The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-11 00:00:00

THE MILITIA.

The Pembrokeshire Militia Rifles have received
notice to assemble on the 30th of this month for
three weeks' training.
The Montgomeryshire Rifles assemble at Welsh-
pool for 21 days' training on Wednesday, the 15th
instant.
The Anglesea Light Infantry meet at Beaumaris
on the 13th inst. for the usual three weeks' drill.
The Cardiganshire Militia are summoned to meet
on the 6th of next month.
The Denbighshire Rifles commence their three
weeks' training at Wrexham on the 15th inst.
This corps is up to its full complement.

The adjourned inquest on the body of John
Turner, a collier, who died on the 29th ult. from
injuries received in an explosion of fire-damp on
the 20th ult., was held at Standish on Wednesday
afternoon, before Mr. Myres, coroner. The inquiry
also included the death of a youth named John
Hall, who was burned at the same time, and who
died on Saturday. The explosion occurred in the
Tunnel Pit, Standish, the property of Mr. Taylor.
Mr. Cedric Bromley, surgeon, Wigan, who
attended both the deceased until their deaths, said
they were much burnt on the upper part of their
bodies down to the waist. Turner told him, in a
conversation he had with him, that the fireman had
said he had not examined the place on the morning
of the explosion.
Robert Fairhurst, the fireman, hav;fl been cau-
tioned by the coroner, made the following voluntary
statement :—When Turner came up to the top of
the " spuney" I was busy with, a shunt, and he
asked me if I had been in his place. I said, "No ;
I shall not be many minutes with this shunt, and
then I will go with you." I did not knoW that
Turner had gone, but in less than two minutes -I
heard an explosion. I went to Turner's place, and
found that he and his drawer (John Hall) had been
burned. When I found him, I asked-him if I did
not tell him that I had not been in his place. He
said I did ; and I asked him what his reason for
going was. He said he thought it would be the same
as usual. He said he had done but little the day
before, and he wanted to mend it that day. It
would be about half-past five o'clock in the morn-
ing when the explosion happened. I go at four,
and give th 6 men liberty to follow to the top of the
spuney. I should meet the men at the spuney at
five o'clock. I consider that the shunt was required
for the nece working of the pit, and that it
should first sbseirione before the examination. I had
examined all the places but three, which lie on one
side. It might have taken me about a quarter of
an hour to have examined those places. One person
had gone to work in one of those places before the
deceased. I had allowed him to go without telling
him that it had not been examined. He had gone
with a covered lamp. The explosion threw down
the brattice. I did not consider it a likely place
for fire-damp. The place has always been examined
before, either by me or the man under me. I don't
know whether the boy, Hall, was with him when
I told Turner that the place had not been examined.
I now think it would have been better that the
place should have been examined before I had gone
to the shunt.

Elizabeth Hall, spinster, said the deceased, John
Hall, was her brother. He was 14 years of age.
After he was burned he ran home.
Wm. Ashcroft, collier, Standish, said he worked
at the Tunnel Pit. He was in the pit at the time
of the explosion, and passed Fairhurst, the fireman,
in going to his place. Did not see any signals of
any kind that morning. Fairhurst was busy when
he passed him. When there was any danger Fair-
hurst always sat at the top of the brow, and told the
men. He was in the place where he generally sat
that morning, but said nothing to witness when he
went past him. If Fairhurst was not at the place
the men stopped until he came and told them to
go to work. Witness continued—l saw Turner
shortly after the explosion. I took him up to the
pit eye. James Holland was at work beyond Tur-
ner's place when I got there. I had been into my
own place before the explosion occurred, and had
gone out to pull my clothes off. I had a lighted
open candle with me. I passed Turner at the pit
eye that morning, and went on to my work. Tur-
ner afterwards passed me. Fairhurst was then
laying rails. Turner never told me that there was
fire in the place. Fairhurst must have seen me
pass him. Turner had his candle lighted when he
passed me to go to his work. His drawer was with
him. After the explosion Fairhurst was at the
place I had first seen him when I went for him.
Fairhurst had a lamp, but the top was off. I never
saw a cap or a hood on my light. Props and all
materials arc supplied when they are wanted.
John Critchley, collier, corroborated Fairhurst's
statement, and added that no signals of any kind
were used in the pit, except when there was

danger.
James Lawton, miner—l work at the Bradley
Colliery. I saw Fairhurst on the 20th of August
last, and had a conversation with him about the
explosion at the deceased's house. He said it was
a bad job, and he said to the deceased, " It would
have been a lucky concern if I had gone into thy
place this morning, but I had so much running
about to that place that I knew had sulphur in,
that I put trust to thy place, thinking it would
have been as it had aforetime, and I skipped it that
morning, and have skipped it before, thinking that
it had nothing in." The deceased then said, " Thou
spoke like a man this morning." Fairhurst said he
would never tell a man again that he had been in a
place when he had not.
George Forster, manager of the mine, said it was
Fairhurst's duty to examine every part of the pit,
either by himself or his man, before the colliers
went to work. Witness had no doubt that Fair-
hurst had a copy of the regulations. He had no
right to do any kind of work in the pit before he
examined it, unless it was something unavoidable.
Witness did not think the shunting was required
before the examination. Witness did not require

the use of signals except in cases of danger.
The jury then retired, and after a long consulta-
tion returned a verdict of accidental death, with a
request that the coroner would reprimand and
caution Fairhurst, the fireman, for allowing Turner
and his drawer to enter the working before he had
examined it.
The Coroner complied with this request, and also
advised the manager to order the putting up of
signal boards at the different workings, to denote
which were safe and which dangerous.
The inquiry lasted six hours.-llfanchester Guar-
dian.

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that he is requested by Mr. Jamieson, of No. 23, Norfolk-
street, to inform that for many years he had been afflicted
with asthma and rheumatism, and could obtain no relief
from the many remedies he tried, until he commenced
Holloway's Ointment and Pills. These invaluable medi-
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for the use of these medicines are affixed to each box or
_potrno further advice is needed by the patient. _

The splendid capabilities of Milford Haven have
long been recognised. Nelson expressed in words
his admiration of it; but more than a century- before
Nelson, Penn, by the use he made of it, had borne
still more unequivocal testimony to its merits. But
commerce will not be allured to any place merely
because it affords safe riding for ships. Until our
railway system was developed, Milford Haven,
though an admirable harbour, was remote from
any of those busy centres of industry and accumu-
lated property which attracts merchants. Hence it
came that the Mersey, with all the difficulties
and dangers which its flat, wind-swept shores
and innumerable shoals presented, became a
thronged resort of traffic, while Milford Ha-
ven remained almost as unvisited as in the
days of the Ap Griffiths and Llewellyns. The
deficiencies of the Mersey as a port were disre-
garded on account of its prolimity to the great pro-
ducing counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, Stafford-
shire, and Yorkshire. But now that railways have
already brought Milford Haven, or are rapidly
bringing it,into close proximity with the metro-
polis and with the manufacturing districts, sailors
and shipowners arc awakening to its capabilities of
a harbour. This explains the demonstration at
Pembroke Dock, which it was yesterday our pleas-
ing task to chronicle. We do not expect—and still
less do we wish—that Milford Haven should rise on
the ruins of any of our established ports, or prevent
the development of the trade of others. Southamp-
ton Water and the Mersey will keep their ground ;
Galway. or Valentia, or both, will become the great
stations for the receipt and despatch of mails and
passengers between England and North America,
and the export and import harbours for the trade
between Ireland and the New World. But Milforl -
Haven will rise to an equality with the best of these
places. There is ample room for them all ; the
fresh start in the development of our island re-
sources .which is being made under the auspices of
steam locomotives and the electric telegraph, will
render all these maritime stations no more than
sufficient for the giant growth of English commerce.
It is a great recommendation of Milford Haven
that it opens on the broad Atlantic. It offers a
refuge to seamen, to reach which they need not
embay themselves in any narrow straits or channels.
Its entry is boldly defined, and free from hidden
perils ; while within there is ample room for whole
navies of ships of the largest draught, with ample
shelter from every wind that can blow. The Mersey
and the Clyde, from their immediate proximity to
regions of busy and productive industry, will con-
tinue to attract as many vessels as ever ; for mer-
chants have a well-grounded aversion to frequent
repetition of the act of breaking bulk, and seek
therefore to ship their goods as near as possible to
the place where they are produced. But an im-
mense trade will' be attracted to Milford Haven,
now that carriage thither from the manufacturing
districts has become safe, speedy, and economical,
and that the mineral wealth of South Wales is
being so extensively explode. •Milford Haven will
assume the rank, as a trading port, which Bristol
once held. Its commerce will bear the same ratio to
the aggregate commerce of England in the nine-
teenth century that the commerce of Bristol did to
the aggregate commerce of England in earlier ages.
And there are certain local traffics which advantage
of position • will inevitably attract to Milford
Haven. It will contest with Southampton Water
the character of the natural place of deposit
for the commodities which are shipped to or
landed frown an impl7tant portion of our Colonies.
The shipping of the West India Colonies will
naturally make for it ; it will attract the trade
of the Cape Colony and Western Africa ; and all
that important portion of the passenger and goods
traffic of our Southern Colonies which takes the
Panama route—thatis, the bulk of the trade of New
Zealand, Tasmania, New South Wales, and the
district around Moreton Bay—will also resort to it.
To our growing commerce with the Brazils Mil-
ford Haven offers an equally eligible emporium ;
but our anticipations of the future for this harbour
are more disposed to rest on its possible and pro-
bable colonial connexions. England is essentially
a colonising country. She, of all modern States,
has alone succeeded in establishing free filial com-
munities, whereas the others have only been able
to create dependencies. England laid the founda-
tions of the Great Western Republic ; and though
the United States—as we say of sons and daughters
who have set up establishments of their own apart
from the paternal home—are now foris:familiated,
the great Canadian, West Indian, and Australian
groups, and the infant empire of South Africa, still
remain connected with us by the closest family
ties. We need only turn to the statistical tables of
the Board of Trade to be convinced that our com-
merce with the United States and our Colonies is
by far the most important part of our aggregate
commerce. Being carried on with communities
which have hived off the parent stock of Britain,
and which retain British tastes and habits, our
productions suit them better than any other
people. Possessing ample vacant lands their num-
bers increase more rapidly than those of old coun-
tries. Every way they are the most sure and
profitable customers we can have. The mercantile
relations between Colonies and Mother-Countries
are unsusceptible of destruction or even diminution
from political enmities or alienation. Notwith-
standing the enmity engendered by the unfortunate
circumstances under which the United States broke
loose from us, the growth of the commercial inter-
course between the two countries never knew pause
or intermission. And Mauritius, which has been
incorporated into the British Empire for half a cen-
tury, continues to this day to have more intimate
commercial relations with the Garonne than with
the Thames. Add to these considerations, that colo-
nisation calls those more lucrative and more certain
markets into existence, adds them to those which
our merchants continue to frequent to as great an
extent as they could have done though we had been
destitute of colonies. And, perhaps, the mere aug-
mentation of the national wealth which England
derives from her colonies is the least benefit she
owes them. Our narrow island, but for the colonies,
would soon have become over-populated. The colo-
nies not only find subsistence and profitable employ-
ment for those who would have been doomed to
idleness and poverty at home ; their deman a. for our
productions enables a more numerous population to
reside in comfort within the island than could other-
wise have done so. They have saved us to a great
extent—if more adequately turned to account they
might save us to a still greater extent—from the
demoralising influence of a surplus and pauper po-
pulation. It is an instinctive sense, rather than a
definite conception of these benefits, that has made
and kept England a colonising country. Her efforts
in colonisation are, it is true, intermitting, but they
are incessantly renewed after brief intervals of
repose. From 1830 till within the last year
or two the heart of England N. vas keenly bent
upon colonising enterprise. Within that period the
progress of the British North American Provinces,
of the Cape Colony, of Tasmania and New South
Wales, has received a new impetus, while Victoria,
New Zealand, Southern and. Western Australia,
have been called into existence. The brief succease
of interest in colonial undertakings cannot last long.
And it is not the least of many favourable omens for
the future of Milford Haven that some enterprising
men have associated themselves with a view to
render it the recognised starting-point of emigrants
for New Zealand, Eastern Australia, and the new
colony of British Columbia.—DaiTy News.

Mr. Robson, after having concluded, with Mr. W.
.8. Emden, a most prosperous season at the Olympia Theatre,
is at present in Edinburgh, but his numerous admirers here
will not at present see him on-the stage, as he is travelling
with his family to recruit his energies after the arduous
London season.—Scotsman.
THE MURDERER BUCKNELL.—The Taunton
Courier reported last week that the mother of the culprit,
Bucknell, had died of a broken heart just a week after her
son was executed, and that a sister of the murderer had
nearly gone mad since the execution—all which is a mere
fabriention.—Sherborne Journal.
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•

Captain Mowbray Thomson,
has addressed the following let
Justice to the dead compels
give place in your valuable journal ttOV6--4
contradiction of the account of the Cawnpore
massacre transferred to yom- columns on the 3d
inst. from those of the Indian Empire, and alleged
to be the statement of Mrs. Murray, the wife of
Sergeant-Major Murray. It is not for me to con-
jecture by what means this poor woman has
been induced to give utterance to such a ver-
sion of our troubles at Cawnpore as she has done,
but I feel bound to correct her narrative, and I feel
sure that my brother officer, Lieut. Delafosse, who
is in this country, will be able to substantiate the
allegations I now mike.
After a truthful reference to the general uneasi-
ness pervading the native mind which preceded the
outbreak, Mrs. Murray states that General Wheeler
ordered a parade, and read a general order discon•
tinning the old musket, and directing the use of
the Enfield rifle for the future.
She says, "The Sepoys refused to use the new
guns. Parade was again ordered with no better re-
Esilintfield&c.rifle Now,in sir,c a yln affirm
untilthat
Itsh emr ee
aw
of
sf
tnhoet
Ist
nt
Madras Fusileers joined us two days before the out-
break, and these were the only men in Cawnpore
armed with that weapon. I have no knowledge of
General 'Wheeler of the havil-
the imprisonment by
dar who reported the disaffection of the native
made to
troops. I believe it is as untrue as the foregoing of the Enfield rifles. Nana Sahib's
;s visit
Cawnpore, which is next referred to, was
the request of the resident magistrate, and such was
the confidence placed in this infernal traitor that
the whole of the treasure—upwards of £loo,ooo_
was placed under his protection. The Nana was not
at Bithoor, but in Cawnpore, when the 2d Cavalry
mutinied, and he gave up the treasure to the rebels.
This was the first manifestation of hostility on his
part. A day or two before it was actually projected
to send some of our ladies to Bithoor, that they
might be lodged in safety ! All the European resi-
dents of Cawnpore, except the officers of the 53d
N. 1., were in the entrenched buildings several days
before the actual outburst. Here, again, Mrs. Mu-
,— ;s made to represent the facts erroneously. Is
it some name.:_. -es-yrnident of the Indian.
Em-
pire, or Mrs. Murray—whoge.kiioWiedge artil-
f
ery is so profound as to lead to the conclusion that
shells did no harm, because they were only filled
with powder ! These shells cut off numbers of our
poor comrades; though Mrs. Murray is made 'to
say that very few, were killed in the entrenchments,
and only one or two by shells. So far is this from
being the case that we lest 250 men in the entrench-
ment in 22 days, and a large number of these were -
killed by shells ; certainly as many as a dozen on
one fatal day that I remember.
Not one of our killed was sewn in a bag (as it is
stated) previously to interment ; we had neither
materials nor time for such labour. At nightfall
each day the slain were - buried as decently as cir-
cumstances would permit. Alas! it was little more
we could do than place them under ground.
The statement that little children were, sent to
draw water is an invention ; this task was always
performed by volunteers, and some of our privates
of the European regiments made a trade of it,
charging so much per bucket.
The sally said to have been contrived by consul-
tation among the troops was an orderly assault upon
the batteries of the besiegers, headed by Captain
Moore, 32d Foot, with the full consent of General
Wheeler. No retreat was sounded, and they re-
turned in due order when their work was done, and
not before. It was as cool a thing as was ever seen
in war, deserving of very different comment from
that in the narrative in the Indian Empire. "Not
more than 30 soldiers were killed in the garrison,"
says Mrs. Murray. The whole of the artillerymen
at the station, 59 in number, were killed at their
guns, except four or five, who survived till the em-
barkation. Our force of European troops at the
time of the outbreak consisted of 59 artillerymen,
75 of the 32d Regt. (invalids), 15 of the Ist Madras
Fusileers, and about 50 of the 84th Foot—about
200 in all. lam sure that 100 of these fell during
the siege.
Mrs. Murray is represented as saying that, to the
best of her knowledge there were lots of provisions _
in the garrison, and insinuates that Gen. Wheeler
might have held out a fortnight longer. Yet I know
that two persons died of starvation ; a horse was
greedily devoured, and some of my men were
glad to feed upon a dog Our daily supply of
provisions for 22 days consisted of half a pint of
pea soup and two or three chupatties (or cakes
made of flour), these last being together about the ,
size of an Abernethy biscuit. Upon this diet,
which was served to all without distinction—
officers and privates, civilians and soldiers—tha
garrison was reduced to a company of spectres long
before the period .of capitulation, and when this
took place there were only four days' rations, at the
above rate of supply, in stock.
I do not believe that General Wheeler manifested
the slightest desire to capitulate. I know that he
opposed it heartily, and only succumbed upon the
strong representations of the second in com-
mand, an officer exemplary for his courage—the
very life sinews of our beleaguered band, but wholly
inexperienced in native character. The younger
officers were at the time advocates for resistance to
the last ; but, looking back calmly upon all the
perils of these never-to-be-forgotten days, and
considering that which I am sure mainly in-
fluenced the decision—viz., the horrible exposure
of multitudes of women and children—l much
doubt whether the slightest censure should
rest upon either of my senior officers for the steps
taken. They were all brave men, and I should be
most unworthy of the preservation so wonderfully
extended to me if I did not retrieve their memory
from undeserved reproach. During tire whole
period of our straits in the entrenchment there was
not one instance of dejection through cowardice.
The very children seemed inspired with heroic
patience, and our women behaved with a fortitude
that only Englishwomen could have shown.
There are other statements equally erroneous in
this most injurious publication, 'Which, compara-
tively harmless in the pages of the Indian Empire*
has acquired world-wide celebrity by transfer.
I cannot prolong my refutation, lest it should
be excluded from your columns. I hope ere
long, in an account of my escapes and experiences
at Cawnpore, to be able to set at rest all doubts that
may have been raised touching the honour of my
much-lamented companions, and to assure survivors
in England that their grief need not be embittered
by the suspicion of incompetency or ill-conduct on
the part of any engaged in a scene that will not soon
cease to be talked and thought of in our fatherland.