The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-09-09 00:00:00

TRANSPORTATION OF AN OXFORD STUDENT.-At the
conclusion of the trials in the Old Court at the Old Bailey
on Monday evening last, the Recorder was occupied some
time in passing sentence on prisoners upon whom judg-
ment had been respited. Amongst them was a young
man, of very respectable appearance, named Smith. The
Recorder said it was a melancholy thing to see a person of
his position and station in life at the felon's bar a convicted
forger. He was the son of a beneficed clergyman in the
country, who had sent him for education to the University
of Oxford. He then got into the hands of a person of
most infamous character named Lewis, who, no doubt,
had caused great numbers to regret his acquaintance, and
in the end the prisoner committed a forgery to a large
amount upon that person. Great sympathy and compas-
sion were felt for the prisoner, on account of the perfidious
conduct of the man Lewis. and judgment was postponed to
see whether he was really entitled to that compassion.
Inquiries had shown that he was not. This was not a
solitary instance in which he had committed the crime of
forgery. He might reform, and become a better man in
another country. He felt it to be his duty to sentence the
prisoner to be transported for 7 years.—Sunday Times.
EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE. Much as the people of
Barnsley have been accustomed to colliery explosions and
accidents, one occurred on Friday morning, in a colliery at
Hemingfield, the property of Earl Fitzwilliam, which
excels any either in that or any other neighbourhood for
the extraordinary singularity of the occurrence, and which
we believe is without a parallel in the history of coal
mining. On the above morning, soon after the men had
begun work, one of them fired a shot to dislodge a quantity
of coal. In so doing the coal became ignited. The men
endeavoured to extinguish the fire by using their caps and
smocks, but the more they tried the stronger became the
ignition, in consequence of the air which they wafted upon
the burning mass being impregnated with gas, which added
fuel to the fire. In the end it became such a burning mass
that they gave up the task, and got out of the pit as soon
as possible. When they got to the top the fire was so
strong that it roared like a furnace, and they saw no chance
of extinguishing it but by closing the mouth of the shaft,
which they immediately set about doing, by making a stage
a few yards down the pit, and covering it with sods and
other material, to prevent any air getting down the shaft.
While doing so the signal bell rang, which was thought to
be caused by the material they were throwing down catch-
ing the bell wire. In a short time, however, it rang again.
The men then began to look about them to see if any one
was missing, and then it was discovered that one of their
fellow workmen, named Thos. Swift, was missing. Some
thought they had seen him among the others on the pit
hill. However, as there were doubts as to the fact, and for
the satisfaction of all, a messenger was sent to his home
to see if he had gone home ; but during the absence
of the messenger the bell was again rung more loudly
than before, which caused the engineman to prevail upon
the others to get out what material they had put upon the
stage and send down a corve. This was accordingly done,
and when the corve was drawn up again it not only con-
tained Swift, but also two boys, alive and unhurt, although
they stated that two horses and an ass lay dead in the pit.
It appears that Swift and the two boys stopped some time
with the others who were trying to extinguish the fire,
and thinking it would be easily put out went forward into
another part of the pit and commenced work, which they
continued at until the alteration in the air caused them to
stop, and they found the pit on fire and all tae men out,
They then found their way to the bottom of the shaft, and
ultimately reached the top unhurt, notwithstanding they
had been immured above an hour after the pit had been
covered in.