The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-15 00:00:00

FRANCE.

THE LATE RAILWAY ACCIDENT.
SWINDON, SNTURDAY.—The case of Mr. Arthur
Augustus Lea has unfortunately terminated fatally.
The injuries Mr. Lea sustained were very serious,
one of his thighs being fractured, and the other leg
broken below the knee. His dissolution, however,
did not arise from either of these fractures, but from
an attack of apoplexy, with which he was stricken a
few hours previous to death. Several of the unfortu-
nate gentleman's friends were present at his demise,
and, among them, his cousin, who is a student in the
same college. The deceased was a young man of
great promise ; he took a double degree at the last
clia.s4cal examination, and, it is sail, was only deprived
of the highest honours by a long and serious illness,
which interrupted his studies for some months.
This afternoon, at three o'clock, Mr. W. B. Whit-
marsh empannelled a jury for the purpose of investi-
gating the circumstances attending the death of the
deceased.
The identity of the deceased having been proved,
the several witnesses examined at the inquest
held at Shrivenham on Thursday, were called.
Their testimony differed in no material point from
that which they had before given.
Mr. Michael Lane, resident engineer of the rail-
way deposed to having accompanie Captain Symonds
to Shrivenham for the purpose of making an experi-
ment as to how much time would be occupied in
placing the horse-box and trucks in the position they
occupied on the railway when the accident occurred.
From the experiment made it had been found that to
move the horse-box and cattle-truck to the position
in which they were placed, and to bring the loaded
truck on to the turntable occupied five men nearly
seven minutes. On the occasion of the accident four
men only were employed, so that a greater time
might be reasonably supposed to have been occupied.
The policeman on duty, Pargetter, was stationed
about four hundred feet from the siding where the
horse-box and cattle•truck entered upon the line,
and he could not, as witness believed, have helped
seeing the obstruction had he looked in the proper

direction.
At this stage of the proceedings the inquest was
adjourned until Wednesday next.
SHRIVENHAM, SATURDAY.—This morning, at half-
past ten o'clock, Mr. Wasborough, Coroner for
Perks, and the jury empannelled on Thursday last,
re-assembled at the Victoria Tavern, Lear the railway
station, for the purpose of further prosecuting their
investigation, on view of the budies of Edwin Wilt-
shire and Michael Mahony, whose remains were not
identified when the jury previously met.
Mr. John Leahy, of Shamskiel House, in
e tlise
s
county of Cork, said he was travelling in the expr t
train from Bristol to London, on Wednesday
laadsd
.
lie rode in a first class carriage, with his child,
her female attendant. His man-servant, Michael
After the
Mahoney, rode in a second class carFiage.
collision, witness saw his servant lying on the plat-
form quite dead.
Richard Wiltshire, of Bath-place, Islington said
he had seen the bodies now lying dead at the Victoria
Tavern, and recognised one of them as that of his
brother, Edwin Wiltshire, who was travelling with
his master, General Sir Alexander Mackenzie, on
Wednesday last, from Bath to London, when the
accident occurred.
The testimony of the different witnesses examined
on the last occasion having been repeated,
The CORONER, after referring to a copy of the
instructions issued to the servants of the company,
said he could find no rule forbidding the servants of
the company to place any obstruction on the main
line, while the signal showed the line to be clear.
From the evidence of Mr. Hudson, the station clerk,
he had been led to believe there was such a rule.
Mr. Clarke, the superintendent, said although not
referred to in the rules, this was a thoroughly under-
stood matter by all persons in the employ of the com-
pany. It was in fact the fundamental principle on
which all the instructions ware based.
The foreman of the jury said he did not think that
men who were half their time atupified with drink and
tobacco, as all those who knew Willoughby knew him
to be, were proper persons to have the lives of the
public placed at their mercy.
Mr. Clarke expressed his surprise at the statement
of the foreman, and reminded the jury that Wil-
loughby had received a very good character from the
station clerk.
The Foreman said, from his personal knowledge of
the man he considered him most unfit to fill the duties
of the responsible situation in which he had been
placed. He had been surprised to find, on walking
down to the inn where they were then assembled,
after the inquest had been held, about ten o'clock on
Thursday night the porter Copley, who was repre-
sented to have been ill so long, with his pipe and his
glass before him, carousing with a number of pot
companions. Considering that the house was full of
invalids who were suffering from the effects of the re-
cent accident, he thought if Copley had been able to
come there at all, he should have been one of the first
to assist in closing the house, and endeavouring to se-
cure quiet for its inmates.
Mr. Clarke—l quite agree with you, sir, and beg
to assure you that the sobriety and general good con-
duct of all our servants is invariably watched with
great jealousy.
One of the jury thought the duty imposed upon the
policeman of attending to both signal posts, as well as
the gates at the level crossing over the railway, was
too much for any one man, and recommended that a
second policeman should be appointed.
Mr. Clarke—On behalf of the directors of the
company I promise that the matter shall be fully
considered, with a view to put on another policeman,
if necessary, or even if thought desirable.
The CORONETS. said he thought it very desirable
that an instruction not to place any truck on the
main line before having turned on the danger signal
should be inserted in the printed rules.
Mr. Clarke said, a new set of rules were in prepa-
ration, in which it had been embodied.
The jury immediately agreed to a verdict of man-
slaughter against the two porters, Weybury and
Willoughby, as in the other cases. The policeman
Pargetter has been suspended. Weybury and Wil-
loughby are both under confinement in Reading gaol.
Captain Blair, to the great surprise of his medical
attendants, has rallied considerably, and a slight
degree of sensibility has returned to his extremities.
His wife, as well as his father and brother, have
arrived at Shriver.haw, and remain with their un-
fortunate relative. The gallant sufferer retains per-
fect consciousness; indeed his faculties do not appear
to be in the least degree impaired.
An instance of heartless villainy occurred shortly
after the accident, which, but that it is given on the
very highest authority, would appear altogether in-
credible. An employee of the company was about
removing the body of one of the deceased clergymen,
when a person, to all appearance a passenger in the
train, volunteered his assistance. His aid having
been accepted, the individual placed his hand on the
deceased's waistcoat pocket, and took therefrom a
gold watch and appendages. This circumstance
awakened some suspicions of his honesty, and on
being questioned, his reply to the effect that he was
a servant of the deceased was not considered at all
satisfactory. A demand was made that he should
immediately return the watch. The scoundrel, how-
ever, obstinately refused to do so, and it was not
until some violence was used that he was compelled
to relinquish possession. It need hardly be added
that the story of his being a servant of the deceased
proved a pure fabrication.
It is a very remarkable circumstance in connexion
with this accident, that although the engine by which
the express train was propelled has been greatly
shattered, and rendered wholly unfit for use, the
driver and stoker are not conscious of having felt any
shock when the concussion took place ; and Roscoe,
whose intelligence and respectability afford a very fa-
vourable specimen of the servants of the company,
informed our reporter that of the quantity of
coke he was carrying, in his tender at the
time, not a pound weight was thrown on to
the engine-plate where he was standing, by :the
collision. Roscce also states, that from the first
moment when the obstruction on the main line
broke upon him, he felt perfectly conscious that the
speed at which he was going would overcome
any opposing faece. There is very little doubt his
impression would have proved perfectly correct,
and comparatisreiy small damage arisen had it not
been for the unfortunate position of the cattle truck
on the siding. The rails where the collision took
Place are altogether uninjured except a slight abra-
sion on the iron„ about three-quarters of an inch long,
where the first blow seems to have struck. The axle
of the Cattle truck, which is nearly four inches in
diameter, and c
ornposed of wrought iron welded by
the Patent
Sic tft Company, was bent completely
double, without hibiting the slightest sign of frac-
ture, a proof of
of which it wastlf''e extraordinary quality of the metal
termed.
It is supposed • that the effect of the
made h •Sy Captainexperiment
ymonds and 'Mr.Lane to-day will
be to criminate i aapyneater degree than has at pre-
sentli,.eman Pargetter.
been done, t he

EXECUTION OF MICTIARITSTO,, v. v
DAY AFTERNOo: 4.—The wretched -ORIE, SATUE.-
Stokes, a private i n the 47th Regimented culprit, Michael
of Foot,. who has
been awaiting de; 6th in the casilea,t,ltilhis city since the
assizes in March, underwent his sentence on the
public drop this d ay at noon. It will be recollected that
on the evening of the 20th of last January Stokes fired
a loaded musket t ,t Mary Garrad, the wife'ot
comrades, in Lee, is barracks. The unfortua one of
died immediately, znd Stokes was tried beforealT Baron
to die.
Rolfe, at the York : March assizes, and sentenced to
A point of law, ho I vever, was reserved for the considera-
tion of the fifteen judges, and the execution w
cordingly stayed. The question came before the jausdre;
on the Ist instant, conviction
was good. and they decided that the co • .v
Mr. Pattison ! paired off with Mr. W. Miles in
favour of Mr. W .0. od's motion for a Committee of In-
quiry respecting A e borough of Stamford.

ENGLAND AND THE UNITED

STATES.
The following able and temperate article, which we
copy from the New York Morning Express, conveys an
expression of constitutional sentiments not often notice-
able in the columns of our trans-Atlantic Contempo•
raries. It will well repay perusal:—
" Two great and happy nations repose in peace
and quiet, while all continental Europe is con-
vulsed. France is but /I volcano, blowing out
its ashes, and rolling lava down its burning
sides. All Austria quivers and trembles. Prussia
frets and rages. 30,000 of Germans are fermenting.
Italy is hot with the elements of rebellion. But two of the
great Powers of the world—in some, nay,in many respects,
the greatest powers of the world—are, amid all this fever,
as calm as a summer's morning. Contentment rests upon
the faces of men. Business goes on undisturbed within.
feeling only the ripples from without. Exultation even
bursts forth from these two great Powers, that they are
thus happy and content, and thus free from the turbulence
of the rest of mankind. These two nations are the United
States and our fatherland, Great Britain ; and he i Itthe
true philosopher who can solve the reasons why. sit
in the English language alone—is it in our Saxon
origin that there is something conservative of peace ?
Surely Hot. The solution of this contentment with our-
selves is to be found in something far deeper than tongue
or birth, as it springs, no doubt, from some self-satisfac-
w
tion within. If we can find out what that is, and 4' e
can impress it, when discovered, upon France, aspiring
to our institutions, we shall do a duty to our race, and
aid greatly in the diffusion of universal emancipation.
" The secret of the contentment of the Ameri
which
and the Briton with the institutions under,, i
the
they live, we apprehend, is to be found
and
l
libertygreatest t hat p
theirro 0
f th at institutionsthey seeeciuorye
true o and them
;n r
liberty under their institutions is Indeed,
ed, to
whereverfound
in their contentment with them.
e for iberty, and
as it is in the nature of man to strugg_. rational liberty exists, it inspires contentmentir ; for,
as the absence of it creates uneaeiness and discontent, so
The Government
ion is
ali
upon
its enjoyment diffuses peace. and
the nat•
" Wherever these institutions are founded
liberty there is
peoplestrength
is strong,- the
strong. Liberty develop andarouses all the powers
a ren them.
o anrg
of a State against a common enemy, or for the pro-
motion of its own common weal. The strongest
form of government, beyond all question, is that in
which every man is a freeman, and is stimulated by
his own interest to defend and protect the Government
he has created. If, then, the secret of a nation's happi-
nese and strength is liberty, and if the United States and
Great Britain alone of all the nations of the earth show
that they most enjoy it by their strength and happiness,
France has living lessons before her to study, in the
Convention that is to frame her constitution.
" But liberty in the United States and liberty in Great
mistake commonlytooogftievnen
Britain have a very different definition from the de-
finition
committedt o the word
to i n
suppose France.
It
is
athat
despotism is the great antagonistof liberty. Where
despotism
exists, no political liberty "
can exist, to
be sure •
th ; but where anarchy or licentiousness
the e greatest enemies of liberty, inasmuch as they
rob
it of its honours and tarnish its name—exists, no
social liberty is known, and stern, stark tyranny
crushes man, family, and home. To strike down a
despotism, then, is not to erect the principle of liberty ;
for a worse despotism may be created in its stead
than the despotism stricken down. Indeed, there
is no tyrant so severe, so cruel, so reckless, so utterly
unprincipled, and so irresponsible, as a centaur-headed
:anarchy; for assassination cannot rid us of it, and the
tyranny of one is even a happy refuge from it. Napo-
leon was a blessing to a people who had been decimated
by a Danton and Robespierre. His iron arm of pro-
tection was a salvation from the mob of the Faubourg
St. Antoine.
" Liberty, then, is not anarchy nor licentiousness,
as it is too often defined in France. Because a monarchy
is struck down, it does not follow that liberty pre-
vails in its stead. Indeed, in the American or British
sense of liberty, anything and everything now exists
but liberty in the Provisional Government of
France, where self-elected rulers bear sway, and
these self-elected rulers are daily swayed by the mob of
Paris. Necessity may make submission desirable; but
no liberty, in our sense of the word, exists where a
few men have power and a mob daily terri-
fies them. Hence, although nominal liberty exists in
France just now, no contentment follows, and all
business is at a stand, fur no sense of security pre-
vails, no self-satisfaction, and no sanction for the
existing state of things. The Government is not the
Government that true constitutional liberty would have
created, and, therefore, it cannot long continue, nor any-
thing that shoots from it. It wants a sanction. It in-
spires no veneration. It has no chart of authority to
show, and hence it has no security, and will be got rid
of as soon as the panic it has created is over.
" The people of the United States and of Great Bri-
tain when they desire a revolution proceed upon alto-
gether different rules of action from those which seem to
guide the French. We both reform and revolutionize
through pre-existing forms of government, and we have
seldom or never attempted to revolutionize in any other
way. The Dorr rebellion in Rhode Island conceived the
French way of a fight, but the people turned out and
whipped it down, then voted it down, and then reasoned
it down in the Supreme Court of the United States. Bri-
, tish freedom has all been won by peaceful agitation.
' Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and the freedom of
' speech and of the press, have all been the triumphs of
agitation. Ci omwell's interlude of a self-created go-
vernment but rivetted for a time chains upon the British
people. Dynasties have been changed in England, but
it was only the change of a dynasty, not of a principle.
Our own revolution, as we showed the other day, was no
change in the form or the principles of the State govern-
ments of these United States, and it was a strike, not for
what we had not, so much as to keep the liberty that
from time immemorial we had had. But the people of
Paris we see in a day shooting far ahead of all democ-
racy, or of republicanism, or of liberty that are known
in Great Britain or the United States; and while mon-
archy is abolished by a mob in the halls of the Chamber
of Deputies, the mob-created Government, by edict, pro-
claims, and instanter too, universal suffrage to men a
majority of whom know not how to read or write, and
emancipation to colonists that had not dreamed of the
revolution that was approaching them. In a word, a
people in their infancy of the principles of self-govern-
ment are put upon their feet, as if by some electric-
inspiring shock, and bidden to walk and prattle, as if
they had sprung full-grown, Minerva-like, from Jupiter's
brain !
" Now self-government is not so easy a realization as
it is fancied to be in Paris. We Americans have been
s
educated to it from our infancy, and we have been
taught self-restraint by every severity of parental and
governmental inculcation, and yet we are often sadly
deficient in it, and it needs all the efforts of parties, and
of the best men in them, to keep the tone and moral of
that self-government up. We begin in our school dis-
tricts, self electing our school-officers, and in our towns,
counties, and municipalities, self-electing from among
ourselves the men deemed most fit for their respective
stations. All these are miniature conventions, and
schools for self-education. We go from them to our
State Legislatures, and take practical lessons there.
The bench and the bar commingle with the men of the
ploughfield and of the workshop; and all are educated
together, and one is educating another. We rise then to
Congress in Washington, and again the process of prac-
tical self-education for self-government is going on. We
learn the decorum of debate. Just principles are daily
preached in our ears. The principles of the law books,
the accumulated wisdom of centuries, are laid before
them. It becomes thus almost impossible for the rogues
and demagogues with which all society is ever infested
to materially corrupt and deceive us. But France dis-
penses with all these preparatory schools, and this pre,
paratory education. A little army of 900 Solons, earn-
ing, the most of them, 3f. in the provinces, and to receive
25f. per diem in Paris, assembled there, lo presto ! to I
declare Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity !—as if such '
things would come at men's mere bidding.
" Another great mistake that the French make, and
one often made in our own country too, is, that go-
vernment springs from man alone, and needs not the
blessing of God. The lesson is too often taught in both
countries, that it is necessary to look downwards among
erring fallen men for all the sources and the principles of
power, and not upwards where there is no error, and
w hoe our
alone there can come no wrong. The right rule
of r ancestors in their creation of our constitution was,
that all earthly power springs from the people, but that
are b
these people
God, and can
to respect the commandments of
ncreate no government worthy of human
obedience, that
Hence if vex po ishot based upon these commandments.
of the people pull were vox Lei, it was because the voice
was the voice of God, and the people but
carried out Hia commandmentsour The true principles of
learnt only in the athers truly taught us, are to be
Scriptures,ea but the people have
their own modes for
speak, is but the machinerryryoifnA them out. Man, so toaven
thus, are full of the lessons of submission,e obedience, and
. These Scriptures,
patience towards our rulers. But
h
us that as we obey their lessons, teLiberty,y practically show
Fraternity are possible, and full of all
Equality, and
truly Christian people, no doubt, can become possible joy. A
Re-
publican_ people, with much more
13 • - 0..... a truly Re-
t liberty than even
the United States enjoy. Self-government, before can
approach, has to be tried by many severer testa it
than
any to which it is now willing to bow. Man must
b
be
first taught to love his neighbour as himself', and always
to do unto others as he would have others do unto him.
When that sort of self-restraint is the universal law of
our race, then universal self-government will come, and
no other than Republican governments will be known.
A 3 we approach the practice of these principles of
the Scriptures, stability
.will be given to governments,
and revolutions become impossible ; but as we depart
from them, disorder and dismay, as now among
the absolute monarchies of Europe, will ensue. We
of the United States and of Great Britain, no doubt,
are now indebted for our peace and quiet to the mere
approach that we have made, while all other nations are
disturbed; but even we have many a long stride to make
before we realize anything like their perfection."

WAKEFIELD CORN MAR KET.—FRIDA. Y.—The sup-
ply of wheat is good, and moderate of other grain.
Sellers of wheat are not so urgent as last Friday, and
that day's price is fully realised. Barley is not much
inquired for, and ls. per quarter cheaper. Oats and
Shelling without change. Beans firm at late rates.
BRISTOL SUGAR MARKET, MAY 25.—The sales of
the week are unimportant, and confined chiefly to Bar-
badoes, for which the holders are accepting moderate
rates.—Bristol Mercury.
The flower show at the Surrey Zoological Gar-
dens, on Wednesday next, promises a rich treat to the
lovers of floriculture. Most of the successful competi-
tors at the Batanic Gardens, on Wedaesday last, intend
exhibiting their flowers.

The Constilationnel has the following on the re-
cent Ministerial appointments :
" We have few observations to make on this Ministry.
M. Bastide, M. Duclerc, and M. Charras were Under-
Secretaries of State in the departments of Foreign
Affairs, Finance, and War, during ,the time of the Pro-
visional Government—they replace the old Ministers,
M. Larnartine, M. Gamier Paris, and M. Arago, at
present members of the Executive Commission. M.
Jules Favre, who was -Under-Secretary of State of
the Interior, is to exercise the same functions in
the department of Foreign Affairs. It is evi-
dent that M. Lamartine will not cease to pay
particular attention to the affairs of that department,
I which, under the new arrangement, will not have
fewer that three chiefs at the same time. That is many
for a Ministry in which the administrative labour is re-
latively of little importance, in which policy plays the
greatest part, and in which unity of direction is spe-
cially necessary. M. Recurt. formerly a deputy of the
Mayor of Paris, and recently elected Vice-President of
the National Assembly, is an old and enlightened Re-
publican, a friend of order and truly liberal. This
choice will be universally approved. If we add the
five Members of the Executive Commission to the ten
Ministers, and the Under-Secretaries of State, we
have a very numerous personnel in the Government.
We have, in matters of policy and administration,
tyotThof
whenna nwsdetearirn.
understandefist. thehveoee
Trmet
phhtnieaeenurrr
imsietot
esbui esrsors af
necessity
their
hsgrfeert raie
oruta
ifeltdne,gevdr seaeve.
sal
tnldeazdt
of
fshte
weal
dusriuoxete
beenlmndi
more confidence in unity and superiority of views
tshetoexuescuttbivaet
ft
oeot
rtl t
saomeo
eep thantua clearlybri
leics
in
causes
itsohe
nsi s
fotG
tdohevelearGym noavneendr tnemoofue et e
The
usht
toebr
iie smsou.
more
emTpwhl
eieu ratethe
iadlrd
rmgk
o ata
uny
i it
the more it seems to us that if the Assembly had per-
sisted in its first idea of designating the Ministers itself,
and in collectively investing them with the Executive Go-
vernment, it would have formed by ballot a Ministry as
strong and as happily composed. But at present it is afait
accompli. It only remains to us to express the wish that
things may go the best way possible, both for the
sake of the Republic and the country. The principal
characteristic of the new Ministry is, as far as lit is
possible to judge, inexperience. Its members will, no
doubt, hasten to acquire the experience they need by a
profound study of administrative matters. They will
net act lightly, and will carefully consider every one of
their resolutions. Immense interests are in their hands;
they are not provisional measures, decreed. for two
be taken; their acts may exereise a profound an
months under the empire of circumstances, which hdaves'u•
to
rable influence on the country; to press them to multiply
decrees decrees and to settle by enthusiasm questionsb otowh h
themth e
inecessarilyr ruiu
are too good citizens to range ourselves among the. mtoustthe ignorant, would wtboeuluduunetry. lead
im-
patient.
What we ask of the new Ministers is not inven-
thbee expense
tion, but study—not knowledge, but wisdom."

AUSTRIA.
Vienna letters of the 7th announce the conti-
nuance of tranquillity in that capital, although the
operative classes are suffering acutely from the stag-
nation of trade.
A considerable reduction is announced in the
rates of postage, to come into operation. on the
Ist of June next. 1. The postage on letters when
the distance does not exceed ten German miles,
is to be reduced from six kreutzers (4d.) to
three (lid.) 2. No charge will be made for deli-
very. 3. For newspapers, journals, preis-courants, ex-
change reports, printed or lithographed circulars, books,
pamphlets, music, printed papers of every description
on which nothing is written except the address,
proof sheets unaccompanied by the MS., and having
simply the necessary insertions or corrections, and
patterns of goods, provided that all such objects are
put under a cover open at both ends, so as to permit
the interior to be seen, the charge will be reduced
to one-fourth of the previous rate.
The military force at present quartered in Hun-
gary consists of 19,206 infantry, and 10,491 cavalry,
and steps have been taken to recal those absent by
leave, when the number of the infantry will be in-
creased to 22,255. These statistics are official.

The evening supplement to the Vienna Gazette of
the 7th announces, from Sacile, that the 'Left wing of
Count NUGENT'S troops had reached Conegliano, and
that the passage of the Plave was being effected with-
out opposition. According to private intelligence
from Verona, communicated to the same journal,
very serious engagements have taken place at Pes-
chiera, in all of which, however, the Austrian troops
are said to have been successful. Marshal RADETSKY I
himself made a great diversion towards Villa Franca,
and the Piedmontese were repulsed at all points.
Their loss was very serious ; but on the Austrian side
400 killed and wounded are reported, raoa t of whom
belonged to the infantry regiment Piret. Letters
received at Verona from :Milan state that business
there is completely stagnant, and the anarchy such
that the Provisional Government has been obliged to
call in the aid of a Piedmontese regiment.