The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-12 00:00:00

TIDE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY )2, 1871.

COLLIERY EXPLOSION NEAR

SHEFFIELD.

TWENTY-SEVEN MEN KILEED---ELEVEN

INJURED.

(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAM.)

A terrible explosion took place on Tuesday night near
Sheffield. The scene of the accident is Renishan Park,
near Eckington, at the mine belonging to Messrs. J. and
G. Wells. The colliery is about eight miles from Shef-
field. Eight hundred miners are employed in it, and the
adjoining works belonging to the same firm. The men
work in shifts of one hundred each. Fortunately, at 11
o'clock p.m., the time of the explosion, only sixty men
were employed in these particular workings, which
are known as the Silkstone Mine. The said workings
are reached by two shafts 225 yards in depth, and
about 600 yards apart. The explosion seems to have
taken place about 400 yards from the bottom of the down
shaft. The exact cause is not known ; but half a dozen
men were repairing the way, and it is believed that in so
doing a portion of the roof was displaced, whereby a
quantity of foul air was liberated. This gas, in some un-
explained manner, was fired. The report of the accident
caused great alarm in the neighbourhood ; and the now
too frequent unhappy scene which invariably accompanies
such catastrophes was enacted at the mouth of
the pit. A large number of persons, anxious wives
and mothers among the number, soon congregated.
The men had immediately organised an exploring party.
Mr. Samuel Hardwick,the underground steward, took the
lead of it, and a careful examination of the mine was
commenced. Twenty-seven of the miners were found
dead, and eleven others were seriously injured. One of
the latter, whose name is Bolson, is so severely burned
that he is not expected to recover. Most of the deceased
were married and have left families. As the bodies were
brought to the top, and recognised by their wives and
children, or friends, the heartrendering scene was beyond
description. The pit has been in working operation about
a dozen years, and during that time no serious accident
has occurred.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE PARIS
FORTS.

From Margency, the headquarters of the Crown Prince
of Saxony, the special correspondent of the Daily News
thus writes on January 8 :—One of the remarkable fea-
tures of this siege, of Paris is the lulls which from time to
time give breathing time to the combatants, and bring

an interregnum of utter blank dulness to the corres-
pondents. Not that I have to record any such sum-
mons to-day, or indeed anything at all of interest ;
only experience tells me not to be taken aback
when such a summons comes. That it will come in
a day or two I think not at all unlikely. Frankly,
we seem to be puzzled. Are we utterly knoe':ing the
French into a cocket hat? Are they squatting in their
casements, watches in hand, counting the hours and the
minutes before the time shall come when the defence
shall have reached the climax of heroism, and when,
without spoiling their claim to deserve well of
posterity, they can send the parlententaire out to
the Prefecture of Versailles? On the other hand, are
they thus silent on some plan or other? Are they striving
to make us think it is all over with them, and
that we have extinguished them, only to turn upon us
presently and make a harder attempt than ever to rend
us ? Who knows ? It is a curious crisis. Day after day,
hour after hour, our batteries, all the way from Ormesson
to Gonesse, are steadily pelting away at something or
other in the nature of hostile positions. We think we
have done a deal one night, for instance. Rosny and
Nogent have not fired a shot all day. Drancy has been
a dumb dog. Du Nord, de l'Est, and Aubervilliers
have just done enough to let us understand that their pipe
is not utterly put out—no more. I will try to answer
the question according to my lights. In the words of a
sagocious personage, " I have my suspicions " about this
same sudden French quietude. You know Mr Micawber
at times fell to the rear, but then his explanation was
that he "was drawing back for a spring."
I reatly think that the defenders of Paris
not in many respects very wide of the
Micawber type, are following that type in this
resilient phase also. It is not seriously to be thought of
that the German fire on this side, respectable as it is, has
been capable of achieving thus suddenly the silencing of
forts constructed and armed in such a manner as are those
on which one looks down from the terrace of Montmo-
rency. But these forts are substantially silent. It
may be that the policy is to tempt our batteries
forward, till they come so close that, in the opinion of the
French engineers and artillerymen, the time
has come when slogging blows can be dealt. It may be
that the troops frozen off the Plateau of Corneuve and
Baubigny, are once again to mass behind the forts and
come out with a spurt against the audacious batteries
which are daring to strike at Prussian stone and lime. I
am no wearer of the mantle of prophecy, and will not
squander your space with further bootless prognos-
tications, but this I will say, that I have no con-
fidence in the bona fides, if I may use the term,
of the strange quietude of the forts. When we look up to
the firmament, and see amid the blue sky a cloud no
bigger than a man's hand, those of us with any weather-
wisdom go to the length at least of carrying an umbrella.
Depend upon it, the Germans wiil'•have to unfurl their
umbrellas once again before these forts, now grim
and silent, actually have the dangerous sting
dragged out of them. It will be no use to
protest. Fierce as the remonstrance against fate may be,
it will avail nought but to stain the snow with useless
blood. But that more blood will be shed, and that too not
in drops, but in gushes, before the now seeming is con-
verted into the real, I am as morally certain as I write
these lines to-night by the fireside, with the distant one-
sided cannonade wafted to me over the low heights, as if
already I were meeting the wounded and the prisoners
coming from the front, and hearing, when I ask after
friends, that they are among those who will
never more come from the front. It may be
expected that a large addition will shortly be
made to the batteries now bombarding Paris. We learn
that yesterday Forts Issy and Vanvres were silenced by
the batteries at Meudon and Clamart, and that last night
experimental batteries were thrown up, and mounted with
guns, a thousand paces nearer these forts, which, how
ever, have feebly recommenced their fire to-day.