§ MR. MACDONALDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to the Report of Inspector Moore as to the explosion which took place on the 20th August 1877, in the No. 2 Pit, Blantyre, in which he states—
That a fall of the roof took place in the waste close to them, which brought down some fire-damp. It ignited at their naked lights, and burned them both;whether Inspector Moore visited the survivor, Francis McMulty, to get any in- 29 formation as to the cause of the explosion to frame the Report, as the survivor alone could give a true account of the explosion; and, whether it be true that an order was given for the fireman Black to be prosecuted for a breach of the special rules; and, if so, why the prosecution was abandoned some time before the explosion on the 22nd October, by which he lost his life?
THE LORD ADVOCATESir, I would remind the hon. Member that he has been long familiar with the terms of Mr. Moore's Report, and that Report correctly ascribes the death of one man and the injury of another to an explosion of fire-damp on the 20th of August, 1877. Inspector Moore did not visit the boy who was injured, because while in the pit he received information from a number of men who professed to have been present, and to have witnessed the accident. No order was ever issued, and therefore no order was cancelled for a prosecution against the fireman Black. It was the duty of the Procurator Fiscal to make an investigation, with a view to prosecute anyone concerned who might be legally liable for the result. The Procurator Fiscal had not completed his investigation at the time the second explosion took place, when Black lost his life.
§ MR. MACDONALDThe right hon. and learned Gentleman fails to notice whether Inspector Moore examined the boy or not.
THE LORD ADVOCATESir, I was under the apprehension—misapprehension, it seems—that I had stated that Inspector Moore did not examine the boy because he had received in the pit information from persons who had seen the accident.