The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-15 00:00:00

Fri E SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1876.

THE BROMLEY WHINS ACCIDENT.

THE WAR.

Robert Hedley, the pointsman at Brockley Whins, on
the North-Eastern Railway, through whose fault it was
alleged the recent fatal collision on that line was caused,
was on Tuesday tried at the Durham assizes on a charge
of manslaughter. The question which the judge put to
the jury was, whether the omission of the prisoner to
alter the points shewed neglect deserving of punishment.
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty, ana the pri-
soner was discharged.

INSIDE PARIS.

(BY BALLOON MAIL.-FROM THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE
CENTRAL PRESS.)

December 8.

It would be 'old news,l doubt not, to tell you the story of
the great sorties attempted at the close of the list month.
You will have learned, probably before we did, that the
enterprises came to nothing. 17ndoubtedly.the army of
Paris fought, and made some progress. It repulsed an
attack which the Germans made to regain their lost ad-
vanced posts. But it did not succed in breaking through,
and of course when the first assault had failed it was use-
less to persevere further in that direction after the Ger-
manshad received great reinforceAnents. General Dacrot,
therefore, withdrew his men. Thil result has naturally
disappointed us, and to add to the distress General Trochu
has received a letter from Count vos Moltke announcing
the defeat of the Loire army.

THE TERRIBLE EXPLOSION NEAR

It has been explained that in reference to the explosion
at Messrs. Ludlow's, near Birmingham, there will be two
separate inquests, in consequence of the deaths having
occurred within two coroners' districts, and the opening
of one of these inquiries has already been referred to by
us. The second inquest was commenced on Tuesday at
Birmingham by Dr. Brit Davis, the borough coroner.
There were 15 bodies, all being those of women, within
the jurisdiction of Dr. Davis, making, with the 17 in Mr.
Hooper's district, 32 in all, as the number of deaths which
had occurred up to Tuesday evening.
Mr. Siviter Smith, solicitor, attended on behalf of
Messrs. Ludlow.

Nevertheless, I can testify that, though discouraged, the
Parisians are not disheartened. The communication from
Von Aloltke has roused them to greater exertions. Borne
of the leading journals consider it as a menace of
further disaster in case of resistance ; others as a
ruse ; others as a German exaggeration of an unimportant
event ; but all approve of the Governor's answer. The
universal opinion is that the inhabitants, having pre-
pared to defend Paris when there was no chance of as-
sistance from without, now that the provinces have risen
the capital is bound to hold out until the last, no matter
what may be the amount of privation and destruction
incurred.

The jury viewed the bodies, and evidence was
afterwards taken relating to identification, which had
been effected in one case by the loss of a tooth, and in two
other cases where the patients were much burnt, though
still livings their parents only recognised them by
their voices.

The witnesses, from their evidence, shewed that the
deceased had given several explanations as to the cause of
the explosion. One said that a woman caused it all ;
another that ,a girl's apron caught fire by the stove,
This was also the explanation given by other sufferers.
One girl, fifteen years of age, told her father that she saw
a flash in one corner of the shop, and that then she was
immediately blown off her seat and rendered insensible.
The husband of Maria Shelley said he had heard his wife
say once that the stove was sometimes red hot. The, time
that the deceased had worked at the factory varied from
two to three months to a few days. Many went direct
from other work, without any previous experience. They
all considered and said it was very dangerous work.

Some difficulty has been experienced with the troops
during the last ten days in the matter of insubordination.
This is not unnatural, for it is hardly to be expected that
half a million men, nearly all yaw soldiers, can be confined
in this small space and kept in order as easily as a regular
army corps. Nor is the amount of insubordination great.
Nevertheless its existence has been made appa-
rent, particularlft in the battalions from the Red
quarters of Belleville and La Villette. The men
who live in these districts are for military
purposes a regular nuisance. They think highly of their
valuable services ; they are une.menable to discipline; they
demand to be led to the front of the fight ; and yet shew
no great valour when they get there. The Belleville batta-
lion of National Guards, called the Tirailleurs de Belle-
ville, originally formed by M. Gustave Flourens, has
been disbanded, in consequence of disgraceful conduct.
To satisfy the reiterated demands made by the battalion
to be sent against the enemy, it was ordered to
advance posts before Creteil. On the night of the 28th
November,the men in the trenches became panic stricken,
fired, wounded three and killed three of their own bat-
talion, and then ran away. They refused to obey orders.
Sixty-one of the battalion re-entered Paris without per-
mission, carrying with themitheir arms and accoutrements.
Flourens, who had been deprived of, his command
in consequence of the riots of the 30th October, made
his appearance at Creteil, and attempted to assume
the command. The battalion of Vilette was next to that
of Belleville in the trenches ; the hatred between them is
so great that they erected a barricade, and mutually de•
dared they would kill any man of either regiment who
crossed it. The Government has disbanded the Belleville
battalion. Flourens has been arrested, and will be tried.
The sixty-one men who disappeared will also be tried for
desertion in presence of the enemy, as well as .the Aide-
Major, who took wounded to the rear and did not return.
There is but one way of dealing with gentlemen who
behave in this way. They must be shot. That was the
remedy D'Aurelles de Paladine found effectual with the
Loire Army, and it would be effectual here, but the
Government seems afraid to try it. Nevertheless
than is no other resource. Inside a besieged city, with
an immense hostile army round the walls, is not a position
for half measures. The same rule ought to be applied to
cases of marauding, drunkenness, and other offences.
They are becoming very numerous, drunkenness in par-
ticular.

The inquiry was ultimately adjourned till the 21st
instant.

The funeral of seventeen of the unfortunate victims of
the explosion took place in the afternoon at the Borough
Cemetery, Witton. Early in the day the bodies
were removed from the factory, and, encased
in plain elm coffins, were deposited in the re-
ception room of the mortuary chapel. The hour fixed
for the ceremony was two o'clock, and for some time
before that hour the sorrowing relatives, attired in deep
mourning, began to assemble, and were provided with
places close to the reading desk. The rest of the chapel
was crowded with onlookers, many of the factory girls,
companions of the deceased, being among the spectators.
The greater number of the mourners were women, and the
weeping and sobbing told of the intensity of their affliction.
The Rev. Charles Heaven read the service. In a few
remarks he alluded to the solemnity of the occasion, and
his address, with its allusions to the terrible catastrophe,
seemed to bring the events of Iriday afresh to the minds
of the weeping women, for at each sentence the sobbing
was so loud as to cause the speaker to desist. He had been
a witness of the sad affair, and he had remarked how after
the first report all was still, but when the second and third
explosions followed agonising cries were heard. Last
Friday morning these people had passed out of the homes
of their fiiends, who little thought at the time that they
would never see them again. Mothers and daughters had
perished from amongst them. All these things should
make his hearers consider the way in which they were
living lest they should come to a like sudden end. After
the conclusion of the service in the chapel the coffins were
borne to the graves, which to the number of seventeen
had been prepared on the summit of the highest part of
the cemetery and at the west side. The names of the
seven persons whose bodies had been identified were
painted on the coffin plate, but nine bore no name, for
none could be given. The relatives of the missing were
there, but none could claim any coffin as that which
contained the remains of their dead. When the bodies
were being lowered into the ground, and the remainder
of the service was being concluded, one woman was
unable to restrain her grief, and gave vent to her agony
in loud and repeated cries of " Oh, my girl ! My poor
girl!" About 1,500 persons were present, including the
Messrs. Ludlow.

General Noel, commander at Mont Valdrien, addressed
a report on the sth to the Governor. of Paris, from which
it appears that a large party of marauders, mostly,
belonging to the Garde Mobile, passed the out-
posts, weut to Rueil, got drunk,• and devastated
property. About 300 others did the same at Nanterre.
Two were arrested. General Noel has given orders to
fire on any person attempting to pass the outposts.
Pillagers wlbo refuse to surrender when summoned to do
so will be immediately shot. The Commandant demands
that a court-martial be ordereck The Governor has given
the necessary instructions.

I must relate another act of insUbordinatkm, which
has called- forth a " severe order of the day,"
but nothing more, from the commander-in-chief of the
National Guards. The four war companies of the 76th bat-
talion, when re-entering Paris on the 29th November,
received orders to return the cartridges which they had
received that morning. A lieutenant of the 2nd company
of the 76th battalion menaced his commanding officer
with arrest, and excited the men to rvolt. Some of the men
surrounded the commanding officer, and grossly insulted
him. He displayed, however, much coolness, and ordered the
arrest of the refractory lieutenant. General Clement
Thomas, the Commandant-in-Chief, decided that the 76th
battalion should•be deprived of the honour of taking part
in the sorties which took place on the Ist, 2nd, 3rd
December. The lieutenant was ,conducted to the
Conciergerie, and will be tried by court-martial.

December 9.

The French losses on the 29th and 30th November, Ist,
2nd, and 3rd December, were :—Second Army : Officers
—6l killed, 301 wounded ; soldiers-711 killed, 4,098
wounded. Third Army : Officersr-8 killed, 22 wounded ;
soldiers, 192 killed, 364 wounded. Corps d'Armee, at St.
Denis : officers, 3 killed, 19 wounded ; soldiers-33 killed,
218 wounded,. Total: officers, 72 killed, 312 wounded;
soldiers —936 killed, 4,680 wounded.

The obsequies of General Renault took place this morn-
at the Hotel des Invalides. In consideration of the
glorious death of the general, who was killed sword in
hand at the head of his army corps, the Govern-
ment decreed that his funeral should be paid for by the
State.

Hope is charitably expressed that an ill-feeling exists
between England and Prussia, which will be increased by
the refusal of Count Bismarck to permit Colonel Clare-
mont, military attache at the English Embassy, to take
with him when passing the Prussian lines, a letter for the
Prince of Wales, unless the Contents were made known
to M. Bismarck, a condition which Colonel Claremont is
said to have resented as an insult to the Prince.
After the late battles, M. Jules Ferry, the. member of
the Government, acting as. Mayor of Paris, appealed to
the 'population that all houses should be opened, that all
families should find a bed to offer the wounded, that the
hospitals and ambulances should be reserved for serious
wounds, that convaleScents and the slightly wounded be
treated in private houses. The citizens have been requested
to make known the number of beds they can offer. The
Government wilt provide food: The appeal was scarcely
placarded on the walls of Paris ere patriotic offers were
made in large numbers. From 9 a.m. until late in the
evening fifteen clerks could hardly satisfy the, demands
of the citizens. One thousand three hundred and ninety-
two beds were offered during the day.
The number of prisoners taken from the enemy
is now reported at 800. Those in the Prison de la
Roquette are said to have refused to eat horseflesh. There
is little else to be had now in Paris, and that is at an ex-
bitant price.
Of course the sortie which began on the 30th
will be by no r 13061113 the last. Another great
enterprise is, there can be no doubt, in pre-
paration. The men are to have eight, days' provi-
sions, and will then endeavour to force their way into the
open country beyond, through the German lines. This
time the garrison of Paris will relyupon its own resources.
It cannot be expected that the outbreaking force can
absolutely raise the investment by a sortie, but if it gain
the open, it will be in a position to end the siege by fre-
quent attacks from outside. By this arrangement Paris
will be left to its fate in charge of the National
Guards, the seamen in the fort, and a few troops. Even
with these forces (and the National. Guards are anything
but formidable) the powerful forts ought to resist a long
time. At any rate it will be' better for the army to get
outside than to be Made prisoners. Such is the plan.
May it succeed.

THE SIEGE OF PARIS.

THE NATIONAL GUARDS.

Nothing can be more uncomplimentary than the descrip-
tion given in the Iteese des Deux Mondes of the Paris
National Guards. Speaking 'of their conduct. whilst ou
duty, it says :—" On the arrival of a battalion, the chief
of the post arrapges the hours during which each man is
to be seen on active duty. After this the men occupy
themselves as they please. Some play at interminable
games of bouchon ; others, notwithstanding orders
to the contrary, turn their attention to icart