The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-22 00:00:00

:0 JOURNALS. I THE _RECOVERY OF THE MEN AT THE
BRIERLY-HILL

The limes considers that the report of the Commission
on Trades Unions is not free from indecision and corn.
plexity, though it bespeaks comprehensive research as
well as energetic controversy. It is not to be supposed
that any person placed on such a commission as this would
justify the tyranny and coercion which unions employ,
but whereas seven of the commissioners are distinctly
against any relaxation of the present law, and even offer a
suggestion for making it more effectual, the two dissen-
tients, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Harrison, are disposed to
remove even the restrictions imposed by statute upon
these objectionable proceedings. They do not, it is true,
deny that the proceedings are objectionable, but they argue
against the application of special laws to a particular
class of persons. The public will not omit to notice
that if trade is really "restrained," or, in other
words, impeded, by the rules and proceedings of
trade unions, the interests of the whole State may be
jeopardised by the removal of this " restraint " from the
cognisance of the law. But the question is either very
obscure in itself, or else it is usually examined with fore-
gone convictions. Mr. Hughes and Mr. Harrison are
unwilling to allow that harm has been done ; Mr. Booth
thinks the mischief incontestable ; and Mr. Herman
Slerivale, who has added some observations to the report,
is disposed to suspect that, except for the unions in the
building trades, houses in London would be somewhat
better and cheaper than they are now, and that capitalists
in certain branches of industry have been driven by
annoyance to raise their terms against the operatives
themselves. On the whole, however, the commissioners,
on this as well as other points, are inclined to let the public
form its own judgment—a decision which will be all the
easier when the evidence on which the report is founded
appears. At present we can hardly say that we have
obtained anyting more definite from the commission than
a recommendation, qualified in one part of the report
and unqualified in another, to bring the funds of trade
unions within the protection of the law.
The Standard declares that the rejection of Mr. Roe.
buck, at the late general election, by the great constitu-
ency he had so long represented, is a glaring illustration of
popular ingratitude and popular intolerance. During a
political career of forty years Mr. Roebuck has been one
of the ablest, and, so far as his health has permitted, one
o` the most active and industrious advocates of what is
called the popular cause. He has been at the front of the
Radical attack, whether upon persons, of whom he is no
respecter, or of institutions, which lie has never
pardoned unless they proved their utility by his
own standard. Since he sat for Sheffield he has
swerved in no degree from the line of political conduct
which recommended him to the constituency. " Measures,
not men," has always been his motto, and if he has voted
against his party since 1849, he did so often enough before
that year. Upon the new electors of Sheffield he had this
special claim, that more than any member of the Radical
party he had contributed to their enfranchisement. But
unfortunately for Mr. Roebuck he had vigorously
denounced the murderous outrages which disgraced the
town, and had been instrumental in procuring the com-
mission of inquiry which revealed the complicity of
so large a portion of the working classes in these
crimes. Mr. Roebuck has made a name, although not

perhaps of the highest. He will be remembered as an

honest politician and determined foe to humbug of all
kind ; but his fame will principally depend upon the
speeches he has made in and out of Parliament, princi-
pally in Parliament—masterpieces of a short, sharp,
pointed, and bitter style of speaking which seems likely
to die out with him. We trust that Mr. Roebuck will
yet sit in the Reformed Parliament, in the creation of
which he played so active a part; but if his own presenti-
ment be correct, and his public career is closed, we take
leave of him with great respect and much good will. We
believe that he has often been wrong, but we believe, too,
that the honour, the greatness, and the happiness of Eng-
land have always been the objects he has sought.
The Telegraph remarks that it has been argued during
the debate—in Mr. Disraeli's speech by implication, more
directly in Dr. Ball's able address—that a policy of general

endowment would have been more statesmanlike and more
wise, A great deal can be said in favour of such a policy,
and we are pleased that instead of a barren " No Popery"
cry we have now to deal with an Opposition that shadows
forth at least a counter-proposition. Many able English
statesmen have held that the endowment of the Roman
Catholic Church would have been a better solution than
the disendowment of all Irish sects ; but after all it is only
a balance of probabilities and a conflict of predictions. One
man says, " You will appease religious rancour by con-
fleeting all the sects with the State ;" his antagonistic
prophet says, " You will do more in that direction
by disconnecting all." The advantages of general
endowment are obvious, but if some of its drawbacks are
not so prominent, they may yet he serious enough. It must
be remembered that the Church of Home is always an
encroaching power, and that, if you once enter into a course
of enneagninn and compact, you will hardly know where to
stop. All endowment of the Roman Church would
require long and delicate negotiation, and Heaven only
knows where it would lead us. But when we once cut

ourselves free from all Irish Churches—when, to secure
that freedom, we simply say " No " to all demands by al:
sects for any favours—our attitude towards the Church of
Rome will be much more suitable to the dignity of the
State. We can act with a high hand on those questions
respecting national education and laws of mortmain in
which the rights of the citizen.come into conflict with the
privileges of the priest. In short, we can be coldly firm
when we have proved ourselves to be rigidly impartial and
sternly just.

The Star says that to conceive an Irish Churchman who
could be satisfied with Mr. Disraeli's apology for his
Church is to conceive a man either devoid of religious

ideas or inhabiting a fool's paradise, in the belief that the
Irish Church answered in any single feature the descrip-

tion of that alliance of religion with authority which Mr.
Disraeli so rapturously expatiated upon. Religion and
authority can never be divorced where government is
popular and the people are religious ; but in Ireland, while
the Establishment and its uncanny attendant, Protestant

ascendancy, exist, government is not truly popular,
and the only religion which the people acknowledge—
s religion, too, which Mr. Disraeli respects more
than most Englishmen—is prevented from being
allied with authority, and rather tends, as Mr. Disraeli's

own history proves, to undermine authority than to help

it. It is mere playing with words to suppose that
authority can be usefully sanctioned or assisted by a reli-
gion which the people hate. In Ireland established Pro-
testantism makes English authority incurably alien, and
English authority makes Protestantism doubly obnoxious.
The principle of State Establishments of religion is one
for which much may be said. Much was said for it by
Dr. Ball, and something more fantastically, but yet with

a certain power, by Mr. Disraeli. The principle is
one which commends itself hardly less to the
taste of a civilised and cultivated age, which
demands a cultured clergy, than to the needs
of a rudimentary period, when it is difficult to provide
clergy of any kind on the voluntary principle. Indeed.
the crutches of State Establishment are seldom thrown

away with much good will, except by those who have so
profound a faith in the spiritual verities of Christianity
that they are comparatively iudifferent as to its conven•
tional and temporal machinery. But even the warmest
advocate for Church Establishments cannot fit his lan.
guage to the facts of the Irish Church. After two nights

of able debate, it is more conspicuous than ever that the

more successfully Church Establishments are theoretically

defended, the more is the Irish Church practically con•

demned.

In referring to the deaths of the unfortunate women a
Sudbury, the Herald remarks that little need be said by
way of comment on such a story. Granted that these

poor women were wrong and perverse in their obstinate
determination not to ask for help from the parish ; their

very obstinacy is a failing that leans to virtue's side. And

the story of their awful privations and fearful death

does but teach anew a truth that has often been
expressed in these columns. Parochial relief reaches only

the lowest, and often the least deserving, class of paupers.

Societies and organisations for the benefit of thos:
in distress may touch a somewhat better class, always sup•

posing that they are well and wisely managed. But people
like the Readys, who proudly conceal their privations, and
shut themselves up to suffer to the death in solitude and is

secret, are especially difficult to approach, and almost
impossible to relieve, except by some system of house-to.
house visitation, or the discriminating and persevering
efforts of those whom active benevolence prompts to spend
their time and substance in ministering to the wants of
their less fortunate fellows. In large towns the very vastness
of the work to be done paralyses those who would be
willing to undertake it. But Sudbury is not a large town,
and one would have thought that in some way the wants
of Mrs. Ready and her daughter might have been asce:.
tamed and supplied. It may be that they were the
greatest obstacles to the good intentions and benevolent
purposes of those who would desire to befriend them. But
still, the fact that they have thus died, and the fear tha*.
ethers may at this moment be in almost as unfortunate
plight, cannot be regarded as other than a reproach to th
nation in whose midst such things are possible.

SERIOUS DAMAGE TO A RAILWAY EMDANKMEYI.
—On Saturday last the arches of an extensive drain at
Barnsley, known as the "Sough-dyke," gave way. The
consequence was that the embankment of the new line of
the Midland Railway from Cudworth also gave way in
several places for a distance of about 20 yards. It is
not unlikely that, owing to the accident, the opening of
the line for goods traffic, which wm to take place shortly
will baTti ti 9. k 4. laggl.oo

The following ate the details of the recovery of the
bodies at the Briergy-hill Pit. The water was on Satur-
day got sufficiently under to warrant the attempt to get
the men out. At about seven o'clock the attempt to
descend was made. The searching party consisted of Mr.
Frederick Smith, chief agent of Lord Dudley's colliery,
Mr. M. Fletcher, Mr. D. Plant, and S. Thomson's doggy,
and each was provided with a Davy lamp. On reach-
ing the level of the water, the party shouted into the
" inset," but no response was made. They could see
the top of the furnace, but the water had not fallen
' low enough to admit of connecting the cage and the fur-
! nace by the ladder. One of the Davy lamps was extin-
guished by the damp. The first attempt to get into the
workings thus failed. About ten o'clock the same night
another attempt was made to descend, but the adventurous
searching party was again beaten, this time by choke-
' damp. All their lamps were extinguished by the foul gas,
and the me-a were immediately drawn to the sur-
face again. Some of them were seriously affected
by the deadly vapour they had inhaled. It was then
seen that all that could be done was to continue
the pumping until the " inset " was made passable,
and then improve the ventilation so that human life might
be possible in the passages about the shaft. The night
was spent in working at the pumps, and at improving the
ventilation. At about three o'clock on Sunday morning
the men on the pit bank werestartled by a cry from below.
It happened that the cry came up the shaft just when the
pumps had been stopped, owing to a slight derangement in
the machinery. The men above leaned overand listened, and
again and again they heard faint cries come up the upcast
shaft. They were then certain there was life below. Of
course loud and half frantic shouts were sent down the
shaft in response, and immediate steps taken to make
another descent. IVith little delay the Governmentlnspec-
tor and Mr. Smith were again at the pit, and by ten
o'clock the difficulties of ventilation in the shaft having
been overcome, picked men, who, suitably attired, had for
many hours been waiting, descended, and succeeded in
entering the highest workings. They found four men and
a boy not far from the bottom of the shaft ; all were sensi-
ble, but in a shockingly exhausted condition. The fact
that cries had been heard having been spread about, an
immense crowd gathered round the pit brow, and, before
the men and the lad could be got to the bank, there must
have been at least ten thousand people standing there
waiting for them. This immense crowd was almost frantic
with excitement. As the living bodies were lifted safely
to the bank, and seen by the nearest of the dense mass of
men, the suspense was broken by an indescribable shout,
that came simultaneously from thousands of throats.
It was some time before the half-mad enthusiasm of the
crowd would admit of proper attention being paid to
the rescued men. These were—David Hickman (24),
married ; John Holden (27), married ; Timothy Taylor
(25), married ; Stephen Page (27), married ; and Thomas
Sankey (14). Hickman was the strongest ; and, in response
to the great cheers which greeted him and his companions,
lie waved his hands, and shouted, too, as well as he could.
khe boy, as soon as he became sufficiently conscious,
asked, with faint eagerness, "Have you sent to tell my
mother ?" Hickman and the boy were sent at once to
their homes ; but Holden and Taylor were kept under
medical treatment in a hovel on the pit bank, where
mattresses had been placed for them. So far as the
men have been able to explain, the physical sufferings
they have endured have resulted mainly, if not
altogether, from hunger. The food they took down with
them was washed away by the water, and they had
been glad, indeed, during their imprisonment to eat the
candles they had been using at their labour, and that
were stuck about the workings. The candles were all the
food they had. They were early sensible that efforts were
being made above to release them, and they watched the
receding of the water minute by minute, and marked its
falling away by lines of stones. It was by means of these
lines of stones that they speculated upon the time of their
deliverance. One man who was with them, named Wil-
liam Ashmore, and who was about 50 years of age, died
whilst they were down there. He went mad, and was
raving when he died.