The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY !EVENING., APRIL 4, 1860.

some information being given by the Government as to the
basis on which they had calculated the increase of rates in
the counties.

THE LORD-LIEUTENANCY OF LONDONDERRY.

Colonel FRENCH wished to know if it was correct
that a gentleman who possessed only 100 acres of land
in the county of Londonderry was appointed lord-lieutenant
for that county. He hoped that after Easter full informa-
tion would be given. '
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.
In reply to Mr. DEEDES,
Sir G. C. LEWIS said that it was not his intention to
proceed with the Ecclesiastical Commissions Bill and the
Highways Bill immediately after the Easter holidays.
Lord PALMERSTON stated, with respect to the ques-
tion of the gallant member (Col. French), that the subject
would be inquired into, and every information would be
afforded after Easter. If hon. members moved for any
returns calculated to render the bases of the electoral fran •
chise more correct than at present, Government would
afford every facility for that purpose.

stale claims, and unreal grievances are again and
again brought before the house in successive ses-
sion. The discussion is languid, the attendance is
thin, and the most eminent members of the house
are generally absent. Indeed, it is not uncommon
to find it cut short by a count-out. The only por-
tion of the time of the house allotted to independent
members which seems to us generally to produce
interesting and animated discussions, is that which
is given to the debate on the adjournment from
Friday to Monday. Then all the scores of the
week are cleared off, all the salient topics of the
day receive notice, and in the course of some three
or four hours matters of more interest to the public
are treated of than in all the rest of the week. So
convenient has this form of discussion been found,
that while, on the one hand, it has seriously en-
croached on the privilege of asking questions of
Ministers on ordinary nights, it has, on the other
hand, very much prevented the practice of making
formal motions, and has thus reduced Tuesday and
Thursday to the languid state we have described.
But this practice of speaking on the adjournment,
so useful and convenient in itself, is a dreadful
inroad upon the time allotted to the indispensable
business of the session. The convenient practice
has been preserved and the inconvenience ob-
viated by a very simple expedient. The house
has resolved to assign Government business to
Thursday, and to give Friday, with its motion for
adjournment, to independent members. This ought
to satisfy all parties. It will give Government four
or five hours a week more for the transaction of
necessary business, and it will preserve a practice
far too convenient to be given up, and which, under
the appearance of wasting, really, by the formal
motions it prevents, economises the public time.
But we are satisfied that this change, although
good as far as it goes, is by no means sufficient, and
that by a more judicious economy of its time it is
in the power of the House of Commons not only
materially to lighten its own labours, but to give
increased facilities to discussion, and by that means
to improve the quality and the usefulness of its
legislation. The whole subject should be reconsi-
dered, sufficient time should be allotted for the ne-
cessary business of the session, and the disgraceful
expedient of compensating by a spasmodic and
overstrained diligence for former remissness and
indolence should be avoided.—Times.

into the ocean. Without doubt, in a day or two we
shall have to record the full particulars of a most
terrible tragedy.—New York Courier and _Enquirer.

F TAL BOILER EXPLOSIO Y.

The Newcastle-on-Tyne colliery district appears
destined to a fearful notoriety this spring through
explosions in mines and explosions of steam boilers.
Following the awful Burradon explosion we re-
corded a destructive colliery boiler explosion last
week, and we have to-day to report another colliery
boiler explosion, which has been extremely destruc-
tive. The underviewer at Blaydon Main, where the
boiler exploded last week, happened to be a brother
of Mr. Johnson, the underviewer of Burradon ; and
by another singular coincidence, the colliery where
the explosion we are about to record has happened
is closely adjacent to Burradon, and formerly be-
longed to the same owners, we believe, the " Grand
Allies," both collieries rising the same waggon way
for conveyance of their coals to the, places of ship-
ment. Seaton Burn Colliery belong to Messrs. J.
Bowes and Co., the owners of a large amount of col-
liery property in the north, and the mine is under
the charge of Mr. S. C. Crone, viewer. In carrying
on the workings of the colliery two engines were
generally employed, one for pumping and another
for winding, a third, which has been superseded by
one of these,being kept in reserve, and occasionally
used in feeding ;the boilers when the pump;ng en-
gine was off work. The steam required for this ma-
chinery was supplied by six boilers, each measuring
32ft. by fift; 10in., which were arranged on one bed
to the north of the engine-house, with their ends
pointing east and west. The outside boiler, at the
north end of the row, was a new one, and, besides
other appliances, was fitted, as an experiment,
with Mr. Archer's safety-valve. To each of
the others were attached two escape-valves and
two floats, one of the common description, and
the other an alarm whistling float. The boiler
which exploded stood third from the outside, and,
in addition to the valves and floats just mentioned,
was furnished with one of Scheffer's steam pressure
gauges. This boiler, it appears, suffered severely
from an explosion which took place at the same col-
liery about 12 years ago, and had at that time to be
almost entirely rebuilt. Last week some of the rivets
having been discovered to be loose, it was laid offon
Friday and Saturday till the necessary repairs could
be effected, and since that time it has been in constant
work. The engines and boilers were intrusted to two
men, one of whom remained in charge during each
shift, and there were always two stokers in attend-
ance to look after the fires. At the time of the ac-
cident on Monday forenoon there were, as was
always the case, only five of the boilers in operation,
the sixth, which in this instance was the one imme-
diately adjoining the engine-house, being laid off
work. During the shift commencing on Sunday
evening a man named Bowman had been in charge,
and he alleges that on examining the boilers about
8 o'clock on Monday morning, previous to his going
off duty, he found the valves and floats all right.
W. Younger, the engineman who succeeded him, is
also stated to have examined the gearing some short
time after, and satisfied himself that everything
was as it should be. The whistling float gave no
alarm, and no one appears to have had the slightest
suspicion of danger. when suddenly, about 20 mi-
nutes to 9 o'clock, the boiler, which stood third from
the outside, sprang from its bed with tremendous
force, unseating four of the adjoining boilers, besides
slightly lifting the fifth, tearing the bed to pieces,
and projecting the stone and brickwork of which it
was composed in all directions. The exploded
boiler flew into the air to the height of the furnace
chimney, and the principal portion, weighing about
six tons, taking an easterly direction, alighted in
a garden on the opposite side of the North-road,
about 150 yards distant, where it lay spread
out into a huge sheet, covering, we should
say, nearly 50 square yards of ground. A
smaller fragment fell on the road, about 50
yards nearer to the pit, while another, also of
comparatively trifling dimensions, was carried
southward over the engine-house, and deposited on
the pit-head. When the crash took place 'Younger,
the engineman, was standing at the fire-hole, in
company with two stokers, named Robert Ewing
and John Turner. They were all three over-
whelmed in the falling rubbish, Turner and Ewing
being killed, while Younger was severely bruised
and scalded. The pit-head, situated to the south-
west of the boilers, was at the time crowded by
from 120 to 150 men and boys about to descend into
the pit to commence work ; and had the exploded
boiler gone in that direction the destruction of life
must have been fearful. As it was, with stones
and bricks flying about in all directions in such
abundance that the roofs of the houses to some
considerable distance were completely riddled by
their fall, it was impossible but that a considerable
number should be injured in a greater or less de-
gree. Of casualties from this cause, James Rous
and Conolly Mullen, coal hewers, who were stand-
ing on the bank, were struck by falling fragments,
and cut in several places, but not seriously. SVm.
Chevil, a labouring man, who was working on the
colliery tramway to the south of the engine house,
received a severe blow on the head, from the effects
of which he is scarcely expected. to recover. A
woman, named Isabella Tennant, while walking
along by a row of houses, at some distance, was
struck by a brick on the breast, and was on Mon-
day night considered in a rather precarious condi-
tion. Jos. Collins, one of the blacksmiths, and
Ralph Nichol, a banksman. were each struck on the
head, but not materially injured. W. Younger, the
engineman, was reported yesterday to be extremely
ill and in great danger.

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE

WEEK.

(Front the Report of the Registrar-General.)
The health of London is at -present far from being
in a satisfactory state. Last week the mortality
was exceedingly high. The deaths, which were in
the first week of March 1,397, have during the
rest of the month shown a constant increase, for
they were 1,563 and 1,611 in the two following
weeks, and they further rose in the week that
ended last Saturday to 1,708.
In the 10 years 1850-59 the average number of
deaths in the weeks corresponding with last week
was 1,382; but, as the deaths now returned oc-
curred in an increased population, they should be
compared with the average raised in proportion to
the increase--namely, with 1,520. The comparison
shows that the deaths of last week were more nu-
merous by 188 than they would have been if the
average rate of mortality had ruled.
The deaths in the present return exceed those of
any corresponding week, except that of the year
1853, when they rose to 1,748 in consequence of
the prevalence of pulmonary complaints, from ex-
treme cold, the mean temperature of the air in the
previous week having been so low as 33.3 deg.
In the last four weeks the deaths from pulmo-
nary diseases, exclusive of pkthisis, were 387,
450, 485, and 476 ; those from whooping-cough 42,
45, 62, and 72 : those from phthisis or consumption
143, 171, 167, and 202. This last disease exhibits
a striking increase in last week ; 100 of its victims
were in the period of life 20-40 years. Bronchitis
and pneumonia last week carried off respectively
272 and 162 persons, the corrected averages being
only 146 and 106. Seven children died from
whooping cough in the sub-district of Islington
West, sin that of Bow. Smallpox was fatal in 35
cases, scarlatina in 49, diptheria in 11. Influenza,
was returned in 8 cases. Eleven persons, all women
except one, died at the age of 90 years and upwards,
of whom one had attained the great age of 101 years.
A man died in the Almhouses, Fulham-{gelds, at the
age of 87 years, who had assisted at the victory ob-
tained by Lord Howe on the Ist of June, 1794.
Nine children died by accidental suffocation, 7 of
these in bed ; 13 persons died from burns and
scalds ; a varnish-maker from turpentine taking
fire ; a labourer at a distillery fell into boiling mu-
riate of lime; a female servant was burnt when in a
fit; two children of labourers, each aged 3 years,
from their clothes taking fire; also, from the same
cause, the daughter of a labourer and the daughter
of a general dealer; the daughter of a dock labourer
was burnt from being left alone in the room ; 5 chil-
dren were burnt or scalded by means not specified
in the returns.
Last week the births of 1,018 boys and 941 girls,
in all 1,959 children, were registered in London.
In the 10 corresponding weeks of the years 1850.59
the average number was 1,828.
At the tioyal Olx.ervatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.378 in.
The readings fell from 29.G1in. on Monday, the
highest in the week, to 28.62 in., the lowest, on Sa-
turday. The mean temperature of the air in the
week was 45.3 deg., which is 2.6 deg. above the
average of the same week in 43 years, as deter-
mined by Mr. Glaisher. The mean daily tempera-
ture, which was below the average on the first three
days, was above it the rest of the week, and on
Wednesday rnd Thursday this excess was mere
than 7 deg. The thermometer in the shade fell to its
lowest point on Tuesday, 34.1 deg., and it rose to its
highest on the following day, 59.5 deg. The range
in the week was therefore 254 deg, The mean
daily range was 12.3 deg. The mean temperature
of the water of the Thames was 46'4 deg, The dif
ference between the mean dew-point temperature
and air temperature was 6.8 deg., indicating 'dryness
of the air. The mean degree of humidity was 79, com-
plete saturation being represented by 100. After the
first three days, when the wind was generaoutlly ih-
n
d s
the north-west, it blew from the west an
west. On four days its maximum pressure was 81b
and 101 b on the square foot, Rain. fell to the atnount
of 0.23 in. in the week) about half of I,k4ieb, flea On
Saturday.

THE PORTUGUESE GOVERNNENT
AND SIR MORTOY

The Portuguese Government are attempting to
mitigate the effect of the recent exposure of their
dealings in the matter of the railway concession
lately withdrawn from Sir Morton Peto and handed
over to M. Salamanca. They omit, however, as is
frequently the case in defences of this kind, to
touch upon the main point at issue. The Portuguese
Cabinet had a technical right to annul the conces-
sion to Sir Morton Pete, and therefore no formal
complaint can be raised against them on that score,
whatever may be the opinion of their conduct by
those well-informed of the details of the case. But
Sir Morton had a pecuniary claim for specific
expenses, and the allegation is that the Finance
Minister recently admitted the principle on which
this claim is based, but, upon being pressed to con-
firm in writing what he had stated verbally, de-
clined taking any steps, on the plea that it might
prejudice the success of the Ministry in certain
discussions pending in the Cortes. For a Govern-
ment to attempt to evade, or indefinitely to post-
pone, a money question with an individual to serve
political aims of its own would be looked upon in
England as highly discreditable, and it is in this
aspect the matter at present stands. Can the Por-
tuguese Government give it a different face ? If
so, they will have an opportunity, as the claim has
been placed in the hands of Lord John Russell.
Meanwhile, it will be useless for them to seek to
raise a cloud by taunting Sir Morton Peto with the
fact that he was willing to undertake the railway
on condition of receiving Portuguese Bonds, and
that it is " a contradiction in terms " for him now
to say a word that would prejudice the character of
these securities. The English public have no con-
cern with Sir Morton's opinion about Portuguese
credit, but if they are to be asked for further loans
they have a considerable interest in ascertaining if
the Portuguese Government are at this very hour,
after all their past lapses, acting meanly and in had
faith to any one who has placed trust in them.
Moreover, even if Sir Morton has experienced a
change of view, this is nothing more than com-
monly occurs with a creditor who fails to get his
bill. Possibly, also, Sir Morton was ignorant
of the fact that Portugal has for some time past
been in the habit of creating bonds and putting
them from time to time on the London market with
as much secrecy as possible, to avoid the honest
formality of an open loan. The correctness of the
belief professed by the Finance Minister, that
£4,500,000 could now be raised in London at a
price, including all expenses, much higher than 33,
is, of course, a point to be settled only by actual
experiment. He considers that some measures lately
introduced for benefiting the Portuguese revenue
should impart confidence, but, as the first among
them appears to be " the suspension of the sinking
funds of all the loans," the prospect for fresh loans
seems not to be rendered more inviting. Something
is added about the benefits the railways themselves
will produce in the country. The railways, how-
ever, have yet to be made, and when made they will
be worked under Portuguese management. As to
the increase of commerce that is talked of, we must
bear in mind ,that the latest commercial fact in con-
nection with Portugal is that when she found the
English duty on her wines would be reduced, with-
out any stipulation on out part, she at once denied
an intention previously attributed to her of modi-
fying her restrictive system with respect to the
admission of English merchandize,—Times.

FROM THE GAZETTE OF LAST NIGHT

LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S OFFICE, MARCH 30.
Notice is hereby given that the Queen will hold Drawing
Rooms at St. James's Palace on the following days, at two
o'clock :--Saturday, April 28 next, and Friday May 18
next, to celebrate her Majesty's birthday.—N.B. The
Knights of the several Orders are to appear in their collars
at the Drawing Room on May 18.
Notice is hereby given, that the Queen will hold a levee,
at St. James's Palace, upon Saturday the 21st of April
next, at two o'clock.
ST. JAMES'S PALACE, MARCH 31.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint George Francis
Robert, Lord Harris, to be one of the Lords in Waiting in
Ordinary to her Majesty, in the room of George Anson,
Lord Byron, resigned.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint George Anson,
Lord Byron, to be an Extra Lord in Waiting to her Ma-
jesty.

WAR-OFFICE, PALL-MALL, APRIL 3.
Chaplain's Department—The Rev. Matthew Robert Scott,
Chaplain Royal Artillery, to be Chaplain of the Second
Class; the Rev. 'Walter Melvin Wright, Chaplain
Royal Artillery, to be Chaplain of the Third Class.
Artillery Company of London—Sergeant Joseph Eglise to
be Ensign.

ADMIRALTY, MARCH 29.
Corps of Royal Marines—Gentleman Cadets Jame 3 Sandys
Bird, Suffield Hamilton Browne, Willbraham Evora
Evelyn Morley, Montagu Philip Hall Grey, Michael
Allen Stapylton Bree, Frederic Vincent Godfrey Bird,
and Percival Robert Champion to be Second Lieute-
nants.

COMMISSION SIGNED BY THE QUEEN.
2(1 Royal Surrey Regiment of Militia—Charles Howard
Chaplin, Gent., to be Quartermaster.
CROWN OFFICE, APRIL 2.
MEMBERS RETURNED TO SERVE IN THE PRESENT

PARLIAMENT.
City of Norwich—Edward Warner, of Iligham
Woodford, in the county of Essex, Esq., in the room of
Henry Wm. Schneider, Esq., whose election has been de-
termined to be void.

Sir William Russell, of Charlton Park, in the county of
Gloucester, Bart., C. 8., in the room of the Right Hon. W.
Coutts Keppel, commonly called Viscount Bury, whose
election has been determined to be void.
COMMISSIONS SIGNED BY LORDS LIEUTENANT.
County of Stirling—The Right Hon. Geo. Ralph Campbell,
Baron Abercromby; William Forbes, Esq„ Robert Cun-
ningham Cunningham Graham, Esq., and Major Charles
Graham Stirling to be Deputy Lieutenants.

BANKRUPTS.
John Clarke, grocer, Lichfield, to surrender, April 16,
and May 7, at eleven, at the Birmingham District Court.
Joseph Slater, stone merchant Leeds, April 23 and May
21, at eleven, at the Leeds District Court.
Robert Goldie, draper, Ouudle, April 18, at half-past
one, and May 16, at one, at the Court of Bankruptcy.
William Henry Unwin and Joseph Greenwood, builders,
Limehouse, Middlesex, April 17, at three, and May 22, at
one, at the Court of Bankruptcy.
Joseph Oldroyd, blanket manufacturer, Britley, April 16
and May 21, at eleven, at the Leeds District, Court.
John Wm. Greaves, chemist, Birkenhead, April 12 and
May 7, at eleven, at the Liverpool District Court.
Walter Faithfull, linen agent, Ironmonger-lane, City,
April 17, at half-past two, and May 22, at twelve, at the
Court of Bankruptcy.
Edmund Underwood, grocer, Soham, Cambridgeshire,
April 13, at half-past eleven, and May 10, at two, at the
Court of Bankruptcy.
John Underwood, stationer, M‘Lean's-buildings, New-
street .square, City, April 16, at ono, and May 21, at eleven,
at the Court of Bankruptcy.
SCOTCH BANKRUPTS.
George Gibson Dodds, coalmaster, Strathaven, Lanark'
shire.
John Marston Hall, doctor of medicine, Edinburgh.
Egbert Moxham, architect, Stornoway.
William Ovenston Campbell, grocer, Kirkwall.
James Murphy Anderson, ironmonger, Glasgow.
Henry Craven Griffiths, professor of music, Glasgow.
Alex. Stewart, grocer and spirit dealer, Irvine, Ayrshire.

COUNTRY MARKBTS.

LIVERPOOL--APRIL 3.

The arrivals from Ireland and coastwise since this day
week have been trifling. From foreign ports there have
been received 2,473 qrs of barley, 796 qrs peas, 2,668 qrs 0'
beans, and 900 barrels of flour. The exports in the sable
time comprise 1,051 quarters of wheat, 3,686 qrs of Is:
dian corn, 635 loads of oatmeal, and 1,725 sacks and 465
barrels of flour. Weather stormy ; generally seasonable.
A very fair attendance of millers and dealers this morn'
ing, and wheat and flour met a moderate business ; prices
were fully maintained. Oats and. oatmeal a retail sale, At
late rates. Barley, beans, and peas at extreme rates'
In Indian corn a fair business done.