ttE Vranium

The election-for-Windsor on Saturday last resulted in a triumph to the Free-trade candidate. It is said' that the Queen gave orders, as soon the death of General. Reid opened the prospect of an, election, that no sort °Unfit:fence should be exerted' on the members of her honaehold, or on the tradesmen and, others- whose business depends on the Castle. This was construed as a practical declaration by her Majesty in favour of gree- ns*, and an exercise o her paremount infinenee.to override the pewer,- fulbut only `secondary influence of the political Government of the day. However, it is common repertin.Windsor, that the " Government-serew " Vcre after all put on so stroney last week., even, in the household, that a second intimation had to be given of the Queen's desire that her retainers and tradesmen should not be interfered with in their political action. The issue has been, the return, pf the Eree:trader, by a vote of three to two of the constituency. The numbers were—for Grente112 330; for Van- sittart, 230; majority for Grefifell, 100. Mr. Milner Gibson and Mr. Bright faced a first meeting of their con- stituents at Manchester, in the Free-trade Ha.11, on Wednesday evening; and defended then:waves by able and. manly appeclips against .the Anti7 Mitynooth party, who, under the Reverend Hugh Stowell, have. put for- ward Mr. Loch and Captain Denman to take their seats. The pl,W..904- info ended in a vote of confidence and promised syppert, go heartily given that the .7)04 News, a sanguine supporter of the sitting Members, speults of their reelection as now made certain.

The passage at arms between Colonel Hominy and Mr. Smythe, the two Members for Canterbury, has been followed by a bye-passage with peas. Colonel Eorpilly addres,ted a letter to his constituents containing

Plait:, statement of facts," ant ,-or to the Charges Made by Mi. Sfitythe in the speech from which we g i.e passages last week. His me- fettyl, statements were as follow

" Previous to my election in 1850, I had no communication with Mr. Smythe on the subject of it, nor clO I know or believe that my being then elected without a contest was owing to his support.' The fact of that sniped I are ready to admit.

"On the subject of the now approaching election, I never had any formal interview with Mr. &lithe, It is true that, having.Met me on several occa- sions, he has originated conversations with me on the subject of it. I ihould have been perfectly justi0ed in retest:* to hohl spy C9" e,unioatioe with him 011 the subject i but, behoving that he 91.4 I had ritet, appte political ob- jects in view, out of courtesy and fairness to him I stated to him that I should not form any coalition with him. He appeared to be annoyed, and expressed himself warmly on the occasion; but he afterwards distinctly ad- mitted to me that I had acted towards him frankly and openly in the mat- ter. This is a abort and correct statement of everything material which oc-

curred. between hifn and me. • •

"I, as well as Mr. Smythe, confide in the 'majesty of truth'; and having vindicated the integrity of my own conduct, r never will believe that any body of English constituents will allow their decision to be disturbed by any feeling of the vengeance' :which one candidate may leave within their hands: There is a public duty incumbent upon you, which your fellow citizens and. your countrymen expect you calmly and conscientiously to per- form; and that duty is to return, as your representatives to Parliament, those candidates who you believe will best maintain and promote the prosperity of the county." Mr. Smythe hereupon published a letter to the electors, designating the above statement as "very imperfectly correct."

Mr. Smythe never said that Colonel Romilly had communications with him before the election of 1850: what Mr. Smythe did say is not contradicted— that he wrote to the chairman of the meeting which introduced Colonel Romilly for the first time to the electors of Canterbury, calling on Mr. Smythe's friends to support Colonel Romilly. Again, Mr. Smythe never said that on the subject of the coming election Colonel Romilly had any formal interview with Mr. Smythe: what he did say, assumes as true that which Colonel Hominy reasserts in the phrase, "It is true &a, Mr. Smythe has

originated conversations with me on the subject," ; and it is precisely Mr. Smythe's charge that Colonel Romilly allowed him to originate these conversations; that course encouraged the " hallucination " under which Mr. Smythe has declared himself to have been left by Colonel Romilly. "The gallant officer is under a complete misapprehension" when he says, "But he afterwards distinctly admitted to me that I had acted towards him fairly and openly, in the matter." " The matter," says Mr. Smythe, "to which I alluded in these expressions, had no reference whatever to Colonel Romilly'a general conduct towards myself; they were simply used in courteous acknowledgment of a letter which Colonel Romilly had sent to me, intimating his intention to hold a meeting of his friends in Canterbury; and had I known that at that meeting Sir William Somerville's name was to be proposed, I certainly ahould not have complimented Colonel Homily either upon his openness or his frankness." As to the word "vengeance," so care- fully isolated, Mr. Smythe says—" There is no one among you who does not perfectly understand what I alluded to in leaving my vengeance within your hands.' I was speaking in relation to that declaration still in course of signature by a number of Liberal supporters of Lord Albert Canyngham and myself at the last election, which stops short of no length, not even that of giving votes to Mr. Johnstone and Mr. Gipps, in order to prevent the return of Colonel Romilly to Parliament." In the commencement of his letter Mr. Smythe expressed regret that he was dragged into the mazes of a difference which he had, hoped was at, once and for ever at an end— "I had hoped so the more, because I had been led to believe that our dispute terminated in the common formality which Colonel Romilly and myself went through on Friday last; for which I sincerely feel that an apology is due to you, gentlemen, in the present temper of British opinion, But at least it was not my fault if British ground on that occasion was pro- faned; and nothing but the insuperable scruples of my gallant colleague 'for private and family reasons of his own' against an issue abroad, pre. vented me from showing that deference to the general mode of thinking in this country which I feel that you have a right to exact."

Interesting Courts-martial have recently been held at Portsmouth and Woolkvioh.

Ali the formerplace, Lieutenant Finney, of the First Battalion of Royals, has, been found guilty of unlawfully attempting to place a senior officer in arrest, of having ordered the regimental guard to arrest the officer, and of having commanded a sergeant to place these men in. confinement be- cause they did not obey his-illegal order. But the Court, while dismissing him from the service, strongly recommended him to the merciful conaidera- tion of the Queen, as he might have acted under a misconception of the 15th Article of War, and as he was " at the time considerably excited by at tendant circumstances." The circumstances were these. Captain Curtis, while drunk—" beastly drunk,"' as the prisoner declared—grossly insulted Lieutenant Finney : it was while Captain Curtis was attempting to gain admittance to a public-house in the town that the Lieutenant ordered his -arrest,—or, as he asserted, directed- the guard, to "to see him home." The sentence_ wasapproved of, and the recommendation to mercy also listened to; Lieutenant Finney was llowed to receive the value of his centinisaton;, ad it is said, that Captain Curtis has acid out of the Royals. At Woolwich, Captain Hawkey was tried for assaulting Lieutenant Swains; both are officers of the Royal Marines. Captain ',11awkey is the gentleman whe bad the misfortune souse years back to kill Mr. Seaton in a duel. lie is married, and has four children ; his wife has property of her own. He seems to have been a most affectionate husband. Lieutenant Swaine paid undue attentions to Mrs. Hawkey' if servants could be believdd, Mr. Hawkey had been criminally unfaithful to her husband. Captain Hawkey was informed of this by one servant some time since; the lady vowed it was false, and her husband, though grieved at her levity, still believed her virtuous. He was very unhappy, and separated from his wife for a time. They were afterwards reconciled. That the husband had good, cause for jealousy, Lieutenant Swaine's own admissions on cross-examination proved. He denied that he had been in the lady's bedroom, but con fessed that he had

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sat in her lap. That Captain Hawkey was a most unhappy position—a peculiarly unhappy one for "an officer and a gentleman "—was proved by the examination of brother officers to whom he had unbosomed himself. To one he sa.id, his wife's conduet had nearly driven him mad. "You alluded te that unfortunate occasion of your having taken the life of a fellow creature you said that ought to have been a sufficient lesson for her, and that nothing whatever would ever induce you to become a butcher again for her or any one else." To another officer' he'- complained of his wife dancing with Lieutenant Swaine at a soiree while temporarily separated from her husband. "You then said, What is to be done I must separate for ever from her. Her want of wisdom and discretion will send me mad. I have already on. this accoUnt sent a fellow creature before his God, and am I to do it again 7' You then said, with emphasis, I will not ! I have too much on my mind already.' At that moment I saw a tear comeinto your eye, but with a manly spirit you turned round and wiped, it off. You then touched the crape upon your arm and said, ' I will wear this for that 'canto the end of my days.' "

It was after this that the pair were reconciled for a time. On the 26th April Mr. and Mrs. Hawkey were walking together ; they met Lieutenant Swaine' Mrs. Hawkey' quitted her husband's arm and spoke to the Lieute- nant. The outraged husband could not control his feelings, but immediately attacked Lieutenant Swaine with a stick, and gave h,im a hearty drubbing, which was only terminated by a senior officer who came by at the time put- tingboth gentlemen under arrest. Stilisecpiently to this, Captain 1-Jawkey mewed fresh proofs of the misbehaviour of his wife. The prisoner received the highert character from numbers of officers.

The Vourt found that the assault had been committed ; but taking into ,

consideration the "long-continued provocation" he had received, they did not think he had been guilty of "conduct unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman," and they fully acquitted him of that part of the charge. Captain Hawkey was merely sentenced to be reprimanded for the breach of the Articles of War.

A Coroner's inquest has been made into the causes of the deaths of the sixty-five men and boys who lost their lives by the explosion in the Middle Duffryn colliery, Aberdare. The evidence given was that of a great many miners employed in the works ; that of Mr. Blackwell, the Government Inspector who gave evidence at the inquest held in 1850 on the bodies of some thirty miners who were then killed by an explosion in the same pit ; and that of Mr. Mackworth, the Go- vernment Inspector who has reported on the present disaster.

The general causes of the explosion are made very clear by the scientific evidence. The Middle Duffryn pit is a deep working in what is called ."a maiden country,"—that is to say, a country only recently opened by.mimng enterprise; the seams of coal in which have not been drained of their gases, as those of the longer worked coal-fields have been, by shafts and passages that have been ventilated for generations past. They are therefore pervaded by explosive gases, the enormous pressure on which, at the great depths the coal is worked, makes them fly off at every pore. Occasionally they break loose with a force that rends the coal, or shale, like a gunpowder blast. In this instance a sudden and violent escape threw down a large portion of the roof, and so flooded the workings with ex- plosive gas, that when the ventilating currents which had passed through the broken region came to the furnace which creates the ventilating draught in the upcast shaft, they exploded backwards throughout 450 yards of air-way, and made the currents for the whole of that distance poisonous to human respiration. It is certain that only a very few of those who died were killed by the force or heat of the explosion ; nearly all died simply of suffocation by the "after-damp,"--that is to say, from the non-vitality of the air after the explosion had deprived it of all its oxygen. It is plain from this description that the secondary cause of the disaster was the use of the furnace in the upcast shaft. This furnace was specifically condemned by Mr. Black- well, the Government Inspector at the inquest in 1850; and Mr. Mack- worth ascribed the present calamity to the persistence in its use in such a position that the explosive air was brought into immediate contact with it as it left the mine. Of the general management of the mine, however, he gave very high praises; therein concurring with all the miners. It also appeared that the owner of the mine had consulted managers of ex- perience and science after Mr. Blackwell gave his opinion against the fur- nace, and that he was guided by their advice in retaining it. The Coroner alluded to this fact, and called the attention of the Jury explicitly to the discrepancy of scientific opinion as to the safety of bratticed shafts, with fur- naces open to the whole draught of the upcaat currents.

The verdict of the Jury was as follows.

"In the case of Thomas Prichard, we find a verdict of Accidental death '; and we are of opinion that the Middle Duffryn pit was at the time in a good state of ven- tilation for ordinary purposes, but that a fall in No. 2 cross-heading to the dip pro- duced a large discharge of gas, that passed along the return air-course to the flue; there ignited, and caused the explosion which resulted in such a great sacrifice of human life. We are also of opinion that there is no neglect or culpability attaching to any of the agents or men in their employ, notwithstanding we much regret that the recommendations of the Jury and the suggestions of Mr. Blackwell in his report on the occasion of the last explosion had not been complied with ; and we earnestly recommend that the proprietors be enjoined to adopt Mr. Blackwell's plan of venti- lation, especially the dumb drift."