The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-12 00:00:00

LEGISLATION FOR IRELAND.

Lord Uastierosse, in his election speech at Kerry, ad-
mitted that Ireland did not appear to have received an
equal share of benefits from the Reformed Parliament
with other parts of the empire. The last House of
Commons had, however, done its best to repair
the neglect, and had dealt a death-blow to religious
ascendancy. He considered that the crowning
act of the assertion of " Ireland's right " would
long be remembered, and they had the experience of three
hundred years to chew them that without it there could
be no peace in the land. He would not trouble them
with much discussion on the law relating to the occu-
pation of land, but he was in favour of tenant-
right. In Mr. Gladstone they had the foremost
man in the country for their leader, and the Liberal party
only wanted union amongst themselves and fidelity to their
chief. Sir Colman O'Loghlen said that a great parlia-
mentary struggle was taking place when he had last
addressed the electors of Clare. The Government of that
day had challenged the opinion of the majority
of the House of Commons, and insisted on
appealing to the country against it. The first
act of the new Premier would be to settle the question of
religious equality, and this laid at the root of all the other
evils of Ireland. It had been said that Mr. Gladstone
had taken this up as a party question, but this was not
the truth. The land question must also be taken up, and
the G-vernment intended to render full justice to Ireland.

4CCIDENT AT THE .RAINFORD COLLIERY.

Fresh news of disaster reaches us from the Ra.inford
Colliery. Of the seven men injured by the fire last week
five are already dead, and one of the survivors is not
likely to recover. The only one who has thus a
chance of escape was, it appears, dressed in a flannel
suit, which protected him from the action of the fire. On
Friday night, however, two more lives were sacrificed to
this unfortunate affair. On Friday the mouths of both
stages were closed a short distance below the pit bank, and
El, strong jet of steam turned into the down-
cast pit, to extinguish the fire. During the night
the pits were left in charge of two of the engineers, who
noticed about four a.m. that a quantity of steam and
smoke was ascending, and it was therefore plain that the
ventilation was reversed. The engineers thereupon proposed
to jump down to the scaffold which was supposed to be
closing the shaft, and which was only three or four feet
down. Unhappily, the scaffold, from some unexplained
cause was not there, and the men when they jumped went
to the bottom of the shaft, which has Leen
sunk to a distance of sixty or seventy yards below the
burning seam. The night was very dark, and it is not
surprising that the engineers should not have noticed the
disappearance of the scaffold in the smoke and steam, but
its absence is unaccountable. Some are of opinion that
there has been an explosion in the mine, which has displaced
the scaffolding ; others that the weight placed upon the
horse trees in the shaft has been too great, and that they
have given way. It is possible that, the supports being
Dvertaxed, the weight of the two men jumping down was
sufficient to break them. No trace of the scaffold could
be seen on examination. The last that was heard of the
poor fellows was that one asked the other how far
they would have to jump, to which his companion replied
that it was not far. The archway from which they fell has
been bricked up, but it is feared that notwithstanding all
precautions to prevent the air from reaching the fire, it
may be fed from the old workings and disused shafts
round. The Government inspector, Mr. Hinson, was pre-
sent at the colliery on Saturday. The painful accident of ,
Friday night has increased the excitement in the district.