled and discredited witness. General Wind-
ham had not the courage to come forward in open
court and support the charge which he had dared
to make against his nephew. In the privacy of the
Court of Chancery he had ventured to defame and
blacken the character of his youthful relative, but
he had proved himself craven, recreant, and coward
enough to decline to sanction by his oath in the
face of the public a story which he had foisted
upon the Lords Justices, and which he had not
hesitated to support by the evidence of hireling
witnesses. It was a remarkable fact that, after
he had retained the Llewellins'as his principal wit-
nesses, General Windham, of whose distinction we
had heard so much, did not scruple to dine with a
retired valet and his wife to celebrate the birthday
of a brother soldier. The house in Duke-street was,
indeed, a mysterious establishment. Generals,
colonels, clergymen,
and distinguished scholars were
there in the habit of dining with a common lodging-
house-keeper, who one day waited like a footman
and the next sat down at table, while his wife took
daily airings in a cab with a gentleman whom she
called her "
him as far as Ramsgate.
gentleman The learnedand sometimes travelled with
had not concluded his
speech when the Court adjourned.

SHIP ASHORE AT RomNEY.—The Dutch schooner
Fry Fries, Arome, master, from Holland for Belfast, with
linseed, went ashore near Romney coastguard-station about
half-past 5 on Monday morning, but was got off with the
assistance of the Coastguard before noon, and proceeded to
Dover harbour, where she has since arrived.
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HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)
The mortality of London in the week that ended
on Saturday exhibited a satisfactory decrease on
the rather formidable return of the previous week.
The deaths, which had risen to 1,561, fell last week
to 1,391.
The deaths from pulmonary diseases (exclusive of
phthisis) were 348 in the previous week ; they de-
clined to 310 last week. Those from bronchitis now
returned are 185, the corrected average being 206;
from pneumonia they were 79, whereas the cor-
rected average of corresponding weeks is 104.
Phthisis was fataLto 144 persons, against an aver-
age of 163.
There was a decrease in smrlatina last week ; the
number referred to it was 57, It had previously
ranged considerably above 70. There were 14 from
diptheria, 3 of which occurred in the first sub dis-
trict, Lambeth Church. Three children have died
of diphtheria in a family at 39, Penton-street,
Clerkenwel], within 12 days. Five of the deaths
from scarlatina occurred in Deptford. Typhus num-
bered 52 deaths, the corrected average being 47.
The eastern districts returned 16, the southern 22.
Four occurred in Hoxton, 4 in St. James's, Ber-
mondsey, 3 in the Borough-road sub-district. Of
these 62 deaths, 15 are returned as caused by
typhus, 20 by typhoid fever, 6 by gastric fever, 1
by bilious fever, 1 by continued fever, 1 by infan-
tile fever, and 8 by fever.
A woman died on the 4th inst. at 12, Hyde-place,
Hoxton, from destitution. A labourer, his name
unknown, died apparently from want on the follow-
ing day at 7, Warren-lane, Woolwich. When in a
state of exhaustion he was hospitably admitted to a
common lodging-house, where he had requested to
be permitted to enter, and died soon after.
Last week the births of 1,007 boys and 989 girls,
n all 1,996 children, were registered in London. In
:he 10 corresponding weeks of the years 1852-61

the average number (corrected) was 1,890.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.747 in.
The readings fell to 2940 in. on Tuesday, and rose
to 29.90 in. on Saturday. The mean temperature
of the air in the week was 35 deg., which is 0.7 deg.
below the average of the same week in 43 years (as
determined by Mr. Glaisher). The air was warm
on Sunday, and the mean daily temperature con-
tinued above the average till Thursday; it then fell,
and on the last two days the amount of depression
was about 9 deg. The highest day temperature was
48 deg. on Sunday; the lowest night temperature
was 22 deg. on Saturday. The thermometer fell
below the freezing point of water on the last three
nights. The range of temperature in the week was
26 deg. The mean daily range was 9.6 deg. The
difference between the mean dew-point temperature
and the air temperature was 61 deg. This difference,
showing the dryness of the air, varied from 1.3 deg.
on Sunday to 16.2 deg. on Saturday. The mean
degree of humidity was 82, complete saturation be-
ing represented by 100. The humidity fell from
95 on Sunday and Tuesday to 55 on Saturday. The
wind blew from south-west and north-west in the
early part of the week; towards the end it was in
south-east. Rail fell to the amount of 0.19 in., the
greater part of it on the morning of Tuesday. The
mean of the highest temperature of the Thames was
43.1 deg., that of the lowest 40.5 deg. On Satur-
day the lowest temperature of the water was 6.4
deg. above the highest temperature of the air, and
16'4 deg. above the lowest. The thermometer on
the grass fell on Saturday to 17 deg.