The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-17 00:00:00

FATAL BOILER EXPLOSION.

DUDLEY, SUNDAY.—At two o'clock yesterday after-
noon the inhabitants were thrown into a state of great
alarm and consternation by a tremendous explosion, caused
by the bursting of one of the boilers of the engine used at
the Fire Iron and Glass Cutting Factory, in the Minories,
of Messrs. David and Simeon Davis. Most fortunately it
occurred just before the workpeople got into the shops, or
the loss of life must have been greatly increased. As. it
IMP, four were killed yesterday, and of the life of an-
other of the sufferers slight hopes are entertained. The
effects of the explosion on the factory are quite ruinous,
the building being wholly destroyed, together with all the
machinery, which was blown into the air, and scattered
over the houses adjoining, in many cases, the large
masses of iron, weighing 5 cwt., 6 cwt., and even 7 cwt.,
falling on the roofs of the houses and breaking through
them. The engineer, named Joseph Millward, was
blown to a great height in the air—perhaps near a hun-
dred feet—and fell on the roof of a house about eighty feet
from the factory wall, through the slating of which and the
ceiling of the room under, his weight carried him to the
floor, The unfortunate man was not dead when he was
found in the room nearly half an hour after the explo-
sion, but he did not survive more than an hour.
besides the engineer there were killed, Elias Sheldon,
about 20 years of age ; Peter Ellis, who has left a widow
and five children ; and George Stokes, who was a mar-
ried man,but had no child. The remains of
_these poor
fellows were shockingly mangled, the hand and arm of
one of them severed from his body has not yet been
found. James Taff, a lad in the employ of Messrs. Davis,
is so dreadfully injured that little hopes are entertained
of his recovery. Thomas Cifthes and his wife were found
buried under the ruins ; but, extraordinary to relate,
they were comparatively little hurt. James Evans was
very greatly injured, but it is hoped not fatally. The
sufferers were most promptly attended by Messrs.
Fisher, Johnson and Houghton, surgeons, in Dudley.
The engineer (Millward) bad only yesterday commenced
working the engine, not having been before in the em-
ploy of Messrs. Davis, Of course the cause of the ac-
cident cannot at present be satisfactorily explained, and
perhaps never will be.
We have heard that the engine had been in use 26 or
27 years, and was of 20 or 25 horse power. • It worked
the whole of the machinery in the factory for driving the
grinding millstones and polishing machinery for the fire
ironsand also the glass-cutting apparatus. The dilapi-
dation to the houses surrounding the factory is very
considerable ; portions of the bricks, of the joists of tim-
ber, and of the iron boiler and machinery being scattered
about in all directions. The force of the explosion dis-
lodged the other boiler of the engine from its bed. It
has been a very sad calamity for Messrs. Davis, as they
have only been proprietors of the factory about three
years, and have expended something like 4001. in repairs
and alterations. Much sympathy is felt for them here.
Great numbers of people have been yesterday and to-day
to visit the scene of the accident, and a box has been
opened at the entrance to the ruins of the factory to
receive contributions for the benefit of the widows, &c.,
of the deceased. The loss of life has not been so great,
but the extent of damage to property is probably more
than resulted from a similar occurrence at Hart's Hill,
about two or three years ago, since which nothing has
happened in Dudley of so disastrous a character till the
present sad affair.

GOLD STATISTICS.

(From, the Times.)
On the 21st of May last year a letter was inserted
from Mr. William Birkmyre, containing some elaborate
statistical tables of the annual produce of gold and silver
throughout the world, accompanied by remarks in har-
mony with the doctrine that extensive changes will be
produced in the relations of property by the increased
supplies from California and Australia. It appears that
since that time Mr. Birkmyre has proceeded to Australia,
where, with the advantage of being able personally to
judge of the prospects of the mines, he has still pursued
his abstract inquiries. The results will be found in the
following letter, written at Melbourne, and recently
received from him. Its length is justified by the perma-
nently useful character of the new tables it contains, and
it will be seen that, upon reviewing the course of affairs
in Australia up to the end of December, Mr. Birkmyre
not only feels strengthened in the soundness of the con-
clusions which have been formed respecting the influences
that will ultimately be exerted on prices, but is also dis-
posed to believe that the annual production of gold in
the colonies will greatly increase, especially when ordi-
nary skill and industry shall be applied to the extraction
of the metal from the various quartz veins already
discovered :

" Sir,—At the close of the year 1852 some brief remarks,
and one or two statistical tables regarding the general pro-
duction and consumption of gold and silver, may not be
without interest ; for, whatever some persons in London
and Paris may say of the present abundance of gold as not
likely to have much effect upon the general commerce of
the world, there is not one resident in Melbourne but will
adroit the extraordinary effects of gold upon the province
of Victoria. Within a year of its discovery in that colony
not only has the harbour been crowded with some of the
finest ships in the world, but house property, wages,
and provisions have enormously increased in value.
" Next, perhaps, to the astonishing discoveries of the
precious metal is the incredulity of some persons respecting
the probable effects of the present great abundance of gold,
and that despite the well known fact of the rise in prices
in the 16th century in consequence of the discovery of the
rich mines of America. A quarter of wheat, for instance,
about 150 years before the discovery of America, could be
purchased for 65., while the same quality of wheat in 150
years after that event could not be bought for less than six
times the money. But it is more than probable that those
who in the united kingdom continue blindly to resist the
evidence of their own senses, and who were the last per-
sons to engage in any speculation, however useful, during
the collapse of the railway mania, are now the very indi-
viduals whom Britain will have to thank in some degree
for their obstinacy. For, at the same time that Australia
is reaping a golden harvest, it is no less likely that the
above class of individuals, distrustful of all enterprise, and
the effects of the present abundance of gold, will enable
the old country, with its war-contracted debt, to pay off a
large part of her national incumbrance, and thereby benefit
millions of her population. And it is to be expected, too,
that another class of individuals, full of hope and enter-
prise, will obtain for the United Kingdom, from the new
order of things, the same benefits that California has con-
ferred upon the United States of America ; for, notwith-
standing the inclination of man, in his own time, to raise
into undue importance the value of some discoveries, still
the great results that have already flowed from the gold
fields of California and Australia indicate to both Britain
and America that there never was, in the history of na-
tions a period like the present, take it all in all, so con-
ducive to the.spread of peaceful enterprise and the blessings
of civilisation to every distant land.
"In order, however, to. give a clearer view to those at a
distance of the present pncE.s in Melbourne, the subjoined
is a short comparative table (No. 1) of the average prices in
Melbourne towards the latter end of December of the years
1850, 1851, andlBs2.
" And, with the view of being some criterion for the
future in regard to prices, there follow tables of the annual
produce of gold and silver ; of the coinage of both metals
in the United Kingdom, United States, and France in the
50 years ending 1850 ; and also of the coinage of the same
metals in the United Kingdom from the accession of James
1., in 1603, till December, 1850 :