The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-24 00:00:00

rim SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVE NING, JANUARYS 24, 1862.

THE DREADFUL COLLIERY ACCIDENT

IN NORTHUMBERLAND.

SHIELDS, THURSDAY MORNING.

The sinkers have been pursuing their labours
during the night to make the shaft in Hartley New
Pit secure from the fall of stone and to effect better
ventilation in the workings ; but until these aro
finished no active operations can be recommenced
to remove the bodies of the 215 men and lads out
of the mine. The colliery authorities have furnished,
as far as they have been enabled to do so, a list of
the poor fellows who have lost their lives in the pit.
It is as follows, and is the most terrible record, as
regards numbers, that has been published in con-
nexion with colliery accidents in the North country,
or perhaps in England :—Amour, James, married,
back-overman; Amour, Richard, boy, son of the
above; Allan, William, married; Asivell, Frank,
married; Atchison, Adam, married; Alderton,
William, married ; Ainsley, John, married ; Arm-
strong, John, married; Armstrong, Edward, boy,
Armstrong, John, boy—sons of the above ; Ander-
son, William, boy; Beoadfoot, John, single; Brown,
George, married, brakesman at inclined plane ;
Bewick, Robert, killed on Thursday week, Bewick,
John, married, Bewick, James, married, brothers ;
Birtley, Samuel, married ; Brown, William, mar-
ried, killed on Thursday week ; Blackburn, Samuel,
married; Burn, William, single; Brown, Thomas,
married, Brown, Ralph, single, brothers; Bell,
Mark, single; Bell, Thomas, married; Bell,
Thomas, boy, cousin of above; Burn, John, mar-
ried; Burn, Thomas, boy, son of above; Ben-
nett, John, married; Cole, Thomas, married,
deputy-overman ; Clough, Henry, married, rolley-
way-man, first day in pit ; Campbell, James,
married ; Coulson, John, married, Cheethani,
Alfred, married; Chambers, Thos., married;
Chambers, Clark, son of above ; Carling, Geo., mar-
ried; Cross, Philip, married; Cross, Philip, single,
son of above; Cousins, John, boy, Cousins, Robert,
boy—brothers ; Davidson, John, married, a rolley-
way man; Davidson, Win., boy, son of above;
Dixon, Wm., married ; Dawson, Thos., married ;
Dawson, John, boy, son of above; Daffy, Patrick,
married; Duffy, James, boy, son of above; Dixon,
Wm., single; Douglass, John, married; Dixon,
Rebt., boy; Elliott, Ellison, married, a stoneman;
Elliott, Edward, single ; Fulton, Geo., married ;
Forster, Joseph, single; Forster John, boy, brothers;
Ford, John, married, Ford, Henry, married, brothers;
Fdrd, Peter, nephew of Wm. Oliver; Fairbairn,
Wm. married; Fairbairn, Geo., single, son of above; '
Gleghorn, Oswald, lodger with T. Liddle ; Graham,
Christopher, married ; Glen, James, single, Glen,
Wm., boy, Glen, Geo., boy, brothers; Gwinelly,
Patrick, single ; Gallagher, John, married ; Gal-
lagher, Duncan, brother of above; Gallagher, Jas.,
boy, nephew of above ; Gledson, Win., married ;
Gledson, Win., married, Gledson, Gee., married,
Gledson, Thos., married, sons of above ; Gledson,
Thos., son of above; Gibson, Henry, single;
Howard, James, single; Harding, John, boy; Har-
rison, Thos., boy ; Hayes, Geo., married ; Hall,
Geo., married ; Humble, Peter, married ; Humble,
Joseph, married, nephew of under-viewer ; Hepple,
Thos., single; Hill, Geo., married; Hindmarsh,
James, first day in pit; Houston, Andrew, married;
Bill, Geo., single, stoneman ; Hamilton, James,
married; Hamilton, James, boy, son of the above;
Badge, John, single; Hunter, Henry, boy ; Ken-
nedy, Wm., married ; Liddle, Wen„ married ; Li d-
dle, Geo., single, Liddle, Jas., single, sons of the
above; Liddle, John, married; Liddle, Thos., Lid-
dle, George, and Liddle, John, sons of the above;
Liddle, Thos., brother of John Liddle ; Liddle, Thos.,
son of above; Laws, Thomas, single; Laws, George.
single, onsetter, brother of above ; Logue, William,
married ; Long, John, boy, Long, Robert, boy, cou-
sins ; Mason, Hugh, single; Morgan, Andrew,
widower ; Murray, Michael, single; Myher, David,
married; Marley, Robert, married; Manderson,
Peter, married ; Miller, Walter, stoneman, Miller,
William, married, stoneman, brothers ; Macaulay,
Thomas, married ; Mullon, Robert, married ; Mul-
len, John, married; M'Luskey, Richard, single ;
Macfarlane, William, boy ; 111‘Kie, John, married ;
M'Kie, Adam, son of the above ; M'Racon, William,
single ; North, Robert, married, North, George,boy,
North, John, boy, and North, Alexander, boy, all
brothers ; Nicholson, John, married ; Nicholson,
Joseph, single; Nesbit, Peter, nephew of Pete?
Manderson ; Nicholson, John, boy ; Ormston, John,
married; Oliver, William, married; Oliver, John,
single, Oliver, James, married, Oliver, William,
single, and Oliver, Peter, single, sons of above;
Pape, William, boy, nephew of John Tranent ; Pear-
son, Thomas, single; Palmer, William, married ;
Jacques, Winship, married; Johnson, Robert, single,
Johnson, Joseph, married, brethers ; Rutherford,
Thomas, married; Robinson, --, married ; Red-
path, William, married ; Rowley, Edward, married;
Rutherford, William, single, Rutherford, John, sin-
gle, brothers ; Riley, Hugh, married ; Robson,
Ralph, married (killed in the cage); Richardson,
Alexander, married ; Robinson, Thomas, married ;
Ross, Thomas, married ; Rounall, Robert, married;
Robson, James, boy; Stamsby, James, single;
Small, Robert, single ; Sebastian, Thomas, single;
Sharp, George, married (killed in the cage) ; Sharp,
George (killed at the same time) ; and Sharp, John-
son, son of G. Sharp, sen. ; Sherlock, Patrick, sin-
gle; Stanley, "William, single ; Smith, Frank, mar-
ried; Sharp, Henry, married, and Sharp, Thos., mar-
ried, deputy-overman, brothers, and cousins of G.
Sharp, sen. ; Seurfield,George,married ; Smith, Wm.,
glassmaker, Seaton Sluice, who was down the pit
as a visitor; Softley, Edward, boy; Skinner,
George, boy ; Tranent, John, married, deputy over-
man ; Tranent, George, boy, son of the above ; Tel-
ford, William, married, rolleyway-man ; Thirlaway,
George, married ; Taylor, Joseph, married ; Taylor,
James, single; Tibbs, William, married; Tranent,
William, married, an onsetter ; Weitch, John, mar-
ried ; Watson, Thomas, married, rolleyway-man
Wilson, George, married, rolleyway-man ; Wand-
less, Christopher, single ; Wandless, John, single,
and Wandless, Thomas, single, brothers; Walker,
Benjamin, single ; Watson, James, married; Wat-
son, Joseph, son of the above ; Wade, George, mar-
ried; Weir, Thomas, married; Weir, Robert,
single; Whalpool, Patrick, single ; Watson, John,
married, and Watson. Thomas, single, cousins;
Wilson, William, boy, nephew of Frank Smith ;
Wilkinson, John, married ; White, William, single ;
Nilson, William, boy ; Walker, James and Wil-
liam, boys, brothers; Younger, Henry, married,
deputy overman ; Youll, John, married.
The list gives a total of 205 men and boys who
were working in the pit at the time of the accident,
and who are now all dead. It is supposed that even
this large number does not give the whole loss, as
the names of some of the men were unknown, in
consequence of their being new hands at the col-
liery.
There is no doubt that the buried men were alive
so late as Sunday afternoon, and that on the night
of Sunday they perished. Down to Sunday after-
noon, as stated in The Sun of yesterday, the timber
and bratticing which form the obstruction half-way
down the shaft, might have been comparatively
open far the air and gases to pass through from
the bottom of the mine; but after that evening it
might to a large extent become almost airtight. To
get a correct view of the terrible accident it is
necessary to recapitulate a little where it has
taken place. Hartley New Colliery is a mine 100
.fathoms deep. The high seam is not wrought at
present, neither, to any extent, is the yard seam,
which is below it, but 29 fathoms above the low
main seam, which latter seam is where the coals
have been recently wrought, and in which the
buried men were following their daily occupation
at the time of the accident. The colliery is more
liable to the inflow of water than almost any other
rain
• e in the Northern coal trade. It is a steam-
coalver mine, and has been a unprofitable specu-
lation to its owners. Some six or eight years ago
the difficulties with the water were so great that a
pumping engine of immense capacity, said to be
working up to 400-horse power, was erected for
clearing the mine of it, and the huge beam, which
lifted 1,500 gallons of water per minute, was placed
over the shaft, the beam, of cast-iron, weighing 40
tons. This day week the ordinary daily work of
the pit was commenced by the first shift going down
between 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning; they were
followed by the lads at 5 ; and the back-shift men
had gone down at 9 o'clock to relieve their "mar- ,

rows" who had been at work since 2 ; two sets of
the first shift men had been drawn to bank and
were being followed by the third set, eight men,
when, as already reported, about 10 o'clock in the
forenoon the huge beam of the pumping engine
snapped in two, and the arm overhang r g the mine
plunged down the shaft, sweeping away the brat-
tice
which divided the shaft into the "up-cast and
the down-cast," and tearing away the timber and
planking which protected the sides of the shaft.
The broken beam, being the more ponderous body,
seems to have rushed past the timber and brat-
tieing it tore away, and has settled either upon
the edge of the yard seam, or has fallen to the
bottom of the shaft. The timber and bratticing
lodged in the shaft between the high seam and
the next, leaving the former open to bank, but
cutting off all connexion with the latter. If
the men had remained many hours in the low
seam after the accident they would have
.speedily
been drowned. But there was a staple, a kind of
man-hole, independent of the shaft, and up it the
men and lads clambered by means of an iron wire
ladder. The distance up the shaft from the yard
to the upper seam is from 50 to 60 yards—but there
is a means of egress from the yard seam higher up
the shaft than from the archway leading from its
workings by means of the furnace drift—a sort of
sloping chimney leading from the furnace in the
yard seam into the shaft. It would appear that the
more bold and adventurous of the buried miners,
including Amos, the overman, and Tennant, one of
the deputies, had found a way up this drift, and
from saws and adzes, and other tools found there,
had employed themselves down to Sunday after-
noon in trying to cut a way through the timber
blocking the shaft, and so force a passage up to the
outer world ; and the entire energies of the sinkers
who have been engaged in the shaft have been
directed to reach this furnace drift. Yesterday
afternoon, after the cloth brattice was finished, the
air was considerably improved in the shaft ; and, a
hole having been cut through, two volunteers,
miners, belonging to Cowpen Colliery, were let
down in the gin and forced their way through this
hele into the furnace drift, and thence into the yard
seam, whence on emerging at bank they announced
the awful intelligence that the men were all dead.
As already stated by telegraph, they were followed
down by Mr. Humble, the resident viewer of the
colliery, and Mr. Hall, viewer of yelling Colliery.
Their return to bank was anticipated with much
anxiety. I have already forwarded to you by tele-
graph the result of their explorations in the mine ;
but the following is a more detailed account by
another hand than from telegraphic arrangements
down here I was enabled to despatch last night :
" At 20 minutes to 6 o'clock Messrs. Humble and
Hall came to bank both suffering considerably from
the combined effects of noxious air and the sad sight
of which they had been the spectators. Both
men were very much affected,
,and had to be
assisted out of the slings and led to a seat in
the horse-hole, which has been temporarily fitted up
for the purpose of carrying on the workings during
the last few days, much inconvenience being expe-
rienced in sending the men up and down by the
staple. As speedily as possible some hot tea, which
has been constantly kept in readiness, was admini-
stered to the suffering men by Mr. T. Pyle, of Ears-
don, and Dr. Pyle, of Sunderland, who were-in at-
tendance at the month of the shaft. In a short time
both men were sufficiently recovered to relate
what they had seen in the workings below. Mr.
Humble was visibly affected, and it was only be-
tween his half stifled sobs that the painful recital of
the scene he had just witnessed could be obtained
from him. His first words, on returning to con-
sciousness, were, Oh, dear! oh, dear !so many of
my fellow-creatures killed. My canny fellows.' In
answer to Mr. Pyle, he said, Yes ; they're all dead.
If they're only happy. May the Lord have mercy
on them !' Here the trial was too much for him,
for he again gave full vent to his harrowed feelings,
and was unable to go on with his distressing story.
It was considered advisable to lead him from the
painful scene, and get him conveyed home, which
was done, Mr. Pyle accompanying him thither to
watch over his recovery. Before going, however,
he enjoined those left in charge not to allow the men
to go further than the first door, as,' he added,
mournfully, there's plenty of work there yet a bit.'
Mr. Hall, though suffering in an equal degree with
Mr. Humble, was rather more collected, and from
him we learnt that they had seen, they expected,
every one in they pit, and they were all dead. The
men had evidently not had to succumb to hunger,
as, although the corn bins were found to be empty,
many of the men now lying dead had their pockets
full of corn. There was only one pony in the
seam, and that was dead, but had not been
touched by the men. The men, he said, were all
at the shaft, and the boys were lying among
them, side by side with their relatives. It is
scarcely possible to imagine a scene more touch-
ing than this—fathers and sons, uncles and nephews,
after undergoing almost unheard•of misery and
privation in that dreary dungeon, quietly resign-
ing themselves to their horrid and impending fate,
their last remaining consolation being that even in
death they were not divided.' One man, Mr. Hall
said, seemed as though he had not died without a
struggle, as he was lying with his body extended
and his hands firmly clenched. Several men then
went down the pit for the purpose of carrying out
the necessary operations preparatory to removing
the bodies, and were stationed principally in the
high main, so as to be available when requisite—
Mr. Maddison, the viewer at Burradon, also going
down to superintend the work.
" In fulfilment to the promise made to the people
about the heap—who by this time had congregated
some hundreds strong—Mr. Taylor addressed them
from the platform, informing them that the greater
portion of the men had been found dead, the nume-
rous corpses having been found gathered together
near the door. In reply to a voice in the crowd, he
said they had not got so far as the staple, but they
had gone as far as they could with safety. He then
requested them to communicate the sad intelligence
to any of the friends of the deceased who might
not be there. As yet they had waited patiently, and
he trusted they would continue to do so for an hour
or twe longer, when all would be finally settled. II
was of no use, he said, throwing away the lives of
living men to obtain the bodies of dead ones, and as
yet there was great risk of that, and several of those
who had been already down had been brought up in
a most dangerous condition. A thrilling sensation
seemed to take possession of the people at the an-
nouncement of the fate of so many of their fellow-
creatures, and in many cases their friends and ac-
quaintances. No demonstration of any kind, how-
ever, followed the recital of the result of the sad
event, which had brought woe and desolation to so
many hearths, the effect produced upon the people
being evidently one of calm resignation to the will
of Providence, and of deep concern for the mourn•
ing families. A desire was, however, expressed
by many that some of their number should
go down the pit and relieve them from further
anxiety and suspense by ascertaining, if possible,
the full extent of the calamity. Upon this, two
brothers, named Richard Boyd and Thomas Boyd,
of North Seaton, volunteered for the arduous duty,
and at once made the necessary change in their
clothing, and went down the pit. With a spirit of
dauntless perseverance they prosecuted their search
for about two hours, and contrived during that
time to penetrate further into the seam than any
previous party of explorers had then been, having
succeeded, in fact, in getting right round it. The
air, they said, was good in-by,' and was only to be
called bad when they approached the shaft on the
road out. Richard—apparently the stronger man
nof o
noxious
oeutwo—nearlyvapour,
u t
w succumbedas preventedt o the effect of the
by his brother, Whofrom so doing
got hold of him and literally
shaft,
dragged him to the
slings, and so got 'line s afe to bank. assisting
himO n
n arriving
there there they described the scene that presented itself
to their gaze as most harrowing th
ance of the men indicating th y
db
ee
ce
onmdpeoasdi
tisoonm. e
Thetime,
holeandthrough the roufbtbhiesmh thheayd
a. man-
e general appear-
were fast approaching
described as being so small that it was
with diffi
culty they could get through it—in fact, they
stuck
fast two or three times in their upward passage.
Many of the men who had gone down on the
melancholy duty of sending the bodies to bank, had

to be sent up fainting, the ventilation not admitting
of their remaining for any length of time together
in the shaft. One or two men, indeed, were all but
lost in their humane attempt; but by proper and
efficient means being resorted to, and restoratives
being promptly applied by the medical gentlemen
in attendance, they were ultimately restored to
consciousness. Dr. White, of Newcastle; Mr. Pyle,
of Earsdon ; Dr. Pyle, of Sunderland ; and Messrs.
Nichol, Lambert, M'Allister, and Ambrose, were in
attendance the whole of the evening, and were
most assiduous in relieving the temporary suffering
of the men as they landed from the shaft.
"It was at fiat intended to send the bodies direct
to bank, but this was found from many causes to be
entirely impracticable, the chief of those causes
being the impossibility of bringing the bodies
through the furnace drift to the shaft in consequence
of the narrow passage through the rubbish already
alluded to, the bad state of the air at present in the
shaft, and lastly the state of the bodies."
The Bishop of Durham and his chaplain kindly
came yesterday in the company of the Rev. Mr.
Mason, the incumbent of Earsdon, and visited the
bereaved families. Several clergymen and other
Christian ministers are also attending to them, as
are also a number of Christian ladies. The kind
and sympathetic inquiry sent by the Queen yester-
day has touched the heart of every one in the north:
It will long be held in aff,-;ctionate remembrance,
especially by the pitmen down here and their fami-
lies. The message was to this effect :
" General Grey, Osborne, to the viewer, New
Hartley Pit, Shields.—The Queen is most anxious
to hear that there are hopes of saving the poor peo-
ple in the colliery, for whom her heart bleeds."
To this the following telegram was returned :
" Charles Carr, viewer, to her Majesty.—There
are still faint hopes of the men, or a portion of
them, being recovered alive."
On the fate of the men having been ascertained
another message was transmitted to her Majesty,
informing her that upwards of 100 men had been
found dead, and it was feared the rest had shared
a similar fate.

A local paper describes the following scene in the
village last night :
" At half-past 4 o'clock the intelligence of the
discovery of the bodies was conveyed to the village.
It is impossible in the limits of language to con-
vey an idea of the terrible scenes in every house in
this doomed village. Every house of mourning,
and that is every one, is filled with sympathising
friends and acquaintances, and the ministering
hand of woman is busy in affording consolation to
those unhappy women—now too surely widows.
In every house may be heard the hysterical sob, the
agonised wail of suffering woman, weeping for the
husband of her love and the father of her orphan
children, now lying cold and silent in the depths
of the fatal pit. It is also peculiarly painful to hear
the wailing of tender infants whose mothers are too
sorrowful to attend to their wants. The street of
the village is filled with women who steal noise-
lessly from house to house on their mission of mercy
endeavouring, by arts only known to women, to
impart solace to these bereaved ones. Truly, they
are the very realisation of the poet's fancy—

" When pain and sickness wring the brow
A ministering angel thou.'
So they have been, so they are, and so they will
doubtless remain to the end of time. Not women
alone, however, are engaged in this hallowed mis-
sion, for a few ministers of the gospel may be seen
hurrying to and fro, in the semi-darkness, engaged
in the work of their Master, and endeavouring, by
their spiritual consolation, to cheer the weary and
heavy-laden.' It is scarcely possible to conceive a
more sorrowful scene, and it is heartrending to re-
flect that every house is tenanted by grief-stricken
widows and fatherless children, many of them left
fatherless at the very threshold of the battle of life,
and deprived, at one fell swoop, of the hand that
should have guarded their infant years. May He
who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb be their
solace and stay in this their hour of adversity ! In
our hurried passage aleng the street many scenes
came under our notice almost too sacred for us even
to allude to—here the weeping mother spasmodically
pressing the crowing infant to her breast, who was
lisping out the name of its ' dada,' and a gush of
tears and a hopeless shake of the head told too truly
that the heart of that loved ' dada' was cold in death
at the bottom of the mine.' There might be seen a
fine little boy sobbing as if his heart would break,
and looking wistfully towards the pit, as if he ex-
pected to see some well-remembered form, and
perhaps wondering, poor little fellow, what his
unhappy mother meant by telling him he was an
orphan. There, too, might be seen an aged and
infirm man, with his gray hair tossed to and
fro by the wintry blast, endeavouring to comfort
his little grand-daughter, whose outstretched
hand was pointed towards the spot where her
father was wont to work, and who eagerly scanned
the countenance of every passer-by, in the hope,
probably, of recognizing her long absent father.
That father is now cut off from all earthly ties, and
is now where the wicked cease from troubling
and the weary are at rest.' Here even may be
seen the strong miner, the tear in whose eye be-
tokens the agony of his spirit, endeavouring, in his
rude yet kindly way, to impart consolation to the
bereaved. Cheer up, hinney,' he says, 'the Lord
is good to all ;' and perhaps the poor woman may
appreciate his homely kindness in a greater degree
than if it were couched in the most polished
language.
" The schoolroom of the village has for some time
past been transformed into an office for the owners
of the colliery, where tea and refreshments have for
many days been ready prepared to be sent down to
the unfortunate men the moment a communication
was opened up between them and the brave hearts
toiling incessantly in the shaft for their deliverance.
But now all these kind preparations are of no
avail, and it is melancholy to look into the school-
room, and see the loaves of bread and hampers of
provisions prepared for the men, and to think they
are now so far removed from all earthly comfort."
NEW HARTLEY, JAN. 23, NooN.

The sinkers are now busy clearing their way down
the shaft to the yard seam, and workmen are also
making " wood cribs" to secure the sides of the
shaft from further falls of stone and timber, but it
will be late to-day before this can be accomplished.
When completed Mr. Coulson, master sinker, with
his exploring party, will then proceed through the
workings to ascertain the full extent of the desola-
tion. Mr. T. Robson, viewer of Wylam, and Mr.
Coulson are in full charge of the various workings
to-day.

THURSDAY, 8 P.M.

Mr. Coulson and his men are busily engaged
cribbing up the sides of the shaft. He expects the
sinkers will recommence some time to-night to re-
move the obstruction. He has no fear of effectually
clearing out the gas before the men go into the
workings to remove the bodies. It will be Saturday,
however, it is feared, before they can be got out of
the pit. The Bishop of Durham has continued his
visits to the bereaved families to-day. He will
leave here to-morrow, it is expected, to attend the
public meeting to be held in Newcastle to raise a
fund for their relief. A similar meeting will be held
in Shields to-morrow.

Another telegram has been received from her
Majesty to-day, through Colonel Phipps, as follows:
" The Queen has been deeply affected by the
dreadful news from Hartley. Her Majesty feels
the most sincere sympathy for the poor widows and
orphans."

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THE WINDBA3I CASE.

This inquiry was resumed yesterday for the 30th
time, before Master Warren, at the Sessions-house,
Westminster.

Mr. Coleridge, who was instructed by Mr. Davis,
of Clifford-street, addressed the jury on behalf of
Mrs. Windham. He said that although he could
be well content himself personally to leave the
case of Mrs. Windham, as it had been put forth by
Mr. Karslake, still as her counsel he felt bound to
address them briefly on her behalf. He was glad
to appear before them to hurl back at least some of
the accusations which had been brought against
Mrs. Windham, and to vindicate her couduct,
which bad been cruelly aspersed in the course of
these proceedings. Her character, conduct, and
whole life had been made the chief point on which
the sanity of Mr. Windham was to depend. He
could honour and admire an inquiry of this kind,
if it proceeded from an honest and genuine love of
purity and virtue, but it was evident from the
progress of the investigation that the object in
view was anything but a love of purity and virtue.
The marriage, position, and settlement of Mrs.
Windham, the position of her sisters, whom she
loved, depended upon the verdict which the jury
gave. No man could have watched the course of
the inquiry without perceiving that the ultimate
object of it was to set aside the marriage of Mr.
Windham with Mrs. Windham. If Gea. Windham
had obtained the resettlement of the Felbrigg
estate, which he tried to effect on the Bth and 9th of
August, they never would have heard of this case.
There was no act too coarse, no motive too bad,
which' had been brought against Mrs. Windham.
He did not find fault with persons for seeking
by means of the law to set aside a settlement which
they did not believe to be right, but he did blame
them for the remorseless cruelty with which the
case was prosecuted. He blamed them for the mode
in which they sought to set aside the marriage, and
to deprive Mrs. Windham of the comfort of a family
and the hope of offspring. Let them look at the
facts of the case and the position of the parties,
and judge of this marriage from that point of view.
Here was a young man with strong passions, riot-
ous disposition, fond of field sports, neglected by
his family, and isolated in society, and a young
woman, not yet 22, beautiful and attractive, though
following a course of life which he could not approve,
but which was well known to be a part of the social
life in which they moved, and was it a wonder that
such a man should fall in love with such a woman?
Wore young and foolish people to become old and
wise at once ? Was the feeling of love to be ig-
nored, and were people who did foolish things
under its influence to be regarded as insane ? If
so, what would become of the poetry and romance
of life ? Would not a part of the occupation in
life of even the learned Master be gone if this view
of human nature was to prevail ? It was univer-
sally known that some of the wisest of men had
fallen under the influence cf the passion of love,
and that some of the highest members in the aris-
tocracy of this country had descended from persons
who had done what Mr. Windham had done. But
then it was said this was not the ease of a man
infatuated by beauty—that Airs. Windham was a
common prostitute—that she was common to all the
world, and that she married Mr,Windham for mer-
cenary purposes. There was not a tittle of evi-
dence to prove that Mrs. Windham was the cha-
racter which Mr. Chambers had drawn her. He
was speaking to 22 gentlemen of the world, men
who knew what life, and high life, was, and they
must be aware that it was no unusual thing for men
in high position to form in substance such alli-
ances as had been contracted by Mr. Windham
and Agnes Willoughby. Were there no aged
earls who allied themselves with young girls who
never could have any affection for them ? And be-
cause this was done under a coronet and orange
blossoms, was it to be sanctioned by society, and
was Mr. Windham to be put in a lunatic asylum
and Mrs. Windham to be separated from her hus-
band because they did the same thing ? Let them
recollect that Agnes Willoughby was in receipt of
£2,000 a year at the time she contracted this mar-
riage—that she mixed in society ; and because she
had under these circumstances contracted a marriage
with Mr. Windham for the sake of giving herself a
better position and establishing her sisters in life,
was she now to be turned round upon and told that
she was no better than a mercenary prostitute ? If
Mr. Windham was the hopeless imbecile that he
was now represented to be, if he was a congenital
fool, why did not some member of Mr. Windham's
family warn Agnes Willoughby of what she was
going to do ? Why was she not told by the friends
of Mr. Windham that he was a fool and an imbecile,
and that if she contracted a marriage with Mr.
Windham it would not be valid and that an appli-
cation would be made to set it aside ? Was this
information not vouchsafed to her because she was
considered to be a person of immoral character ?
He had yet to learn that all the rules of honesty
and fair-play were to be set aside because a woman
was a—. If that was the view taken by persons
of aristocratic lineage, he rejoiced that he was one
of the people. If that was the morality of those
with blue veins, he was glad that he had red blood.
But it was said, how can you justify the settlement
which had been made ? He did not mean to put it
forward that Mrs. Windham had any great love for
the man she was going to marry. She was proba-
bly looking for a position, and having regard to the
means she was then actually enjoying, he did not
think the settlement was so unjustifiable as had
been represented. The truth was, the sting of
the settlement which had been made was not
in the amount which Mrs. Windham was to
have, but in the introduction of the word chil-
dren, and the clause that the offspring of the
marriage were to succeed to the estates. Then with
regard to the presents which had been made to
Mrs. W., let them consider that Mr. W. was the
owner of an estate worth nearly £15,000 a year, and
he did not think that jewelry to the amount of
£7,000 was an excessive gift under the circum-
stances. As to the presents which had been made
after the marriage, let them consider that they
were made as some propitiation for the injury
which had been done to Mrs. Windham by her hus-
band. As to Mr. Windham being the congenital
fool, that view was quite upset by the fact which
was proved before them, that he had reached the
fifth form at Eton. Even General Windham him-
self, after the marriage, treated his nephew as of
sound mind, because he negotiated with him for the
sale of land to the extent of £l.OOO. The tender
guardian and affectionate uncle did not hesitate to
go to Felbrigg, in order to make this bargain with
a congenital fool and imbecile. If the nephew was
what was now represented, an imbecile and a fool,
what must they think of General Windham, who
went to transact business with him ? He now
came to that Malebolgian pool of filth and nasti-
ness which had been stirred up by his learned
friend for the purpose of creating a prejudice
against his client—for its introduction was wholly
unnecessary. The suggestion of his learned friend
was that the disease of which they had heard so
much, and from which she was still suffering, had
been communicated, not from Mr. Windham to
Mrs. Windham, but from Mrs. Windham to Mr.
Windham. The learned gentleman argued from
facts and dates that this was absurdly incredible,
and that there was nothing to justify the belief
that Mr. and Mrs. Windham were so abandoned and
horridly wicked as the one to connive at the act
which was said to have taken place in the railway
carriage between Mrs. Windham and Roberts, and
the other to have been guilty of it, and that at a
time when according to the statement on the other
side she was suffering from disease. The separa-
tion which had taken place between Mr. and
Mrs. Windham was perfectly natural and intelli-
gible. The learned gentleman then proceeded to
refute the allegations of profligacy which had been
made against Mrs. 'Windham whilst in Dublin
and Glasgow. The question for the jury to
determine was not what the size of Mr. Windham's
capacity, but whether he was compos mentis,
whether he had discourse of reason. The case of
Mr. Windham was, that he was a man of low intel-
lectual :capacity, ill educated, and ill brought U.
They would therefore, expect that such a man
hey
would go wrong in life, that he would be guilty of
acts which could neither be justified by morality

The 'case of Mr. Windham's oppo-
nents was that he-was congenitally imbecile. Now
if he could show acts done by Mr. Windham—if he
could show a series of business correspondence
written by him, it was wholly irreconcileable with
the view of the petitioners. There were such acts,
there was such a correspondence, and in the face of
those acts and correspondence could the case be
sustained ? These affectionate relatives and sela
sacrificing reversioners had letters of Mr. Wind-
ham's in their possession, some of which were
stolen from Mr. Windham, which showed his capa-
city, and why did they not produce them ? For the
same reason that General Windham had not come
into the box—because he dared not. It seemed
that an effect had been produced on the Master's
mind which might be produced on the minds of the
jury also, upon which he wished to say a few words.
The newspapers, acting in the discharge of their
duty, acting under a sense of responsibility to which
alone they were amenable, had thought it right
during the progress of this inquiry to reflect the
currents of popular opinion. They must take the
press as they found it—an instrument of great use
—the evil with the good together. It would be far
better in his judgment if comments of all kind had
been abstained from on the one side and the other
tiil the verdict had been given. Howeyer, the
eminent persons who directed the newspaper press
thought differently—they chose to write upon the
case, and, judging only by those things which he
had seen, it would seem as if the opinion cf the
judge and jury had already been formed, that
the Windham property was saved, and that the
marriage was set aside. If these persons thought
fit to write in this way, the real and the only
answer to it was that it was untrue, and could
not be anything but untrue. Those who wrote
in this spirit must have utterly mistaken the
character of an English judge and of English gen-
tlemen if they thought they could be so base, or
guilty of such an act of villany, as to be determined
to break this settlement because it was one which
they did not like, and to set aside the marriage be-
cause it was one which they did not approve of.
The ruinous expenses occasioned by this inquiry
would be a lesson enough for all the sins which Mr.
and Mrs. Windham had committed. It had been said
by Mr. Erskine, that " morals came cold in the ab-
stract from the pulpit, but men smarted under them
when we lawyers were the preachers." He did not
stand there to defend vice, to apologise for indecency
or to palter with religion. He knew perfectly well
that profligacy was wrong, that to live unchastely
was sinful, that if to follow the sweet pleasures of
sin was alluring, those who did so must be content
to pay the penalty in future bitterness and repent-
ance " Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in
secret is pleasant, but he knoweth not that the dead
are there, and that her guests are in the depths of
hell." These were solemn and tremendous words,
and he did not mean to disavow them, but he stood
there to point out the irrelevancy of confounding
sin and vice with insanity, and immorality and irre-
ligion with imbecility and legal incapacity. But if
religion—if sacred religion—was to be dragged
into this case—if sacred allusions were to be made
use of, then he should say he would rather be the
Magdalen, who washed her divine Master's feet
with her tears and wiped them with her hair, than
that self-complacent Pharisee who condemned the
woman because she was a sinner, and plumed him-
self before the assembly for the outward regularity
of his life. He stood there to point out that there was
nothing in the conduct of Mr. Windham to show
unsoundness of mind. No man of candid mind could
say that there was. He thought that this had been
abundantly shown in the course of this inquiry and
he hoped it would be shown in the verdict that
they would presently give. Apart from all pre-
judice he asked for their verdict for Mr. Windham
with the utmost confidence and an almost abso-
lute certainty of success, and more especially
he asked for it on behalf of the wife of Mr.
Windham with all the earnestness and energy he
could command. (Applause.)
Mr. Chambers, in reply, said that he should,
though sorely tempted and tried by the observations
of his learned friends, deal with the case before
them with calmness and equanimity. A difficult
and trying duty was imposed upon him ; but who
would dare to say that he had gone a step beyond
that character which he thought every honourable
barrister ought to earn for his profession in the
public mind. He had listened to the eloquent ad-
dresses of his learned friends; but this observation
was common to them all, that they had introduced
topics which were calculated to mislead, and
attempted to raise numerous issues which were
wholly irrelevant to the one which the jury had
really to try. Not being able to meet the real point
in issue, they abused all who were their opponents
on this occasion. He knew that this case had been
discussed elsewhere than in that Court, and great
want of knowledge had been exhibited in respect of
it from not understanding in the first place what
was the doctrine of the law upon it, and in the
second place from not keeping before the mind the
facts which have been disclosed. It would be clear
after understanding what the law of England on
this subject was, as laid down by the highest legal
authorities, especially in modern times, and what
the rule of guidance was as established by the
highest medical authorities, that Mr. Windham,
even upon the evidence presented by those who re-
sisted this petition, was brought within the category
of those who were of such unsound mind as not to
be capable of managing themselves and their pro-
perty—that he belonged to that class of persons
who were of such weakness of mind as to be unable
to take care of themselves and their property. It
was essential, first, to consider, what was the sound
doctrine of law, and, in the next place, to consider
from the medical testimony what was the state of
Mr. Windham's mind. There had been a
studious concealment of the law of the case by
all his learned friends, and, as a consequence of
the ignorance of the law, views had been put
forward outside of the court which were
quite erroneous. The law of the case, as laid down
by Lord Eldon and others of the highest legal autho-
rity, was, that it was not necessary a person should
be an absolute imbecile or idiot to be adjudged
legally a lunatic, but that he should exhibit such
unsoundness of mind as showed that he was incap-
able of taking care of his person or property. It
had been laid down that imbecility or weakness of
mind might exist in different degrees between ab-
solute idiotey on one hand and perfect capacity on
the other. That was the law as laid down by Lord
Eldon and Sir X. Nichol, and it was the view taken
by Dr. Taylor, Dr. Ray, and Dr. Copeland, in their
treatises upon insanity. That was the law as car-
ried out in the case of Lord Portsmouth, which had
been before referred to. The language used in
some of the medical works was, that it was enough
if the intellect of the person was " below pat"—
if he was so feeble in mind as to "lay himself open
to be imposed on by the artful and designing."
Such was the language used in standard works on
insanity, not written to meet the requirements of
any particular case; and curiously enough, the evi-
dence given by those who are best acquainted with
Mr. Windham, and who were amongst his truest
and kindest friends, like Mr. and Mrs. Martin, was
that Mr. Windham's mind was " below the ave-
rage." The learned gentleman proceeded to show
that the whole course of Mr. Windham's life, the
malformation of his palate which was common to
idiots, his slavering, his filthy habits, his incapacity
to learn, his howling and slobbering, were indica-
tions that he was a person of such weak intellect,
of such feeble mind as to render him incapable of
taking care of himself or what belonged to him.
All his learned friends had taunted him with not
putting General Windham into the witness-box. He
was responsible for advising that course, and he
should net be doing his duty if he allowed him to
appear there. In the first place, Gen. Windham could
not give so much evidence as others as to the habits
of his nephew, and in the next place having, as was
said, an interest in the issue of the case, he thought
it better that he should not appear as a witness.
What his learned friends wanted was an oppor-
tunity of worrying and tormenting General
Windham ; putting to him questions upon irrele-
vant matters ; he would not say abusing him, for in
the way of abuse the force of malice could no fur-
ther go. The object of these attacks was to with-
draw the attention of the jury from the real clues-

,

tion. He believed the attack of his learned friends
would recoil' upon themselves. His hon. friend on
his left (General Windham) was said to have slunk
behind his advocates ; he had been called a carpet
knight, a moral coward, and other epithets culled
from a vocabulary which dared not be applied in
former times, but which showed that malignancy
did stalk abroad at present. " Skulk," "
" coward." And this was the language applied by
his learned friends to a man whose name would
appear with honour in the annals of his country as
a brave soldier, who had fought the battles of his
country abroad, who had been received at home
amidst the cheers of his brothers in arms, and re-
turned by his fellow-citizens as the representative
of his native county. Were these the epithets to
apply to a man " who sought the bubble reputation
even et the cannon's mouth," and gathered his
laurels "in the imminent deadly breach ?" Was
that the man for his learned friends to attack ? He
was not ; for his country acknowledged his services.
His hou. friend was not the " slink and his hon.
friends should remember that his friend was at the
post of danger and on the fields where he won his
glory whilst they wero slumbering peacefully in
their reds. But though the gnat could sting the
lion, and the gad fly sting the war-horse, they were
after all but gnats and gad-flies, whilst the lion and
the war-horse remained the lion and the war-horse.
He hoped that in future brave officers like his lion.
and gallant friend would be protected in courts of
justice from such attacks, which were made for the
simple purpose of withdrawing the attention of the
jury from the points of the case, and which he would
tell his learned friends went beyond the usual license
of forensic oratory. The learned gentleman then
proceeded to comment on the evidence till near
half-past four, when the inquiry was adjourned till
Monday next, when Mr. Chambers will continue
his speech. . .