The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-19 00:00:00

NEW MEMBERS OP PARLIAMENT.

Although only three months and three or four
days will have elapsed between the last session of
Parliament and that which is to commence on
Thursday, Dec. 3, there are several new members
to be introduced into both houses, and three seats
will still be vacant when Parliament reassembles.
Five new Petra will take their seats in the House
of Lords, all on the Ministerial side, namely Vis-
count Milton, late M.P. for Wicklow, who has be-
come the Earl Fitzwilliam ; Lord Robert Grosve-
nor, late M.P. for Middlesex, who has become
Baron Ebury ; the Right Hon. Thos. Babingron
Macaulay, who has become Baron Macaulay ; Lord
Cardross, who has become the E irl of Buchan,
in the room of the late Earl of Buchan, deceased ;
and the Earl of Fife, who has become an English
Peer with the title of Baron Skene.
Four new members will be entitled to take their
seats in the House of Commons, namely—Mr. John
Bright, who was elected member for Birmingham,
in the room of the late Mr. Muntz, a few days
before the expiration of the last session, but
who has not yet been introduced ; the Hon.
George Byn,,,r, who has been elected member for
the county of Middlesex, in the room of Lord R.
Grovenor, who goes to the House of Lords as Baron
Ebury ; Mr. Arthur Russell who has been elected
member for Tavistock, in the room of Mr. Byng,
returned for Middlesex ; and Mr. Wm. Jonnson
Pox, who has been returned for the borough of
Oldham, in the place of Mr. Platt, deceased.
Three seats are etal vacant, and cannot be
filled
up before the meeting of Parliament, the Speaker
not having in time issued the necessary warrants,
namely, Wicklow, in the room of Viscount Milton,
who has become the Earl Fitzwilliam; Harwich,
in the room of Major Warburton, deceased ; and
Paisley, in the room of Mr. Archibald nestle, de-
, ceased.

FATAL EXPLOSION.—A fatal explosion took place
yesterday morning, shortly after 11 o'clock, at the
Equitable Gas Light Company's works, Thames Bank,
killieg one man and seriously injuring another. The
man killed was at work upon a gas purifier, when it
exploded with a tremendous report, causing much con-
sternation in the neighbourhood of Thames Bank and
Pimlico.
PEMBROKE DOCKYARD.—The Gannet, 10 guns, screw
steam sloop, is to be launched on the 2d of December ;
she is in a very forward state. The Assistant-Direetor
of Works has visited Pembroke dockyard with the view
of learning the amount to be taken in the next estimates
for new works. The report is again revived of an ex-
tension of the sea frontage of this establishment, and
there is ample space for this both to the east and west.
The present anchorage ground of the Amphitrite, 26
guns, being inconvenient for navigation, is to be change',
and moorings are to be laid down in a more suitable
spot. Practice firing at a target still continues for the
coast guard, during which a red flag is hoisted. When
a vessel wishes to cross the line of fire the flag is
dropped and firing ceases, and cely commences when
the ship has crossed and the flag is rehoisted.

We find that the statement which appeared in
these columns yesterday respecting th' rec tstiog of
this bell is incorrect in several•respects. In mat-
ters of this kind, of course, we have to depend on
information which sometimes turns out to be merely
premature gossip, and sometimes more than pre-
mature. We have now authentic information( that
until the evening before that paragraph appeared
nothing had been settled about the recasting of the
bell. Professor Faraday never was a commissioner
respecting it, having stated that he had paid no at-'
tention to the subject of bellfounding. Professor
Wheatstone, though nominated in the first instance
with Mr. Denison and the Rev. W. Taylor, never
acted ; the bell will not be recast by Messrs. War-
ner, and it will not be of the same dimensions as
before. Some new light has been thrown upon the
cause of the fracture within the last few days, which
is not without bearieg on the other proceeding:::
Mr. Denison told the First Commissioner of Works
immediately after the accident --that he had no
doubt, from a comparision of the weight of the bell
with the others subsequently cast from the patterns,
that it would be found to be much thicker in the
middle or waist than it ought to have beau accord-
ing to his drawings, and that this undue thickness
was the reason why such a heavy clapper had been
required to bring out the full sound ; and that the
bell had been broken by ringing it with such a
clapper, which the sound-bow, or striking part of
the bell, was not calculated to bear. It Ilas, been
steed before that the bell was generally thicker
than Mr. Denison intended, and two tons heavier,
and half a note higher ; but it was supposed at
first, from measuring the sound bow and the top,
that the thickness had only increased pro-
portionately throughout, and only to an extent
which would have done no harm. In order to test
the accuracy of this new hypothesis in the most
certain way some holes have now been bored through
the waist of the bell, and it is found to be no less
than 5k inches thick where Mr. Denison's design
prescribed only 4i. This at once accounts for the
fracture—at least in the opinion of both the re-
ferees, as stated to Sir B. Hall—by accounting
for the unusually large clapper which was re-
quired, more especially as the fourth quarter bell,
which is nearly as large as the great belle of Lin-
coln and St. Paul's, and is cast according to the
prescribed pattern, and comes out the intended
weight and note, sounds freely under a compara-
tively small hammer.
So much fnr the death of Big Ben. The reason
why his former creators are not to have the reputa-
tion of bringing him to life again is simply that
they asked a price for doing so which was thought
unreasonable, even without regard. to the circum-
stance above stated. It was therefore determined
to receive other tenders, and the result is that Mr.
Mears's tender is accepted, who offers to recast the
bell in three months, on the same conditions as to
inspection and certificates and analysis as on the
former occasion, and at:a price which will probably
not much exceed 6001., as the weight of the bell will
now be reduced to what was originally intended,
and the diameter to 9 feet, in order to reproduce
the same note with the thickness reduced to the
proper amount. It may be added that the cost of
the bells, even with this extra expense, will nut ex-
ceed the sun already 'voted by Parliament for them,
as the work had thus far been done considerably
within the estimate. It is most fortunate that the
bell was rung frequently before it went up, as this
accident would have been a very much more serious
affair, both in cost and disappointment, if it had
happened after the bell was up and the clock fixed
under it and over the shaft up which the bell must

- There was a slight inaccuracy in our longer notice
yesterday of the clock tower and clock. The de-
scription of the clock there referred to is not given
in the second edition of the "Encyclopaedia Bri-
tannica" itself, but in two of Mr. Denison's articles
therein lately republished under the title of " Clocks
and Locks," from which our information was in a
great measure derived. It is expected, moreover,
that the new bell, requiring a smaller hammer, will
save the necessity of winding the clock by water,
as there described. If so, the fracture of the old
one will have been a very profitable accident.—
,
, Times.