The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-08 00:00:00

the base of the precipice life and pain ended sud-
denly together. A steep slope of rocks connected
the base of this first precipice with the brow of a
second, but lower one, at the bottom of which the
body of Mr. Fuller was found. Another slope ran
from this point to the summit of another ledge,
where the body of Mr. Rochester was arrested,
while attached to the latter by a rope, and quite
overhanging the ledge, was the body of Mr. Va-
vasour. The body of the guide Tairraz was preci-
pitated much further, and was correspondingly mu-
tilated.

The question has been raised whether it was right
under the circumstances to tie the men together.
In my opinion, it was perfectly right, if only pro-
perly done. But the actual arrangement was this:
—the three Englishmen were attached together
by a rope which was tied firmly round the
waist of each of them • one end of this rope wag
held in the hand of the guide who led the party,
the other end-was similarly held by the hindmost
guide, while Tairraz laid hold of the rope near the
middle. Against this mode of attachment I would
enter my most solemn protest ; in no case ought it
to be permitted. In all probability it was this
which led to the destruction of the unfortunate

Russian gentleman on the Findefen glacier last
year, and to it I believe is to be ascribed in a great
measure the present fearful disaster. Whatever
the attachment may be which is necessary for the
tourist, that attaishwtent the guide ought to share—
their destinies ought to be inseparable. Let me
now show cause for this emphatic protest, basing
myself as Ido so upon the actual facts. At a little

depth below the surface the snow upon the slope in
question is firm and consolidated; but upon this
firmer substratum a superficial layer partly fresh,
and partly disintegrated by the weather, lay to a
depth of eight or ten inches, or perhaps a foot, on
the day of the disaster. By a proper action of the
feet upon such snow its granules may be made to
cement themselves together so as to afford a secure
footing ; but when the foot slips and the body is
thrown prostrate on the slope covered with such
snow the granules act like friction wheels, and the
body shoots downwards almost without resistance.
Suppose a smooth oilcloth to be placed upon a
polished table, and the latter tilted up to form an
angle of 45 degrees with the horizon ; imagine a
boy laid fiat upon the oilcloth, the latter would slide
over the wood, and the boy along with it, as the
loose snow slid over the firm snow in the case be-
fore us. But suppose the boy to be furnished with
a stick armed with a spike of iron at its end, what
ought he to do to check his descent ? He ought to
drive his spike with energy through the oilcloth,
and seek to anchor it firmly in the wood underneath:
And a precisely similar action ought to have been
resorted to on the slope of the Col-du-Geaut. Each
man as he fell ought to have turned
promptly on his face, pie/lied with his baton
the superficial layer of soft snow, and pressed
with both arms the spike of his staff into the
consolidated mass underneath. A break would
thus have been applied sufficient not only to bring
a single man to rest, but, if well done, sufficient, I
believe, to enable any single man to stop himself
and another. I do not lightly express this opinion ;
it is founded on my own experience upon slopes at
least as steep as that here under consideration.
Now, look at the bearing of the mode of attach-
ment above described upon this mode of rescue.
When the rope is fastened round the guide's waist
both his arms are free, and both are needed to drive
the baton into the snow and hold it there by pres-
sure. But, as it was, one arm of each guide was
virtually powerless ; on it the strain of the falling
body in advance was thrown, and, instead of being
free, it was fettered. But this is not all ; when the
attached arm receives the jerk the guide instinc-
tively grasps the rope with the second hand ; but
in doing so he relinquishes his baton, and thus loses
the sheet anchor of salvation. Such was the case
of the foremost and of the hindmost guide on the
fatal day now referred to. The one lost his baton,
the other lost his axe ; thus they became powerless
to render any effectual resistance to others, and pro-
bably had to make expert use of their legs and arms
to save even themselves. Tairraz was in the midst
of the party : whether it was in his power to rescue
himself or not, whether he was caught in the coil
of the rope or laid hold of by one of his companions,
we can never know. Let us believe that he clung
to them loyally, and went with them to death sooner
than desert the post of duty. And such fidelity
the guides of the Alps must be made to regard as
their bounden duty, and that no member of their
fraternity is fit for his vocation who is unwilling to
share the fate of those whose lives are committed
to his charge.
A catastrophe of this kind ought not to be suffered
to be skimmed over by a mere judicial acquittal.
What can an ordinary Government official know of
the power or the duty of a guide under such cir-
cumstances P Cast such an official upon such a slope ;
he will infallibly go to smash, and he naturally con-
cludes that all others must do so in similar circum-
stances. But little weight is to be attached to the
opinion of any man unpractised in such matters, and
who derives his information from the very persons
whose conduct is the subject of investigation. In-
stead, therefore, of imagining that the question has
been set at rest by the publication of a verdict
whereby all concerned are so lightly relieved of
blame, the guides of Chamouni ought to regard this
terrible disaster as a stain upon their order which
it will require years of service faithfully and wisely
rendered to wipe away.—l am, Sir, your obedient
servant, JOHN TYNDALL,
Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, Sept. 7.

THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER AT ROAD.

The excitement occasioned by this mysterious
affair is in no way abated by lapse of time, but the
public appear more anxious than ever that some
means should be taken beyond those already em-
ployed to detect the murderer. Memorials are
being got up in all the towns in the neighbourhood
of Road appealing to Government to grant a Royal
commission. The movement, however, it seems,
will be fruitless, the following letter having been
received by the Mayor of Bath in reply to the me-
morial from that city which was forwarded to the
Home-office, through Mr. Tite, N.P. :

"Whitehall, Sept. 3.
" Sir,—l have received and laid before Sir G. Lewis a
memorial, signed by yourself and many other highly re•.
spectable gentlemen of Bath and its neighbourhood, calling
the attention of the Secretary of State to the murder lately
committed at Road.

'You represent in this statement that the family in
whose house the murder took place may be collectively re-
sponsible for it, but the individuals of which it is composed
have not, in the proceedings which have taken place, been
examined and cross-examined as to their complicity in that
frightful transaction.
" You add that, in your opinion, such an inquiry is neces•
sary for the ends of justice, and you pray Sir G. Lewis to
grant a special commission for the investigation. of the
crime, as the ordinary means have entirely failed.
" I am directed by, Sir G. Lewis to inform you that he is
satisfied, upon deliberate consideration of this matter, that
he would not be justified in advising her Majesty to create
an exceptional and extraordinary tribunal, for the purpose
of interrogating persons suspected of this murder.
" To supersede, in a case of this description, the estab-
lished courts of justice, which are governed by well-known
and carefully defined rules, and to establish by Royal au-
thority in their stead a commission exercising new and arbi-
trary power of examination, unknown to the English law,
would be, in his opinion, highly unconstitutional, and a
departure from the principles upon which this country has
long been governed.
" The doctrine that, in cases of great obscurity and diffi-
culty, like the present, on which the existing law appears
at first to be insufficient, that law is to be strained or alto-
gether superseded, appears to Sir G. Lewis to be of a most
dangerous description.
" The rules which govern our ordinary courts are in-
tended, not only for the detection of guilt, but for the pro-
tection of innocence from unjust accusations, and when the
crime is of so grievous a nature as to excite a strong feeling
of horror and indignation in the public mind, a strict ad-
herence to those rules is absolutely necessary for the fair
and impartial administration of justice.—l am, Sir, your
obedient servant, " H. WAnDrxwrox.
" The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Bath."
It is satisfactory to know, however, that, although
a _Royal commission has been refused, the Govern-
' ment have intimated to the Wiltshire magistrates a
desire that the matter be further inquired into, and
in accordance with the hint given the magistrates
have retained Mr. Slack, of Bath, a solicitor of great
experience in criminal proceedings, to pursue the
investigation, and go into the whole case, beginning
de novo. The whole of the depositions have been
laid before Mr. Slack, who has held a conference
with the magistrates thereon, and has subsequently
had several of the inmates of the house under exa-
mination at his office in Bath. The inquiry is, of
course, strictly private, and at
.present it is impos-
sible to say what the result will b. e, but we have
reason to believe that the public will, ere long, have
the opportunity of hearing what the inmates have
to say about this murder in examination in public
court. If such a course does not lead to a convic-
tion of the guilty party, it will, at least, have the
effect of removing from the public mind many erro-
neous impressions which have sprung out of the
unsatisfactory pr:vate examinations hitherto held.

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