The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-01 00:00:00

.4 btrb Ntatton

SUN OFFICE, Snot o'clock.

PRICES OF SHARES

EN CANALS, RAILWAYS, BANKS, ASSURANCE
AND OTHER COMPANIES' STOCK.

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCT. 1.

THE FATAL EXPLOSION AT THE

HASWELL COLLIERY.

FURTHER PARTICULARS.
(mom A CORRESPONDENT.)
HASWELL, MONDAY NIGHT.

We are now enabled to give positive intelligence
respecting the extent of this melancholy occurrence.
On Monday afternoon an inquest was held at the
Railway Tavern, Haswell. We have received a re-
port of the examination of some of the witnesses up
to the mail leaving, but as it is so full of technicalities,
and could not be properly understood without refer-
ence to a plan of the working of the pit, we have
thought it better to give a condensed statement of the
facts elicited, with such other information as we have
been able to procure calculated to make the occur-
rence intelligible to our readers.
_ _ _

Haswell colliery is one of the most extensive in the
county of Durham. It employs upwards of three
hundred men and boys, and it is celebrated for the
very superior quality of its coal.
The pit, though essentially one, is divided into
separate workings, called respectively the Big-pit and
the Little-pit. The explosion took place in the latter.
The number of men and boys usually employed in
this part is about one hundred, and when the explosion
took place there was ninety-nine down—ninety-five
of whom have perished. The other four would also,
without doubt, have suffered had not the course of
the explosive current been intercepted by some wag-
gons laden with coals, in what is called a " rolley"
way—a railway used for the purpose of conveying
the coals to to the bottom of the shaft to be drawn to
bank. The four men who escaped were at the
end of these waggons nearer to the shaft. They
saw the flame approaching, having the appearance
of forked lightning, when it fortunately struck the
waggons referred to. The horse attached to them
was killed, and thrown completely over in the form of
a somerset, falling on his back. The first appearance
of the fatal occurrence arose from a mass of rubbish
and foul air making up the shaft, when the man
stationed at the pit's mouth at once suspected the pit
had fired, and immediately afterwards gave the alarm.
The intelligence spread through the village with the
rapidity of lightning, and in a few minutes brought
the relatives of those who were down to the pit's
mouth, in all the agonies of dreadful anticipation. As-
sistance was immediately procured, and every exertion
made to ascertain the exact extent of the calamity,
and to render assistance to any who might have
escaped or survived. However, with the exceptions
stated, not one survives of all who were down. The
works of the Big-pit are separated from the other
only by doors ; so that had the explosive current not
been checked or dissipated, as stated, the probability
is that it would have entered the Big-pit, and those
who were in it—upwards of 100—would have been
added to the dreadful list.

At the inquest upon the bodies, now being held
before Mr. Maynard, the coroner for Easington ward,
three witnesses were examined, viz., Mr. John Whittle,
an overman, and C. Brown and J. Scott, underviewers.
Their evidence as to the cause of the calamity being
altogether founded upon inferences drawn from what
they observed on examining the pit, is therefore only
conjectural. Their opinions were essentially the
same : that the explosion had commenced at a part
of the pit called the " Meadows," at " the ninth head-
way," about a quarter of a mile from the shaft bot-
tom. In that part of the pit it appeared three men—
John Williamson, a deputy, John Curry, a hewer,
and Henry Weetman, another workman, were en-
gaged in what was called " drawing the judd," that
is clearing away the pillars or blocks of coal
which are left to support the roof of the mine
when the mine is first excavated. After this first
working these pillars are subsequently taken away,
and the roof supported by props of wood. It was
conjectured that in removing one of these pillars of
coal the roof had fallen, an accident which sometimes
occurs, and damaged the Davy-lamp, held by an at-
tendant, by which the flame of the lamp escaped, and
coming in contact with the hydrogen gas which ge-
nerally escapes when a fall takes place, ignited it, and
produced the explosion. It had then rushed along the
air courses, as it always does in a direction against
the fresh air that is coming in, and being fed by the
latter, increases in intensity, until it finally escapes
by the shaft.

How far this opinion is correct it is not for us at
present to say. The opinion of some of the men on
the colliery may, however, be noticed, as contradic-
tory to this. Their impression is, that during the late
strike there had been, from the mine being unworked,
an accumulation of fire damp in some part, which
had not been properly attended to; and although it
is stated that lamps only were permitted to be used
in this part, we conversed with a workman who de-
clared that on the very day of the occurrence be was
working within a short distance of the part with a
candle, by the permission and knowledge of the
viewers.

The funeral of the sufferers took place this day,
and was indeed an extraordinary and melancholy
spectacle. Between fifty and sixty carts were em-
ployed in conveying the dead bodies to the places of
interment. Fifty-four were buried in the burying
ground of South lletton Church, the others at
Easington and Hallgarth villages, about three
miles distant. There were thousands of per-
sons present. The procession to South Hetton
Church seemed to be upwards of one mile in length.
Many families have lost three and four each. The
dead belonging 'to each family were placed in separate
carts, and each followed by the friends and relatives
of the parties. We trust that a subscription, prompt
and noble as the occasion requires, will be set on foot
for the surviving relatives, the widows and fatherless
children who are left.

COURSE OF EXCHA:
Amsterdam ...... CF. 12 6i
Ditto, at 5ight......... 12 4
Rotterdam 2U. 12 7
Antwerp 25 90
Hamburgh M.B. 1314-}
Altona l3 14
raris, 3 days' sight 25 60
Ditto, 3 months 25 85
Marseilles
Bourde,aux 25 90
Frankfort on Maine

.NGE.—(THIS DAY.)
Gibraltar
Leghorn 3O 50
Genoa 25 85
Milan
Venice .......
Naples ........
Palermo, per oz llB
Lisbon 55
Oporto 55
Rio Janeiro
Bahia 23
Buenos Ayres
NewYork,2ldyssight
Philadelphia •
PRICES OF BULLION, PER OR.
Foreign Gold, bars f. 3 17 9
Portugal Gold Coin 3 17 5
New Doubloons 0 0 0
New Dollars 0 4 10
Silver in ears 0 4 111

Petersburgh, 3Us 37
Berlin 7
Vienna, effee. fi. 3 M 952
Trieste, ditto
Madrid 36/
Cadiz

Itilbao 36

Barcelona 36

Seville --

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

--condition of Ireland becomes
daily more portentous. A spirit of mutation sheds its
influence upon leading men of opposite parties. A
restlessness and dissatisfaction with the existing
state of the political institutions of the country per-
vades the whole population. Important organic
changes are demanded, as essential to effect the im-
provement of the social and moral condition of the po-
pulation. This demand does not now proceed from the
"agitators," the "demagogues," who " enrich themselves
at the cost of the miserable dupes whom they cajole."
The Act of Union is now denounced, and is sought
to be repudiated, by men of weight and influence in
the Conservative party,
merly employed to maintain the order of things, as
it was settled by the Act of Union ; by whom repeal
was contemplated as fraught with calamities to
Ireland, and repealers were deemed malignant
rebels, whose machinations were but little
less than treason ; whose purpose it was
the duty of Government to overturn by the
power of the law, enforced, if necessary, by mi-
litary execution. The reversal of the judgment against
O'Connell and the other repeal leaders, added to the
absence of any remedial measures for the grievances of
the people, by which the popular feeling might be con-
ciliated, has produced a deeply-seated conviction—even
among a large number of Protestant Conservatives—
that the existing relations of the two countries, or the
mode in which Ireland is at present governed, must be
materially changed. The Dublin Mail (which is, beyond
comparison, the best written and most widely- circulated
Conservative journal in Ireland), in alluding to Dr.
Maunsell's speech on his motion brought before the
Town Council of Dublin on Wednesday last, "for an
address to the Queen, praying her to hold her Court
and Parliament in Ireland once in every three years,"
says, that the Learned Doctor's speech on the occasion
" has excited more attention among the citizens of all
classes and denominations, than any project of a sane
character that has been propounded in this land of pro-
jects for some years. It appears also to be universally
popular, notwithstanding the truly Irish paradox of its
not having had a seconder." The cause of Dr. Maun-
sell's motion not being seconded, and its consequent
failure, is thus explained by the same Conservative
organ :—" The handful of Conservative councillors
who so magnanimously deserted Dr. Alappoll, were