The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-21 00:00:00

nature, self-preservation; for a man is not

drone to be grossly negligent, where, either by acts
of omission or commission on his part, his own life
would probably be involved in the fate he might
tiring down upon h:s fellow-workmen. But, as
tgainst sheer ignorance, and its effects, which are
occasionally so awful, particularly in subterranean
Indertakings, we have no such primary protection.
the following evidence was given before the coroner
at Oldbury on Friday :
" William Clift, a miner, said, two months ago I
worked in the pit for two days and part of another : it
was much given to dapp, but middling clear of sul-
phur • it was the choke damp, and put the candle out.
rhe third morning I went to the pit there was a side of
vork where I wa3 full of sulphur. There was a head
Nay driven out of this side of work, and in it there was
ilNo much sulphur. I said to Holland, the butty,'
that I was dissatisfied about working on that side of the
pit, because there was sulphur; it kept getting worse,
.Ind I said that I should like to have the lamp ; he
(Holland) said he would take it ; he lighted it, and I
went with him to the side of the work of which I had
•onc,plained. Holland tried the lamp, and said the place
was fit to work in. I then took the lamp and tried it my-
self. I found that there was a great deal of sulphur. I
then said to Holland that I would not work in that sniper,
fhe would give me the pit. I told him I should go out of
the pit, and I put on my clo!hes and went away."
Mr. Tuomas HavNes, the mine-surveyor, subse-
quently stated, that " he believed the explosion to have
been occasioned by sulphur having congregated in a
part where a portion of coal, attached to the roof, had
broken down."

Now, upon these facts, it appears to us, that a
strong case of suspicion is made out, that Mr. HoL-
LAND—" the butty"—is not a person qualified to fill
a situation where the grave responsibility rests of de-
ciding whether the atmosphere in a mine is in a fit
state or not for men to work in, without danger
to their lives. Two months ago, though HOL-
LAND had tried the air with the lamp, the
man, CLIFT (who also tried it immediately
afterwards) was so dissatisfied with HOLLAND'S judg-
ment, that he actually put on his clothes and walked
away ! Within eight weeks, in the very same pit,
and from the congregation of sulphur (as believed by
the surveyor), which caused such apprehension in the
mind of CLIFT, this frightful accident has happened.
We hope the wealthy owners of these collieries and
the like undertakings will, for their own credit, look
well into these things, and by employing as their
subordinates (to whose superintendence the protec-
tion of the lives of thousands is committed), men
only, whose steadiness of habit, good repute, acuteness
of intellect, and education expressly adapted to mining
operations, will afford the public the best guarantee
against the repetition of so heart-rending an occur-
rence as the one to which we have drawn the atten-
tion of our readers.

We learn by letters from Rome that the Govern-
ment of the new POPE having found the finances of
the country entirely ruined, in consequence of the
disorders of the last Administration, is under an
absolute necessity of having recourse to a loan. The
confidence is so great in the present head of the State,
that he has already received advantageous offers from
several important houses. It is stated, that before
concluding anything, he has called on Cardinal Gum
to present him with an exact statement of the wants
of the Treasury, and of the resources of the country.
But the necessary documents have been exceedingly
difficult to find, in consequence of the carelessness or
ill-will of the provincial officers, who had not their
accounts in proper order, and never supposed that the
taxes were to be levied with exactitude. Cardinal
Gaza has, however, succeeded in drawing up a state-
ment, and in forming a plan for organizing the State
finances. The result may be long in being arrived
at, but the Government is determined to persevere,
and carries with it the sympathy of all well-thinking
persons.

The Augsburgh Gazette of the 15th states that the
proclamation for incorporating Cracow with Austria
has been prepared, and will be published almost im-
mediately. _

Madrid papers of the 13th have arrived.
The Gaceta publishes a royal decree for the adop•
tion of the necessary measures for the Governmen
taking in hand the collection and administration of
the salt duties on the 30th, when the period for which
they had been farmed out will expire. It also pub-
lishes a decree fixing the 6th of December for the
commencement of the general election.
On the 4th two small vessels of war arrived
Vigo from Portugual, with the rest of the Spanish
emigrants who were in the depots. They consist of
private citizens, soldiers and police, and custom-
house officers. The emigrants entered the town
amidst general expressions of joy. On board the
steamer which arrived from Lisbon on the 2d were
also many emigrants, most of them officers of the
battalion of- Oviedo. They are to go to Santiago,
and place themselves at the disposal of the Captain-
General.

A letter from Vittoria of the 9th November, which
appears in the Tiempo, says—
General Flores, who was yesterday at the theatre
with several of the officers who are to accompany him in
his expedition to the Equator, left to-day for Durango
and Orduna, where he intends passing his troops in re-
view. The number of reeruits is not considerable, but
the men are picked. Amongst the officers are MM.
Guillem and Dominguez. It is said that not more than
1,000 men have been got tcgether.
MADRID BOLSA, Nov. 13.—The Three per Cents. are
per cent. higher to-day, being reported at 341 buyers;
Five per Cents., 211 with the Coupon; Coupon, 23;
Passive Debt, G 4 buyers. There was a fall of above 3
per cent. iu the shares of the General Assn, ante Com-
pany, 0..‘ ing to the news having arrived of the losses
sustained in the terrible hurricane at the Havannab.

We have received the Paris papers of Thursday.
The determination of Russia, Austria, and Prussia
to suppress the republic of Cracow seems to have
struck M. GUIZOT aghast. It is evident that he is
now desirous if possible of renewing the entente cor-
diale with England, but once broken it is not so
easily renewed. Those who have once deceived
can never again expect to be trusted. England will
no doubt do her duty as one of the parties to the
treaty of Vienna, but we should hope that she will
do it independently altogether of M. GUIZOT. The
following article from the Journal des Debuts may be
considered as the official announcement of the views
of the French Cabinet on the subject :
" When, yesterday, we reproduced an article from the
Augsburgh Gazette which announced that, with common
accord of the there protecting Powers of the Republic
of Cracow, this city was incorporated in the domains of
Austria, we abstained from all observation, for the
strange news appeared to us to be at least doubtful.
We could nut believe that the three great Powers,
Austria, Prussia, and Russia, had concurred in giving to
the world such a manifest example of so dangerous a
violation of solemn treaties. The evident fallacy of the
motives alleged by the Augsburgh Gazette in palliation
of this act of violence contributed still further to render
us suspicious of the news. Who ever has read the
treaties of Vienna must know full well that the esta-
blishment of the Republic of Cracow was not the exclu-
sive work of the three Powers who now arrogate to
themselves the right of destroying it, and if there exist,
as the Augsburgh Gazette pretends, private conven-
tions, in virtue of which Austria, Prussia, and
Russia, considered the independence of the Republic
of Cracow as a simple experiment which they
were always at liberty to abandon, it is too evident
that these conventions are without force or value with
regard to the other powers who signed the treaties of
Vienna. Europe has never heard of these conventions,
and this is the first time of their being revealed to the
world. We had therefore every right to mistrust the
assertion of the Augsburgh Gazette. It is, however, but
too true that this journal was well informed. It is now
certain that Austria, Prussia, and Russia, borrowing
from the Emperor Napoleon the formula for which he
has been so much reproached, have pronounced with one
common accord that the Republic of Cracow has ceased to
exist, and that this city, the last remnant of unhappy
Poland, is to be united to the Austrian dominions. The
news was on Tuesday notified by the Prussian Minit.ter
to the British Ambassador, Lord Normanby; and yes-
terday M. Guizot received the like notification from the
Austrian Chargé d'Affaires. The act, therefore, is con-
summated. But right still subsists, and the marked de-
clarations that were made last summer in the French
Chambers and the British Houses of Parliament, by
the Ministers of Forfign Affairs of the two nations, are
sure pledges that right will not be given up."
After quoting from the speeches of M. GUIZOT and
Lord PALMERSTON, the article thus concludes :
" These quotations sufficiently show the true light in
hich France and England ought to view the act of vio-
, knee which the three Powers, who, by a painful incon-
sistency, still call themselves the protectorsof the Republic
of Cracow, have allowed themselves to commit. The im-
portance of this republic is not the question: we know
that the incorporation of the city of Cracow in the
dominions of Austria will not disturb the balance of
power in Europe ; but the question is upon a prin-
ciple on which reposes the public rights of Europe,
and the independence of all its states, small as
well as great. If the existence of the Republic of
Cracow was really incompatible with the repose of three
such Powers a; Austria, Prussia, and Russia, it would
still have been no reason for a violation of right. Refer-
enceih )51 d have been made to all the Powers who signed