§ MR. CAYLEYwished to ask a question of the Home Secretary (Sir G. Grey), and as the question was connected with a calamity by which a fearful loss of life was sustained, he trusted the House would permit him to enter into a short explanation of the question he had to ask. The calamity to which he referred was the late explosion in the Barley main colliery pit, near Barnsley, which was attended with the loss of 75 lives; and unfortunately this was not a singular instance of such a terrible misfortune, for these explosions were constantly occurring, and all from one cause—the want of sufficient ventilation. On the lives sacrificed at Barley main an inquest bad just concluded its sitting. Many witnesses, both practical and scientific, had been examined. The coroner bad delivered a charge of great intelligence, and evidently dictated by strong feelings of humanity, and an earnest desire to prevent a repetition of such disasters. The jury seemed to have boon composed of enlightened persons; to their verdict they added an opinion of the cause, and a recommendation. All the parties, witnesses, coroner and jury, agreed that these explosions were attributable to one cause and one 763 alone—deficient ventilation; and the coroner and jury both recommended a system of Government inspection to see to the proper ventilation of coal mines. Under the present system this proper degree of ventilation could not take place. In 1835, a Committee of this House sat upon the subject of accidents in mines; they reported only evidence. But a number of gentlemen in the county of Durham formed themselves into a committee on this subject in 1839, and sat three or four years; the conclusion they came to appeared to be an unanimous opinion, as expressed in their report, that there remained not a shadow of a doubt of the northern coal mines owing their dangerous condition to the want of ventilation, and to that alone; and they came also as decidedly to the opinion that the system of high pressure steam ventilation was fully adequate to the perfect ventilation of a mine. Under these circumstances, the questions he wished to put were, whether his right hon. Friend had received a report of what passed at the inquest—whether he was prepared, now that the subject and the cause of the accident were so well known, to ask leave of Parliament to institute a system of inspection—or whether he felt disposed to adopt any other system, such as rendering it necessary for local coal mine viewers to pass an examination before a competent board, as to their qualifications for their office, before they were permitted to undertake a business in which the safety of human life was so intimately concerned?
§ SIR G. GREYsaid, that immediately upon the occurrence of the accident, he had received a communication from the clerk to the magistrates of the district, suggesting that it might be desirable that some gentlemen should be sent down, on the part of the Government, to watch the proceedings. He (Sir G. Grey) wrote to the coroner, and sent down two gentlemen, Mr. Warrington Smith and Mr. Tremenheere, to examine the mine, and to give their evidence to the jury. The coroner had since transmitted to him (Sir G. Grey) a local newspaper, containing the evidence of those two gentlemen, the summing up of the coroner, and the verdict of the jury. The verdict, he should observe, was one of "accidental death," with a recommendation to the proprietor of the mine that a better mode of ventilation should be adopted, and that a scientific and practical person should be appointed to occasionally inspect the collieries of the district. The 764 subject of colliery accidents and Government inspection had been brought before the House on other occasions. The hon. Member for Finsbury (Mr. Wakley) had proposed a plan, but it had been dismissed by the House, because it appeared too complicated. It would have required a very large and expensive staff. Mr. Tremenheere's attention had been directed to the subject, he having been engaged in the examinations relative to the employment of women and children in mines. He had also visited several parts of the Continent, and had prepared an interesting report, which had just been presented to him (Sir G. Grey), and which he would lay before the House in the course of a few days, showing the system of regulations and inspection imposed in some parts of Germany. The system was very minute—too minute, he feared, for this country. It was clear, however, that if inspectors were appointed, they ought to have the power, in cases where ventilation was neglected, or where other circumstances occurred to endanger the safety of human life, to take such steps as were necessary to insure the safety of those employed in these works. The subject was, however, under consideration, but the great difficulty was the mode of providing a sufficient system of superintendence, which would not involve too large an expenditure.