The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-16 00:00:00

COAL MINE ACCIDENTS.

A. blue-book published on Saturday last con
reports of the Inspectors of Coal-mines to Detains thee'
1855, presented to Parliament previous to thernb
Jima in July, and then ordered to be printed for rtnrn-2a-
-h
formation of the public. In the three counties of Dur.ein"
ham, Northumberland, and Cumberland, during
half-year ended Dec. 31, 1855, 79 accidents are reported,
of which 18 were in shafts, 11 from explosions, 27 from -
falls of stone and coal, and 23 from sundry causes. n
South Durham, between Dec. 31, 1855, and March 1,
1856, there were eight fatal accidents in collieries. In the
Lancashire, Cheehire, and North Wales district 165 ac-
cidents occurred in 1855, against 173 in 1854, and the
3211alber of lives lost in 1855 was 199, against 299 in
1854. 29 of the accidents last year arose from firedamp
explosions. In the counties of York, Derby, N6W,
Lfeijcester, and Warwick, during the year ended the 30th
140
113 i
Ine, 1855, the number of accidents was 108 the year, against
1853.54 119 in 1852-53, and in
3851,5 2' In the half-year ended 31st of December last
the. number of deaths was 62, of which 10 were caused
by firedamp
and suffocation. The report of Mr. T.
Wynne, the Inspector of Coal-mines for the Stafford-
shire,
exhibitsWorcestershire,slam and Salop districts, for 1855,
-violent deaths,encotanbfilry heavy list of casualties, producing
expressed, that ,c notng the opinion by him formerly
stop the current ee leg but stringent legislation can
Joss of life that leadscatrelessness and indifference to the
were several explosionna 31) many fatal accidents." There
The gross total numbern otir year; causing 33 death.
accidents in. the South-
-IVeetern district during the
Matthias the
year
the north
amounted to 181,
causing 200 deaths. Dunn, the Govern-
Inent inspector of Mines for
safeguardsnortn of England, de-
to for preventing
de-
duces from certain facts some
boiler explosions', which seemattention. It
Iliable to would appear that tube boilers are deservemo
acci-
dents from overheating than ordinary more
quantity of water above the .1.1e1f9, owing to
the small
most intense heating takes place when shore't While
the
and practice shows that little or no advantage is odf water,
erivable
:glom the application of a tube.

Tile weekly reviews from the Amsterdam and Rotter-
dam produce markets state that there wa only a
:limited amount of business, but that prices continued to
be maintained with firmness. The letters from Ruben
mention that the operations in manufactures were
4414441 tho attendance of 'mailmen haviog dimihighed,

ROYAL OLYMPIC THEATRE.

Lessee and Simlaler, Mr. Alfrea WlBan•

TPIIS EVENT:7Q,
STILL wirmts RUN DEEP.

To conclude With

THE FIRST NIGHT.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.
Lessee and 1,1-I,nire7, !An Seri. Cooke.
THIS EVENING.,
N!ght !) Shakspere's Tragedy of TUCTIA.RD THE THIRD.
Richard, Mr. J. Holloway. Mr. W. Ceokee Equestrian Illustrations.
A. success unprecedented.

After which,

The attralLive SCENES in the Cirtcr,m, combining skill, daring
and elegance.
To conclude with a Melange of kmusements.
Commence at Seven. Sox-office open frc to Eleven till Four. Stage
Slaneger, ,W . West. Equestrian Dim:tor. Mr. W. Cooke, Jun.

IGFI A.TEI3".. AT LONDO)N. BR.T.DqE.
12 :lig DAT—Morn. 1 rain. aft. 3—:Evening 22 min. aft. 3
°BEG W —Morn. 42 coin. aft. 3—Evening 3 min. aft. 4

THE WEATHER—SUN OFFIOE, OCTOBER 113.
THERMOIF:TER, IN TIM SMSDZ.
59 —hizhest singe noon yesterday.
52—lowest this morning and deri-atr the night.
53—this day at noon.
B,VtONfgTICR, 30 18—a sadden rise of nearly three-quar-
ters of an inch since yesterday.
Arrsi), W. to W.N. W.—Light, with thick weather and
rain. It was fine in the morning.

STAMPED EDITION OF " THE SUN:"
The Lltest Eiitioa of The Sun, Stamped, in

me for Post, may always be had from hat

;)a.st 5 till 7 o'clock every evening.
Subnribers in the Country will please to
observe that the heading "THIRD EDITION"

is always to be seen on tha papers containing
the latest news. If any difficulty be experienced
Li obtaining that Edition, a communication to
Thy Sun, Office will remedy it.
Sun, Office, 112, Strand.

‘..,;);

u'

);11:11,.

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1856,

The demand for bullion still continues. The
tide is steadily flowing towards the Continent ;
nor is there any probability of a speedy change
It is more than hinted that a first-class firm—the
Messrs. ROTHSCHILD, in fact, for there is nothing
to demand concealment—have entered into con-
tracts to supply an enormous amount of specie to
the Bank of France. Until this large sum—said
to amount to 140,000,000 francs, or 5,600,000/.
sterling—be transmitted to the Continent, there
is no prospect of the Bank of England being en-
abled to retrieve its position. However large
may be the receipts, they will be absorbed by
these who can afford to pay more than the Old
Lady of Threadneedle•street is authorised to offer.
She is tied down to a fixed price. No matter how
urgent may be the pressure, or serious the conse-
quences of any further reduction in her stook ;
she cannot advance a single farthing in her
bidding. The only competition will be between
the agents of rival nations ; and, in case of any
deficiency, they can come upon the Bank itself to
supply their wants. France, Austria, even
Russia, can draw upon oar coffers, and by tempt-
ing English capitalists to make investments in
railways or stosam-packet companies (the vessels
being constructed so as to be suitable for war
purposes, although unarmed for the time being),
can stop the life-blood of English industry, and
reduce the trading population to the verge of ruin,
and bring the greatest misery and privation
to the houses of the working classes. We see the
evil, but are powerless to arrest it. The impro-
vident legislation of 1844 has occasioned far
greater mischief than the Russian war—albeit
the latter cost us the lives of 50,000 of the best
and bravest of our brethren, and 100,000,0001.
sterling.

system
yiobne of the
in a paragraph
edeplorablere-
sulAts opf" theu
ir:slym may
contained in the Times' City
article of this day.
The bulliouist organ announces
stbat
"Goldtbe
brought by the Cham •
pion of the Seas has been
purchased partly by Messrs. ROTHSCHILD, and
partly by Messrs. BARING. The sum taken by the
latter is supposed to be on account of the Credit
Mobilier, for transmission to Vienna,
to pay for
Austrian Railroads, where it will be locked up in
the vaults of the State Bank." Ny.
e know that
IVIOSSTS. ROTHSCHILD are acting on behalf of the
French Government, and probably also, for some
of their numerous and wealthy correspondents is
all parts of the world. Here, then, we perceive
the nature of the demand to which we are ex-
posed, and the paragraph, above referred to, will
ba but one of many similar notices which,
with the exception of the name of the vessel, may
be stereotyped for future use.
Foreign loans and foreign companies are the
potent instruments by which these parties are
enabled to act on our market. If the demand
I were of the ordinary character, to arrange the

balance of trade, we might hope that after a
season of severe suffering the bullion might return

to our shores. But it is not so ! Russia and

Austria provide for the expenditure in paper

money, while the specie " will be locked up in the

vaults of the State banks " until they may be en-

gaged in new wars, and find the means of fighting
England with the money which she is scattering

abroad with lavish hand.

Already we have witnessed the depreciation o
every public and private security, and the enormous

increase in the minimum rate of discount at the

quasi National Bank, which of course rules far
lower than at any private establishment. It is

now no less than seven per cent. for bills having

more than 60 days to run—a rate never exceeded
since the establishment of the Corporation, save
at the time of the virtual suspension of its Char-
ter by the issue of the Government Letter of the
25th of October, 1847.
How can the industrial community—the com-
mercial and manufacturing interests—bear this
extraordinary charge, which must transfer their

entire profits into the hands of the moneyocracy,
arrest production, and leave the labouring popu-
lation starving in the midst of plenty ? Where
will then be the receipts on which the Chancellor
of the Exchequer so fondly calculates ? And how
will he provide for the deficiency that must in-
evitably arise ?
As the Times justly remarked last week, "if

the Bank of France are determined to buy gold
at any sacrifice, no addition of one or two per
cent. per annum, on the rate of bills of exchange
will be regarded. The only limit to such an
operation must be found in the exhaustion of their
power to buy up bills an this country, or to obtain
credits here." This, however, is a very remote
anticipation—one that may not occur until
the Bank coffers are thoroughly drained,
and the circulating medium in the hands
of the public reduced to a moiety of its present
amount. Then we shall find stringent measures
adopted to prevent the return of the precious
metals ; for them there will be nulla vcstigla re-
trorsum—no possible chance of a return of the
tide. It is, then, folly of the worst description to
defer remedial measures until the evil has been
consummated. We must " shut the stable-door"
before the steed has been carried off.
There is but one chance for the country, and
that is the establishment of a really National
Bank, authorised to issue notes of small denomi-
nations, for 11., 21., and 31. each, and probably for
intermediate fractional sums, as for 1/. 55.,
11. 10=., and 1/. 155., which Irish experience
shows to have greatly economised the use
of silver, and thus proved very beneficial
to the country. These being receivable in the
payment of taxes, and indeed of every public and
private demand, would maintain their value under
all circumstances ; while the precious metals
would sell for what they were fairly worth—the
amount of the demand being represented by their
appreciation, instead of the depreciation, in the
quotations of all other commodities.
We cannot conclude without directing attention
to the communication of a respected correspon-
dent, which will ba found in another part of this
day's impression. Mr. Nosuud has discovered
the true remedy, and if his advice were followed,
with some trivial modifications, the formidable
danger now impending over the nation would be
averted, and we should be spared the painful dis-
covery, that the folly of our rulers in time of
peaco may be far more prejudicial to the best
interests of the country than the most strenuous
efforts of our most powerful opponents in the
time of war.

A girdle will in all human probability be put
about the earth before much longer, in a fractional
part of the time hinted at by ROBIN GIOODFELLOW.
Not in " forty minutes," but in the twinkling of
an eye, in the flash of a second, in the one instan-
taneous throb of a pendulum. Preparations being
actually now made for the connecting together of
the various wires of the electric telegraph already
laid down and in actual operation, as well as for
the extension of those marvellous lines of inter-
communication eastwards and westwards, trailed
along the bed of the ocean, carried over empires
and continents, through the heart of populous
cities, across the rocky barriers of the great moun-
tain ranges, and over the level wastes of the
vast desert-plains of Asia. These things are
no longer regarded, even by the most prosaic
man amongst us, as the mere phatitasies of some
idle and fantastic imagination. They are among
the most visible and substantial truths of our
generation. The realisation, no doubt, of what
once upon a time were simply so many charming
day-dreams—the theme of those graceful wits
who were wont to illustrate the age of ANNB by
the exquisite penny essays of the " Spectator."
For, conspicuous among the many delightful spe-
culations indulged in by ADDISON and STEELE,
and their ever genial but subordinate collabora-
tvarg, there actually did come forth one fine
morning, to be laid among the equipage of the
breakfast-table, to be nibbled at with the rolls
and sipped with the chocolate of the periwigged
beaux and furbelowed fine gentlewomen of
the period, a copy of that classical periodical,
in which was a magical foreshadowing of
4 the miraculous needle nowadays clicking and
quivering upon the dials of all the " sta-
tions," north, south, east, and west, in the
Old World and in the New, in Europe and in
America. The little sensitive indicator of the
" thoughts that breathe and words that burn"—
thoughts a►nd words that traverse thousands of
miles in a twinkling, at the bidding of the mar-
vellous motive-power of that latest, if not the
greatest, among all the many. " wonders of the
world," the Electric Telegraph.

Yet—a little earlier even than the morning
which gave birth to that wonderfully prophetic
paper in the Spectator of Sir RICHARD STEELE
and the Right Hon. JOSEPH ADDISON, there had
actually been put forth, not marely as a pleasant
fancy, but as a serious and substantial proposition,
a daring contrivance, the carrying out of which
is still meditated to this very day, but " still "
only meditated—not, as with the vision of the
wonder-.working Needle of Conversation actually
realised !

WILLIAM PATTERSON, the founder of the. Bank
of England, suggested (as history relates) years
before the issue of that copy of the ;Spectator—,
the cutting through the isthmus of Panama of a
grand ship canal, connecting the commerce of the
Pacific and of the Atlantic by a direct and per-
manent channel of interoceanic communication.
PATTERSON proposed, in furtherance of this
scheme, the establishment of a vast central me-
tropolis for the world's enterprise at Darien—the
grand mercantile capital as he conceived it ought,
by reason of its geographical position, to prove
ultimately—the capital whence might be regulated
the trade of both hemispheres.

A hundred years and more pass by—when lo !
the eccentric day-dream of an essayist in the
Spectator resolves itself into a fact actually realised,
a reality actually in daily and hourly operation !
While the business-like plan chalked out long be-
fore then by a practical Scotchman, a Scotchman
as t0114110513-like WA practical, as WILLIAX