The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—It requires no extraordinary sagacity to
perceive that the proceedings in Parliament are " the
beginning of the end." The Lords, wearied, we must
presume, with their exertions in doing justice to Mr.
Edmunds, will not meet for a few days longer, but
the House of Commons set to work last night with
a promptitude and rapidity of action which show
that the hearts of members are anywhere rather than
at Westminster. The votes in Supply were run
through 'in the same style as last week, and their
multifarious details hardly tempted the house into a
single debate. Even the National Gallery did not
call up the usual aesthetic and topographical contro-
versy, the house contenting itself with a very satis-
factory assurance from Mr. Cowper that the Gallery
is not to be removed from Trafalgar-square, and
that an estimate would be laid upon the table of the
house in a few days for the purchase of the ground
occupied by the parish workhouse and schools behind
it. On every item the house showed its confidence
in the wisdom and economy of Government by
voting whatever was asked for, and if there had been
ten Joseph Humes present they would probably have
been unable to stem this impatient liberality. The
fact is, the session is practically at an end. The Union
Chargeability Bill and two or three small legal and
administrative reforms will be its only marks in the
Statute-book. Now that Whitsuntide has come and
gone, and the third act or period of the session has
begun, the impatience of members is not to be re-
strained. The great event which is so soon to take
place occupies all their thoughts, and, as is always
the case when an important crisis has to be passed
through, there is an overmastering desire to hasten
it. Suspense is worse than the most terrible realisa-
tion of the thing feared. The gentlemen who have
to sit half the day in committee-rooms and a
great part of the night in the House, dis-
tracted at one time with engineering details and
the conflicting evidence of rival schemes, and at
another with all sorts of propositions for politi-
cal, legal, or social improvement, are for the most
part debating in their own minds the very import-
ant question of their own status this day three
months. This will be a sharply contested election.
Both sides have plenty of political spirit, and there
is also forthcoming plenty of another commodity
which the most stringent Acts of Parliament have
not yet deprived of its influence in the selection of
legislators. Probably there was never at any gene-
ral election so large an array of candidates. The
Conservatives, in spite of Mr. Disraeli's lukewarm
address, are preparing for the fight, as if resolved
that the result of it should be to place them at that
official banquet from which they have been so long
excluded. Six years' abstinence produces a hunger
which makes the party daring to the highest degree.
Let no Liberal sleep tranquilly in the complacent
belief that his borough is one of steady Whig prin-
ciples, of long connexion with his family or himself.
He knows not what a day may bring forth. Any
post may inform him that a gentleman of Conservative
principles has made his appearance, and that his
claims have been admitted by a considerable section
of the constituency, who have discovered that their
present representation is a state of Radical thral-
dom. The wealth that has been accumulated dur-
ing the last six years has enabled a multitude of men
to aspire to that position which wealthy and edu-
cated Englishmen look upon as desirable above
every other. Whippers-in and Parliamentary agents
have no difficulty in finding gentlemen eager to do
battle for their respective parties anywhere, and with
almost the smallest chances of success. As men gene-
rally divide themselves into parties according to their
connexions and prepossessions rather than with the
view of political office, even the ill luck of the Con-
servatives does not prevent their cause from being
espoused by numbers of successful and wealthy men,
each of whom will do all in his power to win a seat
for his party and gain the social consideration
which such a service and such a position bring with
them. On the other hand, there is no deficiency of
Liberal candidates, the only fault of their tactics
being that instead of attacking the enemy they have
a strong tendency to attack each other. The Tories
are wiser in their generation than their more self-
willed and undisciplined opponents. Having natu-
rally less hold on the mass of the electors, they
make up for the defect by better organisation, and
the spectacle of two or three Conservative candi-
dates appearing where there is only room for one,
and thus dividing the Conservative vote, will pro -
bably not be beheld at any one of the coming elec-
tions. The conduct of the irregulars of Liberalism,
on the other hand, is one great cause of disquiet to
sitting members. The gentleman who " solicits the
suffrages of the independent Liberal," who " counts
upon the sympathies of the true friends of progress,"
is a terrible nightmare to the hardworking, steady-
voting, Minister-supporting Liberal member, who
knows that he will have to fight two resolute and
heavy-pursed Tories, and that the subtraction of
the Radical voters from his list will probably result
in seating both or one of them. On the other hand,
the Conservatives have their anxieties, being threat-
ened in most of their doubtful seats, and in real un-
certainty whether they will better their position in
the coming contest. The result of this universal
disquietude is that everybody wishes to get the ses-
sion over, to go to the country at the earliest pos-
sible time, and to be certain of his fate by the end
of July. In another fortnight it will be hardly pos-
sible to keep together members enough to perform
the business of Parliament. Whatever may be its
inconveniences to public affairs, the sudden death of
a Parliament through a Ministerial defeat and an
immediate appeal to the country is preferable to
such protracted agonies as the present. A strong
healthy man, who knows he is to be hanged next
Monday, has not a more terrible consciousness of i
impending fate than a Parliament doomed to ine-
vitable dissolution within a few weeks. The best
thing will be to pass with as much speed as possible
the measures with which some progress has been
made, and leave the rest to the new Parliament.
Not much will have been done, but not much is de-
manded. Even on the eve of an appeal to the con-
stituencies, members are content to further small but
useful administrative improvements, and for two or
three of these the closing session of this long Par-
liament will be favourably remembered.
HERALD.—The public will learn with considerable
surprise that the select committee appointed to in-
vestigate the Leeds bankrUptcy scandals has decided
upon prosecuting its inquiry with closed doors. We
have nothing to say against the perfect right of the
committee to carry on their investigations in a
manner so totally opposed to the spirit in which our
ordinary judicial proceedings are conducted ; but we
cannot but characterise the present determination as
a serious blunder, and we fear it will seriously
weaken the confidence which the public entertained
in the committee, having regard to the very fair
selection of members composing it. Of course, there
will be no doubt of their perfect fairness and their
sincere desire to arrive at a just conclusibn. But
secresy naturally begets suspicion. It will be argued
that there must be a strong necessity for this viola-
tion of one of the first principles of our ordinary
administration of justice ; and even in the. event of
the Lord Chancellor clearing himself of every iw-
putation, there will still be found persons who will

disbelieve in his innocence, on the ground that he
had not an open trial. Nor will the inference be
altogether unreasonable. For what useful public
object will be gained, what interests will be served
by secrecy ? The mere temporary suppression of
the evidence will not stifle, it will rather stimulate,
the general craving for information. We know
how, in the case of the scandal recently investigated
in the Upper house, it was utterly impossible to
keep all information from the public ; and how, day
after day, rumours grew and were circulated, fre-
quently prejudicial to innocent individuals and mis-
leading the general public upon the simple point at
issue. If this was so where the Peers were con-
cerned, what will be the case in the Commons, with
its gossiping coteries in the lobby and the clubs,
and " our Loudon correspondents" retailing every
wild rumour for the benefit of provincial
readers ? But apart from this very obvious
inconvenience, we are prepared to say that,
on the highest grounds, no inquiry into
the conduct of the Lord High Chancellor of
England should be conducted with closed doors.
Publication of evidence has saved many an innocent
man and convicted many a criminal. Why, then,
this aversion to publicity on the present occasion ?
Possibly it is hoped that the inquiry may be pro-
tracted to such an extent as to lessen the public
anxiety about the honour of its Chancellor ; that
the non-publication of the daily evidence may tend
to banish the whole subject from men's minds; that
in five or six weeks the matter will be almost for-
gotten, and the dissolution will put an end at once
to the committee and the inquiry into the conduct
of the Whig Chancellor. Possibly the evidence to
be produced is of too damaging a character to go
forth to the country a week or two before the gene-
ral election. However this may be, the secret 'inves-
tigation is as impolitic in the interests of the , 2rson
chiefly implicated, as it is alien to our ordinary no-
tions of fair play and right ; and we regret that the
committee should have decided to adopt a course so
calculated to weaken the effect of their general con-
clusions in the eyes of the public.

7 he, Fatal Accident on the Shrewsbury

and Chester Railway.

One of the Times' Parliamentary reporters, who
was a passenger by the train to which this terrible
accident occurred, has furnished the following state-
ment :

" I will venture, as an eyewitness, to give you
some faint description of the dreadful accident on
the Great Western Railway at Rednal, on Wednes-
day. The excursion train left Birkenhead at about
a quarter to 11 o'clock, being 25 minutes behind the
appointed time for starting. After arriving at
Chester there was another delay of half an hour,
and the train was, therefore, about an hour late
when leaving this station. The train consisted of
35 carriages, propelled by two engines, and every
compartment was as full as it could be comfortably
packed with passengers. Between Chester and the
other stations upwards it was evident the engine-
drivers were endeavouring to make up by extra
speed for some of the lost time. After passing
Gobowen station the rapidity of the train's progress
was a matter of remark among the passengers, forced
as it was upon their attention by the clouds of dust
that were thrown up on each side of the carriages.
For a considerable distance before reaching the
point where the accident took place men had been
engaged in raising the rails and sleepers, and the
line was consequently in a somewhat unsettled con-
dition, the ballast having been removed from
about the sleepers. Over this part of the line it
was the duty of 'the driver to proceed slowly,
but the speed was not the least slackened and
the passengers soon had warning of the coming
catastrophe. There was a violent oscillation, during
which the passengers were unable to keep their
seats, and this was shortly afterwards followed by
the bumping of the wheels of more than one-half
the train upon the sleepers, the latter part never
having got off the line.

" The scene which followed will never be for-
gotten by those who had the misfortune to witness
it. The engines got off the line and parted com-
pany, the one rushing to the right and the other to
the left, and in a moment the work of destruction
was complete. Not less than nine or ten souls were
instantly crushed out of their mortal tenements, and
four or five more received such injit,i.st that Ahoy
survived but a short period. Numerous, how ov.r,
as were the deaths, it was a matter of surprise to all
who witnessed the wreck that many more were not
killed. On the left there lay, first, the engine,
which had run some short distance down a siding,
tore up the rails and twisted them, ploughed into
the field adjoining, and then capsized. Further
along lay the tender on its side. Further along still,
towards the front of the train, but away from the
main line, lay a first-class carriage, a complete
wreck, with several persons underneath it, some evi-
dently not dead. On the right of the train, the side
on which the doors were locked (in the latter part
of the train the doors were locked on both sides, and
the passengers were obliged to get out at the win-
dows), the other engine lay embedded in a ditch,
and immediately behind it there were the splintered
remains of a first-class carriage, the pieces piled
upon each other as if broken up for firewood.
Close besides this again, lying on the down line,
was another first-class carriage, which had been
thrown off its wheels and turned over on its side.
How any of the passengers escaped here with their
lives is a miracle. Several bodies were extricated with
great difficulty from beneath the wreck of the first
carriage. The other carriages were chiefly, if not
all, second and third class, and remained in a line.
The first was raised in front by the wheels of some
other carriage, and it was left like a house without
a front, with all the doors, windows, and boarding
torn away in the front and on the left side. The
first seat was carried away, but the others remained.
Yet many escaped entirely unhurt out of this
carriage. Beneath it, however, and under the one
adjoining, there was a heartrending spectacle. A
child, apparently three or four years old, lay on its
face covered with mud, with the exception of its
legs and hips, which were naked ; at its feet lay its
mother, and at her side a man with his head com-
pletely severed from his body. Another woman and
a little girl about ten years old lay dead on the left
of the line terribly blackened and disfigured, and all I
around were faces streaming with blood ; some had
broken arms, others broken legs, and many still
more severely injured were gathered up and con-
veyed on stretchers made of the doors of the broken
carriages to a shady spot in a field adjoining. One
man had his cheek laid open, and he walked about
a ghastly spectacle, unable to speak to those who
addressed him. A woman had her face cut in
several semicircular lines from the forehead to the
chin, and she presented a most extraordinary ap-
pearance. Not less than 50 persons were injured
more or less. Mr. Leather, a surgeon, well known
in Liverpool, was in immediate attendance, having
been a passenger by the train, and he rendered
valuable assistance. The accident, however, hav-
ing occurred several hundred yards below the
Rednal Station, and there being no village or in-
habitants near, the means off alleviating the
suffering was very limited, and there were two
dreadful hours of pain and anguish before assistance
arrived from Shrewsbury, which is about 12 miles
distant. A train at length arrived in which the
wounded were placed and taken to the infir-
mary at Shrewsbury under Mr. Leather's charge.
I shall not attempt to describe the excitement of
the people as they rushed out of the carriages when
the accident happened, the joy of some on finding
their intimate friends, and even fellow-passengers
safe, nor the bitter sorrow of those who had to
lament the loss of a relation, or who had to tend a
seriously injured friend. One poor woman lost her
husband, and she could not identify him among
those whose bodies were recovered, and she wan-
dered about as if demented. One engineman was
killed, and the other so frightfully injured that he
is not likely to recover, and, therefore, if any fault
lay with them, they will be beyond calling to ac-
count in this world. It was remarked by one of
the company's servants that the engine which lay
_ on the left of the line, lied been previously in.

Reuben Dainty, Woodside, Dudley, severe injuries-to
knee and ankle.

William Bell, Hulme, Manchester, injuries of chest;
badly hurt.
William Shaw, Wolverhampton, serious injuries to the
shoulder. Leaves to-day.
John Desbury, Wolverhampton, severe scalp wound and
injured arm.
Richard Hammond, Wolverhampton, very severe scalp
wounds, and fractured collar-bone ; dangerous.
J. W. Green, Birmingham, scalp wounds and bruises ;
severely.
James Worton, Bilston, severely fractured ribs ; dan-
gerous.

George Kent, Greenwich, fractured spine ; dangerous.
Wife and child escaped with slight bruises.
William Lochley, Ercall, severe scalp wound.
John Barker, cut head, and face badly hurt.
Richard Morris, Birmingham, severe laceration of face,
and injury to jaw.
Charles Corbett, Wolverhampton, cut over loft eye, and
fractured collar-bone.

William Anderton, Chester, fractured rib and injury of
lungs ; dangerous, but hopes of recovery entertained.
David Griffith, Chester, badly cut knee.
John Westly Cuff, London, bruised face and side badly
hurt.

Jonathan How, Brymod, injury to ribs ; severe.
William Bond, Wolverhampton, badly broken leg;
• severe.

William Davies, Dudley, internal injuries ; severe.
John Box, Bilston, broken leg; severe internal injuries.
William Williams, London, injuries to leg and right arm ;
badly hurt.

Mary Ann Hughes, London, side and leg badly injured,
and Elizabeth Hughes, compound fracturedleg ; dangerous.
Two sisters.

Mrs. Ann Barber, Wellington, badly broken arm, and
severely bruised.
Ann Eliza Barber, her daughter, fractured ribs; severely.
Mary Brookes, Wolverhampton, cut forehead; severe.
Hannah Banks, Wolverhampton, cut head, contusion of
arm and leg ; severe.

Mary Ann Stanley, Bilston, badly bruised and severely
shaken.

• Jane Lochley, Ercall, bruised and badly contused, but
has since left.

Thomas Sivetter, Bell-street, Wolverhampton, died hu-
mediately on entering the infirmary.
The following injured persons were taken to the Raven
Hotel :—Mr. Hudson, of London ; Mr. Hughes (builder),
Islington, London; Mr. Ward, London; Mrs. Davies,
near Dudley.

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