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

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

some informa%ion being given by the Government as to the
basis on vkiich they had calculated the increase of rates in
the count les.

THE TI:JORD-LIEUTENANCY OF LONDONDERRY.
Col (mei 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.

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 giTe 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, rcally, 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.—Thnes.

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.JTAL BOILER EXPLOSION.

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 today 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 using 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 pumping en-
gine was off work. The steam required for this ma-
chinery was supplied by six boilers, each measuring
32ft. by Gft: 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 off on
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 totwo
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 (ssrden on the opposite side of the North-road,
ts"
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. Wm.
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.

(From the Report of the Registrar-General.)

The lealth of _Condon 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 phthisis, 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 Alinhouses, Fulham-fields, 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-
ria:€ 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 barnt 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 Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.378 in.
The readings fell from 29.61 in. 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 end Thursday this excess was more
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 40.4 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, coin_
plete saturation being represented by 10,,u.
After the
first three days, when the wind was generally in
i
the north-west, t blew from the west and south•
west. On four days its maximum pressure was 81b
and 101 b on thcsquarefoot. Rain tell to the amount
of 0.23 in. in the week, about half of which fell on
Saturday.