subject for inquiry was as to the death of William Craster. The inquest was held on the 22nd, 23rd, and 29th of June, and after 19 witnesses had been examined, the court decided on the following deliverance:-" An inquisition taken for our Sovereign Lord the King in the parish of Wallsend, in the County of Northumberland, on the 22nd day of June, in the fifth year of the Reign of our Soverign Lord, William the Fourth, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, and in the year of our Lord 1835, before Stephen Reed, Esq., one of the coroners for our said Lord the King, for the said county, on view of the body of John Giles, then and there lying dead, on the oaths of Anthony Easterly, John Wright, John Armstrong, Patrick Rye, William Jameson, Robert Henry Coward, Mathew Elliott, Joseph Mordue, John Hornsby, John Brough, George Shanks, John Falcus, Charles Weatherly, and Washington Potts, good and lawful men of the said county duly chosen; and who being then and there duly sworn, and charged to inquire for our said Lord the King, when, where, how, and after what manner, the said John Giles came to his death, do upon their oath, say the said John Giles, on the 18th day of June in the year aforesaid, at the parish and in the county aforesaid, being at work in a certain pit or coal mine, called the G. Pit of Wallsend Colliery; it so happened that the inflammable air, accumulated and contained in the workings of the said pit, from some cause or causes, and in some part or parts thereof, to the jury unknown, ignited and exploded, by reason and means whereof he, the said John Giles, then and there accidentally, casually, and by misfortune, received divers wounds and contusions in and upon his body, or otherwise was burnt and suffocated, and thereby presently died. And so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do say that the said John Giles, by reason and means aforesaid, and in manner aforesaid, accidentally, casually, and by misfortune came to his death and not otherwise. And that in the opinion of the said jurors, there has been no want of due care and precaution on the part of those who had the direction and management of the said mine."

Here then we find, at the opening of the proceedings, that the witnesses were examined touching the death of

William Craster; but the jurors in conclusion returned a verdict to the effect that John Giles came by his death "accidentally, casually, and by misfortune," without the slightest allusion to William Craster, into the circumstances of whose death they were sworn to inquire, or yet to the remainder of the unfortunate victims, whose lives were sacrificed by the same explosion. This might be the usual course in such cases in Northumberland, where probably the first and last persons exhumed were alone the subjects of inquiry; but even adopting this view, there appears to be an anomaly perfectly inexplicable in the procedure as regards the death of William Craster, or John Giles. Under any

circumstances there is nothing in the verdict to indicate the extent of the calamity, and therefore we need not wonder at the want of correctness in any report derived from such

sources.

However parties may desire to conceal from the public the enormous number and extent of such casualties, I cannot conceive that any such feeling should be carried to the extent of deceiving the House of Commons, when that honourable body, the representatives of the British public, calls for a return such as it did on the occasion alluded to. If the death of the unfortunate John Giles, or that of William Craster, were alone recorded in lieu of 104, it is only a very fair inference that the 77 deaths reported for the two counties included in the return to Parliament, represented not less than 777 deaths.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE

OF

SOUTH SHIELDS EXPLOSION. THE COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF EXPLOSIONS. THE HASWELL EXPLOSION.

The present age, and ages to come, have cause to be grateful to Mr. James Mather for the very active and intelligent part he took in endeavouring to prevent this wholesale sacrifice of human life in mines. Mr. Mather was not one of those men, who, carried away at the moment by excitement and enthusiasm, go among the crowd murmuring their

wrongs. No, he was a man bold and resolute, calm and clear-sighted, and one who had an extensive knowledge of mining engineering.

In 1839, the South Shields pit exploded, and fifty men and boys lost their lives. Mr. Mather, on this occasion, went down the pit as soon as any person after the occurrence, and, with some of the colliery officials, rendered great services in carrying stimulants to the sufferers below, and in restoring to animation several of those who had fallen into a state of asphyxia. His object in going down the pit was to see, if possible, what had been the cause of the explosion. A meeting of the inhabitants of South Shields was called for the purpose of raising a fund for the relief of the sufferers, and at that meeting Mr. Mather was present, and stated what he had seen down the pit. He suggested that there should be a much more minute inquiry into the cause of accidents in mines, and that they should not merely content themselves with relieving the sufferers when any such accident occurred. The practical outcome of that meeting was the appointment of a committee, with Mr. Mather and Mr. Salmon, the town clerk of South Shields, as secretaries; and the members of which were Mr. R. Ingham, chairman; Dr. Winterbottom, Mr. Shortridge, Mr. Roxby, Mr. John Clay, Mr. Errington Bell, Mr. R. Walter Swinburne, Mr. W. Eddows, and Mr. Anthony Harrison. These men applied talent, time, and money, for the purpose of lessening the dangers to which the coal miners were hourly exposed; but none of them were connected with the collieries. They were all men of great ability and activity, and many of them being practical chemists, they applied their knowledge to the analysis of the gases in the mines, and conducted an inquiry into the causes of explosions in a most scientific manner, and with much minuteness and zeal for a period of three years. They visited the mines in the district frequently, consulted with the most able and practical viewers, corresponded with some of the most scientific men of the day, and made experiments at every opportunity that was afforded them, with lamps and other instruments. Their decision was, that the Davy lamp in the hands of the ordinary miner would frequently lead to accidents. When the report was published, Mr. Ingham, their chairman, in giving his evidence before a