The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-24 00:00:00

711 E ARMY.

The 2d battalion 20th Regiment was inspected by
Major-Gen. Lord W. Paulet, C. 8., commanding the
south-west district, in the barrack-square, Anglesea,
barracks, on Tuesday last. He expressed the highest
satisfaction with the manner in which the men per-
formed their evolutions in the field and the general
appearance of the regiment. He considered that the
utmost zeal must have been shown by all ranks,
from Col. Radcliffe down to the men of this young
battalion, to bring it to the state of efficiency in
which he found it.

I A notification has been received at Chatham gar-
rison from the Horse Guards, that slides and dia-
grams to illustrate lectures will be issued for the use
of the troops at the following foreign stations—
Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Fredricton, Bermuda,
Jamaica, Barbadoes, the Cape, the Mauritius, Cey-
lon, Australia, Gibraltar, Malta, Corfu, Hongkong,
New Zealand, and St. Helena. Those forwarded to
Ceylon are to circulate from Colombo to the follow-
ing stations—Newera, Ellia, Kandy, Trincomalee,
and Galle. Those sent to Montreal are to circulate,
in order to Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, and Lon-
don. The slides at present at Malta and Ceylon are
to be exchanged as often as convenient. In addition
to the slides and diagrams, apparatus for lectures on
chemistry, electricity, and magnetism have been
supplied to the following corps and stations at home
and abroad, viz., Aldershot, Shorncliffe, Colchester,
Parkhurst, Grenadier Guards, 2d Life Guards, Ist
battalion Coldstream Guards, the Currah, Parsons-
town, the Cape, and New Zealand. In order that
the several lecturers may have the means of obtain-
ing the information necessary for delivering the va-
rious lectures, the Duke of Cambridge has autho-
rised the issue of suitable text books, which will be
supplied to the libraries at the various stations
which do not already possess them. g.
The party of the Royal Engineers selected to be
employed on the surveying operations at Portsdown-
hill left headquarters, Chatham, yesterday.
The introduction of the new military cooking ap-
paratus for the use of the troops of the line quar-
tered in Chatham barracks--a description of which
has already appeared in The Sun—has been at-
tended with such complete success that the autho-
rities have decided on erecting a similar apparatus
at Brampton barracks, for the Royal Artillery,

Royal Engineers, and the other troops stationed
there. The chief advantage obtaiued in the new
cooking range is, its great economy of fuel as com-
pared with the old description of stoves, 61b. of
fuel being amply sufficient for one cooking. The
apparatus consists of eight boilers of steel, the plates
of which they are composed being 11 inch in thick-
ness, all the boilers being fixed in one range. In
addition to the saving of fuel another advantage is
obtained by the use of the new cooking range,
which dresses the food for the troops in a mode
cleaner and better than was obtainable under the
old system. A party of men from the Royal En-
gineers' barracks at Brompton are to attend at
Chatham barracks, where the new cooking stoves are
in full operation, to be instructed in the method of
using them.

7HR FEARFU 1, PIT ACCIDENT NEAR
WOLVERHAMPTON,

Yesterday the inquest was concluded upon the
four men who were killed at the pit shaft at the
New Priestfield Colliery, at Portobello, near Wol-
verhampton, last Friday.

The first witness called was Thomas Gough, the
butty of the pit at which the accident happened.
He said that while near the bottom of the shaft, he
felt an unusual rush of wind, and found four men
lying dead by the side of a massive " bow," or draw-
ing slip, which had one of its rings broken and the
others much bent. The " tackle" from which the
men were thrown, after ascending to the top, again
came down, and the deceased were then conveyed
to the top. The " bonnet," or circular plate iron
awning to prevent anything from alighting upon
the men who are coming up the shaft, was found
to be slightly bent on one side, and the tackle was
bent in several places. Witness considered the ap-
paratus to be in a perfectly safe condition. There
were usually two skips on the pit bank, a spare
and a drawing one. The banksman's duties were
to do everything necessary for the safety of the
ascending men. When the latter are about to
ascend a signal is given to the banksman, and he
should then have the skip on a particular line of
rails, Vi hich, from their curvature, would render the
blowing of the skip over the brink of the shaft
rather difficult. In this instance the skip was on
a line of rails direct for the brink, in which position
it was not safe to be left. About two hours before
the accident witness had seen the skip on the dan-
gerous line of rails, and had cautioned the banks-
man respecting its position. After this caution
another skip must have been again placed in the
same position.

Evan Edwards, who escaped with a slight bruise
when his companion was hurled to the bottom, said
that before coining up the usual signal was given
to the banksman. When about half-way up a
rumbling noise was heard, upon which one of the
men exclaimed, "The skip is coming !" and they
then all crowded together under the "bonnet." In
an instant the "bonnet" was knocked on one side,
and the witness supposed the four men were thrown
out. Witness escaped by clinging to the tackle
chains, and could recollect scarcely anything that
took place. The pit was considered to be carefully
worked. The ground bailiff stated that the skip
should never be placed on the direct line of rails
except when the waggon or covering was over the
mouth of the pit. If the skip were placed on the
curved line it could not blow into the pit, and even
on that line a caution had been given not to place it
too near.

Thomas Taylor, who had made inquiries of the
banksman, said the latter had stated that while
standing near the month of the shaft, a sudden gust
of wind propelled the skip, which was " scotched '
with a small stone, over the brink. An effort was
made to push the waggon over the mouth of the pit,
and , thus prevent the descent, but it proved
fruitless.

At this stage, as the banksman wished to have a
witness called who had seen the occurrence, the
inquiry was adjourned till the following day.