The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-31 00:00:00

T.HE VOLUIVTBER MOVEMENT.

The first annual meeting of the St. John's division
of the Queen's (Westminster ) Volunteers was held
at the Schoolrooms, Horseferry-road, on Tuesday
evening; Mr. J. C. Wood in the chair. After the

1-1-niVilninaries, the hon. secretary (Mr. Jebb)
read the report. The chairman stated that their
expenses had been necessarily very heavy in that the
first year of their existence; so heavy, indeed, that
they had been left with a balance of only £97 in
hand. He trusted therefore that -those parishioners
who could not join the ranks of the division would
subscribe towards their expenses. The report and
accounts were received and adopted.

On Monday evening the members of Lord Truro's
Metropolitan Light Cavalry assembled at the Wel-
lington Barracks.in strong force. Notwithstanding
the short time which Lord Truro has been agitating
the formation of troops of cavalry for the metropolis,
the number of applications for enrolment has been
very great. The corps possesses many aelvantages,
the uniform being very smart and economical, con.
sistent with comfort. The horse appointments by
Messrs. Gibson, of New Coventry-street, are of a
novel and light description, the difference in weight
between the horse appointments of the Metropolitan
Light Cavalry and the regular Dragoons being 161 b.
The Volunteers having gone through a variety of
evolutions in a creditable manner, were dismissed to
their respective quarters.

Her Majesty has been pleased to accept the ser-
vices of a body of Volunteers raised at Downton as
a subdivision of the Ist Wilts (Salisbury) Corps,.
and the names of the officers are shortly to be ga-
zetted. The ladies of the city of Salisbury and
neighbourhood are about to present the corps with
a handsome silver bugle. It is arranged that the
presentation shall take place on Wednesday next,
the 6th of February. In the evening there is to be
a grand Volunteer Ball at the Assembly-rooms,
under the immediate patronage of Lieutenant-
General Buckley, M.P., Mr. H. M. Marsh, M.P.,
the Mayor of Salisbury, Captain Sir F. H. H.
Bathurst, Lieutenant Earl Nelson, and Cornet W.
E. Matcham, of the Salisbury Troop of Yeomanry
Cavalry ; and Captain Commandant J. H. Jacob,
and the rest of the officers of the lst Wilts Rifle
Volunteers.

THE .RISCA COLLIERY _EXPLOSION.

RISCA, WEDNESDAY.
The inquiry was resumed to-day, Mr. Llewellyn
appearing for the Risca Coal and Iron Company ;
Mr. Owen for the friends of some of the deceased;
and Mr. Brough and Mr.. Evans, Government
inspectors, to watch proceedings and- assist the
coroner.

Mr. Harrison, chief viewer, or under-ground
manager of the Risca Coal and Iron Company, wes
recalled and examined at considerable length. In
reply to the coroner, he repeated his former decla-
ration, that he consieered the system of ventilation
1-y machinery adopted at the Black Vein Pit suffi-
cient for its purpose under all ordinary circum-
stances, and that no system of ventilation could pre-
vent an explosion if a blower of extraordinary mag-
nitude came off suddenly, and the' gas came by any
means in contact with the naked flame of a lamp.
He expressed an opinion that on Dec. 1 there was
a series of explosions, the first being the result of a
blower, and setting free various accumulations of
gas by falls of coal from the roof, the whole of
which fired in immediate succession. With regard
to the ventilation of " yobs," of old workings—a
question which had been frequently referred tQ
before—he asserted it to be impracticable, and that
it existed nowhere in the world.

In reply to Mr. Brough, the witness went on to
say that the use of powder for blasting in the mine
was sometimes an absolute necessity. He contra-
dicted statements made by various witnesses as to the
continued accumulations of large quantities of gas in
different parts of the pit, and said he never allowed
a man to work where gas collected, if he knew of
it 3 existence. Witness asked why he did not attempt
to aid the ventilation by a supplementary furnace
in the Hill Pit ; he replied that the power of the
ventilator would have drawn out the fire from the
furnace, and so rendered it worse than useless,. and
when Mr. Brough gave it as his own impression
that the number of firemen was insufficient for the
service of the pit he affirmed that no fireman con-
nected with the pit had a district which he could
not easily traverse in four hours. With regard to
an admission by Derrick, one of the night firemen,
that he had often found men asleep when going his
rounds, and had left them so, Mr. Harrison charac-
terised Derrick's conduct as highly censurable and
likely to lead to danger. He knew nothing, he
said, of an attempt to prevent the men belonging
to the Black Vein from applying to Mr. Brough,
nor in fact of any other complaint having ever been
made by the men than they had too much air. He
explained various points of detail connected wit h
the management of the colliery, and, in reply to
Evans, he broadly asserted that the men during
the four years he had been there had never once
asked to be allowed to go round and examine the
pit. Examined by Mr. Llewellen, he said there
was no protection from blowers but good ventila-
tion and the safety lamp ; and he added that with
proper care a man might escape, however large. the
quantity of gas coming off, since if he put 1'..48.1.gtn,P
quietly under his jacket it would go out of itself,
and the gas would not explode.
A long and minute cross-examination
Mr.
from the
witness (for Mr. Owen) elicited nothing _
nal evidence.
witness in addition to orcopnt, asradi hadcti bfee his on oisroerclemigii
On re-examination by /Ifr. Llewellen the witness
said the sinking of anew it
mended by Mr. Brough, would involve the laying
out of a new colliery altogether, and that, although
it would increase the ventilation, the large area of
new workings that would be opened up would absorb
k
the additional supply of air, and leave the existing
workings
ingtos
ventilation. The new pit,
pretty much in their present state with
regard
it was men-
tioned incidentally, would cost £30,000, but would
very much facilitate the production of coal.
Edward Rowbotham, surgeon, was the next wit-
ness examined, and gave evidence as to the causes
of death of the poor fellows killed by the explosion,
deposing that some were burnt and some smashed,
but the majority died from after-damp.
The inquiry was proceeding when our pared
was despatched.

THE NFW PRESIDENT OF AMERICA.—He stands
six feet four, it is said, in his stockings. His head is Nvbll
set upon his shoulders, and would be a pleasing study fora
phrenologist. His black hair, thin and wiry, is sprinkled
hero and there with gray. His forehead is good, his eyes
dark gray, and when lit up with emotion, small as they are,
flash forth the fire that lives in his soul. His nose is long
and slightly aquiline, and his nostrils are cut on that vett-

liar model which Napoleon praised in his favourite generals.
ais complexion is that of an octoroon; his face is cut into
innumerable angles, and in each there seems to lurk the
genius of humour. But his mouth is described as the most
expressive of his features, though somewhat inclined tot
coarseness ; and his smile is winning from its frankness
and sincerity. his frame is gaunt, his arms long, and his
lower limbs proportioned to his gigantic height. llis step
is firm but slow ; and in walking he inclines his head for-
ward, whilst his hands are clasped behind his back. As a
speaker he exhibits readiness, preciseness, and fluency of
ideas rather Ilan of language, for his enunciation is for the
most p
a seriousnessrtslowa or convulsesndemphatic; thandehm witheimp raresseerrhns hisel;leta
withrers
,
cording to the requirements of the occasion.

THE WEATHER.—Sux OFFICE, Jaw. 31, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
45—highest since noon yesterday.
41—lowest this morning and during the night.
47—this day at noon.

•
-
BAROMETER-30.20.
WIND—South-Westerly—light; with very fine weather.

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THE SUN•
LONDON, THURSDAY, JAN. 31, 1881.

Hungary wants to possess now what she pos-
sessed once—an independent Government. She is
desirous of assuming to herself again that entirely
separate political existence which she enjoyed un-
interraptedly during very nearly two hundred
years prior to the: formal definition of her rights
by what is known in history as the Pragmatic
Sanction ! The significance of that memorable
document lying in the fact that it solemnly and
deliberately confirmed to the Hungarian nation the
various rights and privileges then belonging to it—
all those various rights and privileges which had
for two centuries previously, under the House
of HAPSBURG, appertained to the Hungarians.
The Pragmatic Sanction, in effect, was no other
than a sacred compact entered into between the
dynasty of Hapsburg and the people of Hungary.
It abrogated the old salique law in favour of MARL►
THERESA, the daughter and only child of the then
reigning SOVEREIGN—a potentate having two
designations in the annals of Europe (like our own
JAMESVI. of Scotland and JAMES I. of England)—
being at once the Emperor CHARLES VI. of Austria
and King CHARLES 111. of Hungary. As a mag-
nificent and magnanimous concession to his Im-
perial and Royal MAJESTY, the Hungarian people,
as we have intimated, waived in favour of his
MAJESTY'S only child, the then Princess or Arch-
duchess MARIA THERESA, that old ungallant
salique law which must otherwise have altered
the succession to the diadem of St. STEPHEN.
'rhe Hungarians, chivalrously setting aside the
'salique law in favour of that young and beautiful
aspirant to the cluster of crowns worn by the
Princes of the House of HAPSBURG—consented to
do so upon the distinct understanding deliberately
defined in the articles of the famous compact between
Monarch and People known thenceforth as the
Pragmatic Sanction. Fir3t and foremost among the
stipulations there set forth was that one of vital
importance to the Hungarian• race the
stipulation guarnnteeing to the people of
Hungary the continuance of their ancient
right and privilege of a separate and independent
Government. A Government that is wholly apart
from the central Imperial Government of Austria
—the Hungarians regulating their own affairs en-
tirely, without any reference whatever to the remote
administrative system at Vienna, the Magyars them-
selves conducting their own administration. Gradu-
ally, little by little, were all 'these rights and
privileges abstracted from the Hungarians in spite
of their almost immemorial antiquity, in spite of
the solemn agreement and the positive stipulations
of the Pragmatic Sanction aforesaid. The
treachery with which all this was accom- 1
plished by the House of Hapsburg consti•
tutee about the blackest among the many damning
blots upon its escutcheon. As a very able and
sagacious correspondent of our chief morning con-
temporary takes occasion to intimate in one of his
latest communications, the thin end of the wedge
appears to have been inserted in this way at the
time of the establishment in Vienna of that
seemingly innocuous, but really perillous and for-
midable office—the Hungarian Aulic Chancellerie.
At every adverse movement afterwards adven-
tured upon by the faithless and ungrateful dynasty,
the wc:dge was slowly driven home, and the ancient
farrier of separation between the Government of