The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-14 00:00:00

THE SUN,

THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER l4, 1850.

restored to their anxious and mourning friends, who
gathered round the pit-mouth awaiting in silence and
resignation the return of each exhausted party from
the poisonous atmosphere of the workings."
Any position more terrible under the cir-
cumstances we can scarcely imagine ; and yet,
grievous as was the character of this fatal
casualty near Newbottle, it has frequently been ex-
ceeded in disastrous consequences by other explosions
within our recollection. Fortunately this time the
destruction of life scarcely exceeded that of a quarter
of a hundred of individuals, including the rolly•boys
and waggon-men. On many previous occasions the
result has been quadrupled, and in one or two in-
stances the ♦ictims hare been even yet more nume-
rous. Notwithstanding, however, that previous
calamities of a similar description may have exceeded
the present one numerically, intrinsically the mis-
fortune has been in every particular sufficiently
calamitous. To the families of those who have
perished it has, for example, brought nothing but
destitution and wretchedness. To them it matters
not that more miners have been Mire now blown to
atoms, or charred to mummies by a like explosion
elsewhere—they have lust their relations, and in some
instances their supporters, by a sudden and frightful
death. And with each of these occurrences through-
out the locality in which it happens to transpire, the
sense of daring encountered in mining operations
propagees itself in a manner so contagious
as to affect in a great mea-ure the sentiments
'of the entire population. Evils and evils of a very
appreciable kiwi, can alone arise.out of this popular
dread of destruction. The influence soon proves
itself to be pernicious ; and unless some active mea-
sures be adopted for the scientific prevention of such
calamities as those to whlch we are now reverting,
the baneful efiects of this feeling of insecurity must
ultimately tend to mar the industrial energies of the
people living and labouring in the collieries. Inso-

much are we persuaded of this, that a certain sense
of dread for the con3cquences of further inactivity
begins to blend with our anxieties for the removal of
the existing danger. We look forward, therefore,
with renewed eagerness to the time when the prin-
ciple of benevolence shall be vindicated by philozophy
in reference to the condition of our mining popula-
tion. That science has the capacity to guard against
the recurrence of those continual perils we are

confident. The admirable invention of the miner's
lanthorn by Sir HUMPHREY DAVY is to our mind

but as the germ of a great system of precautions, an

incitement to further inquiry rather than an object of

merely idle admiration. To our scieutific experimen•
talists, therefore, to our chemical and mechanica

philosophers, these colliery explosions appeal more
peculiarly and individually. To them we look for the
ulterior guardianship of this large and iwportant sec-
tion of our industrious fellow countrymen. Let them
be excited to new efforts at discovery by a convic-
tion that their success in those endeavours must tend

to alleviate a vast amount of human suffering, and to
save the lives of those sturdy toilers who can be least

spared out of the whole budy of the commuoity.

Pi OROGATION of PARLIAMENT

(From the Supplement to the London Gazette of
Tuesday, Nor. 12.
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 13.
At the Court at Windsor, the 13th day of November,
1850, present, the Queen's Most Excellent Ma-
jesty in Council.
It is this day ordered by her Majesty in Council
that the Parliament, which stands prorogued to
Thursday, the 14th day of November instant, be
further prorogued to Tuesday, the 17th day of De-
cember next.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.-116 Grace is now
worse; his complaint proving water in the chest.

CARDINAL WlSEMAN.—Yisterday being in the
Romish rubric commemorative of St. Didacus, confessor,
Cardinal Wiseman commenced his archiepiscopal duties by
celebrating the eight o'clock mass, which it is said he will
continue to do throughout the week. As it was not under-
stood that his Eminence would officiate yesterday morning,
the congregation was very small.

THE EXHIBITION OP 1851.—At an extraordinary
special court of the Goldsmiths' Company, held last week, it
was resolved to award the sum of lOU for prizes to be given
to those artists of the craft of the United Kingdom, who can
produce works of the greatest merit, in gold and silver plate,
for the Exhibition.
Yesterday a Court of Directors was held at the
East Italia House, when Lieutenant-General Sir John Grey,
K.C.8., was sworn in Commander-in-Chiet of the Company's
forces and second member of Council on the Bombay Estab-
lishment.

The more polished the society is, the less formality
tete is in it.—. Eliza Cook's Journal.

LIVERPOOL, Nov. 14.—The screw-steamer Geneva
arrived from Gibraltar last night, at eleven o'clock, in fire
days twenty-two hours, with dispatches, which are now in
possession of the Post-office, and will be delivered this
afternoon. The mail-packet left Gibraltar two days before
the Geneva.

THE LATE CHARGE AGAINST M. ►SIERELL.--.Qn
Tuesday the property taken by the police from Mr. Sirrell's
premises in Barbican, pending the charges made against
him at the Mensicn-house, was returned by order of the Po-
lice Commissioners. Immediately after the discharge of Mr.
Sirrell on Tuesday last, on the several London chdrges
made against him, Messrs. Lewis, his solicitors, made appli-
cation to the Commissioners of Police for the restoration of
the property seized, which led to an interview between Mr.
J. G. Lewis and Mr. Alayne, the Chief Commissioner; and
the result was that the property, except some few articles for
which parties bad applied, was on Tuesday taken back from
Whitehall to Barbican.

The Bishop of Winchester bas licensed the Rev.
W. G. Martin, M.A., curate of St. Mary Magdalene, Old
Kent-road, to the incumbency of the district of Christchurch,
in the same parish, in the nomination of the trustees of
flvndman's Bounty.

THE POLISH BALL AT GUILDHALL THIS EVEN-
ING.—We rejoice to hear that the success of this charitable
undertaking is no longer doubtful. The brisk sale of tickets
for the last few days, and particularly yesterday, shows the
interest felt by the public in the fate of Poland, and the
popularity of the ball, which, in point of splendour and
brilliancy, has not its equal. The one which takes place
this evening will be rendered doubly so by all the arrange-
ments made, which will ensure the comfort and enjoyment
of the company.

let another and another of these disastrous oc-
currences.

The misery of having to earn a wretched
hood by toiling in the bowels of the earth, hidden
, all the day from the blessed light of the
heavens, is surely sufficient for tho-as indus-
trious operatives, without rendering any fur-
ther sorrow necessary, as an incitement to
their energies. Yet, added to the regrets engendered,
doubtless, amongst the more reflective members of
the class, are the horrid anxieties consequent upon
the sense of their continual peril. A knowledge that
at any moment, almost, they are liable to be instanta-
neously destroyed, or what is perhaps worse, fright-
fully and painfully mutilated, is enough, in all con-
, science, to render them alien for ever to every feeling
of happiness. Besides which, the recollection of their
perpetual liability to destruction in this terrific man-
ner is sufficient to interfere with the proper per-
formance of their duties. For the dissipatie nof these
' great evils we shall continue to be most solicitous, at
any rate until such time as we shall see an endeavour,
at the very least, to bring about the prevention of
their continuance.
From the particulars already given of the late st
of these calamities, the one which took place as re-
cently as Monday in the Houghton Pit, near New-
bottle, it will be seen that, as in the majority of similar
cases, it was preceded by no premonitory symptoms
of the coming danger. L► the midst of
their subterranean labours the unfortunate work-
men were startled by a loud but muffled explosion,
followed by all the horrors of that atmospheric
catastrophe. Their condition at ti is moment appears
to have been more than usually terrible. Those who
were not actually killed, either by burning or suffo-
cation, are described as having retreated a few yards
into a little purer air and there become stationary.
" They soon discovered," says the report, " that they
were hemmed in by a body of choke-damp, to pass
through which would have been impossible, for any
of them on attempting to enter it but a few yards
were overcome, and would have fallen, had they not
hastily retreated. O❑ consulting together, it was
considered the safest plan to remain where they were,
and trust to the exertions that would be made to reach
them from the shaft, by carrying in the air ; and they
did so remain for between five or six hours, until their
delivery was effected. Before that time had expired
many a stout heart quailed in prospect of certain
death. A dread solemnity pervaded the mind of every
one ; impenetrable darkness increased the agony of
feeling, and the silence of this tomb of the living was
only broken by wild ejaculations of despair, fervent
prayer, and supplications to the ALMIGHTY for deli-
verance, or at intervals by signal shouts intended to
guide any exploring party to the sepulchral abode.
It i 3 impossible for the pen to portray the condition of
these poor men during this long and fearful period, or
convey any adequate conception of their joy and gra-
titude on being rescued horn such extreme peril and