The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-03 00:00:00

'ME SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 3, 1868.

PRUSSIA AND IIALY.

A Paris correspondent of the Cologne Gazette
gives the following account of General La Mar-
mora's conduct before and during the war :
" From the very outset political circles had been
made aware that the war of 1866 was not only
permitted, but perhaps even promoted, by the Em-
peror Napoleon, becouse it might possibly lead
to the aggrandizement of France on the Rhine.
Prussia had certainly refused to accord him that
aggrandizement before the war ; but what she
would not concede of her own accord and in ad-
vance he hoped to be able to exact against her will
a little later. The diplomatic world thought it
extremely probable that Prussia, in the event of a
defeat, would not object to be succoured by
France, and requiting the good service rendered
by the cession of the Rhine. As to Austria, it.
was assumed that she would be satisfied with Sile-
sia, in return for which she was expected to
relinquish Vienna. The less doubt was enter-
tained on this last head, as the cession of this
province had been talked about even before the
beginning of hostilities, the equivalent offered
being money. When the war did commence,
therefore, General La Marmora had good reason
for saying that he was crossing the Mincio with
Venice in his pocket'—an assertion which the
French Foreign-office, speaking by the mouth of
M. Valfrey, has but lately caused to be confirmed
in the most unmistakeable manner in the
Memorial Diplonzatique.
" Napoleon 111. knew and fully approved the
treaty concluded between Prussia and Italy on
April 8, 1866. He had the less hesitation in ex-
pressing himself satisfied with the agreement, as
Prussia otherwise might have desisted from war
at the eleventh hour, in which event the chance of
the Rhenish acquisitions would have been lost to
the Emperor. .La Marmora, as Italian Premier, had
on this, as on every other occasion, not moved an
inch without first inquiring the pleasure of the
Paris authorities. Difficult as it was for Prussia
to manage an ally whose decisions were swayed by
orde?s from abroad, still, if she wishe 1 to profit at
all by the co-operation of Italy, she must accom-
modate herself to circumstances.

" Considering what La Marmora's proceedings
were before the war, and remembering subsequent
events, there can be no doubt Austria, with the
General's knowledge, formally promised to France
to respect Lombardy and the line of the Mincio
even were she victorious in the Quadrilateral. The
equivalent demanded for this concession by Austria
it is not so easy to ascertain ; but what else can
it have been if not the engagement of France to
prevent Italy from cressing the Isonzo should she
succeed in overcoming the enemy? To localize
the war in Italy was the evident desire of
France.

"In its reaction upon Prussia this clearly
amounted to the conclusion of an armistice between
Austria and Italy even before a shot had been
fired. Nay, if Austria had still made up her mind
to cede Venice, she would, with this instrument in
her hands, have been in a position to turn her whole
force against Prussia, without employing a single
man against Italy.
"As soon as Prussia got wind of what was going
on she exerted herself to the utmost to cause Italy
to adopt a more effective plan of war. Except by
La Marmora and his adherents, her representa-
tions were favourably received by the military and
political leaders of Italy. Yet all her endeavours
in-this direction were fruitless. Notwithstanding
what had occurred at the military pour-parlers at
Berlin and Florence, and the Conference held on
June 6 between La Marmora, Count Usedom, and
Colonel Bernhardi, it soon became evident that a
localized war to be carried on within the precincts
of the Quadrilateral had been determined upon by
the Italian Premier. The march on Vienna, as
proposed by the Prussian negotiators, was reacted
as a wild fantasy, the whole conduct of Italy going
to render the only effective alliance at the disposal
of the Berlin Government useless.
"In the middle of June hostilities commenced
in Germany. Italy, too, was preparing for the
contest. But how ? The main force, 120,000
strong, under the King and La Marmora, ap-
proached the Mincio to divert the attention of the
enemy. Cialdiui, who with 70,000 men, was to
open the campaign in earnest, had been ordered to
march due north from Ferrara and attack the
80,000 under the command of Archduke Albrecht.
As to Garibaldi and his volunteers at Bari, they
were, instead of Dalmatia, sent to the hills and
precipices of the Tyrol. Lz Marmora's plan was
then to be preferred definitively to the one urged
by the Berlin Government.

"In this crisis Count Usedom determined to
have recourse to a last means of saving Italy a de-
feat, and preserving to Prussia the effective support
of her ally. lle wrote the note of the 17th of
June, and by giving it a strictly official form made
it incumbent upon the Italian Government to re-
turn as official and binding a reply. In a word, he
essayed to take the matter out of the hands of in-
dividuals and make it a Cabinet business. On the
reception of such a communication as this note, it
would be the duty of General La Marmora, in his
capacity of Premier and Minis'er of Foreign
Affairs; to submit it to the King, the Council of
Ministers, and the Council of War, and to frame
the answer according to their decision.. Were the
Prussian proposition approved by them, he would
have no alternative but to carry it, out ; in the
opposite event, Prussia, at any rate, knew what
she had to expect, and could act accordingly. This
was an ugly dilemma for La Marmora. It was
plainly on the cards that Prussia would regard his
not crossing the Isonzo as tantamount to a breach
of treaty, and in her own negotiations with Austria
leave Italy to shift for herself. In this predica-
ment La Marmora hit upon an expedient which, it
is true, had not entered into Count Usedom's cal-
culations. He suppressed the note, the original of
which remains in his possession to this day. Thus,
he was saved the painful choice between a decided
Yes' or 'No.'
" But it soon became General La Marmora's
turn to be surprised. The disposal of his troops
and the loose and scattered order in which they
were to enter the Quadrilateral had been betrayed
to the enemy. A Tuscan, who was related to an
Italian staff officer, had gone to Trieste and re-
ported all the necessary details to the Austrian
commanders there. From the latter he received a
considerable sum, which, it is said, was subse-
quently even increased by Archduke Albrecht. In
consequence of these disclosures, the Archduke re-
called General Marcovich and his 35,000 men from
the Adige, and, having thus coincentrated his entire
forces at Verona, marched forward. to meet the
Italian army at Custozza.
"In the meantime, La Marmora had been all
but perfectly idle. Ile fondly imagined he should
find the Austrians on thet.other side of the Adige

.—say somewhere near Vicenza ; and to this opinion
he adhered, in spite of all that should have taught
him the contrary. Patriotic countrymen whu, at
the risk of their lives, came to impart intelligence
from the interior of the Quadrilateral he scorn-
fully sent away, vilifying them as rascals and
scoundrels. The Venetian National Committee
sent him written information of the approach of
the Austrians ; he contemptuously refused to be
guided by it. Exactly the same behaviour was
displayed by the commander of another corps, who
received the same news from the National Com-
mittee at Verona. With equal obstinacy, the
General declined to make any change in the scat-
tered disposition of his troops, much as he was
warned against continuing in a loose and straggling
order of march. On the morning of the battle,
reconnoitring and other military precautions were
suspended by the General's own order, so that the
troops were actually cooking their dinner at the
moment the Austrian cavalry was bearing down
upon them. Each of the attacked divisions had
to fight as best it could. None knew what had
become of the others, nor were they provided with
any instructions for such an emergency. It was
' confusion worse confounded.'

" It is easy to say that in such a case the retreat
ought to have been sounded, and the troops with-
drawn to be concentrated in the rear, preparatory
to a fresh attack. It requires particularly well-

disciplined troops to carry out such a movement
without its leading to flight, even when the dis-
tances between the various corps are not so great
as they were in the present instance. Orders,
moreover, for this movement must have been de-
vised and written down on horseback a task
which the General, unsuprlied by his staff, which
had been left in Cerlungo, a long way off, was
altogether unequal to. Instead of taking his stand
on one particular spot, as is the duty of a com-
mander-in-chief, he hurried from one division to
the other, placing one of them, I am told, with its
back to the enemy. The precipitation with which
he took his measures, and the desire to attend to
every detail himself, caused• him to neglect the
supervision of the whole. Adjutants and orderlies
were galloping over miles and miles of country to
make reports or to ask for orders and succours
without meeting with the General. Those that
did chance to fall in with him found it impractic-
able to extract anything) definite. from the Com-
mander-in-Chief.

"Towards noon the General left the battle-field
for Goito. But where is Goito ? Was it a rendez-
vous a quarter of an hour to the rear, the usual
distance in such cases ? Nothing of the kind.
Goito is the well-known place on the Mincio, which
one of his corps had passed but the day before.
From the battle-field the place is full twenty-two
kilometres distant. What could be the meaning
of this impromptu ride ? In his report the General
says that he intended to secure Goito in the event
of a retreat. But, at twenty-two kilometres in the
rear of the Italian army, the passage of the river
could not be possibly menaced by the enemy.
Thanks, moreover, to the wide tract of land over
which the troops were spread, Goito was not left
without a force sufficient to repulse attack. But
perhaps the General went there to fetch reinforce-
ments? But these could not reach Custozza before
nightfall, and an ordinary officer would for such
a purpose have done as well. And why did not
the General return to the battle-field after a lapse
of time sufficient for this task ? Why did he leave
the army five long hours without orders from, alai
any substitute for, the Commander-in-Chief ?
Why did he tarry at Goito, listening to the dis-
tant cannonade in despair, and proving himself
utterly unequal to the emergency, however brave
and respectable he may be ? It is certain that it
could not have been the balls of the enemy, nor the
defeat nor flight of his troops —for things did not
reach such a pass—that drove the General from
the battle-field. What scared him away was the
hail-storm of reports, entreaties, and queries to
which he had no answers to give.
" As to whose fault it was that the army re-
mained a fortnight quietly encamped on the Po and
the Oglio is a question still being discussed in the
pamphlet war which has broken out between Cial-
dini and La Marmora. We shall not be far wrong
in ascribing the inactivity of the Italian forces to
the confusion then prevailing among the general
officers in the camp."

211 E ACCIDENT TO THE IRISH MALL
7RAIN.

ABERGELE, Wednesday.

Joseph Henry Eaton, son of the station-master,
said he was thirteen years old last birthday. lie
worked the signals under his father's orders, and
never by himself. On Thursday, the 20th of last
month, he put up the distance signal, towards
Abergele, which signal is within sight of the station
of Llanddulas, and stood at danger when ho put it
up with the angle. Ile put up the same semaphore
to show danger, in the same way as the distance
signal ; and he was quite sure that both these
signals were up during the time the goods train was
at Llanddulas. He saw the whole operation of
shunting as described in the evidence of the driver,
Alfred Sara. lie was confused in his memory as to
the waggons, but was certain there was a break
van. Ile did not know what "fly-shunting" meant,
but he saw some waggons shoved down the main
line. How many there were, and whether they
were loaded or not, he did not know. Both guards
were there, but he could not tell which of them un-
locked the waggons. It was he, the witness, who
turned the points, by direction of his father. The
want of observation and general intelligence in
this witness was shown in the fact that he had no
idea whether the waggons were running down
hill, when they did run. He was the very re-
verse of a sharp lad, and did not know which of
the breaksmen ran after the waggons, or whethei
they were waggons in the plural number or
duly one waggon, or whether the shunting was
going on in the siding when this thing happened to
the waggons or waggon, or what he saw last. He
did not see anything of the accident, nor had he
any valuable impression about it. To Mr Edwardes-
Wood the witness said he did not know when his
last birthday was. When his father was giving out
tickets he attended to the points, working both
signals.thaermdsa_cnodnttrhaedicted;and
it was This statement he of te r-
wpointed out by Mr.
Littler that the first assertion made in reply was
obviously a mistake. The boy said he remembered
seeing Mr. Edwardes-Wood last week. " We had
a long conversation, I think," said Mr. Wood, and
the counsel for the company laughingly said that
this avowal might have been anticipated. The boy
assented when asked whether he had seen trucks
"on a previous occasion" run down the line; but
after long boggling it came out that he meant the
same occasion, and no other. 66 He told me diffe-
rent," said Mr. Wood ; and the remark led, by the
" he said something and he said something" pro-
cess, to a most unseemly altercation, which
was only stopped by the commanding tones
of an inspector of police, who, looking
down from his elevation on the table at which
"Silence,
se e lawyersnce with a loud voice,
,
put here to keep order,
and 'I must keep it." There was a little mirth at
,ge gentlemen
this official rebuke, and all went smoothly after-
wards, for a time at least. The lad Joseph Henry
Eaton presently distinguished himself by saying,
in answer to Mr. Littler, and after a deal of cogita-
tion, that he did not know on which line of rails the
engine went down to bring up the,breaks, or whe-
ther it went down on the same line of rails, but
that it fetched them back. Though the boy told
very little, and was evidently too stupid or fright-
ened to tell more, his evidence took up a long time,
as he was wonderfully slow with his answers. lie
had proved, however, that the signals were up, and
this, Colonel Rich said, was enough to clear the
station-master from any charge of negligence. It
would be highly desirable, the Government inspec-
tor thought, to have the evidence of this man, and
really there was no apparent danger of incriminat-
ing him by examination. Mr. Littler said he
thought Eaton should consult a solicitor, and con-
curred promptly in the suggestion of Mr. Ed-
wardes-Wood thatithe solicitor advising the man
should be independent of the company.
The question whether two gentlemen who had
come a long way, and at some personal inconve-
nience, to give evidence, should now be examined,
so that they might be able to leave AbergelJ the
same evening, or whether Mr. Elwardes-Wood's
urgent wish that the inquiry might proceed
" seriatim, according to the chapter of accidents,"
should rule the order of proceedings, was
now discussed. The opinion of the Court was that
there would be no serious departure from strict rule
if Mr. Kennelly and Mr. Charles Uniacke Towns-
end were allowed to proceed with their testimony ;
but Mr. Edwardes-Wood said he had a witness to
produce whose evidence would be found to be of a
most important character, and though he must be
excused saying exactly what it was, he would pledge
his professional reputation and respectability to the
assertion that he should not be taking up valuable
time save with an examination that would throw
entirely fresh light on the matter. Yielding with a
good grace, the Court gave orders that Thomas
Davis, a platelayer in the company's service, should
be called. The first few questions put by the As-
sessor to Thomas Davis elicited nothing of the least
importance with regard to the accident, which the
man had not seen, being at work on a " length"
somewhere between Llanddulas station and Penn-
men Rhos tunnel, which is the other way from
Abergele. All that Davis had been able to observe
i was that the signals were at danger for both lines,

as they should have been at the time. Mr. El-
wardes-Wood then took the witness in hand, but
was so manifestly puzzled and disappointed with
him as to ask, " Are you not the man who carried
my coat down the line the other day ?" There
was a titter round the table when this question
was put, and when the man said " Yes ;" but
there was a downright guffaw that shook
the room when, in answer to the next
question by Mr. Edwardes-Wood, "Do you not
remember about a twelvemonth ago that some
trucks ran down this same incline ?" the witness
said, " Why, as nearly ar I can say, to speak
English, that is the very thing this gentle-
man told me, and I knew nothing of it till 1 heard
it from him." Colonel Rich here interposed. He
was in attendance, he said, on behalf of the Go-
vernment, to assist the Court in eliciting from wit-
nesses such facts as would tend to the elucidation
of the recent lamentable occurrence. Really the
time of the Court was being taken up with very
needless matter. The witness, from whom so much
was expected, had told nothing. Mr. Edwardes-
Wood said there had been " misapprehension ;" and
thai; his long experience had taught him how diffe-
rent a man's story might be when told out of court
and when repeated on oath. But, said Col. Rich,
if the witness could even have said that something
happened a year ago, it would have been irrelevant
to the present inquiry. "Is it not a principle of
mathematics, sir," asked Mr. Edwardes-Wood,
" that what has once happened may happen again?"
The Government inspector, though aman of science
and an engineer officer, refrained from giving the
obvious reply that this would be :rather a prin-
ciple of the "chapter of accidents" than of mathe-
matics. Once more the question was debated whe-
ther Mr. Townsend and Mr. Kennelly should now
be examined, or whether Mr. Edwardes-Wood's
next witness, Dicken, the husband of the woman
whose evidence first unsettled the theory of instan-
taneous death in the cases of all the victims, should
be called. This time the Court was firm in the de-
termination to take the responsibility of going a
little out of the regular course, in order that two
independent witnesses might give their evidence ;
though, after all, it was found possible to examine
only one of them. This one was was Mr. Kennelly,
who described himself as being of no stated occu-
pation, but at present a commissioner taking evi-
dence for Lloyd's Salvage Association. He said, in
answer to Mr. Edwardes-Wood, that his last place of
residence was 19, Eldon-crescent, London, but that
his family were now staying in Jersey. His story
of the accident was as follows :—" I was a passen-
ger in the down Irish mail train from London to
Holyhead. I had a through ticket to Cork and
Killarney. I was in the first or second carriage pre-
ceding the break van at the tail end, in the last
compartment, with my face towards the engine,
sitting close to the window on the right hand, or
six-foot, side. 1 left Chester with the train, and 1
do not remember that it stopped at any place before
reaching the scene of the accident. I think not. I
may say lam positive it did not. I felt a collision,
which threw me to the floor of the carriage. There
was one other passenger in the same compartment
with me,. 0.1 being thrown down I felt a slight
rebound of the train. 1 sprang up immediately and
found my companion looking up in my face. I put
my head out of the window—that was the right-
hand window, on the six-foot side—and saw an in-
tense flame and smoke in front of me, looking
towards the engine. I dropped out through the
window, without trying whether the door was un-
locked or not. Ido not suppose that five seconds
could have elapsed before I was out, after having
seen what I have described ; nor three seconds
before I had put out my head after feeling the colli-
sion. I ran forward on the six-foot for the dis-
tance of about one or two carriages. I saw a lady
looking out of the window of one of those carriages.
She seemed alarmed. I jumped upon the footboard
and tried to dispel her alarm, and told her I would
lift her through the window. I put my arm round
her, and lifted her on the six-foot. I then ran for-
ward to the headof train until stopped by the flame.
That was in the rear of the mail van. I ran to the
couplings, and, on endeavouring to disconnect the
, carriage next the van, found I was unable to do so.
There seemed to be a great strain on the irons, and I
called to somegentlemen on the other side of the train,
whom I supposed to be passengers, and who did not
move at my call. They had evidently just escaped
from the train, and looked pale and alarmed. I
could not see the engine or anything behind it for
the flame and smoke. When they had to a certain
extent subsided, I saw that about four or five car-
riages—all, in fact, that constituted the front part
of the train, had been on fire. I stayed on the scene
of the accident till the train arrived from Abergele,
and took all the passengers back from the after-part
of the mail train. This was about twenty minutes
or half an hour, during five minutes of which I was

in the mail-van." To Mr. Edwardes-Wood the
witness said, " I saw a countrywoman, about forty
or forty-five years of age, with a pail of water in
her hand." It was Mrs. Dicken, obviously, to whom
the solicitor's question referred, and the subsequent
answer of Mr. Kennelly tended to show that the
woman could not possibly have spoken to a living
soul in the front carriages after the collision, con-
sequent on which was the instantaneous outbreak of
flame. The witness said that he was morally sure
that nothing could have lived many seconds in any
of the carriages in the fore-part of the train.
Sharply cross-examined by Mr. Edwardes-Wood,
the witness adhered to all that he had stated. One
additional point was gained. Mr. Kennelly did not
think there had been an actual explosion when the
engine struck the oil-waggons ; or, at least, he gave
the answer " No" to the scientific query, " Did you
hear any combustion when this quantity of oil was
volatilised ?"

The court was not adjourned quite so early yes-
terday, as the jury had been promised it should be,
and whether they got to Rhyl or not in market time
is doubtful. To-day they re-assembled at half-
past ten o'clock in the Town Hall, the windows of
which municipal building are, at that end which is
dignified by the present inquiry, fixtures. The
warmest day -we have had since the long run of very
warm days has been oppressively felt in this un-
ventilated chamber. Handkerchiefs were in gene-
ral use, to cover the heads of those persons on the
platform sitting under the southern glare of the
sun. On taking his seat the coroner said he had
received several letters relating to the evidence of
Mrs Dicken; and he thought it was of the greatest
importance that her husband should be examined,
if he had anything to say in corroboration of his
wife's statement. In an early stage of the proceed-
ings Mr. Littler said the company had ascertained
the fact that four years ago some waggons had run
down the incline at Llysfaen, and had been brought
back by an engine. If it was considered necessary
that evidence on the point should be given it would
be forthcoming. Colonel Rich said that if this had
happened one year ago instead of four years, he
should not think it a matter bearing on the present
case.

Mr. Charles Uniacke Townsend, of Burlington-
road, Dublin, said he was a passenger by the Irish
mail on Thursday, the 20th of August, and was in
the London part of the train, about the third car-
riage from the mail van that was saved. " I was
sitting," he said, " with my face towards the en-
gine. My brother was on my left and my wife was
facing him. I occupied the centre seat, and was
thrown forward by a collision against my sister-
in-law, who was sitting opposite. I re-
covered myself, having felt so little from the
shock that I thought it was not over. I heard,
for less than half a minute, a dull grating
sound underneath. I looked out of the window on
the land side not more than 20 seconds or half a
minute after the collision, and saw a dense black
smoke about the front part of the train. Flame was
showing throagli the cloud in flickers. I opened the
carriage door on the laud side—it was unlocked—
and I got out. My brother lifted out the ladies,
and we saw the ladies to a place of safety in the
rear. After this I came back, and we found three
people locked in a second-class carriage, the last
compartment of a mixed carriage, next the mail van.
A little girl was calling out that they would be lost;
that her father was paralysed, and would nobody
release him ? The guard was passing down from the
burning part of the mail van, with a key in his

hand. I told him to unlock that door ; this was
about four minutes after the collision ; and the
guard put his hand to his head, and seemed quite
incapable of doing anything. I took the key from
his hand, and unlocked the door, which was, I am
quite positive, locked. The passengers then got out ;
and a gentleman on my right took the key fro►n me,
as I understood, to unlock another door, but I did
not see him do so. I saw other doors opened by
passengers from the inside; and my impression is
that all the doors with the exception of the one I
myself opened were unlocked. I cannot describe
the gentleman who took the key from me. I heard
no other passengers asking to be released. There
were three persons in the compartment I opened,
and they were apparently all of one party. I
don't know their names, but I conversed
with them afterwards. The smoke was what
I especially observed in front of the mail van.
It was the blackest smoke I ever sm. 1 could
not see beyond the ead of the front mail van. I
remained at the scene of the accident till the train
came to fetch the passengers back to Abergele.
This was about half an hour. The fire was raging
fiercely when I was at the mail van, cutting thE
leathers. I could not see what was on fire in front
of the mail van, but when it was attached I crossed
over to the six-foot, and saw a barrel of the burn-
ing oil close to whatever was in front of the van.
The wind was blowing obliquely acrosethe line from
the sea. I heard no living sound, nor do I believe
that anything could have lived in the fore part of
the train. I saw a woman below the line looking
towards the sea when I was going to help in bring-
ing up water. There was no actual explosion that
I saw." In answer to the jury, the witness said
that the handle of the door he opened had been
turned, as if there had been an attempt to open it
without unlocking. Mr. Edwardes-Wood cross-
examined the witness, interrogating him first as to
the lapses of time in these occurrences. In answer
to subsequent questions, Mr. Townsend said the
flame was low down, and went underneath the car-
riages. He had been on the six-foot side before
going there to assist in cutting the leather of the
mail van. He had taken his wife to that side, on
first getting out of the train, and had left her at the
top of the bridge which goes under the line, return-
ing to the side at which he got out. "I had to lift
out the gentleman who was a cripple," the witness
said, " and I am quite sure it was from the car-
riage next to the mail van. It did not take me
a minute to get out the party of three,
and I placed them opposite the door by
which they had left the carriage." " Did you
think they were then safe from the flames ?" asked
Mr. Wood. " Yes, if they went away directly" was

the answer. Mr. Littler asked the witness if he
could have got in front of the mail van, even at the
earliest time he saw it, and the answer was " No."
Mr. Townsend said he looked up abng the train on
the six-foot, at the same time he placed his wife i❑
a place of safety, and he saw no oue on that side.
The gentleman he lifted out had grey hair and
whiskers, and had a fresh complexion and full face
—he thought an Irish face. " Was the third oc-
cupant of the carriage a lady ?" askel the counsel,
and the witness replied in the affirmative. In
answer to the jury, Mr. Townsend said it was about

nine minutes after the collision that he saw a
woman in the cottage below the line. She was the
same woman who had helped to fetch up water.
Samuel Eaton, the station-master at Llanddulas,
having taken the advice of Mr. Davis, a solicitor
in attendance, offered himself as a witness. Ile
said the goods train arrived at Llanddulas at
twenty-four minutes past twelve. The down Irish

mail train was due to pass the station about
12 39. He was there when the goods train arrived,
and his boy worked the signals, under his (wit-
ness's) instructions, he being present, and seeing
that they were properly put. The tail end of the
train was left standing on the main line by one of
the breaksmen--he could not say which. The spot
where the waggons and break-van were left was an
incline. They could not have stood there a moment
unless a break or some other check, such as a
scotcher, had stopped them. He did not know who
gave the orders to the driver for the shunting, but
that would be between the driver and one of the
breaksmen. The witness was at the points, at the
first shunting, and his boy at the second. Some
waggons, three in number, were " kicked" off the
end of the remaining part of the train ; he could
not say whether they were loaded or unloaded, nor
who gave the orders. Such orders would be given
by signal from the breaksman to the driver, and not
by word of mouth. Alfred Sara was the driver.
The witness said he was in the habit of giving
orders as to shunting and the putting in of empty
waggons, but he gave none that day. After the
three waggons were kicked off, he saw them in
motion towards the tail end that had been left
standing by itself. The waggons were kicked off
in the ordinary way, with no more nor less force
than is usual. It is customary to break them be-
fore kicking them off at this spot, but the witness
was unable to say whether or not these waggons
were breaked. He did not then know with what

the tail end of the train was loaded. He was about
130 or 110 yards off the spot where the loose trucks
would have struck the standing waggons and
break-van, and the noise of the shunting as well as
the distance prevented his hearing the concussion ;
but although he did not hear any sound, he saw the
waggons moving down the incline. He would not
speak with certainty as to having seen the loose
trucks reach and strike the others that were stand-
ing. He thought he saw them reach, but could not
well have seen them strike, because the last trucks
hid the view. After he saw all the waggons moving
off, he told the breaksman to run after them. Until
he saw the waggons move, he had no notion that
they would do so. lie had been four years
station-master at Llanddulas, and had never known
the same thing to happen before. He bad a
copy, which he produced, of the regulations fur-
nished by the company to their servants ; and, at
the Assessor's desire, he turned to rule 6, which I
quoted in my letter yesterday. This rule orders
that shunting operations shall be performed ten
minutes before a train is due. He could not say at
what time the trucks were kicked off the end of the
goods train at Llanddulas. The longest line of the
siding at Llysfaen was not empty, and could not
take the whole length of the goods train, and this
was
.the reason of delay. He had thought then
that there was quite sufficient time to shunt the
train in two parts before the mail train should come
up, though not in compliance with the rule which
says there shall be ten minutes clear interval. In
answer to Mr. Edwardes-Wood, the witness said
the driver of the engine had not suggested to him
that be should follow the trucks with his engine.
If the line of the siding nearest to the moun-
tain were empty, the operation of shunting
could be performed with greater ease. Mr.
Littler said here that the siding bad been
measured, and was found to be capable of
holding fifty-four trucks in the long line, and
seventeen in the short or back siding. " I passed
there this morning, and saw thirty-eight waggons,"
Mr. Edwardes-Wood was beginning, when Mr.
Littler said, " I cannot have that, unless you are
sworn as a witness." Eaton, continuing his evi-
dence, said it was not common for the breaksman
to quit the break-van when the tail end of the
train is left on the line. "I found it so this morn-
ing," said Mr. Wood; and the voluntary informa-
tion was again objected to, as not being evidence.
Mr. Littler, at this point of the proceedings, handed
up to the Government Inspector a packet contain-
ing all the locks that had been found, and promised
that the utmost endeavours of the company would
be made to recover the rest. Robert Williams,
timekeeper of Abergele station, was then exa-
mined, partly in Welsh, but was so nervous
that very little of what he said could be heard.
He produced a book showing the times at
which the trains passed, and, referring to it,
he found that the pick-up goods train, due
to arrive at Abergele at 12.5, and to leave at
12.15, actually did arrive at 12.5, and departed
at 12.15, the witness having made the entries
at the time. The passenger train No. 16, timed
to pass Abergele at 12.34, was the down Irish mail,
and it passed on the 20th of August at 12.39,
being just five minutes late. Goods train No. 15
was timed to arrive at 11.55, and to depart at