§ MR. MACDONALDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been directed to the account of an explosion which appeared in the "Times" on the 20th inst. where several persons were severely injured, in which report the following words occur, viz.: "which ignited at the naked lights carried by the men, and also exploded the powder they had with them;" and, whether the powder they thus were carrying was in cartridges or in bulk; if it was in bulk, does he intend to direct a prosecution for permitting and carrying powder into the mine in this form?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, that the Inspector informed him that between the day of the accident and the 26th of March last some firedamp had collected, and that cartridges only were used. It appeared now that there was no powder at all. The top of a cartridge case having been found without a bottom led to the belief that the cartridges had exploded; but they were afterwards found in a case in the pocket of a miner. The result of the Report was that there was no flash from the powder, but simply the flash of the fire-damp.