The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-15 00:00:00

SHOCKING ACCIDENT ON THE

BELGIAN RAILWAY.
NARROW ESCAPE OF THE QUEEN OF THE
BELGIANS.

The following account of a very serious accident on the
Belgian Railway is taken from Galignani :—" The Inde-
pendance of Brussels, which arrived this morning, gives the
following account of an accident on the Belgian Railroad,
by which the Queen of the Belgians was placed in imminent
danger The Queen left this morning to accompany his
Majesty, who is going to the baths of Wiesbaden, as far as
Verviers, and was to return at five o'clock in the evening. As
some delay was experienced at the station at Verviers, the
train which conveyed her Majesty. proceeded at rather a
rapid rate ; on arriving near the station of Ans, it was met
at the intersection of the two lines and ran into by the
train which left Brussels at eleven o'clock. The concussion
was terrible. Her Majesty happily received no injury, but
several of her suite were less fortunate, and it is with regret
we state that General Chazal was-severely wounded, and has,
it is said, tworibs broken, but it is stated that no fears are en-
tertained for his life. General d'Hane received a con-
tusion on the head, and one of the other officers of the
palace had an arm broken. The Baronne de Stassart received
some slight bruises. Her Majesty arrived this evening at
Lacken. General Chazal was carried to Leige. This melan-
choly accident took place between two and three o'clock in
the afternoon; a special engine was immediately sent off, •
with a letter from the Queen to his Majesty, who was to I
pass the night at Deutz (Cologne) and who would receive
the account about seven in the evening. The Queen displayed
the greatest firmness and presence of mind, and her first care
was to inquire after the individuals composing her suite, and
those who were in the other trains. Our informant saw the
carriages of the royal train which experienced the greatest
injury, and many parts of which are literally crushed to
atoms. The escape of her Majesty was most miraculous, for
the fauteuil on which she was sitting was much damaged.
In giving this account, we cannotrefrain from again express-
ing our astonishment that the legislative bodies of the
different countries in which there are railroads do not
adopt more severe precautionary measures against
offences—we will not call them accidents—of this sort.
Collisions would be almost impossible, if proper regulations
as to the hours of starting were enforced. Nine-tenths of
the accidents, as they are called, on railroads, are not acci-
dental, in the true meaning of the word; they are the result
of the negligence of the persons employed, and this will be
the case so long as the directors are not made personally re-
sponsible for the conduct of the agents whom they em-
ploy. It is not sufficient to punish with imprisonment
the subordinates, who are the immediate authors of these
calamities, or to inflict fines upon directors, which come
from the pockets of the shareholders, who are rather to be
pitied than blamed. The directors of railroads should be
taught that they have something else to do than get up
companies, and receive salaries for sitting at a board and
exercising patronage. They should be compelled in turn
to inspect and verify the regulations, and be made to feel
that for any casualty arising from causes which their con-
stant and close attention could have prevented, they will
have to pay a severe
. penalty. 11 this were done, we should
have no more collisions, or they would be of very rare occur-
rence indeed.

'ACCIDENT ON THE NORTH•VVESTERN RAILWAY.-
The express train from Liverpool, which was due at Euston-
square at eleven o'clock on Thursday night, did not arrive
till five minutes past one yesterday morning. The delay
arose from the train running into a goods train, on a curve
in the line, a little below Wolverton, by which the guard's
break-waggon was broken to pieces. Happily no lives
were lost, but the guard and several of the passengers were
slightly injured. Whether the accident occurred through
the signals not having been properly attended to, or whether
the goods train carried no " tail-lights," we could not ascer-
tain in the confu3ion which prevailed on the arrival of the
train.

FRAMPTON'S PILL OF HEALTH—for bilious or sick
headache, indigestion, and for the whole train of symptoms
arising from a weak stomach, or vitiated bilious secretion,
are pre-eminently successful. For costiveness, either habi-
tual or temporary, they are admirable, and fir elderly persons
will prove the most agreeable medicine that can be taken
They are used Frith the greatest advantage by either sex.
and will therefore prove an excellent family pill ; for, in any
case where an a percent medicine is required, they need only
be tried to be u niversally adopted. Sold by all medicine
vendors. Price is. lid. per box. See the name of "Thomas,
Prout, 229, Ste and, London," on the Government stamp.
THE GUN COTTON.—As all conjecture as to the
nature of this immensely powerful agent has now been set at
rest by the publicity of the specification of the patent, any
official facts with reference to its actual utility must
tthphereovHlleooonif:
interest. A course of experiments to test its relative
strength with tle very best Ordnance gunpowder, have just
g taken place at the- Holyhead Mountain, An leso
land Slate Qusxries, in Merionethshire; and at
Colonel Pennant's slate quarries, PenrhY n• ' and the result
shows that the Isaving by the use of the gun cotton is at least
3mOinpeerrs,cbenyt.i;tsanitleedants,o warheicheniasbtlhede great advantage that the
to owbtat. ine the
an officialenor-
mousmost
blocks, an d this with little ()In() as
report, which appears in the Mining Journal of last Satur-
day, it appears shat " a hugh mass of sixty tons weight was
gently pushed ft om its firmly bound bed by the explosion of
only eight ouncea of cotton, and that no splintering of the
slate took place, which greatly astonished the workmen."
iTtoseolreaffiencbtlaocvkaszotf
ataetennatonte.,
great and incret :sing demand,oof such immense size, will in
d ; that material being in
evenoo at its present price,for
articles of building, of furniture, and works of luxuryand of
art. The Messr s.. Hall and Sons, of Lombard-street, the
well-known guny nyder manufacturers, have the working of
the patents in tb e. United Kingdom and the colonies.
The man wi io cut his throat on Thursday morning
near the Bank o f England is a German, and not a French -
man, as was sir posed at first. It appears he attempted to
murder a boy p .revious to cutting his own throat in the
street. The hop taersurgeon at St. Thomas's gives no hope of
_ his recovery.

•
LAW INTELLIGENCE. _ .
COVRT OF EXCHEQUER, Mayl4„,
(Sittings at Nisi Prius, before the Loin Cni Bizow and

a Special Jury.) -
THE ATTORNEY-GENEIIAL V. HITCHCOCK.
Mr.
Wthaitsocna, s ea
ntdh
appearedemArt.towirnledy;Geeral fo r Stohl iec i tocr
or-
vinGen,
and
Mr. la,
Mr. Bovilalen for the defendant.
the defendant, wb
It was
information at the instance of the Excise against
Boxford, in Suffolk, carriesd on the business of a brewer at
manufacturingarging him with secretly and clan-
destinelythat purpose, and thereby malt, in a room not entered for
ofaevding the payment of duty.
The case on behalf Crown was, that in the autumn
of 1845 the _defendant erected
previouslycommunicated
occupied as a back
kitchen fireplace, in a place aeistero at the back of his
means of a secret trap-door and inwitthhis way
his. malt-house by
kitchen, and which'
space a whole year.
fraudulently
contrived to manufacture malt for the
The cistern was discovered by an Excise) rin November
last, upon inforrhation given by a person named
who had been in the defendants employent, but
and-
denly dismissed. When the trap-door was discovered was
at all
the necessary implementi for the manufacture of malt
e
found, and a residuum of damp mud, which had been left
after an extensive and long-continued malting, was found
at
the bottom of the cistern.
tbe defence set up was that the cistern had not been
used for the purpose of malting as alleged by the Crown,
and in support of the case several labourers, who had been
in the defendant's service, were examined.
Their evidence, however, did not seem to be satisfactory,
for the jury, after a short consultation, returned a verdict
for the Crown, with penalties to the amount of 4,0001.