The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-07 00:00:00

The inquiry into the allegations contained in the peti-
tion against the return of Mr. Straight for Shrewsbury
was resumed yesterday morning at ten, and evidence
was taken in support of the petition.—John Maddok said
he had promised to support Mr. Cotes, the Liberal candi-
date, when John Roberts, a Conservative canvasser, called
upon him and offered him 10s. if he would vote for Mr.
Straight. In cross-examination Mad lox admitted that it
was his wife, not Roberts, who first spoke about the money.
—Martha Maddox, the wife, was called, and she repeated
the story of Roberts's offer, but.adtnitted that she Itallaid
it was a joke; indeed, she still believed that Roberts meant
it as such.—Thomas Lewis stated that he hea6l
gentleman, unknown to him, and a workman in the
service of Mr. Groves, named Thomas Foulkes, offer
a voter named Edwards £lO for his vote for the Conserva-
tive candidate.—Thomas Grey deposed that he remem-
bered the case to which Lewis referred. He heard
Foulkes and Captain Whitmore calling to Edwards, but
he was not near enough to catch what actually passed,
and he could not, therefore, either corroborate or deny
the truth of the evidence given by the previous witness.
He (Grey) was in the service of the corporation. John
Edwards was then called, and corroborated the evidence
of Lewis. A gentleman, who was a perfect stranger to
him, came to him upon the polling day, accompanied
by Foulkes, and offered him £lO if he
would vote for Mr. Straight : " And more,
too, if you want it." The witness answered that he would
not sell his vote for £loo.—William Davis saw a gentle.
man, whom he did not know, but who wore a white hat,
talking with Edwards on the polling day. Wit-
ness overheard the gentleman offer Edwards
£lO for his vote. Then he offered the money
generally, but nobody accepted it ; whereupon, with
an oath, he declared, "If any of you vote, here is £10."
Edwards persistedin refusing the money.—William Reigh
stated that Groves asked him to vote for Straight. He
replied that he had never in his life voted for a Tory,
but he was now out of work. Grove told him to go to
the borough inspector, and tell him to give him work.
Witness did so, and was immediately set to employment.
On the polling day " the gentleman" offered him £IC
to vote for Straight ; but at that time he had already voted.
Grove on the same day and previously before he polled asked
him to vote for Straight. He answered he would rather
not vote at all. Grove shook his fist at him, asking
fiercely, " What do you say sir ? Who gave you work ?"
The next Saturday the borough inspector gave him and
four or five others notice, saying he did not want them.

THE HARROW RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

The inquest at Harrow was resumed yesterday, at the
Railway Inn, Harrow, Dr. Diplock, coroner, presiding.
Mr. Waster, barrister-at-law, appeared for the family of
Mr. Jeffry es, of Manchester, who was one of the killed;
Mr. East, of Birmingham, represented Mr. Alfred
Harrison, of that town, and Mr. Humphreys, Mr.
King, who were among the injured. Colonel Hutchinson,
inspector of the Board of Trade was also present.
Charles Robinson, signalman at Wembly, in examination,
stated that on the night of the accident he had come on
duty at five o'clock. He stopped the goods train for a
minute. He did so because a train had passed
not three minutes previously. When he signalled "Stop !'s
to the goods train he did not signal to the next station
behind it that he had done so. Shortly afterwards the
signal came from Harrow to the effect that the line
was blocked there by the goods train. He had fog
signals in his box. It was left to his discretion to use
tici6in or not. The express passed him at full speed. The
danger signal was up, but it was foggy. He never saw a
train pass the danger signal without slowing before. The
driver could have seen the signal as he went up the line
to satisfy himself whethr or not it could be seen
and he found it could. Finding, as the express came
to his box, that it did not whistle or shut off
steam, he attempted to put two fog-signals on the
line. He had a; 'hand-lamp shewing red, which he
displayed. HA had no means of telegraphing to the
signalman at Harrow, after lie placed the fob-signals, that
the express was coming on. He could not do so because
the needle was immovable. He entered the service on
the 20th October. Before this his business had been that
of a miner. From the 20th to the 31st October he
was at Willesden. It would take the goods train
five or six minutes to run from his box to
Harrow. He did not know whether the driver should
cone within Rule 38. He had pot had time to acquaint
himself with the rules sufficiently, considering the short
time he had been in the service. When he sent off the
goods train he did not consider that the driver had only
eleven minutes to get to Harrow to shunt. He knew
that was the time. He could not tell where between
Wembly and Harrow the block was. For all he knew, it
might have been so far back as the Harrow distance
signal. Not knowing where the block was, it did
not occur to him to put on fog signals, because
it was his firm belief that they could see the signals.
—By Colonel Hutchinson : Had only reserved signal of
the empties on the line. The fixed signal of the third line
had not a back light. It had a small round light, but not
like the front one—it was a white light. When he went
to see if he could distinguish, the red light he did not
notice the small one. He could not say why he did not.
The distance signal had also a small back white light.
He could not see this back light when the express passed.
—By Mr. Blenkinsopp : Before he went to the Wembly
cutting, he was instructed in the signals, and passed an
examination. He was examined twice. Although he
bad not had time to consider all the rules in the book he
had made himself acquainted with those referring to him-
self—a good many of them. It was the usual thing when
the danger signal was up that the engine man should shut
off his steam and whistle. It was in consequence
of the engine man not doing this that he put the fog
signal.
Thomas Eastman, pointsman at the North Box, Wiles-
den Old Station, said it was his duty to start the goods
trains down. He remembered the train of empty trucks
that left Willesden at four o'clock. It went in the place
of an ordinary train,. the 4.20 from Camden, which was
behind. He had a time-table in his box of all the trains.
He signalled this train to leave at 4.54 by his clock. The
4.37 went in front of this train ; that was a passenger
train. It passed his box at 4.53. The express was due at
Willesdon Junction at 5.9. He had not in his time-
table the time the express would pass his box.
Could not say how long it remained at the station. It
took the goods train fifteen minutes to go to his station
from Harrow.
John Long, signalman, City Junction, gave evidence
as to the time the goods and express trains left his
station.
Stephen Bourne, principal clerk in the examiner's
office of her Majesty's Customs : He was coming down
from Harrow, passing the station as the express train
went through. He was on the bridge as the express train
went under it. He heard a fog signal, and on looking
down, could see that a train was passing rapidly throng,h,
but the fog was too thick to distinguish what kind
of a train it was. Somebody with him re-
marked that the train was going through with
great rapidity, and he took out his watch, saying, " That's
the five o'clock express." Ile heard one fog signal and
the engine whistle before it passed the bridge. The fog
was thicker on the London part of the station than it was
beyond.
At this stage of the proceedings the examination of
witnesses was adjourned until Wednesday.

CHARGE OF EMBEZZLEMENT.—OR Monday a
young man, named Joseph H. Penklyn, alias Frederick
Sykes, was brought before the Queenstown magistrates,
charged with embezzling from his employers in London
the sum of £lOO. A transit warrant was granted to
Detective Campbell, of Scotland Yard, to convey him to
London. The prisoner was arrested on board a steamer
about to start for America.

IMPORTANT TO TRADESMEN.—Mr. William Haynes, an
extensive greengrocer, carrying on business in various
parts of London, was summoned, at the Westminster
Police-court, under . the Metropolitan Streets Act, for
allowing vegetable on a barrow to rest longer than neces-
sary for loading or unloading in a certain public carriage
way in Tachbrook-street and Churtin-street, Pimlico.
The facts were not disputed ; Sergeant Hillock, of the
B Division, proving the barrows standing for five hours,
and the defendant and his servants serving therefrom,
Mr. W. D. Smyth, of Rochester-row, appeared for the
defendant, and submitted broadly that the commissioner
of police, under the powers of the Metropolitan Streets
Act, had made regulations for the guidance of coster-
mongers, itinerant traders, and hawkers, who congregated
in large numbers round the defendant's premises, and in.
some instances undersold him. He saw no reason to
believe that the defendant, although a tradesman, should
not be a costermonger, if he chose, for his own protection.
After referring to the definition of the word costermonger,
which appeared very vague, Mr. Smyth said his client
had no wish to offend, but he required the matter set at
rest, and to put an end to the frequent complaints of the
police. Mr. Woolrych was clearly of opinion that a
costermonger was not a shopkeeper, but an itinerant
vendor. He, therefore, was against the defendant, but
in consideration of the question he had raised he shoul I
only order him to pay the cost of the summons.