§ MR. FORSTERbegged to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he had received any information from the magistrates or coroner of the district tending to confirm the charges made against the owners of the Kirkless Colliery, near Wigan, in respect to the accident at that colliery, on Tuesday, the 29th ult.? And, in putting the question, he begged to state that for the charges which had been brought against the owners of the colliery, there was not the slighest ground.
§ SIR GEORGE GREY, in reply, stated that he had not as yet received any reply from the coroner of the district, to whom, as well as to the magistrates, he had written; neither had he received any communication from the magistrates tending to confirm the charges made against the owners of the colliery. He had, in consequence of the statement which had been made by the hon. Member for Finsbury respecting the accident, addressed a communication to the magistrates and coroner of the district, offering any assistance which could be given by the Home Office to forward the inquiry; and he had directed the magistrates to inquire rigidly into the means adopted for saving the lives of the persons who had been left in the pit, and to investigate the substance of the charges made against the proprietors of the colliery. He had just received a letter, dated the 6th of July, from the magistrates, in which they stated, that in consequence of the letter from the Home Office, they had directed their clerk to call a meeting of the magistrates, and that they had heard the statements of several parties upon the subjects alluded to in the communication. The result of the inquiry was, that they had come to an unanimous opinion as to cause of the accident. As that question, however, was still under the consideration of the coroner's inquest, he (Sir G. Grey) did not think it would be right for him to state the nature of their opinion until the verdict of the coroner's jury should have been ascertained. As to the question of the subsequent conduct of the owners of the colliery in preventing persons from descending into the pit to rescue those who might 49 have been left alive in it, the magistrates were convinced that no man left in the pit after the explosion could have been alive, and that every exertion that could have been made was made to get them out. That letter was signed by five magistrates. As he had before stated, he had received no letter from the coroner, whose investigation was still proceeding; but he would observe, that the gentleman who had been alluded to by the hon. Member for Fins-bury had had every opportunity during the inquest of examining and cross-examining any witnesses he chose.
MR. DUNCOMBEexpressed his astonishment at the hon. Member for Berwick denying the grounds for the statement which he had made. He had informed Gentlemen who was his authority. The man himself had been in London, and might have been examined in the lobby of the House by the hon. Member, had he chosen to satisfy himself upon the subject. And now he (Mr. Duncombe) was prepared to support the statement he had made. If the masters could have contradicted those statements, they had had opportunities of going before the coroner, whose inquiry had been adjourned from Thursday last to that very day. But he would state what one of the owners, Mr. Robert Lankester, had himself stated. Mr. Robert Lankester said the men were bricked up and could not escape.