The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO JOURNALS.

The loss of 178 lives in the Ferndale Colliery has been
made the subject of an inquiry which will, the Times
trusts, conduce in some degree to the more effectual pro-
tection of miners in their perilous trade. Complicated and
technical as the report of this inquest may appear, it is
nevertheless reducible to a few plain statements and an
equally plain moral. The danger of coal-mining consists
in the presence of inflammable air discharged from coal.
This gas, or firedamp, will explode if brought into contact
with flame, and yet flame, in the shape of light, is indis-
pensable to the business of the mine. The first source of
this danger cannot be removed. Coal will always dis-
charge gas, more or less. Some seams arc far more " fiery"
than others, and certain states of the atmosphere or
other natural causes may lead to the unusual accumula-
tiCri or escape of gas at particular times. In general,
however, it must be assumed that in every coal-mine
there is a liability to this danger. The coal will give
out the gas, the gas will be liable to explosion, and
a catastrophe like that at Ferndale may at any
time follow. This is the peril against which it is
necessary to provide, and the provision, if proper pains
are taken, can be made with almost complete effect.
Of course, the first and most obvious duty is to carry off
the gas before it accumulates in sufficient quantities to
become dangerous ; in other words, to ventilate the mine.
Collieries should be subjected more effectually to indepen-
dent inspection ; and this should be combined with some
measures for ascertaining freely the views and opinions
of the miners employed. It is shewn but too clearly in
the very narrative before us that colliers are often reckless
of danger ; but, on the other hand, we have been re-
peatedly assured that some of them, at least, are more
careful of their lives, and that they would often be willing
to indicate the unsafe points in the working of the pits if
they were allowed proper opportunities of speaking their
minds. It concurs with the regret expressed by the jury
that a deputation from the Miners' National Association
was not permitted to go down into the Ferndale pit, for it
would have been, at least, satisfactory, and might possibly
have been serviceable, to hear the opinions of such witnesses
upon the catastrophe itself, and the general dangers which it
represented. The fault of the present system appears to
lie in a variety of slight defects at its several points. In
theory it is complete ; at least, no addition is suggested to
it ; but in practice it fails. The men have their safety
lamps, but they find the means of neutralising the safe-
guard ; the owners ventilate the mine, but not always
effectually, and there is no register of the air draught from
day to day, as there might be ; the firemen are on the look-
out for firedamp, but there is no record of their reports ;
and the outside, or independent inspection, which should
keep all this machinery in order, is not sufficient for the
purpose. The sources of danger are well known, and the
requisite preventives are all presumed to be in action, but
there is no security for the constant efficiency of the whole
organisation. So the result is seen in catastrophes like
that at Ferndale, and the remedy ought not to be long
withheld after so terrible a warning.

In the opinion of the Daily News, the attitude of the
English people towards the misdeeds of the Fenian conspi-
rators exhibits the national character in a very fair and
honourable light. The crimes which have shocked the
world are not outrages merely upon law and authority,
but upon society and human nature itself. They exhibit
a depravity to which it would be hard to find a parallel.
q'he cry of execration which they have raised has been
universal. But the public mind has preserved its self-
possession in the midst of its just anger. It has refused
to be urged-ky lawlessness into lawlessness, or to suffer the
contagion of the Fenian frenzy to infect itself. In order
that justice may he done upon the offenders, and that the
stern retribution which public sentiment and the public
interests alike require may be exacted, the limits and safe-
guards of law must be strictly observed. Its rules awl
processes afford the surest means of tracking out the guilty
and of shielding the innocent—ends which are inseparable.
To let the blow fall swift and strong, no matter upon
whom, is a course to which, notwithstanding some dis-
creditable incentives, neither the Government nor the
public has displayed any proneness. The disturbers of
society have nothing to hope from this temper. An out-
burst of wild awl fierce passion is likely, when it has
spent itself, to be followed by feeble laxity. The steal),
sense of justice will not know the weakness of either
extreme.

The Standard urges on Irish fellow-citizens, both rich
and poor, to lose no time in shaking off from themselves
every suspicion of disloyalty, by joining in the common
measures of self-protection against the Fenians. Of all
the calamities which are in the catalogue of Irish
grievances, certainly the worst would be the belief in the
English mind that every Irishman of the Roman Catholic
faith is a Fenian. Our contemporary continues : That am-
considerable number of them, even in Ireland, are of the
same mind as that illustrious but mysterious.c!:ieftain whc
styles himself " The O'Donoghue," we cannot bring our-
selves to believe. They may have been led away by an
ill-regulated sentiment of romantic generosity to talk of
the murderers of au English policeman as " glor!oul
martyrs ;" but we are willing to excuse this as a fit of
hysterics. Having had their cry out, and finished the
" berrin'," we may hope that they will speedily return to
their senses. The Clerkenwell outrage not have been
altogether useless if it helps all honest Irishmen to reject
this loathsome image whie„,h comes in the shape of Irish
patriotism—whose favourite weapons are gunpowder and
Greek fire--whose battle-field is the poor man's home—
whose victims are women and children, and whose highest
achievement is the slaughter of an unarmed policeman.

The Telegraph writes : Let the spirit of the season pleat
with all who have abundance for the good societies which
grapple with the miseries and errors of our time. Let-the
hand open largely and liberally towards the coffers which
are emptied for the real poor. Charity covers a multitude
of sins ; and none of us can look back from Christmas
time along the vista of the dying year without accusing
thoughts. Send a thumping Christmas-box towards some
one or other of the thousand efforts made by worthy
and energetic people for the good of the struggling and
the suffering. Help the infirmary, the reformatory, the
refuge, the ragged school, to close the year with a pleasant
balance. It is astonishing how much easier the conscience
will then feel respecting that dubious profit, that doubtful
acquaintance, that questionable piece of conduct in the
bygone twelvemonths which the moral sense has not yet
digested. Pay what you must pay, but pay something to
that which has no " must" at all in its silent and
eloquent pleading ; and you will find that you take out
of a " Christmas-box" something which you never put
into it.

We have not, says the Herald, as yet heard of deaths
from absolute starvation in the Poplar and Stepney
unions ; but where the extent of weekly relief is limited
in the one to one shilling, and in the other to one shilling
and sixpence for each person, it is easy to anticipate,
should the scale not be altered, the consequences which
must ensue. The benefit of the poor law to those who
apply for relief under it mainly depends upon the disposi-
tion and conduct of the relieving officer, for his recom-
mendation cannot with safety be disregarded ; while the
master can make the house a hell or a home to those
placed under his control. We have endeavoured for yeare
past to impre.9s upon the Poor-law Board the necessity of
themselves directly nominating these two classes of offi-
cials, many of whom under the existing system seem to
defy censure, and are insensible to the disgrace of
exposure or the dread of punishment for their misdeeds.
One thing we are convinced of—that, no matter what
amendments may be effected in the law, its humane exe-
cution will never be ensured until the duty of searching
out poverty, instead of waiting fur its appeal, be entrustec.
as it is in France, to meek and Christian women, instead
of being confided, as it is here, to brutal mannered and
unfeeling men.

The Star reminds us that Boxing Day has come to he
quite a consolatory festival. There was a time when its
odious obligations in the way of largess and its unpleasant
license in respect of potations made it a rather unac-
eltable sequel to the great Christmas feast day. But
now, when Christmas begins about the beginning of
November, and when the whole reading of a man who
depends upon ephemerals is compelled to liv-e a Christ-
mas tone for nearly two months before the 25th December,
Boxing Day has come to be a great and welcome institu-
tion. Every one will agree with us when we say Ivhy.
The 26th December is a great day because it is a panto-
mime day, and because pantomime is almost the only
pub'ic mlnife-Aation now left of Christmas as a time of
fun and jollity.
The public ideas of Christmas have neces-
harily become more gloomy, as " Christmas numbers"
hAve become mlricrel=l, u,,t merely because of the

\• the g,nnril ratic.r's conseienc

‘vith this Chriztrnas
or th,.!
ha 6 iiraTpuntled Yul,Aide and all its belunginzs,

1:10,IAN CATHOLICS AND FENIANISM. —At a public
of atcnt :';(10 of the culgregation of the Roman
Catholic Church of :it. Peter's, Woolwich, just held, the
Rev. J. Cotter presiding, the following resolutions were
adopted, expressive of the abhorrence of the meeting of the
recent diabolical conduct of a class of individuals calling
themselves members of the Fenian Brotherhood :-1.
" That, as members of the Catholic Church, and therefore
(o,edient to her authoritative teaching, we cannot approve
or be members of any association whatever which our pre-
lates condemn." 2. " That, as Irishmen, we love to see
the evils of Ireland removed or redressed by lawful con-
stitutional means ; but we hereby express our abhorrence
of armed violence and resisting the civil power, convinced
that such resistance is evil, and that evil must not be done
whatsoever good may come of it."

IFIE SIDNEY MAL.

This cause eilebre, after occupying the court for thirteen
days, at length seems to approach its close. The evidence
for the defence closed with Mrs. C. Bagot, who corrobo-
rated the evidence given by the defendant's witnesses, so
far as her knowledge extended. On cross-examination
she admitted that Bernard Bagot bad informed hey from
day to day during the trial of the statements deposed to,
and asked her what points she could contradict. She
also admitted that her husband said to Bergin that her
evidence would destroy the case of the defendant, and
that Bernard Bagot was to blame for allowing the transac-
tions to be exposed instead of letting the defendant
pay the bills. At the conclusion of the defendant's case,
Mr. Bergin, Mr. Bloomfield, and Mr. Sidney were called
for a rebutting case, and contradicted parts of the defend-
ant's evidence. The defendant was again examined, and
denied some of the testimony given upon the re-examina-
tion of Sidney, and Mrs. C. Bagot, having been recalled,
contradicted Sidney's contradictions of her own contra-
dictions of Sidney's statements. The parties having been
thus confronted, and a brisk fusillade of denials inter-
changed, the evidence closed.
Mr. Heron, Q.C., then proceeded to reply for the
defence. After telling the jury that he should wish to
appeal to their sympathies on behalf of Mr. Sidney, to
ask them to restore him—a victim of a foul conspiracy—
to his native land, the learned counsel deposed that his
task was a very difficult one. It was a very painful one.
He had to speak of great talents misused ; he had to speak
of a life thrown away; he had to speak of reckless
extravagance, insane and moat selfish ; of a wickedness
that would sacrifice to that selfishness the happiness of
young relatives growing up to manhood, the fortune of
innocent girls, the last shilling of his dearest friends—a
selfishness finally culminating in crime—crime of the
darkest character, and on the part of one who during the
present trial had shewn a keen and clear experience, pur-
chased after twenty years' walk inthe ways of the world.
The learned counsel then proceeded in strong terms to de-
nounce Mr. Sidney, and taking up the story told by him
in the witness box, said : It was told with. tears, told with
sardonic smiles. and with a reckless, flippant, and strange
manner—told by himself with all the lurid light which
was presented to the suicide at the moment of death, with
all the horrors of vengeance, hate, and shame, seemed to
have been obtained from the very flames of hell. Was
such misery ever before brought to light on a trial ? Hus-
band and wife arrayed against mother, sister, andbrother.
Mr. Heron then gave a resumi of the evidence. The
prosecution had charged his client, Mr. Bagot, a country
gentleman and a magistrate, first with being insane
enough to give Mr. Sidney unlimited authority to put his
(the defendant's) name to the bills, and then with being
base enough to deny that authority, and, singularly
enough, to get up a conspiracy by means of an extorted
letter to prove Mr. Sidney a forger. The case which Mr.
Sidney had endeavoured to make out was that three or
four men gave unlimited authority to sign their names
upon bills. Mr. Sidney's whole endeavour was to imitate
the signature of those whose names he used, and he was so
far successful that even experts had been deluded. He
asked his learned friend, Mr. Dowse (the counsel for the
prosecution), to give an explanation of the motive
of imitating the writing of Blake and Henry Hynes.
The motive for imitating the handwriting of J. L. Bagot
was apparent. John Lloyd Bagot was known at the
banks. But Hynes was a boy just arrived at 21; and he
(Mr. Heron) did not think that the name of James Blake
would command much respect upon 'Change, according to
his own account. He could not find any conceivable sup-
position of innocence. The first time John L. Bagot dined
at Sidney's /souse was on the 18th of February, 1864, and
the whole of the transactions which had occurred or were
alleged to have occurred, were comprised within that time
and the flight on the 10th or 20th of August, 1866. The
whole of Hyne's liability on bills was incurred within a
period of three months ; and he would venture to say that
the entire of Bagot's liability, £2,700 or £3,000, was in-
curred within the same period of time. The learned
counsel discarded the evidence of Mr. Sidney's wife, and
at the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Dowse, Q.C., replied
'or the plaintiff.

MURDER IN SHROPSHIRE.

SHREWSBURY, 1/CC. 25.

Yesterday—on the very day that the Alton murderer
was adjudged to be hanged—a crime singularly resembling
his in its character was brought to light in Shropshire.
The victim in the present instance is a little girl named
Catherine Lewis, 9 years and 8 months old, and the man
now in custody on the charge of wilful murder is an agri-
cultural labourer named John Tapp. The scene of the
outrage is a field situated between Longden Village and
Longden-comm,on, a quiet agricultural district about seven
or eight miles from this town.

From the particulars already in the possession of the
police, it appears that oil Sundaymorninglast the deceased
left her home, which is situated on the common, for the
house of a person named Davis, who lives in the village,
and whose baby she occasionally nursed. She remained
here till six o'clock in the evening, when she started to go
to chapel. On leaving chapel she was accompanied by
llapp and a woman, a mutual ac-juaintanc,, who lived
at Longden-wood Farm. When the three reached the
lane which lcd to the farm, this woman turned aside and
went home, :Tapp and the deceased keeping on the high
road which led to Longden-common. This was a little
after eight o'clock, and the deceased was never seen alive
again. _ _

On Monday morning Mapp went to his work in the
field, as usual, and towards noon a ploughboy, who was
working near him, called out that he had found a girl's hat
all covered with blood, at the same time observing
that there had been a row somewhere. Mapp told th•
lad to put the hat in the furrow, and cover it up with the
plough, but instead of doing so, lie threw it over the
hedge into the high road. A woman named Hartshorne,
who had been at chapel on the previous evening, and
had seen the deceased there, happened to pass along
the road shortly after, and, picking up the hat, recog-
nised it as the one then worn by the deceased and at
once carried it to the father of the child. Up to this time
no anxiety as to the absence of the deceased had arisen,
either on the part of her parents or the Davises, the one
concluding that she had stayed to sleep at the village. and
the other believing that she had gone home. But when
the hat, saturated with blood, was brought to him, Mr.
Lewis at once started for the village, and learning that
his daughter had not been seen since eight o'clock on the
previous night, a diligent search was made in the neigh-
bourhood that lay between the two houses. Following
certain traces found in the field where the hat had been
discovered, Mr. Lewis went to an old and disused hovel
which stood in an adjoining field, and on opening the door,
a shocking sight was presented to him. Lying on her
back upon the ground, with some of the latter covering
her, was the body of his child, with her throat cut from
ear to ear, and so deeply as almost to sever the head from
the shoulders. A shawl, which she had worn on Sunday,
was tied round her neck, and one end thrust tightly into
'aer mouth. There were several scratches upon her
?erson, but though there is no doubt as to the object of
her murderer, it is not known pending the medical inquiry
whether or not he effected it.

On the discovery of the crime suspicion was at once
directed towards the prisoner, who strongly protested his
innocence ; but at the same time made several inconsistent
and damaging statements, which will be duly deposed to
at the adjourned examination. On visiting the scene of the
murder yesterday, Superintendent Caerswell made an im-
portant discovery, which throws considerable light on the
affair, and forms a strong link in the chain of evidence which
connected the prisoner with it. It appears that on Satur-
day Mapp was engaged in spreading manure over the
stubbe-field where the hat was found, and returned on Mon-
day morning to complete the job. Instead, however, of fol-
lowing on with the manure at the place where he had left off
on Saturday, he commenced at a place fifty yards further on,
and here be piled up two large heaps. On noticing this yes-
terday, Superintendent Caerswell raked away the manure,
and underneath each heap he found a large pool of blood,
and close by he picked up a veil belonging to the deceased.
Following up this clue, Caerswell traced the path of the
murderer, as he had dragged after him the body of the
child along the hedgerow skirting the highway, through a
gap in the hedge, and across a grass field up to the hovel,
a distance of about five hundred yards. The trail of the
body, which had become covered with soil from the
ploughed field, was plainly discernible on the grass. The
ploughed field is skirted by the highway, along which the
prisoner and the deceased (who were next door neigh-
bours) would pass on their way home after leaving their
companion at the farm, and the precise spot where the
murder appears to have been committed is close by a gate
which leads off the road into the field. The inference
from the evidence already obtained clearly is that the
murderer suddenly as;,aile,i the child in the road, and,
gagging her by means of her shawl, carried her into the
field, and fearing the consequences of the sure detectioe
which must follow on her return home, had been led into
the committal of murder. Supposing the prisoner to have
been the perpetrator of the preliminary outrage, he had a
special reason for keeping cut of the hands of the police,
for he had only lately returned home with a ticket of
leave after serving seven of a term of ten years' transporta-
tion, to which he had been sentenced for a rape on an old
woman, committed under peculiarly atrocious circum-
stances.

Map p was brought here yesterday in custody, and
charged before the county magistrate with the wilful mur-
der of Catherine Lewis, but no evidence was taken beyond
such as was necessary for a remand. On the usual ques-
tion being put to him, the prisoner made a statement to
the effect that the deceased had been murdered but that
he was not the man-
lie was remanded for a week.

CONGRESS.

SENATE.

Congress closed its extra Session and commenced
its regular winter Session at noon on the 2d Decem-
ber. The Joint Committee waited on the President,
according to custom, at one o'clock, to inform him
that both Houses had organised. The President's
Message was received on the following day, with
the Department Reports, giving a detailed view of
the operations for the past year, and the sugges-
tions for the future.

The Senate has abolished the prefix of Hon-
ourable to the names of its members, passed a
bill making five judg s of the Supreme Court
a quorum, and a resolution instructing the Fi-
nance Committee to inquire into the expediency
of reporting a bill authoring the Secretary of the
Treasury to contract for the redemption of the
5-20's forty-year loan on bonds bearing 5 per cent
interest, both principal and interest payable in gold ;
the Government to have the option to redeem them
after twenty years.
On the debate on the President's Message, Mr.

lloward objected to its being printed ; Mr. Sumner
agreed with him in considering it a libel upon
Congress, an incendiary document calculated to
stimulate rebellion and to provoke civil war, a 3 well
as evidence of a coalition between the President
and the rebels, proving Andrew Johnson to be the
successor of Jefferson Davis. Mr. Cameron, of
Pennsylvania, for economical reasons, thought it
ought not to be printed. Mr. Anthony, of Rhode
Island, said that if Congress printed nothing it did
not approve there would be great economy. Sena-
tor Drake, of Missouri, introduced a resolution
censuring the President for those portions of his
Message in which he condemned the course of Con-
gress, recommending Congress to express reprehen-
sion. The President was defended by Mr. Bucka-
law, of Pennsylvania, who considers the Recon-
struction Acts unconstitutional, and advised their
repeal ; also of Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, who
declared Mr. Sumner guilty of libel in calling the
President a traitor. Mr. Wilson, although con-
demning the doctrines and temper of the Message,
would nut depart from the usual practice of printing
it. If Congress had exceeded its constitutional
limits in Reconstruction, the President had set the

example in his plan, and he closed his speech by
asserting that the policy will in a few mouths be an
accomplished fact, and that the Legislature would
stand like a rock on its Reconstruction Acts, and
not retreat an inch. Judge Thomas has taken his
seat as Senator from Maryland.
The correspondence between Mr. Seward and the
late Minister to Austria, Mr. Motley, which ended in
the latter gentleman's resignation, has been laid before
the Senate in answer to its call. Last April Mr.
Motley was somewhat peremptorily instructed to
resign the mission. The letter announcing the
withdrawal was laid before the Emperor on the 14th
June. His Majesty expressed great regret at the
departure from his capital of a representative who,
during a most trying period, had maintained the
most friendly relations with his Government, and
he requested Mr. Motley to convey an intimation of
his gratitude for the intercession of the Washington
Government on behalf of his brother Maximilian.
Mr. Motley writes bitterly in his last letter to his
official superior. He accuses Mr. Seward of arraign-
ing him officially and peremptorily, on charges sup-
plied by an unknown informer ; and having failed
in receiving a reply to his denunciation of those
charges as false, calumnious, and contemptible, he
thought it proper to place on the records of the Le-
gation and of .the State Department the fact that
the author was absolutely unknown to him—that
he believed he had never seen him nor heard his voice
—and that he (Mr. Motley) had never heard
M'Cracken's name until the publication of his
letter. lie closes the despatch by reiterating that
•
the charges are false and vile.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING;

WHO WAS 7HE ART-ARCHITECT ()F THE
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT?

(From the TVestminster Gazette.)
Mr. E. Welby Pugin has done wisely in sub-
mitting this inquiry to the decision of the public.
He had reason to anticipate that Englishmen would
not be indifferent to the double question of his
father's renown and the art history of a great
national monument. They are accustomed to debate
eagerly matters of less interest, and they generally
contrive in spite of their proverbial slowness, to
arrive at a just verdict. They are not likely to
miss it in this case. Mr. Pugin has communicated
to the jury to which he appeals all the materials at
his disposal. If they are less complete than they
might have been, this is not his fault. He would
have gladly published more, if his adversaries had
been as honest as himself. But he has given us
enough, and it will not be difficult, even with
evidence purposely obscured, to determine the
question proposed by him, " Who was the Art-
Architect of the Houses of Parliament ?" The
family of the late Sir Charles Barry have attempted
to claim this honour for their relative, by carefully
suppressing the very documents which would have
sufficed to prove, as the public will justly infer
from so unusual a proceeding, that he had no title
to it. We shall have something to say presently
about this singular manceuvre ; but before dis-
cussing the documentary evidence, or the imprudent
artifice which has veiled so large a portion of it
from the public eye, we must notice certain pre-
liminary considerations which, if we are not
mistaken, go far to decide the whole question,
without any evidence whatsoever.
(1.) We observe, then, in the first place, that no
capable and impartial judge has the slightest doubt
on these two capital points—that the late Mr.
Pugin was, and the late Sir Charles Barry was not,
competent to be the art-architect of the Houses
of Parliament. No living artist, whether painter
or architect, will question the first proposition. Mr.
Pugin's works speak for themselves. It was pre-
cisely in such details as those which constitute
the decorative features, both interior and exterior,
of the Westminster Palace, and save it from the
monotony from which it has barely escaped, that
Mr. Pugin was so great a master. It was here that
his genius was especially manifested, though it
displayed itself equally, wherever the material
conditions were favourable, in general conception
and design. There are many living eye-witnesses
of the prodigious facility with which that great
artist threw off the original sketches of those ex-
quisite details in which he was probably unrivalled,
either in England or elsewhere. And this is not
all. His son notices, and there is perhaps no
argument in his pamphlet which carries with it
greater weight, that he has actually in his own
possession, " several volumes of his original com-
positions, exquisitely etched by himself in 1833,
which confirm the probability "—he might have
ventured to employ a more emphatic phrase—
" that the same mind which conceived them con-
ceived also the Houses of Parliament. In many
of them the features and details are actual proto-
types or facsimiles of those of 'Westminster. One
of them is literally the Victoria Tower, a second the
Clock Tower in embryo. In others, are entire
facades, court-yards, &c., identical with parts of the
Houses of Parliament." (Pp. 3,4.) Without
claim"ng judicial perspicuity, or anything beyond
a knowledge of the elementary principles of
evidence, we may easily appreciate the gravity of
this decisive fact. No one will deny, nor tolerate
the denial by others, that whether Mr. Pugin
designed the artistic details of the Houses of
Parliament or not, he was at all events qualified
to do it.