The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-27 00:00:00

ESCAPED WITH SLIGHT INJURIES.

C. Wqlmsley, Esq., Chester.
Mr. Warburton, Chester, tailor and draper.
Mr. Tomkinson, of Liverpool.
Miss Worthington, of Manchester.
W. W. Wynne, Esq., Wrexham.
Mr. Proud, Chester.

BUSSING.

Mr. F. Grote, merchant, Gre,ford ; and it is doubtful
whether there are not mere still in the river.

A highly respectable jury were summ,.ned to-day, and
met at hall past ten and sat until halt past three, when
it was a :loathed to Friday morning at ten.
Previous to their being sworn they took a minute
survey of the bridge, &e.
_ _

I om- hied to state that had not the engine been de-
tached, and tend,r thrown *Against the wall, from the
carriages, not a sou'
deroua weight must 1
As it is, peuple wund

(From
Immediately upon
we dispatched a repo'
morning, after witnef

occurrence.

The scene of the a,
river Dee, close to ti

crossed by an iron b)
in width. Each spa.. . ..ss_i_,
girders, supported by stone of the raoat,fipertififiMfaW.
construction. ThereareleuF of these girders ingach ow,
one on each side. of the up
and down lines ot'sfallli,
Strong wooden beaMs were fixed across,thp girders, and
along these the lilies were lud. The 4AT4er- themselves
were formed of twO pieces of iron firm*iivetted in the
centre, and seamed well adapted to sustain an immense
adapted to
weight.
The train which left. Chester at a quarter past six last
call aesrset4a,re-rries ;it:o. st, 'lna r,i,dt'ea: gagetito4gi
tw .-Ystsdnol
evening consisted- of one first-class carriage, two second-
train wayproceedidg,r(Ustial ab,hg the line, had already
ebnu tpasi tsiesnsgtear: tesl
Thetha t
crossed two of ti.ie. areberOind war iii the act of crossing
the third, Mien; without one inonieit's warning, all the
carriages *re precipitated, int,. the river, a depth of
about 120 pt;t
the tiridti,e, titirsuini the engPSl*Cterridei, which had crossed
g tiTrAy.:,l44l/44,„g the line. The
dri csternation of the la s.,
..as--,lrs. at this time must have
- I
been!irightful;' isnd .sothe in ividuals who witnessed the
ace.ctent ima'..The ' Rti,e4e., describe their shrieks as
bell* of the most heartrending description. But even
this terror was merely morneetary; for the sudden shock
and concussion rendered moat all the p.,rsons in the
carriages totally insensiblelo their situation. One man,
ifeMed, named Proud, teckvered himself almost imme-
•dittte ; he-I....unit hiniseWin a carriage turned upside
clii 'in the rive?, and being fully sensible of the horrors
4y
of his sitifidibn, he exerted' himself to the utmost, and
aw.pet',ded in getting through the carriage window,
whewe be precipi,ated himself into the river, and swam
esho4.
,Tife -dr4sh was heard at a great distance, and
assistance Viesia tromptlypn the spot, Mr. Jones, the
house- surgeok- of .i.li,- itagtmary, being very active in
rendering every aid tot e unfortunate sufferers. In a
brief space of -time four end bodies were taken out of
the riv r;sind'twelve-or t irteen of the passengers, who
were more or leis wounded, were extricated from their
perilous situation and conveyed to the Infirmary.
As soon as the pgifation consequent upon such a ,
dreadful occurreqio tad subsided, attention was directed
to the fallen arch;'' bfit, srrangu to say, only one of the
girders, that Oil the
.Ctutside, had given way, while the
usher remained prr6ctly firm and entire. Of course
the weight of the carriages bore down the rails and the
horizontal beams, which with the girder, now broken
into several pieces; fell into the river. It also tore with
smashed as would the other,
have been the case had the arch
it a portion of the stone-work in which it was fixed on
against
the Welsh side .of the river. Very fortunately, how-
ever, nothing seemed`to have fallen upon the carriages,
tthey and
did though
not t h
appypavev.aerr were
o crushed
completely
been built of stone.
Any conjecture as to the cause of the accident would be
idle or misplaced; but doubtle*s that will be sufficiently
investigated before the coroner.
'Ol those who escaped unhurt—comparatively few con-
sidering the number in jbe train— the following are the
only names we have yet learned, and we believe it corn-
prises all, with one or two exceptions;—Mt Walmaley,
.4 Liverpool, who was proceeding to Llangollen; a young
-min named Proud, connected with one of the railway
offices; Mr. Lloyd Wynne, of Mount Zion, near Os.
westry, and his son, also escaped almost without a
Valise. , • . .
There seems tolii,onC man still missing, for a hat has
been found, marked ;with the name of . tashelford, for
which there Is no 'owner, . but this is supposed to be the
only body that has not liven recovered.
Mr. Jones, the house surgeon, seemed to think the
beads of most of the sufferers had come in contact with
the stone wall, as the wounds were filled with sand; but
this might be caused by the quantity of sand which
would be disturbed a* the carriages fell.
We have spoken to one or two gentlemen who heard
the crash of the fallinginass, which was heard at a great
distance and who were on the spot immediately after
. the accident, but the relief of the wounded absorbed
their whole attention; and they were almost unable to
form the
,slightest idea of the cause of this dreadful
calamity.
It was stated that the engineer was so horrified at the
occurrence that he went on his engine in an almost in-
sensible state for a distance of about two miles,
One of the e,achmen who was killed had 150/ in his
Docket, whi..b was taken chtt,r4e of by Mr. Hill, the
superintendent of police. .. .
'1 hese, then, are, the.burried details which we have
been enabled to coil.c respecting -this accident, in itr,
rature more frightful th.ir any in the records of railwa.
iati'ly. . The toques . however, will Untold soue, turtle,
iiiforination, arid, us all probability, that will take place
. _
to-morrow.

-auxiliary, which offered itself so naturally
:d Byron makes one of his heroes speuk
those noble words, analogous to those which Lucan at-
tributed to Cato—' I am ever of the religion of the per-
secuted.' O'Connell had a lively faith in that religion
—a faith which. never wavered. The persecution of
Catholicity in Ireland prolojiged the fanaticism of the
middle age to modern times,. We can scarcely believe
when reading the last'memoir of O'Connell that such
sanguinary laws could have been applied at the com-
mencement of the present century. The title of Ca-
tholic proscribed that of citizen—be possessed no right,
no property, no asylum. We do not wish to stir that
pool of blood, but an idea may be formed of the civil
pu.ition of the Catholics, when it is known that a Pro-
testant meeting a Catholic on horseback had a right to
make the Catholic alight and take possession of his
horse. Such was Ireland when O'Connell entered on
public life. It was the period when Pitt by force and
seduction, menaces, and bribery destroyed the Irish
Parliament and proclaimed the Act of Union. The
patriotism of the Irish was roused, and the following
passage from the speech of an orator who had opposed
the union was placarded on the walls of Dublin: 'lre-
land is no longer anything but a colony of slaves for
England.' O'Connell had soon an opportunity of ex-
plaining his pi inciples on this subject during a political
trial, and his language was so persuasive, his
appeal to the country so pathetic, that whelk
leaving the court-house be was hailed Its the
chief
.of a new party. Nevertheless, his success at tht-
bar restrained him. From the year 1809 to the peace
his reputation and his practice so much increased that it
'produced him 20,0001. sterling a year. Still, however,
he did not neglect his general interests—tbere was not a
public meeting at which his voice was not beard—snot a
banquet at which be was not the popular orator—not a
petition nor an address which was not prepared by this
accomplished lawyer;—he thus converted the laws pre-
pared to crush him into an arm. Nevertheless England,
which had made so many promises in order to obtain
the Act of Union, proved herself implacable. • She
grants us nothing.' exclaimed O'Connell in 1820, • be-
cause we do not stir. Let us agitate ! Let us unite !
Let the weight of our petitions crush the table of the
House of Commons, so that by the noise made in breaking
the table, the House may at length be warned that we
are millions of men crushed by iniquitous laws.' Vain
hopes 1 There are periods when nations appear to lose
every principle of life through torpidity. In the year
1823 two men, equal in eloquence, met at W icklow at
the house of a common friend ' • both patriots and both
young, they shed tears on the fate of Ireland. These
were Sheil and O'Connell. Supported one by the other
they determined to rouse the population from its apathy
by founding a vast Catholic Association. The founda-
tion was soon laid, and they agreed to meet in the
parlour of a bookseller in Dublin. Ten members were
considered sufficient to found the association. Four
meetings were' held, but -netwithstanding the most
pressing invitations . the ten members could not be
found. The last day, they were eight, and after waiting
two hours they were about to separate, when. Mr. O'Con-
nell heard voices in the bookseller's shop. They were
those of three students in divinity who came to purchase
books. According to the statutes of the association in
embryo every ecclesiastic was rpso facto a member. Mr.
O'Connell invited the students to take their places—they
hesitated—he forced them into the room, and closing the
door he exclaimed with a thundering voice, " We are
constituted—Mr. Shell, I call on you to speak.' This
feeble nucleus soon became larger—the acorn assumed
the proportions of an immense oak—all the priests were
appointed officers of the association—within two years it.
extended over the entire territory—it presented itself
everywhere, and if any act of violence was committed
against an Irishman a lawyer was employed to prosecute
the affair—the act was denounced in the newspapers and
at the meetings of the association. At the close of the
year, 1,201,000 signatures were attached to the Catholic
petition, and the following year more than 2,000,000.
Ireland appeared to be roused, and the feeling of
nationality inspired her population. The activity of
O'Connell appeared to exceed the powers of a human
being: • He spoke during seven or eight hours a day
—harangued everybody—at one moment in the publit
streets, the next at a meeting ; the same day at e
public dinner, and the following day appeared b
letter signed by him in the journals.of the association.
4,r some ponphlet, or denunciation of an abomt-
aable law or an act of oppressive Government. Ile ex-
ited agitatton with all the strength of his powerful
wigs. If w.+ ih,ll that be developed all t"e resource:
or His unintralieled eloquence—little careful of his style,
but ascending to the sublime and descending to the gro•

. s•—

it would. hive escape 1, asAli;ir..----VVU:
the cease, of
ihave crushed everything to, sta tnt .
er how a single individual din e. hopes-it wa
it was like,
fie said, dike
but that peac
I the Liverpool Times.) , , neither steril
i hearing of this dreadful calatnitT'' able to make
orter to the spot, who returned th de4veerli.4ll
essin :4 * the.scesie of the. xnelanche lb txtracVl
.tt‘,-, -,,,,
ili - , . ' e'nrbllvd une
tem is tliV noblabiidge orqr;:tht -wished to foi
,he race course. The river is Oka Its,"his-staff.
bridge,ofUree spans, each 100. stitzthr that i
Span is comp4sed of massive it...4i', jpm. Lon